September 2: Facts & Historical Events On This Day

Peggy Whitson set a NASA record for spending the most cumulative days living and working in space at 665 days.

Egypt’s state TV lifted the ban on veiled news presenters.

The decades-long ban meant that veiled female presenters were not allowed on air, but lifting the ban opened the industry to female presenters in Egypt.

Google launched Google Chrome, its own cross-platform web browser.

By 2011 Chrome was the preferred browser over Mozilla Firefox, and in 2013 it overtook Internet Explorer in the US. As of September 2022, it was the most commonly used browser in the world.

The United States announced its recognition of Estonia, Latvia & Lithuania’s independence as individual countries after the collapse of the Soviet Union.

Japan formally surrendered, officially bringing an end to the six years of World War II.

Bing Crosby made his nationwide solo radio debut.

Dieudonne Costes and Maurice Bellonte successfully flew the first non-stop transatlantic flight from east to west when they landed in New York City.

After leaving Paris on September 1 in a Breguet 19 fixed-wing aircraft, Costes and Bellonte completed the first non-stop flight between Europe and America.

Machine guns were used for the first time in a battle in Omdurman, Sudan, Africa.

The weapons were "Maxim guns" and were capable of firing 600 rounds per minute.

The largest known solar storm occurred, causing electrical problems to telegraph services.

Great Britain and its colonies spent their last day using the Julian calendar.

With the adoption of the Gregorian calendar, days 3-13 were skipped making the following day September 14.

The Great Fire of London began.

On this day, fires began to sweep through the city, which would last for four days and destroy 70,000 out of 80,000 people's homes, among most of the other buildings in the city.

The Wars of Castro ended when Pope Innocent X and his forces destroyed the Italian city of Castro.

The first battle between the Spanish settlers and the Mexican natives of the Otomi and Tlaxcalans tribespeople started.

This was the first of three battles between the two parties. The last battle ended on September 5.

Queen Cleopatra VII of Egypt named her son Ptolemy XV Caesar a co-ruler of Egypt.

Also known as Caesarion, Ptolemy XV Caesar was the last Pharaoh of ancient Egypt and ruled until his death.