Daniel Craig
Born On
Daniel Craig
English actor
March 2, 1968 -
Daniel Craig is an English actor known for his restrained gravitas and ruggedly handsome features. Craig achieved international fame with his portrayal of playboy spy James Bond in several films, beginning...
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Philip K. Dick
American author
December 16, 1928 - March 2, 1982
Philip K. Dick was an American science-fiction writer whose novels and short stories often depict the psychological struggles of characters trapped in illusory environments. Dick worked briefly in radio...
Dr. Seuss postage stamp
Born On
Dr. Seuss
American author and illustrator
March 2, 1904 - September 24, 1991
Dr. Seuss was an American writer and illustrator of immensely popular children’s books noted for their nonsense words, playful rhymes, and unusual creatures. After graduating from Dartmouth College (B.A.,...
Sam Houston
Born On
Sam Houston
American lawyer and politician; president of Republic of Texas
March 2, 1793 - July 26, 1863
Sam Houston was an American lawyer and politician, a leader in the Texas Revolution (1834–36) who later served as president of the Republic of Texas (1836–38; 1841–44) and who was instrumental in Texas’s...
Jennifer Jones in The Song of Bernadette
Born On
Jennifer Jones
American actress
March 2, 1919 - December 17, 2009
Jennifer Jones was an American film actress known for her performances in roles that alternated between fresh-faced naifs and tempestuous vixens. Jones attended the American Academy of Dramatic Arts in...
Francis II
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Francis II
Holy Roman emperor
February 12, 1768 - March 2, 1835
Francis II was the last Holy Roman emperor (1792–1806) and, as Francis I, emperor of Austria (1804–35); he was also, as Francis, king of Hungary (1792–1830) and king of Bohemia (1792–1836). He supported...
John Irving
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John Irving
American author
March 2, 1942 -
John Irving is an American novelist and short-story writer who established his reputation with the novel The World According to Garp (1978; film 1982). As is characteristic of his other works, it is noted...
King Tut's discoverer
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Howard Carter
British archaeologist
May 9, 1874 - March 2, 1939
Howard Carter was a British archaeologist, who made one of the richest and most-celebrated contributions to Egyptology: the discovery (1922) of the largely intact tomb of King Tutankhamen. At age 17 Carter...
Kurt Weill
Born On
Kurt Weill
German-American composer
March 2, 1900 - April 3, 1950
Kurt Weill was a German-born American composer who created a revolutionary kind of opera of sharp social satire in collaboration with the writer Bertolt Brecht. Weill studied privately with Albert Bing...
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Emily Carr
Canadian painter and author
December 13, 1871 - March 2, 1945
Emily Carr was a painter and writer, regarded as a major Canadian artist for her paintings of western coast Indians and landscape. While teaching art in Vancouver, B.C., Carr made frequent sketching trips...
Wayne Shorter
Died On
Wayne Shorter
American musician and composer
August 25, 1933 - March 2, 2023
Wayne Shorter was an American musician and composer, a major jazz saxophonist, among the most influential hard-bop and modal musicians and a pioneer of jazz-rock fusion music. Shorter studied at New York...
Smetana
Born On
Bedřich Smetana
Bohemian composer
March 2, 1824 - May 12, 1884
Bedřich Smetana was a Bohemian composer of operas and symphonic poems, founder of the Czech national school of music. He was the first truly important Bohemian nationalist composer. Smetana studied music...
Berthe Morisot: Self-Portrait
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Berthe Morisot
French painter
January 14, 1841 - March 2, 1895
Berthe Morisot was a French painter and printmaker who exhibited regularly with the Impressionists and, despite the protests of friends and family, continued to participate in their struggle for recognition....
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Asahara Shoko
Japanese religious leader
March 2, 1955 - July 6, 2018
Asahara Shoko was the founder of AUM Shinrikyo (“Supreme Truth”; renamed Aleph in 2000), a millenarian new religious movement in Japan. Asahara was born partially blind and was sent to a school for the...
Walpole, Horace
Died On
Horace Walpole
English author
September 24, 1717 - March 2, 1797
Horace Walpole was an English writer, connoisseur, and collector known for his novel The Castle of Otranto (1764), the first Gothic novel in the English language and one of the earliest literary horror...
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Marcel Hirscher
Austrian skier
March 2, 1989 -
Marcel Hirscher is an Austrian skier who won a record eight consecutive World Cup overall championships (2012–19). Hirscher grew up in the Alpine village of Annaberg-Lungötz, where his father, who was...
Adrian VI
Born On
Adrian VI
pope
March 2, 1459 - September 14, 1523
Adrian VI was the only Dutch pope, elected in 1522. He was the last non-Italian pope until the election of John Paul II in 1978. He studied at the Catholic University of Leuven (Louvain), where he was...
Charlie Christian
Died On
Charlie Christian
American musician
July 29, 1916 - March 2, 1942
Charlie Christian was an American jazz guitarist who was one of the first to produce improvised masterpieces using electrically amplified equipment. His recording career, tragically brief though it was,...
DeWitt Clinton
Born On
DeWitt Clinton
American politician
March 2, 1769 - February 11, 1828
DeWitt Clinton was an American political leader who promulgated the idea of the Erie Canal, which connects the Hudson River to the Great Lakes. DeWitt Clinton was the nephew of Governor George Clinton...
Schurz
Born On
Carl Schurz
German-American politician
March 2, 1829 - May 14, 1906
Carl Schurz was a German-American political leader, journalist, orator, and dedicated reformer who pressed for high moral standards in government in a period of notorious public laxity. As a student at...
Desmoulins, Camille
Born On
Camille Desmoulins
French journalist
March 2, 1760 - April 5, 1794
Camille Desmoulins was one of the most influential journalists and pamphleteers of the French Revolution. The son of an official of Guise, Desmoulins was admitted to the bar in 1785, but a stammer impeded...
Ismāʿīl Pasha
Died On
Ismāʿīl Pasha
Ottoman viceroy of Egypt
December 31, 1830 - March 2, 1895
Ismāʿīl Pasha was the viceroy of Egypt under Ottoman suzerainty, 1863–79, whose administrative policies, notably the accumulation of an enormous foreign debt, were instrumental in leading to British occupation...
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Ken Salazar
American lawyer and politician
March 2, 1955 -
Hispanic Americans: Hispanic activism: Ken Salazar, a Mexican American from Colorado, was a U.S. senator before serving as secretary of the interior in 2009–13. Sonia Sotomayor became the first Hispanic...
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Muḥammad I Askia
Songhai ruler
- March 2, 1538
Muḥammad I Askia was a West African statesman and military leader who usurped the throne of the Songhai empire (1493) and, in a series of conquests, greatly expanded the empire and strengthened it. He...
Jubal Early
Died On
Jubal A. Early
Confederate general
November 3, 1816 - March 2, 1894
Jubal A. Early was a Confederate general in the American Civil War (1861–65) whose army attacked Washington, D.C., in July 1864 but whose series of defeats during the Shenandoah Valley campaigns of late...
Mansfield, William Murray, 1st earl of, earl of Mansfield, baron of Mansfield, Lord Mansfield
Born On
William Murray, 1st earl of Mansfield
British jurist
March 2, 1705 - March 20, 1793
William Murray, 1st earl of Mansfield was the chief justice of the King’s Bench of Great Britain from 1756 to 1788, who made important contributions to commercial law. William Murray was the son of the...
Joel R. Poinsett.
Born On
Joel R. Poinsett
United States statesman
March 2, 1779 - December 12, 1851
Joel R. Poinsett was an American statesman noted primarily for his diplomacy in Latin America. A fervent liberal, he frequently meddled in the affairs of Latin American nations, incurring their animosity...
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Martin Ritt
American director
March 2, 1914 - December 8, 1990
Martin Ritt was an American motion-picture director noted for his films on socially conscious themes. The main characters in Ritt’s films tended to be loners or underdogs whose ethical scruples place them...
Benjamin F. Wade
Died On
Benjamin F. Wade
American politician
October 27, 1800 - March 2, 1878
Benjamin F. Wade was a U.S. senator during the Civil War whose radical views brought him into conflict with presidents Abraham Lincoln and Andrew Johnson. In 1821 Wade’s family moved to Andover, Ohio....
Mel Ott
Born On
Mel Ott
American baseball player, manager, and broadcaster
March 2, 1909 - November 21, 1958
Mel Ott was an American professional baseball player, manager, and broadcaster who played his entire 22-year career with the New York Giants (1926–47). Ott had a unique batting stance with an extremely...
Dreyfuss, Henry
Born On
Henry Dreyfuss
American industrial designer
March 2, 1904 - October 5, 1972
Henry Dreyfuss was a U.S. industrial designer noted for the number and variety of his pioneering designs for modern products. At age 17 Dreyfuss was designing sets for stage presentations at a Broadway...
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Ivar Kreuger
Swedish financier
March 2, 1880 - March 12, 1932
Ivar Kreuger was a Swedish financier, known as “the match king,” who attempted to gain a worldwide monopoly over the production of matches. After practicing as a civil engineer in the U.S. and in South...
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Ricardo Lagos
president of Chile
March 2, 1938 -
Ricardo Lagos is a Chilean economist and politician who served as president of Chile (2000–06). Lagos earned a law degree from the University of Chile in 1960 and then attended Duke University in Durham,...
Władysław I, sarcophagus figure, Wawel Cathedral, Kraków, Poland
Died On
Władysław I
king of Poland
1260 or 1261 - March 2, 1333
Władysław I was the king of Poland (1320–33), a ruler who succeeded in bringing together a series of Polish principalities into a kingdom and laying the foundations for a strong Polish nation. Władysław...
Multatuli
Born On
Multatuli
Dutch author
March 2, 1820 - February 19, 1887
Multatuli was one of the Netherlands’ greatest writers, whose radical ideas and freshness of style eclipsed the mediocre, self-satisfied Dutch literature of the mid-19th century. In 1838 Multatuli went...
Aleksandr Oparin, 1970.
Born On
Aleksandr Oparin
Russian biochemist
March 2, 1894 - April 21, 1980
Aleksandr Oparin was a Russian biochemist noted for his studies on the origin of life from chemical matter. By drawing on the insights of chemistry, he extended the Darwinian theory of evolution backward...
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Lothar
king of France
941 - March 2, 986
Lothar was the Carolingian king of France from 954 to 986, the eldest son of Louis IV. He was elected king without opposition after his father’s death but was dominated first by Hugh the Great and then,...
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Olivia Manning
British writer
March 2, 1908 - July 23, 1980
Olivia Manning was a British journalist and novelist, noted for her ambitious attempt to portray the panorama of modern history in a fictional framework. Manning, the daughter of a naval officer, produced...
David Satcher
Born On
David Satcher
American physician
March 2, 1941 -
David Satcher is an American medical doctor and public health administrator who was the 16th surgeon general of the United States from 1998 to 2002. The son of a small farmer, Satcher nearly died of whooping...
Ernst Haas, photograph by Erich Hartmann.
Born On
Ernst Haas
Austrian photographer
March 2, 1921 - September 12, 1986
Ernst Haas was an Austrian-born photojournalist who was influential for his innovations in colour photography. Haas’s youthful interests were divided between medicine and painting, but after World War...
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Auguste-Frédéric-Louis Viesse de Marmont, duke de Raguse
French marshal
July 20, 1774 - March 2, 1852
Auguste-Frédéric-Louis Viesse de Marmont, duke de Raguse was a marshal of France whose distinguished military career ended when, as Napoleon’s chief lieutenant in a battle under the walls of the city,...
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Saint Chad
English clergyman
- March 2, 672
Saint Chad ; feast day, March 2) was a monastic founder, abbot, and first bishop of Lichfield, who is credited with the Christianization of the ancient English kingdom of Mercia. With his brother St. Cedd,...
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Marc Blitzstein
American composer and author
March 2, 1905 - January 22, 1964
Marc Blitzstein was an American pianist, playwright, and composer known for his unorthodox operas and plays. As a child, Blitzstein was a musical prodigy, performing at age 5, composing at 7, and at 15...
Duke de Saint-Simon, engraving by Louis-François Mariage after a portrait by Van Loo
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Louis de Rouvroy, duke de Saint-Simon
French author
January 15, 1675 - March 2, 1755
Louis de Rouvroy, duke de Saint-Simon was a soldier and writer, known as one of the great memoirists of France. His Mémoires are an important historic document of his time. His father, Claude de Rouvroy...
Leo Geyr von Schweppenburg
Born On
Leo Geyr von Schweppenburg
German military officer
March 2, 1886 - January 27, 1974
Leo Geyr von Schweppenburg was a German tank commander in World War II. Geyr joined the German army in 1904. He fought on several fronts in World War I and rose to the rank of captain. He remained in the...
Champ Clark, 1915
Died On
Champ Clark
American politician
March 7, 1850 - March 2, 1921
Champ Clark was the speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives (1911–19) who narrowly lost the presidential nomination to Woodrow Wilson at the 1912 Democratic Convention on the 46th ballot. Clark moved...
Marshal Suchet
Born On
Louis-Gabriel Suchet, duke d’Albufera da Valencia
French marshal
March 2, 1770 - January 3, 1826
Louis-Gabriel Suchet, duke d’Albufera da Valencia was a marshal of France, one of the most brilliant of Napoleon’s generals, most notably as commander of the Aragon armies in the Peninsular War. The son...
Henry Billings Brown
Born On
Henry Billings Brown
associate justice of the U.S. Supreme Court
March 2, 1836 - September 4, 1913
Henry Billings Brown was an associate justice of the United States Supreme Court (1890–1906). Brown was admitted to the bar in 1860 in Detroit and the following year appointed deputy U.S. marshal there....
Nicholas I
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Nicholas I
king of Montenegro
October 7, 1841 - March 2, 1921
Nicholas I was a prince (1860–1910) and then king (1910–18) of Montenegro, who transformed his small principality into a sovereign European nation. Heir presumptive to his uncle Danilo II, who was childless,...
Merkle, Fred
Died On
Fred Merkle
American athlete
December 20, 1888 - March 2, 1956
Fred Merkle was an American baseball player whose 16-year career (1,637 games) was overshadowed by his classic bonehead play in 1908. In a pennant-deciding game, Merkle, first baseman for the National...