On this day in History - Jan. 2

• 0366 - Alamanni cross the frozen Rhine in large numbers, invading Roman Empire.
• 0533 - Mercurius became Pope John II, the first pope to adopt a new name upon elevation to the papacy.
• 1492 - Reconquista: Granada, the last Moorish stronghold in Spain, surrenders. Muhammad XI, was the leader of the last Arab stronghold in Spain, and surrendered to King Ferdinand II and Queen Isabella I.
• 1512 - Svante, Regent of Sweden dies (b. 1460)
• 1514 - William Smyth dies (b.c. 1460). English bishop and statesman.
• 1554 - Prince João of Portugal dies (b. 3 Jun 1537). Son of the King of Portugal D. João III.
• 1557 - Pontormo dies (b. 1494). Italian painter.
• 1570 - Tsar Ivan the Terrible march to Novgorod begins .
• 1585 - Spain & Catholic France sign Saint League of Joinville.
• 1602 - Spanish force in Ireland surrender to the English at Kinsdale .
• 1642 - Mehmed IV was born (d. 1693). Ottoman Sultan
• 1647 - Nathaniel Bacon was born (d. 1676). English-born American colonist.
• 1685 - Harbottle Grimston dies (b. 1603). English politician.
• 1694 - Henry Booth, 1st Earl of Warrington dies (b. 1651). English politician.
• 1699 - Osman III sultan (Turkey) was born.
• 1713 - Marie Dumesnil was born (d. 1803). French actress.
• 1719 - Jacques-Alexandre Laffon de Ladebat was born (d. 1797). French shipbuilder.
• 1726 - Domenico Zipoli dies (b. 1688). Italian composer.
• 1727 - James Wolfe was born (d. 1759). British general in French and Indian War.
• 1729 - Johann Daniel Titius was born (d. 1796). Prussian astronomer, physicist, and biologist whose formula (1766) expressing the distances between the planets and the Sun was confirmed by J.E. Bode in 1772, when it was called Bode's Law.
• 1757 - The United Kingdom captures Calcutta, India.
• 1765 - Charles Hatchett was born (d. 1847). English chemist who discovered the element niobium, which he called columbium (1801).
• 1765 - Alvará que manda concretizar o plano que cria o Terreiro Público (área para abastecimento da população na Ribeira de Lisboa).
• 1777 - Christian Daniel Rauch was born (d. 1857). German sculptor.
• 1788 - Georgia becomes the 4th state to ratify the United States Constitution.
• 1793 - Russia and Prussia partition Poland.
• 1803 - Charles Thurber was born in E. Brookfield, Mass. [d. 1886]; American inventor of the chirographer, an early form of typewriter, patented in 1843.
• 1814 - La Asamblea Representativa de Venezuela otorgó a Simón Bolívar los poderes absolutos.
• 1815 - Lord Byron marries Anna Isabella Milbanke, Seaham, County Durham.
• 1816 - Benjamin Hobson was born at Welford, Northamptonshire (d. 1873). English medical missionary to China .
• 1816 - Louis Bernard Guyton de Morveau dies [b. 1737]; French chemist who collaborated with Lavoisier and others to establish a systematic chemical nomenclature, helping to distinguish elements from compounds.
• 1818 - British Institution of Civil Engineers formed .
• 1822 - Rudolf Clausius was born [d.1888] ; German mathematical physicist who was one of the founders of thermodynamics.
• 1825 - Brasil e Argentina iniciam a Guerra Cisplatina pela posse da Banda Oriental, atual Uruguai.
• 1827 - Peter Semenov of Tian Shan was born (d. 1914). Russian explorer.
• 1830 - Henry Flagler was born (d. 1913). American financier.
• 1831 - Liberator, abolitionist newspaper, begins publishing in Boston .
• 1833 - Seraphim of Sarov dies (b. 1759). Russian Orthodox saint.
• 1836 - Mendele Moykher Sforim was born (d. 1917). Jewish writer.
• 1837 - Mily Balakirev was born (d. 1910). Russian composer .
• 1839 - Louis Jacques Mandé Daguerre took the first photograph of the Moon.
• 1842 - the first wire suspension bridge was opened to traffic in Fairmount, Pennsylvania.
• 1859 - Erastus Beadle publishes The Dime Book of Practical Etiquette.
• 1860 - The discovery of the planet Vulcan is announced at a meeting of the Académie des Sciences in Paris.
• 1860 - William Corless Mills was born [d. 1928]; American museum curator who excavated Indian remains in Ohio, especially the Adena Mound (1901), a large earthen Indian burial ground near Chillicothe.
• 1863 - Battle of Murfreesboro (Stone's River) ends .
• 1865 - Tomada de Paissandu, marco da Guerra do Paraguai .
• 1868 - Marcos Paz dies (b. 1813). President of Argentina.
• 1870 - Construction of the Brooklyn Bridge begins.
• 1870 - Ernst Barlach was born (d. 1938). German sculptor.
• 1871 - Amadeus I becomes King of Spain.
• 1872 - Albert Coombs Barnes [d. 1951]; American chemist who invented the antiseptic Argyrol (1902).
• 1872 - Brigham Young is arrested for bigamy (25 wives).
• 1873 - Thérèse de Lisieux, Saint Theresa was born (d. 30 Aug 1867). French Carmelite nun.
• 1877 - Slava Raskaj was born (d. 1906). Croatian painter.
• 1879 - Fred Spofforth claims the first hat-trick in test cricket on the Sydney Cricket Ground against England.
• 1882 - John D. Rockefeller unites his oil holdings into the Standard Oil trust.
• 1886 - Florence Lawrence was born (d. 1938). Canadian actress.
• 1889 - Roger Adams was born [d.1971]; American chemist and teacher who joined the faculty at the University of Illinois at Urbana in 1916, which he converted into the leading centre of organic chemistry in the U.S. .
• 1889 - Carmine Mirabellli was born at Botucatu, São Paulo (d. 30 Apr 1951). Brazilian religious. Founder of the Centro Espírita São Luís.
• 1890 - Alice Sanger becomes the first female staffer for the White House.
• 1890 - Joaquín V. González fundó la Universidad Nacional de La Plata (Capital de la Pcia de Buenos Aires, Argentina).
• 1890 - Julián Gayarre dies. Spanish opera singer (tenor).
• 1892 - Sir George Biddell Airy dies [b. 1801]; English astronomer who became the seventh Astronomer Royal (1836-92).
• 1893 - Introduction by Webb C. Ball of the General Railroad Timepiece Standards in North America: Railroad chronometers.
• 1893 - John Obadiah Westwood dies (b. 1805). British entomologist.
• 1896 - Battle at Doornkop, South Africa (Boers beat Dr Jamesons troops) .
• 1896 - Dziga Vertov was born (d. 1954). Russian filmmaker.
• 1897 - Jim Londos was born (d. 1975). Wrestler.
• 1900 - John Hay announces the Open Door Policy to promote trade with China.
• 1900 - Chicago Canal opens.
• 1904 - Sally Rand was born (d. 1979). American fan dancer.
• 1905 - The American anarcho-syndicalist union known as the Industrial Workers of the World forms.
• 1905 - Russo-Japanese War: The Russian fleet surrenders at Port Arthur, China.
• 1905 - Elara, a satellite of Jupiter, was discovered by Perrine .
• 1905 - Michael Tippett was born (d. 1998). English composer.
• 1905 - Lev Schnirelmann was born (d. 1938). Russian mathematician.
• 1910 - Srirangam Srinivasarao, also known as Sri Sri, was born (d. 1983). Famous Modern Telugu Poet
• 1912 - Renato Guttuso was born (d. 1987). Painter
• 1913 - Léon Teisserenc de Bort dies (b. 1855). French meteorologist who discovered the stratosphere (1902).
• 1913 - Anna Lee was born (d. 2004). English actress.
• 1917 - Vera Zorina was born (d. 2003). German dancer.
• 1917 - Sir Edward Burnett Tylor dies (b. 1832). English anthropologist regarded as the founder of cultural anthropology.
• 1917 - The Royal Bank of Canada takes over Quebec Bank.
• 1918 - Um incêndio no palácio real da Granja, em Segóvia, queima numerosas obras de arte.
• 1919 - Lithuania gains independence.
• 1920 - The Palmer Raids begin in the United States.
• 1920 - Isaac Asimov was born (d. 1992). American author and biochemist, who was a prolific writer of science fiction .
• 1921 - Fundação do Cruzeiro Esporte Clube .
• 1921 - The first religious radio broadcast (KDKA AM in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania) .
• 1921 - DeYoung Museum in Golden Gate Park San Francisco opens.
• 1921 - Glen Harmon was born. National Hockey League defenceman
• 1923 - U.S. Interior Secretary Albert Fall resigns due to the Teapot Dome scandal.
• 1923 - The African-American town of Rosewood, Fla., was burned by Ku Klux Klan (8 killed).
• 1924 - Sabine Baring-Gould dies (b. 1834). English composer and novelist.
• 1928 - Robert Goralski was born (d. 1988). American journalist.
• 1929 - Canada and the United States agree on a plan to preserve Niagara Falls.
• 1930 - Chiang-Kai-Chek assume a chefia do poder civil na China.
• 1930 - Julius LaRosa was born. American singer
• 1933 - US troops leave Nicaragua .
• 1933 - Morimura Seiichi was born. Japanese novelist
• 1935 - Bruno Hauptmann goes on trial for the murder of Charles Lindbergh, Jr., infant son of aviator Charles Lindbergh.
• 1935 - The Bruno R. Hauptmann trial began for the kidnap and murder of the Lindbergh baby.
• 1935 - Neil Downing was born. Irish writer and musician
• 1936 - the first electron tube to enable night vision was described, in St Louis, Mo.
• 1936 - Roger Miller was born in Ft Worth Texas (d. 1992). American country singer (King of the Road, Dang Me).
• 1936 - José Leonardo Coimbra dies (b. 30 Dec 1883). Portuguese philosopher and professor.
• 1938 - Ian Brady was born. British serial killer.
• 1938 - Hans Herbjørnsrud was born. Norwegian author.
• 1939 - Roman Dmowski dies (b. 1864). Polish politician.
• 1940 - Jim Bakker was born. American televangelist.
• 1941 - World War II: German bombing severely damages the Llandaff Cathedral in Cardiff, Wales.
• 1941 - World War II: The U.S. government announces its Liberty ship program with a stated goal of building 200 freighters. Over 2,700 ships will eventually be constructed by the end of the war.
• 1941 - Donald B. Keck was born; American research physicist, who with his colleagues at Corning Glass, Dr. Robert Maurer and Dr. Peter Schultz, invented fused silica optical waveguide - optical fiber .
• 1942 - World War II: Manila is captured by Japanese forces.
• 1942 - The United States Navy opens a blimp base at Lakehurst, New Jersey.
• 1942 - Dennis Hastert was born. 59th Speaker of the United States House of Representatives
• 1942 - Hugh Shelton was born. 15th Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff
• 1944 - Prince Norodom Ranariddh was born. Cambodian politician.
• 1946 - Unable to resume rule after World War II, King Zog of Albania abdicates but retains his claim to the throne.
• 1946 - Richard Cole was born. American tour manager.
• 1946 - Joe Darling dies (b. 1870). Australian cricketer.
• 1947 - Aleksandr Tikhonova was born. USSR biathalon relay (Olympics-gold-1968, 72, 76, 80) .
• 1947 - Jack Hanna was born. American zoologist.
• 1947 - Calvin Hill was born. American football player
• 1948 - Vicente Huidobro dies (b. 10 Jan 1893). Chilean poet.
• 1949 - Luis Muñoz Marín became the first democratically elected Governor of Puerto Rico.
• 1949 - Christopher Durang was born. American playwright
• 1950 - David Shifrin was born. American classical clarinetist
• 1950 - Débora Susan Duken [Débora Duarte] was born in São Paulo. Brazilian actress.
• 1951 - Bill Madlock was born. Major League Baseball player
• 1954 - Henry Bonilla was born. American politician
• 1954 - Dawn Silva was born. American singer (The Brides of Funkenstein, P-Funk)
• 1955 - Tex Brashear was born. American voice actor
• 1955 - Panamanian president Jose Antonio Remon is assassinated.
• 1955 - José Norton de Matos dies (b. 23 Mar 1867). Portuguese general and politician.
• 1957 - San Francisco and Los Angeles stock exchanges merge.
• 1957 - Joanna Pacula was born. Polish actress.
• 1958 - Vladimir Ovchinnikov was born. Russian pianist
• 1959 - CBS Radio cuts four soap operas: Backstage Wife Our Gal Sunday, Road of Life, and This is Nora Drake.
• 1959 - The first artificial satellite to orbit the sun, Luna 1, is launched by the U.S.S.R.
• 1960 - Sen. John F. Kennedy of Massachusetts announces his candidacy for the Democratic presidential nomination.
• 1960 - Christian Bartolf was born. German scientist.
• 1960 - Naoki Urasawa was born. Japanese manga author.
• 1960 - Fausto Coppi dies (b. 1919). Italian cyclist.
• 1960 - Paul Sauvé dies (b. 1907). Politician, Premier of Quebec
• 1961 - Gabrielle Carteris was born. American actress.
• 1961 - Todd Haynes was born. American film director.
• 1963 - David Cone was born. American baseball player.
• 1963 - Edgar Martinez was born. American baseball player
• 1963 - Dick Powell dies (b. 1904). American actor.
• 1964 - Kwame (Francis Nwia Kofie) Nkrumah, Ghana's first president, survives a fifth assassination attempt.
• 1964 - Pernell Whitaker was born. American boxer.
• 1965 - The New York Jets sign University of Alabama quarterback Joe Namath for a reported $400,000.
• 1965 - Ayub Khan elected President of Pakistan .
• 1965 - Diane Lane was born. American actress .
• 1965 - Greg Swindell was born. American baseball player
• 1967 - Tia Carrere was born. American actress .
• 1968 - Dr Christiaan Neethling Barnard performs his second successful heart transplant.
• 1968 - Anky van Grunsven was born. Dutch dressage champion
• 1968 - Cuba Gooding Jr. was born. American actor (Boyz N the Hood, Gadiator, Few Good Men
• 1968 - Evan Parke was born. Jamaican actor
• 1969 - Luis Ferré becomes the first statehooder Governor of Puerto Rico.
• 1969 - Operation Barrier Reef began in Mekong Delta, Vietnam
• 1969 - Christy Turlington was born in California. American fashion model ( Calvin Klein Eternity) .
• 1969 - Domingos was born. Portuguese football player and coach.
• 1969 - Tommy Morrison was born. American boxer.
• 1969 - Róbert Švehla was born. Slovak ice hockey player.
• 1969 - Patrick Huard was born. Quebec actor and comedian.
• 1970 - Royce Clayton was born. American baseball player.
• 1971 - 66 die in stairway crush at Rangers v Celtic football match, Glasgow, Scotland. See Ibrox disater.
• 1971 - Lisa Harrison was boorn. American basketball player
• 1971 - Renee Elise Goldsberry was born. African American actress, and singer
• 1972 - Rita Guedes was born. Brazilian actress.
• 1972 - Taye Diggs was born. American actor
• 1972 - Lillian Evelyn (Moller) Gilbreth dies [b. 1878] American efficiency expert, who as wife of Frank Bunker Gilbreth, contracting engineer, together developed the method of time-and-motion study .
• 1973 - Lucy Davis was born. British actress
• 1974 - Patrick Fonti was born. American musician
• 1974 - Tex Ritter dies (b. 1905). American actor, singer.
• 1974 - Richard Nixon signs a bill lowering the maximum US speed limit to 55 MPH in order to conserve gasoline during an OPEC embargo.
• 1975 - Reuben Thorne was born. New Zealand rugby union player
• 1975 - Doug Robb was born. American singer (Hoobastank)
• 1975 - Chris Cheney was born. Australian musician (The Living End)
• 1975 - Sundra Oakley was born. American actress and Survivor contestant
• 1975 - Hernâni Cidade dies in Évora (b. 1887, Redondo). Portuguese essayst and professor
• 1976 - Cletidus Hunt was born. American football player
• 1976 - Danilo Di Luca was born. Italian cyclist
• 1976 - Paz Vega was born. Spanish actress.
• 1977 - Ales Pisa was born. Czech ice hockey player.
• 1977 - Errol Garner dies (b. 1921). American musician.
• 1979 - Sid Vicious goes on trial for the murder of Nancy Spungen.
• 1980 - Mac Danzig was born. American Mixed martial arts combatant
• 1981 - Peter Sutcliffe, the Yorkshire Ripper, is arrested.
• 1981 - Hanno Balitsch was born. German footballer
• 1981 - Kirk Hinrich was born. Basketball player
• 1981 - Maxi Rodríguez was born. Argentine footballer
• 1983 - The musical Annie is performed for the last time after 2,377 shows at the Uris Theatre on Broadway.
• 1983 - Kate Bosworth was born. American actress
• 1984 - Cinco barcos iranianos são atacados e destruídos pela Armada do Iraque no Golfo Pérsico.
• 1984 - Colleen Taylor was born. American journalist
• 1985 - Heather O'Reilly was born. American soccer player.
• 1986 - Una Merkel dies (b. 1903). American actress.
• 1986 - Bill Veeck dies (b. 1914). Baseball executive.
• 1987 - Ulysses Guimarães, presidente do PMBD, é eleito presidente da Constituinte (Brasil).
• 1990 - Alan Hale Jr. dies (b. 1918). American actor.
• 1991 - Sharon Pratt Dixon is sworn in as mayor of Washington, DC becoming the first African American woman to lead a city of that size and importance.
• 1992 - Paraguay becomes a member of the Berne Convention copyright treaty.
• 1993 - Leaders of the three warring factions in Bosnia meet to discuss peace plans.
• 1994 - Dr Christiaan Neethling Barnard performs his second successful heart transplant.
• 1994 - Dixy Lee Ray dies [b. 1914]. Margaret Ray, American marine biologist whose interests extended to the environment. A year after appointment to the Atomic Energy Commission, she became its first female chair (1973-75) and championed nuclear power plant construction. On 2 Nov 1976, Ray won election as the first woman to be governor of Washington state.
• 1994 - Mais de 70 pessoas morrem e 670 são feridas durante dois dias de luta entre facções na capital afegã de Cabul.
• 1995 - the most distant galaxy yet discovered was found by scientists using the Keck telescope in Hawaii. It is estimated to be 15 billion light years away and was named 8C 1435+63.
• 1995 - Manuel Rivera dies in Madrid (b. 1928, Granada). Spanish Painter, co-founder of El Paso .
• 1995 - Nancy Kelly dies (b. 1921). American actress.
• 1995 - Siad Barre dies. President of Somalia.
• 1995 - Pinheiro Rosa dies. Portuguese historian investigator.
• 1996 - O presidente egípcio Hosni Mubarak escolhe Kamal Ganzouri como seu novo primeiro-ministro após a renuncia de Atef Sedki.
• 1996 - Thornton Page dies at 82. Astrophysicist.
• 1996 - Karl Targownik dies (b. 1915). Hungarian psychiatrist.
• 1997 - Howard Stern Radio Show premieres in Columbus OH on WBZX 99.7 FM .
• 1998 - Russia begins to circulate new rubles to stem inflation and promote confidence.
• 1999 - A brutal snowstorm smashes into the Midwestern USA, causing 14 inches (359mm) of snow at Milwaukee, Wisconsin and 19 inches (487mm) at Chicago, Illinois.Temperatures plunge to -13°F (-25°C), and 68 deaths are reported.
• 2000 - Nat Adderley dies (b. 1931). American musician and composer.
• 2000 - Elmo R. Zumwalt, Jr. dies (b. 1920). U.S. admiral, 19th Chief of Naval Operations
• 2000 - Patrick O'Brian dies (b. 1914). Novelist.
• 2001 - Sila Calderón becomes the first female Governor of Puerto Rico.
• 2001 - Teri Diver dies (b. 1971). American actress.
• 2002 - Levy Mwanawasa takes office as the third President of Zambia.
• 2002 - Eduardo Duhalde is appointed interim President of Argentina by the Legislative Assembly.
• 2002 - Levy Mwanawasa took office as the third President of Zambia.
• 2003 - A crise argentina continua. O Congresso argentino conduz Eduardo Duhalde, derrotado nas eleições, ao poder. Jorge Lenicov assume a pasta da Economia e anuncia que vai desvalorizar a moeda após uma década de paridade cambial com o dólar.
• 2004 - Stardust successfully flies past Comet Wild 2, collecting samples that it will return to Earth two years later.
• 2004 - Lynn Cartwright dies (b. 1927). American actress.
• 2004 - Jess Collins dies (b. 1923). American artist.
• 2005 - Cyril Fletcher dies (b. 1913). British comedian.
• 2005 - Frank Kelly Freas dies (b. 1922). American artist.
• 2005 - Ronald 'Bo' Ginn dies (b. 1934). U.S. Congressman from Georgia.
• 2005 - Maclyn McCarty dies (b. 1911). American geneticist.
• 2005 - Edo Murtić dies (b. 1921). Croatian painter.
• 2006 - An explosion in a coal mine leads to the death of 12 of 13 miners in the 2006 Sago Mine disaster in West Virginia.
• 2006 - Fifteen people die in the Bad Reichenhall ice rink roof collapse tragedy in Bavaria, Germany
• Catholicism and Anglicanism — Feast day of St. Basil the Great and Gregory Nazianzen.