On Aug. 2, 1610, during his fourth voyage to the Western Hemisphere, English explorer Henry Hudson sailed into what is now known as Hudson Bay.

In 1776, members of the Second Continental Congress began attaching their individual signatures to the Declaration of Independence.

In 1862, the Ambulance Corps for the Army of the Potomac was created at the order of Maj. Gen. George McClellan during the Civil War.

In 1873, inventor Andrew S. Hallidie successfully tested a cable car he had designed for the city of San Francisco.

In 1921, a jury in Chicago acquitted several former members of the Chicago White Sox baseball team and of conspiring to defraud the public in the notorious “Black Sox” scandal.

in 1934, with the death of German President Paul von Hindenburg, Chancellor Adolf Hitler becomes absolute dictator of Germany under the title of Fuhrer, or “Leader.”

In 1942, Jose Diaz is murdered, and his body is found at the Sleepy Lagoon reservoir, near Los Angeles, California. Ultimately the media handling of trial of those convicted of the murder lead to the infamous “Zuit Suit Riots”.

in 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. 

in 2019, Ed Sheeran broke U2’s tour record when his Divide tour became the biggest, most attended and highest grossing tour of all time. By the time the tour ended he would have spent 893 days on the road, compared to the 760 days U2 toured.