August 2

338BC – The Macedonian army led by Philip II with him commanding  the left wing and his son Alexander, the right, defeats the numerically superior combined forces of Athens and Thebes near Chaeronea in south central Greece, effectively ending opposition to Phillip’s rule of almost all of Greece.

216BC – The Carthaginian army led by Hannibal defeats the numerically superior Roman army at Cannae

932 – The city of Toledo, Spain, surrenders to the forces of the Caliph of Córdoba, Abd al-Rahman III.

1610 – While on expedition to discover a northwest passage to the Pacific, Henry Hudson discovers a large bay.

1776 – The final ‘engrossed’ copy of the Declaration of Independence is completed and signed.

1790 – The first United States Census is conducted

1869 – Japan’s strict social class system, with the Shogunate as the de facto ruler,  is abolished as part of the Meiji Restoration reforms and begins Japan’s rise as a modern era commercial, industrial and military Asian power

1873 – The Clay Street Hill Railroad begins operating the first cable car in San Francisco

1876 – James Butler “Wild Bill” Hickok is assassinated by Jack McCall while playing poker at the No. 10 saloon in Deadwood, South Dakota.

1914 – The German army invades and occupies neutral Luxembourg during World War I.

1923 – Vice President Coolidge becomes President upon the death of President Harding.

1932 – The antimatter counterpart of the electron, the positron, is discovered by Carl D. Anderson.

1934 – Reichskanzler Adolf Hitler becomes Führer of Germany following the death of President Paul von Hindenburg.

1937 – The Marihuana Tax Act is passed in America, the effect of which renders marijuana and all its by-products illegal.

1939 – Albert Einstein and Leo Szilard write a letter to President Roosevelt, urging him to develop a nuclear weapon.

1943 – Jewish prisoners stage a revolt at the Treblinka death camp.
The Motor Torpedo Boat PT-109 under the command of Lieutenant Junior Grade John Kennedy is rammed and sunk by the Japanese destroyer Amagiri

1985 – Delta Air Lines Flight 191, a Lockheed L-1011 TriStar, crashes at Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport killing 136 of the 163 passengers and crew aboard and 1 person on the ground.

1990 – Iraq invades Kuwait