July 2 is the 183rd day of the year in the Gregorian calendar; 182 days remain until the end of the year. This day is the first day of the second half of the year, as well as the midpoint of a common year because there are 182 days before and 182 days after it in common years.
We have some interesting facts & historic events all about July 2nd, including areas in religion, crime, health and more.
Keep reading for more interesting facts about July 2nd in history!
Table of Contents
Global Celebrations
- World UFO Day
- International Day of Cooperatives World.
- Sports Journalists Day.
- World Sports Journalists Day
- National Anisette Day
- National I Forgot Day
- International Co-operative Day
- National Hop a Park Day
Historic Events
What Happened On This Day – July 2
2002: American businessman, Steve Fossett completes the first solo around-the-world Balloon Flight
This was Fossett’s 6th attempt to circumnavigate the world. It took him 13 days in a balloon called Spirit of Freedom to cover 20,000 miles.
2001: World’s First Self-Contained Artificial Heart Transplant
59-year old American Robert L. Tools became the first person to receive the a self-contained artificial heart transplant called the AbioCor at the Jewish Hospital in Louisville, Kentucky. The AbioCor is an artificial heart that is not connected to wires or an external pump.
1937: American aviator Amelia Earhart and her navigator Fred Noonan are heard for the last time before disappearing
They were attempting to make the first around-the-world flight in a Lockheed Model 10 Electra. Neither they nor the plane has ever been found and that has led to speculation about what happened to them. An accomplished pilot, Earhart was the first woman to fly solo across the Atlantic Ocean.
1900: The Zeppelin Takes Off for the First Time
The rigid aircraft named after Count Ferdinand von Zeppelin, the inventor of the dirigible and founder of the Zeppelin Airship Construction Company, made its first flight over Lake Constance in Germany. Unlike blimps or balloons, Zeppelins are built by stretching material over a rigid framework, usually made of metal. Zeppelins can be steered and they were used by the German Air Force to conduct aerial attacks during the First World War.
1843: Alligator Falls Out of the Sky in Charleston, South Carolina during a thunderstorm.
It is believed that the strange incident happened when a waterspout carried an alligator from a body of water and dropped in on the city.
2000: View from the Windows on the World restaurant on the 107th floor of the North Tower (July 2000)
1990: A woman gives food to Soviet riot police during the 1990 Dushanbe riots in Tajikistan
1987: Cat and trained German Shepherds. Examination for police service dogs. FRG, 1987
1964: The U.S.A. Civil Rights of 1964 published.
1949: Brooklyn Dodger baseball star Jackie Robinson holding his young son Jackie Jr. on his lap as he sits with his wife Rachel on front steps of their home, Brooklyn, New York, 1949. Photo by Nina Leen.
1937: Amelia Earhart Goes Missing. The Lockheed aircraft carrying American aviator Amelia Earhart and navigator Frederick Noonan is reported missing near Howland Island in the Pacific.
US Bombs Japanese Cities.
1922: Chief John Smith (nicknamed “The old Indian by the local whites”. ) claims to have been the oldest Indian to ever live at 137 years, dying in 1922.
Famous Birthdays
Births On This Day, July 2
1986: Lindsay Lohan, American actress, singer
1925: Patrice Lumumba, Congolese politician, 1st Prime Minister of the Democratic Republic of the Congo
1925: Medgar Evers, American civil rights activist
1877: Hermann Hesse, German writer, Nobel Prize laureate
1489: Thomas Cranmer, English Archbishop of Canterbury
Carl Froch was born.
Ron Goldman was born.
Johnny Weir was born.
Heartbreaking Deaths
Deaths On This Day, July 2
1977: Vladimir Nabokov, Russian/American author
1961: Ernest Hemingway, American writer, Nobel Prize laureate
1914: Joseph Chamberlain, British politician
1778: Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Swiss philosopher, polymath
1566: Nostradamus, French astrologer
Ernest Hemingway died.
Robert Peel died.
