/year

January 2 in history

167 sourced entries recorded on January 2, from 320 CE to 2025 CE. Every line is quoted from the revision it came from.

Events

  • 366The Alamanni cross the frozen Rhine in large numbers, and invade the Gallic provinces. They capture Alsace and a large part of the Swiss Plateau.source
  • 533After an interregnum of 2 months and 15 days, Pope John II becomes the 56th pope of Rome, and the first to adopt a regnal name upon elevation to the papacy (his birth name, Mercurius, being of pagan origin).source
  • 1266Siege of Murcia: King James I of Aragon ("the Conqueror") marches with his army from Orihuela and lays siege at Murcia on the Segura River. Skirmishes break out between the defenders and the Aragonese forces. The Muslim garrison, realizing that they are outnumbered and cut off from reinforcements, asks for terms. James offers to ask King Alfonso X of Castile ("the Wise") to restore the Murcians' legal rights (see 1244) from before the rebellion: self-government under Castilian suzerainty, freedom of worship, and preservation of lands and properties. They agree to this offer but request Alfonso's explicit agreement rather than just James' promise to ask him. James refuses to get Alfonso's agreement before the city surrenders. Finally, the Moors yield Murcia to James on January 31. Seeing his standard on the walls, James enters the city on February 3, accepting its surrender.source
  • 1283Most of Dublin, including St. Patrick's Cathedral, is burned in a fire.source
  • 1302In Germany, Henry II becomes the ruler of the independent nation of Mecklenburg (encompassing the modern-day northeastern German state of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern) upon the death of his father, Henry the Pilgrim. Henry II had served as regent from 1290 to 1298 during Henry the Pilgrim's pilgrimage to the Holy Land, and had continued most of the administration of Mecklenburg after the return of his 68-year-old father.source
  • 1315King Edward II of England buries his friend Piers Gaveston (executed 1312) having secured a papal absolution in one of the last acts of Pope Clement V. The burial takes place somewhere near the King's Langley Priory in Hertfordshire, but the location of the tomb is subsequently forgotten. Gaveston had been excommunicated before his death.source
  • 1370In France, the war over the autonomous state of Provence, launched by King Charles V's brother, the Duke of Anjou, against the ruling countess, Queen Joanna I of Naples, is halted by a truce forced by the invention of Pope Urban V and King Charles.source
  • 1444The Battle of Kunovica is fought between the Christian crusaders, led by John Hunyadi, and the Muslim armies of the Ottoman Empire in what is now Serbia. After having retreated 10 days earlier following their loss in the Battle of Zlatitsa, Hunyadi and King Wladyslaw III of Hungary defeat the Ottoman forces and take several of their commanders as prisoners of war, including Mahmud Bey, son-in-law of the Sultan Murad II.source
  • 1446(5th waxing of Tabodwe 807 ME) At the city of Taungoo in what is now Myanmar, 14-year-old Minkhaung I becomes the new Viceroy of Toungoo, a semi-independent vassal state of the Kingdom of Ava, ruled by King Narapati I of Ava. Minkhaung's ascension comes hours after the sudden death of his father, the Viceroy Tarabya.source
  • 1449King Henry VI of England summons the members of parliament, directing them to assemble on February 12 at Westminster.source
  • 1491After his failed attempt to marry Anne, Duchess of Brittany, Breton General Alain I of Albret signs the Treaty of Moulins and pledges support to King Charles VIII of France in return for the rights to the Breton city of Nantes. The French–Breton War resumes.source
  • 1492Fall of Granada: Muhammad XI, the last Emir of Granada, surrenders his city to the army of the Catholic Monarchs (Ferdinand II of Aragon and Isabella I of Castile) after a lengthy siege, ending the ten-year Granada War and the centuries-long Reconquista, and bringing an end to 780 years of Muslim control in Al-Andalus.source
  • 1494December 31 – January 6: peaceful French entry into Rome with Pope Alexander VI's permission, but some French looting takes place.source
  • 1553The siege of Metz in France, started by Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor during the Italian War of 1551–59 on October 19 last is lifted after 75 days. During the city's defence by the Duke of Guise and 6,000 soldiers, Charles V had lost two-thirds of his original force of at least 20,000 men.source
  • 1582The University of Würzburg is refounded.source
  • 1608The first of the Jamestown supply missions returns to the Colony of Virginia with Christopher Newport commanding the John and Francis and the Phoenix bringing about 100 new settlers to supplement the 38 survivors he finds at Jamestown.source
  • 1624Disgrace of Nicolas Brûlart de Sillery and Pierre Brûlart, marquis de Sillery.source
  • 1630A shoemaker in Turin is found to have the first case of bubonic plague there as the plague of 1630 begins spreading through Italy.source
  • 1669Pirate Henry Morgan of Wales holds a meeting of his captains on board his ship, the former Royal Navy frigate Oxford, and an explosion in the ship's gunpowder supply kills 200 of his crew and four of the pirate captains who had attended the summit.source
  • 1672After the government of England is unable to pay the nation's debts, King Charles II decrees the Stop of the Exchequer, the suspension of payments for one year "upon any warrant, securities or orders, whether registered or not registered therein, and payable within that time, excepting only such payments as shall grow due upon orders on the subsidy, according to the Act of Parliament, and orders and securities upon the fee farm rents, both which are to be proceeded upon as if such a stop had never been made." The money saved by not paying debts is redirected toward the expenses of the upcoming war with the Dutch Republic, but the effect is for the halt by banks for extending further credit to the Crown. Before the end of the year, the suspension of payments is extended from December 31 to May 31, and then to January 31, 1674.source
  • 1672cash payments by the Exchequer suspended for a year, due to fears of imminent bankruptcy.source
  • 1674The French West India Company is dissolved after less than 10 years.source
  • 1680King Amangkurat II of Mataram (located on the island of Java, part of modern-day Indonesia), invites Trunajaya, who had led a failed rebellion against him until his surrender on December 26, for a ceremonial visit to the royal palace. After Trunajaya arrives, King Amangkurat stabs his guest to death.source
  • 1688Fleeing from the Spanish Navy, French pirate Raveneau de Lussan and his 70 men arrive on the west coast of Nicaragua, sink their boats, and make a difficult 10 day march to the city of Ocotal.source
  • 1690The Ottoman Empire defeats Serbian rebels and Austrian troops in battle at Kaçanik Gorge, prompting more than 30,000 Serb refugees to flee northward from Kosovo, Macedonia and Sandžak to the Austrian Empire.source
  • 1702A total solar eclipse is visible from the southern Pacific Ocean.source
  • 1712In the British House of Lords, twelve new Tory peers known as Harley's Dozen take their seats.source
  • 1735Alexander Pope's poem Epistle to Dr Arbuthnot is published in London.source
  • 1735Alexander Pope's poem Epistle to Dr Arbuthnot is published in London.source
  • 1743Edward Willes is consecrated Bishop of St David's.source
  • 1757Seven Years' War: The British East India Company Army, under the command of Robert Clive, captures Calcutta, India.source
  • 1757Seven Years' War: The British East India Company Army, under the command of Robert Clive, captures Calcutta in India.source
  • 1767The newspaper Aalborg Stiftstidende is published for the first time in Aalborg.source
  • 1777American Revolutionary War – Battle of the Assunpink Creek: American general George Washington's army repulses a British attack by Lieutenant General Charles Cornwallis, in a second battle at Trenton, New Jersey.source
  • 1781Virginia passes a law ceding its western land claims, paving the way for Maryland to ratify the Articles of Confederation.source
  • 1788Georgia ratifies the United States Constitution, and becomes the fourth U.S. state under the new government.source
  • 1791Northwest Indian War: Big Bottom Massacre – The war begins in the Ohio Country, with this massacre.source
  • 1793Radical Thomas Muir of Huntershill arrested on a charge of sedition but released on bail.source
  • 1793Premiere of Mozart's Requiem (completed after the composer's death in 1791 by Franz Xaver Süssmayr) in a performace for the benefit of Mozart's widow, Constanze.source
  • 1815The Prince Regent divides the Order of the Bath into three classes: the Knights Grand Cross, Knights Commander and Companions.source
  • 1815Lord Byron marries Anna Isabella Milbanke in Seaham, county of Durham, England.source
  • 1815Lord Byron marries Anna Isabella Milbanke at Seaham, County Durham.source
  • 1819The Panic of 1819, the first major peacetime financial crisis in the United States, begins.source
  • 1819The Panic of 1819, the first major financial crisis in the United States, begins.source
  • 1824First issue of the conservative Stockholms Dagblad.source
  • 1825The Parliament House, in Toronto, is burned.source
  • 1825The square-rigged transatlantic ocean liner Diamond strikes Sarn Badrig in Cardigan Bay and sinks.source
  • 1832Joaquim Pinto Madeira starts a movement in Ceará, known as the Crato Insurrection, in order to restore Emperor Pedro I back to power.source
  • 1837Wreck of the Mexico kills 115 immigrants off the coast of Long Island.source
  • 1838The National Public Archives is established in Rio de Janeiro.source
  • 1839The first photograph of the Moon is taken, by French photographer Louis Daguerre.source
  • 1860The astronomer Urbain Le Verrier announces the discovery of a hypothetical planet Vulcan at a meeting of the French Academy of Sciences in Paris, France.source
  • 1863Master Lucius Tar Paint Company (Teerfarbenfabrik Meister Lucius), predecessor of Hoechst as a worldwide chemical manufacturing brand, is founded in a suburb of Frankfurt am Main, Germany.source
  • 1868British Expedition to Abyssinia: Robert Napier leads an expedition to free captive British officials and missionaries.source
  • 1868British Expedition to Abyssinia: Robert Napier leads an expedition to free captive British officials and missionaries.source
  • 1872Brigham Young is arrested for allegedly being an accessory to murder.source
  • 1874Ignacio María González becomes head of state of the Dominican Republic for the first time.source
  • 1882Irish-born author Oscar Wilde arrives in New York at the beginning of a lecture tour of the United States and Canada.source
  • 1882The Standard Oil Trust is secretly created in the United States to control multiple corporations set up by John D. Rockefeller and his associates.source
  • 1882The Standard Oil Trust (monopoly) is secretly created to control multiple corporations set up by John D. Rockefeller and his associates.source
  • 1882FLSmidth, a supplier of cement production technology, is founded by Frederik Læssøe Smidth as a small "technical bureau" based in a single room of his mother's apartment.source
  • 1884The Brazilian Spiritist Federation is founded in Rio de Janeiro.source
  • 1890Alice Sanger becomes the first female staffer in the White House.source
  • 1893Webb C. Ball introduces railroad chronometers, which become the general railroad timepiece standards in North America.source
  • 1896The Jameson Raid comes to an end as Jameson surrenders to the Boers.source
  • 1897The International Alpha Omicron Pi sorority is founded, in New York City.source
  • 1900U.S. Secretary of State John Hay announces the Open Door Policy to promote American trade with China.source
  • 1900John Hay announces the Open Door Policy to promote trade with China.source
  • 1905The Russian Army surrenders at Port Arthur in China.source
  • 1905Russo-Japanese War: The Russian Army surrenders at Port Arthur in Qing dynasty China.source
  • 1907The Liberian National Bar Association is officially launched.source
  • 1909The Qing government dismissed Yuan Shikai.source
  • 1913Australian philately proper begins in early 1913 with the Kangaroo and Map series of stamps, featuring a kangaroo standing on a map of Australia, and inscribed "AUSTRALIA POSTAGE".source
  • 1921The Spanish liner Santa Isabel breaks in two and sinks off Villa Garcia, Mexico, with the loss of 244 of the 300 people on board.source
  • 1931South Dakota native Ernest Lawrence invents the cyclotron, used to accelerate particles to study nuclear physics.source
  • 1938The governmental radio program Hora do Brasil begins to be broadcast throughout the country.source
  • 1939The Muslim League at Patna disapproves the Federation scheme which has already been disapproved by Congress.source
  • 1939Eyvind Andersen, judge (born 1874).source
  • 1940The Royal Ulster Constabulary finds 2½ tons of the ammunition stolen in last year's Irish Republican Army Dublin Christmas Raid inside County Armagh.source
  • 1949Luis Muñoz Marín becomes the first democratically elected Governor of Puerto Rico.source
  • 1955Armed Palestinian Arab militants attacked and killed two hikers in the Judean Desert.source
  • 1959As Castro's rebel forces rolled into Havana, the 32-year-old leader named Dr. Manuel Urrutia Lleo as President of Cuba.source
  • 1959Soviet lunar probe Luna 1 is the first human-made object to attain escape velocity from Earth. It reaches the vicinity of Earth's Moon, where it was intended to crash-land, but instead becomes the first spacecraft to go into heliocentric orbit.source
  • 1959The Foreign Ministry of Guatemala declares that the three Mexican fishermen killed on December 31, 1958, were "pirates".source
  • 1961Oral contraceptives are first sold in Australiasource
  • 1963Vietnam War – Battle of Ap Bac: The Viet Cong win their first major victory.source
  • 1964Anti-Hindu riots begin in Khulna, East Pakistan. They and reciprocal riots in Calcutta would fuel waves of communal violence on either side of the border over the next few months.source
  • 1965Incumbent Ayub Khan defeats Fatima Jinnah in the 1965 Pakistani presidential election.source
  • 19721972 Laotian parliamentary electionsource
  • 1974Federal Education Minister Kim Beazley resumes work after a two-month convalescence after he collapsed in Parliament House on 6 November 1973.source
  • 1975A bomb blast at Samastipur, Bihar, India, fatally wounds Lalit Narayan Mishra, Minister of Railways.source
  • 1975The Federal Rules of Evidence are approved by the United States Congress.source
  • 1975Major fire at the Fischer casting company in Alpnach-Dorf (Obwalden). Damage amounts to 15 million francssource
  • 1976The International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights enters into force.source
  • 1978On the orders of Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq, paramilitary forces opened fire on peaceful protesting workers in Multan. It is known as 1978 massacre at Multan Colony Textile Mills.source
  • 1980January 2–18 – High temperatures hit the entire country, from Arica to Punta Arenas. Temperatures were highest between Greater Valparaíso and Greater Concepción.source
  • 1982The metric system of weights and measures is introduced, replacing the Imperial units.source
  • 1987Chadian–Libyan conflict – Battle of Fada: The Chadian army destroys a Libyan armoured brigade.source
  • 1993Jaffna lagoon massacre: A Sri Lankan Navy motor gunboat and a number of smaller speedboats intercept a number of boats transporting people between the southern and northern shores of the Jaffna Lagoon, and attacked them under the glare of a spotlight. Roughly 100 civilians and militants were killed.source
  • 2002President Duhalde announces the end of the 1:1 peso-dollar fixed exchange rate (convertibility) after almost 11 years.source
  • 2005Over 50,000 people demonstrate in the capital of Addis Ababa against government plans to renew talks on the border with Eritrea.source
  • 2006January 1–4 – Russia temporarily cuts shipment of natural gas to Ukraine during a price dispute.source
  • 2008The Federatie Eredivisie Basketball of the Netherlands Basketball Association takes BC Omniworld of Almere out of the Eredivisie. The club had gone into administration.source
  • 2009Ethiopia withdraws its military forces from Somalia after two years of helping the Transitional Federal Government combat insurgents.source
  • 2015Boko Haram militants attack a bus in Waza killing eleven people and injuring six.source
  • 2015The Panama-owned MV Better Trans cargo ship sprang a leak and foundered in the Philippine Sea with the loss of one of her nineteen crew.source
  • 2016Nimr al-Nimr, Shia religious leader (born 1959).source
  • 2019Adventist Health System rebranded its facilities to the trade name AdventHealth.source
  • 2020The Royal Australian Air Force and Navy are deployed to New South Wales and Victoria to assist mass evacuation efforts amidst the 2019–20 Australian bushfire season.source
  • 2021A Honduran national identified as Leidy Hernández, 24, gives birth while crossing the bridge between Matamoros, Tamaulipas and Brownsville, Texas. The baby will be entitled to Mexican citizenship.source
  • 2022The United States cuts off Ethiopia, Guinea and Mali from the African Growth and Opportunity Act trade preference program citing their human rights abuses and anti-democratic actions.source
  • 2022Abdalla Hamdok resigns as Prime Minister of Sudan amid deadly protests.source
  • 2023Malawi have suspended schools opening in Lilongwe and Blantyre following a cholera outbreak, which has killed 595 people so far. Nineteen people died on New Year's Eve alone.source
  • 2025Winter solstice (Nyi)source

Births

  • 869Yōzei, emperor of Japan (died 949)source
  • 1403Basilios Bessarion, Latin Patriarch of Constantinople (died 1472)source
  • 1462Piero di Cosimo, Italian artist (died 1522)source
  • 1493Louis de Bourbon-Vendôme, prince and religious leader.(d.1557)source
  • 1509Henry of Stolberg, German nobleman (died 1572)source
  • 1642Mehmed IV, Sultan of the Ottoman Empire (1648-1687) (died 1693)source
  • 1647Nathaniel Bacon, Virginia colonist, rebel (died 1676)source
  • 1652Sir Gilbert Heathcote, 1st Baronet, Lord Mayor of London (died 1733)source
  • 1652Sir Gilbert Heathcote, 1st Baronet, Lord Mayor of London (died 1733)source
  • 1720José de Gálvez, Spanish politician (died 1787)source
  • 1727James Wolfe, British general (died 1759)source
  • 1727James Wolfe, British Army officer (died 1759)source
  • 1727James Wolfe, general, Hero of Quebec by defeating the invading French (died 1759)source
  • 1837Mily Balakirev, Russian composer (died 1910)source
  • 1873Thérèse of Lisieux, Catholic saint, mystic (died 1897)source
  • 1905Michael Tippett, English composer (died 1998)source
  • 1905Anna May Wong, American actress (died 1961)source
  • 1909Barry Goldwater, American politician (died 1998)source
  • 1920Isaac Asimov, American author (died 1992)source
  • 1952Ng Man-tat, actor (died 2021)source
  • 1969Robby Gordon, American racing driversource

Deaths

  • 320Narcissus, Argeus, and Marcellinus, Roman Catholic martyrs and saintssource
  • 374Gregory the Elder, Christian bishop and saint (born 276)source
  • 951Liu Chengyou, emperor of Later Han (born 931)source
  • 951Su Fengji, Chinese official and chancellorsource
  • 982Dětmar (or Dietmar), bishop of Praguesource
  • 1096William de St-Calais, Norman bishop and chief councilorsource
  • 1184Theodora Komnene, duchess of Austriasource
  • 1295Agnes of Baden, Duchess of Carinthia, German noblewoman (born 1250)source
  • 1298Lodomer, Hungarian prelate and archbishopsource
  • 1384January 2 (10th waxing of Tabodwe, 745 ME) – King Binnya U of Burma's Hanthawaddy kingdom is killed in a rebellion at the capital, Bago. His 16-year-old son, Pasoom-Paing-Cek, is installed by the rebels as King Razadarit.source
  • 1470Heinrich Reuß von Plauen, Grand Master of the Teutonic Ordersource
  • 1477Gerolamo Olgiati, Italian assassin (executed)source
  • 1477Carlo Visconti, Italian assassin (executed)source
  • 1477Franzone, Italian assassin (executed)source
  • 1512Svante Nilsson, regent of Sweden since 1504, dies at the age of 51. Eric Trolle is subsequently elected as the new Regent, but will be ousted after only six months.source
  • 1514William Smyth, English bishop and statesman (born 1460)source
  • 1543Francesco Canova da Milano, Italian composer (born 1497)source
  • 1557Pontormo, Italian painter (born 1494)source
  • 1565Joan Fitzgerald, Countess of Ormond, Norman-Irish noblewoman and heiress (born 1509/14)source
  • 1613Salima Sultan Begum, Empress of the Mughal Empire (born 1539)source
  • 1623Sivert Beck, landowner and treasurer (born 1566)source
  • 1647Chinese bandit leader Zhang Xianzhong, who has ruled the Sichuan province since 1644, is killed at Xichong by a Qing archer, after having been betrayed by one of his officers, Liu Jinzhong.source
  • 1647Zhang Xianzhong, Chinese rebel (born 1606)source
  • 1663Illiam Dhone, Manx politician (born 1608)source
  • 1747Lord George Graham, Royal Navy officer and MP (born 1715)source
  • 1763John Carteret, 2nd Earl Granville, English statesman (born 1690)source
  • 1861King Frederick William IV of Prussia (born 1795)source
  • 1861Frederick William IV of Prussia dies and is succeeded by Wilhelm I.source
  • 1892Sir George Biddell Airy, English astronomer royal (born 1801)source
  • 1904James Longstreet, American Confederate Civil War general (born 1821)source
  • 1939Roman Dmowski, Polish politician (born 1864)source
  • 1995Siad Barre, 84–85, Somalian military leader and statesman, 3rd President of Somalia, heart attack.source