Historical Events and Current Affairs on January 2

1235: Emperor Joseph II orders Jews of Galicia Austria to adopt family names
1492: Spain recaptures Granada from the Moors (Granada Day)
1570: Tsar Ivan the Terrible march to Novgorod begins
1585: Spain & Catholic France sign Saint League of Joinville
1602: Battle at Kinsale, Ireland: English army beats Spanish
1602: Spanish force in Ireland surrender to the English at Kinsdale
1678: Staatsoper Hamburg opens with Theiles "Adam und Eva"
1757: British troops occupy Calcutta India
1776: 1st revolutionary flag displayed
1776: Austria ends interregation torture
1788: Georgia is 4th state to ratify US constitution
1790: Mozart's opera "Cos? fan tutti" premieres, Vienna
1800: Free black community of Phila petitions Congress to abolish slave
1811: documents communicated by the president of the US)
1811: US Sen Thomas Pickering is 1st senator censured (revealed confidential
1814: Lord Byron completes "The Corsair"
1818: Lord Byron completes "Childe Harold's Pilgrimage" (4th canto)
1831: Liberator, abolitionist newspaper, begins publishing in Boston
1832: 1st Curling club in US (Orchard Lake Curling Club) opens
1839: 1st photo of the Moon (French photographer Louis Daguerre)
1842: 1st US wire suspension bridge for general traffic opens in Penn
1843: Wagner's opera "Der Fliegende Holl?nder" premieres, Dresden
1861: Colonel Charles Stone is put in charge of organizing DC militia
1861: SC seizes inactive Ft Johnson in Charleston Harbor
1863: Battle of Murfreesboro (Stone's River) ends
1870: Construction of Brooklyn Bridge begins
1871: King Amadeus I of Spain inaugurated at 25
1879: 1st Test match hat-trick, Fred Spofforth at the MCG
1879: British battleship Thunder explodes in Gulf of Ismid, 9 die
1879: Dr Benjamin E Mays, named president of Atlanta Board of Education
1879: Northwestern League (minor baseball league) organized, Rockford, Ill
1881: Camille Saint-Sa?ns' 3rd Concerto in B, premieres
1882: Because of anti-monopoly laws, Standard Oil is organized as a trust
1885: Gen Wolseley receives last distress signal of Gen Gordon in Khartoum
1890: Alice Sanger becomes 1st female White House staffer
1890: Record 19'2" alligator shot in Louisiana by E A McIlhenny
1893: 1st US commemoratives & 1st US stamp to picture a woman issued
1893: World's Columbian Exposition opens in Chicago [or 0501]
1896: Battle at Doornkop, South Africa (Boers beat Dr Jamesons troops)
1900: E Verlinger begins manufacturing 7" single-sided records (Montreal)
1900: Gustave Charpentiers opera "Louise," premieres in Paris
1903: Pres T Roosevelt shuts down post office in Indianola Miss, for
1903: refusing to accept its appointed postmistress because she was black
1905: Elara, a satellite of Jupiter, discovered by Perrine
1905: Japanese troops capture Port Arthur
1908: Canadian branch of the Royal Mint opens in Ottawa
1909: 1st official Dutch 11 city skate (Minne Hoekstra in 13:50)
1910: 1st junior high schools in US opens (Berkeley Calif)
1911: Bkln Dodgers pres Charles Ebbets announces purchase of grounds to
1911: build a new concrete-and-steel stadium to seat 30,000
1913: National Woman's Party forms
1914: Philips installs research dept in Eindhoven
1917: Royal Bank of Canada takes over Qu?bec Bank
1918: Dodgers trade Casey Stengel & Cutshaw to Pitts for Grimes & Mamaux
1918: NHL Montreal Wanderers disband after Westmount arena burns down
1919: Anti-British uprising in Ireland
1919: Lithuania gains independence
1920: 10,000 US union & socialist organizers arrested (Palmer Raids)
1921: 1st religious service radio broadcast in US, KDKA-Pittsburgh
1921: DeYoung Museum in Golden Gate Park opens
1923: 8 killed (compensation awarded in 1995)
1923: Ku Klux Klan surprise attack on black residential area Rosewood Fla,
1925: Gorno-Badakhshan Autonomous Region established (now in Tadzhik SSR)
1929: US & Canada agree to preserve Niagara Falls
1932: Young gang shoot dead 6 police in Springfield Missouri
1933: Bradman scores 103* against the Bodyline attack in the 2nd Test
1933: Bruins beat Rangers in NY 13-3
1933: Ijmuider fishing strike begins (till July 11th)
1933: US troops leave Nicaragua
1934: 1st state liquor stores open, in Pennsylvania
1934: Bradman scores 253 NSW v Queensland, 204 mins, 29 fours 4 sixes
1935: Bruno R Hauptmann trial begins for kidnap-murder of Lindbergh baby
1936: 1st electron tube to enable night vision described, St Louis, Mo
1936: Bradman scores 357 for SA v Vic, 424 minutes, 40 fours
1938: Book publisher Simon and Schuster founded
1939: Bradman scores 107 SA v Victoria, his 4th consecutive century
1942: 28 nations, at war with Axis, pledge no separate peace
1942: German troops in Bardia surrender
1942: Japanese troops occupy Manila Philippines
1944: 1st use of helicopters during warfare (British Atlantic patrol)
1945: Allied air raid on Neurenberg
1945: George Bush (pres 1989) & Barbara Pierce wed [or January 6]
1945: Kentucky begins 130 home basketball game win streak, ends in 1955
1945: Radio Orange ends cooperation at Liese-Aktion
1947: Mahatma Gandhi begins march for peace in East-Bengali
1948: WNDT (now WNET) TV channel 13 in New York-Newark, NY (PBS) begins
1949: KDKA TV channel 2 in Pittsburgh, PA (CBS) begins broadcasting
1951: Philip Barry's "Second Threshold," premieres in NYC
1952: "Pal Joey" opens at Broadhurst Theater NYC for 542 performances
1953: NBA Baltimore Bullets begin a 32 game road losing streak
1954: Herman Wouks "Caine Mutiny," premieres in NYC
1955: 1st "Bob Cummings Show" premieres on NBC (later on CBS)
1956: Poujadists/communists win French parliamentary elections
1958: Dmitri Shostakovitch' 2nd Piano concert, premieres in NY
1959: Cuban dictator Fulgencio Batista flees
1959: USSR launches Mechta (Luna 1) for 1st lunar fly-by, 1st solar orbit
1960: 1st redshank old world shore bird reported in N America (Halifax)
1960: John F Kennedy announces run for US Presidency
1960: John Reynolds sets age of solar system at 4,950,000,000 years
1960: Roger Sessions' 4th Symphony, premieres
1960: Senator John F Kennedy, announces his candidacy for president
1961: 1st AFL Championship Game, Houston Oilers beat LA Chargers 24-16
1961: Hawaii's, then all time low temperature, 14?F recorded atop Haleakale
1962: Nighttime version of "Password" with Allen Ludden premieres on CBS
1964: Ayub Khan elected president of Pakistan
1964: Failed assassination attempt on president Nkrumah of Ghana
1965: Martin Luther King Jr begins a drive to register black voters
1965: NY Jets sign quarterback Joe Namath
1965: Obverse design of all Canadian coins is changed to depict present-day
1966: 1st Jewish child born in Spain since 1492 expulsion
1968: "Zizi" closes at Broadway Theater NYC after 49 performances
1968: Christian Barnard performs 2nd heart transplant
1968: KBHK TV channel 44 in San Francisco, CA (IND) begins broadcasting
1969: "Fig Leaves Are Falling" opens at Broadhurst Theater NYC for 4 perfs
1969: "Soviet Sport" calls Emile Zatopek a public enemy
1969: Lorraine Hansberry's "To be Young, Gifted & Black," premieres in NYC
1970: Dutch premiere of musical "Hair" in Amsterdam
1970: US population is 293,200,000; Black population: 22,600,000 (11.1%)
1971: match in Glasgow Scotland, killing 66
1972: "Rothschilds" closes at Lunt-Fontanne Theater NYC after 505 perfs
1972: Dallas Cowboys beat SF '49ers 14-3 in NFC championship game
1972: Mariner 9 begins mapping Mars
1972: Miami Dolphins beat Balt Colts 21-0 in AFC championship game
1974: 55 MPH speed limit imposed by Richard Nixon
1974: Worst fire in Argentine history destroys 1.2 million acres
1975: US Dept of Interior designates grizzly bear a threatened species
1977: Bowie Kuhn suspends Braves owner Ted Turner for one year due to
1977: tampering charges in Gary Matthews free-agency signing
1978: B?lent Ecevit forms govt in Turkey
1978: Rhino Records releases their 1st album "Wildmania"
1979: 30th Islander shut-out opponent-Glenn Resch 9-0 vs Vancouver
1979: Gavaskar gets twin tons for India for the third time (v WI)
1979: Sid Vicious' trial for murder of girlfriend Nancy Spungen begins
1980: 68th Australian Men Tennis: Guillermo Vilas beat John Sadri (76 63 62)
1981: Mary Terstegge Meagher swims female record 200 m butterfly (2:05.65)
1981: Sylvester Clarke knocks out spectator with brick, WI v Pakistan
1982: "Camelot" closes at Winter Garden Theater NYC after 48 performances
1982: 70th Australian Mens Tennis: Johan Kriek beats S Denton (62 76 67 64)
1982: Islanders start 23 undefeated home streak (21-0-2) 14 straight wins
1982: SD Chargers beat Miami Dolphins, 41-38 in 13:52 of OT
1983: "Annie" closes at Alvin Theater NYC after 2,377 performances
1983: "Sophisticated Ladies" closes at Lunt-Fontanne NYC after 767 perfs
1983: Don Muraco beats Pedro Morales to become WWF Intercontinental Champ
1983: Gary Trudeau takes a 20-month break from writing "Doonesbury"
1983: Ken Anderson of Cincinnati completes record 20 consecutive passes
1984: Miami beats Nebraska in Orange Bowl for college football championship
1984: Riot in Tunis kills over 100
1984: Wilson Goode, sworn-in as Phila's 1st black mayor
1985: 90th hat trick in Islander history-Brent Sutter
1985: Australia beat WI by innings at SCG, Bob Holland 10 match wkts
1985: Egyptian Pres Mubarak reappoints Coptic pope Shenuda III
1985: Nevada-Las Vegas beats Utah 142-140, highest college basketball score
1985: Undefeated BYU becomes college football champions
1986: 191.66 million shares traded in NY Stock Exchange
1986: NY Islander, Mike Bossy, scores his 500th goal
1987: Penn State upsets Miami in Fiesta Bowl for college football champ
1987: Troops of Chad Pres Habr? conquer Fada oasis
1988: Ashland Oil storage tank spills 3.8 million gallons, Penn
1988: Mulroney & Reagan sign Canada-US free trade agreement
1989: Notre Dame beats West Virginia for college football championship
1989: UCLA wins a record 7th consecutive bowl game
1990: Dow Jones hits record 2,800 (2,810.15)
1990: Sting joins wrestlings 4 Horsemen (Flair, Arn Anderson, Ole Anderson)
1991: Colorado wins its 1st AP national title poll
1992: Test debut of Shane Warne, v India at Sydney
1993: "Gypsy Passion" closes at Plymouth Theater NYC after 55 performances
1994: "Abe Lincoln in Illinois" closes at Beaumont NYC after 40 perfs
1994: "Shakespeare after My Father" closes at Helen Hayes NYC after 266 perf
1994: Battles between army & rebellious indians in South Mexico, kill 57
1995: Bus crashes in Luzon Philippines, 29 killed
1995: Carquest Bowl 5: South Carolina beats West Virginia, 24-21
1995: Most distant galaxy yet discovered found by scientists using Keck
1995: telescope in Hawaii (est 15 billion light years away)
1997: Howard Stern Radio Show premieres in Columbus OH on WBZX 99.7 FM
1998: Autopsy of Chris Farley shows he overdosed of opiates & cocaine

News Updates

Birthdays

Death Days

Events