Events, Births and Deaths Happening on this Date
Sunday, August 2, 2026
Today is the 214th day of 2026. There are 151 days left in this year.
Notable Events
1776
Members of the Continental Congress began attaching their signatures to the Declaration of Independence.
1790
The first United States Census is conducted.
1873
The Clay Street Hill Railroad begins operating the first cable car in San Francisco's famous cable car system.
1918
The first general strike in Canadian history takes place in Vancouver.
1922
A typhoon hits Shantou, Republic of China, killing more than 50,000 people.
1923
Vice President Calvin Coolidge becomes U.S. President upon the death of President Warren G. Harding.
1937
The Marihuana Tax Act of 1937 is passed in America, the effect of which is to render marijuana and all its by-products illegal.
1939
Albert Einstein and Leo Szilard write a letter to Franklin D. Roosevelt, urging him to begin the Manhattan Project to develop a nuclear weapon.
1943
A Navy patrol torpedo boat, PT-109, commanded by Lt. John F. Kennedy, sank after being sheared in two by a Japanese destroyer off the Solomon Islands. Kennedy was credited with saving members of the crew.
1943
Jewish prisoners stage a revolt at Treblinka, one of the deadliest of Nazi death camps where approximately 900,000 persons were murdered in less than 18 months.
1943
The Motor Torpedo Boat PT-109 is rammed by the Japanese destroyer magiri and sinks. Lt. John F. Kennedy, future U.S. president, saves all but two of his crew.
1944
Birth of the Socialist Republic of Macedonia, celebrated as Day of the Republic in North Macedonia.
1945
President Truman, Soviet leader Josef Stalin and British Prime Minister Clement Attlee concluded the Potsdam conference.
1964
The Pentagon reported the first of two attacks on U.S. destroyers by North Vietnamese torpedo boats in the Gulf of Tonkin.
1980
A bomb explodes at the railway station in Bologna, Italy, killing 85 people and wounding more than 200.<sup id="cite_ref-4" class="reference">[4]</sup>
1985
A Delta Air Lines jumbo jet crashed while attempting to land at Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport, killing 137 people.
1989
Pakistan is re-admitted to the Commonwealth of Nations after having restored democracy for the first time since 1972.
1989
A massacre is carried out by an Indian Peace Keeping Force in Sri Lanka killing 64 ethnic Tamil civilians.
1990
Iraq invaded Kuwait, seizing control of the oil-rich emirate. The Iraqis were drive out in Operation Desert Storm.
1999
The Gaisal train disaster claims 285 lives in Assam, India.
2000
Republicans nominated Texas Gov. George W. Bush for president and Dick Cheney for vice president at the party's convention in Philadelphia.
2005
Air France Flight 358 and runs off the runway lands at Toronto Pearson International Airport upon landing, causing the plane to burst into flames, leaving 12 injuries and no fatalities.
2014
At least 146 people were killed and more than 114 injured in a factory explosion in Kunshan, Jiangsu, China.
Notable Births
1892
Jack Warner was a Canadian-American film executive, who was the president and driving force behind the Warner Bros. Studios in Burbank, California. Warner's career spanned some fifty-five years (d. 1978)
1905
Karl Amadeus Hartmann was a German composer. Sometimes described as the greatest German symphonist of the 20th century, he is now largely overlooked, particularly in English-speaking countries. (d. 1963)
1923
Shimon Peres was an Israeli politician who served as the eighth prime minister of Israel from 1984 to 1986 and from 1995 to 1996 and as the ninth president of Israel from 2007 to 2014. (d. 2016)
1924
Carroll O'Connor was an American actor whose television career spanned over four decades. O'Connor found widespread fame as Archie Bunker, the main character in the CBS television sitcoms All in the Family (1971-1979) (d. 2001)
1932
Lamar Hunt was an American businessman most notable for his promotion of American football, soccer, and tennis in the United States. (d. 2006)
1932
Peter O'Toole was an English stage and film actor. He attended the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art and began working in the theatre, gaining recognition as a Shakespearean actor at the Bristol Old Vic and with the English Stage Company. (d. 2013)
1935
Hank Cochran was an American country music singer and songwriter. Starting during the 1960s, Cochran was a prolific songwriter in the genre, including major hits by Patsy Cline, Ray Price, Eddy Arnold, and others. (d. 2010)
1939
Wes Craven was an American film director, screenwriter, producer, actor, and editor. Craven has commonly been recognized as one of the greatest masters of the horror genre due to the cultural impact and influence of his work. (d. 2015)
1943
Jon Cavaiani was a United States Army soldier and a recipient of the United States military's highest decoration, the Medal of Honor, for his actions in the Vietnam War. (d. 2014)
1944
Jim Capaldi was an English singer-songwriter and drummer. His musical career spanned more than four decades. He co-founded the progressive rock band Traffic in 1967 with Steve Winwood with whom he co-wrote the majority of the band's material. (d. 2005)
1945
Joanna Cassidy is an American actress. She is known for her roles as the replicant Zhora Salome in Blade Runner (1982) and Dolores in Who Framed Roger Rabbit (1988).
1948
Dennis Prager is an American conservative radio talk show host and writer. He is the host of the nationally syndicated radio talk show The Dennis Prager Show.
1948
Andrew Fairweather Low is a Welsh guitarist and singer. He was a founding member and lead singer of 1960s pop band Amen Corner, and in recent years has toured extensively with Roger Waters, Eric Clapton and Bill Wyman's Rhythm Kings.
1950
Ted Turner is an English guitarist and vocalist best known for his work with the 1970s rock band Wishbone Ash, in which he was famed for his twin lead guitar instrumental arrangements with Andy Powell.
1951
Burgess Owens is an American politician, nonprofit executive and former professional football player serving as the U.S. representative for Utah's 4th congressional district since 2021.
1951
Joe Lynn Turner is an American singer known for his work in the hard rock bands Rainbow, Yngwie Malmsteen and Deep Purple.
1951
Andrew Gold was an American multi-instrumentalist, singer, songwriter, and record producer who influenced much of the Los Angeles-dominated pop/soft rock sound in the 1970s. (d. 2011)
1953
Donnie Munro is a Scottish musician and the former lead singer of the band Runrig.
1959
Victoria Jackson is an American actress and comedian. Jackson was a cast member on the NBC sketch comedy series Saturday Night Live from 1986 to 1992.
1960
David Yow is an American musician and actor born in Las Vegas, Nevada and best known as the vocalist for the noise rock bands Scratch Acid and the Jesus Lizard.
1964
Mary-Louise Parker is an American actress. After making her Broadway debut as Rita in Craig Lucas' Prelude to a Kiss in 1990, Parker came to prominence for film roles.
1970
Kevin Smith is an American director, producer, screenwriter, actor and comic book writer. He came to prominence with the low-budget comedy buddy film Clerks (1994), which he wrote, directed, co-produced.
1977
Edward Furlong is an American actor. He won Saturn and MTV Movie Awards for his breakthrough performance at age 13 as John Connor in James Cameron's Terminator 2: Judgment Day.
1985
Britt Nicole is an American vocalist, songwriter and recording artist. She has mainly charted as a Christian pop artist. Her fourth studio album was nominated for Best Contemporary Christian Music Album at the 55th Grammy Awards.
Notable Deaths
1876
Frontiersman ''Wild Bill'' Hickok was shot and killed while playing poker at a saloon in Deadwood, S.D.
1922
Alexander Graham Bell, Scottish-Canadian engineer, invented the telephone (b. 1847)
1923
The 29th president of the United States, Warren G. Harding, died in San Francisco. Calvin Coolidge took the oath of office as President of the United States.
1934
German President Paul von Hindenburg died, paving the way for Adolf Hitler's complete takeover.
1972
Brian Cole was the bass guitarist, bass vocalist and one of the founding members of the 1960s folk rock band the Association. (b. 1942)
1976
Fritz Lang, was an Austrian film director, screenwriter, and producer who worked in Germany and later the United States. (b. 1890)
1979
Thurman Munson was an American professional baseball catcher who played 11 seasons in Major League Baseball (MLB) with the New York Yankees, from 1969 until his death in 1979. (b. 1947)
1983
James Jamerson was an American bass player. He was the uncredited bassist on most of the Motown Records hits in the 1960s and early 1970s, and is now regarded as one of the most influential bass players in modern music history. (b. 1936)
1986
Roy Cohn was an American lawyer and prosecutor who came to prominence for his role as Senator Joseph McCarthy's chief counsel during the Army-McCarthy hearings in 1954, when he assisted McCarthy's investigations of suspected communists (b. 1927)
1992
Michel Berger was a French singer and songwriter. He was a leading figure of France's pop music scene for two decades as a singer; as a songwriter, he was active for such artists as his wife France Gall, Francoise Hardy or Johnny Hallyday. (b. 1947)
1997
William S. Burroughs II was an American writer and visual artist, widely considered a primary figure of the Beat Generation and a major postmodern author who influenced popular culture and literature. (b. 1914)
1998
Ventriloquist Shari Lewis died in Los Angeles at age 65.
2005
Steven Vincent was an American author and journalist. In 2005 he was working as a freelance journalist in Basra, Iraq when he was abducted and murdered in southern Iraq after investigating corruption by Shia militias. (b. 1955)
2012
Jimmy Jones was an American singer-songwriter who moved to New York City while a teenager. According to Allmusic journalist Steve Huey, "best known for his 1960 R&B smash 'Handy Man'. (b. 1930)
2013
Richard E. Dauch was co-founder and Executive Chairman of the Board of American Axle and Manufacturing. Previously, Dauch served as a manufacturing manager at Chevrolet, Chrysler and at Volkswagen's Westmoreland Assembly Plant. (b. 1942)
2017
Judith Jones was an American writer and editor, best known for having rescued The Diary of Anne Frank from the reject pile. Jones also championed Julia Child's Mastering the Art of French Cooking. (b. 1924)
2022
Vin Scully was an American sportscaster who was the play-by-play announcer for the Brooklyn / Los Angeles Dodgers, beginning in 1950 and ending in 2016. (b. 1927)