History of Today 02 October: Important Events, Births and Deaths

Welcome to History of Today 02 October. On this page, you can read important historical events, famous births, notable deaths and general knowledge facts related to 02 October. This information is useful for UPSC, SSC, Banking, Railway, State PSC and other competitive exams.

Last updated on 02 October 2026, 01:03 AM

Important Events on 02 October in History

• 02 Oct 2025: 2 people are killed and at least 4 others injured in an attack on a synagogue in Manchester, UK, during Yom Kippur. Read more
• 02 Oct 2019: A privately owned Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress conducting a living history exhibition flight crashes shortly after takeoff from Windsor Locks, Connecticut, killing seven. Read more
• 02 Oct 2018: The Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi is assassinated in the Saudi consulate in Istanbul, Turkey. Read more
• 02 Oct 2016: Ethiopian protests break out during a festival in the Oromia region, killing dozens of people. Read more
• 02 Oct 2007: President Roh Moo-hyun of South Korea goes to North Korea for an Inter-Korean summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong-il. Read more
• 02 Oct 2006: Five Amish girls are murdered in a shooting at a school in Pennsylvania, United States. Read more
• 02 Oct 2004: The first parkrun, then known as the Bushy Park Time Trial, takes place in Bushy Park, London, UK. Read more
• 02 Oct 2002: The Beltway sniper attacks begin in Washington, D.C., extending over three weeks and killing 10 people. Read more
• 02 Oct 1996: Aeroperú Flight 603 crashes into the ocean near Peru, killing all 70 people on board. Read more
• 02 Oct 1996: The Electronic Freedom of Information Act Amendments are signed by U.S. President Bill Clinton. Read more
• 02 Oct 1992: Military police storm the Carandiru Penitentiary in São Paulo, Brazil during a prison riot. The resulting massacre leaves 111 prisoners dead. Read more
• 02 Oct 1990: Xiamen Airlines Flight 8301 is hijacked and lands at Guangzhou, where it crashes into two other airliners on the ground, killing 132. Read more
• 02 Oct 1980: Michael Myers becomes the first member of either chamber of Congress to be expelled since the Civil War. Read more
• 02 Oct 1971: South Vietnamese President Nguyen Van Thieu is re-elected in a one-man election. Read more
• 02 Oct 1971: British European Airways Flight 706 crashes near Aarsele, Belgium, killing 63. Read more
• 02 Oct 1970: An aircraft carrying the Wichita State University football team, administrators, and supporters crashes in Colorado, killing 31 people. Read more
• 02 Oct 1968: Mexican President Gustavo Díaz Ordaz orders soldiers to suppress a demonstration of unarmed students, ten days before the start of the 1968 Summer Olympics. Read more
• 02 Oct 1967: Thurgood Marshall is sworn in as the first African-American justice of the United States Supreme Court. Read more
• 02 Oct 1958: Guinea declares its independence from France. Read more
• 02 Oct 1944: World War II: German troops end the Warsaw Uprising. Read more
• 02 Oct 1942: World War II: Ocean Liner RMS Queen Mary accidentally rams and sinks HMS Curacoa, killing over 300 crewmen aboard Curacoa. Read more
• 02 Oct 1937: Rafael Trujillo orders the execution of Haitians living in the border region of the Dominican Republic. Read more
• 02 Oct 1928: The "Prelature of the Holy Cross and the Work of God", commonly known as Opus Dei, is founded. Read more
• 02 Oct 1920: Ukrainian War of Independence: Mikhail Frunze orders the Red Army to immediately cease hostilities with the Revolutionary Insurgent Army of Ukraine. Read more
• 02 Oct 1919: Seven days after suffering a "physical collapse" following a speech in Pueblo, Colorado, U.S. president Woodrow Wilson has a catastrophic stroke at the White House, leaving him physically and mentally incapacitated for the remainder of his presidency. Read more
• 02 Oct 1870: By plebiscite, the citizens of the Papal States accept annexation by the Kingdom of Italy. Read more
• 02 Oct 1864: American Civil War: Confederates defeat a Union attack on Saltville, Virginia. A massacre of wounded Union prisoners ensues. Read more
• 02 Oct 1835: Texas Revolution: Mexican troops attempt to disarm the people of Gonzales, but encounter stiff resistance from a hastily assembled militia. Read more

Famous Births on 02 October

• 02 Oct 2005: Sam Konstas, Australian cricketer Sam James Konstas is an Australian international cricketer who plays for the Australian national team, New South Wales in the Sheffield Shield and Sydney Thunder in the Big Bash League. He is a right-handed top-order batter. Read more
• 02 Oct 2002: Jacob Sartorius, American social media personality and singer Rolf Jacob Sartorius is an American social media personality and singer. He rose to fame via social media after posting lip-syncing videos on short-form video application Musical.ly. In 2016, he began releasing music with his debut single "Sweatshirt", which, along with his second single "Hit or Miss", charted on the Hot 100 in the United States and in Canada. Read more
• 02 Oct 2000: Quadeca, American singer-songwriter and YouTuber Benjamin Fernando Barajas Lasky, better known by his stage name Quadeca, is an American singer-songwriter, record producer and rapper. Lasky began uploading songs and videos to his YouTube channel in the 2010s and began pursuing his musical career in the 2020s, which has since been met with critical acclaim. Read more
• 02 Oct 1996: Tom Trbojevic, Australian rugby league player Thomas Peter Trbojevic, also nicknamed "Turbo", is an Australian professional rugby league footballer who plays as a fullback for the Manly Warringah Sea Eagles in the National Rugby League (NRL), where he also captains as of November 2025, and plays as a centre for Australia at an international level. Read more
• 02 Oct 1995: Tepai Moeroa, Cook Islands rugby league player Tepai Moeroa is a dual code Cook Islands professional rugby league footballer who last played as a prop for the Melbourne Storm in the National Rugby League (NRL) and the Cook Islands at international level. Read more
• 02 Oct 1993: Lance McCullers Jr., American baseball player Lance Graye McCullers Jr. is an American professional baseball pitcher who is a free agent. He has previously played in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the Houston Astros and Milwaukee Brewers. The Astros selected McCullers in the first round of the 2012 MLB draft. He made his MLB debut in 2015 and was an All-Star in 2017. Read more
• 02 Oct 1992: Alisson Becker, Brazilian footballer Álisson Ramsés Becker, also known simply as Alisson, is a Brazilian professional footballer who plays as a goalkeeper and serves as vice-captain for Premier League club Liverpool and the Brazil national team. He is regarded as one of the best goalkeepers in the world. Read more
• 02 Oct 1992: Shane Larkin, American-Turkish basketball player DeShane Davis Larkin is an American-born naturalised Turkish professional basketball player for Fenerbahçe of the Turkish Basketbol Süper Ligi (BSL) and the EuroLeague. He also represents the Turkish national team in international competition. Read more
• 02 Oct 1992: Nicol Ruprecht, Austrian rhythmic gymnast Nicol Ruprecht is an Austrian individual rhythmic gymnast. She is Austria's most successful rhythmic gymnast. Read more
• 02 Oct 1991: Roberto Firmino, Brazilian footballer Roberto Firmino Barbosa de Oliveira is a Brazilian professional footballer who plays as a forward or attacking midfielder for Qatar Stars League club Al Sadd. Read more
• 02 Oct 1990: Samantha Barks, Manx actress and singer Samantha Jane Barks is a British actress and singer who rose to fame after placing third in the BBC talent show–themed television series I'd Do Anything in 2008. She has released three studio albums: Looking in Your Eyes (2007), Samantha Barks (2016), and Into the Unknown (2021). Read more
• 02 Oct 1989: Frederik Andersen, Danish ice hockey player Frederik Andersen is a Danish professional ice hockey player who is a goaltender for the Edmonton Oilers of the National Hockey League (NHL). He previously played for the Anaheim Ducks, Toronto Maple Leafs, and Carolina Hurricanes. Read more
• 02 Oct 1989: Josh Bailey, Canadian ice hockey player Joshua Bailey is a Canadian former professional ice hockey winger. He played 15 seasons in the National Hockey League (NHL) for the New York Islanders, who selected him ninth overall in the 2008 NHL entry draft. Read more
• 02 Oct 1989: Aaron Hicks, American baseball player Aaron Michael Hicks is an American former professional baseball outfielder. He played in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the Minnesota Twins, New York Yankees, Baltimore Orioles, and Los Angeles Angels. Read more
• 02 Oct 1989: George Nash, English rower George Christopher Nash is a British rower. He is a dual Olympian, dual Olympic medal winner and three time world champion. Read more
• 02 Oct 1988: Brittany Howard, American singer-songwriter and guitarist Brittany Amber Howard is an American musician from Athens, Alabama. She rose to prominence in the early 2010s as the lead vocalist, rhythm guitarist, and primary songwriter of Alabama Shakes. Her work with Alabama Shakes and as a solo artist have garnered her five Grammy Awards from 18 nominations. Later in the decade, Howard played bass in the side project Thunderbitch and both acoustic guitar and double bass for the trio Bermuda Triangle. Read more
• 02 Oct 1987: Joe Ingles, Australian basketball player Joseph Howarth Ingles is an Australian professional basketball player for Melbourne United of the National Basketball League (NBL). He also represents the Australian national team. He primarily plays at the small forward position. He is the Utah Jazz all-time leader in three-pointers made. Read more
• 02 Oct 1987: Phil Kessel, American ice hockey player Philip Joseph Kessel Jr. is an American professional ice hockey winger who is an unrestricted free agent. Nicknamed "Phil the Thrill", he has previously played for the Boston Bruins, Toronto Maple Leafs, Pittsburgh Penguins, Arizona Coyotes, and the Vegas Golden Knights of the National Hockey League (NHL). Kessel is a three-time Stanley Cup champion, winning back-to-back championships with the Penguins in 2016 and 2017 and with the Golden Knights in 2023. Read more
• 02 Oct 1987: Ricky Stenhouse Jr., American race car driver Richard Lynn Stenhouse Jr. is an American professional stock car racing driver. He competes full-time in the NASCAR Cup Series, driving the No. 47 Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 for Hyak Motorsports and part-time in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series, driving the No. 4/42/45 Chevrolet Silverado RST for Niece Motorsports. Stenhouse was the 2010 NASCAR Nationwide Series Rookie of the Year, and won back-to-back Nationwide Series championships in 2011 and 2012. Stenhouse was the 2013 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Rookie of the Year. He is the 2023 Daytona 500 winner. Read more
• 02 Oct 1986: Camilla Belle, American actress Camilla Belle Routh is an American actress. Born and raised in Los Angeles, California, Belle began her acting career with appearances in television commercials before landing her first lead role in NBC's thriller, Trapped Beneath the Earth in 1992. She has since appeared in a variety of films and television shows, including A Little Princess (1995), The Lost World: Jurassic Park (1997), Practical Magic (1998), Rip Girls (2000) and 10,000 BC (2008). Belle has also been recognized for her work in independent films such as The Quiet (2005) and The Mad Whale (2017). Read more
• 02 Oct 1985: Çağlar Birinci, Turkish footballer Çağlar Birinci is a Turkish former footballer who played as a central defender. Read more
• 02 Oct 1984: Marion Bartoli, French tennis player Marion Bartoli is a French former professional tennis player. Bartoli won the 2013 Wimbledon Championships singles title, after previously being runner-up in 2007, and was a semifinalist at the 2011 French Open. She also won seven singles and three doubles titles on the WTA Tour. Read more
• 02 Oct 1982: Tyson Chandler, American basketball player Tyson Cleotis Chandler is an American former professional basketball player and coach. A 7'0" center, Chandler played for seven teams in an National Basketball Association (NBA) career that spanned from 2001 to 2020. Read more
• 02 Oct 1982: Esra Gümüş, Turkish volleyball player Esra Gümüş Kirici is a former Turkish volleyball player. She is 181 cm and plays as an outside hitter. She is a former team captain of the Turkey women's national volleyball team. She started her career with VakıfBank Istanbul in 1995 to 2000. Then she played for Yeşilyurt between 2000 and 2004. She transferred to Eczacıbaşı VitrA in 2004. She played for Sariyer Belediyesi before she quit volleyball. Read more
• 02 Oct 1981: Luke Wilkshire, Australian footballer Luke Wilkshire is an Australian soccer coach and a former player who is currently head coach of Australian Championship side Wollongong Wolves. Read more
• 02 Oct 1978: Ayumi Hamasaki, Japanese singer, songwriter, actress Ayumi Hamasaki is a Japanese singer-songwriter and producer. Nicknamed the "Empress of Pop" on account of her influence throughout Asia, she is widely recognized for her versatile music production, songwriting, and live performances. Hamasaki is the best-selling solo artist in Japan, and a cultural icon of the Heisei era. Read more
• 02 Oct 1977: Didier Défago, Swiss skier Didier Défago is a Swiss retired World Cup alpine ski racer. Read more
• 02 Oct 1976: Mark Chilton, English cricketer Mark James Chilton is an English first-class cricketer. Chilton was educated at Manchester Grammar School and Durham University where he won the British Universities tournament in 1997. The same year he made his debut for Lancashire, aged 20. Chilton has been compared in batting style to fellow Manchester Grammar School student and former Lancashire and England batsman John Crawley. Read more
• 02 Oct 1974: Bjarke Ingels, Danish architect Bjarke Bundgaard Ingels is a Danish architect, founder and creative partner of Bjarke Ingels Group (BIG). Read more
• 02 Oct 1974: Sam Roberts, Canadian singer-songwriter and musician Sam Roberts is a Canadian rock singer-songwriter who has released seven
  albums. His debut EP The Inhuman Condition, reached the Canadian charts in 2002. He and his bandmates have released three albums as Sam Roberts and four albums as Sam Roberts Band. He is also a member of the Canadian group Anyway Gang, who released their debut self-titled album in 2019. Roberts has been nominated, together with his band, for fifteen Juno Awards, winning six, including Artist of the Year twice and Album of the Year once (2004). From 1996 to 2016, Roberts was among the top 60 best-selling Canadian artists in Canada. Read more
• 02 Oct 1974: Paul Teutul Jr., American motorcycle designer, co-founded Orange County Choppers Paul Michael Teutul is one of the stars of the American reality television series American Chopper, also starring his father. Paul was the chief designer and fabricator. Prior to this, he was head of the rail shop at Orange County Ironworks. He is the founder of Paul Jr. Designs, which manufactures custom motorcycles and sells branded clothing.
  Teutul, along with his father and younger brother Michael, became celebrities when they became the focus of a reality television series American Chopper on Discovery Channel in 2002. Read more
• 02 Oct 1973: Melissa Harris-Perry, American journalist, author, and educator Melissa Victoria Harris-Perry, formerly known as Melissa Victoria Harris-Lacewell, is an American writer, professor, television host, and political commentator with a focus on African-American politics. Harris-Perry hosted the Melissa Harris-Perry weekend news on MSNBC from 2012 to February 27, 2016. Read more
• 02 Oct 1973: Lene Nystrøm, Norwegian singer, songwriter, and musician Lene Grawford Nystrøm is a Norwegian musician, singer-songwriter and actress who was the female lead vocalist of the Danish-Norwegian Eurodance group Aqua. Read more
• 02 Oct 1973: Efren Ramirez, American actor Efren Antonio Ramírez is an American actor. He is best known for playing Pedro Sánchez in the 2004 indie film Napoleon Dynamite. He later reprised his role in the 2012 animated series of the same name. Read more
• 02 Oct 1973: Scott Schoeneweis, American baseball player Scott David Schoeneweis is an American former professional baseball left-handed relief pitcher. He played in Major League Baseball (MLB) from 1999 to 2010 for the Anaheim Angels, Chicago White Sox, Toronto Blue Jays, Cincinnati Reds, New York Mets, Arizona Diamondbacks, and Boston Red Sox. Read more
• 02 Oct 1972: Aaron McKie, American basketball player Aaron Fitzgerald McKie is an American basketball coach and former professional basketball player who played 14 seasons in the National Basketball Association (NBA). He is currently the special advisor for athletics at his alma mater Temple University. From 2019 until 2023 he served as the head coach for the Temple men's basketball team. Selected by the Portland Trail Blazers 17th overall in the 1994 NBA draft, McKie spent time as a point guard, shooting guard or small forward throughout his professional playing career from 1994 to 2007. Read more
• 02 Oct 1971: Tiffany Darwish, American singer-songwriter Tiffany Renee Darwish, known mononymously as Tiffany, is an American pop singer. Her 1987 cover of the Tommy James and the Shondells song "I Think We're Alone Now" spent two weeks at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart, and was released as the second single from her debut studio album, Tiffany. Read more
• 02 Oct 1971: Jim Root, American guitarist and songwriter James Donald Root is an American musician. He is one of two guitarists for nu metal band Slipknot, in which he is designated #4, as well as the former lead guitarist for rock band Stone Sour. Read more
• 02 Oct 1971: Chris Savino, American comic book artist, writer, animator and creator of The Loud House Christopher Mason Savino is an American comic book artist and former animator, best known for creating the animated series The Loud House for Nickelodeon. Prior, Savino worked as a storyboard artist or writer on animated shows such as The Ren & Stimpy Show, Rocko's Modern Life, Dexter's Laboratory, Cow and Chicken, I Am Weasel, The Powerpuff Girls, Samurai Jack, Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends, My Gym Partner's a Monkey, Kick Buttowski: Suburban Daredevil, My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic, Mickey Mouse, and Johnny Test. Read more
• 02 Oct 1970: Eddie Guardado, American baseball player Edward Adrian Guardado, nicknamed "Everyday Eddie", is an American former baseball relief pitcher and bullpen coach who works for the Los Angeles Angels. Guardado played in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the Minnesota Twins, Seattle Mariners (2004–2006), Cincinnati Reds (2006–2007), and Texas Rangers. He was an MLB All-Star in 2002, leading the American League (AL) in saves that season, and 2003. Read more
• 02 Oct 1970: Patricia O'Callaghan, Canadian soprano Patricia Mary O'Callaghan is a classically trained Canadian singer. She is a soprano who has built an international reputation as a performer of contemporary opera, early 20th-century cabaret music and the songs of Leonard Cohen. Read more
• 02 Oct 1970: Kelly Ripa, American actress and talk show host Kelly Maria Ripa is an American actress and talk show host. Since 2001, she has been the co-host of the syndicated morning talk show Live! with Kelly and Mark in various formats. Her co-hosts have included Regis Philbin, Michael Strahan, Ryan Seacrest, and her husband Mark Consuelos. Read more
• 02 Oct 1970: Maribel Verdú, Spanish actress María Isabel Verdú Rollán, better known as Maribel Verdú, is a Spanish actress. She is the recipient of numerous accolades throughout her career spanning nearly four decades, including two Goya Awards for Best Actress, an Ariel Award for Best Actress, the Gold Medal of the Academy of Cinematographic Arts and Sciences of Spain in 2008 and the National Cinematography Award in 2009. Read more
• 02 Oct 1969: Badly Drawn Boy, English musician Damon Michael Gough, known by the stage name Badly Drawn Boy, is an English indie singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist. Read more
• 02 Oct 1968: Jana Novotná, Czech tennis player and sportscaster (died 2017) Jana Novotná was a Czech professional tennis player. She was ranked world No. 2 in women's singles by the Women's Tennis Association (WTA), achieved in July 1997, and as the world No. 1 in women's doubles for 67 weeks. Novotná won 24 WTA Tour–level singles titles, including the 1998 Wimbledon Championships, and was runner-up in three other singles majors. She also won twelve major women's doubles titles, four major mixed doubles titles, and three Olympic medals. Novotná played a serve-and-volley game, an increasingly rare style of play among women during her career. Read more
• 02 Oct 1968: Joey Slotnick, American actor Joseph Slotnick is an American actor. He is known for roles in Twister (1996), Blast from the Past (1999), Hollow Man (2000), Elevator (2011), The Single Guy (1995–1997), and Nip/Tuck (2003–2006). Read more
• 02 Oct 1968: Glen Wesley, Canadian ice hockey player Glen Edwin Wesley is a Canadian former ice hockey defenceman who played 20 seasons in the National Hockey League (NHL) for the Boston Bruins, Hartford Whalers, Carolina Hurricanes, and Toronto Maple Leafs. Read more
• 02 Oct 1968: Kelly Willis, American country music singer-songwriter Kelly Diane Willis is an American country music singer-songwriter. Her music has been described as being new traditionalist and alternative country. Read more
• 02 Oct 1967: Frankie Fredericks, Namibian sprinter Frank "Frankie" Fredericks is a Namibian former track and field sprinter athlete. Running in the 100 metres and 200 metres, he won four silver medals at the Olympic Games, making him Namibia's only Olympic medalist until Christine Mboma's silver medal at the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo. He also won gold medals at the World Championships, World Indoor Championships, All-Africa Games and Commonwealth Games. He is the world indoor record-holder for 200 metres, with a time of 19.92 seconds set in 1996. Read more
• 02 Oct 1967: Alex Karp, American businessman Alexander Caedmon Karp is an American billionaire businessman and entrepreneur. He is the co-founder and CEO of the software firm Palantir Technologies. Read more
• 02 Oct 1967: Thomas Muster, Austrian tennis player Thomas Muster is an Austrian former professional tennis player. He was ranked as the world No. 1 in men's singles by the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP). Muster won 44 ATP Tour-level singles titles, including the 1995 French Open and eight Masters titles. One of the world's leading clay court players in the 1990s, at his peak he was called "The King of Clay". He is the first Austrian to win a major singles title, followed by Dominic Thiem at the 2020 US Open. Read more
• 02 Oct 1967: Gillian Welch, American singer-songwriter and guitarist Gillian Howard Welch is an American singer-songwriter who performs with guitarist David Rawlings. Their spare, often dark sound, which The New Yorker calls "at once innovative and obliquely reminiscent of past rural forms", blends Appalachian, bluegrass, country and Americana. Read more
• 02 Oct 1966: Yokozuna, American wrestler (died 2000) Rodney Agatupu Anoaʻi was an American professional wrestler. He was best known for his time with the World Wrestling Federation (WWF), where he wrestled under the ring name Yokozuna. He was also known for his appearances with New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW) as Great Kokina. Read more
• 02 Oct 1965: Darren Cahill, Australian tennis player Darren Cahill is an Australian tennis coach and former professional tennis player. In addition, Cahill is a tennis analyst for the Grand Slam events on the US sports network ESPN and a coach with the Adidas Player Development Program and at ProTennisCoach.com. Read more
• 02 Oct 1965: Tom Moody, Australian cricketer Thomas Masson Moody is a former Australian international cricketer and current Director of Cricket of Sri Lanka Cricket. He ended his long tenure with the Indian Premier League team Sunrisers Hyderabad in August 2022 and was earlier appointed Director of Cricket at Desert Vipers, one of the six franchises in the ILT20, which was scheduled to begin in the UAE in January 2023. Moody was a part of the Australian team that won their first world title during the 1987 Cricket World Cup, and their second in the 1999 Cricket World Cup. He was the coach of the Sri Lankan team which finished as runners-up at the 2007 Cricket World Cup. Read more
• 02 Oct 1965: Ferhan and Ferzan Önder, Turkish-Austrian pianists The twin sisters Ferhan & Ferzan Önder are Turkish-Austrian identical twin pianists who perform mostly as a piano duo. Read more
• 02 Oct 1964: Dirk Brinkmann, German field hockey player Dirk Brinkmann is a former West German field hockey player who competed at two Summer Olympics. On both occasions he won the silver medal with his team at the 1984 Summer Olympics and 1988 Summer Olympics. He was born in Duisburg, Nordrhein-Westfalen. Read more
• 02 Oct 1963: Keith Bradshaw, Australian cricketer Keith Bradshaw was an Australian cricketer, accountant and administrator. Read more
• 02 Oct 1963: Maria Ressa, Filipino-American journalist Maria Angelita Ressa is a Filipino and American journalist and Nobel Peace Prize laureate. She is the co-founder and CEO of Rappler. She previously spent nearly two decades working as a lead investigative reporter in Southeast Asia for CNN. She has been a distinguished fellow at Columbia University's new Institute of Global Politics since 2023 and a professor of professional practice in Columbia's School of International and Public Affairs since July 2024. Read more
• 02 Oct 1962: Mark Rypien, Canadian-American football player Mark Robert Rypien is a former professional football quarterback who played in the National Football League (NFL) for 14 seasons. He played college football for the Washington State Cougars and was selected by the Washington Redskins in the sixth round of the 1986 NFL draft. He was named Super Bowl MVP, doing so in Super Bowl XXVI with the Redskins. He also played for several other NFL teams. His nephew Brett plays in the NFL as a quarterback. Read more
• 02 Oct 1960: Glenn Anderson, Canadian ice hockey player Glenn Chris Anderson is a Canadian former professional ice hockey player who played 16 seasons in the National Hockey League (NHL) for the Edmonton Oilers, Toronto Maple Leafs, New York Rangers and St. Louis Blues. Anderson was known for performing especially well in important games, which garnered him the reputation of a "money" player. His five playoff overtime goals rank third in NHL history, while his 17 playoff game-winning goals put him fifth all-time. During the playoffs, Anderson accumulated 93 goals, 121 assists, and 214 points, the fourth, ninth, and fourth most in NHL history. Anderson is also first all-time in regular season game-winning goals in Oilers history with 72. Read more
• 02 Oct 1960: Django Bates, English musician and composer Django Bates is a British jazz musician, composer, multi-instrumentalist, band leader and educator. He plays the piano, keyboards and the tenor horn. Bates has been described as "one of the most talented musicians Britain has produced… his work covers the entire spectrum of jazz, from early jazz through to bebop and free jazz to jazz-rock fusion." Read more
• 02 Oct 1960: Joe Sacco, Maltese-American journalist and cartoonist Joe Sacco is a Maltese-American cartoonist and journalist. He is credited as the first artist to practice rigorous, investigative journalism using the comics form, also referred to as comics journalism. His work documenting Palestinian life in the Israeli-occupied territories Gaza and the West Bank was awarded the National Book Award in 1996 and was compiled in the graphic narrative Palestine (2001). His other notable monographs include Footnotes in Gaza (2009) which won a Ridenhour Book Prize, Safe Area Goražde (2000) and The Fixer (2003) on the Bosnian War, Paying the Land (2020), The War on Gaza (2024), and The Once and Future Riot (2025) and Requiem for Gaza (2026). Read more
• 02 Oct 1960: Dereck Whittenburg, American basketball player and coach Dereck Whittenburg is an American basketball coach and former collegiate basketball player who played for North Carolina State University, where he was a member of the 1982–83 team that won the 1983 NCAA National Championship. He is currently employed by the athletic department at his alma mater, with his official title being Associate Athletic Director for Community Relations and Student Support. Read more
• 02 Oct 1958: Robbie Nevil, American singer-songwriter Robert S. Nevil is an American pop singer, songwriter, record producer, and guitarist who had five Billboard top 40 hits including his songs "C'est la Vie", "Dominoes", and "Wot's It to Ya". Read more
• 02 Oct 1957: John Cook, American golfer John Neuman Cook is an American professional golfer, who won eleven times on the PGA Tour and was a member of the Ryder Cup team in 1993. He was ranked in the top ten of the Official World Golf Ranking for 45 weeks in 1992 and 1993. Cook currently plays on the PGA Tour Champions and is a studio analyst on Golf Channel. Read more
• 02 Oct 1957: Wade Dooley, English rugby player Wade Dooley is an English former rugby union player who played lock forward. He played for England 55 times and was nicknamed the "Blackpool Tower", as a result of being 6 feet 8 inches tall and a police officer with Lancashire Constabulary in Blackpool. Read more
• 02 Oct 1956: Freddie Jackson, American soul singer Frederick Anthony Jackson is an American R&B singer. Originally from New York City, Jackson began his professional music career in the late 1970s with the California funk band Mystic Merlin. Among his well–known R&B/soul hits are "Rock Me Tonight " (1985), "Have You Ever Loved Somebody" (1986), "Jam Tonight" (1986), "Do Me Again" (1990), and "You Are My Lady" (1985). He contributed to the soundtrack for the 1989 film, All Dogs Go to Heaven with the Michael Lloyd-produced duet "Love Survives" alongside Irene Cara. He also appeared in the movie King of New York. Read more
• 02 Oct 1955: Philip Oakey, English singer-songwriter, keyboard player, and producer Philip Oakey is an English singer-songwriter who is the frontman and co-founder of the synth-pop band the Human League. Aside from the Human League, he has enjoyed an extensive solo music career and has collaborated with numerous other artists and producers. Read more
• 02 Oct 1954: Lorraine Bracco, American actress Lorraine Bracco is an American actress best known for her performance as psychiatrist Jennifer Melfi on the HBO crime drama series The Sopranos (1999–2007) and for her breakthrough role portraying Karen Hill in the Martin Scorsese film Goodfellas (1990). Bracco began her career modeling in France and appeared in Italian-language films in the 1980s. Her English-language debut came in The Pick-up Artist (1987), which was followed by roles in Someone to Watch Over Me (1987), Sing (1989), and The Dream Team (1989). She has been nominated for an Academy Award, three Actor Awards, four Emmy Awards, and four Golden Globe Awards. Read more
• 02 Oct 1953: Vanessa Bell Armstrong, American singer Vanessa Bell Armstrong is an American R&B and gospel singer who released her debut album Peace Be Still in 1983. She is a 7-time Grammy Award nominee, Stellar Award winner, and she won a Soul Train Award. She has worked with many in the industry including Mattie Moss Clark, Daryl Coley, The Clark Sisters, Rance Allen, James Cleveland, and many others. Armstrong, has an honorary doctorate degree in theology from Next Dimension University, received at the West Angeles Cathedral in Los Angeles in 2017. Read more
• 02 Oct 1953: Tom Boswell, American basketball player Tommy G. Boswell is an American former professional basketball player. Read more
• 02 Oct 1952: Janusz Olejniczak, Polish classical pianist and actor (died 2024) Janusz Olejniczak was a Polish classical pianist, academic teacher and actor. He made an international career as a pianist, especially with the piano music of Chopin which he played on modern and period instruments. He portrayed the composer in the 1991 film Blue Note, and played piano music in the 2002 film The Pianist, also appearing as the hand double. Read more
• 02 Oct 1952: Robin Riker, American actress Robin Riker is an American actress and author. She made her big screen debut in the 1980 horror film Alligator and later went to star in the Showtime comedy series Brothers (1984–1989). Read more
• 02 Oct 1951: Sting, English singer-songwriter and actor Gordon Matthew Thomas Sumner, known as Sting, is an English musician, songwriter and actor. He was the lead vocalist, principal songwriter and bassist for the rock band the Police. He began a solo career in 1985, after leaving the Police, and has included elements of rock, jazz, reggae, classical, new-age, and worldbeat in his music. Read more
• 02 Oct 1950: Mike Rutherford, English guitarist Michael John Cloete Crawford Rutherford is an English musician, best known as the lead guitarist, bassist and a founding member of the rock band Genesis. He and Tony Banks are the group's two continuous members. Read more
• 02 Oct 1949: Richard Hell, American singer-songwriter and bass player Richard Lester Meyers, better known by his stage name Richard Hell, is an American singer, songwriter, bass guitarist and writer. Read more
• 02 Oct 1949: Annie Leibovitz, American photographer Anna-Lou Leibovitz is an American portrait photographer best known for her portraits, particularly of celebrities, which often feature subjects in intimate settings and poses. Leibovitz's Polaroid photo of John Lennon and Yoko Ono, taken five hours before Lennon's murder, is considered one of Rolling Stone magazine's most famous cover photographs. The Library of Congress declared her a Living Legend, and she is the first woman to have a feature exhibition at Washington's National Portrait Gallery. Read more
• 02 Oct 1948: Trevor Brooking, English footballer and manager Sir Trevor David Brooking is a former England international footballer, manager, pundit and football administrator; he now works as director of football development in England. Read more
• 02 Oct 1948: Avery Brooks, American actor Avery Franklin Brooks is an American actor, director, singer, narrator and educator. He is best known for his television roles as Captain Benjamin Sisko on Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, as Hawk on Spenser: For Hire and its spinoff A Man Called Hawk, and as Dr. Bob Sweeney in the Academy Award–nominated film American History X. Brooks has delivered a variety of other performances to a great deal of acclaim. He has been nominated for a Saturn Award and three NAACP Image Awards. Brooks has also been inducted into the College of Fellows of the American Theatre and bestowed with the William Shakespeare Award for Classical Theatre by the Shakespeare Theatre Company. Read more
• 02 Oct 1948: Donna Karan, American fashion designer, founded DKNY Donna Karan, also known as DK, is an American fashion designer and the creator of the Donna Karan New York and DKNY clothing labels. Read more
• 02 Oct 1948: Siim Kallas, Estonian politician, Prime Minister of Estonia (died 2026) Siim Kallas was an Estonian politician who served as Prime Minister of Estonia from 2002 to 2003 and as a European Commissioner from 2004 to 2014. Read more
• 02 Oct 1948: Persis Khambatta, Indian model and actress, (died 1998) Persis Khambatta was an Indian actress, model and beauty pageant titleholder best remembered for playing Lieutenant Ilia in the feature film Star Trek: The Motion Picture (1979). Read more
• 02 Oct 1947: Ward Churchill, American author and activist (died 2026) Ward LeRoy Churchill was an American activist, author and academic. He was a professor of ethnic studies at the University of Colorado Boulder from 1990 until 2007. Much of Churchill's work focused on the historical treatment of political dissenters and Native Americans by the United States government, and he expressed controversial views in a direct – often confrontational and abrasive – style. Read more
• 02 Oct 1946: Sonthi Boonyaratglin, Thai general and politician Sonthi Boonyaratglin is a Thai former general who was Commander-in-Chief of the Royal Thai Army and former head of the Council for Democratic Reform, the military junta that ruled the kingdom. He was the first Muslim in charge of the army of the mostly Buddhist country. On 19 September 2006, he became the de facto head of government of Thailand after overthrowing the elected government in a coup d'état. After retiring from the Army in 2007, he became deputy prime minister, in charge of national security. Read more
• 02 Oct 1945: Martin Hellman, American cryptographer and academic Martin Edward Hellman is an American cryptologist and mathematician, best known for his invention of public-key cryptography in cooperation with Whitfield Diffie and Ralph Merkle. Hellman is a longtime contributor to the computer privacy debate, and has applied risk analysis to a potential failure of nuclear deterrence. Read more
• 02 Oct 1945: Don McLean, American singer-songwriter Donald McLean III is an American singer-songwriter and guitarist. Known as the "American Troubadour" or "King of the Trail", he is best known for his 1971 hit "American Pie", an eight-and-a-half-minute folk rock song that has been referred to as a "cultural touchstone". His other hit singles include "Vincent", "Dreidel", "Castles in the Air", and "Wonderful Baby", as well as renditions of Roy Orbison's "Crying" and the Skyliners' "Since I Don't Have You". Read more
• 02 Oct 1944: Vernor Vinge, American author (died 2024) Vernor Steffen Vinge was an American science fiction author and professor. He taught mathematics and computer science at San Diego State University. He was the first wide-scale popularizer of the technological singularity concept and among the first authors to present a fictional "cyberspace". He won the Hugo Award for his novels A Fire Upon the Deep (1992), A Deepness in the Sky (1999), and Rainbows End (2006), and novellas Fast Times at Fairmont High (2001) and The Cookie Monster (2004). Read more
• 02 Oct 1943: Anna Ford, English journalist Anna Ford is a British retired journalist, television presenter and newsreader. She first worked as a researcher, news reporter and later newsreader for Granada Television, ITN, and the BBC. Ford helped launch the British breakfast television broadcaster TV-am. She retired from broadcast news presenting in April 2006 and was a non-executive director of Sainsbury's until the end of 2012. Ford now lives in her home town of Tewkesbury, Gloucestershire. Read more
• 02 Oct 1943: Henri Szeps, Australian actor (died 2025) Henri Szeps, also spelt Henry Szeps, was an Australian character actor of theatre and television. He also featured in films and worked in voice roles, and worked in productions in the United Kingdom. He was best known for his role as "Robert the Dentist" in the original version of ABC sitcom Mother and Son, and in theatre for his performances in many plays by David Williamson. In 2003 he won a Helpmann Award for Best Male Actor in a Supporting Role in a Musical, for his performance in Cabaret, and earned other awards and honours for his acting. Read more
• 02 Oct 1942: Steve Sabol, American director and producer, co-founded NFL Films (died 2012) Stephen Douglas Sabol was an American filmmaker. He was the president and one of the founders of NFL Films, along with his father Ed. He was also a widely exhibited visual artist. He was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 2020, due to his works with NFL Films. Read more
• 02 Oct 1941: Diana Hendry, English poet and author Diana Lois Hendry is an English poet, children's author and short story writer. She won a Whitbread Award in 1991 and was again shortlisted for the prize in 2012. Read more
• 02 Oct 1941: Ron Meagher, American rock bass player Ron Meagher is an American musician, best known as the bassist of the rock band The Beau Brummels. Read more
• 02 Oct 1939: Budhi Kunderan, Indian cricketer (died 2006) Budhisagar Krishnappa Kunderan was an Indian cricketer. He played as a wicket keeper for the most of his career, and was an exciting but unorthodox right-handed batsman who competed for international selection with contemporary Farokh Engineer. In his eighteen Tests between 1960 and 1967, he scored 981 runs with two centuries and a batting average of 32.70. With the gloves he took 23 catches and executed seven stumpings. Read more
• 02 Oct 1938: Nick Gravenites, American singer-songwriter (died 2024) Nicholas George Gravenites was an American blues, rock and folk singer, songwriter, and guitarist, best known for his work with Electric Flag, Janis Joplin, Mike Bloomfield, and several influential bands and individuals of the generation springing from the 1960s and 1970s. He sometimes performed under the stage names Nick "The Greek" Gravenites and Gravy. Read more
• 02 Oct 1938: Waheed Murad, Pakistani actor, producer, and screenwriter (died 1983) Waheed Murad, also known as Chocolate Hero, was a Pakistani film actor, producer and script writer. Famous for his charming expressions, attractive personality, tender voice and unusual talent for acting, Murad was considered one of the most famous and influential actors of Pakistan and South Asia. Read more
• 02 Oct 1938: Rex Reed, American film critic (died 2026) Rex Taylor Reed was an American film critic, journalist, actor and media personality. Raised throughout the American South and educated at Louisiana State University, Reed moved to New York City in the early 1960s to begin his career, writing about popular culture, art, and celebrities for a number of newspapers and magazines. He became a public figure in his own right, making regular appearances on television and occasionally acting in films throughout the 1970s and 1980s. Reed was a longtime writer for The New York Observer, where he authored the "Talk of the Town" column. He was known for his blunt style and contrarian tastes, and some of his writing has been criticized for containing factual errors or disparaging remarks about actors. Reed authored eight books, including Do You Sleep in the Nude?, Conversations in the Raw, People Are Crazy Here, and Valentines & Vitriol. Read more
• 02 Oct 1937: Johnnie Cochran, American lawyer (died 2005) Johnnie Lee Cochran Jr. was an American attorney from California who was involved in numerous civil rights and police brutality cases throughout his 38-year career. He led the so-called "Dream Team" of defense lawyers during the murder trial of O. J. Simpson. Read more
• 02 Oct 1936: Dick Barnett, American basketball player (died 2025) Richard Barnett was an American professional basketball player who was a shooting guard in the National Basketball Association (NBA) for the Syracuse Nationals, Los Angeles Lakers, and New York Knicks. He won two NBA championships with the Knicks. Barnett was also a member of the Cleveland Pipers in the American Basketball League. He played college basketball for the Tennessee A&I State Tigers. Barnett was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 2024. Read more
• 02 Oct 1936: Connie Dierking, American basketball player (died 2013) Conrad William Dierking was an American professional basketball player from 1958 to 1971. Read more
• 02 Oct 1936: Gwen Marston, American quilter and writer (died 2019) Gwendolyn Joy Marston was an American quilter, quilt teacher, lecturer, and author who championed a style of quilting she called "liberated quiltmaking". She encouraged modern quilt makers to break away from using commercial patterns and to learn to design their own unique pieces of quilt art. Read more
• 02 Oct 1935: Omar Sívori, Italian-Argentine footballer and manager (died 2005) Enrique Omar Sívori was an Argentine-Italian football player and manager who played as a forward. At club level, he is known for his successful time with Italian side Juventus during the late 1950s and early 1960s, where he won three Serie A titles among other trophies; he also played for River Plate in Argentina and Napoli in Italy. Read more
• 02 Oct 1934: Richard Scott, Baron Scott of Foscote, English lawyer and judge Richard Rashleigh Folliott Scott, Baron Scott of Foscote, is a British judge, who formerly held the office of Lord of Appeal in Ordinary. Read more
• 02 Oct 1934: Earl Wilson, American baseball player (died 2005) Robert Earl Wilson was an American professional baseball pitcher. He played all or part of eleven seasons in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the Boston Red Sox, Detroit Tigers (1966–1970) and San Diego Padres (1970), primarily as a starting pitcher. Wilson batted and threw right-handed; he was born in Ponchatoula, Louisiana, and graduated from Greenville Park High School in Tangipahoa Parish. Read more
• 02 Oct 1933: John Gurdon, English biologist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (died 2025) Sir John Bertrand Gurdon was a British developmental biologist, best known for his pioneering research in Cellular differentiation and nuclear transplantation and cloning. Read more
• 02 Oct 1933: Dave Somerville, Canadian singer (died 2015) David Troy Somerville was a Canadian singer best known as the co-founder, and original lead singer, of The Diamonds, one of the most popular vocal groups of the 1950s. Read more
• 02 Oct 1932: Maury Wills, American baseball player and manager (died 2022) Maurice Morning Wills was an American professional baseball player and manager. He played in Major League Baseball as a shortstop from 1959 to 1972, most prominently as an integral member of the Los Angeles Dodgers teams that won three World Series titles between 1959 and 1965. He also played for the Pittsburgh Pirates and the Montreal Expos. Wills is credited with reviving the stolen base as part of baseball strategy. Read more
• 02 Oct 1930: Dave Barrett, Canadian social worker and politician, 26th Premier of British Columbia (died 2018) David Barrett was a Canadian politician and social worker in British Columbia. A member of the British Columbia New Democratic Party (BCNDP), he was the 26th premier of British Columbia from 1972 to 1975. He was the first NDP premier in the province. Read more
• 02 Oct 1929: Peter Bronfman, Canadian businessman (died 1996) Peter Frederick Bronfman OC was a Canadian businessman and entrepreneur, born in Montreal, and member of the Toronto branch of Canada's wealthy Bronfman family. He attended Selwyn House School in Montreal and the elite Lawrenceville School in New Jersey, one of the oldest prep schools in America, and received his bachelor's degree from Yale University in 1952. Read more
• 02 Oct 1929: Moses Gunn, American actor (died 1993) Moses Gunn was an American actor of stage and screen. An Obie Award-winning stage player, he is an alumnus of the Negro Ensemble Company (NEC). Read more
• 02 Oct 1928: George McFarland, American actor (died 1993) George Robert Phillips McFarland was an American actor most famous for starring as a child as Spanky in Hal Roach's Our Gang series of short-subject comedies of the 1930s and 1940s. The Our Gang shorts were later syndicated to television as The Little Rascals. Read more
• 02 Oct 1928: Wolfhart Pannenberg, Polish-German theologian and academic (died 2014) Wolfhart Pannenberg was a German Lutheran theologian. He made a number of significant contributions to modern theology, including his concept of history as a form of revelation centered on the resurrection of Christ, which has been widely debated in both Protestant and Catholic theology, as well as by non-Christian thinkers. Read more
• 02 Oct 1926: Jan Morris, Welsh historian and author (died 2020) Catharine Jan Morris was a Welsh historian, author and travel writer. She was known particularly for the Pax Britannica trilogy (1968–1978), a history of the British Empire, and for portraits of cities, including Oxford, Venice, Trieste, Hong Kong and New York City. She published under her birth name until 1972, when she had gender reassignment surgery, transitioning from male to female. Read more
• 02 Oct 1925: Wren Blair, Canadian ice hockey player, coach, and manager (died 2013) Wren Alvin Blair was a Canadian ice hockey coach, scout and executive in the National Hockey League. Read more
• 02 Oct 1921: Edmund Crispin, English writer and composer (died 1978) Robert Bruce Montgomery was an English crime writer and composer. Known as a composer as Bruce Montgomery, he published his detective novels under the pseudonym Edmund Crispin. Read more
• 02 Oct 1921: Albert Scott Crossfield, American pilot and engineer (died 2006) Albert Scott Crossfield was an American naval officer and test pilot. In 1953, he became the first pilot to fly at twice the speed of sound. Crossfield was the first of twelve pilots who flew the North American X-15, an experimental spaceplane jointly operated by the United States Air Force and NASA. He is the subject of a biography called "Always Another Dawn." Read more
• 02 Oct 1921: Robert Runcie, English archbishop (died 2000) Robert Alexander Kennedy Runcie, Baron Runcie, was an English Anglican bishop. He was the Archbishop of Canterbury from 1980 to 1991, having previously been Bishop of St Albans. He travelled the world widely to spread ecumenicism and worked to foster relations with both Protestant and Catholic churches across Europe. He was a leader of the Liberal Anglo-Catholicism movement. He came under attack for expressing compassion towards bereaved Argentines after the Falklands War of 1982, and generated controversy by supporting women's ordination. Read more
• 02 Oct 1919: John W. Duarte, English guitarist and composer (died 2004) John William Duarte was a British composer, guitarist and writer. Read more
• 02 Oct 1917: Christian de Duve, Belgian cytologist and biochemist, Nobel Prize laureate (died 2013) Christian René Marie Joseph, Viscount de Duve was a Nobel Prize-winning Belgian cytologist and biochemist. He made serendipitous discoveries of two cell organelles, peroxisomes and lysosomes, for which he shared the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1974 with Albert Claude and George E. Palade. In addition to peroxisome and lysosome, he invented scientific names such as autophagy, endocytosis, and exocytosis on a single occasion. Read more
• 02 Oct 1917: Charles Drake, American actor (died 1994) Charles Drake was an American actor. Read more
• 02 Oct 1915: Chuck Williams, American author and businessman, founded Williams Sonoma (died 2015) Charles Edward Williams was the American founder of Williams Sonoma and author and editor of more than 100 books on the subject of cooking. Williams is credited for playing a major role in introducing French cookware into American kitchens through his retail and mail-order business. He became a centenarian in October 2015 and died two months later on December 5, 2015, in San Francisco, California. Read more
• 02 Oct 1914: Jack Parsons, American chemist, occultist, and engineer (died 1952) John Whiteside Parsons was an American rocket engineer, chemist, and Thelemite occultist. Parsons was one of the principal founders of both the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) and Aerojet. He invented the first rocket engine to use a castable, composite rocket propellant, and pioneered the advancement of both liquid-fuel and solid-fuel rockets. Read more
• 02 Oct 1914: Bernarr Rainbow, English organist, conductor, and historian (died 1998) Bernarr Joseph George Rainbow was a historian of music education, organist, and choir master from the United Kingdom. Read more
• 02 Oct 1912: Frank Malina, American engineer and painter (died 1981) Frank Joseph Malina was an American aeronautical engineer and painter, known for his pioneering work in early rocketry. Read more
• 02 Oct 1909: Alex Raymond, American cartoonist, creator of Flash Gordon (died 1956) Alexander Gillespie Raymond Jr. was an American cartoonist and illustrator who was best known for creating the Flash Gordon comic strip for King Features Syndicate in 1934. The strip was subsequently adapted into many other media, from three Universal movie serials to a 1950s television series and a 1980 feature film. Read more
• 02 Oct 1907: Víctor Paz Estenssoro, Bolivian politician, President of Bolivia (died 2001) Ángel Víctor Paz Estenssoro was a Bolivian politician who served as the 45th president of Bolivia for three nonconsecutive and four total terms from 1952 to 1956, 1960 to 1964 and 1985 to 1989. He ran for president eight times and was victorious in 1951, 1960, 1964 and 1985. His 1951 victory was annulled by a military junta led by Hugo Ballivián, and his 1964 victory was interrupted by the 1964 Bolivian coup d'état. Read more
• 02 Oct 1907: Alexander R. Todd, Scottish biochemist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (died 1997) Alexander Robertus Todd, Baron Todd was a British biochemist whose research on the structure and synthesis of nucleotides, nucleosides, and nucleotide coenzymes gained him the Nobel Prize for Chemistry in 1957. Read more
• 02 Oct 1906: Thomas Hollway, Australian politician, Premier of Victoria (died 1971) Thomas Tuke Hollway was the 36th Premier of Victoria, and the first to be born in the 20th century. He held office from 1947 to 1950, and again for a short period in 1952. He was originally a member and the leader of the United Australia Party (UAP) in Victoria, and was the inaugural leader of the UAP's successor, the Victorian division of the Liberal Party, but split from the Liberals after a dispute over electoral reform issues. Read more
• 02 Oct 1905: Franjo Šeper, Croatian cardinal (died 1981) Franjo Šeper was a Croatian prelate of the Catholic Church. He served as prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith from 1968 to 1981, and was elevated to the cardinalate in 1965. Before that, he served as the Archbishop of Zagreb from 1960 to 1969. Read more
• 02 Oct 1904: Graham Greene, English novelist, playwright, and critic (died 1991) Henry Graham Greene was an English writer and journalist regarded by many as one of the leading novelists of the 20th century. Read more
• 02 Oct 1904: Lal Bahadur Shastri, Indian and politician, Prime Minister of India (died 1966) Lal Bahadur Shastri was an Indian politician and statesman who served as the prime minister of India from 1964 to 1966. He previously served as home minister from 1961 to 1963. Read more
• 02 Oct 1902: Leopold Figl, Austrian politician, Chancellor of Austria (died 1965) Leopold Figl was an Austrian politician of the Austrian People's Party (ÖVP) and the first Chancellor after World War II. As foreign minister, he subsequently took part in the negotiations on the Austrian State Treaty, which he signed in 1955. Read more
• 02 Oct 1900: Leela Roy Nag, Indian freedom fighter, social reformer and politician (died 1970) Leela Roy was a prominent Indian freedom fighter and reformer, and a close associate of Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose. She was born in Goalpara, Assam, to Girish Chandra Nag, who was a deputy magistrate, and her mother was Kunjalata Nag. She was the first female student of Dhaka University. Read more
• 02 Oct 1897: Bud Abbott, American comedian, actor, and producer. (died 1974) William Alexander "Bud" Abbott was an American comedian, actor and producer. He was best known as the straight man in the comedy duo Abbott and Costello. Read more
• 02 Oct 1895: Ruth Cheney Streeter, American colonel (died 1990) Ruth Cheney Streeter was an American military officer who was the first director of the United States Marine Corps Women's Reserve (USMCWR). In 1943, she became the first woman to attain the rank of major in the United States Marine Corps when she was commissioned as a major on January 29, 1943. She retired in 1945 as a lieutenant colonel. Read more
• 02 Oct 1893: Leroy Shield, American composer and conductor (died 1962) Leroy Bernard Shield was an American film score and radio composer. He is best known for the themes and incidental music he wrote for the classic Hal Roach comedy short films of the 1930s, including the Our Gang and Laurel and Hardy series. Read more
• 02 Oct 1890: Groucho Marx, American comedian and actor (died 1977) Julius Henry "Groucho" Marx was an American comedian, actor, comic vocalist and game show host who performed in vaudeville, Broadway, films, radio, and television. A master of the one-line retort, he is considered one of America's greatest comedians. Read more
• 02 Oct 1883: Karl von Terzaghi, Austrian geologist and engineer (died 1963) Karl von Terzaghi was an Austrian mechanical engineer, geotechnical engineer, and geologist known as the "father of soil mechanics and geotechnical engineering". Read more
• 02 Oct 1882: Boris Shaposhnikov, Russian colonel (died 1945) Boris Mikhaylovich Shaposhnikov was a Soviet military officer, theoretician and Marshal of the Soviet Union. He served as the Chief of the General Staff of the Soviet Armed Forces from 1928 to 1931 and at the start of the Second World War. Shaposhnikov was one of the foremost military theorists during the Stalin-era. His most important work, Mozg Armii, is considered a landmark in Soviet military theory and doctrine on the organization of the Red Army's General Staff. Read more
• 02 Oct 1879: Wallace Stevens, American poet (died 1955) Wallace Stevens was an American modernist poet. He was born in Reading, Pennsylvania, educated at Harvard and then New York Law School, and spent most of his life working as an executive for an insurance company in Hartford, Connecticut. Read more
• 02 Oct 1875: Pattie Ruffner Jacobs, American suffragist (died 1935) Pattie Ruffner Jacobs was an American suffragist from Birmingham, Alabama. She was inducted into the Alabama Women's Hall of Fame in 1978. Read more
• 02 Oct 1873: Stephen Warfield Gambrill, American lawyer and politician (died 1924) Stephen Warfield Gambrill was an American politician. Read more
• 02 Oct 1873: Pelham Warner, English cricketer and manager (died 1963) Sir Pelham Francis Warner,, affectionately and better known as Plum Warner or "the Grand Old Man" of English cricket, was a Test cricketer and cricket administrator. Read more
• 02 Oct 1871: Cordell Hull, American politician, United States Secretary of State, Nobel Prize laureate (died 1955) Cordell Hull was an American politician and diplomat who served as the United States secretary of state for nearly twelve years under President Franklin D. Roosevelt, from 1933 to 1944. A member of the Democratic Party, he is the longest-serving secretary of state in United States history. Hull previously represented Tennessee in both houses of the United States Congress for 24 years, first as a member of the U.S. House of Representatives from 1907 to 1921 and again from 1923 to 1931, and as a U.S. senator from 1931 to 1933. Hull also served as a member of the Tennessee House of Representatives from 1893 to 1897. Read more
• 02 Oct 1871: Martha Brookes Hutcheson, American landscaper and author (died 1959) Martha Brookes Hutcheson was an American landscape architect, lecturer, and author, active in New England, New York, and New Jersey. Read more
• 02 Oct 1869: Mahatma Gandhi, Indian freedom fighter, activist and philosopher (died 1948) Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi was an Indian lawyer, anti-colonial nationalist, and political ethicist who employed nonviolent resistance to lead the successful campaign for India's independence from British rule, which would later inspire movements for civil rights and freedom across the world. The honorific Mahātmā, first applied to him in 1914 in South Africa, is now used throughout the world. Read more
• 02 Oct 1866: Swami Abhedananda, Indian mystic and philosopher (died 1939) Swami Abhedananda, born Kaliprasad Chandra, was a direct disciple of the 19th century mystic Ramakrishna Paramahansa and the founder of Ramakrishna Vedanta Math. Swami Vivekananda sent him to the West to head the Vedanta Society of New York in 1897, and spread the message of Vedanta, a theme on which he authored several books through his life, and subsequently founded the Ramakrishna Vedanta Math, in Calcutta and Darjeeling. Read more
• 02 Oct 1854: Patrick Geddes, Scottish biologist, sociologist, geographer, and philanthropist (died 1932) Sir Patrick Geddes was a Scottish biologist, sociologist, Comtean positivist, geographer, philanthropist and pioneering town planner. He is known for his innovative thinking in the fields of urban planning and sociology. Read more
• 02 Oct 1852: William Ramsay, Scottish chemist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (died 1916) Sir William Ramsay was a Scottish chemist who discovered the noble gases and received the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1904 "in recognition of his services in the discovery of the inert gaseous elements in air" along with his collaborator, John William Strutt, 3rd Baron Rayleigh, who received the Nobel Prize in Physics that same year for their discovery of argon. After the two men identified argon, Ramsay investigated other atmospheric gases. His work in isolating argon, helium, neon, krypton, and xenon led to the development of a new section of the periodic table. Read more
• 02 Oct 1851: Ferdinand Foch, French field marshal (died 1929) Ferdinand Foch was a French general, Marshal of France and a member of the Académie Française and Académie des Sciences. He distinguished himself as Supreme Allied Commander on the Western Front during the First World War in 1918. Read more
• 02 Oct 1847: Paul von Hindenburg, German field marshal and politician, 2nd President of Germany (died 1934) Paul Ludwig Hans Anton von Beneckendorff und von Hindenburg was a German military officer and statesman who led the Imperial German Army during World War I and later became President of Germany from 1925 until his death in 1934. Though ideologically opposed to Nazism, he played a key role in the Nazi seizure of power in 1933 through his appointment of Adolf Hitler as Chancellor of Germany. Read more
• 02 Oct 1832: Edward Burnett Tylor, English anthropologist (died 1917) Sir Edward Burnett Tylor was an English anthropologist, and professor of anthropology. Read more
• 02 Oct 1828: Charles Floquet, French lawyer and politician, Prime Minister of France (died 1896) Charles Thomas Floquet was a French lawyer and statesman. Read more
• 02 Oct 1821: Alexander P. Stewart, American general (died 1908) Alexander Peter Stewart was a Confederate military officer during the American Civil War and a college professor. He fought in many of the most significant battles in the Western Theater of the war and briefly took command of the Army of Tennessee in 1865. Read more
• 02 Oct 1815: James Agnew, Irish-Australian politician, Premier of Tasmania (died 1901) Sir James Willson Agnew was an Irish-born Australian politician, who was Premier of Tasmania from 1886 to 1887. Read more
• 02 Oct 1800: Nat Turner, American slave and uprising leader (died 1831) Nat Turner was an enslaved Black carpenter and preacher who led a four-day rebellion of both slave and free Black people in Southampton County, Virginia, in August 1831. Read more

Notable Deaths on 02 October

• 02 Oct 2024: Susie Berning, American professional golfer (born 1941) Suzanne Maxwell Berning was an American professional golfer. She became a member of the LPGA Tour in 1964 and won four major championships and eleven LPGA Tour victories in all. She also competed under her maiden name Susie Maxwell from 1964 to 1968. She was inducted into the World Golf Hall of Fame in 2022. Read more
• 02 Oct 2024: Marissa Haque, Indonesian politician (born 1962) Marissa Grace was an Indonesian actress and politician of Madurese, Dutch, Pakistani, and French descent. The eldest of the Haque family, she was the older sibling of Indonesian model and actor Soraya Haque, and Indonesian television actor and presenter, Shahnaz Haque. Starting her career as a film actor, she starred in Tinggal Landas buat Kekasih (1984) and Biarkan Bulan itu (1986). She won the Citra Award for Best Supporting Actress title for her performance in Tinggal Landas buat Kekasih at the Indonesian Film Festival. Read more
• 02 Oct 2023: Francis Lee, English footballer (born 1944) Francis Henry Lee, also known as Franny Lee, was an English professional footballer and businessman. He was also later the chairman and main shareholder of Manchester City, as well as briefly a racehorse trainer and amateur cricket player. Read more
• 02 Oct 2022: Sacheen Littlefeather, American actress, model and activist for Native American civil rights (born 1946) Maria Louise Cruz, better known as Sacheen Littlefeather, was an American-born actress and activist for Native American civil rights. After her death, she was accused by family members and journalists of falsely claiming to have Native American ancestry. Read more
• 02 Oct 2021: Jack Biondolillo, American bowler (born 1940) Jack Joseph Biondolillo was an American professional bowler and member of the Professional Bowlers Association (PBA). Read more
• 02 Oct 2020: Anne-Marie Hutchinson, British lawyer (born 1957) Anne-Marie Hutchinson OBE QC (Hon) was an Irish lawyer known for her work in the UK concerning children's rights, particularly forced marriage and international child abduction. Read more
• 02 Oct 2018: Jamal Khashoggi, Saudi journalist (born 1958) Jamal Ahmad Hamza Khashoggi was a Saudi journalist, dissident, writer and editor. Khashoggi was assassinated at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul on 2 October 2018 by agents of the Saudi government at the behest of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. Read more
• 02 Oct 2017: Tom Petty, American musician (born 1950) Thomas Earl Petty was an American singer, songwriter, and guitarist. He was the leader and frontman of the rock bands Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers and Mudcrutch and a member of the late 1980s supergroup the Traveling Wilburys. He was also a successful solo artist. Read more
• 02 Oct 2016: Neville Marriner, British conductor (born 1924) Sir Neville Marriner, was an English conductor and violinist. Described as "one of the world's greatest conductors", Gramophone lists Marriner as one of the 50 greatest conductors and another compilation ranks Marriner number 14 of the 18 "Greatest and Most Famous Conductors of All Time". He founded the Academy of St Martin in the Fields, and his partnership with them is the most recorded of any orchestra and conductor. Read more
• 02 Oct 2015: Brian Friel, Irish author, playwright, and director (born 1929) Brian Patrick Friel was an Irish dramatist, short story writer and founder of the Field Day Theatre Company. He had been considered one of the greatest living English-language dramatists. He has been likened to an "Irish Chekhov" and described as "the universally accented voice of Ireland". His plays have been compared favourably to those of contemporaries such as Samuel Beckett, Arthur Miller, Harold Pinter and Tennessee Williams. Read more
• 02 Oct 2015: Coleridge Goode, Jamaican-English bassist and composer (born 1914) George Coleridge Emerson Goode was a British Jamaican-born jazz bassist best known for his long collaboration with alto saxophonist Joe Harriott. Goode was a member of Harriott's innovatory jazz quintet throughout its eight-year existence as a regular unit (1958–65). Goode was also involved with the saxophonist's later pioneering blend of jazz and Indian music in Indo-Jazz Fusions, the group Harriott co-led with composer/violinist John Mayer. Read more
• 02 Oct 2015: Johnny Paton, Scottish footballer and coach (born 1923) John Aloysius Paton was a Scottish professional football player, manager, coach, scout and later a professional snooker referee. He began his career in Scotland with Celtic and played in the Football League for Chelsea, Brentford and Watford. Paton later managed Watford and Arsenal 'A'. Read more
• 02 Oct 2014: Robert Flower, Australian footballer (born 1955) Robert Alan Flower was an Australian rules footballer with Melbourne Football Club. His first game was against Geelong in 1973 and he captained the team from 1981 until his final game in 1987. He held the record for the number of games for his club, 272, until overtaken by David Neitz in 2006. Read more
• 02 Oct 2013: Abraham Nemeth, American mathematician and academic (born 1918) Abraham Nemeth was an American mathematician. He was a professor of mathematics at the University of Detroit Mercy in Detroit, Michigan. Nemeth was blind and is known for developing Nemeth Braille, a system for blind people to read and write mathematics. Read more
• 02 Oct 2012: Nguyễn Chí Thiện, Vietnamese-American poet and activist (born 1939) Nguyễn Chí Thiện was a North Vietnamese dissident, activist and poet who spent a total of twenty-seven years as a political prisoner of the communist governments of both North Vietnam and of post-1975 Vietnam, before being released and allowed to join the large Overseas Vietnamese community in the United States. Read more
• 02 Oct 2012: Charles Roach, Trinidadian-Canadian lawyer and activist (born 1933) Charles Conliff Mende Roach was a Canadian civil rights lawyer and an activist in the Black community in Toronto. Read more
• 02 Oct 2012: J. Philippe Rushton, English-Canadian psychologist, theorist, academic (born 1943) John Philippe Rushton was a Canadian psychologist and author. He taught at the University of Western Ontario until the early 1990s, and became known to the general public during the 1980s and 1990s for promoting anti-Black racism through his widely discredited research on race and intelligence, race and crime, and other purported racial correlations. Read more
• 02 Oct 2010: Kwa Geok Choo, Singaporean lawyer and scholar (born 1920) Kwa Geok Choo was a Singaporean lawyer. She was the wife of Lee Kuan Yew, the founding Prime Minister of Singapore and the mother of Lee Hsien Loong, Lee Hsien Yang, and Lee Wei Ling. Read more
• 02 Oct 2007: Tex Coulter, American football player (born 1924) DeWitt Echoles "Tex" Coulter was an American professional football player in the National Football League (NFL) for the New York Giants and in the Interprovincial Rugby Football Union for the Montreal Alouettes. Coulter attended the United States Military Academy, where he played football and competed in the shot put. Read more
• 02 Oct 2007: George Grizzard, American actor (born 1928) George Cooper Grizzard Jr. was an American actor. He was the recipient of a Tony Award, a Grammy Award, and a Primetime Emmy Award, among other accolades. Read more
• 02 Oct 2007: Dan Keating, Irish Republican Army volunteer (born 1902) Daniel Keating was a lifelong Irish republican and former president of the Republican Sinn Féin. At the time of his death, he was Ireland's oldest man and the last surviving veteran of the Irish War of Independence. Read more
• 02 Oct 2006: Helen Chenoweth-Hage, American politician (born 1938) Helen Margaret Palmer Chenoweth-Hage was an American politician from the U.S. state of Idaho, serving three terms in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1995 to 2001. She remains one of two women to ever represent Idaho in the United States Congress and the only one from the Republican Party. Read more
• 02 Oct 2006: Paul Halmos, Hungarian-American mathematician (born 1916) Paul Richard Halmos was a Hungarian-born American mathematician and probabilist who made fundamental advances in the areas of mathematical logic, probability theory, operator theory, ergodic theory, and functional analysis. He was also recognized as a great mathematical expositor. He has been described as one of The Martians. Read more
• 02 Oct 2005: Nipsey Russell, American comedian and actor (born 1918) Julius "Nipsey" Russell was an American entertainer best known for his appearances as a panelist on game shows from the 1960s through the 1990s, including Match Game, Password, Hollywood Squares, To Tell the Truth, and Pyramid. His appearances were often distinguished by short, humorous poems he recited during the broadcast, which led to his nickname "the poet laureate of television". He had one of the leading roles in the film version of The Wiz as the Tin Man. He was a frequent guest on the Dean Martin Celebrity Roast series and often appeared on Late Night with Conan O'Brien during the program's early years. Read more
• 02 Oct 2005: August Wilson, American author and playwright (born 1945) August Wilson was an American playwright. He has been referred to as the "theater's poet of Black America". He is best known for a series of 10 plays, collectively called The Pittsburgh Cycle , which chronicle the experiences and heritage of the African-American community in the 20th century. Plays in the series include Fences (1987) and The Piano Lesson (1990), each of which won Wilson the Pulitzer Prize for Drama, as well as Ma Rainey's Black Bottom (1984) and Joe Turner's Come and Gone (1988). In 2006, Wilson was inducted into the American Theater Hall of Fame. Read more
• 02 Oct 2003: John Thomas Dunlop, American scholar and politician, United States Secretary of Labor (born 1914) John Thomas Dunlop was an American administrator, labor economist, and educator. Dunlop was the United States Secretary of Labor between 1975 and 1976 under President Gerald Ford. He was Director of the United States Cost of Living Council from 1973 to 1974, Chairman of the United States Commission on the Future of Worker-Management Relations from 1993 to 1995, which produced the Dunlop Report in 1994. He was also arbitrator and impartial chairman of various United States labor-management committees, and a member of numerous government boards on industrial relations disputes and economic stabilization. Read more
• 02 Oct 2002: Heinz von Foerster, Austrian-American physicist and philosopher (born 1911) Heinz von Foerster was an Austrian-American scientist combining physics and philosophy, and widely attributed as the originator of second-order cybernetics. He was twice a Guggenheim fellow and also was a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, 1980. He is well known for his 1960 Doomsday equation formula published in Science predicting future population growth. Read more
• 02 Oct 2001: Franz Biebl, German composer and academic (born 1906) Franz Xaver Biebl was a German composer of classical music and an academic teacher. Most of his compositions were for choral ensembles. He became known internationally when Chanticleer made his Ave Maria part of the repertoire. Read more
• 02 Oct 2000: David Tonkin, Australian politician, Premier of South Australia (born 1929) David Oliver Tonkin was an Australian politician who served as the 38th Premier of South Australia from 18 September 1979 to 10 November 1982. He was elected to the House of Assembly seat of Bragg at the 1970 election, serving until 1983. He became the leader of the South Australian Division of the Liberal Party of Australia in 1975, replacing Bruce Eastick. Initially leading the party to defeat at the 1977 election against the Don Dunstan Labor government, his party won the 1979 election against the Des Corcoran Labor government. Following the 1980 Norwood by-election the Tonkin government was reduced to a one-seat majority. His government's policy approach combined economic conservatism with social progressivism. The Tonkin Liberal government was defeated after one term at the 1982 election by Labor led by John Bannon. Read more
• 02 Oct 1999: Heinz G. Konsalik, German journalist and author (born 1921) Heinz G. Konsalik was a German novelist. Konsalik was his mother's maiden name. Read more
• 02 Oct 1998: Gene Autry, American actor, singer, and guitarist (born 1907) Orvon Grover "Gene" Autry, nicknamed the Singing Cowboy, was an American actor, musician, singer, composer, rodeo performer, and baseball team owner, who largely gained fame by singing in a crooning style on radio, in films, and on television for more than three decades, beginning in the early 1930s. During that time, he personified the straight-shooting hero—honest, brave, and true. Read more
• 02 Oct 1996: Robert Bourassa, Canadian lawyer and politician, Premier of Quebec (born 1933) Robert Bourassa was a Canadian lawyer and politician who served as the 22nd premier of Quebec from 1970 to 1976 and from 1985 to 1994. A member of the Liberal Party of Quebec, he served a total of just under 15 years as premier. Bourassa's tenure was marked by major events affecting Quebec, including the October Crisis and the Meech Lake and Charlottetown Accords. Read more
• 02 Oct 1996: Andrey Lukanov, Bulgarian politician, 40th Prime Minister of Bulgaria (born 1938) Andrey Karlov Lukanov was a Bulgarian politician. Between February and November 1990, Lukanov was the final Prime Minister of the People's Republic of Bulgaria. He was murdered in 1996. Read more
• 02 Oct 1991: Hazen Argue, Canadian politician (born 1921) Hazen Robert Argue was a Canadian politician who served in the House of Commons and the Senate. He was first elected as a Co-operative Commonwealth Federation (CCF) Member of Parliament (MP) in 1945 and was the last leader of the party, from 1960 to 1961. He crossed the floor to the Liberal Party in 1962 and was defeated in 1963. In 1966 he was appointed to the Senate. He entered the federal cabinet in 1980, as the only Saskatchewan representative, with responsibilities for the Canadian Wheat Board. He is well known for being a strong proponent of the proposed Canadian annexation of the Turks and Caicos Islands. He was the first senator ever to have been charged with fraud, in 1989. The charges were eventually dropped. Read more
• 02 Oct 1991: Demetrios I of Constantinople (born 1914) Patriarch Demetrios I of Constantinople, also Dimitrios I or Demetrius I, born Demetrios Papadopoulos, was the 269th Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople from 16 July 1972, until his death in October 1991, serving as the primus inter pares and spiritual leader of 300 million Eastern Orthodox Christians. Read more
• 02 Oct 1988: Alec Issigonis, English car designer, designed the Mini (born 1906) Sir Alexander Arnold Constantine Issigonis was a British-Greek automotive designer. He designed the Mini, launched by the British Motor Corporation in 1959, and voted the second most influential car of the 20th century in 1999. Read more
• 02 Oct 1988: Hamengkubuwono IX, Indonesian politician, 2nd vice president of Indonesia (born 1912) Hamengkubuwono IX, 9th Sri Sultan of Yogyakarta, often abbreviated as HB IX, was an Indonesian politician and Javanese royal who was the second vice president of Indonesia, the ninth sultan of Yogyakarta, and the first governor of the Special Region of Yogyakarta. Hamengkubuwono IX was also the chairman of the first National Scout Movement Quarter and was known as the Father of the Indonesian Scouts. Read more
• 02 Oct 1987: Madeleine Carroll, English actress (born 1906) Edith Madeleine Carroll was an English actress, popular both in Britain and in America in the 1930s and 1940s. At the peak of her success in 1938, she was the world's highest-paid actress. Read more
• 02 Oct 1987: Peter Medawar, Brazilian-English biologist and zoologist, Nobel Prize laureate (born 1915) Sir Peter Brian Medawar was a Brazilian-born biologist and writer of Lebanese-British descent who, from a succession of research and teaching posts, and senior U.K. biomedical leadership positions, contributed seminal discoveries in immunology, including one honoured by a Nobel Prize to him and Australian Mac Burnet in 1960. Medawar's works on the discovery of acquired immune tolerance, and on graft rejection, have been fundamental to the medical practice of tissue and organ transplants. For his scientific work, he has been termed the "father of transplantation". He is remembered, as well, for his wit, both in person and in his popular writings. Richard Dawkins referred to him as "the wittiest of all scientific writers"; Stephen Jay Gould as "the cleverest man I have ever known". Read more
• 02 Oct 1985: Rock Hudson, American actor (born 1925) Rock Hudson was an American actor. One of the most popular film stars of his time, he had a screen career spanning more than three decades, and was a prominent figure in the Golden Age of Hollywood. Read more
• 02 Oct 1981: Harry Golden, American journalist and author (born 1902) Harry Lewis Golden was an American writer and newspaper publisher. Read more
• 02 Oct 1981: Hazel Scott, Trinidadian-American activist, actress, and musician (born 1920) Hazel Dorothy Scott was an American jazz and classical pianist and singer. An outspoken critic of racial discrimination and segregation, she used her influence to improve the representation of Black Americans in film. Read more
• 02 Oct 1975: K. Kamaraj, Indian lawyer and politician (born 1903) Kumaraswami Kamaraj, popularly known as Kamarajar, was an Indian independence activist, politician, social reformer, and statesman who served as the Chief Minister of Madras from 13 April 1954 to 2 October 1963. He also served as the president of the Indian National Congress from 1964 to 1967 and was responsible for the elevation of Lal Bahadur Shastri and later Indira Gandhi to the position of Prime Minister of India, because of which he was widely acknowledged as the "Kingmaker" in Indian politics during the 1960s. Later, he became the founder and president of the Indian National Congress (O). Read more
• 02 Oct 1974: Vasily Shukshin, Russian actor, director, and screenwriter (born 1929) Vasily Makarovich Shukshin was a Soviet and Russian writer, actor, screenwriter and film director from the Altai region who specialized in rural themes. A prominent member of the Village Prose movement, he began writing short stories in his early teenage years and later transitioned to acting by his late 20s. Read more
• 02 Oct 1973: Paul Hartman, American actor and dancer (born 1904) Paul Hartman was an American dancer, stage performer and television actor. Read more
• 02 Oct 1973: Paavo Nurmi, Finnish runner (born 1897) Paavo Johannes Nurmi was a Finnish middle-distance and long-distance runner. He was called the "Flying Finn" because he dominated distance running in the 1920s. Nurmi set 22 official world records at distances between 1,500 metres and 20 kilometres, and won nine gold and three silver medals in his 12 events in the Summer Olympic Games. At his peak, Nurmi was undefeated for 121 races at distances from 800 m upwards. Throughout his 14-year career, he remained unbeaten in cross country events and the 10,000 metres. Read more
• 02 Oct 1971: Jessie Arms Botke, American painter (born 1883) Jessie Hazel Arms Botke was an American painter in Illinois and California, noted for her bird images and use of gold leaf highlights. Read more
• 02 Oct 1968: Marcel Duchamp, French painter and sculptor (born 1887) Henri-Robert-Marcel Duchamp was a French American artist, chess player, and inventor who played a key role in the development of the avant-garde in the United States and in New York City, where he spent the last 25 years of his life. Read more
• 02 Oct 1955: William R. Orthwein, American swimmer and water polo player (born 1881) William Robert Orthwein was an American sportsman, attorney, business executive and political activist. He was an Olympic bronze medalist in both water polo and the 4×50 freestyle swimming relay at the 1904 St. Louis Olympics. Read more
• 02 Oct 1953: John Marin, American painter (born 1870) John Marin was an early American modernist visual artist. He is known for his abstract landscape paintings and watercolors. Read more
• 02 Oct 1953: Émilie Busquant, French anarcho-syndicalist, sewed the first Flag of Algeria (born 1901) Émilie Busquant (1901–1953) was a French feminist, anarcho-syndicalist and anti-colonial activist who was married to the Algerian nationalist leader Messali Hadj. She is notable for her involvement in the creation of the Algerian flag. Read more
• 02 Oct 1943: John Evans, English-Australian politician, 21st Premier of Tasmania (born 1855) Sir John William Evans, CMG was an Australian politician, a member of the Tasmanian House of Assembly and Premier of Tasmania from 11 July 1904 to 19 June 1909. Read more
• 02 Oct 1938: Alexandru Averescu, Romanian military leader and politician, 24th Prime Minister of Romania (born 1859) Alexandru Averescu was a Romanian marshal, diplomat and populist politician. A Romanian Armed Forces Commander during World War I, he served as Prime Minister of three separate cabinets. He first rose to prominence during the peasants' revolt of 1907, which he helped repress with violence. Credited with engineering the defense of Moldavia in the 1916–1917 Campaign, he built on his popularity to found and lead the successful People's Party, which he brought to power in 1920–1921, with backing from King Ferdinand I and the National Liberal Party (PNL), and with the notable participation of Constantin Argetoianu and Take Ionescu. Read more
• 02 Oct 1927: Svante Arrhenius, Swedish physicist and chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (born 1859) Svante August Arrhenius was a Swedish scientist. Originally a physicist, but often referred to as a chemist, Arrhenius was one of the founders of the science of physical chemistry. In 1903, he received the Nobel Prize in Chemistry, becoming the first Swedish Nobel laureate. In 1905, he became the director of the Nobel Institute, where he remained until his death. Read more
• 02 Oct 1920: Max Bruch, German composer and conductor (born 1838) Max Bruch was a German Romantic composer, violinist, teacher, and conductor who wrote more than 200 works, including three violin concertos, the first of which has become a staple of the violin repertoire. Read more
• 02 Oct 1853: François Arago, French mathematician, physicist, astronomer, and politician (born 1786) Dominique François Jean Arago, known simply as François Arago, was a French mathematician, physicist, astronomer, freemason, supporter of the Carbonari revolutionaries, and politician. Read more
• 02 Oct 1850: Sarah Biffen, English painter (born 1784) Sarah Biffin, also known as Sarah Biffen, Sarah Beffin or by her married name Mrs E. M. Wright, was an English painter born in Somerset. Read more
• 02 Oct 1847: Vasil Aprilov, Bulgarian educator, merchant and writer (born 1789) Vasil Evstatiev Aprilov was a Bulgarian educator, merchant, philanthropist, writer and a national activist. Aprilov was a leading figure of the Bulgarian National Revival. He contributed to the establishment of secular Bulgarian education and the modern Bulgarian school. Read more
• 02 Oct 1804: Nicolas-Joseph Cugnot, French engineer (born 1725) Nicolas-Joseph Cugnot was a French inventor who built the world's first full-size and working self-propelled mechanical land-vehicle, the "Fardier à vapeur" – effectively the world's first automobile. Read more
• 02 Oct 1803: Samuel Adams, American politician, Governor of Massachusetts (born 1722) Samuel Adams was an American statesman, political philosopher, and a Founding Father of the United States. He was a politician in colonial Massachusetts, a leader of the movement that became the American Revolution, a signatory of the Declaration of Independence and other founding documents, and one of the architects of the principles of American republicanism that shaped the political culture of the United States. He was a second cousin to his fellow Founding Father, President John Adams. He founded the Sons of Liberty. Read more

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