216 BC Hannibal Barca wins his greatest victory over the Romans at Cannae.
47 BC Caesar defeats Pharnaces at Zela in Syria and declares, "veni, vidi, vici,".
1552 The treaty of Passau gives religious freedom to Protestants living in Germany.
1553 An invading French army is destroyed at the Battle of Marciano in Italy.
1589 During France's religious war, a fanatical monk stabs King Henry II to death.
1776 The Continental Congress signs US Declaration of Independence.
1802 Napoleon Bonaparte is proclaimed "Consul for Life" by the French Senate.
1819 The first parachute jump from a balloon is made by Charles Guille in NYC.
1832 General Henry Atkinson massacres Sauk Indians, followers of Black Hawk.
1847 William A. Leidesdorff launches the first steam boat in San Francisco Bay.
1862 Union General John Pope captures Orange Court House, Virginia.
1862 The Army Ambulance Corps is established by Maj. Gen. George McClellan.
1876 Wild Bill Hickok is shot while playing poker.
1914 Germany invades Luxembourg.
1918 A British force lands in Archangel, Russia, to support White Russian opposition.
1923 Vice President Calvin Coolidge becomes president. Warren G. Harding dies.
1934 German President Paul von Hindenburg dies. Adolf Hitler becomes chancellor.
1943 Lt. John F. Kennedy, towing an injured sailor, swims to Solomon Islands.
1950 The U.S. First Provisional Marine Brigade arrives in Korea from the US.
1964 U.S. destroyer Maddoxis reportedly attacked by N. Vietnamese patrol boats.
1965 Newsman Morley Safer films the destruction of a Vietnamese village by U.S.
1990 Iraqi forces invade neighboring Kuwait.
Born on August 2
1754 Pierre Charles L'Enfant, French engineer who designed Washington, D.C.
1820 John Tyndall, British physicist, the first scientist to show why the sky is blue.
1865 Irving Babbitt, scholar and founder of the modern humanistic movement.
1924 James Baldwin, writer whose works include Go Tell it on the Mountain.
1932 Peter O'Toole, Irish actor.
1942 Isabel Allende, author of The House of the Spirits.
1949 James Fallows, writer and editor of U.S. News and World Report.
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