| 2 September 31 BC | Rome, Greece, Egypt, Ptolemaic Kingdom [administration] | The Roman leader Octavian's fleet of 400 ships under the general Marcus Vipsanius Agrippa blockade the Roman general Mark Antony's Egyptian fleet at Actium in western Greece. In the ensuing Battle of Actium Agrippa defeats Antony and his wife Queen Cleopatra of Egypt and they flee back to Alexandria, Egypt. Octavian follows them and Antony's troops desert him. |
| 2 September 1192 | England, Ayyubid Sultanate, Palestine [Crusades (1095–1272)] | King Richard I the Lionheart of England negotiates a three-year truce and access to Jerusalem for Christian pilgrims with Saladin, Sultan of Egypt and Syria, thereby ending the Third Crusade. |
| 2 September 1644 | UK [British Civil Wars (1642–51)] | The Earl of Essex's 6,000-strong infantry force surrenders to the Royalist army under King Charles I at Lostwithiel, Cornwall, England, during the English Civil War. Essex is forced to escape by sea. The victory, along with others in 1644, puts Charles in a good position to launch an attack on London, England. |
| 2–5 September 1666 | UK [natural disasters] | The Great Fire devastates the city of London, England. Many buildings are destroyed, including St Paul's Cathedral and the Guildhall. |
| 2 September 1801 | Egypt-Ottoman, France, UK [French Revolutionary Wars (1792–1801)] | French forces in Egypt under General Jean Menou surrender to the British and are immediately offered free passage home, ending Napoleon Bonaparte's hopes of oriental conquest. |
| 2 September 1866 | Crete, Ottoman Empire, Greece [political events] | After a long period of unrest under Ottoman authority, the island of Crete revolts and decrees union with Greece. |
| 2 September 1870 | France, Prussia [Franco–Prussian War (1870–71)] | Emperor Napoleon III of France capitulates to the Prussians at Sedan, France, conceding defeat in the Franco-Prussian War. |
| 2 September 1898 | Sudan, UK [wars] | General Horatio Kitchener defeats the dervishes at the Battle of Omdurman as his British force advances across the Sudan. |
| 2 September 1937 | France [births and deaths] | Pierre, baron de Coubertin, French administrator who was responsible for the revival of the Olympic Games and who served as the first president of the International Olympic Committee 1896–1925, dies in Geneva, Switzerland (64). |
| 2 September 1945 | Japan, Pacific, USA [treaties] | Japan signs its capitulation on board the USS Missouri, marking the end of World War II. |
| 2 September 1973 | England [births and deaths] | J R R Tolkien, English novelist known for his Lord of the Rings trilogy, dies in Bournemouth, Hampshire, England (81). |
