What happened on October 2 ?

939 - Gilbert, Duke of Lorraine

1264 - Pope Urban IV

1559 - Jacquet of Mantua, French composer (b. 1483)

1626 - Diego Sarmiento de Acuña, conde de Gondomar, Spanish diplomat (b. 1567)

1629 - Pierre de Bérulle, French cardinal and statesman (b. 1575)

1629 - Antonio Cifra, Italian composer (b. 1584)

1708 - Anne-Jules, 2nd duc de Noailles, French general (b. 1650)

1724 - François-Timoléon de Choisy, French writer (b. 1644)

1746 - Josiah Burchett, English Secretary of the Admiralty

1764 - William Cavendish, 4th Duke of Devonshire, Prime Minister of Great Britain

1775 - Chiyo-ni, Japanese poet (b. 1703)

1782 - Charles Lee, British and U.S. general

1786 - Augustus Keppel, 1st Viscount Keppel, British admiral (b. 1725)

1803 - Samuel Adams, American revolutionary leader (b. 1722)

1804 - Nicolas-Joseph Cugnot, French automobile pioneer (b. 1725)

1817 - Fyodor Fyodorovich Ushakov, Russian naval commander and admiral (b. 1744)

1846 - Benjamin Waterhouse, Cambridge physician and medical professor (smallpox vaccine pioneer) (b. 1754)

1850 - Sarah Biffen, English painter (b. 1784)

1853 - François Jean Dominique Arago, French mathematician (b. 1786)

1927 - Svante Arrhenius, Swedish chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1859)

1938 - Alexandru Averescu, Romanian soldier and politician (b. 1859)

1962 - Boris Y. Bukreev, Russian mathematician (b. 1859)

1968 - Marcel Duchamp, French artist (b. 1887)

1973 - Paul Hartman, American actor (b. 1904)

1973 - Paavo Nurmi, Finnish runner (b. 1897)

1974 - Vasily Shukshin, Russian writer, actor, screenwriter, and director (b. 1929)

1975 - Kumaraswami Kamaraj, Indian Political leader, Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu (b. 1903)

1981 - Harry Golden, American journalist (b. 1902)

1981 - Hazel Scott, West Indian-born singer (b. 1920)

1985 - Rock Hudson, American actor (b. 1925)

1987 - Peter Medawar, Brazilian-born scientist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (b. 1915)

1994 - Harriet Hilliard Nelson, American actress (b. 1909)

1998 - Gene Autry, American singer, actor, and entrepreneur (b. 1907)

2001 - Franz Biebl, German composer (b. 1906)

2002 - Heinz von Foerster, Austrian-born physicist and philosopher (b. 1911)

2003 - John T. Dunlop, U.S. Secretary of Labor (b. 1914)

2005 - Nipsey Russell, American comedian (b. 1924)

2005 - August Wilson, American playwright (b. 1945)