2 March 1863

Russian forces captured the city of Kherson, the only regional capital to be taken during the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

A naming ceremony for the chemical elements moscovium, tennessine, and oganesson took place at the Russian Academy of Sciences in Moscow.

The Oscar selfie, considered to be one of the most influential photographs of all time, was taken at the 86th Academy Awards ceremony.

Researchers at Fermilab in Illinois announced the discovery of the top quark, the most massive of all observed elementary particles.

As a cosmonaut on Soyuz 28, Czechoslovak military pilot Vladimír Remek (pictured) became the first person from outside the Soviet Union or the United States to go into space.

The Rhodesian monarchy was abolished by the government of Rhodesia, which declared the internationally unrecognised country to be a republic.

The maiden flight of Concorde, the Anglo-French supersonic jet, was conducted in Toulouse, France using a prototype aircraft with the registration F-WTSS.

Vietnam War: The American and South Vietnamese air forces began Operation Rolling Thunder, a sustained bombing campaign against North Vietnam that eventually became the most intense air–ground battle waged during the Cold War period.

The Sound of Music (poster pictured) was released in American theatres; it became the highest-grossing film until 1971.

Led by General Ne Win, the Burmese military seized power in a coup d'état.

Playing for the Philadelphia Warriors, American basketball player Wilt Chamberlain (pictured) scored 100 points in a game against the New York Knicks, which remains an NBA record.

The B-50 Superfortress Lucky Lady II landed in Fort Worth, Texas, to complete the first non-stop circumnavigation of the world by airplane.

World War II: Australian and U.S. air forces attacked and destroyed a large Japanese naval convoy in the Bismarck Sea, north of Papua New Guinea.

U.S. Steel, the first billion-dollar corporation and once the world's largest producer of steel, was founded by financier J. P. Morgan.

The Electoral Commission awarded twenty disputed electoral votes to Rutherford B. Hayes, thus assuring his victory in the 1876 U.S. presidential election.

New Zealand Wars: Carl Sylvius Völkner, a Protestant missionary, was killed by Hauhau militants in Ōpōtiki for working as an agent for New Zealand governor-general George Grey.

The Great Slave Auction, the largest single sale of slaves in U.S. history, with more than 400 people sold, began in Georgia.

Texas Revolution: At a convention of delegates in Washington-on-the-Brazos, the Mexican state of Texas adopted a declaration of independence, establishing the Republic of Texas.

French inventor Claude Chappe and his brothers first demonstrated the semaphore telegraph, a system to convey information by means of visual signals, using towers with pivoting crossarms.

American Revolutionary War: Patriot militiamen from Georgia and South Carolina attempted to resist the British action to seize and remove supply ships anchored at Savannah, Georgia.

The College of Arms, one of the few remaining official heraldic authorities in Europe, was incorporated by royal charter in the City of London.

The League of Lezhë, an alliance of regional chieftains, was established in Venetian Albania with Skanderbeg as their commander.

The Lebanese militant group Hezbollah launches several projectiles into northern Israel as a response to the assassination of Ali Khamenei, formally initiating the 2026 Lebanon War.

Russian forces capture the city of Kherson during the Russian invasion of Ukraine, which subsequently began the start of the Russian occupation and military-civilian administration in Kherson. Kherson is the only regional capital in Ukraine that Russia captured.