Saturday 2nd of July 1566

Apothecary and seer Nostradamus known for his collections of prophecies dies of edema at the age of 63 in Salon-de-Provence, Provence, France.

The night before Nostradamus told his secretary Jean de Chavigny "You will not find me alive at sunrise."

Thursday 2nd of July 1778

Philosopher, writer and composer Jean-Jacques Rousseau dies of a cerebral hemorrhage at the age of 66 in Ermenonville, Oise, France.

Tuesday 2nd of July 1816

The French frigate Méduse runs aground in Bank of Arguin, Mauritania.

On 5 July a gale developed and Méduse showed signs of breaking up. 146 men and one woman boarded an unstable raft. The raft had few supplies and no means of steering or navigation. By the fourth day there were only 67 people left alive on the raft and some resorted to cannibalism to survive. On the eighth day the fittest decided to throw the weak and wounded overboard, leaving just 15 men remaining, all of whom survived another four days until their rescue on 17 July by the brig Argus which accidentally encountered them.

Monday 2nd of July 1877

Writer Hermann Karl Hesse aka Emil Sinclair known for his novel Steppenwolf is born in Marktplatz 6, Calw, Baden-Württemberg, Germany.

Saturday 2nd of July 1881

50-year-old 20th President of the United States James Abraham Garfield is shot by mentally deranged assassin Charles Julius Guiteau in Baltimore and Potomac Railroad Station, Washington, District of Columbia, United States.

One bullet grazed the Garfield's shoulder, and the other struck him in the back, passing the first lumbar vertebra but missing the spinal cord before coming to rest behind his pancreas. The wound was not immediately fatal for Garfield but his doctors' uncleaned and unprotected hands are said to have led to infection that caused his death on 19 September.

Sunday 2nd of July 1905

14-year-old Serial killer, rapist, arsonist and burglar Carl Panzram aka A Journal of Murder sets fire to the blacksmith shop and a warehouse in State Training School, Red Wing, Minnesota, United States.

Friday 2nd of July 1909

Murderer Joseph Anderson is executed by hanging at the age of 35 in Oregon State Penitentiary, Salem, Oregon, United States.

Sunday 2nd of July 1922

Fashion designer Pierre Cardin is born as Pietro Cardin in San Biagio di Callalta, Treviso, Italy.

Thursday 2nd of July 1925

African American civil rights activist Medgar Wiley Evers is born in Decatur, Mississippi, United States.

Tuesday 2nd of July 1929

Imelda Marcos aka The Steel Butterfly known for owning more than a thousand pairs of shoes is born as Imelda Remedios Visitación Trinidad Romuáldez in Manila, San Miguel, Metro Manila, Philippines.

Thursday 2nd of July 1931

Serial killer Peter Kürten aka The Vampire of Düsseldorf is executed by the Guillotine at the age of 48 in Klingelputz Gefängnis, Köln, Nordrhein-Westfalen, Germany.

Kürten's last words were: "Tell me, after my head has been chopped off, will I still be able to hear, at least for a moment, the sound of my own blood gushing from the stump of my neck? That would be the pleasure to end all pleasures." Kürten's mummified head is part of the Ripley's Believe It or Not! Museum collection in Wisconsin Dells.

Saturday 2nd of July 1932

21-year-old Actress and sex symbol Jean Harlow aka The Blonde Bombshell marries 43-year-old Paul Bern in Hollywood, California, United States.

Two months later Bern shot himself through the head.

Friday 2nd of July 1937

Aviation pioneer Amelia Mary Earhart disappears during an attempt to make a circumnavigational flight of the globe in a Lockheed Model 10 Electra at the age of 40 in Howland Island, United States.

Earhart was declared legally dead on 5 January 1939.

Monday 2nd of July 1945

Donald McSwan and his wife Amy is beaten to death and solved in acid by serial killer John George Haigh aka The Acid Bath Murderer in 79 Gloucester Road, London, Greater London, United Kingdom.

Sunday 2nd of July 1961

26-year-old Jerry Tharrington is raped and stabbed to death by serial killer Charles Ray Hatcher aka Evil Incarnate in Missouri State Penitentiary aka The Walls, 115 Lafayette Street, Jefferson City, Missouri, United States.

Tharrington was found on the prison’s kitchen loading bay. Hatcher was the only kitchen crew member who was missing at the time of the murder. He was sent to solitary confinement but there was not enough evidence to convict him in court.

Sunday 2nd of July 1961

Writer Ernest Miller Hemingway commits suicide by a shot in his mouth at the age of 62 in Hemingway House, Ketchum, Idaho, United States.

Hemingway unlocked the basement storeroom where his guns were kept went upstairs to the front entrance foyer and "pushed two shells into the twelve-gauge Boss shotgun, put the end of the barrel into his mouth, pulled the trigger and blew out his brains".

Thursday 2nd of July 1964

39-year-old Wiener Aktionist Otto Muehl performs 'Materialaktion nr. 10 / Das Stillleben / Aufführung mit Pferdekopf' in Perinetkeller, Perinetgasse 1, Wien, Wien, Austria.

Monday 2nd of July 1973

Actress, dancer, singer and sex symbol Betty Elizabeth Ruth Grable aka The Girl with the Million Dollar Legs dies of lung cancer at the age of 57 in Los Angeles, California, United States.

Friday 2nd of July 1976

4-year-old Marion Ketter is sexually assaulted, strangled and partly eaten by serial killer Joachim Kroll aka Jockel aka Der Ruhrkannibale in Friesenstraße 11, Duisburg, Laar, Nordrhein-Westfalen, Germany.

Upon Kroll's arrest a boiling pot with Ketter's two hands, two feet and an arm were found boiling with carrots and potatoes in his kitchen. The rest of her body was packed in plastic bags in the freezer.

Friday 2nd of July 1976

Jean-Luc Solomon is poisoned by serial killer Charles Sobhraj aka Bad Blood in Hotel Ranjit, Bombay, Bombay Presidency, India.

Saturday 2nd of July 1977

Writer Vladimir Vladimirovich Nabokov aka Vladimir Sirin known for Lolita dies of bronchial congestion at the age of 78 in Montreux, Vaud, Switzerland.

Friday 2nd of July 1982

40-year-old Mathematician and serial bomber Theodore John 'Ted' Kaczynski aka The Unabomber places a booby trap Bomb #7 in the facility lounge in Cory Hall Room #264, Berkeley, California, United States.

62-year-old engineering professor Diogenes Angelakos is injured in the face and right hand when opening the package. Bomb #7 contained a note with the typed message “Wu— It works! I told you it would. —RV”. This was apparently a false clue left to confuse investigators.

Friday 2nd of July 1982

33-year-old Truck driver Larry Lawrence Richard Walters aka Lawnchair Larry aka The Lawn Chair Pilot pilotes an aluminium lawn chair attached to 45 helium weather balloons, dubbed 'Inspiration I', 15.000 feet high in 1633 W. 7th Street, San Pedro, California, United States.

Walters and his girlfriend Carol Van Deusen purchased 45 eight-foot weather balloons and obtained helium tanks from California Toy Time Balloons. Walters attached the balloons to his lawn chair, filled them with helium, put on a parachute and strapped himself into the chair in his backyard. He took his pellet gun, a CB radio, sandwiches, soda, and a camera. When his friends cut the cord that tied his lawn chair to his Jeep, Walters's lawn chair rose rapidly to a height of about 15,000 feet (4,600 m). He slowly drifted over Long Beach and crossed the primary approach corridor of Long Beach Airport. After 45 minutes in the sky he shot several balloons and then accidentally dropped his pellet gun overboard. He descended slowly until the balloons' dangling cables got caught in a power line, causing a 20-minute electricity blackout in a Long Beach neighborhood. Walters was able to climb to the ground and was immediately arrested by waiting members of the Long Beach Police Department. Just after landing, Walters spoke to the press, saying "It was something I had to do. I had this dream for twenty years, and if I hadn't done it, I think I would have ended up in the funny farm."

Friday 2nd of July 1982

10-month-old Travis DeWayne Coleman is smothered by serial killer Christine Falling aka The Babysitter Killer in Blountstown, Florida, United States.

Tuesday 2nd of July 1985

76-year-old Mary Louise Cannon is strangled and beaten to death by serial killer Richard Ramirez aka The Night Stalker in 310 E Haven, Los Angeles, Arcadia, California, United States.

Sunday 2nd of July 1989

Chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet Andrei Andreyevich Gromyko dies of a vascular problem at the age of 80 in Moscow, Central Federal District, Russia.

Monday 2nd of July 1990

1426 pilgrims die in Al-Ma'aisim tunnel stampede in Mecca, Mina, Makkah l-Mukarramah, Saudi Arabia.

While pilgrims were traveling to perform the Stoning of the Devil ritual at 10am that morning, the disaster started when a pedestrian bridge railing was bent, causing seven people to fall off a bridge and onto people exiting the tunnel. The tunnel's capacity of 1000 soon filled with up to 5000 people.

Tuesday 2nd of July 1991

Actress Lee Ann Remick dies of kidney and liver cancer at the age of 56 in Los Angeles, California, United States.

Friday 2nd of July 1993

Over 200 devotees die in floating pagoda capsizing in Bocaue Pagoda, Bocaue, Bulacan, Philippines.

Wednesday 2nd of July 1997

Actor James Maitland Stewart dies of pulmonary embolism at the age of 89 in Beverly Hills, California, United States.

Friday 2nd of July 1999

Writer Mario Gianluigi Puzo known for his novel ‘The Godfather’ dies of heart failure at the age of 79 in West Bay Shore, New York, United States.

Friday 2nd of July 1999

36-year-old Mass murderer Zhao Lianrong is sentenced to death in Beijing, Hebei, China.

Wednesday 2nd of July 2003

Kidnapper and child murderer Hilton Lewis Crawford is executed by lethal injection at the age of 64 in Huntsville Prison, 815 12th Street, Huntsville, Texas, United States.

Crawford's last meal request was for twelve beef ribs, three enchiladas, chicken fried steak with cream gravy, crisp bacon sandwich, ketchup, a loaf of bread, cobbler, three Cokes, three root beer, French fries and onion rings.

Friday 2nd of July 2010

230 die in tank truck explosion and fire in Sange, South Kivu, Congo.

The truck overturned and an explosion occurred as villagers attempted to collect the fuel that was spilling from the overturned vehicle. One local resident was smoking a cigarette, a spark from which ignited the fuel. 196 people were injured.