On This Day — 2 February

2025

Slovenian NBA player Luka Doncic is traded from the Dallas Mavericks to the Los Angeles Lakers in exchange for Anthony Davis in one of the largest trades in American sports history.

Slovenia

2021

The Burmese military establishes the State Administration Council, the military junta, after deposing the democratically elected government in the 2021 Myanmar coup d'état.

Tatmadaw

2012

The ferry MV Rabaul Queen sinks off the coast of Papua New Guinea near the Finschhafen District, with an estimated 146–165 dead.

MV Rabaul Queen

2007

Police officer Filippo Raciti is killed when a clash breaks out in the Sicily derby between Catania and Palermo, in the Serie A, the top flight of Italian football. This event led to major changes in stadium regulations in Italy.

Catania football riot

2005

The Government of Canada introduces the Civil Marriage Act. This legislation would become law on July 20, 2005, legalizing same-sex marriage.

Government of Canada

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.

Tennis

2000

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

Digital cinema

1998

Cebu Pacific Flight 387 crashes into Mount Sumagaya in the Philippines, killing all 104 people on board.

Cebu Pacific Flight 387

1990

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

Apartheid

1989

Soviet–Afghan War: The last Soviet armoured column leaves Kabul.

Soviet–Afghan War

1987

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

People Power Revolution

1982

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

1982 Hama massacre

1980

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

Federal Bureau of Investigation

1971

Idi Amin replaces President Milton Obote as leader of Uganda.

Idi Amin

1971

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

Ramsar Convention

1966

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

Kashmir

1959

Nine experienced ski hikers in the northern Ural Mountains in the Soviet Union die under mysterious circumstances.

Ural Mountains

1954

The Detroit Red Wings played in the first outdoor hockey game by any NHL team in an exhibition against the Marquette Branch Prison Pirates in Marquette, Michigan.

Detroit Red Wings

1943

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

World War II

1942

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

Osvald Group

1935

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

Leonarde Keeler

1934

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

Export–Import Bank of the United States

1925

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

1925 serum run to Nome

1922

Ulysses by James Joyce is published.

Ulysses (novel)

1922

The uprising called the "pork mutiny" starts in the region between Kuolajärvi and Savukoski in Finland.

Pork mutiny

1920

The Tartu Peace Treaty is signed between Estonia and Russia.

Treaty of Tartu (Estonia–Russia)

1913

Grand Central Terminal opens in New York City.

Grand Central Terminal

1909

The Paris Film Congress opens, an attempt by European producers to form an equivalent to the MPPC cartel in the United States.

Paris Film Congress

1901

Funeral of Queen Victoria.

Queen Victoria

1899

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

Melbourne

1887

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

Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania

1881

The sentences of the trial of the warlocks of Chiloé are imparted.

Sentence (law)

1876

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

National League (baseball)

1870

The Seven Brothers (Seitsemän veljestä), a novel by Finnish author Aleksis Kivi, is published first time in several thin booklets.

Seitsemän veljestä

1868

Pro-Imperial forces capture Osaka Castle from the Tokugawa shogunate and burn it to the ground.

Fall of Osaka Castle

1850

Brigham Young declares war on Timpanogos in the Battle at Fort Utah.

Brigham Young

1848

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

Mexican–American War

1814

The last of the River Thames frost fairs comes to an end.

River Thames frost fairs

1797

The siege of Mantua ends after eight months when Count Dagobert Sigmund von Wurmser surrenders the fortress of Mantua to Napoleon Bonaparte. The fall of Mantua secures French control over Northern Italy and marks the beginning of the conclusion of the Italian campaign of 1796-1797, and sets the stage for the end of the War of the First Coalition.

Siege of Mantua (1796–1797)

1725

J. S. Bach leads the first performance of his chorale cantata Mit Fried und Freud ich fahr dahin, BWV 125, based on Luther's paraphrase of the Nunc dimittis.

Johann Sebastian Bach

1709

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

Alexander Selkirk

1653

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

New Amsterdam

1645

Wars of the Three Kingdoms: In Scotland, the Battle of Inverlochy results in a Royalist/Irish victory.

Wars of the Three Kingdoms

1536

Spaniard Pedro de Mendoza founds Buenos Aires, Argentina.

Pedro de Mendoza

1461

Wars of the Roses: The Battle of Mortimer's Cross results in the death of Owen Tudor.

Battle of Mortimer's Cross

1438

Nine leaders of the Transylvanian peasant revolt are executed at Torda.

Transylvanian peasant revolt

1428

An intense earthquake struck the Principality of Catalonia, with the epicenter near Camprodon. Widespread destruction and heavy casualties were reported.

1428 Catalonia earthquake

1347

Byzantine Empress Anna convenes a synod to depose patriarch Joseph XIV in Constantinople. The same night, conspirators let in her rival John VI Kantakouzenos which ends the Byzantine civil war of 1341–1347.

Anna of Savoy

1207

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

Terra Mariana

1141

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

Battle of Lincoln (1141)

1032

Conrad II, Holy Roman Emperor becomes king of Burgundy.

Conrad II, Holy Roman Emperor

962

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

Translatio imperii

880

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

Battle of Lüneburg Heath

506

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

Alaric II