February 2 in history


On February 2:

962 Pope John XII crowned Otto I, Holy Roman Emperor.


1032 Conrad II, Holy Roman Emperor became King of Burgundy.

1536  Pedro de Mendoza founded Buenos Aires, Argentina.



Statue of Alexander Selkirk in Lower Largo

1790 The U.S. Supreme Court convened for the first time.

Seal of the United States Supreme Court.svg


1929  William Stanley, inventor and engineer, was born.





1880 The first electric streetlight was installed in Wabash, Indiana.

1882 James Joyce, Irish author, was born.



1887 In Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania the first Groundhog Day was observed.


1901 Queen Victoria’s funeral took place.

1905 Ayn Rand, Russian-born American author and philosopher, was born.


1913 Grand Central Station opened in New York City.

Grand Central test.jpg

1922 Ulysses by James Joyce was published.



 Statue of Balto, the lead dog on the last relay team.

  • 1925 – The Charlevoix-Kamouraska earthquake strikes northeastern North America.
  • 1931 – Les Dawson, British comedian, was born.

    1933 Adolf Hitler dissolved the German Parliament.


    1935 Leonarde Keeler tested the first polygraph machine.


    1940 David Jason, English actor, was born.

    1940  Frank Sinatra debuted with the Tommy Dorsey orchestra.

    1946 The Proclamation of Hungarian Republic was made.


    1947 Farrah Fawcett, American actress, was born.



    1967 The American Basketball Association was formed.

    1971 Idi Amin replaced President Milton Obote as leader of Uganda.

    1972  The British embassy in Dublin was destroyed in protest over Bloody Sunday.


    ‘The greatest middle distance race of all time’



    Groundhog Day gale of 1976

    1987 The Philippines made a new constitution.


    1989 Satellite television service Sky Television plc launched.


    ANC logo


    2002 Willem-Alexander, Prince of Orange married Máxima Zorreguieta.


    2007 Four tornadoes hit Central Florida, killing 21 people.

    Sourced from NZ History Online & Wikipedia

    December 5 in history


    On December 5:

    63 BC Cicero read the last of his Catiline Orations.

    1360 The French Franc was created.

    20 franc coin

    1484  Pope Innocent VIII issued the Summis desiderantes, a papal bull that deputised Heinrich Kramer and James Sprenger as inquisitors to root out alleged witchcraft in Germany and led to one of the most oppressive witch hunts in European history.

    Hispaniola lrg.jpg
    1766 In London, James Christie held his first sale.
    1830 Christina Rossetti, English poet, was born.
    1839 George Armstrong Custer, American general, was born.
    G a custer.jpg
    1848 California Gold Rush: US President James K. Polk confirmed that large amounts of gold had been discovered in California.
    Panning for gold on the Mokelumne River

    1859 John Jellicoe, British admiral, was born.

    John Jellicoe Admiral of the fleet.jpg

    1872  Harry Nelson Pillsbury, American chess player, was born.


    1979  Clyde Cessna, American airplane manufacturer, was born.


    Clyde Cessna posing beside the silverwing

    1890 New Zealand’s first one-man-one-vote election took place.

    1901 Walt Disney, American animated film producer, was born.

    1932  German-born Swiss physicist Albert Einstein was granted an American visa.

    1932  Little Richard, American singer and pianist, was born.

    1933 Prohibition in the United States ended when : Utah ratified the Twenty-first Amendment to the United States Constitution, thus establishing the required 75% of states needed to enact the amendment (this overturned the 18th Amendment which had made the manufacture, sale, or transportation of alcohol illegal in the United States).



    1938  J. J. Cale, American songwriter, was born.

    1943  Abyssinia Crisis: Italian troops attacked Wal Wal in Abyssinia, taking four days to capture the city.

    1936 The Soviet Union adopted a new constitution and the Kirghiz Soviet Socialist Republic was established as a full Union Republic of the USSR.

    1945 Flight 19 was lost in the Bermuda Triangle.

    Map of Flight 19’s flight plan and final position on December 5.
    1955 E.D. Nixon and Rosa Parks lead the Montgomery Bus Boycott.
    1957 Sukarno expelled all Dutch people from Indonesia.

    1958  Subscriber Trunk Dialling (STD) was inaugurated in the UK by Queen Elizabeth II when she speaks to the Lord Provost in a call from Bristol to Edinburgh.

    1958 The Preston bypass, the UK‘s first stretch of motorway, opened to traffic for the first time.

    1963 Eddie “the Eagle” Edwards, English ski jumper, was born.

    1964 Captain Roger Donlon was awarded the first Medal of Honor of the Vietnam War.


    1983  Dissolution of the Military Junta in Argentina.

    2005 The Civil Partnership Act came into effect in the United Kingdom, and the first civil partnership was registered there.

    2006 Commodore Frank Bainimarama overthrew the government in Fiji.

    Sourced from NZ History Online & wikipedia.

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