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Made for the 250thOn this day › August 2
What happened on August 2 in American history
August 2 is the 214th day of the year (the 215th in leap years). Patriot Compass has published 5 stories from August 2 spanning 1790 to 1943. Among them: in 1790, Marshals finish counting the nation: 3,929,214 Americans, give or take; and in 1873, a gripman balks at the hill; Hallidie takes the cable car down himself.
1790
Marshals finish counting the nation: 3,929,214 Americans, give or take
Washington and Jefferson both suspect the real number is higher.
1873Member story · 1776 Club
A gripman balks at the hill; Hallidie takes the cable car down himself
The Clay Street Hill Railroad opens a day late, but San Francisco's first cable line runs without incident.
1932Member story · 1776 Club
A track curves the wrong way in a cloud chamber, and Anderson finds a new kind of matter
The particle has an electron's mass and a positive charge nobody expected to see.
1939
Sachs hands Roosevelt a letter about uranium; the president tells an aide, "this requires action"
Einstein's signature and a $6,000 grant were enough to start the Manhattan Project.
1943
A destroyer cuts PT-109 in half; the young skipper swims for shore towing a burned man by his life vest
Two of the crew are dead in the water off the Solomons; the rest owe their lives to three miles of open sea.
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