2 July

The 2nd of July is the threshold for the 2nd part of the year. In common years, the midpoint of the year occurs at noon on this day, while in leap years, it occurs at midnight (start of the day).

This day

In History

• 1494 – Treaty of Tordesillas.
• 1698 – Patent for the steam engine.
• 1816 – Le Radeau de la Méduse.
• 1823 – End of the Portuguese colonial rule in Brazil.
• 1871 – Victor Emmanuel II of Italy captures Roma.
• 1897 – Marconi patents the Radio.
• 1900 – First Zepellin flight.
• 1934 – End of the Night of the long knives.
• 1964 – USA prohibits segregation in public places.
• 1966 – France detonates its first nuclear weapon (on Moruroa).
• 1976 – North Vietnam annexes the south to become (the Socialist republic of) Vietnam.
• 2002 – First solo nonstop flight around the world in a balloon.
• 2013 – Pluto's fourth and fifth moons are christened (Kerberos and Styx.)

Birthdays

• 1862 – William Henry Bragg
• 1877 – Hermann Hesse
• 1906 – Hans Bethe

Deaths

• 1566 – Nostradamus
• 1778 – Jean-Jacques Rousseau
• 1961 – Ernest Hemingway
• 1977 – Vladimir Nabokov