Friday 2 August 2024 Calendar with holidays, observances and special days
Calendars: Austria, Azerbaijan, Canada, Career Holidays (Recognition Holidays), Food holidays, Germany, Guatemala, Israel, Italy, Norway, Poland, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, The Netherlands, US Holidays, Ukraine, Unusual Holidays (Weird and Funny Holidays), Wine holidays, Women’s Days, Worldwide Holidays
Holidays and observancesEvents- In 2017 CRISPR used to remove faulty DNA from human embryos for the first time.
- 1989 – Pakistan is re-admitted to the Commonwealth of Nations after having restored democracy for the first time since 1972.
- 1947 – A British South American Airways Avro Lancastrian airliner crashes into a mountain during a flight from Buenos Aires, Argentina to Santiago, Chile. The wreckage would not be found until 1998.
- 1932 – The positron (antiparticle of the electron) is discovered by Carl D. Anderson.
- 1918 – The first general strike in Canadian history takes place in Vancouver.
- 1873 – The Clay Street Hill Railroad begins operating the first cable car in San Francisco's famous cable car system.
- 1870 – Tower Subway, the world's first underground tube railway, opens in London, England, United Kingdom.
- 1790 – The first United States Census is conducted.
- 1776 – The signing of the United States Declaration of Independence took place.
Births- 1994 – Laremy Tunsil, American football player. Laremy Alexander Tunsil (born August 2, 1994) is an American football offensive tackle for the Houston Texans of the National Football League (NFL).
- 1992 – Hallie Eisenberg, American actress. Hallie Kate Eisenberg (born August 2, 1992) is an American former actress, best known for being "The Pepsi Girl" in a series of Pepsi commercials, as Marie Alweather in Paulie, and her role as Erika Tansy in How to Eat Fried Worms.
- 1982 – Grady Sizemore, American baseball player. He returned in 2014 with the Boston Red Sox and played for the Philadelphia Phillies from 2014 to 2015 before finishing 2015 with the Tampa Bay Rays.
- 1982 – Kerry Rhodes, American football player. Kerry Rhodes (born August 2, 1982) is an American actor and former American football safety in the National Football League.
- 1978 – Matt Guerrier, American baseball player. He played in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the Minnesota Twins, Los Angeles Dodgers and Chicago Cubs.
- 1977 – Edward Furlong, American actor. The following year, he gave an Independent Spirit Award-nominated turn opposite Jeff Bridges in American Heart, and earned a second Saturn Award nomination for his work in Pet Sematary Two.
- 1977 – Mark Velasquez, American photographer. Mark Velasquez is a photographer who competed on the first season of Bravo's reality television competition, Work of Art: The Next Great Artist.
- 1976 – Jay Heaps, American soccer player and coach. John Franklin Heaps (born August 2, 1976), better known as Jay Heaps, is an American former soccer player who currently serves as president and general manager of Birmingham Legion FC.
- 1970 – Kevin Smith, American actor, director, producer, and screenwriter. Kevin Patrick Smith (born August 2, 1970) is an American filmmaker, actor, comedian, public speaker, comic book writer, author, and podcaster.
- 1970 – Tony Amonte, American ice hockey player and coach. He is currently the head coach of Thayer Academy Varsity Hockey Team.
- 1969 – Cedric Ceballos, American basketball player. As a small forward, he played mostly for the Phoenix Suns and the Los Angeles Lakers, later finishing his National Basketball Association (NBA) career with the Dallas Mavericks, Detroit Pistons and Miami Heat.
- 1967 – Aaron Krickstein, American tennis player. Aaron Krickstein (born August 2, 1967), nicknamed "Marathon Man", is an American former professional tennis player, who competed on the ATP Tour from 1983 to 1996.
- 1967 – Aline Brosh McKenna, American screenwriter and producer. She is known for writing The Devil Wears Prada (2006), 27 Dresses (2008), Morning Glory (2010) and We Bought a Zoo (2011), and for co-creating The CW's Crazy Ex-Girlfriend.
- 1966 – Tim Wakefield, American baseball player and sportscaster. Timothy Stephen Wakefield (born August 2, 1966) is an American former professional baseball pitcher.
- 1964 – Mary-Louise Parker, American actress. Among stage and independent film appearances thereafter, Parker received the Tony Award for Best Actress in a Play for her portrayal of Catherine Llewellyn in David Auburn's Proof in 2001, among other accolades.
- 1963 – Laura Bennett, American architect and fashion designer. Laura Eugenia Bennett (born August 2, 1963 in New Orleans, Louisiana) is an American architect and fashion designer and one of the four finalists on Bravo's July 2006's Project Runway (Season 3).
- 1960 – David Yow, American singer-songwriter. David Yow (born August 2, 1960) 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.
- 1960 – Linda Fratianne, American figure skater. Linda Sue Fratianne (born August 2, 1960 in Los Angeles-Northridge, California) is an American former figure skater known for winning two World Championship titles (1977, 1979), four consecutive U.S.
- 1960 – Neal Morse, American singer and keyboard player. Neal Morse (born August 2, 1960) is an American singer, multi-instrumentalist, bandleader and progressive rock composer based in Nashville, Tennessee.
- 1959 – Apollonia Kotero, American singer and actress. She is known for co-starring in Prince's 1984 film Purple Rain and for having been the lead singer of the girl group Apollonia 6.
- 1959 – Victoria Jackson, American actress and singer, was a cast member of the NBC television sketch comedy series Saturday Night Live (SNL) from 1986 to 1992. From 2008 to 2017, Jackson was politically active as part of the Tea Party movement.
- 1956 – Fulvio Melia, Italian-American physicist, astrophysicist, and author. A former Presidential Young Investigator and Sloan Research Fellow, he is the author of six English books (and various foreign translations) and 230 refereed articles on theoretical astrophysics and cosmology.
- 1955 – Butch Vig, American drummer, songwriter, and record producer. Bryan David "Butch" Vig (born August 2, 1955), nicknamed the Nevermind Man, is an American musician, songwriter, and record producer, best known as the drummer and co-producer of the alternative rock band Garbage and the producer of diamond-selling album Nevermind by Nirvana.
- 1955 – Caleb Carr, American historian and author. Carr is the second of three sons born to Lucien Carr and Francesca Von Hartz.
- 1951 – Andrew Gold, American singer-songwriter and producer (d. 2011), was an American singer, songwriter, musician and arranger. His works include the US Top 10 single "Lonely Boy" (1977), as well as "Thank You for Being a Friend" (1978) and the UK Top Five hit "Never Let Her Slip Away" (1978).
- 1951 – Joe Lynn Turner, American singer-songwriter and guitarist. Malmsteen and Deep Purple.
- 1949 – James Fallows, American journalist and author. His work has also appeared in Slate, The New York Times Magazine, The New York Review of Books, The New Yorker and The American Prospect, among others.
- 1948 – Dennis Prager, American radio host and author. He gradually began offering more and broader commentary on politics.
- 1947 – Lawrence Wright, American journalist, author, and screenwriter. Lawrence Wright (born August 2, 1947) is an American author, screenwriter, staff writer for The New Yorker magazine, and fellow at the Center for Law and Security at the New York University School of Law.
- 1946 – James Howe, American journalist and author. James Howe (born August 2, 1946) is an American children's writer with more than 79 juvenile and young adult fiction books to his credit.
- 1945 – Joanna Cassidy, American actress. She has won a Golden Globe Award, was nominated for three Emmy Awards and also was nominated for a Saturn Award and Screen Actors Guild Awards.
- 1943 – Herbert M. Allison, American lieutenant and businessman (d. 2013), was an American businessman who oversaw the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) as Assistant Secretary of the Treasury for Financial Stability from 2009 to 2010. His previous positions included president and CEO of Fannie Mae, a post to which he was appointed in September 2008, after Fannie was placed into conservatorship.
- 1943 – Jon R. Cavaiani, English-American sergeant, Medal of Honor recipient (d. 2014). Jon Robert Cavaiani (August 2, 1943 – July 29, 2014) 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.
- 1943 – Tom Burgmeier, American baseball player and coach. Thomas Henry Burgmeier (born August 2, 1943) is a former Major League Baseball relief pitcher who played for the California Angels, Kansas City Royals, Minnesota Twins, Boston Red Sox and Oakland A's from 1968 to 1984.
- 1942 – Isabel Allende, Chilean-American novelist, essayist, essayist. Allende has been called "the world's most widely read Spanish-language author." In 2004, Allende was inducted into the American Academy of Arts and Letters, and in 2010, she received Chile's National Literature Prize.
- 1942 – Nell Irvin Painter, American author and historian. Nell Irvin Painter (born Nell Elizabeth Irvin; August 2, 1942) is an American historian notable for her works on southern history of the nineteenth century.
- 1941 – Doris Coley, American singer (d. 2000), was an American musician, who was best known as a member (and occasional lead singer) of The Shirelles. She initially left the group in 1968, but returned in 1975.
- 1939 – Benjamin Barber, American theorist, author, and academic. Barber (August 2, 1939 – April 24, 2017) was an American political theorist and author, perhaps best known for his 1995 bestseller, Jihad vs.
- 1939 – John W. Snow, American businessman and politician, 73rd United States Secretary of the Treasury. Bush.
- 1939 – Wes Craven, American director, producer, and screenwriter (d. 2015), was an American film director, writer, producer, and actor. He was known for his pioneering work in the genre of horror films, particularly slasher films, where he mixed horror cliches with humor and satire.
- 1937 – Billy Cannon, American football player and dentist, was an American football running back and tight end who played professionally in the American Football League (AFL) and National Football League (NFL). He attended Louisiana State University (LSU), where he played college football as a halfback, return specialist, and defensive back for the LSU Tigers.
- 1935 – Hank Cochran, American singer-songwriter and guitarist (d. 2010), 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.
- 1932 – Lamar Hunt, American businessman, co-founded the American Football League and World Championship Tennis (d. 2006), was an American businessman notable for his promotion of American football, soccer, basketball, tennis and ice hockey in the United States. Less well known was the effort he and his brothers, William Herbert Hunt and Nelson Bunker Hunt, made to corner the silver market in the late 1970s and early 1980s.
- 1931 – Pierre DuMaine, American bishop and academic, was an American Roman Catholic bishop. He was the Bishop of San José in California for the first 18 years of the diocese.
- 1925 – K. Arulanandan, Ceylon-American engineer and academic (d. 2004), was a Ceylon Tamil engineer and academic. Known as Professor Arul, he was a lecturer at the University of California, Davis.
- 1924 – Carroll O'Connor, American actor, director, producer, and screenwriter (d. 2001), was an American actor, producer, and director whose television career spanned four decades. A lifelong member of the Actors Studio, in 1971, O'Connor found widespread fame as Archie Bunker, the main character in the CBS television sitcoms All in the Family (1971–79) and its spinoff, Archie Bunker's Place (1979–83).
- 1924 – James Baldwin, American novelist, poet, and critic (d. 1987), was an American novelist, playwright, and activist. His essays, as collected in Notes of a Native Son (1955), explore intricacies of racial, sexual, and class distinctions in Western societies, most notably in mid-20th-century North America.
- 1924 – Joe Harnell, American pianist and composer (d. 2005), was an American composer, musician, and music arranger.
- 1923 – Ike Williams, American boxer (d. 1994), was a lightweight world boxing champion. He took the World Lightweight Championship in April 1945 and made five successful defenses of the title prior to 1950.
- 1922 – Betsy Bloomingdale, American philanthropist and socialite (d. 2016), was an American socialite and philanthropist. She was considered a fashion icon, frequently appearing on the International Best Dressed List after 1970, and in 2009 was named in the list's Hall of Fame.
- 1919 – Nehemiah Persoff, Israeli-American actor. He appeared in more than 200 television series, films and plays in his career spanning 52 years.
- 1916 – Alfonso A. Ossorio, Filipino-American painter and sculptor (d. 1990), was a Filipino American abstract expressionist artist who was born in Manila in 1916 to wealthy Filipino parents from the province of Negros Occidental. His heritage was Hispanic, Filipino, and Chinese.
- 1915 – Gary Merrill, American actor (d. 1990), was an American film and television actor whose credits included more than 50 feature films, a half-dozen mostly short-lived TV series, and dozens of television guest appearances. Merrill starred in All About Eve and married his co-star Bette Davis.
- 1914 – Beatrice Straight, American actress (d. 2001), was an American theatre, film and television actress and a member of the prominent Whitney family. She was an Academy Award and Tony Award winner as well as an Emmy Award nominee.
- 1914 – Big Walter Price, American singer-songwriter and pianist (d. 2012), was an American blues singer, songwriter and pianist.
- 1911 – Ann Dvorak, American actress (d. 1979), was an American stage and film actress.
- 1907 – Mary Hamman, American journalist and author (d. 1984), was an American writer and editor. She was an editor for Pictorial Review, Good Housekeeping, Mademoiselle, as well as the modern living editor for LIFE and editor-in-chief for Bride & Home.
- 1905 – Myrna Loy, American actress (d. 1993), was an American film, television and stage actress. Trained as a dancer, Loy devoted herself fully to an acting career following a few minor roles in silent films.
- 1900 – Helen Morgan, American actress and singer (d. 1941), was an American singer and actress who worked in films and on the stage. A quintessential torch singer, she made a big splash in the Chicago club scene in the 1920s.
- 1900 – Holling C. Holling, American author and illustrator (d. 1973), was an American author and illustrator, best known for the book Paddle-to-the-Sea, which was a Caldecott Honor Book in 1942. Paddle to the Sea won the Lewis Carroll Shelf Award in 1962.
- 1892 – Jack L. Warner, Canadian-born American production manager and producer, co-founded Warner Bros. (d. 1978), was a Canadian-American film executive who was the president and driving force behind the Warner Bros. Studios in Burbank, California.
- 1882 – Albert Bloch, American painter and academic (d. 1961), was an American Modernist artist and the only American artist associated with Der Blaue Reiter (The Blue Rider), a group of early 20th-century European modernists.
- 1882 – Red Ames, American baseball player and manager (d. 1936), was an American pitcher in Major League Baseball for the New York Giants, Cincinnati Reds, St. Louis Cardinals, and Philadelphia Phillies.
- 1880 – Arthur Dove, American painter and educator (d. 1946), was an American artist. An early American modernist, he is often considered the first American abstract painter.
- 1876 – Pingali Venkayya, Indian geologist, designed the Flag of India (d. 1963), was an Indian freedom fighter and the designer of the flag on which the Indian national flag was based. He was born at Bhatlapenumarru, near Machilipatnam, in what is now the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh.
- 1872 – George E. Stewart, Australian-American colonel, Medal of Honor recipient (d. 1946), was an officer in the United States Army and a Medal of Honor recipient for his actions in the Philippine-American War. He commanded the 339th Infantry Regiment (United States) in the 1918 Polar Bear Expedition in northern Russia.
- 1871 – John French Sloan, American painter and illustrator (d. 1951), was an American painter and etcher. He is considered to be one of the founders of the Ashcan school of American art.
- 1865 – Irving Babbitt, American academic and critic (d. 1933), was an American academic and literary critic, noted for his founding role in a movement that became known as the New Humanism, a significant influence on literary discussion and conservative thought in the period between 1910 and 1930. He was a cultural critic in the tradition of Matthew Arnold and a consistent opponent of romanticism, as represented by the writings of Jean-Jacques Rousseau.
- 1835 – Elisha Gray, American businessman, co-founded Western Electric (d. 1901), was an American electrical engineer who co-founded the Western Electric Manufacturing Company. Gray is best known for his development of a telephone prototype in 1876 in Highland Park, Illinois.
- 1834 – Frédéric Auguste Bartholdi, French sculptor, designed the Statue of Liberty (d. 1904), was a French sculptor who is universally best known for designing Liberty Enlightening the World, commonly known as the Statue of Liberty.
- 1754 – Pierre Charles L'Enfant, French-American architect and engineer, designed Washington, D.C. (d. 1825), was a French-American military engineer who designed the basic plan for Washington, D.C. (capital city of the U.S.) known today as the L'Enfant Plan (1791).
Deaths- 2016 – Ahmed Zewail, Egyptian-American chemist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1946)
- 2016 – David Huddleston, American actor (b. 1930)
- 2015 – Forrest Bird, American pilot and engineer (b. 1921)
- 2015 – Jack Spring, American baseball player (b. 1933)
- 2014 – Billie Letts, American author and educator (b. 1938)
- 2014 – Ed Joyce, American journalist (b. 1932)
- 2013 – Julius L. Chambers, American lawyer and activist (b. 1936)
- 2013 – Richard E. Dauch, American businessman, co-founded American Axle (b. 1942)
- 2012 – Jimmy Jones, American singer-songwriter (b. 1930)
- 2012 – Marguerite Piazza, American soprano (b. 1920)
- 2007 – Chauncey Bailey, American journalist (b. 1950)
- 2005 – Steven Vincent, American journalist and author (b. 1955)
- 2003 – Peter Safar, Austrian-American physician and academic (b. 1924)
- 1999 – Willie Morris, American writer (b. 1934)
- 1998 – Shari Lewis, American television host and puppeteer (b. 1933)
- 1997 – William S. Burroughs, American novelist, short story writer, and essayist (b. 1914)
- 1990 – Norman Maclean, American short story writer and essayist (b. 1902)
- 1988 – Joe Carcione, American activist and author (b. 1914)
- 1988 – Raymond Carver, American short story writer and poet (b. 1938)
- 1986 – Roy Cohn, American lawyer and politician (b. 1927)
- 1979 – Thurman Munson, American baseball player (b. 1947)
- 1978 – Antony Noghès, French businessman, founded the Monaco Grand Prix (b. 1890)
- 1976 – Fritz Lang, Austrian-American director, producer, and screenwriter (b. 1890)
- 1972 – Brian Cole, American bass player (b. 1942)
- 1972 – Helen Hoyt, American poet and author (b. 1887)
- 1972 – Paul Goodman, American psychotherapist and author (b. 1911)
- 1967 – Walter Terence Stace, English-American epistemologist, philosopher, and academic (b. 1886)
- 1963 – Oliver La Farge, American anthropologist and author (b. 1901)
- 1955 – Wallace Stevens, American poet and educator (b. 1879)
- 1939 – Harvey Spencer Lewis, American mystic and author (b. 1883)
- 1923 – Warren G. Harding, American journalist and politician, 29th President of the United States (b. 1865)
- 1922 – Alexander Graham Bell, Scottish-Canadian engineer, invented the telephone (b. 1847)
- 1913 – Ferenc Pfaff, Hungarian architect and academic, designed Zagreb Central Station (b. 1851)
- 1876 – "Wild Bill" Hickok, American sheriff (b. 1837)
- 1859 – Horace Mann, American educator and politician (b. 1796)
- 1667 – Francesco Borromini, Swiss architect, designed San Carlo alle Quattro Fontane and Sant'Agnese in Agone (b. 1599)
- 1546 – Peter Faber, French priest and theologian, co-founded the Society of Jesus (b. 1506)
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