2 February

Events

Pre-1600

* 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 of France 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.
*1438 – Nine leaders of the Transylvanian peasant revolt are executed at Torda.
* 1461 – Wars of the Roses: The Battle of Mortimer's Cross results in the death of Owen Tudor.
*1536 – Spaniard Pedro de Mendoza founds Buenos Aires, Argentina.

1601–1900

*1645 – Scotland in the Wars of the Three Kingdoms: Battle of Inverlochy.
*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''.
*1814 – The last of the River Thames frost fairs comes to an end.
*1848 – Mexican–American War: The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo is signed.
*1850 – Brigham Young declares war on Timpanogos in the Battle at Fort Utah.
*1868 – Pro-Imperial forces capture Osaka Castle from the Tokugawa shogunate and burn it to the ground.
*1870 – ''The Seven Brothers'' (''Seitsemän veljestä''), a novel by Finnish author Aleksis Kivi, is published first time in several thin booklets.
*1876 – The National League of Professional Baseball Clubs of Major League Baseball is formed.
*1881 – The sentences of the trial of the warlocks of Chiloé are imparted.
*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.
*1900 – Six cities, Boston, Detroit, Milwaukee, Baltimore, Chicago and St. Louis, agree to form baseball's American League.

1901–present

*1901 – Funeral of Queen Victoria.
*1909 – The Paris Film Congress opens, an attempt by European producers to form an equivalent to the MPCC cartel in the United States.
*1913 – Grand Central Terminal opens in New York City.
*1920 – The Tartu Peace Treaty is signed between Estonia and Russia.
*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 organized German troops in the city.
*1959 – Nine experienced ski hikers in the northern Ural Mountains in the Soviet Union die under mysterious circumstances.
*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.
*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–Afghan War: 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.
*1998 – Cebu Pacific Flight 387 crashes into Mount Sumagaya in the Philippines, killing all 104 people on board.
*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.
*2005 – The Government of Canada introduces the ''Civil Marriage Act''. This legislation would become law on July 20, 2005, legalizing same-sex marriage.
*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.
*2012 – The ferry MV ''Rabaul Queen'' sinks off the coast of Papua New Guinea near the Finschhafen District, with an estimated 146–165 dead.

Births

Pre-1600

*450 – Justin I, Byzantine emperor (d. 527)
* 1208 – James I of Aragon (d. 1276)
*1425 (or 1426) – Eleanor of Navarre, Queen regnant of Navarre (d. 1479)
*1443 – Elisabeth of Bavaria, Electress of Saxony (d. 1486)
*1455 – John, King of Denmark (d. 1513)
*1457 – Peter Martyr d'Anghiera, Italian-Spanish historian and author (d. 1526)
* 1467 – Columba of Rieti, Italian Dominican sister (d. 1501)
*1494 – Bona Sforza, queen of Sigismund I of Poland (d. 1557)
*1502 – Damião de Góis, Portuguese philosopher and historian (d. 1574)
*1506 – René de Birague, Italian-French cardinal and politician (d. 1583)
*1509 – John of Leiden, Dutch Anabaptist leader (d. 1536)
*1517 – Gotthard Kettler, the last Master of the Livonian Order and the first Duke of Courland and Semigallia (d. 1587)
*1522 – Lodovico Ferrari, Italian mathematician and academic (d. 1565)
*1536 – Piotr Skarga, Polish writer (d. 1612)
*1551 – Nicolaus Reimers, German astronomer (d. 1600)
*1576 – Alix Le Clerc, French Canoness Regular and foundress (d. 1622)
*1585 – Judith Quiney, William Shakespeare's youngest daughter (d. 1662)
* 1585 – Hamnet Shakespeare, William Shakespeare's only son (baptised; d. 1596)
*1588 – Georg II of Fleckenstein-Dagstuhl, German nobleman (d. 1644)
*1600 – Gabriel Naudé, French librarian and scholar (d. 1653)

1601–1900

*1611 – Ulrik of Denmark, Danish prince-bishop (d. 1633)
*1613 – Noël Chabanel, French missionary and saint (d. 1649)
*1621 – Johannes Schefferus, Swedish author and hymn-writer (d. 1679)
*1650 – Pope Benedict XIII (d. 1730)
* 1650 – Nell Gwyn, English actress, mistress of King Charles II of England (d. 1687)
*1651 – William Phips, Royal governor of the Province of Massachusetts Bay (d. 1695)
*1669 – Louis Marchand, French organist and composer (d. 1732)
*1677 – Jean-Baptiste Morin, French composer (d. 1745)
*1695 – William Borlase, English geologist and archaeologist (d. 1772)
* 1695 – François de Chevert, French general (d. 1769)
*1700 – Johann Christoph Gottsched, German author and critic (d. 1766)
*1711 – Wenzel Anton, Prince of Kaunitz-Rietberg (d. 1794)
*1714 – Gottfried August Homilius, German organist and composer (d. 1785)
*1717 – Ernst Gideon von Laudon, Austrian field marshal (d. 1790)
*1754 – Charles Maurice de Talleyrand-Périgord, French politician, Prime Minister of France (d. 1838)
*1782 – Henri de Rigny, French admiral and politician, French Minister of War (d. 1835)
*1786 – Jacques Philippe Marie Binet, French mathematician, physicist, and astronomer (d. 1856)
*1802 – Jean-Baptiste Boussingault, French chemist and academic (d. 1887)
*1803 – Albert Sidney Johnston, American general (d. 1862)
*1829 – Alfred Brehm, German zoologist and illustrator (d. 1884)
* 1829 – William Stanley, English engineer and philanthropist (d. 1909)
*1841 – François-Alphonse Forel, Swiss limnologist and hydrologist (d. 1912)
*1842 – Julian Sochocki, Polish-Russian mathematician and academic (d. 1927)
* 1849 – Pavol Országh Hviezdoslav, Slovak poet and playwright (d. 1921)
*1851 – José Guadalupe Posada, Mexican illustrator and engraver (d. 1913)
*1856 – Frederick William Vanderbilt, American railway magnate (d. 1938)
* 1856 – Makar Yekmalyan, Armenian composer (d. 1905)
*1857 – Jan Drozdowski, Polish pianist and music teacher (d. 1918)
*1860 – Curtis Guild, Jr., American journalist and politician, 43rd Governor of Massachusetts (d. 1915)
*1861 – Solomon R. Guggenheim, American businessman and philanthropist, founded the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum (d. 1949)
*1862 – Émile Coste, French fencer (d. 1927)
* 1862 – Cornelius McKane, American physician, educator, and hospital founder (d. 1912)
*1866 – Enrique Simonet, Spanish painter and academic (d. 1927)
*1873 – Leo Fall, Austrian composer (d. 1925)
* 1873 – Konstantin von Neurath, German politician and diplomat, 13th German Minister of Foreign Affairs (d. 1956)
*1875 – Fritz Kreisler, Austrian-American violinist and composer (d. 1962)
*1877 – Frank L. Packard, Canadian author (d. 1942)
*1878 – Joe Lydon, American boxer (d. 1937)
*1880 – Frederick Lane, Australian swimmer (d. 1969)
*1881 – Orval Overall, American baseball player and manager (d. 1947)
*1882 – Prince Andrew of Greece and Denmark (d. 1944)
* 1882 – James Joyce, Irish novelist, short story writer, and poet (d. 1941)
*1883 – Johnston McCulley, American author and screenwriter, created ''Zorro'' (d. 1958)
* 1883 – Julia Nava de Ruisánchez, Mexican activist and writer (d. 1964)
*1886 – William Rose Benét, American poet and author (d. 1950)
*1887 – Ernst Hanfstaengl, German businessman (d. 1975)
*1889 – Jean de Lattre de Tassigny, French general (d. 1952)
*1890 – Charles Correll, American actor and screenwriter (d. 1972)
*1892 – Tochigiyama Moriya, Japanese sumo wrestler, the 27th Yokozuna (d. 1959)
*1893 – Cornelius Lanczos, Hungarian mathematician and physicist (d. 1974)
* 1893 – Raoul Riganti, Argentinian race car driver (d. 1970)
* 1893 – Damdin Sükhbaatar, Mongolian soldier and politician (d. 1924)
*1895 – George Halas, American football player and coach (d. 1983)
* 1895 – Robert Philipp, American painter (d. 1981)
* 1895 – George Sutcliffe, Australian public servant (d. 1964)
*1896 – Kazimierz Kuratowski, Polish mathematician and logician (d. 1980)
*1897 – Howard Deering Johnson, American businessman, founded Howard Johnson's (d. 1972)
* 1897 – Gertrude Blanch, Russian-American mathematician (d. 1996)
* 1900 – Willie Kamm, American baseball player and manager (d. 1988)

1901–present

*1901 – Jascha Heifetz, Lithuanian-born American violinist and educator (d. 1987)
*1902 – Newbold Morris, American lawyer and politician (d. 1966)
* 1902 – John Tonkin, Australian politician, 20th Premier of Western Australia (d. 1995)
*1904 – Bozorg Alavi, Iranian author and activist (d. 1997)
*1905 – Ayn Rand, Russian-born American novelist and philosopher (d. 1982)
*1908 – Wes Ferrell, American baseball player and manager (d. 1976)
*1909 – Frank Albertson, American actor (d. 1964)
*1911 – Jack Pizzey, Australian politician, 29th Premier of Queensland (d. 1968)
*1912 – Millvina Dean, English civil servant and cartographer (d. 2009)
* 1912 – Burton Lane, American songwriter and composer (d. 1997)
*1913 – Poul Reichhardt, Danish actor and singer (d. 1985)
*1914 – Eric Kierans, Canadian economist and politician, 1st Canadian Minister of Communications (d. 2004)
*1915 – Abba Eban, South African-Israeli politician and diplomat, 1st Israel Ambassador to the United Nations (d. 2002)
* 1915 – Stan Leonard, Canadian golfer (d. 2005)
* 1915 – Khushwant Singh, Indian journalist and author (d. 2014)
*1916 – Xuân Diệu, Vietnamese poet and author (d. 1985)
*1917 – Mary Ellis, British World War II ferry pilot (d. 2018)
* 1917 – Đỗ Mười, Vietnamese politician, 5th Prime Minister of Vietnam (d. 2018)
*1918 – Hella Haasse, Indonesian-Dutch author (d. 2011)
*1919 – Lisa Della Casa, Swiss soprano and actress (d. 2012)
* 1919 – Georg Gawliczek, German footballer and manager (d. 1999)
*1920 – George Hardwick, English footballer and coach (d. 2004)
* 1920 – John Russell, American Olympic equestrian (d. 2020)
* 1920 – Arthur Willis, English footballer player-manager (d. 1987)
*1922 – Kunwar Digvijay Singh, Indian field hockey player (d. 1978)
* 1922 – Robert Chef d'Hôtel, French athlete (d. 2019)
* 1922 – James L. Usry, American politician, first African-American mayor of Atlantic City, New Jersey (d. 2002)
* 1922 – Stoyanka Mutafova, Bulgarian actress (d. 2019)
*1923 – Jean Babilée, French dancer and choreographer (d. 2014)
* 1923 – James Dickey, American poet and novelist (d. 1997)
* 1923 – Svetozar Gligorić, Serbian and Yugoslav chess grandmaster (d.2012)
* 1923 – Bonita Granville, American actress and producer (d. 1988)
* 1923 – Red Schoendienst, American baseball player, coach, and manager (d. 2018)
* 1923 – Liz Smith, American journalist and author (d. 2017)
* 1923 – Clem Windsor, Australian rugby player and surgeon (d. 2007)
*1924 – Elfi von Dassanowsky, Austrian-American singer, pianist, producer (d. 2007)
* 1924 – Sonny Stitt, American saxophonist and composer (d. 1982)
*1925 – Elaine Stritch, American actress and singer (d. 2014)
*1926 – Valéry Giscard d'Estaing, French academic and politician, 20th President of France (d. 2020)
*1927 – Stan Getz, American saxophonist (d. 1991)
* 1927 – Doris Sams, American baseball player (d. 2012)
*1928 – Ciriaco De Mita, 47th Prime minister of Italy (d. 2022)
* 1928 – Jay Handlan, American basketball player and engineer (d. 2013)
* 1928 – Tommy Harmer, English footballer and youth team coach (d. 2007)
*1929 – Sheila Matthews Allen, American actress and producer (d. 2013)
* 1929 – George Band, English engineer and mountaineer (d. 2011)
* 1929 – Věra Chytilová, Czech actress, director, and screenwriter (d. 2014)
* 1929 – John Henry Holland, American computer scientist and academic (d. 2015)
* 1929 – Waldemar Kmentt, Austrian operatic tenor (d. 2015)
*1931 – Dries van Agt, Dutch politician, diplomat and jurist, Prime Minister of the Netherlands
* 1931 – Les Dawson, English comedian and author (d. 1993)
* 1931 – Glynn Edwards, Malaysian-English actor (d. 2018)
* 1931 – John Paul Harney, Canadian educator and politician
* 1931 – Judith Viorst, American journalist and author
*1932 – Arthur Lyman, American jazz vibraphone and marimba player (d. 2002)
* 1932 – Robert Mandan, American actor (d. 2018)
*1933 – M'el Dowd, American actress and singer (d. 2012)
* 1933 – Tony Jay, English-American actor (d. 2006)
* 1933 – Orlando "Cachaíto" López, Cuban bassist and composer (d. 2009)
* 1933 – Than Shwe, Burmese general and politician, 8th Prime Minister of Burma
*1934 – Khalil Ullah Khan, Bangladeshi actor (d. 2014)
*1935 – Pete Brown, American golfer (d. 2015)
* 1935 – Evgeny Velikhov, Russian physicist and academic
*1936 – Metin Oktay, Turkish footballer and manager (d. 1991)
*1937 – Don Buford, American baseball player and coach
* 1937 – Eric Arturo Delvalle, Panamanian lawyer and politician, President of Panama (d. 2015)
* 1937 – Anthony Haden-Guest, British journalist, poet, and critic
* 1937 – Remak Ramsay, American actor
* 1937 – Tom Smothers, American comedian, actor, and activist
* 1937 – Alexandra Strelchenko, Ukrainian actress and singer (d. 2019)
*1938 – Norman Fowler, English journalist and politician, Secretary of State for Transport
* 1938 – Gene MacLellan, Canadian singer-songwriter (d. 1995)
*1939 – Jackie Burroughs, English-born Canadian actress (d. 2010)
* 1939 – Mary-Dell Chilton, American chemist and inventor and one of the founders of modern plant biotechnology
* 1939 – Dale T. Mortensen, American economist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 2014)
*1940 – Alan Caddy, English guitarist and producer (d. 2000)
* 1940 – Thomas M. Disch, American author and poet (d. 2008)
* 1940 – Wayne Fontes, American football player and coach
* 1940 – David Jason, English actor, director, and producer
*1941 – Terry Biddlecombe, English jockey (d. 2014)
*1942 – Bo Hopkins, American actor (d. 2022)
* 1942 – Graham Nash, English-American singer-songwriter and guitarist
*1944 – Andrew Davis, English organist and conductor
* 1944 – Geoffrey Hughes, English actor (d. 2012)
* 1944 – Ursula Oppens, American pianist and educator
*1945 – John Eatwell, Baron Eatwell, English economist and academic
*1946 – John Armitt, English engineer and businessman
* 1946 – Blake Clark, American comedian and actor
* 1946 – Alpha Oumar Konaré, Malian academic and politician, 3rd President of Mali
* 1946 – Constantine Papadakis, Greek-American businessman and academic (d. 2009)
*1947 – Greg Antonacci, American actor, director, producer, and screenwriter (d. 2017)
* 1947 – Farrah Fawcett, American actress and producer (d. 2009)
*1948 – Ina Garten, American chef and author
* 1948 – Al McKay, American guitarist, songwriter, and producer
* 1948 – Roger Williamson, English race car driver (d. 1973)
*1949 – Duncan Bannatyne, Scottish businessman and philanthropist
* 1949 – Yasuko Namba, Japanese mountaineer (d. 1996)
* 1949 – Brent Spiner, American actor and singer
* 1949 – Ross Valory, American rock bass player and songwriter
*1950 – Osamu Kido, Japanese wrestler
* 1950 – Libby Purves, British journalist and author
* 1950 – Bárbara Rey, Spanish singer and actress
* 1950 – Barbara Sukowa, German actress
* 1950 – Genichiro Tenryu, Japanese wrestler
*1951 – Vangelis Alexandris, Greek basketball player and coach
* 1951 – Ken Bruce, Scottish radio host
*1952 – John Cornyn, American lawyer and politician, 49th Attorney General of Texas

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