1870: World’s first underground railway opened
The Tower Subway beneath river Thames in London opened its doors for passengers. The subway was closed within a few months because of bankruptcy. The tunnel is now used for utilities.
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1917: Mutiny breaks out on German battleship. On August 2, 1917, with British forces settling into new positions captured from the Germans in the much-contested Ypres Salient on the Western Front of World War I, Germany faces more trouble closer to home, as a mutiny breaks out aboard the German battleship Prinzregent Luitpold, anchored at the North Sea port of Wilhelmshaven.
During the August 2 mutiny, some 600 sailors marched into town calling for an end to the war and proclaiming their unwillingness to continue fighting. Although the demonstration was quickly brought under control by army officials and the sailors were persuaded to return to their ships without real violence that day, some 75 of them were arrested and imprisoned and the ringleaders of the mutiny were subsequently tried, convicted and executed. “I die with a curse on the German-militarist state,” one of them, Albin Kobis, wrote his parents before he was shot by an army firing squad at Cologne.
1920: Marcus Garvey, Black leader and founder of the Universal Negro Improvement Association, reached the height of his power as he presided at an international convention in New York City.
1934: Hitler becomes dictator of Germany. With the death of German President Paul von Hindenburg, Chancellor Adolf Hitler becomes absolute dictator of Germany under the title of Fuhrer, or “Leader.” The German army took an oath of allegiance to its new commander-in-chief, and the last remnants of Germany’s democratic government were dismantled to make way for Hitler’s Third Reich. The Fuhrer assured his people that the Third Reich would last for a thousand years, but Nazi Germany collapsed just 11 years later.
1939: FDR signs the Hatch Act into law.
President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed the Hatch Act into law on this day in history, Aug. 2, 1939, prohibiting some federal government employees from engaging in certain political activities.
1945: The Potsdam Conference which is convened to negotiate the terms of the end of WW II comes to an end. Representatives from the US, U.K., and Soviet Union participated in the conference.
1958: The Arab Federation is dissolved
The short-lived federation of Jordan and Iraq was dissolved after King Faisal of Iraq was deposed and assassinated during the 14 July Revolution.
1990: Iraq invades Kuwait. On August 2, 1990, at about 2 a.m. local time, Iraqi forces invade Kuwait, Iraq’s tiny, oil-rich neighbor. Kuwait’s defense forces were rapidly overwhelmed, and those that were not destroyed retreated to Saudi Arabia. The emir of Kuwait, his family, and other government leaders fled to Saudi Arabia, and within hours Kuwait City had been captured and the Iraqis had established a provincial government. By annexing Kuwait, Iraq gained control of 20 percent of the world’s oil reserves and, for the first time, a substantial coastline on the Persian Gulf.
1992: Heptathlon champion Jackie Joyner-Kersee
At the Summer Olympics in Barcelona, American athlete Jackie Joyner-Kersee, considered by many to be the greatest female athlete ever, won the heptathlon, becoming the first person to win the event in consecutive Games.
1998: Second Congo War Begins
The deadliest war in Africa, the war and its aftermath has killed an estimated 5.4 million people. The war started with a mutiny in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and soon involved 9 African nations. It lasted for 5 years.
BIRTHS ON THIS DAY: August 2
Beko Ransome-Kuti (2 August 1940 – 10 February 2006)
Dr. Bekolari Ransome-Kuti was a Nigerian physician known for his work as a human rights activist.
Ransome-Kuti helped to form Nigeria’s first human rights organisation, the Campaign for Democracy, which in 1993 opposed the dictatorship of General Sani Abacha. In 1995, a military tribunal sentenced him to life in prison for bringing the mock trial of Olusegun Obasanjo to the attention of the world.[4] He was adopted as a prisoner of conscience by Amnesty International and freed in 1998 following the death of Sani Abacha. Beko died from complications of lung cancer on 10 February 2006, aged 65.
