August 2 in History

Historical Events on August 2

216 BC The Carthaginian army led by Hannibal defeats a numerically superior Roman army at the Battle of Cannae.

1798 French Revolutionary Wars: The Battle of the Nile concludes in a British victory.

1916 World War I: Austrian sabotage causes the sinking of the Italian battleship Leonardo da Vinci in Taranto.

1934 Gleichschaltung: Adolf Hitler becomes Führer of Germany following the death of President Paul von Hindenburg.

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 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 World War II: The Motor Torpedo Boat PT-109 is rammed by the Japanese destroyer Amagiri and sinks. Lt. John F. Kennedy, future U.S. President, saves all but two of his crew.

1989 Pakistan is re-admitted to the Commonwealth of Nations after having restored democracy for the first time since 1972.

1990 Iraq invades Kuwait, eventually leading to the Gulf War.

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Famous Birthdays on August 2

1923 Shimon Peres

1924 James Baldwin

1970 Kevin Smith

1992 Charli XCX

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Famous Deaths on August 2

1922 Alexander Graham Bell

1923 Warren G. Harding

1934 Paul von Hindenburg

1997 William S. Burroughs

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