FAMOUS BIRTHDAYS FOR OCTOBER 2
Samuel Adams (1722-1803) - American politician, Governor of Massachusetts.
Nat Turner (1800-1831) - American slave and uprising leader.
Alexander P. Stewart (1821-1908) - American general.
John Marin (1870-1953) - American painter.
Cordell Hull (1871-1955) - American politician, United States Secretary of State, Nobel Prize laureate.
Martha Brookes Hutcheson (1871-1959) - American landscaper and author.
Stephen Warfield Gambrill (1873-1924) - American lawyer and politician.
Pattie Ruffner Jacobs (1875-1935) - American suffragist.
Wallace Stevens (1879-1955) - American poet.
William R. Orthwein (1881-1955) - American swimmer and water polo player.
Groucho Marx (1890-1977) - American comedian and actor.
Leroy Shield (1893-1962) - American composer and conductor.
Harry Golden (1902-1981) - American journalist and author.
Paul Hartman (1904-1973) - American actor and dancer.
Gene Autry (1907-1998) - American actor, singer, and guitarist.
Alex Raymond (1909-1956) - American cartoonist, creator of Flash Gordon.
Heinz von Foerster (1911-2002) - Austrian-American physicist and philosopher.
John Thomas Dunlop (1914-2003) - American scholar and politician, United States Secretary of Labor.
Jack Parsons (1914-1952) - American chemist, occultist, and engineer.
Chuck Williams (1915-2015) - American author and businessman, founded Williams Sonoma.
Albert Scott Crossfield (1921-2006) - American pilot and engineer.
Rock Hudson (1925-1985) - American actor.
George McFarland (1928-1993) - American actor.
Earl Wilson (1934-2005) - American baseball player.
Connie Dierking (1936-2013) - American basketball player.
Johnnie Cochran (1937-2005) - American lawyer.
Steve Sabol (1942-2012) - American director and producer, co-founded NFL Films.
Vernor Vinge (1944-2024) - American author.
Don McLean (1945-Still Living) - American singer-songwriter.
Ward Churchill (1947-Still Living) - American author and activist.
Donna Karan (1948-Still Living) - American fashion designer, founded DKNY.
Annie Leibovitz (1949-Still Living) - American photographer.
Tom Petty (1950-2017) - American musician.
Vanessa Bell Armstrong (1953-Still Living) - American singer.
Tom Boswell (1953-Still Living) - American basketball player.
Freddie Jackson (1956-Still Living) - American soul singer.
John Cook (1957-Still Living) - American golfer.
Robbie Nevil (1958-Still Living) - American singer-songwriter.
Yokozuna (1966-2000) - American wrestler.
Kelly Willis (1968-Still Living) - American country music singer-songwriter.
Kelly Ripa (1970-Still Living) - American actress and talk show host.
Chris Savino (1971-Still Living) - American comic book artist, writer, animator and creator of The Loud House.
Efren Ramirez (1973-Still Living) - American actor.
Brian Knight (1974-Still Living) - American baseball player.
Paul Teutul Jr. (1974-Still Living) - American motorcycle designer, co-founded Orange County Choppers.
Phil Kessel (1987-Still Living) - American ice hockey player.
Aaron Hicks (1989-Still Living) - American baseball player.
Shane Larkin (1992-Still Living) - American-Turkish basketball player.
HISTORICAL EVENTS FOR OCTOBER 2
1780 - John André, a British Army officer, is hanged as a spy by the Continental Army during the – American Revolutionary War.
1789 - The Bill of Rights is sent to the 13 colonies (states) for ratification. Only 10 states returning the document.
1864 - Confederates defeat a Union attack on Saltville, Virginia, during a Civil War battle.
1871 - The Great Chicago Fire begins and destroys most of the city.
1917 - The United States enters World War I.
1935 - The Wagner Act is signed into law, establishing labor unions.
1952 - The polio vaccine is successfully tested on about 1.8 million kids across the U.S.
1967 - Thurgood Marshall is sworn in as the first Black justice for the U.S. Supreme Court.
1967 - Apollo 7 is launched into space and successfully gains information for the future landing on the moon.
1970 – An airplane carrying the Wichita State University football team, students, and administrators crashes in Colorado, killing 31.
1987 – The Texas Supreme Court rules that burning the American flag is protected under free speech.
1990 - The Human Genome Project studying DNA in humans launches, with the U.S. as one of the main groups to study genes extensively.
1996 - President Bill Clinton signs the Electronic Freedom of Information Act Amendments to establish how records are kept and distributed within government agencies.
2002 - The Beltway sniper kills 10 people over three weeks in Washington, D.C.
2006 - A school shooting in Pennsylvania kills five Amish girls.
2018 - Washington Post Journalist Jamal Khashoggi is assassinated in Istanbul, Turkey.
2019 - A Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress crashes after takeoff in Connecticut, killing seven people. The flight was recording a live history exhibition