Holidays Calendar for July 2, 2018

July 2 is a public holiday in the Country of Curaçao, National Flag and Anthem Day. Although Curaçao is part of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, it has its own flag and anthem.

The first Monday in July is Constitution Day in the Cayman Islands. This holiday celebrates the day of adoption of the first constitution of the islands in 1959.

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Virgin Islands Day, formerly known as Colony Day and then Territory Day, is a public holiday in the British Virgin Islands. Celebrated on the first Monday of July, it commemorates the day when the Virgin Islands became a standalone self-governing colony of the United Kingdom.

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CARICOM Day is a common holiday for many countries of the Caribbean Community. For instance, Guyana annually celebrates this holiday on the first Monday in July.

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The first Monday in July is Heroes' Day in Zambia. This is a public holiday, which is why all Zambians have a day off to observe this day.

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World Sports Journalists Day is a global professional observance held on July 2. It was established by the International Sports Press Association (AIPS) in 1994 to mark the 70th anniversary of its foundation.

World UFO Day is an annual awareness day that celebrates the alleged existence of unidentified flying objects and extraterrestrial life. The observance has two possible dates: June 24 to commemorate the Kenneth Arnold UFO sighting and July 2 to commemorate the Roswell UFO incident. Both of these UFO sightings occurred in 1947.

Day of the Diplomatic Service, also known as Diplomacy Day, is an official professional holiday in Kazakhstan celebrated on July 2 each year. It was established by President Nursultan Nazarbayev in 2009.

July 2 is Police Day in Azerbaijan. This is an official professional observance that commemorates the creation of the country's police force in 1918. It is also referred to as Day of Azerbaijan Police Workers.

Tax Service Employee’s Day, celebrated on July 2, is one of the newest professional holidays in Ukraine. President Volodymyr Zelensky established it by his decree in July 2020. However, it is not the first professional holiday for tax service employees in the history of Ukraine.

National Wildland Firefighter Day is observed annually on July 2. It was created to celebrate the bravery of emergency responders who risk their lives battling wildland fires and pay tribute to those of them who have lost their lives in the line of duty.

Millions of trees are annually planted across India during the National Festival of Trees Planting (Van Mahotsav) in India. The festival lasts for one week and it corresponds to the well-known tradition of Arbor Day in other countries.

July 2 is National Anisette Day. People across the country celebrate the holiday with a glass of their favorite drink.

Raspberry Cheesecake Day, sometimes referred to as National Raspberry Cheesecake Day, is observed annually on July 2. It celebrates the delicious combination of rich and creamy cheesecake and juicy raspberries.

Most countries in the Arab world celebrate Mother's Day on March 21 (the spring equinox). However, South Sudan is an exception. Mother's Day in South Sudan is celebrated on the first Monday in July.

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This Day in History

  • 2013 Died: Douglas Engelbart, American computer scientist. He's best known for work on the challenges of human-computer interaction, that led to creation of the computer mouse.
  • 2013 The fourth and fifth Pluto's moons were named by the International Astronomical Union. They received names of Kerebos and Styx, accordingly.
  • 2005 Died: Ernest Lehman, American director, producer, and screenwriter. His wrote screenplays of Sabrina, North by Northwest, West Side Story, Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, Hello, Dolly!, Black Sunday, The Sound of Music. He received six Academy Awards nominations, but won none of them.
  • 2005 Live 8 benefit concerts: 10 concerts simultaneously were held in Japan, Britain, Canada, Germany, France, the USA, Italy and South Africa. More than 1,000 musicians performed and were broadcast on 182 TV networks and 2,000 radio networks. The concerts were organized in support of the Global Call for Action Against Poverty.
  • 2002 Steve Fosset became the first person to make a solo around the world in a balloon.
  • 1999 Died: Mario Puzo, American author and screenwriter, best known for being an author and a screenwriter of The Godfather. This film brought him the Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay.
  • 1997 Died: James Stewart, American actor and singer, known for his distinctive drawl voice. The American Film Institute named him to be the third greatest male screen legend in cinema history.
  • 1986 Born: Lindsay Lohan, American actress and singer. She began her career at the age of 3, when she became a child model. She rose to fame after two commercially successful films Freaky Friday and Mean Girls, both of them earned several MTV Movie Awards and Teen Choice Awards.
  • 1984 Born: Johnny Weir, American figure skater, U.S. national champion, 2008 World bronze medalist, a two-time Grand Prix Final bronze medalist and the 2001 World Junior Champion. He's known for his refined technique, artistry and intricate costumes.
  • 1976 South Vietnam and North Vietnam unified, declaring the Socialist Republic of Vietnam.
  • 1973 Died: Betty Grable, American actress, singer, and dancer, one of the pin-up girls of World War II. She was very famous during the 1940s and 1950s and inspired Hugh Hefner to found Playboy.
  • 1966 The first ever nuclear test in the Pacific: the French military exploded a nuclear test bomb codenamed Aldébaran in atoll Mururoa.
  • 1961 Died: Ernest Hemingway, American journalist and author, Nobel Prize laureate for his mastery of the art of narrative, most recently demonstrated in The Old Man and the Sea, and for the influence that he has exerted on contemporary style.
  • 1948 Born: Saul Rubinek, Canadian actor and director, known for his work in TV, film and stage. He is best known for roles in films Against All Odds, Wall Street, The Bonfire of the Vanities, Unforgiven. He also played number of roles in TV series, like Warehouse 13, Leverage etc.
  • 1926 Died: Émile Coué, French psychologist and pharmacist, creator of a popular method of psychotherapy and self-improvement based on optimistic autosuggestion "Every day, in every way, I'm getting better and better".
  • 1925 Born: Patrice Lumumba, Congolese politician, the first democratically elected Prime Minister of the Republic of the Congo (present-day the Democratic Republic of the Congo). Lumumba was a key figure in campaigning for independence from Belgium.
  • 1922 Born: Pierre Cardin, Italian-French fashion designer, founder of The House of Cardin and known for his avant-garde style and space age designs.
  • 1921 U.S. President Warren G. Harding signed the Knox-Porter Resolution formally ending the war between the USA and Imperial Germany.
  • 1904 Born: René Lacoste, French tennis player and businessman. He is best known for creation of tennis shirt and foundation of Lacoste clothing company.
  • 1900 The first flight of zeppelin took place on Lake Constance near Friedrichshafen, Germany.
  • 1897 Italian scientist t Guglielmo Marconi patented in London his invention, the radio.
  • 1881 U.S. President James Garfield was shot and fatally wounded by Charles J. Guiteau, an American preacher, writer and lawyer. President Garfield died from an infection in September of the same year, a year later Guiteau was executed by hanging.
  • 1877 Born: Hermann Hesse, German-Swiss author and poet. One of his greatest achievements was Nobel Prize in Literature, awarded in 1946. His best known books include Steppenwolf, Siddhartha, and The Glass Bead Game.
  • 1862 Born: William Henry Bragg, English physicist, chemist, and mathematician. He was awarded with Nobel Prize in Physics for his work in the analysis of crystal structure by means of X-rays. The mineral Braggite was named after him and his son.
  • 1778 Died: Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Swiss philosopher and composer. His philosophy influenced the French Revolution and overall development of modern political, sociological and educational thought.
  • 1714 Born: Christoph Willibald Gluck, German composer in the early classical period. His best known masterpieces are Orfeo ed Euridice, Alceste, Iphigénie en Tauride.
  • 1698 The first steam engine was patented by its inventor Thomas Savery.
  • 1621 Died: Thomas Harriot, English astronomer, mathematician, and ethnographer. Harriot was the first man to draw the Moon through a telescope. He is also sometimes credited with introduction of potato to the British Isles.
  • 1566 Died: Michel de Nostredame or Nostradamus, French astrologer and author. During his lifetime he published number of prophecies that have since become famous worldwide.
  • 1489 Born: Thomas Cranmer, English archbishop, a leader of the English Reformation. He was involved in separation of the English Church from Vatican and supported the principle of Royal Supremacy, in which the king was considered sovereign over the Church within his realm.