2 July 1666

In the Indonesian province of Aceh on the northern end of Sumatra, a Mw 6.1 strike-slip earthquake killed at least 35 people and injured 276 others.

The International Astronomical Union announced that the fourth and fifth moons of Pluto to be discovered would be named Kerberos and Styx, respectively.

Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets by J. K. Rowling, the second novel of the Harry Potter series, was published.

Singing Revolution: The Soviet economic blockade of Lithuania (pictured) was lifted when the Lithuanian parliament agreed to suspend the effects of their act to re-establish Lithuania as a state.

More than a year after the end of the Vietnam War, North and South Vietnam officially merged under communist rule to form the Socialist Republic of Vietnam.

The Civil Rights Act was signed into law, outlawing segregation in schools, at the workplace, and other facilities that served the general public in the United States.

A German SS unit arrived in Vilnius, Lithuania, and began the systematic execution of up to 100,000 people over the next three years.

U.S. president James A. Garfield (pictured) was fatally shot by Charles J. Guiteau at the Baltimore and Potomac Railroad station in Washington, D.C.

The French frigate Méduse ran aground off the coast of present-day Mauritania, with the survivors escaping on a makeshift raft, depicted in Théodore Géricault's painting The Raft of the Medusa.

American Revolutionary War: French troops landed near St. George's, Grenada, and began their capture of the island.

On the Feast of the Visitation, Bach led the first performance of his Meine Seel erhebt den Herren, BWV 10, based on the German Magnificat.

First English Civil War: The combined forces of Scottish Covenanters and English Parliamentarians defeated Royalist troops at the Battle of Marston Moor.

Li Shimin (pictured) led his forces to assassinate his rival brothers in a coup for the imperial throne of Tang China.

The Live 8 benefit concerts takes place in the G8 states and in South Africa. More than 1,000 musicians perform and are broadcast on 182 television networks and 2,000 radio networks.

Vicente Fox Quesada is elected the first President of México from an opposition party, the Partido Acción Nacional, after more than 70 years of continuous rule by the Partido Revolucionario Institucional, in the 2000 Mexican general election.

The Bank of Thailand floats the baht, triggering the Asian financial crisis.

USAir Flight 1016 crashes near Charlotte Douglas International Airport, killing 37 of the 57 people on board.

A mob sets fire to the Hotel Madımak in Sivas, Turkey, where an Alevi cultural festival was taking place, killing 37 people.

In the 1990 Mecca tunnel tragedy, 1,400 Muslim pilgrims are suffocated to death and trampled upon in a pedestrian tunnel leading to the holy city of Mecca.

Rodrigo Rojas and Carmen Gloria Quintana are burnt alive during a street demonstration against the dictatorship of General Augusto Pinochet in Chile in the Quemados case.

Aeroflot Flight 2306 crashes while attempting an emergency landing at Syktyvkar Airport in Syktyvkar, in present-day Komi Republic, Russia, killing 54 people.

End of South Vietnam; Communist North Vietnam annexes the former South Vietnam to form the unified Socialist Republic of Vietnam.

Civil rights movement: U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson signs the Civil Rights Act of 1964 meant to prohibit segregation in public places.

Amelia Earhart and navigator Fred Noonan are last heard from over the Pacific Ocean and disappear while attempting to make the first equatorial round-the-world flight.