On This Day: July 2nd

A stampede during a religious event in Uttar Pradesh, India, leaves at least 121 people dead and 150 others injured.

A magnitude 6.1 earthquake strikes Aceh, Indonesia, killing at least 42 people and injuring 420 others.

The Live 8 benefit concerts takes place in the G8 states and in South Africa. More than 1,000 musicians perform and are broadcast on 182 television networks and 2,000 radio networks.

Vicente Fox Quesada is elected the first President of México from an opposition party, the Partido Acción Nacional, after more than 70 years of continuous rule by the Partido Revolucionario Institucional, in the 2000 Mexican general election.

The Bank of Thailand floats the baht, triggering the Asian financial crisis.

USAir Flight 1016 crashes near Charlotte Douglas International Airport, killing 37 of the 57 people on board.

A mob sets fire to the Hotel Madımak in Sivas, Turkey, where an Alevi cultural festival was taking place, killing 37 people.

In the 1990 Mecca tunnel tragedy, 1,400 Muslim pilgrims are suffocated to death and trampled upon in a pedestrian tunnel leading to the holy city of Mecca.

Rodrigo Rojas and Carmen Gloria Quintana are burnt alive during a street demonstration against the dictatorship of General Augusto Pinochet in Chile in the Quemados case.

Aeroflot Flight 2306 crashes while attempting an emergency landing at Syktyvkar Airport in Syktyvkar, in present-day Komi Republic, Russia, killing 54 people.