October 2
Events
Pre-1600
1601–1900
1901–present
- 1919 - Seven days after suffering a "physical collapse" following a speech in Pueblo, Colorado, U.S. president Woodrow Wilson has a catastrophic stroke at the White House, leaving him physically and mentally incapacitated for the remainder of his presidency.
- 1920 - Ukrainian War of Independence: Mikhail Frunze orders the Red Army to immediately cease hostilities with the Revolutionary Insurgent Army of Ukraine.
- 1928 - The "Prelature of the Holy Cross and the Work of God", commonly known as Opus Dei, is founded.
- 1937 - Rafael Trujillo orders the execution of Haitians living in the border region of the Dominican Republic.
- 1942 - World War II: Ocean Liner accidentally rams and sinks, killing over 300 crewmen aboard Curacoa.
- 1944 - World War II: German troops end the Warsaw Uprising.
- 1958 - Guinea declares its independence from France.
- 1967 - Thurgood Marshall is sworn in as the first African-American justice of the United States Supreme Court.
- 1968 - Mexican President Gustavo Díaz Ordaz orders soldiers to suppress a demonstration of unarmed students, ten days before the start of the 1968 Summer Olympics.
- 1970 - An aircraft carrying the Wichita State University football team, administrators, and supporters crashes in Colorado, killing 31 people.
- 1971 - South Vietnamese President Nguyen Van Thieu is re-elected in a one-man election.
- 1971 - British European Airways Flight 706 crashes near Aarsele, Belgium, killing 63.
- 1980 - Michael Myers becomes the first member of either chamber of Congress to be expelled since the Civil War.
- 1990 - Xiamen Airlines Flight 8301 is hijacked and lands at Guangzhou, where it crashes into two other airliners on the ground, killing 132.
- 1992 - Military police storm the Carandiru Penitentiary in São Paulo, Brazil during a prison riot. The resulting massacre leaves 111 prisoners dead.
- 1996 - Aeroperú Flight 603 crashes into the ocean near Peru, killing all 70 people on board.
- 1996 - The Electronic Freedom of Information Act Amendments are signed by U.S. President Bill Clinton.
- 2002 - The Beltway sniper attacks begin in Washington, D.C., extending over three weeks and killing 10 people.
- 2004 - The first parkrun, then known as the Bushy Park Time Trial, takes place in Bushy Park, London, UK.
- 2006 - Five Amish girls are murdered in a shooting at a school in Pennsylvania, United States.
- 2007 - President Roh Moo-hyun of South Korea goes to North Korea for an Inter-Korean summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong-il.
- 2016 - Ethiopian protests break out during a festival in the Oromia region, killing dozens of people.
- 2018 - The Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi is assassinated in the Saudi consulate in Istanbul, Turkey.
- 2019 - A privately owned Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress conducting a living history exhibition flight crashes shortly after takeoff from Windsor Locks, Connecticut, killing seven.
- 2025 – 2 people are killed and at least 4 others injured in an attack on a synagogue in Manchester, UK, during Yom Kippur.
Births
Pre-1600
1601–1900
- 1718 - Elizabeth Montagu, English author and critic
- 1768 - William Beresford, 1st Viscount Beresford, English general and politician
- 1798 - Charles Albert, King of Sardinia (1831–49)
- 1800 - Nat Turner, American slave and uprising leader
- 1815 - James Agnew, Irish-Australian politician, Premier of Tasmania
- 1821 - Alexander P. Stewart, American general
- 1828 - Charles Floquet, French lawyer and politician, Prime Minister of France
- 1832 - Edward Burnett Tylor, English anthropologist
- 1847 - Paul von Hindenburg, German field marshal and politician, 2nd President of Germany
- 1851 - Ferdinand Foch, French field marshal
- 1852 - William Ramsay, Scottish chemist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate
- 1854 - Patrick Geddes, Scottish biologist, sociologist, geographer, and philanthropist
- 1866 - Swami Abhedananda, Indian mystic and philosopher
- 1869 - Mahatma Gandhi, Indian freedom fighter, activist and philosopher
- 1871 - Cordell Hull, American politician, United States Secretary of State, Nobel Prize laureate
- 1871 - Martha Brookes Hutcheson, American landscaper and author
- 1873 - Stephen Warfield Gambrill, American lawyer and politician
- 1873 - Pelham Warner, English cricketer and manager
- 1875 - Pattie Ruffner Jacobs, American suffragist
- 1879 - Wallace Stevens, American poet
- 1882 - Boris Shaposhnikov, Russian colonel
- 1883 - Karl von Terzaghi, Austrian geologist and engineer
- 1890 - Groucho Marx, American comedian and actor
- 1893 - Leroy Shield, American composer and conductor
- 1895 - Ruth Cheney Streeter, American colonel
- 1900 - Leela Roy Nag, Indian freedom fighter, social reformer and politician
1901–present
- 1902 - Leopold Figl, Austrian politician, Chancellor of Austria
- 1904 - Graham Greene, English novelist, playwright, and critic
- 1904 - Lal Bahadur Shastri, Indian and politician, Prime Minister of India
- 1905 - Franjo Šeper, Croatian cardinal
- 1906 - Thomas Hollway, Australian politician, Premier of Victoria
- 1907 - Víctor Paz Estenssoro, Bolivian politician, President of Bolivia
- 1907 - Alexander R. Todd, Scottish biochemist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate
- 1909 - Alex Raymond, American cartoonist, creator of Flash Gordon
- 1912 - Frank Malina, American engineer and painter
- 1914 - Jack Parsons, American chemist, occultist, and engineer
- 1914 - Bernarr Rainbow, English organist, conductor, and historian
- 1915 - Chuck Williams, American author and businessman, founded Williams Sonoma
- 1917 - Christian de Duve, Belgian cytologist and biochemist, Nobel Prize laureate
- 1917 - Charles Drake, American actor
- 1919 - John W. Duarte, English guitarist and composer
- 1921 - Edmund Crispin, English writer and composer
- 1921 - Albert Scott Crossfield, American pilot and engineer
- 1921 - Robert Runcie, English archbishop
- 1925 - Wren Blair, Canadian ice hockey player, coach, and manager
- 1926 - Jan Morris, Welsh historian and author
- 1928 - George McFarland, American actor
- 1928 - Wolfhart Pannenberg, Polish-German theologian and academic
- 1929 - Peter Bronfman, Canadian businessman
- 1929 - Moses Gunn, American actor
- 1930 - Dave Barrett, Canadian social worker and politician, 26th Premier of British Columbia
- 1932 - Maury Wills, American baseball player and manager
- 1933 - John Gurdon, English biologist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate
- 1933 - Dave Somerville, Canadian singer
- 1934 - Richard Scott, Baron Scott of Foscote, English lawyer and judge
- 1934 - Earl Wilson, American baseball player
- 1935 - Omar Sívori, Italian-Argentine footballer and manager
- 1936 - Dick Barnett, American basketball player
- 1936 - Connie Dierking, American basketball player
- 1936 – Gwen Marston, American quilter and writer
- 1937 - Johnnie Cochran, American lawyer
- 1938 - Nick Gravenites, American singer-songwriter
- 1938 - Waheed Murad, Pakistani actor, producer, and screenwriter
- 1938 - Rex Reed, American film critic
- 1939 - Budhi Kunderan, Indian cricketer
- 1941 - Diana Hendry, English poet and author
- 1941 - Ron Meagher, American rock bass player
- 1942 - Steve Sabol, American director and producer, co-founded NFL Films
- 1943 - Anna Ford, English journalist
- 1943 - Henri Szeps, Australian actor
- 1944 - Vernor Vinge, American author
- 1945 - Martin Hellman, American cryptographer and academic
- 1945 - Don McLean, American singer-songwriter
- 1946 - Sonthi Boonyaratglin, Thai general and politician
- 1947 - Ward Churchill, American author and activist
- 1948 - Trevor Brooking, English footballer and manager
- 1948 - Avery Brooks, American actor
- 1948 - Donna Karan, American fashion designer, founded DKNY
- 1948 - Siim Kallas, Estonian politician, Prime Minister of Estonia
- 1948 - Persis Khambatta, Indian model and actress,
- 1949 - Richard Hell, American singer-songwriter and bass player
- 1949 - Annie Leibovitz, American photographer
- 1950 - Mike Rutherford, English guitarist
- 1951 - Sting, English singer-songwriter and actor
- 1952 - Janusz Olejniczak, Polish classical pianist and actor
- 1952 - Robin Riker, American actress
- 1953 - Vanessa Bell Armstrong, American singer
- 1953 - Tom Boswell, American basketball player
- 1954 - Lorraine Bracco, American actress
- 1955 - Philip Oakey, English singer-songwriter, keyboard player, and producer
- 1956 - Freddie Jackson, American soul singer
- 1957 - John Cook, American golfer
- 1957 - Wade Dooley, English rugby player
- 1958 - Robbie Nevil, American singer-songwriter
- 1960 - Glenn Anderson, Canadian ice hockey player
- 1960 - Django Bates, English musician and composer
- 1960 - Joe Sacco, Maltese-American journalist and cartoonist
- 1960 - Dereck Whittenburg, American basketball player and coach
- 1962 - Mark Rypien, Canadian-American football player
- 1963 - Keith Bradshaw, Australian cricketer
- 1963 - Maria Ressa, Filipino-American journalist
- 1964 - Dirk Brinkmann, German field hockey player
- 1965 - Darren Cahill, Australian tennis player
- 1965 - Tom Moody, Australian cricketer
- 1965 - Ferhan and Ferzan Önder, Turkish-Austrian pianists
- 1966 - Yokozuna, American wrestler
- 1967 - Frankie Fredericks, Namibian sprinter
- 1967 - Alex Karp, American businessman
- 1967 - Thomas Muster, Austrian tennis player
- 1967 - Gillian Welch, American singer-songwriter and guitarist
- 1968 - Jana Novotná, Czech tennis player and sportscaster
- 1968 - Joey Slotnick, American actor
- 1968 - Glen Wesley, Canadian ice hockey player
- 1968 - Kelly Willis, American country music singer-songwriter
- 1969 - Badly Drawn Boy, English musician
- 1970 - Eddie Guardado, American baseball player
- 1970 - Patricia O'Callaghan, Canadian soprano
- 1970 - Kelly Ripa, American actress and talk show host
- 1970 - Maribel Verdú, Spanish actress
- 1971 - Tiffany Darwish, American singer-songwriter
- 1971 - Jim Root, American guitarist and songwriter
- 1971 - Chris Savino, American comic book artist, writer, animator and creator of The Loud House
- 1972 - Aaron McKie, American basketball player
- 1973 - Melissa Harris-Perry, American journalist, author, and educator
- 1973 - Lene Nystrøm, Norwegian singer, songwriter, and musician
- 1973 - Efren Ramirez, American actor
- 1973 - Scott Schoeneweis, American baseball player
- 1974 - Bjarke Ingels, Danish architect
- 1974 - Sam Roberts, Canadian singer-songwriter and musician
- 1974 - Paul Teutul Jr., American motorcycle designer, co-founded Orange County Choppers
- 1976 - Mark Chilton, English cricketer
- 1977 - Didier Défago, Swiss skier
- 1978 - Ayumi Hamasaki, Japanese singer, songwriter, actress
- 1981 - Luke Wilkshire, Australian footballer
- 1982 - Tyson Chandler, American basketball player
- 1982 - Esra Gümüş, Turkish volleyball player
- 1984 - Marion Bartoli, French tennis player
- 1985 - Çağlar Birinci, Turkish footballer
- 1986 - Camilla Belle, American actress
- 1987 - Joe Ingles, Australian basketball player
- 1987 - Phil Kessel, American ice hockey player
- 1987 - Ricky Stenhouse Jr., American race car driver
- 1988 - Brittany Howard, American singer-songwriter and guitarist
- 1989 - Frederik Andersen, Danish ice hockey player
- 1989 - Josh Bailey, Canadian ice hockey player
- 1989 - Aaron Hicks, American baseball player
- 1989 - George Nash, English rower
- 1990 - Samantha Barks, Manx actress and singer
- 1991 - Roberto Firmino, Brazilian footballer
- 1992 - Alisson Becker, Brazilian footballer
- 1992 - Shane Larkin, American-Turkish basketball player
- 1992 - Nicol Ruprecht, Austrian rhythmic gymnast
- 1993 - Lance McCullers Jr., American baseball player
- 1995 - Tepai Moeroa, Cook Islands rugby league player
- 1996 - Tom Trbojevic, Australian rugby league player
- 2000 - Quadeca, American singer-songwriter and YouTuber
- 2002 - Jacob Sartorius, American social media personality and singer
- 2005 - Sam Konstas, Australian cricketer
Deaths
Pre-1600
1601–1900
- 1626 - Diego Sarmiento de Acuña, 1st Count of Gondomar, Spanish academic and diplomat
- 1629 - Antonio Cifra, Italian composer
- 1629 - Pierre de Bérulle, French cardinal and theologian
- 1674 - George Frederick of Nassau-Siegen, officer in the Dutch Army
- 1678 - Wu Sangui, Qing Chinese general
- 1708 - Anne Jules de Noailles, French general
- 1709 - Ivan Mazepa, Ukrainian diplomat
- 1724 - François-Timoléon de Choisy, French historian and author
- 1746 - Josiah Burchett, English admiral and politician
- 1764 - William Cavendish, 4th Duke of Devonshire, English politician, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom
- 1780 - John André, English soldier
- 1782 - Charles Lee, English-born American general
- 1786 - Augustus Keppel, 1st Viscount Keppel, English admiral and politician
- 1803 - Samuel Adams, American politician, Governor of Massachusetts
- 1804 - Nicolas-Joseph Cugnot, French engineer
- 1847 - Vasil Aprilov, Bulgarian educator, merchant and writer
- 1850 - Sarah Biffen, English painter
- 1853 - François Arago, French mathematician, physicist, astronomer, and politician
1901–present
- 1920 - Max Bruch, German composer and conductor
- 1927 - Svante Arrhenius, Swedish physicist and chemist, Nobel Prize laureate
- 1938 - Alexandru Averescu, Romanian military leader and politician, 24th Prime Minister of Romania
- 1943 - John Evans, English-Australian politician, 21st Premier of Tasmania
- 1953 - John Marin, American painter
- 1953 - Émilie Busquant, French anarcho-syndicalist, sewed the first Flag of Algeria
- 1955 - William R. Orthwein, American swimmer and water polo player
- 1968 - Marcel Duchamp, French painter and sculptor
- 1971 - Jessie Arms Botke, American painter
- 1973 - Paul Hartman, American actor and dancer
- 1973 - Paavo Nurmi, Finnish runner
- 1974 - Vasily Shukshin, Russian actor, director, and screenwriter
- 1975 - K. Kamaraj, Indian lawyer and politician
- 1981 - Harry Golden, American journalist and author
- 1981 - Hazel Scott, Trinidadian-American activist, actress, and musician
- 1985 - Rock Hudson, American actor
- 1987 - Madeleine Carroll, English actress
- 1987 - Peter Medawar, Brazilian-English biologist and zoologist, Nobel Prize laureate
- 1988 - Alec Issigonis, English car designer, designed the Mini
- 1988 - Hamengkubuwono IX, Indonesian politician, 2nd vice president of Indonesia
- 1991 - Hazen Argue, Canadian politician
- 1991 - Demetrios I of Constantinople
- 1996 - Robert Bourassa, Canadian lawyer and politician, Premier of Quebec
- 1996 - Andrey Lukanov, Bulgarian politician, 40th Prime Minister of Bulgaria
- 1998 - Gene Autry, American actor, singer, and guitarist
- 1999 - Heinz G. Konsalik, German journalist and author
- 2000 - David Tonkin, Australian politician, Premier of South Australia
- 2001 - Franz Biebl, German composer and academic
- 2002 - Heinz von Foerster, Austrian-American physicist and philosopher
- 2003 - John Thomas Dunlop, American scholar and politician, United States Secretary of Labor
- 2005 - Nipsey Russell, American comedian and actor
- 2005 - August Wilson, American author and playwright
- 2006 - Helen Chenoweth-Hage, American politician
- 2006 - Paul Halmos, Hungarian-American mathematician
- 2007 - Tex Coulter, American football player
- 2007 - George Grizzard, American actor
- 2007 - Dan Keating, Irish Republican Army volunteer
- 2010 - Kwa Geok Choo, Singaporean lawyer and scholar
- 2012 - Nguyễn Chí Thiện, Vietnamese-American poet and activist
- 2012 - Charles Roach, Trinidadian-Canadian lawyer and activist
- 2012 - J. Philippe Rushton, English-Canadian psychologist, theorist, academic
- 2013 - Abraham Nemeth, American mathematician and academic
- 2014 - Robert Flower, Australian footballer
- 2015 - Brian Friel, Irish author, playwright, and director
- 2015 - Coleridge Goode, Jamaican-English bassist and composer
- 2015 - Johnny Paton, Scottish footballer and coach
- 2016 - Neville Marriner, British conductor
- 2017 - Tom Petty, American musician
- 2018 - Jamal Khashoggi, Saudi journalist
- 2020 - Anne-Marie Hutchinson, British lawyer
- 2021 - Jack Biondolillo, American bowler
- 2022 - Sacheen Littlefeather, American actress, model and activist for Native American civil rights
- 2023 - Francis Lee, English footballer
- 2024 - Susie Berning, American professional golfer
- 2024 - Marissa Haque, Indonesian politician
Holidays and observances