On This Day in History for August 2
Events in History
- 338 BC Macedonian army led by Philip II defeats combined forces of Athens and Thebes in the Battle of Chaeronea, securing Macedonian hegemony in Greece and the Aegean
- 216 BC Second Punic War: Battle of Cannae - Carthaginian army lead by Hannibal defeats numerically superior Roman army under command consuls Lucius Aemilius Paullus and Gaius Terentius Varro
- 257 St Stephen I's death ends his reign as Catholic Pope
- 1057 Frederik van Lotharingen elected as 1st Belgium Pope Stephen IX [X]
- 1100 King William II of England (William Rufus) is killed by an arrow shot by Sir Walter Tyrell while hunting in the New Forest
- 1542 French troops leave Flanders
- 1552 Treaty of Passau: Emperor Charles V accepts Lutheran religion
- 1578 Battle of Rijmenam: Spanish Habsburg forces defeated by Dutch troops (Eighty Years' War)
- More Events in History
Pierre Charles L'Enfant
Frédéric-Auguste Bartholdi
Constantine I
Shimon Peres
James Baldwin
Jorge Rafael VidelaWeddings in History
- 1882 US educational pioneer Booker T. Washington (26) weds Fanny Smith
- 1904 Novelist Hermann Hesse (27) weds Maria Bernoulli
- 1930 Laurence McKinley Gould (33), American Geologist and Polar Explorer weds Margaret ("Peg") Rice in Ann Arbor, Michigan
More Weddings & Divorces in History
Horace Mann
Wild Bill Hickok
Alexander Graham Bell
Warren G. Harding
Paul von Hindenburg
William S. BurroughsAugust in History
Swimming Pool Diplomacy: Khrushchev, Mao and the Sino-Soviet Split
Diplomacy requires a lot of skill, but not normally the ability to swim. Much to Soviet Leader Nikita Khrushchev's horror when he met Mao Zedong in 1958.
August 1, 1958
Oxygen Discovered!
Illustration of Priestley's discovery of oxygen, by Henry Granger
August 1, 1774
Wild Bill, The Wild West, and Wild Exaggeration
Wild Bill Hickok is a legend of the Wild West, a gunfighting sheriff who shot dead numerous men as he fought for law and order. But is it all a bit exaggerated?
August 2, 1876
Santa María
Christopher Columbus aboard his flagship the Santa María in 1492
August 3, 1492