1. On August 2, 1819, Alabama became the 22nd state of the United States, after being approved for statehood by Congress. The state was created from the Mississippi Territory and played a crucial role in the Civil War.

2. In 1864, during the Civil War, the Battle of Mobile Bay took place on August 2. Union naval forces, led by Admiral David Farragut, defeated Confederate naval forces and secured control of Mobile Bay, a major Confederate port.

3. On August 2, 1930, the state of Alabama purchased the USS Alabama, a battleship that had served in World War I. The ship was later turned into a museum and is now a popular tourist attraction in Mobile.

4. In 1966, civil rights activist Samuel Younge Jr. was killed in Tuskegee, Alabama, on August 2. Younge, a young African American student and navy veteran, was shot by a white gas station attendant after using a "whites-only" restroom.

5. On August 2, 1978, Birmingham attorney Harvey Gantt became the first African American elected to the Charlotte City Council in North Carolina. Gantt later ran for the U.S. Senate in 1990 against incumbent Republican Jesse Helms, but was defeated.