Unix Timestamp: 965174400
Wednesday, August 2. 2000, 12:00:00 AM UTC

Air France Flight 358 overran Runway 24L at Toronto Pearson International Airport.

Monday demonstrations against social cutbacks began in Germany.

NASA's MESSENGER is launched (it was captured into Mercury's orbit on March 18, 2011).

The Statue of Liberty reopens after security improvements.

The United Nations authorizes an international peacekeeping force for Liberia. The United States is criticized by members of the Security Council for insisting that UN peacekeepers serving in Liberia be granted immunity from war crimes prosecution. The U.S. demand is described by its critics as a breach of international law.

The United Nations authorizes an international peacekeeping force for Liberia.

Robert Mueller confirmed as the new FBI director.

Second Congo War begins. 3,900,000 people are killed before it ends in 2003, making it the bloodiest war, to date, since World War II.

Yangtze River Floods: In China the Yangtze River breaks through the main bank before this, from August 1–5, peripheral levees collapsed consecutively in Jiayu County Baizhou Bay. The death toll exceeds 12,000, with many thousands more injured.

Australian ski instructor Stuart Diver is rescued as the sole survivor from the Thredbo landslide in New South Wales, in which 18 die.

The first cold front of the White Earthquake strikes Chile, during the rest of August several communities becomes isolated due to heavy snowfall and livestock is decimated.

Gulf War: The United Nations Security Council orders a global trade embargo against Iraq in response to its invasion of Kuwait.

Gulf War: Iraq invades Kuwait, eventually leading to the Gulf War.

The South African government and ANC begin talks on ending Apartheid in South Africa.

The government of Peru announces an austerity plan that results in huge increases in the price of food and gasoline. the plan sets off days of rioting and a national stricke on August 21.

A passenger bus, moving by the route Tbilisi-Agdam is blown up, 20 people died and 30 were injured. Organizers of the crime, Armenians A. Avanesian and M. Tatevosian, were brought to criminal trial.ref name=supremecourt.gov.az/

Egypt, Syria, and 10 other Arab nations vote to send military forces to Saudi Arabia to discourage an invasion from Iraq.

President of PakistanGhulam Ishaq Khan dismisses Prime Minister of PakistanBenazir Bhutto, accusing her of corruption and abuse of power.

Prime Minister of IndiaV. P. Singh announces plan to reserve 49% of civil service jobs for lower-caste Hindus. The plan triggers riots, leaving at least 70 dead by September.

Iraq announces that it has formally annexed Kuwait.

U.S. President Bush orders U.S. combat planes and troops to Saudi Arabia to protect a possible attack by Iraq.

In South Africa, fighting breaks out between the Xhosa people and the Zulu people more than 500 people are killed by the end of August.

Sue, the best preserved "Tyrannosaurus rex" specimen ever found, is discovered near Faith, South Dakota.

Delta Air Lines Flight 191 crashes near Dallas, Texas, killing 137 people.

A terrorist bombing at the railway station in Bologna, Italy kills 85 people and wounds more than 200.

A gunman murders Andrea Wilborn and Stan Farr and injures Priscilla Davis and Gus Gavrel, in an incident at Priscilla's mansion in Fort Worth, Texas. T. Cullen Davis, Priscilla's husband and one of the richest men in Texas, is tried and found innocent for Andrea's murder, involvement in a plot to kill several people (including Priscilla and a judge), and a wrongful death lawsuit. Cullen goes broke afterwards.

A flash fire kills 51 at the Summerland amusement centre at Douglas, Isle of Man.

JCPenney debuts its trademark Helvetica wordmark which has been used ever since.

The Turkish football club Trabzonspor is established in Trabzon.

The Salazar Bridge (now the 25 de Abril Bridge) opens in Lisbon, Portugal.

Rene Barrientos takes office as the president of Bolivia.

Caesars Palace hotel and casino opens in Las Vegas.

The Beatles release the legendary "Revolver" album in the United Kingdom.

Groundbreaking takes place for the World Trade Center.

The Spanish government forbids overflights of British military aircraft.

Martin Luther King Jr. leads a civil rights march in Chicago, during which he is struck by a rock thrown from an angry white mob.

Braniff Airlines Flight 250 crashes in Falls City, Nebraska, killing all 42 on board.

Turkey ends diplomatic and economic relations with Germany.

The First Assembly of ASNOM is held in the Prohor Pchinski monastery.

WWII: John F. Kennedy's PT-109 is rammed by a destroyer.

Albert Einsteinwrites to President Franklin Roosevelt about developing the atomic bomb using uranium. This leads to the creation of the Manhattan Project.

The Marihuana Tax Act Pub. 238, 75th Congress, 50 Stat. 551 (Aug. 2, 1937), is a significant bill on the path that will lead to the criminalization of cannabis. It was introduced to U.S. Congress by Commissioner of the Federal Bureau of Narcotics, Harry Anslinger. (The Act is now commonly referred to using the modern spelling as the 1937 Marijuana Tax Act.)

Adolf Hitler becomes "Führer" of Germany, becoming head of state as well as Chancellor.

Opening of the Stalin White Sea ndash Baltic Sea Canal, a 227 kmnavigable waterway constructed using forced labour in the Soviet Union connecting the White Sea with Lake Onega and the Baltic.

Italy and Ethiopia sign the Italo-Ethiopian Treaty.

U.S. President Calvin Coolidge announces, I do not choose to run for President in 1928.

U.S. President Warren G. Harding, dies of a heart attack and is succeeded by Vice President Calvin Coolidge as President of the United States.

The first major seagoing ship arrives at Gdynia, the newly constructed Polish seaport.

Gustav Stresemann is named Chancellor of Germany and founds a coalition government for the Weimar Republic, where hyperinflation means that more than 4,600,000 marks are now needed to buy a single American dollar.

A typhoon hits Shantou, China, killing more than 50,000 people.

Irish War of Independence: The British Parliament passes a bill to restore order in Ireland, suspending jury trials.

Squadron Commander E.H. Dunning //www.royal-navy.mod.uk/server/show/nav.3919 lands his aircraft on the ship in Scapa Flow, Orkney. He is killed 5 days later during another landing on the ship.

The United States Army Signal Corp Division purchases the world's first military airplane, a Wright Military Flyer, from the Wright Brothers.

The Ilinden Uprising, organized by the Secret Macedonian-Adrianople Revolutionary Organization, breaks out in the Ottoman provinces of Macedonia and Adrianople.

Official opening of the Tower Subway beneath the River Thames in London, the world's first underground tube railway.ref name=Pocket On This Day

The Government of India Act, passed by the Parliament of the United Kingdom, transfers the territories of the British East India Company and their administration to the direct rule of the British Crown, through a Secretary of State for India.

Bad Axe Massacre ends the last major Native American rebellion east of the Mississippi in the U.S.

In a plebiscite, Napoleon Bonaparte is confirmed as the First Consul.

Most of the American colonies ratify the Declaration of Independence

Mir Qasim routed at Odwa Nala.ref name=Cassell's Chronology/ He flees to Patna, where he massacres the English garrison,ref name=Murshidabad/ but is subsequently defeated at Katwa, Murshidabad, Giria, Sooty, Udayanala and Munger.

Boston Revolt: Edmund Andros, former governor of the Dominion of New England, escapes from Boston to Connecticut, but is recaptured.

Captain Benjamin Church captures Metacomet's wife and son.

August 4 ndash The Nipmucks attack Massachusetts troops and besiege Brookfield, Massachusetts.

September ndash Robert Hooke's "Micrographia" published in London, first applying the term 'cell' to plant tissue, which he discovered first in cork, then in living organisms, using a microscope.

Second Anglo-Dutch War: Dutch naval victory at the Battle of Vågen.

September ndash Jamestown: Thomas Dale, with 350 men, starts building Henricus.

Jamestown: Deputy Governor Sir Thomas Gates returns to Virginia with 280 people, provisions and cattle on 6 ships and assumes control, ruling that the fort must be strengthened.

Henry Hudson sails into what it is now known as Hudson Bay, thinking he has made it through the Northwest Passage and reached the Pacific Ocean.

Henry III of France is murdered by a fanatical Catholicmonk. Henry of Navarre proclaims himself as King Henry IV of France. As many of the late King's troops refuse to support a Protestant, Henry is forced to give up the siege of Paris.

The English and Spanish fleets meet again off Dorset (The English fleet is led by Lord Howard of Effingham and Sir Francis Drake). The English again have the better of it.

Livonian War: Russians defeat the Livonian Brothers of the Sword in the Battle of Ergeme, precipitating the dissolution of the order.

Battle of Marciano: Senese–French forces are defeated by the Florentine–Imperial army.

Battle on Pyana River. The Russians are defeated, while their commander drowns in the river.

The Islamic Bahmani Kingdom is established on the Indian subcontinent.

September ndash In the Hundred Years' War, the English win the city of Calais

Pope Stephen IX (sometimes referred to as Stephen X) succeeds Pope Victor II as the 154th pope.

Majorian is arrested near Tortona (Northern Italy) and deposed by Ricimer ("magister militum") as puppet emperor.