February 2......

February 2 is the 33rd day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. There are 332 (333 in leap years) days remaining in the year on this date.

{Disclaimer: I have attempted to give credit to the many different sources that I get entries. Any failure to do so is unintentional. Any statement enclosed by brackets like these are the opinion of the blogger, A Proud Liberal.}

EVENTS

● 506 - King Alarik II of Visigoten delegates Lex Romania Visigothorum out

● 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.

● 1119 - Callixtus II becomes Pope.

● 1141 - Battle at Lincoln King Stephen captured

● 1461 - 2nd battle of St Alban's-Lancastrians defeat Yorkists

● 1509 - Battle of Diu takes place near Diu, India, between Portugal and Turkey.

● 1536 - Spaniard Pedro de Mendoza founds Buenos Aires, Argentina.

● 1542 - Portuguese under Christovão da Gama capture a Moslem-occupied hillfort in northern Ethiopia in the Battle of Baçente.

● 1550 - English Edward Seymour duke of Somerset, freed

● 1653 - New Amsterdam (later renamed New York City) is incorporated.

● 1709 - Alexander Selkirk is rescued from shipwreck on a desert island, inspiring the book Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe.

● 1732 - King Frederik Willem I moves Lutherans towards East-Prussia

● 1742 - British Walpole government resigns

● 1779 - Pioneer American Methodist bishop Francis Asbury reflected in his journal: 'God is gracious beyond the power of language to describe.'

● 1779 - Anthony Benezet refuses to pay revolutionary war taxes.

● 1790 - The U.S. Supreme Court convenes for the first time after an unsuccessful attempt on February 1.

● 1798 - Federal St Theater, Boston, becomes 1st in US destroyed by fire

● 1802 - 1st leopard exhibited in US, Boston (admission 25¢)

● 1807 - Foreign slave trade outlawed in U.S. {It was still legal to buy and sell slaves born in the United States.}

● 1812 - Russia establishes a fur trading colony at Fort Ross, along the California coast.

● 1829 - Madman Jonathan Martin sets York Cathedral afire, does £60,000 damage

● 1843 - US & British settlers in Oregon Country choose governmental committee

● 1848 - The Mexican War was ended with the signing of the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo. The treaty turned over portions of land to the U.S., including Texas, New Mexico, Nevada, Utah, Arizona, California and parts of Colorado and Wyoming. The U.S. gave Mexico $15,000,000 and assumed responsibility of all claims against Mexico by American citizens. Texas had already entered the U.S. on December 29, 1845.

● 1848 - California Gold Rush: The first ship with Chinese emigrants seeking fortune in California's gold country arrive in San Francisco.

● 1852 - 1st British public men's toilet opens (Fleet St London)

● 1854 - Pope Pius IX encyclical "On the persecution of Armenians"

● 1863 - Samuel Langhorne Clemens used a pseudonym for the first time. He is better remembered by the pseudonym which is Mark Twain.

● 1864 - Cruise of CSS Florida

● 1869 - James Oliver invents the removable tempered steel plow blade

● 1870 - It is revealed that the famed Cardiff Giant was just carved gypsum and not the petrified remains of a human.

● 1874 - Grand County, Colorado is created when it is carved out of Summit County

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

● 1878 - Greece declares war on Turkey.

● 1879 - 540 Paiutes arrive at Yakama reservation after a forced march through winter snows from Southern Oregon.

● 1880 - The first electric streetlight is installed in Wabash, Indiana.

● 1880 - SS Strathleven arrives in London with 1st Australian frozen mutton

● 1881 - The first formal church youth organization was established in the Williston Congregational Church in Portland, Maine, by the Rev. Francis E. Clark, 29. Originally called "Christian Endeavor," it became the prototype of the modern denominational "youth fellowship."

● 1882 - James Joyce , the Irish author of "Ulysses" , was born.

● 1882 - The Knights of Columbus are formed in New Haven, Connecticut.

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

● 1892 - Bottle cap with cork seal patented by William Painter (Baltimore)

● 1894 - US warship Kearsarge wrecked on Roncador Reef, near Solomon Island

● 1894 - Birth of Novel Delgado, El Ferrol (Galice, Spain). Spanish anarchist, who emigrated to America at 16 and joined a Magoniste group in San Antonio, Texass. Denounced by the police, he went to Tampico, Mexico; imprisoned in 1916 for participating in a strike, Delgado went to New York when he was expelled from the country, but returned and was active with anarchist groups in Mexico City until his death, 16 November 1952.

● 1897 - The Pennsylvania state capitol in Harrisburg was destroyed by fire. The new statehouse was dedicated nine years later on the same site.

● 1899 - The Australian Premiers' Conference held in Melbourne decides to locate Australia's capital (Canberra) between Sydney and Melbourne.

● 1901 - Congress establishes U.S. Army Dental Corps.

● 1901 - Female Army Nurse Corps established as a permanent organization

● 1905 - Birth of Ayn Rand, "ojectivist" libertarian writer. A self-stlyed defender of the individual against the state and collectivism, she enthusiastically cooperated with HUAC and other McCarthyist government persecutions. {She was born in Russia and had intense hate for anything to do with the Communist Party.}

● 1906 - Pope encyclical against separation of church & state

● 1907 - In a letter written to American statesman William Jennings Bryan, Christian Russian novelist Leo Tolstoy counseled: 'The most important thing is to know the will of God concerning one's life, i.e., to know what he wishes us to do and fulfill it.'

● 1912 - Frederick R Law, parachutes from Statue of Liberty (stunt for Pathe)

● 1913 - Grand Central Terminal officially opened at 12:01 a.m. Even though construction was not entirely complete more than 150,000 people visited the new terminal on its opening day.

● 1919 - Monarchist riot in Portugal

● 1920 - France occupies (German) Memel territory

● 1920 - Tartu Peace Treaty signed between Estonia and Russia.

● 1922 - James Joyce's "Ulysses" published in Paris (1,000 copies)

● 1923 - Ethyl gasoline 1st marketed, Dayton OH

● 1923 - US signs friendship treaty with Central American countries

● 1925 - Belgian episcopacy rejects liberalism, communism & socialism

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

● 1931 - 1st use of a rocket to deliver mail (Austria)

● 1931 - 1st siyyum of Talmud celebrated by Daf Yomi students

● 1931 - Argentinean anarchist Paulino Scarfo dies in a shoot out with police.

● 1931 - The first U.S. citizens are "repatriated" from the nation as Los Angeles Chicanos are deported to Mexico. As the Depression worsens, public officials across the Southwest decided it was cheaper to send legal residents back to Mexico than carry them on the welfare rolls. During the decade's first four years, well over 400,000 Mexican-Americans, many U.S. citizens living here as long as 40 years, are repatriated. Some families, as a result, are split because a father or mother -- or both -- are considered alien, but the U.S.-born children are allowed to stay.

● 1932 - First world disarmament convention opens, Geneva, Switzerland.

● 1932 - Al Capone sent to prison (Atlanta GA)

● 1933 - 2 days after becoming chancellor, Adolf Hitler dissolves Parliament

● 1933 - Göring bans communist meetings/demonstrations in Germany

● 1934 - Dutch Roman Catholic Bishops warn against fascism/Nazism

● 1935 - The polygraph machine is tested for the first time. Leonard Keeler conducts the experiment in Portage, Wisconsin.

● 1940 - Frank Sinatra debuts with the Tommy Dorsey orchestra.

● 1942 - Los Angeles Times urges security measures against Japanese-Americans

● 1942 - US auto factories switch from commercial to war production

● 1943 - World War II: The last German forces surrender to the Soviets after the Battle of Stalingrad.

● 1944 - German theologian and Nazi martyr Dietrich Bonhoeffer wrote in a letter from prison: 'There is a kind of weakness that Christianity does not hold with, but which people insist on claiming as Christian, and then sling mud at it.'

● 1944 - 4th US marine division conquerors Roi, Marshall Islands

● 1944 - Allied troops 1st set foot on Japanese territory

● 1945 - World War II: President Franklin D. Roosevelt and British Prime Minister Winston Churchill leave to meet with Soviet leader Joseph Stalin at the Yalta Conference.

● 1945 - Escape attempt at Mauthausen concentration camp

● 1948 - President Truman urges congress to adopt a civil rights program

● 1951 - -35ºF (-37ºC), Greenburg, Indiana (state record until 1994)

● 1951 - US performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site

● 1951 - The first four of seven blacks convicted of raping a Martinsville, Virginia, white woman, Mrs. Ruby Stroud Floyd, died in the electric chair. The remaining three were electrocuted three days later. (By some odd anomaly, to date only one white has ever been executed for rape in Virginia's glorious history.)

● 1952 - A tropical storm forms north of Cuba and moves northeast making landfall in Florida. It is the earliest reported formation of a tropical storm on record in the Atlantic basin.

● 1954 - President Eisenhower reports detonation of 1st H-bomb (done in 1952)

● 1954 - Snow falls on Gibraltar

● 1955 - English apologist C.S. Lewis wrote in a letter: 'It is right...that we should be much concerned about the salvation of those we love. But we must be careful not to...demand that their salvation should conform to some ready-made pattern of our own.'

● 1955 - 1st Presidential news conference on network TV-Eisenhower on ABC

● 1956 - Autherine J. Lucy is the first African American student to attend the University of Alabama.

● 1957 - President Iskander Mirza of Pakistan lays the foundation-stone of the Guddu Barrage across river Indus near Sukkur.

● 1957 - UN adopts a resolution calling for Israeli troops to leave Egypt

● 1958 - Syria joins Egypt in United Arab Republic

● 1961 - Prince Bernhard opens new RAI building in Amsterdam

● 1962 - The 8th (Uranus) and 9th (Pluto) {Pluto was still considered a planet at the time.} planets aligned for the first time in 400 years.

● 1962 - USSR performs nuclear test at Eastern Kazakhstan/Semipalitinsk USSR

● 1962 - Univ. of Washington bans campus speech by Gus Hall, head of Communist Party U.S.A.

● 1962 - Eleven black and eight whites arrested for overnight sit-in for integrated schools at Englewood (N.J.) City Hall.

● 1966 - First burning of conscription papers, Sydney, Australia.

● 1966 - Pakistan suggests a six-point agenda with Kashmir dispute as number one item for the proposed Indo-Pak ministerial talks after 1965 war.

● 1967 - The American Basketball Association is formed.

● 1967 - Bolivia adopts its constitution

● 1968 - Springer Publishers in West Berlin, bombed

● 1970 - Bertrand Russell, philosopher of peace, dies in Penryndeudreaeth, Merioneth, at age 97.

● 1971 - After a coup in Uganda, Idi Amin replaces President Milton Obote as leader.

● 1972 - Three days after 13 unarmed civil rights demonstrators were shot dead by British paratroopers in Londonderry {this day is known as "Bloody Sunday"}, Northern Ireland, outraged Irish citizens burn down the British embassy in Dublin, the capital of independent Ireland.

● 1973 - James R Schlesinger becomes director of the CIA (until July)

● 1973 - Richard Helms, ends term as 8th director of CIA

● 1974 - Pope Paul VI encyclical "To Honor Mary"

● 1975 - Army offensive against rebels in Eritrea Ethiopia

● 1976 - Groundhog Day gale of 1976 hits the north-eastern United States and south-eastern Canada.

● 1977 - Burn up of Salyut 4 Space Station (USSR)

● 1979 - Sid Vicious dies from drugs overdose; Sex Pistols' bassist Sid Vicious dies of a heroin overdose in New York.

● 1980 - FBI releases details of Abscam, a sting operation that targeted 31 elected & public officials for bribes for political favors

● 1980 - Founding congress of the Revolutionary Communist Party of Turkey.

● 1982 - Hama Massacre: The government of Syria attacks the town of Hama and kills thousands of people.

● 1983 - Chicago Archbishop Joseph L Bernardin is among 18 new cardinals invested

● 1983 - Pope John Paul II names 18 new cardinals

● 1984 - Lebanese army fight in Beirut

● 1986 - Dalai Lama meets Pope John Paul II in India

● 1986 - Oscar Arias Sanchez elected President of Costa Rica

● 1987 - Peace envoy imprisoned in Beirut; Reports from Lebanon say Church of England envoy Terry Waite has been kidnapped by an Islamic militia group.

● 1987 - Philippines adopts constitution

● 1989 - 0ºF (-18ºC) or below in 15 US states

● 1989 - F[rederik] W[illem] de Klerk replaces Botha as South Africa's Nationalist Party leader

● 1989 - Soviet war in Afghanistan: The last Soviet Union armored column leaves Kabul, ending nine years of military occupation.

● 1989 - Satellite television service Sky Television plc launched in the Europe.

● 1990 - Apartheid: In South Africa President F.W. de Klerk allows the African National Congress to legally function again and promises to set Nelson Mandela free.

● 1991 - US postage is raised from 25¢ to 29¢

● 1992 - IRS & Willie Nelson settle on $9 million tax bill (of $16.7 million)

● 1993 - Frito Lay pays court ordered $2,500,000 to Tom Waits for using his song, "Step Right Up"

● 1995 - US space shuttle Discovery launched

● 1997 - The government released statistics showing deaths from AIDS fell by almost half during the first half of 1997, a decrease attributed to increased use of powerful combinations of medicines.

● 1998 - U.S. President Clinton introduced the first balanced budget in 30 years.

● 1998 - Daniel Baldwin hospitalized in New York NY for cocaine overdose

● 1998 - A Cebu Pacific Air DC-9-32 crashes into a mountain near Cagayan de Oro, Philippines, killing 104.

● 1999 - 19 people were killed at Luanda international airport when a cargo plane crashed just after takeoff.

● 1999 - Hugo Chávez Frías took office. He had been elected president of Venezuela in December 1998.

● 2002 - Wedding of Crown Prince Willem-Alexander of the Netherlands to the Argentinean born Máxima Zorreguieta in Amsterdam.

● 2002 - Foundation of Eurodoc, the European Council for Doctoral Candidates and Junior Researchers, in Girona (Spain).

● 2004 - It was reported that a white powder had been found in an office of Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist. The CDC (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) later confirmed that the powder was the poison ricin.

● 2004 - Israel killed a leader of Islamic Jihad and three other militants in a Gaza raid.

● 2006 - House Republicans elected John Boehner of Ohio as their new majority leader to replace the indicted Tom DeLay.

● 2006 - An aging Egyptian passenger ferry carrying more than 1,400 people sinks in the Red Sea off the Saudi coast.

● 2007 - Van Halen announces they will reunite for a 2007 North American tour with their original lead singer, David Lee Roth, and Eddie's son, Wolfgang Van Halen as bassist instead of Michael Anthony.

● 2007 - Central Florida Tornado of February 2007: Tornadoes touch down in Florida in the mid-morning hours, killing at least 19 people.

● 2007 - Catania - after a Serie A game between Calcio Catania and U.S. Città di Palermo a fight broke out between the fans and the police,leaving more than 100 people injured and 1 police man dead called Filippo Raciti.

BIRTHS

● 1208 - James I of Aragon (d. 1276)

● 1455 - King John of Denmark (d. 1513)

● 1494 - Bona Sforza, queen of Sigismund I of Poland (d. 1557)

● 1502 - Damião de Góis, Portuguese philosopher (d. 1574)

● 1506 - René de Birague, French cardinal and chancellor (d. 1583)

● 1522 - Lodovico Ferrari, Italian mathematician (d. 1565)

● 1600 - Gabriel Naudé, French librarian and scholar (d. 1653)

● 1613 - Noël Chabanel, French Jesuit missionary (d. 1649)

● 1621 - Johannes Schefferus, Alsatian-born humanist (d. 1679)

● 1649 - Pope Benedict XIII (d. 1730)

● 1650 - Nell Gwynne, English actress and royal mistress (d. 1687)

● 1669 - Louis Marchand, French organist and harpsichordist (d. 1732)

● 1695 - William Borlase, English naturalist (d. 1772)

● 1695 - François de Chevert, French general (d. 1769)

● 1700 - Johann Christoph Gottsched, German writer (d. 1766)

● 1711 - Wenzel Anton von Kaunitz, Austrian diplomat (d. 1794)

● 1714 - Gottfried August Homilius, German composer (d. 1785)

● 1717 - Ernst Gideon Freiherr von Laudon, Austrian field marshal (d. 1790)

● 1754 - Charles Maurice de Talleyrand, French politician (d. 1838)

● 1786 - Jacques Philippe Marie Binet, French mathematician (d. 1856)

● 1802 - Jean Baptiste Boussingault, French chemist (d. 1887)

● 1803 - Albert Sidney Johnston, American Confederate general (d. 1862)

● 1829 - Alfred Brehm, German zoologist (d. 1884)

● 1841 - François-Alphonse Forel, Swiss hydrologist (d. 1912)

● 1842 - Yulian Vasilievich Sokhotski, Russian mathematician (d. 1927)

● 1851 - José Guadalupe Posada, Mexican artist (d. 1913)

● 1859 - Havelock Ellis, English essayist/physician (d. 1939)

● 1875 - Fritz Kreisler, Austrian violinist (d. 1962)

● 1878 - Alfréd Hajós, Hungarian swimmer (d. 1955)

● 1881 - Orval Overall, major league baseball pitcher (d. 1947)

● 1882 - James Joyce, Irish author (d. 1941)

● 1887 - Ernst Hanfstängl, German pianist and politician (d. 1975)

● 1888 - Frederick Lane, Australian swimmer (d. 1969)

● 1889 - Jean de Lattre de Tassigny, French army officer (d. 1952)

● 1890 - Charles Correll, American actor (d. 1972)

● 1893 - Cornelius Lanczos, Hungarian mathematician (d. 1974)

● 1895 - George Halas, American football player, coach, and league founder (d. 1983)

● 1897 - Howard Johnson, American hotelier (d. 1972)

● 1900 - Willie Kamm, MLB third baseman (d. 1988)

● 1901 - Jascha Heifetz, Lithuanian violinist (d. 1987)

● 1905 - Ayn Rand, Russian-born author and philosopher (d. 1982)

● 1908 - Wes Ferrell, All-Star MLB pitcher (d. 1976)

● 1909 - Frank Albertson, American actor (d. 1964)

● 1911 - Jussi Bjorling, Swedish tenor (d. 1960)

● 1912 - Burton Lane, American composer and lyricist (d. 1997)

● 1913 - Poul Reichhardt, Danish actor (d. 1985)

● 1914 - Eric Kierans, Canadian politician and economist (d. 2004)

● 1915 - Abba Eban, Israeli diplomat (d. 2002)

● 1915 - Stan Leonard, Canadian professional golfer (d. 2005)

● 1916 - Xuân Diệu, Vietnamese poet (d. 1985)

● 1918 - Hella S. Haasse, Dutch writer

● 1923 - James Dickey, American poet and author (d. 1997)

● 1923 - Bonita Granville, American actress (d. 1988)

● 1923 - Red Schoendienst, baseball player and manager, and eventually Hall of Famer

● 1923 - Liz Smith, American gossip columnist

● 1924 - Elfi von Dassanowsky, Austrian-American producer and musician

● 1925 - Elaine Stritch, American actress

● 1926 - Valéry Giscard d'Estaing, French politician

● 1927 - Stan Getz, American musician (d. 1991)

● 1928 - Aloyisus Leon Higginbotham, Jr., civil rights activist and author (d. 1998)

● 1931 - Dries van Agt, Dutch politician

● 1931 - Judith Viorst, American author

● 1932 - Robert Mandan, American actor

● 1933 - Than Shwe, ruler of Myanmar

● 1937 - Tom Smothers, American musician and comedian

● 1937 - Don Buford, All-Star MLB outfielder

● 1940 - David Jason, English actor

● 1942 - Graham Nash, American (British-born) rock musician (Crosby, Stills and Nash)

● 1942 - Barry Diller, TV-film executive

● 1942 - Bo Hopkins, Actor

● 1944 - Karen Foss, American broadcaster

● 1944 - Geoffrey Hughes, British actor

● 1946 - Howard Bellamy, Country singer (The Bellamy Brothers)

● 1946 - Alpha Oumar Konaré, ex-president of Mali

● 1947 - Farrah Fawcett, American actress (''Charlie's Angels'')

● 1948 - Al McKay, American guitarist and songwriter (Earth, Wind & Fire)

● 1949 - Jack McGee, Actor

● 1949 - Brent Spiner, American actor

● 1949 - Ross Valory, American musician (Journey)

● 1949 - Francisco Maturana, Colombian football manager

● 1952 - Genichiro Tenryu, Japanese professional wrestler

● 1952 - John Cornyn, U.S. senator, R-Texas

● 1954 - Christie Brinkley, American model

● 1954 - John Tudor, MLB pitcher

● 1955 - Michael Talbott, Actor (''Miami Vice'')

● 1955 - Kim Zimmer, Actress (''Guiding Light'')

● 1958 - Michel Marc Bouchard, Quebec playwright

● 1961 - Lauren Lane, American actress

● 1961 - Steve Penney, National Hockey League goaltender

● 1962 - Paul Kilgus, baseball player

● 1963 - Eva Cassidy, American singer (d. 1996)

● 1965 - Carl Airey, English footballer

● 1965 - Naoki Sano, Japanese professional wrestler

● 1966 - Robert DeLeo, American musician (Stone Temple Pilots)

● 1967 - Arturs Irbe, Latvian hockey player

● 1968 - Scott Erickson, MLB pitcher

● 1969 - Valeri Karpin, Russian footballer

● 1971 - Ben Mize, Rock musician (Counting Crows)

● 1972 - T-Mo, Rapper

● 1972 - Dana International, Israeli singer

● 1972 - Melvin Mora, MLB infielder and All-Star

● 1973 - Aleksander Tammert, Estonian discus thrower

● 1973 - Marissa Jaret Winokur, Actress

● 1975 - Ieroklis Stoltidis, Greek football player

● 1975 - Todd Bertuzzi, Canadian hockey player

● 1975 - Niclas Wallin, Swedish hockey player

● 1976 - James Hickman, British swimmer

● 1976 - Lori Beth Denberg, American actress

● 1977 - Shakira, Colombian singer

● 1977 - Libor Sionko, Czech football player

● 1978 - Barry Ferguson, Scotish football player

● 1978 - Eden Espinosa, American singer and stage actress

● 1980 - Teddy Hart, Canadian professional wrestler

● 1980 - Oleguer Presas, Spanish football player

● 1981 - Jason Kapono, American basketball player

● 1982 - Han Ga In, South Korean model/actress

● 1982 - Sergio Castaño, Spanish footballer

● 1982 - Kelly Mazzante, American basketball player

● 1983 - Jordin Tootoo, Canadian hockey player

● 1983 - Carolina Klüft, Swedish athlete

● 1986 - Blaine Larsen, Country singer

● 1987 - Martin Spanjers, American actor

● 1992 - Danielle White, American singer

DEATHS

● 1124 - Bořivoj II of Bohemia

● 1218 - Konstantin of Rostov, Prince of Novgorod (b. 1186)

● 1250 - Eric XI of Sweden (b. 1216)

● 1461 - Owen Tudor, Welsh founder of the Tudor dynasty of England

● 1529 - Baldassare Castiglione, Italian writer (b. 1478)

● 1580 - Bessho Nagaharu, Japanese retainer (b. 1558)

● 1594 - Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina, Italian composer (b. 1525)

● 1648 - George Abbot, English writer

● 1660 - Govert Flinck, Dutch painter (b. 1615)

● 1660 - Gaston, Duke of Orléans, French politician (b. 1608)

● 1661 - Lucas Holstenius, German humanist (b. 1596)

● 1688 - Abraham Duquesne, French naval officer (b. 1610)

● 1704 - Guillaume François Antoine, Marquis de l'Hôpital, French mathematician (b. 1661)

● 1712 - Martin Lister, English naturalist and physician

● 1714 - John Sharp, English Archbishop of York (b. 1643)

● 1768 - Robert Smith, English mathematician (b. 1689)

● 1769 - Pope Clement XIII (b. 1693)

● 1802 - Welbore Ellis, 1st Baron Mendip, British statesman (b. 1713)

● 1895 - Archduke Albert, Austrian general (b. 1817)

● 1904 - William C. Whitney, American financier (b. 1841)

● 1907 - Dmitri Mendeleev, Russian chemist (b. 1834)

● 1918 - John L. Sullivan, American heavyweight boxer (b. 1858)

● 1922 - William Desmond Taylor, Irish film director (b. 1872)

● 1925 - Jaap Eden, Dutch skater and cyclist (b. 1873)

● 1926 - Vladimir Sukhomlinov, Russian general (b. 1848)

● 1932 - Agha Petros, Assyrian nationalist leader

● 1942 - Daniil Kharms, Russian playwright (b. 1905)

● 1945 - Carl Friedrich Goerdeler, German politician (b. 1884)

● 1948 - Bevil Rudd, South African athlete (b. 1894)

● 1948 - Thomas W. Lamont, American banker; father or Corliss Lamont; great-grandfather of Ned Lamont (b. 1870)

● 1950 - Constantin Carathéodory, Greek mathematician (b. 1873)

● 1956 - Charles Grapewin, American actor (b. 1869)

● 1956 - Pyotr Konchalovsky, Russian painter (b. 1876)

● 1957 - Grigory Landsberg, Russian physicist (b. 1890)

● 1969 - Boris Karloff, English actor (b. 1887)

● 1970 - Bertrand Russell, Nobel Prize Laureate (b. 1872)

● 1973 - Hendrik Elias, Belgain politician (b. 1902)

● 1979 - Sid Vicious, English musician (Sex Pistols) (b. 1957)

● 1980 - William Howard Stein, Nobel Prize Laureate (b. 1911)

● 1982 - Paul Desruisseaux, Quebec lawyer, businessman and politician (b 1905)

● 1987 - Castilho, Brazilian footballer (b. 1927)

● 1987 - Alistair MacLean, Scottish novelist (b. 1922)

● 1988 - Marcel Bozzuffi, French film actor (b. 1929)

● 1992 - Bert Parks, American television host (b. 1914)

● 1995 - Donald Pleasence, English actor (b. 1919)

● 1996 - Gene Kelly, American dancer, actor, and director (b. 1912)

● 1997 - Sanford Meisner, American actor (b. 1904)

● 1997 - Erich Eliskases, Austrian chess player (b. 1913)

● 2002 - Paul Baloff, American vocalist (b. 1960)

● 2003 - Lou Harrison, American composer (b. 1917)

● 2004 - Bernard McEveety, American film director (b. 1924)

● 2005 - Max Schmeling, German boxer (b. 1905)

● 2007 - Filippo Raciti, Italian police officer (b. 1967)

HOLIDAYS AND OBSERVANCES

● Roman Catholic:
● Candlemas
● The Presentation of the Lord
● The Purification of the Blessed Virgin Mary
● World Day for Consecrated Life (also February 3 in the United States).
● St. Adalbald of Ostrevant
● St. Adeloga
● St. Apronian
● St. Cornelius
● St. Feock
● St. Flosculus
● St. Fortunatus
● St. Joan de Lestonnac
● St. Lawrence of Canterbury
● Martyrs of Ebsdorf
● St. Theodoric

● Eastern (Byzantine) Catholic:
● Encounter of our Lord with Simeon - Major Feast Day

● Russian Orthodox Christian Menaion Calendar for January 20 (Civil Date: February 2)
● St. Euthymius the Great.
● Martyrs Bassus, Eusebius, Eutychius and Basilides at Nicomedia.
● Martyrs Inna, Pinna and Rimma, disciples of Apostle Andrew in Scythia.
● Martyrs Thyrsus and Agnes.
● St. Leo the Great, confessor, Emperor of the East.
● Martyr Anna at Rome.
● New-Martyr Zacharias at Patrai in Morea.
● Saints Euthymius the Silent and Laurence the Recluse of the Kiev Caves.
● St. Euthymius of Syanzhemsk.
● Blessed Peter the customs inspector of Constantinople.
● Repose of Righteous.
● Theodore Kuzmich (Tsar Alexander) (1864).

● Anglican and Lutheran:
● Candlemas (Presentation or Purification)

● Christian:
● St. Cornelius

● Liechtenstein, Vatican:
● Candlemas/Feast of Presentation of Jesus

● Wicca:
● Imbolg sabbat

● Ancient Latvia - Veja Diena observed.

● Czech Republic - Hromnice.

● France - Crêpe Day.

● Paganism - Imbolc (in northern hemisphere), Lughnasadh (in southern hemisphere).

● Scotland - A quarter day in the Christian calendar (due to Candlemas).

● United States and Canada - Groundhog Day.

● University of King's College - George III Day

● This Holiday is only applicable on a given "day of the week"
● Switzerland : Homstrom-celebrates end of winter - ( Sunday )


Click on this LINK to see original Wikipedia list with many having links with details.

Additional facts taken from:

On this day in the New York Times

The BBC’s Take on the day

On This Day Website

Geov Parrish's this Day in Radical History, things that happened on this day that you never had to memorize in school.

Scope Systems Any Day Website

Roman Catholic Saint of the Day

Russian Orthodox Christian Menaion Calendar

On 8 March 2008 this post was edited to reflect the actual birth date of David Friedman to 12 Feb 1945 instead of 2 Feb 1945. This was based on this comment:
David Friedman said...
Actually, I was born on February 12th, not February 2nd. Apparently Wikipedia has misprints.


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