2
January
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January 2 in History
2006
An explosion in a coal mine in Sago, West Virginia traps and kills 12 miners, while leaving one miner in critical condition.
2004
Stardust successfully flies past Comet Wild 2, collecting samples that are returned to Earth.
2002
Eduardo Duhalde is appointed interim President of Argentina by the Legislative Assembly.
2001
Sila Calderón becomes the first female Governor of Puerto Rico
1999
A brutal snowstorm smashes into the Midwestern United States, causing 14 inches (359 mm) of snow in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and 19 inches (487 mm) in Chicago, where temperatures plunge to -13 °F (-25 °C); 68 deaths are reported
1974
President Richard Nixon signs a bill lowering the maximum U.S. speed limit to 55 MPH in order to conserve gasoline during an OPEC embargo
1971
The second Ibrox disaster kills 66 fans at a Rangers-Celtic football match
1959
Luna 1, the first spacecraft to reach the vicinity of the Moon and to orbit the Sun, is launched by the U.S.S.R.
1955
Panamanian president Jose Antonio Remon is assassinated
1949
Luis Muñoz Marín becomes the first democratically elected Governor of Puerto Rico
1945
World War II: Nuremberg (in German, Nürnberg) is severely bombed by Allied forces
1942
The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) convicts 33 members of a German spy ring headed by Fritz Joubert Duquesne in the largest espionage case in United States history—the Duquesne Spy Ring
World War II: Manila is captured by Japanese forces
1941
World War II: German bombing severely damages the Llandaff Cathedral in Cardiff, Wales
1935
Bruno Hauptmann goes on trial for the murder of Charles Lindbergh, Jr., infant son of aviator Charles Lindbergh
1920
The second Palmer Raid takes place with another 6,000 suspected communists and anarchists arrested and held without trial. These raids take place in several U.S. cities.
1905
Russo-Japanese War: The Russian garrison surrenders at Port Arthur, China
1900
John Hay announces the Open Door Policy to promote trade with China
1871
Amadeus I becomes King of Spain
1860
The discovery of the planet Vulcan is announced at a meeting of the Académie des Sciences in Paris
1833
Re-establishment of British rule on the Falklands.
1818
The British Institution of Civil Engineers is founded
1791
Big Bottom massacre in the Ohio Country, marking the beginning of the Northwest Indian War
1788
Georgia becomes the fourth state to ratify the United States Constitution
1777
American Revolutionary War: American forces under the command of George Washington repulsed a British attack at the Battle of the Assunpink Creek near Trenton, New Jersey
1492
Reconquista: the emirate of Granada, the last Moorish stronghold in Spain, surrenders
533
Mercurius becomes Pope John II, the first pope to adopt a new name upon elevation to the papacy
366
The Alamanni cross the frozen Rhine River in large numbers, invading the Roman Empire