September 2
Events
Pre-1600
- 44 BC - Pharaoh Cleopatra VII of Egypt declares her son co-ruler as Ptolemy XV Caesarion.
- 44 BC - Cicero launches the first of his Philippicae on Mark Antony. He will make 14 of them over the following months.
- 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.
- 1192 - The Treaty of Jaffa is signed between Richard I of England and Saladin, leading to the end of the Third Crusade.
- 1561 - Entry of Mary, Queen of Scots into Edinburgh, a spectacular civic celebration for the Queen of Scotland, marred by religious controversy.
1601–1900
- 1601 - 4th Spanish Armada makes landfall in Ireland at Kinsale.
- 1649 - The Italian city of Castro is completely destroyed by the forces of Pope Innocent X, ending the Wars of Castro.
- 1666 - The Great Fire of London breaks out and burns for three days, destroying 10,000 buildings, including Old St Paul's Cathedral.
- 1752 - Great Britain, along with its overseas possessions, adopts the Gregorian calendar.
- 1789 - The United States Department of the Treasury is founded.
- 1792 - During what became known as the September Massacres of the French Revolution, rampaging mobs slaughter three Roman Catholic bishops, more than two hundred priests, and prisoners believed to be royalist sympathizers.
- 1806 - A massive landslide destroys the town of Goldau, Switzerland, killing 457.
- 1807 - Napoleonic Wars: The British Royal Navy bombards Copenhagen with fire bombs and phosphorus rockets to prevent Denmark from surrendering its fleet to Napoleon.
- 1856 - The Tianjing incident takes place in Nanjing, China.
- 1859 - The Carrington Event is the strongest geomagnetic storm on record.
- 1862 - American Civil War: United States 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.
- 1864 - American Civil War: Union forces enter Atlanta as the city surrenders, ending the Atlanta campaign as a victory for General William T. Sherman.
- 1867 - Mutsuhito, Emperor Meiji of Japan, marries Masako Ichijō, thereafter known as Empress Shōken.
- 1870 - Franco-Prussian War: Battle of Sedan: Prussian forces take Napoleon III of France and 100,000 of his soldiers prisoner.
- 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.
- 1898 - Battle of Omdurman: British and Egyptian troops defeat Sudanese tribesmen and establish British dominance in Sudan.
1901–present
- 1901 - Vice President of the United States Theodore Roosevelt utters the famous phrase, "Speak softly and carry a big stick" at the Minnesota State Fair.
- 1912 - Arthur Rose Eldred is awarded the first Eagle Scout award of the Boy Scouts of America.
- 1923 - Kantō Massacre: Amid rumors that Koreans had been conducting acts of sabotage in the aftermath of the 1923 Great Kantō earthquake, lynch mobs of Japanese begin massacring thousands of civilians over the course of several weeks, mainly ethnic minorities such as Koreans and Chinese.
- 1935 - The Labor Day Hurricane, the most intense hurricane to strike the United States, makes landfall at Long Key, Florida, killing at least 400.
- 1939 - World War II: Following the start of the invasion of Poland the previous day, the Free City of Danzig is annexed by Nazi Germany.
- 1944 - The last execution of a Finn in Finland takes place when soldier Olavi Laiho is executed by shooting in Oulu.
- 1945 - World War II: The Japanese Instrument of Surrender is signed by Japan and the major warring powers aboard the battleship in Tokyo Bay, thus marking the official end to the war.
- 1945 - Communist leader Ho Chi Minh proclaimed the Democratic Republic of Vietnam after the end of the Nguyễn dynasty.
- 1946 - The Interim Government of India is formed, headed by Jawaharlal Nehru as vice president with the powers of a Prime Minister.
- 1957 - President Ngô Đình Diệm of South Vietnam becomes the first foreign head of state to make a state visit to Australia.
- 1958 - A USAF RC-130 is shot down by fighters over Armenia when it strays into Soviet airspace while conducting a sigint mission. All crew members are killed.
- 1960 - The first election of the Tibetan Parliament-in-Exile. The Tibetan community observes this date as Democracy Day.
- 1963 - CBS Evening News becomes U.S. network television's first half-hour weeknight news broadcast, when the show is lengthened from 15 to 30 minutes.
- 1968 - Operation OAU begins during the Nigerian Civil War.
- 1970 - NASA announces the cancellation of two Apollo missions to the Moon, Apollo 15, and Apollo 19.
- 1970 - Aeroflot Flight 3630, a Tupolev Tu-124 en route from southern Russia to Lithuania, crashes after the pilots lost control of the aircraft at cruise altitude between Rostov-on-Don Airport and Vilnius Airport, on the second leg of the flight; all 37 passengers and crew are killed.
- 1984 - Seven people are shot and killed and 12 wounded in the Milperra massacre, a shootout between the rival motorcycle gangs Bandidos and Comancheros in Sydney, Australia.
- 1985 - Sri Lankan Civil War: Sri Lankan Tamil politicians and former MPs M. Alalasundaram and V. Dharmalingam are shot dead.
- 1987 - In Moscow, the trial begins for 19-year-old pilot Mathias Rust, who flew his Cessna airplane into Red Square in May.
- 1990 - Transnistria is unilaterally proclaimed a Soviet republic; the Soviet president Mikhail Gorbachev declares the decision null and void.
- 1992 - The 7.7 Nicaragua earthquake affected the west coast of Nicaragua. With a – disparity of half a unit, this tsunami earthquake triggered a tsunami that caused most of the damage and casualties, with at least 116 killed. Typical runup heights were.
- 1998 - Swissair Flight 111 crashes near Peggy's Cove, Nova Scotia; all 229 people on board are killed.
- 1998 - The UN's International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda finds Jean-Paul Akayesu, the former mayor of a small town in Rwanda, guilty of nine counts of genocide.
- 2008 - Google launches its Google Chrome web browser.
- 2009 - The Andhra Pradesh, India helicopter crash occurred near Rudrakonda Hill, 40 nautical miles from Kurnool, Andhra Pradesh, India. Fatalities included Y. S. Rajasekhara Reddy, the Chief Minister of the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh.
- 2010 - Israel-Palestinian conflict: the 2010 Israeli-Palestinian peace talks are launched by the United States.
- 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.
- 2018 - National Museum of Brazil fire, A massive fire destroys most of the Paço de São Cristóvão, which houses the National Museum of Brazil, in Rio de Janeiro. The museum holds important archaeοlogical and anthropological objects, including the remains of the Luzia Woman, Marajoara vases and Egyptian mummies.
- 2019 - Hurricane Dorian, a category 5 hurricane, devastates the Bahamas, killing at least five.
- 2019 - The dive boat MV Conception catches fire and sinks near Santa Cruz Island, killing 34.
- 2022 - Eighteen people are killed and 23 others are injured by a suicide bombing at a Sunni mosque in Herat, Afghanistan.
- 2023 - India's first solar observation mission: The Indian Space Research Organisation successfully launches Aditya-L1 from Satish Dhawan space centre.
- 2024 - Four people are killed in a mass shooting targeting homeless people on a Chicago Transit Authority train in Forest Park, Illinois, United States.
- 2024 - A suicide bombing in Kabul, Afghanistan, kills 6 people and injures 13.
- 2024 - At least 129 inmates are killed and 59 more injured in an attempted prison break at Makala Prison in Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of the Congo.
Births
Pre-1600
- 1243 - Gilbert de Clare, 7th Earl of Gloucester, 6th Earl of Hertford, English politician
- 1251 - Francis of Fabriano, Italian writer
- 1516 - Francis I, Duke of Nevers
- 1531 - Francesco Cattani da Diacceto, Bishop of Fiesole
- 1548 - Vincenzo Scamozzi, Italian architect
1601–1900
- 1661 - Georg Böhm, German organist and composer
- 1675 - William Somervile, English poet and author
- 1753 - Marie Joséphine of Savoy
- 1778 - Louis Bonaparte, French-Dutch king
- 1805 - Esteban Echeverría, Argentinian poet and author
- 1810 - Lysander Button, American engineer
- 1810 - William Seymour Tyler, American historian and educator
- 1814 - Ernst Curtius, German archaeologist and historian
- 1820 - Lucretia Peabody Hale, American journalist and author
- 1830 - William P. Frye, American lawyer and politician
- 1838 - Bhaktivinoda Thakur, Indian guru and philosopher
- 1838 - Liliʻuokalani, Last sovereign monarch of Hawaiʻi
- 1839 - Henry George, American economist and author
- 1850 - Eugene Field, American author and poet
- 1850 - Albert Spalding, American baseball player, manager, and businessman, co-founded the Spalding Sporting Goods Company
- 1850 - Woldemar Voigt, German physicist and academic
- 1852 - Paul Bourget, French author and critic
- 1853 - Wilhelm Ostwald, Latvian-German chemist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate
- 1856 - John Bowser, English-Australian politician, 26th Premier of Victoria
- 1865 - Simeón Ola, Filipino general and politician
- 1866 - Charles Vintcent, South African cricketer and rugby player
- 1873 - Lily Poulett-Harris, Australian cricketer and educator
- 1877 - Frederick Soddy, English chemist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate
- 1878 - Herman, Estonian-Finnish archbishop
- 1878 - Werner von Blomberg, German field marshal
- 1883 - Archduchess Elisabeth Marie of Austria
- 1884 - Frank Laubach, American missionary and mystic
- 1892 - Dezső Kertész, Hungarian actor and film director
- 1894 - Joseph Roth, Austrian journalist and author
- 1897 - Fazlollah Zahedi, Iranian general and statesman, 36th Prime Minister of Iran