On This Day: 2 July

Battle of Marston Moor: Parliamentarians under Lord Fairfax and the Earl of Manchester, and the Scottish Covenanters under the Earl of Leven, defeat the Royalists commanded by Prince Rupert of the Rhine and the Marquess of Newcastle – turning the Civil War in their favour		1644
Battle of Alford: Royalists led by James Graham, 1st Marquess of Montrose, defeat the forces of the Scottish government (dominated by Presbyterians, known as Covenanters), commanded by William Baillie		1645
English inventor Thomas Savery patents the first steam engine		1698
The Continental Congress of the United States adopts a resolution severing ties with the Kingdom of Great Britain – although the wording of the formal Declaration of Independence is not published until two days later		1776
The French frigate Méduse strikes the Bank of Arguin (a sandbank off the coast of Mauritania, in north–west Africa) and 151 people on board have to be evacuated on an improvised raft – a case immortalised by Géricault's painting The Raft of the Medusa		1816
The Factory Act is passed, prohibiting employment of children under 9 in factories and children under 16 working more than 12 hours a day		1819
Thirty–five slaves, including Denmark Vesey who is seen as their leader, are hanged in South Carolina, after being accused of organizing a slave rebellion		1822
Portuguese rule in Brazil ends with the final defeat of the Portuguese crown loyalists in the province of Bahia		1823
Twenty miles off the coast of Cuba, 53 African slaves led by Joseph Cinqué take over the slave ship Amistad		1839
The Russian Army crosses the Pruth river into the Danubian Principalities, Moldavia and Wallachia – providing the spark that sets off the Crimean War		1853
William Booth founds the Salvation Army		1865
The World's first elevated railway opens in New York City		1866
Victor Emmanuel II of Italy enters Rome, having conquered it from the Papal States		1871
US President James A. Garfield is shot by writer and lawyer Charles J. Guiteau, who is offended by Garfield's refusal to reward the part Guiteau believes he played in Garfield's election victory (Garfield dies on 19 September)		1881
Guglielmo Marconi obtains a patent for radio in London		1897
Count Ferdinand von Zeppelin flies his first airship – the largest ever built		1900
Sibelius's Finlandia receives its première performance in Helsinki		1900
The British airship R100 begins its flight from Scotland to the USA		1920
US President Warren G. Harding signs the Knox–Porter Resolution, formally ending the war between the USA and Germany		1921
London dockers join the strike that began in Hull in June, after Ernest Bevin, general secretary of the recently–founded TGWU, had signed an agreement accepting a pay reduction from 8s to 5s 6d for a four–hour minimum employment period (the strike ends on 21 August)		1923
Amelia Earhart and navigator Fred Noonan disappear over the Pacific Ocean, while attempting to make the first equatorial round–the–world flight		1937
Helen Wills Moody (USA) wins a record 8^th Wimbledon singles title		1938
The Vichy Government is set up in France		1940
Over one thousand German and Italian prisoners drown when the British Blue Star liner Arandora Star is sunk by a German submarine		1940
Indian independence leader Subhas Chandra Bose is arrested and detained in Calcutta		1940
The worst floods in US history leave 41 dead and 200,000 homeless in Kansas and Missouri		1951
Jaroslav Drobny defeats Ken Rosewall in the longest–ever Wimbledon final		1954
The first Walmart store (then known as Wal–Mart) opens for business in Rogers, Arkansas		1962
President Johnson signs the US Civil Rights Act, prohibiting racial segregation in public places		1964
France explodes a nuclear test bomb, code–named Aldébaran, in Moruroa – its first nuclear test in the Pacific		1966
Police seize 35 weapons and over 20,000 rounds of ammunition – believed to be destined for use in Northern Ireland – from three addresses in Fulham and Hammersmith		1970
The Erskine Bridge, over the Clyde west of Glasgow, opens		1971
North Vietnam annexes South Vietnam, to form the unified Socialist Republic of Vietnam		1976
Moors murderer Ian Brady offers to assist police searches of Saddleworth Moor, for the first time following his conviction in 1966		1987
One hundred Muslim pilgrims suffocate in a tunnel in Mecca, following a stampede at the annual Hajj pilgrimage		1990
The IRA admits that it tried, convicted and killed three men found by the army at different roadsides in South Armagh, who it claims were informers for MI5 and the RUC Special Branch		1992
Colombian footballer Andres Escobar is shot dead, on returning home after scoring the own goal that led to his country's elimination from the World Cup		1994
Russia re–elects Boris Yeltsin as president, ahead of Communist candidate Gennady Zyuganov		1996
Sion Jenkins is jailed for life for the murder of his foster daughter Billie–Jo Jenkins		1998
Tony Blair flies in to Northern Ireland as loyalist extremists burn down ten Roman Catholic churches		1998
Barry George, 41, is found guilty of murdering Jill Dando		2001
American businessman and adventurer Steve Fossett becomes the first person to fly solo around the world non–stop in a balloon		2002
Live8: over 260 acts perform in 10 different concerts, timed to precede the G8 conference at Gleneagles, Perthshire and to coincide with the 20^th anniversary of Live Aid		2005
David Beckham resigns as England captain after the defeat to Portugal in the World Cup quarter finals		2006
At least 230 lives are lost, and 196 people are injured, when a fuel tanker overturns and later explodes in the village of Sange, in the DR Congo province of South Kivu		2010
The International Astronomical Union names Pluto's fourth and fifth moons, Kerberos and Styx		2013
At least 341 people lose their lives in a series of suicide bombings carried out by ISIL in the mainly Shia district of Karrada, in Baghdad		2016

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On This Day: 2 July