January 2 - Events

Events

• 366 – The Alamanni 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 aBritish 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 – Re-establishment of British rule on the Falklands.
• 1860 – The discovery of the planet Vulcan is announced at a meeting of the Académie des Sciences inParis
• 1871 – Amadeus I becomes King of Spain
• 1900 – 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
• 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 is captured by Japanese forces
• 1945 – World War II: Nuremberg (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 Jose Antonio Remon is assassinated
• 1959 – Luna 1, the first spacecraft to reach the vicinity of the Moon and to orbit the Sun, is launched by the U.S.S.R.
• 1971 – The second Ibrox disaster kills 66 fans at a Rangers-Celtic football match
• 1974 – President Richard Nixon signs a bill lowering the maximum U.S. speed limit to 55 MPH in order to conserve gasoline during anOPEC embargo
• 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, where temperatures plunge to -13 °F (-25 °C); 68 deaths are reported
• 2001 – Sila Calderón becomes the first female Governor of Puerto Rico
• 2002 – Eduardo Duhalde is appointed interim President of Argentina by the Legislative Assembly.
• 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.