Today in History: Bülent Ecevit Elected as CHP Leader

July 2 is the 183rd (184th in leap years) day of the year according to the Gregorian calendar. The number of days left until the end of the year is 182. This is the day in the middle of the year, as there are one hundred and eighty-two days before and after it in non-leap years. July 2 coincides with the first day of the year in non-leap years and the last day of the year in all years.

Railways

• 2 July 1890 İzmit-Adapazari Line (50 km) was completed and put into service with a state ceremony.
• 2 July The 1987 Railway Workers Union has decided to strike a general strike for the 40 thousand workers.

Events

• 1698 - English inventor Thomas Savery patented the first steam engine.
• 1777 - Vermont becomes the first US region to abolish slavery.
• 1829 – A Russian Army of 25.000 men crossed the Balkans and took Burgas and Sliven.
• 1839 – 53 slaves aboard the Amistad, a slave ship, off Cuba.
• 1900 - Ferdinand von Zeppelin's aircraft was tested near Friedrichshafen, Germany, and was successful. The vehicle was given the name "Airship".
• 1917 – Greece declared war on the Ottoman Empire.
• 1932 – First Turkish History Congress convened in Ankara Community Center in the presence of Atatürk.
• 1932 - Keriman Halis was chosen as the Beauty Queen of Turkey.
• 1934 - The Night of the Long Knives ends with the death of Ernst Röhm.
• 1937 - Amelia Earhart and Fred Noonan disappeared on their first world tour by plane.
• 1945 – Two people who killed 15 Greek refugees were executed under the Izmir Clock Tower.
• 1951 – The Savarona ship was transferred to the Turkish Navy.
• 1962 – The first store of the Walmart retail chain opens in Rogers, Arkansas.
• 1964 – US President Lyndon B. Johnson signs the “Civil Rights Act” outlawing racial discrimination in public places.
• 1966 – Antalyaspor Club was founded.
• 1966 - France conducted the first nuclear bomb test in the Pacific on the island of Moruroa. The code name of the experiment was “Aldébaran”.
• 1972 – Bülent Ecevit was elected as the Chairman of the CHP.
• 1976 – North and South Vietnam, separated since 1954, unite to form the Socialist Republic of Vietnam
• 1978 – Charon moon of Pluto, which was considered a planet in those years, was discovered.
• 1985 - Andrey Gromiko is appointed President of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet.
• 1986 – In the World Football Championship played in Mexico, Argentina became the champion.
• 1990 – Hajj stampede: pilgrims on their way to stoning demons in Mina are trapped in a tunnel; 1426 people died.
• 1992 – Turkey came fifth in the World Intelligence Games Championship and Congress held in New York for the first time as part of the Olympic Games.
• 1993 – Sivas Madımak Hotel was burned. 37 of the people in the hotel were burned to death.
• 2001 – “AbioCor”, the first artificial heart that has no connection with the outside after being placed in the thorax, was applied to a patient for the first time.
• 2002 - Steve Fossett became the first person to circumnavigate the globe in a balloon alone and without a break.
• 2003 – Directed by Ferzan Özpetek Opposite Window won five of the Globo D'Oro (Golden Globe) cinema awards, including the “Best Film Award”, for which the Foreign Press Center in Italy was a jury member.
• 2004 – 5.2 people died in the 18 magnitude earthquake that occurred in Doğubayazıt district of Ağrı.

Births

• 419 – III. Valentinian, Western Roman Emperor (d. 455)
• 1714 – Christoph Willibald Gluck, German composer (d. 1787)
• 1843 – Antonio Labriola, Italian Marxist theorist and philosopher (d. 1904)
• 1862 – William Henry Bragg, English physicist (d. 1942)
• 1877 – Hermann Hesse, German writer, poet, and Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1962)
• 1903 – Alec Douglas-Home, British politician (d. 1995)
• 1903 – Olav V, king of Norway from 1957 until his death (d. 1991)
• 1904 – René Lacoste, French tennis player and founder of Lacoste (d. 1996)
• 1906 Hans Bethe, German physicist (d. 2005)
• 1914 – Erich Topp, German U-boat commander (d. 2005)
• 1916 - Hans-Ulrich Rudel, II. German bomber pilot of World War II (d. 1982)
• 1922 – Pierre Cardin, Italian-French fashion designer (d. 2020)
• 1923 – Wislawa Szymborska, Polish poet (d. 2012)
• 1925 – Patrice Lumumba, first Prime Minister of Congo DC (d. 1961)
• 1929 – Imelda Marcos, wife of Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos
• 1930 – Karl Gerstner, Swiss graphic designer (d. 2017)
• 1930 – Carlos Menem, nicknamed El Turco, Argentine politician (d. 2021)
• 1936 – Omar Suleiman, Egyptian politician, diplomat, and army general (d. 2012)
• 1937 - Polly Holliday, retired American actress
• 1937 - Richard Petty, former NASCAR driver nicknamed "The King"
• 1939 – Sultan bin Mohammed al-Qasimi, b. January 25, 1972 Emir of Sharjah and Member of the Federal Supreme Council of the United Arab Emirates
• 1939 – Alexandros Panagoulis, Greek politician and poet (d. 1976)
• 1942 – Vicente Fox, Mexican businessman and former president (2000-2006)
• 1942 – Ahmet Türk, Turkish politician of Kurdish descent
• 1943 – Üstün Akmen, Turkish theater critic and writer (d. 2015)
• 1943 – Kevork Malikyan, Turkish-born English actor
• 1946 – Richard Axel, American scientist who won the 2004 Nobel Prize in Medicine
• 1946 – Ron Silver, American actor (d. 2009)
• 1946 – Timur Selçuk, Turkish pop music commentator, pianist and composer (d. 2020)
• 1947 – Larry David, American actor and producer (Seinfeld)
• 1951 – Sylvia Rivera, American transgender activist (d. 2002)
• 1952 – Ahmed Uyahya, Algerian politician
• 1957 – Bret Hart, Canadian author, actor, and retired professional wrestler
• 1963 – Rositsa Kirilova, Bulgarian singer
• 1970 – Yancy Butler, American actress
• 1973 – Çiğdem Vitrinel, Turkish director, screenwriter and producer
• 1975 – Elizabeth Reaser, American actress
• 1976 – Derya Büyükuncu, Turkish swimmer
• 1977 – Deniz Barış, Turkish football player
• 1978 – Jury Ratas, Estonian politician
• 1979 - Rebecca Mader, English actress
• 1983 – Michelle Branch, American singer, songwriter, and actress
• 1984 – Maarten Martens, Belgian football player
• 1984 – Johnny Weir, American figure skater
• 1985 – Vlatko Ilievski, Macedonian singer (d. 2018)
• 1985 – Ashley Tisdale, American actress
• 1985 – Onur Tuna, Turkish cinema, theater and TV series actor
• 1986 Lindsay Lohan, American actress
• 1987 – Esteban Granero, Spanish football player
• 1987 – Ruslana Korşunova, Russian-born Kazakh model and model (d. 2008)
• 1988 – Lee Chung-yong, South Korean football player
• 1989 – Giant, American electropop singer and songwriter
• 1989 – Alex Morgan, American women's international football player
• 1990 – Roman Lob, German singer
• 1990 – Margot Robbie, Australian actress and producer
• 1990 – Danny Rose, English international footballer
• 1992 – Madison Chock, American figure skater
• 1993 – Vince Staples, American hip hop artist
• 1993 – Ieva Zasimauskaitė, Lithuanian singer
• 1994 – Baba Rahman, Ghanaian football player
• 2001 – Abraham Attah, Ghanaian actor who lived in the USA for his career and education

Deaths

• 1215 – Eisai, Japanese Buddhist monk of the late Heian and early Kamakura periods (b.
• 1504 – III. Ştefan, Prince of Moldavia between 1457-1504 (b. 1433)
• 1511 – Hadim Ali Pasha, Sultan II. Ottoman statesman who served as grand vizier twice during the reign of Bayezid 1501-1503 and 1506-1511
• 1566 – Nostradamus, French physician, pharmacist, seer, and astrologer (b. 1503)
• 1582 – Akechi Mitsuhide, samurai general of the Sengoku period in Japan (b. 1528)
• 1743 – Spencer Compton, English statesman (b. 1673)
• 1778 – Jean Jacques Rousseau, Swiss philosopher (b. 1712)
• 1798 – John Fitch, American watchmaker and inventor (b. 1743)
• 1833 – Gervasio Antonio de Posadas, Argentine politician (b. 1757)
• 1843 – Samuel Hahnemann, German physician (b. 1755)
• 1850 – Robert Peel, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (b. 1788)
• 1914 – Joseph Chamberlain, British statesman (b. 1836)
• 1915 – Porfirio Díaz, President of Mexico (b. 1830)
• 1921 – Salih Zeki, Turkish mathematician, science historian and astronomer (b. 1864)
• 1924 – Matsukata Masayoshi, fourth prime minister of Japan (b. 1835)
• 1934 – Ernst Röhm, German officer, politician, founder and commander of SA (b. 1887)
• 1949 – Georgi Dimitrov, founder of socialist rule in Bulgaria and first Prime Minister (b. 1882)
• 1955 – Fatma Seher Erden (Kara Fatma), Turkish female soldier, heroine of the Turkish War of Independence and Medal of Independence (b. 1888)
• 1961 – Ernest Hemingway, American author and Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1899)
• 1973 – Betty Grable, American actress (b. 1916)
• 1977 – Vladimir Nabokov, Russian writer (b. 1899)
• 1989 – Andrey Gromiko, Soviet diplomat and Foreign Minister (b. 1909)
• 1989 – Franklin Schaffner, American film director (b. 1920)
• 1989 – Hasan Esat Işık, Turkish politician and diplomat (b. 1916)
• 1991 – Lee Remick, American actress (b. 1935)
• 1993 – Asım Bezirci, Turkish writer (b. 1927)
• 1993 – Behçet Sefa Aysan, Turkish poet (b. 1949)
• 1993 – Hasret Gültekin, Turkish artist (b. 1971)
• 1993 – Muhlis Akarsu, Turkish folk poet (b. 1948)
• 1993 – Nesimi Çimen, Turkish folk poet (b. 1931)
• 1994 – Andrés Escobar, Colombian national football player (b. 1967)
• 1996 – Saniye Can, Turkish Folk Music artist (b. 1930)
• 1997 – James Stewart, American actor (b. 1908)
• 1999 – Mario Puzo, American author and Academy Award winner for Best Adapted Screenplay (b. 1920)
• 2002 – Earle Brown, American composer (b. 1926)
• 2004 – John Cullen Murphy, American comics (Prince Valiant'in (Hero Prince) illustrator) (b. 1919)
• 2007 – Beverly Sills, American soprano (b. 1929)
• 2009 – Bruno de Leusse, French diplomat (b. 1916)
• 2010 – Beryl Bainbridge, English novelist (b. 1932)
• 2011 – Itamar Franco, Brazilian politician (b. 1930)
• 2011 – Özcan Tekgül, Turkish belly dance artist, film and theater actor (b. 1941)
• 2013 – Douglas Engelbart, Norwegian-American inventor (b. 1925)
• 2013 – Fevziye Fuad, first wife of the Shah of Iran Mohammad Reza Pahlavi (b. 1921)
• 2016 – Caroline Aherne, British comedian and actress (b. 1963)
• 2016 – Michael Cimino, Academy Award-winning American director (b. 1939)
• 2016 – Roger Dumas, French actor (b. 1932)
• 2016 – Rudolf Kalman, Hungarian-American mathematical systems theorist (b. 1930)
• 2016 – Michel Rocard, French politician and Prime Minister of France (b. 1930)
• 2016 – Elie Wiesel, Romanian-born Jewish writer and Nobel Peace Prize laureate (b. 1928)
• 2017 – Chris Roberts, German singer and actor (b. 1946)
• 2019 – Şeref Bakşık, Turkish politician (b. 1927)
• 2019 – Costa Cordalis, Greek-German musician, singer and skier (b. 1944)
• 2019 – Lee Iacocca, American businessman (b. 1924)
• 2019 – Lis Verhoeven, German actress and theater director (b. 1931)
• 2019 – Bruce Wallrodt, Australian Paralympic athlete (b. 1951)
• 2020 – Nikolay Kapustin, Russian composer and pianist (b. 1937)
• 2020 – Wanderley Mariz, Brazilian politician and lawyer (b. 1940)
• 2020 – Tilo Prückner, German actor (b. 1940)

Holidays and special occasions

• World UFO Day