2 February 2025 (MIA)

– World Wetlands Day

506 – Alaric II, eighth king of the Visigoths promulgates the Breviary of Alaric (Breviarium Alaricianum or Lex Romana Visigothorum), a collection of “Roman law”.

880 – Battle of Lüneburg Heath: King Louis III is defeated by the Norse Great Heathen Army at Lüneburg Heath in Saxony.

962 – Translatio imperii: Pope John XII crowns Otto I, Holy Roman Emperor, the first Holy Roman Emperor in nearly 40 years.

1032 – Conrad II, Holy Roman Emperor becomes king of Burgundy.

1141 – The Battle of Lincoln, at which Stephen, King of England is defeated and captured by the allies of Empress Matilda.

1207 – Terra Mariana, eventually comprising present-day Latvia and Estonia, is established.

1461 – Wars of the Roses: The Battle of Mortimer’s Cross is fought in Herefordshire, England.

1536 – Spaniard Pedro de Mendoza founds Buenos Aires, Argentina.

1653 – New Amsterdam (later renamed The City of New York) is incorporated.

1709 – Alexander Selkirk is rescued after being shipwrecked on a desert island, inspiring Daniel Defoe’s adventure book Robinson Crusoe.

1848 – Mexican–American War: The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo is signed.

1848 – California Gold Rush: The first ship with Chinese immigrants arrives in San Francisco.

1868 – Pro-Imperial forces captured Osaka Castle from the Tokugawa shogunate and burned it to the ground.

1876 – The National League of Professional Baseball Clubs of Major League Baseball is formed.

1887 – In Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania the first Groundhog Day is observed.

1899 – The Australian Premiers’ Conference held in Melbourne decides to locate Australia’s capital city, Canberra, between Sydney and Melbourne.

1901 – Funeral of Queen Victoria.

1913 – Grand Central Terminal is opened in New York City.

1920 – The Tartu Peace Treaty is signed between Estonia and Russia.

1920 – France occupies Memel.

1922 – Ulysses by James Joyce is published.

1925 – Serum run to Nome: Dog sleds reach Nome, Alaska with diphtheria serum, inspiring the Iditarod race.

1934 – The Export-Import Bank of the United States is incorporated.

1935 – Leonarde Keeler administers polygraph tests to two murder suspects, the first time polygraph evidence was admitted in U.S. courts.

1942 – The Osvald Group is responsible for the first, active event of anti-Nazi resistance in Norway, to protest the inauguration of Vidkun Quisling.

1943 – World War II: The Battle of Stalingrad comes to an end when Soviet troops accept the surrender of the last German troops in the city.

1966 – Pakistan suggests a six-point agenda with Kashmir after the Indo-Pakistani War of 1965.

1971 – Idi Amin replaces President Milton Obote as leader of Uganda.

1971 – The international Ramsar Convention for the conservation and sustainable utilization of wetlands is signed in Ramsar, Mazandaran, Iran.

1972 – The British embassy in Dublin is destroyed in protest at Bloody Sunday.

1976 – The Groundhog Day gale hits the north-eastern United States and south-eastern Canada.

1980 – Reports surface that the FBI is targeting allegedly corrupt Congressmen in the Abscam operation.

1982 – Hama massacre: The government of Syria attacks the town of Hama.

1987 – After the 1986 People Power Revolution, the Philippines enacts a new constitution.

1989 – Soviet war in Afghanistan: The last Soviet armoured column leaves Kabul.

1990 – Apartheid: F. W. de Klerk announces the unbanning of the African National Congress and promises to release Nelson Mandela.

1994 – The Czech Republic recognizes the Republic of Macedonia.

2000 – First digital cinema projection in Europe (Paris) realized by Philippe Binant with the DLP CINEMA technology developed by Texas Instruments.

2004 – Swiss tennis player Roger Federer becomes the No. 1 ranked men’s singles player, a position he will hold for a record 237 weeks.

2007 – The worst flooding in Indonesia in 300 years begins.

2012 – The ferry MV Rabaul Queen sinks off the coast of Papua New Guinea near the Finschhafen District, with an estimated 300 people missing.