July 2

• July 2, 311
  Saint Militiades begins his reign as Catholic Pope
• July 2, 1644
  The combined forces of the English Parliamentarians and the Scottish Covenanters crush the Royalists at the Battle of Marston Moor near York, England
• July 2, 1737
  The Russian army, led by Burkhard Christoph von Münnich, capture by storm the Ottoman fortress of Ochakov during Russo–Turkish War of 1735–1739
• July 2, 1747
  Marshall Saxe leads the French forces to victory over an Anglo-Dutch force under the Duke of Cumberland at the Battle of Lauffeld
• July 2, 1777
  Vermont becomes the first American territory to abolish slavery
• July 2, 1822
  Denmark Vesey, the leader of large group of slaves, and five aides are hanged at Blake's Landing, Charleston, South Carolina after attempt to gain freedom by force
• July 2, 1861
  Australian explorer Robert O'Hara Burke dies near Cooper's Creek and John King presses on to look for native Aborigines
• July 2, 1872
  Jacob W. Davis of Reno, Nevada, sends Levi Strauss & Co. in San Francisco a sample of his work pants and a business proposal for Strauss to apply for a patent in exchange for a half share in the patent
• July 2, 1881
  Less than four months after his inauguration, the 20th President of the United States James Garfield is fatally shot from behind in Washington, D.C., by Charles Guiteau, who wished to be appointed consul to France, at the Washington railroad station
• July 2, 1890
  United States Congress passes the Sherman Antitrust Act against large companies, who co-operated to fix outputs and prices, which becomes the second antitrust law, after Canada's competition statute
• July 2, 1893
  Fram, a ship used for exploration of the Arctic and Antarctic regions, leaves Bergen to be frozen into the pack ice and drift towards the pole
• July 2, 1900
  Zeppelin LZ 1, made by German aircraft manufacturer Ferdinand von Zeppelin, becomes the first truly successful experimental rigid airship
• July 2, 1937
  Amelia Earhart, an American author and the first female aviator to fly solo across the Atlantic Ocean, disappears over the central Pacific Ocean near Howland Island during a circumnavigational flight of the globe
• July 2, 1961
  Writer Ernest Hemingway shoots himself to death in Ketchum, Idaho, United States
• July 2, 1962
  The first Wal-Mart, a large discount department store, opens in Rogers, Arkansas, United States
• July 2, 1964
  U.S. President Lyndon Johnson signs the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which prohibits racial discrimination in employment and education and outlaws racial segregation in public places such as schools, buses, parks and swimming pools
• July 2, 1969
  The International resort/casino, the world's largest hotel, with the world's largest casino, at 2,700 square meters, opens in Las Vegas Boulevard, Nevada
• July 2, 1976
  North and South Vietnam reunite to form the Socialist Republic of Vietnam
• July 2, 2000
  Vincente Fox, a candidate of the rightist National Action Party, is elected President of Mexico, ending 71 years of Institutional Revolutionary Party rule and becomes the first opposition President of Mexico
• July 2, 2001
  The world's first self-contained artificial heart called AbioCor is implanted in Chicago School teacher Robert Tools
• July 2, 2002
  Steve Fossett, an American businessman, becomes the first person to fly solo around the world in a balloon