January 2 is the second day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. There are 363 days remaining until the end of the year (364 in leap years).

Events [edit]

• 366 – The Alemanni cross the frozen Rhine River in large numbers, invading the Roman Empire.
• 533 – Mercurius becomes Pope John II, the first pope to adopt a new name upon elevation to the papacy.
• 1492 – Reconquista: the Emirate of Granada, the last Moorish stronghold in Spain, surrenders.
• 1777 – American Revolutionary War: American forces under the command of George Washington repulsed a British attack at the Battle of the Assunpink Creek near Trenton, New Jersey.
• 1788 – Georgia becomes the fourth state to ratify the United States Constitution.
• 1791 – Big Bottom massacre in the Ohio Country, marking the beginning of the Northwest Indian War.
• 1818 – The British Institution of Civil Engineers is founded.
• 1833 – Reassertion of British sovereignty over the Falkland Islands.
• 1860 – The discovery of the planet Vulcan is announced at a meeting of the French Academy of Sciences in Paris, France.
• 1865 – Uruguayan War: The Siege of Paysandú ends as Brazilian and Coloradans capture Paysandú, Uruguay.
• 1871 – Amadeus I becomes King of Spain.
• 1900 – American Statesman and diplomat John Hay announces the Open Door Policy to promote trade with China.
• 1905 – Russo-Japanese War: The Russian garrison surrenders at Port Arthur, China.
• 1911 – A gun battle in the East End of London left two dead and sparked a political row over the involvement of then-Home Secretary Winston Churchill.
• 1920 – The second Palmer Raid takes place with another 6,000 suspected communists and anarchists arrested and held without trial. These raids take place in several U.S. cities.
• 1927 – Angered by the anti-clerical provisions of the Mexican Constitution of 1917, Catholic rebels in Mexico rebelled against the government.
• 1935 – Bruno Hauptmann goes on trial for the murder of Charles Lindbergh, Jr., infant son of aviator Charles Lindbergh.
• 1941 – World War II: German bombing severely damages the Llandaff Cathedral in Cardiff, Wales, United Kingdom.
• 1942 – The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) convicts 33 members of a German spy ring headed by Fritz Joubert Duquesne in the largest espionage case in United States history—the Duquesne Spy Ring.
• 1942 – World War II: Manila, Philippines is captured by Japanese forces.
• 1945 – World War II: Nuremberg, Germany (in German, Nürnberg) is severely bombed by Allied forces.
• 1949 – Luis Muñoz Marín becomes the first democratically elected Governor of Puerto Rico.
• 1955 – Panamanian president José Antonio Remón Cantera is assassinated.
• 1959 – Luna 1, the first spacecraft to reach the vicinity of the Moon and to orbit the Sun, is launched by the Soviet Union.
• 1963 – Vietnam War: The Viet Cong wins its first major victory in the Battle of Ap Bac.
• 1967 – Ronald Reagan sworn in as Governor of California
• 1971 – The second Ibrox disaster kills 66 fans at a Rangers-Celtic association football (soccer) match.
• 1974 – President Richard Nixon signs a bill lowering the maximum U.S. speed limit to 55 MPH in order to conserve gasoline during an OPEC embargo.
• 1975 – A bomb blast at Samastipur, Bihar, India, fatally wounds Minister of Railways Lalit Narayan Mishra.
• 1975 – Bangladeshi Marxist leader Siraj Sikder is arrested and dies while in police custody.
• 1976 – The Gale of January 1976 begins, which results in coastal flooding around the southern North Sea coasts, resulting in at least 82 deaths and US$1.3 billion in damage.
• 1981 – One of the largest investigations by a British police force ends when serial killer Peter Sutcliffe, the "Yorkshire Ripper", is arrested in Sheffield, South Yorkshire.
• 1992 – Leaders of armed opposition declare the President Zviad Gamsakhurdia deposed during a military coup in Georgia.
• 1999 – A brutal snowstorm smashes into the Midwestern United States, causing 14 inches (359 mm) of snow in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and 19 inches (487 mm) in Chicago, Illinois, where temperatures plunge to -13 °F (-25 °C); 68 deaths are reported.
• 2004 – Stardust successfully flies past Comet Wild 2, collecting samples that are returned to Earth.
• 2006 – An explosion in a coal mine in Sago, West Virginia traps and kills 12 miners, while leaving one miner in critical condition.

Births [edit]

• 1642 – Mehmed IV, Ottoman sultan (d. 1693)
• 1647 – Nathaniel Bacon, English-American rebel leader (d. 1676)
• 1699 – Osman III, Ottoman Sultan (d. 1757)
• 1713 – Marie Dumesnil, French actress (d. 1803)
• 1719 – Jacques-Alexandre Laffon de Ladebat, French shipbuilder (d. 1797)
• 1727 – James Wolfe, English general (d. 1759)
• 1732 – František Brixi, Czech composer (d. 1771)
• 1777 – Christian Daniel Rauch, German sculptor (d. 1857)
• 1822 – Rudolf Clausius, German physicist (d. 1888)
• 1827 – Pyotr Semyonov-Tyan-Shansky, Russian geographer and statistician (d. 1914)
• 1833 – Frederick A. Johnson, American politician (d. 1893)
• 1836 – Queen Emma of Hawaii (d. 1885)
• 1836 – Mendele Mocher Sforim, Russian author (d. 1917)
• 1837 – Mily Balakirev, Russian pianist and composer (d. 1910)
• 1857 – M. Carey Thomas, American educator and activist (d. 1935)
• 1860 – William Corless Mills, American historian (d. 1928)
• 1860 – Dugald Campbell Patterson, Canadian engineer (d. 1931)
• 1866 – Gilbert Murray, Australian scholar (d. 1957)
• 1870 – Ernst Barlach, German sculptor (d. 1938)
• 1873 – Thérèse of Lisieux, French nun (d. 1897)
• 1873 – Antonie Pannekoek, Dutch astronomer and theorist (d. 1960)
• 1877 – Slava Raškaj, Croatian painter (d. 1906)
• 1879 – Rudolf Bauer, Hungarian discus thrower (d. 1932)
• 1882 – Herbert von Petersdorff, German swimmer (d. 1917)
• 1884 – Ben-Zion Dinur, Russian-Israeli educator, historian and politician (d. 1973)
• 1885 – Gordon Flowerdew, Canadian soldier, Victoria Cross recipient (d. 1918)
• 1886 – Apsley Cherry-Garrard, English explorer (d. 1959)
• 1886 – Florence Lawrence, Canadian actress (d. 1938)
• 1889 – Bertram Stevens, Australian politician, 25th Premier of New South Wales (d. 1973)
• 1891 – Giovanni Michelucci, Italian architect, designed the Firenze Santa Maria Novella railway station (d. 1990)
• 1892 – Seiichiro Kashio, Japanese tennis player (d. 1962)
• 1893 – Lillian Leitzel, German acrobat and strongwoman (d. 1931)
• 1895 – Folke Bernadotte, Swedish diplomat (d. 1948)
• 1896 – Dziga Vertov, Russian director (d. 1954)
• 1896 – Lawrence Wackett, Australian engineer (d. 1982)
• 1897 – Jim Londos, Greek wrestler (d. 1975)
• 1901 – Bob Marshall, American activist (d. 1939)
• 1902 – Dan Keating, Irish soldier (d. 2007)
• 1905 – Lev Schnirelmann, Russian mathematician (d. 1938)
• 1905 – Michael Tippett, English composer (d. 1998)
• 1904 – Truus Klapwijk, Dutch diver and swimmer(d. 1991)
• 1905 – Luigi Zampa, Italian director and screenwriter (d. 1991)
• 1909 – Riccardo Cassin, Italian mountaineer (d. 2009)
• 1909 – Barry Goldwater, American army officer and politician (d. 1998)
• 1913 – Anna Lee, English actress (d. 2004)
• 1914 – Noor Inayat Khan, Russian-English SOE agent (d. 1944)
• 1914 – Vivian Stuart, Burmese author (d. 1986)
• 1916 – Zypora Spaisman, Polish-American actress and producer (d. 2002)
• 1917 – Vera Zorina, German-Norwegian actress and dancer (d. 2003)
• 1918 – Willi Graf, German activist (d. 1943)
• 1920 – Isaac Asimov, American chemist and author (d. 1992)
• 1921 – Glen Harmon, Canadian ice hockey player (d. 2007)
• 1924 – Evgenios Spatharis, Greek puppeteer (d. 2009)
• 1925 – William J. Crowe, American admiral and diplomat (d. 2007)
• 1925 – Larry Harmon, American clown (d. 2008)
• 1926 – Howard Caine, American director (d. 1993)
• 1927 – Grigoris Varfis, Greek politician
• 1928 – Avie Bennett, Canadian businessman and philanthropist
• 1928 – Robert Goralski, American journalist (d. 1988)
• 1928 – Daisaku Ikeda, Japanese spiritual leader
• 1929 – Lehri, Pakistani actor and comedian (d. 2012)
• 1930 – Julius La Rosa, American singer
• 1931 – Toshiki Kaifu, Japanese politician, 76th Prime Minister of Japan
• 1932 – Peter Redgrove, English poet (d. 2003)
• 1933 – Ed Casey, Australian politician (d. 2006)
• 1933 – On Kawara, Japanese painter
• 1933 – Seiichi Morimura, Japanese author
• 1933 – Richard Riley, American politician, 111th Governor of South Carolina
• 1935 – Lolo Soetoro, Indonesian geographer (d. 1987)
• 1936 – Roger Miller, American singer-songwriter and actor (d. 1992)
• 1938 – Hans Herbjørnsrud, Norwegian author
• 1938 – Robert Smithson, American land art artist.
• 1938 – Goh Kun, South Korean politician, 31st Prime Minister of South Korea
• 1940 – Susan Wittig Albert, American author
• 1940 – Jim Bakker, American minister, evangelist, and television host
• 1940 – S. R. Srinivasa Varadhan, Indian-American mathematician
• 1942 – Dennis Hastert, American politician, 59th Speaker of the United States House of Representatives
• 1942 – Ray Moore, English radio host (d. 1989)
• 1942 – Hugh Shelton, American general
• 1943 – Barış Manço, Turkish singer-songwriter and producer (d. 1999)
• 1944 – Péter Eötvös, Hungarian composer and conductor
• 1944 – Norodom Ranariddh, Cambodian politician
• 1946 – Richard Cole, English manager
• 1947 – Jack Hanna, American zoologist
• 1947 – Calvin Hill, American football player
• 1947 – David Shapiro, American poet, critic, and historian
• 1947 – Valery Shary, Belarusian weightlifter
• 1948 – Judith Miller, American journalist
• 1949 – Christopher Durang, American playwright
• 1949 – Jean Krier, Luxembourger poet (d. 2013)
• 1949 – Leijn Loevesijn, Dutch cyclist
• 1949 – John Turner, English cricketer (d. 2012)
• 1950 – Débora Duarte, Brazilian actress
• 1950 – David Shifrin, American clarinet player
• 1950 – Leo van der Goot, Dutch singer and radio host
• 1951 – Stipe Božić, Croatian mountaineer
• 1951 – Jim Essian, American baseball player
• 1951 – Alexander Pogrebinsky, Russian painter
• 1952 – Jimmy Santiago Baca, American poet and author
• 1952 – Robbie Ftorek, American ice hockey player
• 1952 – Christine Lavin, American singer-songwriter (Four Bitchin' Babes)
• 1952 – Graeme Strachan, Australian singer-songwriter (Skyhooks) (d. 2001)
• 1953 – Vincent Racaniello American virologist, author, and academic
• 1953 – Jacques Tichelaar, Dutch politician and union leader
• 1953 – Manfred Wittke, German footballer
• 1954 – Henry Bonilla, American politician
• 1955 – Tex Brashear, American voice actor
• 1955 – Vivien Savage, French singer-songwriter
• 1956 – Lynda Barry, American cartoonist and author
• 1956 – Jishu Dasgupta, Indian actor and director (d. 2012)
• 1958 – Vladimir Ovchinnikov, Russian pianist
• 1959 – Kirti Azad, Indian cricketer and politician
• 1959 – Kim Coates, Canadian-American actor
• 1960 – Raman Lamba, Indian cricketer (d. 1998)
• 1960 – Naoki Urasawa, Japanese illustrator
• 1961 – Gabrielle Carteris, American actress
• 1961 – IJsbrand Chardon, Dutch horse rider
• 1961 – Todd Haynes, American director
• 1961 – Craig James, American football player
• 1961 – Robert Wexler, American lawyer and politician
• 1963 – David Cone, American baseball player
• 1963 – Edgar Martínez, American baseball player
• 1964 – Luis d'Antin, Spanish motorcycle racer
• 1964 – Luis Moro, Cuban-American actor, producer, and screenwriter
• 1964 – Pernell Whitaker, American boxer
• 1965 – Greg Swindell, American baseball player
• 1966 – Kate Hodge, American actress and producer
• 1967 – Tia Carrere, American actress and singer
• 1967 – Jón Gnarr, Icelandic actor and politician
• 1967 – Francois Pienaar, South African rugby player
• 1968 – Cuba Gooding, Jr., American actor
• 1968 – Evan Parke, Jamaican-American actor
• 1968 – Goichi Suda, Japanese video game designer
• 1968 – Anky van Grunsven, Dutch horse rider
• 1969 – Robby Gordon, American race car driver
• 1969 – Karl-Heinz Grasser, Austrian politician
• 1969 – Patrick Huard, Canadian actor and comedian
• 1969 – Glen Johnson, Jamaican boxer
• 1969 – Tommy Morrison, American boxer
• 1969 – Róbert Švehla, Slovak ice hockey player
• 1969 – Christy Turlington, American model
• 1970 – Royce Clayton, American baseball player
• 1970 – Sanda Ladoși, Romanian singer
• 1970 – Eric Whitacre, American composer and conductor
• 1971 – Taye Diggs, American actor, singer, and producer
• 1971 – Renee Elise Goldsberry, American actress and singer
• 1971 – Lisa Harrison, American basketball player
• 1971 – Markus Hoffmann, German actor (d. 1997)
• 1971 – Yutaka Takenouchi, Japanese actor
• 1972 – Adam Elliot, Australian animator and screenwriter
• 1972 – Rodney MacDonald, Canadian politician, 26th Premier of Nova Scotia
• 1972 – Hristos Meletoglou, Greek triple jumper
• 1972 – Mattias Norström, Swedish ice hockey player
• 1974 – Jason de Vos, Canadian soccer player
• 1975 – Chris Cheney, Australian singer-songwriter, bass player, and producer (The Living End and The Wrights)
• 1975 – David Sandström, Swedish musician (Refused, AC4 and Final Exit)
• 1975 – Jeff Suppan, American baseball player
• 1975 – Reuben Thorne, New Zealand rugby player
• 1976 – Hrysopiyi Devetzi, Greek triple jumper
• 1976 – Danilo Di Luca, Italian cyclist
• 1976 – Mahée Paiement, Canadian actress
• 1976 – Paz Vega, Spanish actress
• 1977 – Brian Boucher, American ice hockey player
• 1977 – Stefan Koubek, Austrian tennis player
• 1977 – Aleš Píša, Czech ice hockey player
• 1977 – Nikos Soultanidis, Greek footballer
• 1978 – Karina Smirnoff, Ukrainian-American dancer
• 1978 – Megumi Toyoguchi, Japanese voice actress
• 1980 – Annie Bellemare, Canadian figure skater
• 1980 – Mac Danzig, American mixed martial artist
• 1980 – Melvin Holwijn, Dutch footballer
• 1980 – Jérôme Pineau, French cyclist
• 1981 – Hanno Balitsch, German footballer
• 1981 – Ryan Garko, American baseball player
• 1981 – Kirk Hinrich, American basketball player
• 1981 – Maxi Rodríguez, Argentine footballer
• 1982 – Athanasia Tsoumeleka, Greek race walker
• 1983 – Kate Bosworth, American actress
• 1984 – Otacilio Jales, Brazilian footballer
• 1985 – Heather O'Reilly, American soccer player
• 1986 – Ediz Bahtiyaroğlu, Turkish-Bosnian footballer (d. 2012)
• 1986 – Nicolás Bertolo, Argentine footballer
• 1986 – Trombone Shorty, American trumpet player
• 1988 – Damien Tussac, French-German rugby player
• 1989 – Maksims Bogdanovs, Latvian motorcycle racer
• 1989 – Romain Dedola, French footballer
• 1990 – Karel Abraham, Czech motorcycle racer
• 1991 – Davide Santon, Italian footballer
• 1991 – Steele Sidebottom, Australian footballer
• 1992 – Anna Arina Marenko, Russian tennis player
• 2001 – Christopher Barrios, Jr., American murder victim (d. 2007)

Deaths [edit]

• 1512 – Svante Nilsson, Sweden politician (b. 1460)
• 1514 – William Smyth, English bishop (b. 1460)
• 1557 – Pontormo, Italian painter (b. 1494)
• 1664 – George II of Fleckenstein-Dagstuhl (b. 1588)
• 1726 – Domenico Zipoli, Italian composer (b. 1688)
• 1861 – Frederick William IV of Prussia (b. 1795)
• 1892 – George Biddell Airy, English mathematician and astronomer (b. 1801)
• 1904 – James Longstreet, American general (b. 1821)
• 1913 – Léon Teisserenc de Bort, French meteorologist (b. 1855)
• 1915 – Karl Goldmark, Hungarian composer (b. 1830)
• 1917 – Léon Flameng, French cyclist (b. 1877)
• 1920 – Paul Adam, French author (b. 1862)
• 1924 – Sabine Baring-Gould, English author and scholar (b. 1834)
• 1939 – Roman Dmowski, Polish politician (b. 1864)
• 1941 – Mischa Levitzki, Russian-American pianist (b. 1898)
• 1946 – Joe Darling, Australian cricketer (b. 1870)
• 1948 – Vicente Huidobro, Chilean poet (b. 1893)
• 1950 – James Dooley, Irish-Australian politician, 21st Premier of New South Wales (b. 1877)
• 1950 – Theophrastos Sakellaridis, Greek composer and conductor (b. 1883)
• 1951 – William Campion, English army officer and politician, 21st Governor of Western Australia (b. 1870)
• 1959 – Chris van Abkoude, Dutch-American author (b. 1880)
• 1960 – Fausto Coppi, Italian cyclist (b. 1919)
• 1960 – Paul Sauvé, Canadian lawyer and politician, 17th Premier of Quebec (b. 1907)
• 1963 – Jack Carson, Canadian-American actor (b. 1910)
• 1963 – Dick Powell, American actor, singer, director, and producer (b. 1904)
• 1971 – E. V. Knox, English poet (b. 1881)
• 1974 – Tex Ritter, American singer and actor (b. 1905)
• 1977 – Erroll Garner, American pianist and composer (b. 1921)
• 1983 – Dick Emery, English comedian and actor (b. 1915)
• 1986 – Una Merkel, American actress (b. 1903)
• 1989 – Safdar Hashmi, Indian playwright, actor, and director (b. 1954)
• 1990 – Evangelos Averoff, Greek politician and author (b. 1910)
• 1994 – Dixy Lee Ray, American politician, 17th Governor of Washington (b. 1914)
• 1994 – Pierre-Paul Schweitzer, French businessman (b. 1915)
• 1995 – Siad Barre, Somalian military officer and politician, 3rd President of Somalia (b. 1919)
• 1996 – Karl Targownik, Hungarian psychiatrist (b. 1915)
• 1997 – Randy California, American singer-songwriter and guitarist (Spirit and The Blue Flame) (b. 1951)
• 1998 – Frank Muir, English radio host (b. 1920)
• 1999 – Sebastian Haffner, German journalist and author (b. 1907)
• 1999 – Rolf Liebermann, Swiss composer (b. 1910)
• 2000 – Patrick O'Brian, English author (b. 1914)
• 2000 – Elmo Zumwalt, American admiral (b. 1920)
• 2001 – William P. Rogers, American politician, 55th United States Secretary of State (b. 1913)
• 2002 – Armi Aavikko, Finnish model and singer, Miss Finland 1977 (b. 1958)
• 2005 – Frank Kelly Freas, American illustrator (b. 1922)
• 2005 – Maclyn McCarty, American geneticist (b. 1911)
• 2005 – Edo Murtić, Croatian painter (b. 1921)
• 2006 – Cecilia Muñoz-Palma, Filipino jurist (b. 1913)
• 2006 – Lidia Wysocka, Polish actress (b. 1916)
• 2007 – Garry Betty, American businessman (b. 1957)
• 2007 – Elizabeth Fox-Genovese, American historian (b. 1941)
• 2007 – Mauno Jokipii, Finnish academic and author (b. 1924)
• 2007 – Teddy Kollek, Hungarian-Israeli politician (b. 1911)
• 2007 – Paek Nam-sun, North Korean politician (b. 1929)
• 2007 – A. Richard Newton, Australian-American engineer and academic (b. 1951)
• 2007 – David Perkins, American geneticist (b. 1919)
• 2007 – Robert C. Solomon, American scholar (b. 1942)
• 2008 – Lee S. Dreyfus, American politician, 40th Governor of Wisconsin (b. 1926)
• 2008 – George MacDonald Fraser, English journalist and author (b. 1925)
• 2008 – Martinus Tels, Dutch physicist and engineer (b. 1926)
• 2008 – Galyani Vadhana, Thai princess (b. 1923)
• 2009 – Inger Christensen, Danish poet (b. 1935)
• 2009 – Maria de Jesus, Portuguese super-centenarian (b. 1893)
• 2010 – David R. Ross, Scottish author and historian (b. 1958)
• 2011 – Anne Francis, American actress (b. 1930)
• 2011 – Pete Postlethwaite, English actor (b. 1946)
• 2011 – Szeto Wah, Hong Kong politician (b. 1931)
• 2011 – Richard Winters, American army officer (b. 1918)
• 2012 – Ioan Drăgan, Romanian footballer (b. 1965)
• 2012 – Anatoly Kolesov, Russian wrestler (b. 1938)
• 2012 – Helmut Müller-Brühl, German conductor (b. 1933)
• 2012 – Paulo Rodrigues da Silva, Brazilian footballer (b. 1986)
• 2013 – Wren Blair, Canadian ice hockey coach (b. 1925)
• 2013 – Jim Boyd, American actor (b. 1933)
• 2013 – Council Cargle, American actor (b. 1935)
• 2013 – Karel Čáslavský, Czech historian and television host (b. 1937)
• 2013 – Charles Chilton, English radio host and producer (b. 1917)
• 2013 – Angelo Coia, American football player (b. 1938)
• 2013 – Zaharira Harifai, Israeli actress (b. 1929)
• 2013 – Merv Hunter, Australian politician (b. 1926)
• 2013 – Géza Koroknay, Hungarian actor (b. 1948)
• 2013 – Gerda Lerner, Austrian-American historian and author (b. 1920)
• 2013 – Ladislao Mazurkiewicz, Uruguayan footballer (b. 1945)
• 2013 – Ian McKeever, Irish mountaineer (b. 1970)
• 2013 – Maulvi Nazir, Pakistani militant leader (b. 1975)
• 2013 – Susan Nolen-Hoeksema, American psychologist and author (b. 1959)
• 2013 – Mamie Rearden, American super-centenarian (b. 1898)
• 2013 – Stephen Resnick, American economist (b. 1938)
• 2013 – Rudolf Szanwald, Austrian footballer (b. 1931)
• 2013 – Teresa Torańska, Polish journalist (b. 1944)
• 2013 – Ned Wertimer, American actor (b. 1923)

Holidays and observances [edit]

• Ancestry Day (Haiti)
• Berchtold’s Day (Switzerland, Liechtenstein and the Alsace)
• Carnival Day (Saint Kitts and Nevis)
• Christian Feast Day:
  • Basil the Great (Catholic Church and Church of England)
  • Defendens of Thebes
  • Gregory of Nazianzus (Catholic Church)
  • Macarius of Alexandria
  • Seraphim of Sarov (repose)
  • January 2 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics)

• The first day of Blacks and Whites' Carnival, celebrated until January 7. (southern Colombia)
• The first day of the Carnival of Riosucio, celebrated until January 8 every 2 years. (Riosucio)
• The ninth day of Christmas (Western Christianity)
• The second day of New Year (A holiday in Kazakhstan, Macedonia, Mauritius, Montenegro, New Zealand, Romania, Russia, Switzerland, Ukraine):
  • Bank Holiday, if it is a Sunday, the day moves to January 3 (Scotland)
  • Kaapse Klopse (Cape Town)
• Victory of Armed Forces Day (Cuba)

External links [edit]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: January 2

• BBC: On This Day
• The New York Times: On This Day
• On This Day in Canada