August 2nd

Macedonian army led by Philip II defeats combined forces of Athens and Thebes in the Battle of Chaeronea, securing Macedonian hegemony in Greece and the Aegean.

Second Punic War: Battle of Cannae - Carthaginian army lead by Hannibal defeats numerically superior Roman army under command consuls Lucius Aemilius Paullus and Gaius Terentius Varro.

During the Second Punic War, Carthaginian forces led by Hannibal defeated the Roman army in the Battle of Cannae.

The Senate passed, and President Barack Obama signed, legislation to avoid an unprecedented national default.

Mattel recalled nearly a million Chinese-made toys from its Fisher-Price division that were found to have excessive amounts of lead.

Republicans nominated Texas Gov. George W. Bush for president and Dick Cheney for vice president at the party's convention in Philadelphia.

Second Congo War Begins. The deadliest war in Africa, the war and its aftermath has killed an estimated 5.4 million people. The war started with a mutiny in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and soon involved 9 African nations. It lasted for 5 years.

The Persian Gulf War broke out when Iraq invaded Kuwait.

A Delta Air Lines jumbo jet crashed while attempting to land at Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport, killing 137 people.

The Pentagon reported the first of two attacks on U.S. destroyers by North Vietnamese torpedo boats in the Gulf of Tonkin.

The Arab Federation is dissolved. The short-lived federation of Jordan and Iraq was dissolved after King Faisal of Iraq was deposed and assasinated during the 14 July Revolution.

President Harry S. Truman, Soviet leader Josef Stalin and British Prime Minister Clement Attlee concluded the Potsdam conference.

PT-109, a Navy patrol torpedo boat commanded by Lt. John F. Kennedy, sank after being sheared in two by a Japanese destroyer off the Solomon Islands. Kennedy was credited with saving members of the crew.

Albert Einstein signed a letter to President Franklin D. Roosevelt urging creation of an atomic weapons research program.

Marihuana Tax Act of 1937 is passed in America, essentially rendering marijuana and all its by-products illegal.

German President Paul von Hindenburg died, paving the way for Adolf Hitler's complete takeover.

Warren G. Harding, the 29th president of the United States, died in San Francisco.

The first Lincoln penny was issued.

Frontiersman "Wild Bill" Hickok was shot and killed while playing poker at a saloon in Deadwood in present-day South Dakota.

World's first underground railway opened. The Tower Subway beneath river Thames in London opened its doors for passengers. The subway was closed within a few months because of bankruptcy. The tunnel is now used for utilities.

Government of India transferred from East India Company to the British Crown.

Battle of Bad Axe, Wisconsin: 1,300 Illinois militia defeat Sauk & Fox Native Americans ending the Black Hawk War in the US.

1st US census conducted, the population was 3,939,214 including 697,624 slaves.

Formal signing of the US Declaration of Independence by 56 people (date most accepted by modern historians).