THIS DAY IN HISTORY ― JULY 2

July 2 is the 183rd day of the year (184th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. There are 182 days remaining until the end of the year.

NATIONAL ANISETT DAY 

This day is the midpoint of a common year because there are 182 days before and 182 days after it in common years, and 183 before and 182 after in leap years. The exact time of the middle of the year is at noon.  

1494 – The Treaty of Tordesillas is ratified by Spain.  

1613 – The first English expedition (from Virginia) against Acadia led by Samuel Argall takes place. 

1698 – English inventor Thomas Savery patents the first commercially used steam engine.

1776 – The Continental Congress adopts a resolution severing ties with the Kingdom of Great Britain although the wording of the formal Declaration of Independence is not approved until July 4. 

1822 – Thirty-five slaves are hanged in South Carolina, including Denmark Vesey, after being accused of organizing a slave rebellion. Vesey was a literate, skilled carpenter and leader among African Americans in Charleston, South Carolina. He is notable as the accused and convicted ringleader of "the rising", a major potential slave revolt planned for the city in June 1822. Likely born into slavery in St. Thomas, he served a master in Bermuda for some time before being brought to Charleston, where he gained his freedom.

1839 – Twenty miles off the coast of Cuba, 53 rebelling African slaves led by Joseph Cinqué take over the slave ship La Amistad. Because of issues of ownership and jurisdiction, the case gained international attention. Known as United States v. The Amistad (1841), the case was finally decided by the Supreme Court of the United States in favor of the Mende slaves, restoring their freedom. It became a symbol in the United States in the movement to abolish slavery.

1890 – The U.S. Congress passes the Sherman Antitrust Act, a landmark federal statute in the history of United States antitrust law (or "competition law") passed by Congress in 1890. Passed under the presidency of Benjamin Harrison, it prohibits certain business activities that federal government regulators deem to be anti-competitive, and requires the federal government to investigate and pursue trusts. 

1897 – Italian scientist and inventor Guglielmo Marconi obtains a patent for radio in London. 

1917 – The East St. Louis riots end. The riots of May and July 1917 were an outbreak of labor- and race-related violence that caused between 40 and 200 deaths and extensive property damage. The events took place in East St. Louis, Illinois, an industrial city on the east bank of the Mississippi River across from St. Louis, Missouri. They have been described as the worst case of labor-related violence in 20th-century American history,[1] and among the worst race riots in U.S. history. The local Chamber of Commerce called for the resignation of the police chief. At the end of July, some 10,000 people marched in silent protest in New York City in condemnation of the riots.

1937 – Amelia Earhart and navigator Fred Noonan are last heard from over the Pacific Ocean while attempting to make the first equatorial round-the-world flight.

1962 – The first (then hyphenated) Wal-Mart store opens for business in Rogers, Arkansas.

1964 – U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson signs the Civil Rights Act of 1964 meant to prohibit segregation in public places. It was is a landmark piece of civil rights legislation in the United States that outlawed discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex, or national origin. It ended unequal application of voter registration requirements and racial segregation in schools, at the workplace and by facilities that served the general public (known as "public accommodations").

1976 – Fall of the Republic of Vietnam; Communist North Vietnam declares their union to form the Socialist Republic of Vietnam. 

1986 – Rodrigo Rojas and Carmen Gloria Quintana are burnt alive during a street demonstration against the dictatorship of General Augusto Pinochet in Chile. 

2002 – Steve Fossett becomes the first person to fly solo around the world nonstop in a balloon. 

2013 – The International Astronomical Union names Pluto's fourth and fifth moons, Kerberos and Styx. 

2015 – A bridge collapses under a Pakistan Army train at Gujranwala, killing nineteen and injuring over 100.

Today's Births

1877 – Hermann Hesse, German-Swiss author and poet, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1962) 

1908 – Thurgood Marshall, American lawyer and Supreme Court justice, 32nd Solicitor General of the United States (d. 1993)

From Wikipedia and Google (images), ex as noted.