Did you know about Kevin Smith
Kevin Smith came to prominence with the low-budget comedy film Clerks (1994), which he wrote, directed, co-produced, co-edited, and acted in as the character Silent Bob.
Famous Birthdays on August 2
August 2 has 256 recorded notable births across history, from 1260 to 2006. This focused page highlights 20 people with the strongest available profile context.
1970 — Kevin Smith
American actor, director, producer, and screenwriter
By thisDay.info Editorial Team · — Wikipedia
Famous Birthdays
256 source records
1260 – 2006
Leo
Today in history
Major events on August 2
See what else happened on this day in history.
Did you know about Shimon Peres
Shimon Peres was an Israeli politician and statesman who served as the prime minister of Israel from 1984 to 1986 and from 1995 to 1996 and as the president of Israel from 2007 to 2014.
Did you know about Skylar Diggins
Skylar Diggins finished her Notre Dame career ranked first in points and steals, second in assists, and as a two-time winner of the Nancy Lieberman Award as the top point guard in the nation.
Did you know about David Hart Smith
Harry Francis Smith, better known by his ring name Davey Boy Smith Jr., is a Canadian professional wrestler and catch wrestler.
Did you know about Grady Sizemore
Grady Sizemore is an American former professional baseball center fielder, coach and manager who currently serves as the first base coach and the outfield and base running instructor for the Minnesota Twins of Major League Baseball (MLB).
More major people born on August 2
Notable people are ranked by substantive profile depth and public notability.
1923
Shimon Peres
Polish-Israeli lawyer and politician, 9th President of Israel (died 2016)
Shimon Peres was an Israeli politician and statesman who served as the prime minister of Israel from 1984 to 1986 and from 1995 to 1996 and as the president of Israel from 2007 to 2014. He was a member of twelve cabinets and represented five political parties in a political career spanning 70 years. Peres was elected to the Knesset in November 1959 and except for three months out of office in early 2006, served as a member of the Knesset continuously until he was elected president in 2007. Serving in the Knesset for 48 years, Peres is the longest serving member in the Knesset's history. At the time of his retirement from politics in 2014, he was the world's oldest head of state and was considered the last link to Israel's founding generation, as well as the last Prime Minister to make aliyah rather than being born on territory that would become Israel.
1990
Skylar Diggins
American basketball player
Skylar Kierra Diggins is an American professional basketball player for the Chicago Sky of the Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA) and for the Lunar Owls of Unrivaled. Diggins was drafted third overall by the Tulsa Shock in the 2013 WNBA draft. In high school, she was the National Gatorade Player of the Year and the Gatorade Female Athlete of the Year. She played college basketball for the Notre Dame Fighting Irish and led the team to three consecutive Final Fours and two consecutive NCAA championship appearances. She finished her Notre Dame career ranked first in points and steals, second in assists, and as a two-time winner of the Nancy Lieberman Award as the top point guard in the nation.
1985
David Hart Smith
Canadian wrestler
Harry Francis Smith, better known by his ring name Davey Boy Smith Jr., is a Canadian professional wrestler and catch wrestler. He currently performs for Major League Wrestling (MLW), where he is a two-time Opera Cup winner and a former two-time MLW World Tag Team Champion, and All Japan Pro Wrestling (AJPW), where he is a former Triple Crown Heavyweight Champion. He is best known for his time in New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW), where he was a former three-time IWGP Tag Team Champion as part of the Killer Elite Squad with Lance Archer, as well as being a two-time GHC Tag Team Champion in Pro Wrestling Noah due to NJPW's working relationship with Pro Wrestling Noah.
1982
Grady Sizemore
American baseball player
Grady Sizemore is an American former professional baseball center fielder, coach and manager who currently serves as the first base coach and the outfield and base running instructor for the Minnesota Twins of Major League Baseball (MLB). He played in MLB for the Cleveland Indians from 2004 through 2011, but did not play in the majors for the following two years after a series of injuries. He returned in 2014 with the Boston Red Sox and played for the Philadelphia Phillies from 2014 to 2015 before finishing 2015 with the Tampa Bay Rays. He was a three-time MLB All-Star and a two-time Gold Glove Award winner, and also won a Silver Slugger Award.
1960
Neal Morse
American singer and keyboard player
Neal Morse is an American singer, musician and composer based in Nashville, Tennessee. In 1992, he formed the progressive rock band Spock's Beard with his brother Alan and released an album which was moderately successful. In 1999, he joined Dream Theater's co-founder and drummer Mike Portnoy, the Flower Kings' Roine Stolt, and Marillion's Pete Trewavas to form the supergroup Transatlantic. In 2002, Neal Morse became a born again Christian, left Spock's Beard and began a Christian rock solo career, releasing many progressive rock concept albums about his new religious faith. In the meantime, he continued to play with Transatlantic and formed three new bands with Portnoy, Yellow Matter Custard, Flying Colors, and the Neal Morse Band.
1900
Helen Morgan
American actress and singer (died 1941)
Helen Morgan was an American singer and actress who worked in films and on the stage. A quintessential torch singer, she made a big splash in the Chicago club scene in the 1920s. She starred as Julie LaVerne in the original Broadway production of Hammerstein and Kern's musical Show Boat in 1927, as well as in the 1932 Broadway revival of the musical, and appeared in two film adaptations, a part-talkie made in 1929 and a full-sound version made in 1936, becoming firmly associated with the role. She suffered from bouts of alcoholism, and despite her notable success in the title role of another Hammerstein and Kern's Broadway musical, Sweet Adeline (1929), her stage career was relatively short. Helen Morgan died of cirrhosis of the liver at the age of 41. She was portrayed by Polly Bergen in the Playhouse 90 drama The Helen Morgan Story and by Ann Blyth in the 1957 biopic based on the television drama.
1880
Arthur Dove
American painter and educator (died 1946)
Arthur Garfield Dove was an American artist. An early American modernist, he is often considered the first American abstract painter. Dove used a wide range of media, sometimes in unconventional combinations, to produce his abstractions and his abstract landscapes. Me and the Moon from 1937 is a good example of an Arthur Dove abstract landscape and has been referred to as one of the culminating works of his career. Dove made a series of experimental collages in the 1920s. He also experimented with techniques, combining paints like hand mixed oil or tempera over a wax emulsion as exemplified in Dove's 1938 painting Tanks, in the collection of the Boston Museum of Fine Arts.
1865
Irving Babbitt
American academic and critic (died 1933)
Irving Babbitt was an American academic and literary critic, noted for his founding role in a movement that became known as the New Humanism, a significant influence on literary discussion and conservative thought in the period between 1910 and 1930. He was a cultural critic in the tradition of Matthew Arnold and a consistent opponent of romanticism, as represented by the writings of Jean-Jacques Rousseau. Politically he can, without serious distortion, be called a follower of Aristotle and Edmund Burke. He was an advocate of classical humanism but also offered an ecumenical defense of religion. His humanism implied a broad knowledge of various moral and religious traditions. His book Democracy and Leadership (1924) is regarded as a classic text of political conservatism. Babbitt is regarded as a major influence over American cultural and political conservatism.
1941
Jules A. Hoffmann
Luxembourgish-French biologist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate
Jules Alphonse Nicolas Hoffmann is a Luxembourgish-French biologist. During his youth, growing up in Luxembourg, he developed a strong interest in insects under the influence of his father, Jos Hoffmann. This eventually resulted in the younger Hoffmann's dedication to the field of biology using insects as model organisms. He currently holds a faculty position at the University of Strasbourg. He is a research director and member of the board of administrators of the National Center of Scientific Research (CNRS) in Strasbourg, France. He was elected to the positions of Vice-President (2005–2006) and President (2007–2008) of the French Academy of Sciences. Hoffmann and Bruce Beutler were jointly awarded a half share of the 2011 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for "their discoveries concerning the activation of innate immunity".
1923
Ike Williams
American boxer (died 1994)
Isiah "Ike" Williams was an American professional boxer known as the Trenton Tornado. He was a lightweight world boxing champion. He took the World Lightweight Championship in April 1945 and made eight successful defenses of the title against six different fighters prior to losing the championship to Jimmy Carter in 1951. Williams was known for his great right hand, and was named to The Ring magazine's list of 100 greatest punchers of all time as well as The Ring magazine Fighter of the Year for 1948. Williams was also the Boxing Writers Association of America Fighter of the Year for 1948, was inducted into The Ring Boxing Hall of Fame, and was an inaugural 1990 inductee to the International Boxing Hall of Fame.
1902
Mina Rees
American mathematician (died 1997)
Mina Spiegel Rees was an American mathematician. She is known for her assistance to the US Government during WWII, as well as making several breakthroughs for women in science. Her most notable accomplishments include becoming the first female President of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (1971) and head of the mathematics department of the Office of Naval Research of the US. Rees was a pioneer in the history of computing and helped establish funding streams and institutional infrastructure for research. She also helped other women succeed in mathematics with her involvement in the Association for Women in Mathematics as well as her life-long career as a professor at Hunter College.
1939
John W. Snow
American businessman and politician, 73rd United States Secretary of the Treasury
John William Snow is an American economist, attorney, and businessman who is the former CEO of CSX Corporation and served as the 73rd United States secretary of the treasury under U.S. President George W. Bush. He replaced Secretary Paul H. O'Neill on February 3, 2003, and was succeeded by Henry Paulson on July 3, 2006. Snow submitted a letter of resignation on May 30, 2006, effective "after an orderly transition period for my successor." Snow announced on June 29, 2006, that he had completed his last day on the job; Robert M. Kimmitt served as acting secretary until Paulson was sworn in. Snow has since worked as chairman of Cerberus Capital Management.
1916
Alfonso A. Ossorio
Filipino-American painter and sculptor (died 1990)
Alfonso Angel Yangco Ossorio was a Filipino American abstract expressionist artist who was born in Manila in 1916 to wealthy Filipino parents from the province of Negros Occidental. His heritage was Hispanic, Filipino, and Chinese. Between the ages of eight and thirteen, he attended school in England. At age fourteen, he moved to the United States. Ossorio attended Portsmouth Priory in Rhode Island, graduating in 1934. From 1934 to 1938, he studied fine art at Harvard University and then continued his studies at the Rhode Island School of Design. He became an American citizen in 1933 and served as a medical illustrator in the United States Army during World War II.
1937
Billy Cannon
American football player and dentist (died 2018)
Billy Abb Cannon Sr. was an American professional football player who was a halfback and tight end in the American Football League (AFL) and National Football League (NFL). He attended Louisiana State University (LSU), where he played college football as a halfback, return specialist, and safety for the LSU Tigers. At LSU, Cannon was twice named a unanimous All-American, helped the 1958 LSU team win a national championship, and received the Heisman Trophy as the nation's most outstanding college player in 1959. His punt return against Ole Miss on Halloween night in 1959 is considered by fans and sportswriters to be one of the most famous plays in LSU sports history.
1740
Jean Baptiste Camille Canclaux
French general (died 1817)
Jean Baptiste Camille de Canclaux was a French army commander during the French Revolution and a Peer of France. He joined a cavalry regiment the French Royal Army in 1756 and fought at Minden in the Seven Years' War. He attained the rank of maréchal de camp in 1788 and lieutenant general in 1792. He commanded the Army of the Coasts of Brest from May until October 1793 fighting several actions during the War in the Vendée. Replaced for political reasons, he led the Army of the West in 1794–1795. He held interior posts during the rest of the French Revolutionary Wars and under the First French Empire of Napoleon.
1696
Mahmud I
Ottoman sultan (died 1754)
Mahmud I, known as Mahmud the Hunchback, was the sultan of the Ottoman Empire from 1730 to 1754. He took over the throne after the quelling of the Patrona Halil rebellion. His reign was marked by wars in Persia and conflicts in Europe. He delegated government affairs to his viziers and devoted time to writing poetry. Nader Shah's devastating campaign weakened the Mughal Empire and created the opportunity for Mahmud I to initiate war with cooperation from Muhammad Shah. The alliance ended with the latter's death, leading to tensions between the Afsharids and the Ottomans. In 1748, he outlawed Freemasonry within the Ottoman Empire.
1976
Sam Worthington
English-Australian actor and producer
Samuel Henry John Worthington is an Australian actor who has worked in both independent Australian cinema and Hollywood. He rose to prominence in Australia with performances in the films Bootmen (2000) and Somersault (2004), receiving Australia Film Institute Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role nominations for both films and winning the latter, and gained further recognition through his role in the TV series Love My Way. Worthington achieved international fame as protagonist Jake Sully in James Cameron’s Avatar (2009), the highest-grossing film of all time, and received a second AFI award for the film; he reprised his role in its sequels.
1924
James Baldwin
American novelist, poet, and critic (died 1987)
James Arthur Baldwin was an American writer and civil rights activist who garnered acclaim for his essays, novels, plays, and poems. His 1953 novel Go Tell It on the Mountain has been ranked by Time magazine as one of the top 100 English-language novels. His 1955 essay collection Notes of a Native Son helped establish his reputation as a voice for human equality. His 1965 debate with William Buckley is regarded as one of the most influential debates on race in the United States. Baldwin was an influential public figure and orator, especially during the civil rights movement in the United States.
1953
Donnie Munro
Scottish singer and guitarist
Donnie Munro is a Scottish musician and politician, best known as the former lead singer of the band Runrig. Munro served as the bands lead vocalist during their most commercially successful period, 1987–1995, particularly with the release of their album The Cutter and the Clan and the 1995 single "An Ubhal as Àirde " which made chart history by becoming the first song to be performed in Scottish Gaelic to chart in the United Kingdom. Mara (1995) served as the last album released by Runrig to feature Munro on lead vocals, leaving the band in 1997 to pursue a career in politics.