2nd February |
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| 1032 Koenraad II succeeds Rudolf III as king of Bourgundy | ||
| 1119 Guido di Borgogna elected Pope Callistus II | ||
| 1141 Battle at Lincoln: King Stephen captured | ||
| 1461 2nd battle of St Alban's-Lancastrian defeat Yorkists | ||
| 1536 Pedro de Mendoza finds Argentine city of Buenos Aires | ||
| 1540 The first-recorded horse race in England was held at Roodeye Fields, Chester. | ||
| 1653 New Amsterdam becomes a city (later NYC) | ||
| 1674 Charles II of England signed the Treaty of Westminster, ending the war with the Dutch. | ||
| 1709 British sailor Alexander Selkirk is rescued after being marooned on a desert island for 5 years, his story inspires "Robinson Crusoe" | ||
| 1714 Nicholas Rowe's "tragedy of Jane Shore," premieres in London | ||
| 1732 King Frederik Willem I moves Lutherans towards East-Prussia | ||
| 1742 British Walpole govt resigns | ||
| 1762 Thomas Arnes opera "Artaxerxes," premieres in London | ||
| 1798 Federal St Theater, Boston, becomes 1st in US destroyed by fire | ||
| 1801 France and Austria signed the Peace of Luneville, effectively ending the Holy Roman Empire | ||
| 1811 Russian settlers establish Ft Ross trading post, north of SF | ||
| 1843 US & British settlers in Oregon Country choose govt committee | ||
| 1849 Giuseppe Mazzini proclaimed Rome a republic. | ||
| 1852 1st British public men's toilet opens (Fleet St London) | ||
| 1852 Alexandre Dumas Jr's "Le Dame aux Cam‚lias," premieres in Paris | ||
| 1854 Pope Pius IX encyclical "On persecution of Armenians" | ||
| 1861 Jefferson Davis was chosen as president of the Confederate States of America, and Alexander Stephens as vice-president. | ||
| 1863 Samuel Clemens becomes Mark Twain for 1st time | ||
| 1869 James Oliver invents removable tempered steel plow blade | ||
| 1870 Mark Twain, 34, marries Olivia Langdon in Elmira, NY | ||
| 1878 Greece declares war on Turkey | ||
| 1880 SS Strathleven arrives in London with 1st Australian frozen mutton | ||
| 1881 Feodor Dostoevski, Russian novelist whose works included "Crime and Punishment," "The Idiot" and "The Brothers Karamazov," died. | ||
| 1882 Knights of Columbus forms in New Haven, Conn | ||
| 1892 Bottle cap with cork seal patented by William Painter (Baltimore) | ||
| 1892 Johnny Briggs takes a hat-trick, England v Aust SCG | ||
| 1893 "Falstaff," the last opera by Italian composer Giuseppe Verdi, was first performed in Milan. | ||
| 1904 At the outbreak of the Russo-Japanese War, the Russian ships Variag and Korietz were sunk off Korea. | ||
| 1906 Pope encyclical against separation of church & state | ||
| 1909 Italian writer Marinetti publishes Futurist Manifest in Paris | ||
| 1909 France and Germany reached agreement over Morocco, with Germany recognizing French special interests there in return for economic concessions | ||
| 1912 Frederick R Law, parachutes from Statue of Liberty (stunt for Pathe) | ||
| 1919 Monarchist riot in Portugal | ||
| 1920 Estonia declares its Independence from Russia (Dorpat Peace) | ||
| 1920 France occupies (German) Memel territory | ||
| 1920 Tarto/Dorpat peace treaty: USSR recognizes Estonian independence | ||
| 1923 Dobrolet, the Soviet state airline, was formed. It was renamed Aeroflot in 1932. | ||
| 1923 US signs friendship treaty with Central American countries | ||
| 1924 International Ski Federation (FIS) forms | ||
| 1925 Belgian episcopacy rejects liberalism, communism & socialism | ||
| 1929 the Litvinov protocol, a pact for the renunciation of war, was signed in Moscow between Russia, Poland, Romania, Estonia and Latvia. | ||
| 1932 Al Capone sent to prison (Atlanta, Georgia) | ||
| 1932 Geneva disarmament conference begins with 60 countries | ||
| 1932 Reconstruction Finance Corp organized | ||
| 1933 2 days after becoming chancellor, Adolf Hitler dissolves Parliament | ||
| 1934 the Balkan Pact to prevent encroachment by the great powers was signed by Romania, Greece, Yugoslavia and Turkey. | ||
| 1941 In a speech directed at the United States, Winston Churchill said: "Put your confidence in us...give us the tools and we will finish the job." | ||
| 1942 LA Times urges security measures against Japanese-Americans | ||
| 1942 the French passenger liner Normandie burned and sank at its pier in New York City. | ||
| 1943 U.S. troops reached Guadalcanal, Solomon Islands, and discovered that the Japanese had evacuatedy | ||
| 1943 German 6th Army surrenders at Stalingrad, turning point of WW II | ||
| 1944 4th US marine division conquerors Roi, Marshall Islands | ||
| 1944 Allied troops 1st set foot on Japanese territory | ||
| 1945 Escape attempt at Mauthausen concentration camp | ||
| 1948 President Truman urges congress to adopt a civil rights program | ||
| 1950 U.S. Senator Joseph McCarthy said he had evidence there were individuals in the State Department who were card-carrying members of the Communist Party. | 1950, U.S. Senator Joseph McCarthy said he had evidence there were individuals in the State Department who were card-carrying members of the Communist Party. | |
| 1954 Bevo Francis, Rio Grande College, scores 113 pts in basketball game | ||
| 1954 Pres Eisenhower reports detonation of 1st H-bomb (done in 1952 | ||
| 1957 UN adopts a resolution calling for Israeli troops to leave Egypt | ||
| 1958 Syria joins Egypt in United Arab Republic | ||
| 1961 Prince Bernhard opens new RAI building in Amsterdam | ||
| 1962 8 of 9 planets align for 1st time in 400 years | ||
| 1967 Bolivia adopts its constitution | ||
| 1968 Springer Publishers in West Berlin, bombed | ||
| 1969 the first test flight of the Boeing 747 Jumbo Jet took place. | ||
| 1971 Idi Amin ousts Milton Obote to become dictator of Uganda | ||
| 1972 The British government declares a state of emergency over a miners' strike. | ||
| 1973 James R Schlesinger, becomes 9th director of CIA (until July) | ||
| 1973 Richath Helms, ends term as 8th director of CIA | ||
| 1975 Army offensive against rebels in Eritrea Ethiopia | ||
| 1977 Burn up of Salyut 4 Space Station (USSR) | ||
| 1977 Spain established diplomatic relations with the Soviet Union. | ||
| 1978 Canada announced it was expelling 13 Soviet diplomats who it said had tried to recruit a Royal Canadian Mounted Police officer. | ||
| 1983 Pope John Paul II names 18 new cardinals | ||
| 1983 The racehorse Shergar, the 1981 English Derby winner, was stolen from his stable in Ireland. | ||
| 1984 Lebanese army fight in Beirut | ||
| 1984 Soviet leader Yuri Andropov died. A former KGB chief, he succeeded Leonid Brezhnev in late 1982 and was in power for less than 15 months. | ||
| 1986 Dalai Lama meets Pope John Paul II in India | ||
| 1986 Oscar Arias Sanchez elected president of Costa Rica | ||
| 1987 Philippines adopts constitution | ||
| 1989 FW de Klerk replaces Botha as South Africa's National Party leader | ||
| 1990 South Africa's Pres FW de Klerk promises to free Nelson Mandela | ||
| 1991 Lithuanians voted by a huge majority to restore the Soviet republic's pre-World War II independence. | ||
| 1995 US space shuttle Discovery launched | ||
| 1998 Philippine DC-9 crashes apparently killing all 104 on board | ||