GMT

Today in History: August 2
0047
Caesar defeats Pharnaces at Zela in Syria and declares, "veni, vidi, vici," (I came, I saw, I conquered).

0216
Hannibal Barca wins his greatest victory over the Romans at Cannae. After avidly studying the tactics of Hannibal, Scipio Africanus eventually bested his Carthaginian adversary.

1552
The treaty of Passau gives religious freedom to Protestants living in Germany.

1553
An invading French army is destroyed at the Battle of Marciano in Italy by an imperial army.

1589
During France's religious war, a fanatical monk stabs King Henry II to death.

1776
The Continental Congress, having decided unanimously to make the Declaration of Independence, affixes the signatures of the other delegates to the document.

1790
The first US census begins enumerating the population.

1802
Napoleon Bonaparte is proclaimed "Consul for Life" by the French Senate after a plebiscite from the French people.

1819
The first parachute jump from a balloon is made by Charles Guille in New York City.

1832
Troops under General Henry Atkinson massacre Sauk Indian men, women and children who are followers of Black Hawk at the Bad Axe River in Wisconsin. Black Hawk himself finally surrenders three weeks later, bringing the Black Hawk War to an end.

1847
William A. Leidesdorff launches the first steam boat in San Francisco Bay.

1862
Union General John Pope captures Orange Court House, Virginia.

1862
The Army Ambulance Corps is established by Maj. Gen. George McClellan.

1876
Wild Bill Hickok is shot while playing poker.

1914
Germany invades Luxembourg.

1918
A British force lands in Archangel, Russia, to support White Russian opposition to the Bolsheviks.

1923
Vice President Calvin Coolidge becomes president upon the death of Warren G. Harding.

1934
German President Paul von Hindenburg dies and Adolf Hitler becomes chancellor.

1943
Lt. John F. Kennedy, towing an injured sailor, swims to a small island in the Solomon Islands. The night before, his boat, PT-109, had been split in half by the Japanese destroyer Amagiri.

1950
The U.S. First Provisional Marine Brigade arrives in Korea from the United States.

1964
U.S. destroyer Maddox is reportedly attacked by North Vietnamese patrol boats.

1965
Newsman Morley Safer films the destruction of a Vietnamese village by U.S. Marines.

1990
Iraqi forces invade neighboring Kuwait.

1997
Author William S. Burroughs (Naked Lunch), considered the godfather of the "Beat Generation" in American literature, dies at age 83.

Today in History: Born on August 2
1754
Pierre Charles L'Enfant, French engineer who designed the layout of Washington, D.C.

1820
John Tyndall, British physicist and the first scientist to show why the sky is blue.

1865
Irving Babbitt, scholar and founder of the modern humanistic movement.

1924
James Baldwin, writer whose works include Go Tell It on the Mountain and Notes of a Native Son.

1932
Peter O'Toole, Irish actor.

1942
Isabel Allende, author of The House of the Spirits.

1949
James Fallows, writer and editor of U.S. News and World Report

JOTD
Two men are playing golf, and there are two ladies playing in front of them.

The ladies are taking forever...really playing slow. The men are getting impatient.

After about three holes of this, one guy says, “This is ridiculous”. “Get in the cart and go tell them to let us play through!”

So the other guy takes off in the cart.

About halfway to the next hole, he stops, turns the cart around and comes back.

“Hey”, he says. “This is embarrassing but that’s my wife and my girlfriend playing together. “I can’t get near them. You go.”

So the other guy jumps in the cart and heads off.

A minute later he comes back. He doesn’t say anything...just walks over to the tee box.

The first guy says, “Well? Did you talk to them?”

And the second guy says, “Uh...small world!”