Did you know
He wrote crime novels about the Italian-American Mafia and Sicilian Mafia, most notably The Godfather (1969), which he later co-adapted into a film trilogy directed by Francis Ford Coppola
Notable Deaths on July 2
96 people
626 – 2025
July 2 has seen 96 notable figures pass away throughout recorded history — from 626 – 2025. Below are the most significant names who died on this date.
By thisDay.info Editorial Team · — Wikipedia
1999 — Mario Puzo
American author and screenwriter (born 1920)
Did you know
He received the Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay for the first film in 1972 and for Part II in 1974
Did you know
Puzo also wrote the original screenplay for the 1978 Superman film and its 1980 sequel
Did you know
His final novel, The Family, was released posthumously in 2001.
Did you know
Mario Francis Puzo was an American author and screenwriter
Chinese prince (born 589)
Li Jiancheng (Chinese: 李建成; pinyin: Lǐ Jiànchéng; 589 – July 2, 626, formally Crown Prince Yin, nickname Vaishravana, was the first crown prince of the Chinese Tang dynasty. He was the oldest son of the founding emperor…
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626
626
649
862
Frankish nobleman
Robert the Strong was the father of two kings of West Francia: Odo and Robert I of France. His family is named after him and called the Robertians. In 853, he was named missus dominicus by Charles the Bald, King of West…
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866
German king (born 876)
Henry the Fowler was the duke of Saxony from 912 and the king of East Francia from 919 until his death in 936. As the first non-Frankish king of East Francia, he established the Ottonian dynasty of kings and emperors,…
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936
1298
Stephen III, better known as Stephen the Great, was Voivode of Moldavia from 1457 until his death. He was one of the most prominent rulers of late medieval Eastern Europe, noted for his long reign, military leadership…
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1504
French astrologer and author (born 1503)
Michel de Nostredame, usually Latinised as Nostradamus, was a French astrologer, apothecary, physician, and reputed seer, who is best known for his book Les Prophéties, a collection of 942 poetic quatrains allegedly…
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1566
English explorer
Thomas Doughty was an English nobleman, soldier, scholar and personal secretary of Christopher Hatton. His association with Francis Drake, on a 1577 voyage to raid Spanish treasure fleets, ended in a shipboard trial for…
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1578
Japanese samurai and warlord (born 1528)
Akechi Mitsuhide , first called Jūbei from his clan and later Koretō Hyūga no Kami (惟任日向守) from his title, was a Japanese samurai general of the Sengoku period. Mitsuhide was originally a bodyguard of the last Ashikaga…
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1582
Italian lute player and composer (born 1520)
Vincenzo Galilei was an Italian lutenist, composer, and music theorist. His children included the astronomer and physicist Galileo Galilei and the lute virtuoso and composer Michelagnolo Galilei. Vincenzo was a figure…
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1591
English astronomer, mathematician, and ethnographer (born 1560)
Thomas Harriot, also spelled Harriott, Hariot or Heriot, was an English astronomer, mathematician, ethnographer and translator to whom the theory of refraction is attributed. Thomas Harriot was also recognized for his…
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1621
comte de Broglie, Italian-French general (born 1611)
François-Marie, comte de Broglie and comte de Revel was a prominent soldier and commander in the Thirty Years' War.
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1656
Duke of Württemberg (born 1614)
Eberhard III ruled as Duke of Württemberg from 1628 until his death in 1674.
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1674
1st Earl of Wilmington, English politician, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (born 1673)
Spencer Compton, 1st Earl of Wilmington was a British Whig statesman who served continuously in government from 1715 until his death in 1743. He sat in the English and British House of Commons between 1698 and 1728, and…
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1743
1746
Swiss philosopher and composer (born 1712)
Jean-Jacques Rousseau was a Genevan philosopher, philosophe, writer, and composer. His political philosophy influenced the progress of the Age of Enlightenment throughout Europe, as well as aspects of the French…
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1778
Argentinian lawyer and politician, 1st Supreme Director of the United Provinces of the Río de la Plata (born 1757)
Gervasio Antonio de Posadas y Dávila was an Argentine lawyer and statesman who served as the first Supreme Director of the United Provinces of the Río de la Plata from 31 January 1814 to 9 January 1815, after having…
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1833
German physician and academic (born 1755)
Christian Friedrich Samuel Hahnemann was a German medical doctor, best known for creating the pseudoscientific system of alternative medicine called homeopathy.
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1843
English lieutenant and politician, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (born 1788)
Sir Robert Peel, 2nd Baronet, was a British Conservative statesman who twice was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, and simultaneously was Chancellor of the Exchequer (1834–1835). He previously was Home Secretary…
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1850
Italian soldier and philosopher (born 1818)
Carlo Pisacane, Duke of San Giovanni was an Italian patriot and one of the first Italian socialist thinkers. He was an early advocate of propaganda by deed, arguing that violence was necessary not only to draw attention…
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1857
American baseball player (born 1867)
Edward James Delahanty, nicknamed "Big Ed", was an American professional baseball player, who spent his Major League Baseball (MLB) playing career with the Philadelphia Quakers, Cleveland Infants, Philadelphia Phillies,…
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1903
English cricketer (born 1870)
Tom Richardson was an English cricketer. A fast bowler, Richardson relied to a great extent on the break-back, a relatively long run-up and high arm which allowed him to gain sharp lift on fast pitches even from the…
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1912
English businessman and politician, Secretary of State for the Colonies (born 1836)
Joseph Chamberlain was a British statesman who was first a radical Liberal, then a Liberal Unionist after opposing home rule for Ireland, and eventually was a leading imperialist in coalition with the Conservatives. He…
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1914
Mexican general and politician, 29th President of Mexico (born 1830)
José de la Cruz Porfirio Díaz Mori was a Mexican general and politician who was the dictator of Mexico from 1876 until his overthrow in 1911. Seizing power in a military coup, he served as president of Mexico on three…
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1915
American general and engineer (born 1846)
William Louis Marshall was an influential figure in the US Corps of Engineers.
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1920
French psychologist and pharmacist (born 1857)
Émile Coué de la Châtaigneraie was a French psychologist, pharmacist, and hypnotist who introduced a popular method of psychotherapy and self-improvement based on optimistic autosuggestion.It was in no small measure…
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1926
American actress (born 1894)
Gladys Brockwell was an American actress whose career began during the silent film era.
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1929
Dom Manuel II, sometimes known as the Unfortunate or the Patriot, was the last king of Portugal, reigning from 1908 until 1910.
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1932
English soldier, Victoria Cross recipient (born 1873)
Edward Lawson VC was an English recipient of the Victoria Cross, the highest and most prestigious award for gallantry in the face of the enemy that can be awarded to British and Commonwealth forces.
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1955
American novelist, short story writer, and journalist, Nobel Prize laureate (born 1899)
Ernest Miller Hemingway was an American novelist, short-story writer, and journalist. Known for an economical, understated style that influenced later 20th-century writers, he has been romanticized for his adventurous…
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1961
American publisher, co-founded Newsday (born 1906)
Alicia Patterson was an American journalist, and cofounder and editor of New York daily newspaper Newsday. She created the Deathless Deer comic strip with Neysa McMein in 1943.
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1963
American race car driver (born 1929)
Edward Glenn "Fireball" Roberts Jr. was an American stock car racer.
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1964
Polish poet, author, and lawyer (born 1900)
Jan Wiktor Brzechwa was a Polish poet, author and lawyer, known mostly for his contribution to children's literature.
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1966
Australian suffragette and feminist (born 1889)
Jessie Mary Grey Street was an Australian diplomat, suffragette, and a campaigner for Indigenous Australian rights. She was referred to as "Red Jessie" by the Australian media, due to her support for the Soviet Union…
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1970
American religious leader, 10th President of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (born 1876)
Joseph Fielding Smith Jr. was an American religious leader and writer who served as the tenth president of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints from 1970 until his death in 1972. He was the son of former…
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1972
American actress, singer, and dancer (born 1916)
Elizabeth Ruth Grable was an American actress, pin-up girl, dancer, model, and singer. Her 42 films during the 1930s and 1940s grossed more than $100 million, and for 10 consecutive years (1942–1951) she placed among…
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1973
American baseball player and manager (born 1880)
George Florian "Pinch" McBride was an American professional baseball shortstop for the Milwaukee Brewers, Pittsburgh Pirates, St. Louis Cardinals, and Washington Senators from 1901 to 1920. He started off with the…
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1973
German field marshal and convicted war criminal (born 1892)
Ferdinand Schörner was a German military commander and convicted war criminal, who held the rank of Generalfeldmarschall in the Wehrmacht of Nazi Germany during World War II. He was the only German soldier to rise to…
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1973
English actor (born 1907)
James Robertson Justice was a British actor. He often portrayed pompous authority figures in comedies, including each of the seven films in the Doctor series. He also co-starred with Gregory Peck in several adventure…
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1975
Russian-born novelist and critic (born 1899)
Vladimir Vladimirovich Nabokov, also known by the pen name Vladimir Sirin, was a Russian and American novelist, poet, translator, and entomologist.
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1977
Greek author and poet (born 1922)
Aris Alexandrou was a Greek novelist, poet and translator. Always on the Left and always unconventional, he is the author of a single novel which is widely considered to be among the classic modern Greek works in the…
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1978
leader of the Irish Republican Army during the Irish War of Independence and the Irish Civil War (born 1897)
Thomas Bernardine Barry (1 July 1897 – 2 July 1980 was an Irish republican. He was a prominent guerrilla leader in the Irish Republican Army during the Irish War of Independence and the Irish Civil War. Barry is often…
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1980
American baseball player and manager (born 1917)
Harry Lee "Peanuts" Lowrey was an American outfielder in Major League Baseball who played for the Chicago Cubs, Cincinnati Reds (1949–50), St. Louis Cardinals (1950–54) and Philadelphia Phillies (1955).
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1986
Canadian astronomer and astrophysicist (born 1894)
Alice Vibert Douglas, who usually went by her middle name, was a Canadian astronomer and astrophysicist.
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1988
Soviet economist and politician, Soviet Minister of Foreign Affairs (born 1909)
Andrei Andreyevich Gromyko was a Soviet politician and diplomat during the Cold War. He served as Minister of Foreign Affairs (1957–1985) and as Chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet (1985–1988). Gromyko was…
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1989
American singer (born 1914)
Roy Landman, better known as Snooky Lanson, was an American singer known for co-starring on the NBC TV show, Your Hit Parade.
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1990
American actress (born 1935)
Lee Ann Remick was an American actress. She was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actress for the film Days of Wine and Roses (1962) and was nominated for the Tony Award for Best Actress in a Play for her role in…
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1991
American actor (born 1926)
Frederick Hubbard Gwynne was an American actor, artist, and author, who is widely known for his roles in the 1960s television sitcoms Car 54, Where Are You? and The Munsters, as well as his later film roles in The…
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1993
Colombian footballer (born 1967)
Andrés Escobar Saldarriaga was a Colombian professional footballer who played as a centre-back. He played for Atlético Nacional, BSC Young Boys, and the Colombia national team. Nicknamed The Gentleman, he was known for…
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1994
Canadian businessman and politician, 23rd Lieutenant Governor of Prince Edward Island (born 1920)
Robert Lloyd George MacPhail, was a Canadian politician and the 23rd Lieutenant Governor of Prince Edward Island.
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1995
American actor (born 1908)
James Maitland Stewart was an American actor and military aviator. Known for his distinctive drawl and everyman screen persona, Stewart appeared in 80 films from 1935 to 1991. His films are considered some of the…
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1997
Northern Irish motorcycle racer (born 1952)
William Joseph Dunlop was a Northern Irish roadracing motorcyclist from Ballymoney, County Antrim. In 2015, he was voted Northern Ireland's greatest-ever sports star.
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2000
2002
American race car driver and businessman (born 1907)
Briggs Swift Cunningham II was an American entrepreneur and sportsman. He is best known for skippering the yacht Columbia to victory in the 1958 America's Cup race, and for his efforts as a driver, team owner, and…
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2003
Indonesian journalist and author (born 1922)
Mochtar Lubis was an Indonesian journalist and novelist who co-founded Indonesia Raya and monthly literary magazine Horison. His novel Senja di Jakarta was the first Indonesian novel to be translated into English. He…
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2004
American director, producer, and screenwriter (born 1915)
Ernest Paul Lehman was an American screenwriter and film producer. He was nominated six times for Academy Awards for his screenplays during his career, but did not win. At the 73rd Academy Awards in 2001, he received an…
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2005
American actor, composer, and producer, co-founded Filmation Studios (born 1927)
Norman Zachary Prescott was co-founder and executive producer at Filmation Associates, an animation studio he created with veteran animator Lou Scheimer.
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2005
American comedian, actor, and game show host (born 1916)
Jan Murray was an American stand-up comedian, actor, and game-show host who originally made his name on the Borscht Belt and later was known for his frequent television appearances over several decades.
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2006
American operatic soprano and television personality (born 1929)
Beverly Sills was an American operatic soprano whose career peak was between the 1950s and 1970s.
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2007
Russian-American singer, keyboard player, and actress (born 1956)
Natalia Mikhailovna Schneiderman, known as Natasha Shneider, was a Latvian-born Soviet-American musician and actress. She was most notably the keyboardist and vocalist in the band Eleven, along with her partner,…
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2008
English actress and screenwriter (born 1929)
Elizabeth Jean Spriggs was an English actress.
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2008
English screenwriter and author (born 1932)
Dame Beryl Margaret Bainbridge was an English writer. She was primarily known for her works of psychological fiction, often macabre tales set among the English working class. She won the Whitbread Awards prize for best…
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2010
Brazilian engineer and politician, 33rd President of Brazil (born 1930)
Itamar Augusto Cautiero Franco was a Brazilian politician who served as the 33rd president of Brazil from 29 December 1992 to 1 January 1995. Previously, he was the 21st vice president of Brazil from 1990 until the…
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2011
2012
American journalist (born 1922)
Julian Byrn Goodman was an American broadcasting executive and journalist.
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2012
Italian architect and academic (born 1921)
Angelo Mangiarotti was an Italian architect and industrial designer. His designs were mostly for industrial buildings and railway stations. In 1994, he received the Compasso d'Oro award of the Associazione per il…
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2012
American archaeologist and academic (born 1921)
Betty Jane Meggers was an American archaeologist best known for her work in South America. She was considered influential at the Smithsonian Institution, where she was long associated in research, and she wrote…
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2012
2012
American bishop (born 1927)
Anthony Gerard Bosco was an American prelate of the Catholic Church who served as the third bishop of the Diocese of Greensburg in Pennsylvania from 1987 to 2004. He previously served as an auxiliary bishop of the…
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2013
American computer scientist, invented the computer mouse (born 1925)
Douglas Carl Engelbart was an American engineer, inventor, and a pioneer in many aspects of computer science. He is best known for his work on founding the field of human–computer interaction, particularly while at his…
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2013
Canadian ice hockey player (born 1921)
Armand Gérard Gaudreault was a Canadian ice hockey player. He played 44 games in the National Hockey League with the Boston Bruins during the 1944–45 season. The rest of his career, which lasted from 1940 to 1952, was…
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2013
Welsh-American chemist, academic, and astronaut (born 1933)
John Anthony Llewellyn was a Welsh chemist and a NOAA aquanaut. In August 1967, Llewellyn was one of only two non-American astronaut candidates selected by NASA as part of NASA Astronaut Group 6.
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2013
Nicaraguan ophthalmologist and politician (born 1919)
Emilio Álvarez Montalván was a Nicaraguan ophthalmologist and a Foreign Minister of the Republic of Nicaragua.
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2014
Spanish physicist and academic (born 1934)
Manuel Cardona Castro was a Spanish condensed matter physicist. According to the ISI Citations web database, Cardona was one of the eight most cited physicists since 1970. He specialized in solid state physics.…
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2014
Duchess of Roxburghe (born 1915)
Mary Evelyn Hungerford Innes-Ker, Duchess of Roxburghe, born Lady Mary Crewe-Milnes, was a British aristocrat. She was a daughter of Robert Crewe-Milnes, 1st Marquess of Crewe, by his marriage to Lady Peggy Primrose,…
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2014
American mathematician and academic (born 1925)
Harold William Kuhn was an American mathematician who studied game theory. He won the 1980 John von Neumann Theory Prize jointly with David Gale and Albert W. Tucker. A former professor emeritus of mathematics at…
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2014
American runner and World War II US Army Air Forces captain (born 1917)
Louis Silvie Zamperini was an American World War II veteran, Olympic distance runner, and Christian evangelist. He began running in high school and qualified for the United States in the 5,000 m event at the 1936 Summer…
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2014
New Zealand lawyer and judge, 10th Chief Justice of New Zealand (born 1920)
Sir Ronald Keith Davison was a New Zealand lawyer and jurist. He served as the tenth Chief Justice of New Zealand from 1978 to 1989,
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2015
American football player and sportscaster (born 1946)
Charles Alvin Sanders was an American professional football player who was a tight end for the Detroit Lions of the National Football League (NFL) from 1968 to 1977. Sanders was chosen for the NFL's 1970s All-Decade…
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2015
American football player and coach (born 1945)
James C. Weaver was an American college football player, coach and college athletics administrator. He served as the head football coach at Villanova University for the first eight games of the 1974 season, finishing…
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2015
Mexican journalist (born 1928)
Jacobo Zabludovsky Kraveski was a Mexican journalist. He was the first anchorman in Mexican television and his TV news program, 24 Horas was for decades regarded as the most important in the country.
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2015
English actress and comedian (born 1963)
Caroline Mary Aherne was an English actress, comedian, writer and director.
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2016
American director, producer, and screenwriter (born 1939)
Michael Antonio Cimino was an American film director, screenwriter, producer and author. Notorious for his obsessive attention to detail and determination for perfection, Cimino achieved widespread fame with The Deer…
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2016
4th & 6th Prime Minister of Trinidad and Tobago (born 1946)
Patrick Augustus Mervyn Manning was a Trinidadian politician who served as the fourth prime minister of Trinidad and Tobago twice from 1991 to 1995, and again from 2001 to 2010. A geologist by training, Manning served…
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2016
Holocaust survivor, activist, and author (born 1928)
Eliezer "Elie" Wiesel was a Romanian-born American writer, professor, political activist, Nobel laureate, and Holocaust survivor. He authored 57 books, written mostly in French and English, including Night, which is…
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2016
a Russian (and former Soviet) artistic gymnastics coach, (born 1933)
Vladislav Stepanovich Rastorotsky was a Soviet and Russian female artistic gymnastics coach, Honoured Trainer of the USSR, who worked at the Dynamo sports society. Sportswomen trained by him earned more than 50 titles…
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2017
American-born Canadian professional wrestler (born 1948)
Smith Stewart Hart was an American-Canadian professional wrestler and a member of the Hart wrestling family. His parents were Stu and Helen Hart. Smith was the first of their twelve children, being one of their eight…
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2017
Scottish musician (born 1948)
Alan Longmuir was a Scottish musician and a founding member of the pop group the Bay City Rollers. He played the bass guitar, whilst his younger brother Derek Longmuir was drummer.
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2018
American automotive executive (born 1924)
Lido Anthony "Lee" Iacocca was an American author, engineer, and executive who developed the Ford Mustang, Continental Mark III, and Ford Pinto cars while at the Ford Motor Company in the 1960s, and then revived the…
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2019
Chilean archaeologist and human rights activist (born 1926)
Ángela Margarita Jeria Gómez was a Chilean archaeologist. Mother of the former President of Chile Michelle Bachelet, she was the wife of the Chilean Air Force Brigadier General Alberto Bachelet, who died after being…
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2020
American Twitch streamer (born 1989)
Byron Daniel Bernstein, better known as Reckful, was an American-Israeli Twitch streamer and professional esports player. He was best known in the gaming community for his achievements in World of Warcraft and Asheron's…
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2020
American socialite (born 1996)
Sophia Hutchins was an American socialite, media personality, businesswoman, charity executive and model. She was best known as the manager of Caitlyn Jenner, the chief executive officer and director of the Caitlyn…
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2025
Australian-American actor (born 1968)
Julian Dana William McMahon was an Australian-American actor. He was the only son of William McMahon, a former Prime Minister of Australia. He was best known for his roles as Ben Lucini in Home and Away, Detective John…
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2025
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Notable deaths
Who died on July 2?
Mario Puzo — American author and screenwriter (1920–1999)
FeaturedMario Puzo
Death year1999
Known forHe wrote crime novels about the Italian-American Mafia and Sicilian Mafia, most notably The Godfather (1969), which he later co-adapted into a film trilogy directed by Francis Ford Coppola
Deaths on this date96 (626 – 2025)
Explore July 2
Jump between the main pages for this date to compare events, people, and the daily quiz.
Also on July 2 in History
2024
A stampede during a religious event in Uttar Pradesh, India, leaves at least 121 people dead and 150 others injured. Wikipedia →
2013
A magnitude 6.1 earthquake strikes Aceh, Indonesia, killing at least 42 people and injuring 420 others. Wikipedia →
2005
See all events on July 2
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. Wikipedia →
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