September 2 is the 245th day of the year (246th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. There are 120 days remaining until the end of the year.
Holidays
- Christian feast day:
- Democracy Day (Tibet)
- Independence Day (Transnistria, unrecognized)
- Independence Day (Artsakh, unrecognized)
- National Blueberry Popsicle Day (United States)
- National Day, celebrates the independence of Vietnam from Japan and France in 1945
- Victory over Japan Day (United States)
General events on September 2nd
In 1752, today was the last day of the Julian calendar in Great Britain and the British colonies; the Gregorian Calendar designed to correct the extra leap year day problem went into effect the next day with tomorrow being September 14, hence 11 days were dropped. Most other countries made the adjustment in 1582.
In 1922, Notices are posted in Henry Ford’s factories warning employees that they will lose their jobs if the odor of beer, wine or liquor is on their breath or if they possess intoxicants on their person or in their homes.
In 1929, James Doolittle makes his first emergency jump during the Cleveland National Air Races when his plane’s wings fall off over Olmsted Falls.
In 1940, the Great Smoky Mountains National Park was dedicated in North Carolina.
In 1968, Jerry Lewis’ 3rd Muscular Dystrophy telethon.
In 1969, Internet Part 1: The Internet was born as computer scientists forged the global network’s first primitive connection. A small crowd gathered inside professor Len Kleinrock’s lab at the University of California, Los Angeles, where two bulky computers with flashing white lights were linked by a 15-foot cable. Silently, meaningless bits of information flowed between the computers. It was a test of the technology that remains the foundation of the Internet. Hardly anybody outside Kleinrock’s lab noticed when the first network test succeeded. The project grew from the needs of the Defense Department’s Advance Research Projects Agency, which was formed after the Soviet Union’s 1957 launch of Sputnik, the first manmade satellite to orbit the Earth. Officials wanted a fast and efficient way of sharing information between research centers.
In 1969, Internet Part 2: The network needed to be decentralized so that that one failure would not kill the system. And the computers needed to speak a common language of data chopped into packets, each labeled with instructions on where to go and how to be reassembled. Kleinrock pioneered the technology, later known as packet switching, as a graduate student at Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He wrote the first paper on the subject in 1961. He became a professor at UCLA in 1963. In 1969, ARPA chose his lab for the first test communication between a host computer and an Interface Message Processor. The IMP would act as a translator between the local computers and the network.
In 1969, Internet Part 3: After the first test, the network quickly grew. By the end of 1969, four sites had been connected: UCLA, the Stanford Research Institute, UC Santa Barbara and the University of Utah. The number increased to 10 within seven months. Applications like e-mail and file transfer utilities emerged in subsequent years, but it was not until the late 1980s, when the World Wide Web appeared, the network became a force not only in research but also in commerce and culture. The refrigerator-size IMP was decommissioned in the 1980s. It made a rare public appearance outside the 30th anniversary conference in 1999, its rows of lights dark and its battleship gray case opened, exposing wires, fans and other components. The real reason the Internet was invented? So David Tanny could be a star, that’s why!
In 1969, North Vietnamese leader Ho Chi Minh died on the 24th anniversary of his country’s independence from colonial France.
In 1987, Donald Trump takes out a full page NY Times ad lambasting Japan.
In 1987, Philips introduces CD-video.
In 1987, West German pilot Mathias Rust, who flew a private plane from Helsinki, Finland, to Moscow’s Red Square, went on trial in the Soviet capital. Rust, who was convicted and given a four-year sentence, was released Aug. 3, 1988.
In 1995, Southern California begins using new area code 562.
In 1997, The Disneyana Convention begins at Walt Disney World.
In 1998, Pilots for Air Canada began a two-week strike, the first in the carrier’s history.
Government and Politics on September 2nd
In 1789, The United States Treasury Department, the third presidential cabinet department, was organized by an act of Congress.
In 1901, Speaking at a state fair in Minnesota, Vice President Theodore Roosevelt offered the advice, quoting an African proverb, “Speak softly and carry a big stick, you will go far,” in a speech at the Minnesota State Fair. Yosemite Sam said that “I carry a bigger stick, and I use it too!”
In 1937, the National Housing Act, also called the Wagner-Steagall Act, is signed, creating the U.S. Housing Authority.
In 1945, Ho Chi Minh declared Vietnam an independent republic and broke ties with France (Natonal Day).
In 1949, Alben W. Barkley, the Vice-President of the United States under President Harry S Truman, wrote a letter that made reference to his office as “The Veep”. The name stuck. Alben W. Barkley was forever more referred to as The Veep. And ever since, it has been used as the common expression for vice-presidents, whether in government or business.
In 1958, the National Defense Education Act is signed, providing students loans and aid for technical education.
In 1963, Alabama Gov. George C. Wallace prevented the integration of Tuskegee High School by encircling the building with state troopers. JFK counters by federalizing the Alabama National Guard on September 10 to insure integration.
In 1974, the Employee Retirement Income Security Act is signed by President Ford, bringing private pension plans under federal regulation.
In 1983, Israeli Foreign Minister Yitzhak Shamir won the endorsement of the Herut Party in his bid to succeed Prime Minister Menachem Begin, who had announced his resignation.
In 1988, Democrat Michael Dukakis welcomed back former top aide John Sasso to his presidential campaign, nearly a year after Sasso resigned because of his role in torpedoing the campaign of Democratic Senator Joseph Biden.
In 1989, In Nicaragua, a 14-party opposition coalition chose Violeta Barrios de Chamorro as its presidential candidate. (Chamorro went on to win the election the following February.)
In 1991, the United States formally recognized the independence of the newly liberated former Soviet Baltic States of Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia.
In 1991, the European Community-approved plan to end the civil war in Yugoslavia was accepted by the Yugoslav federal presidency. But federal forces renewed their offensive against Croatia.
In 1992, On the campaign trail, President Bush announced nearly $2 billion in new aid for U.S. farmers and a $6 billion jet fighter sale that would largely benefit Texas. Democrat Bill Clinton, meanwhile, charged that Bush would shortchange middle-class students to finance tax cuts for the rich.
In 1992, California’s historic 64-day budget deadlock ended with the approval of a compromise plan.
In 1994, The government reported the nation’s unemployment rate for August was unchanged from July, at 6.1 percent.
In 1998, Sen. Strom Thurmond, who at 95 is the oldest person ever to serve in Congress, became only the second senator to cast a 15,000th vote.
In 1998, President Clinton concluded his Moscow summit with Russian President Boris Yeltsin.
In 1999, It was announced that President and Mrs. Clinton had signed a contract to purchase a $1.7 million house in Chappaqua, New York, ending a months-long guessing game over where the couple would live after leaving the White House.
War, Crime and Disaster events on September 2nd
In 47 BC, Pharaoh Cleopatra VII of Egypt declares her son co-ruler as Ptolemy XV Caesarion.
In 44 BC, Cicero launches the first of his Philippics (oratorical attacks) on Mark Antony. He will make 14 of them over the following months.
In 31 BC, Final War of the Roman Republic: Battle of Actium: Off the western coast of Greece, forces of Octavian defeat troops under Mark Antony and Cleopatra.
In 1519, Hernán Cortés, on the way to Tenochtitlán, Cortés made alliances with indigenous peoples such as the Totonacs of Cempoala and the Nahuas of Tlaxcala. The Otomis initially, and then the Tlaxcalans fought with the Spanish in a series of three battles from 2 to 5 September 1519, and at one point, Diaz remarked, “they surrounded us on every side”. After Cortés continued to release prisoners with messages of peace, and realizing the Spanish were enemies of Moctezuma, Xicotencatl the Elder and Maxixcatzin persuaded the Tlaxcalan warleader, Xicotencatl the Younger, that it would be better to ally with the newcomers than to kill them.
In 1649, The Italian city of Castro is completely destroyed by the forces of Pope Innocent X, ending the Wars of Castro.
In 1666, The Great Fire of London broke out at 1 a.m. inside a baker’s shop. The fire claimed thousands of homes, but only eight lives, in the several days that it burned. It destroyed 13,000 houses and destroyed St. Paul’s Church, etc. Damage 10 million pounds and 80% of London burned. It was this fire that prompted the first fire insurance policy. The fire gutted the medieval City of London inside the old Roman city wall. It threatened but did not reach the City of Westminster, Charles II‘s Palace of Whitehall, or most of the suburban slums. It destroyed 13,200 houses, 87 parish churches, St Paul’s Cathedral, and most of the buildings of the City authorities. It is estimated to have destroyed the homes of 70,000 of the city’s 80,000 inhabitants.
In 1775, thru Sept. 9, North Carolina to Nova Scotia: called the “Hurricane of Independence,” it is believed that 4,170 in the U.S. and Canada died in the storm.
In 1792, During what became known as the September Massacres of the French Revolution, rampaging mobs slaughter three Roman Catholic Church bishops, more than two hundred priests, and prisoners believed to be royalist sympathizers.
In 1806, A massive landslide destroys the town of Goldau, Switzerland, killing 457.
In 1807, The Royal British Navy bombards Copenhagen with fire bombs and phosphorus rockets to prevent Denmark from surrendering its fleet to Napoleon.
In 1862, American Civil War: President Abraham Lincoln reluctantly restores Union General George B. McClellan to full command after General John Pope‘s disastrous defeat at the Second Battle of Bull Run.
In 1864, during the Civil War, Union General William T. Sherman’s forces occupied Atlanta, one day after the Confederates had retreated. “Atlanta is ours, and fairly won,” Sherman telegraphs Lincoln. The victory greatly helps President Lincoln’s bid for re-election.
In 1870, Franco-Prussian War: Battle of Sedan – Prussian forces take Napoleon III of France and 100,000 of his soldiers prisoner.
In 1885, Rock Springs massacre: in Rock Springs, Wyoming, 150 White miners, who are struggling to unionize so they could strike for better wages and work conditions, attack their Chinese fellow workers killing 28, wounding 15 and forcing several hundred more out of town.
In 1894, Forest fires destroyed Hinckley Minnesota: about 600 die.
In 1898, the machine gun is used for the first time in a large-scale conflict at the battle of Omdurman in Sudan (20 English guns versus ten’s of thousands of Sudanese calvary).
In 1919, thru Sept. 15, hurricane in Florida, Louisiana and Texas: 287 deaths, and 488 deaths at sea.
In 1935, a hurricane slammed into the Florida Keys with 200 mph winds, claiming 423 lives.
In 1944, During WW II, Navy Pilot George Bush was shot down by the Japanese as he completed a bombing run against an enemy radio communications center in the Bonin Islands. Bush was rescued by the U.S. submarine Finback. His two crew members perished.
In 1945, V-J Day: Tokyo time, Japan formally surrendered to the United States in ceremonies aboard the USS Missouri. Japan signed the peace treaty, thus World War II was officially over, six years and one day after it began.
In 1949, in China, a fire on Chongqing (Chungking) waterfront killed 1,700.
In 1976, a new strain of world-wide outbreak of penicillin-resistant gonorrhea is spreading at unbelievable rates says The Centers for Disease Control.
In 1983, Moscow admitted to the September 1st shooting down of a Korean Air Lines Boeing 747, killing all 269 people aboard, but said the jumbo jet intentionally invaded Soviet air space.
In 1984, thru Sept. 3, Philippines: Typhoon “Ike” hit seven major islands leaving 1,300 dead.
In 1990, Dozens of Americans reached freedom in the first major airlift of Westerners from Iraq during the month-old Persian Gulf crisis.
In 1992, more than 100 people were killed when earthquake-spawned tidal waves swept Pacific coast villages in Nicaragua.
In 1995, at a military cemetery on a hill high above Honolulu, President Clinton marked the 50th anniversary of the end of World War II, saying it taught Americans that “the blessings of freedom are never easy or free.”
In 1996, Muslim rebels and the Philippine government signed a pact formally ending a 26-year insurgency that killed more than 120,000 people.
In 1998, a Swissair MD-11 jetliner crashed off Nova Scotia, killing all 229 people aboard.
In 2009, The Andhra Pradesh, India helicopter crash occurred near Rudrakonda Hill, 40 nautical miles (74 km) from Kurnool, Andhra Pradesh, India. Fatalities included Y. S. Rajasekhara Reddy, the Chief Minister of the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh.
Royalty and Religious events on September 2nd
In 421, Galla Placidia, wife of the Emperor Constantius III, becomes a widow for the second time when he dies suddenly of an illness.
In 1758, The first Anglican service of worship to be held on Canadian soil was led by Rev. Robert Wolfall at Frobisher Bay, on Baffin Island.
In 1784, English clergyman Thomas Coke, 37, was consecrated, the first “bishop” of the Methodist Episcopal Church, by founder John Wesley. Coke afterward journeyed to America, where he and Francis Asbury oversaw Methodism in the Colonies.
In 1997, in London, a grieving human tide engulfed St. James’s Palace, where Princess Diana’s body lay in a chapel closed to the public, as the British monarchy and government prepared for her funeral. The White House announced that first lady Hillary Rodham Clinton would attend on behalf of the United States.
Human Achievement and Science events on September 2nd
In 1804, K. L. Harding discovered Juno, the third known asteroid.
In 1930, the first non-stop airplane flight from Europe to the U.S. was completed as Capt. Dieudonne Coste and Maurice Bellonte of France arrived in Valley Stream, N.Y., aboard the Question Mark; it took 37 hours.
In 1938, The first railroad car to be equipped with fluorescent lighting was placed in operation on the New York Central railroad. Coach #1472 began its initial run with the modern lighting
In 1952, Dr. Floyd J. Lewis performs the first heart operation in which the deep freeze technique is used.
In 1985, It was announced that a U.S. and French expedition had located the wreckage of the Titanic about 560 miles off Newfoundland, 73 years after the British luxury liner sank.
In 1986, the Institute for Immunological Disorders, America’s first hospital devoted entirely to the diagnosis, research, and treatment of AIDS, opens in Houston, Texas. It will close in little over a year under the weight of its own kindness. Having treated so many indigent people with AIDS, the financial losses are too great to continue operating.
In 1993, the United States and Russia formally ended decades of competition in space by agreeing to a joint venture to build a space station.
In 2013, The Eastern span replacement of the San Francisco–Oakland Bay Bridge opens at 10:15 PM at a cost of $6.4 billion, after the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake damaged the old span.
In 2019, Hurricane Dorian, a category 5 hurricane, devastates the Bahamas, killing at least five.
Arts and Prose events on September 2nd
In 1897, The first issue of “McCall’s” magazine was published. The magazine had previously been called “Queens Magazine” and “Queen of Fashion”.
In 1910, Henri Rousseau, French painter, died in Paris. He was noted for his exotic landscapes and portraits of beasts and gypsy figures.
In 1944, Anne Frank (Diary of Anne Frank), is sent to Auschwitz.
In 1951, The first color comic strip of “Alice in Wonderland” is published in Sunday editions of newspapers.
In 1973, Death of J. R. R. Tolkien, 81, English Christian language scholar and novelist. His 1954-55 “Lord of the Rings” trilogy describes a war between good and evil in which evil is routed through courage and sacrifice.
In 2018, The National Museum of Brazil is destroyed by a fire, with the loss of over 90% of the museum’s collection.