What happened on 2 September?

13 events from the Ever-When timeline, ranked by how much they mattered.

1. 1666 Great Fire of London Four-day blaze destroys most of the medieval City of London.
2. 1945 Japanese Instrument of Surrender Signed aboard USS Missouri in Tokyo Bay, 2 September 1945 -- end of WWII.
3. 1945 Ho Chi Minh proclaims Vietnamese independence Quoting the American Declaration of Independence in Hanoi's Ba Dinh Square, Ho Chi Minh declares the Democratic Republic of Vietnam, setting up three decades of war against France
4. 1666 The fire starts in Pudding Lane A spark in Thomas Farriner's bakehouse after midnight, an east wind, and a Lord Mayor who goes back to bed — 'Pish! a woman might piss it out.' By morning three hundred houses are
5. 1864 Sherman takes Atlanta 'Atlanta is ours, and fairly won.' Sherman's capture of the Confederacy's rail hub, after a summer of stalemate everywhere else, transforms Northern morale eight weeks before the e
6. 1573 Akbar conquers Gujarat Mughal emperor Akbar annexes Gujarat, gaining access to maritime trade and consolidating the empire.
7. 1898 Battle of Omdurman Kitchener's army crushes the Mahdist state at Omdurman; avenges Gordon; Winston Churchill takes part as a young cavalryman.
8. 1686 Siege of Buda (1686) A pan-European army storms Buda after 145 years of Ottoman rule; within a decade the Habsburgs hold nearly all of Hungary.
9. 1856 Tianjing incident The Heavenly Kingdom devours itself: Hong has his over-mighty deputy Yang Xiuqing murdered, the assassin then massacres tens of thousands of Yang's followers, and is butchered in t
10. 1792 September Massacres Mobs slaughter ~1,200 prisoners in Paris jails over five days; foreshadows the Terror.
11. 1962 Born: Keir Starmer Labour leader who won a landslide in 2024 after fourteen years of Conservative rule.
12. 1192 Treaty of Jaffa (1192) Richard and Saladin agree a three-year truce; Christians retain coast from Tyre to Jaffa; pilgrims granted access to Jerusalem.
13. 1940 The destroyers-for-bases deal Roosevelt trades fifty elderly US destroyers for 99-year leases on British bases from Newfoundland to Trinidad — sidestepping a neutral Congress by executive agreement. The ships m