On this day in history

February 2

27 births · 20 deaths · 5 events

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Anniversary highlights

Event anniversary

Ramsar Convention

55 years ago

Born this day

1977

Shakira

Turns 49

Photo (modified): Junta de Andalucía · CC BY-SA 2.0

Oldest record

818th

James I of Aragon

birth anniversary

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Famous births27

1208 · 818 yrs

James I of Aragon

James I the Conqueror (Catalan: Jaume I or Jaume el Conqueridor; Aragonese: Chaime I o Conqueridor; 2 February 1208 – 27 July 1276) was the 11th King of Aragon, 38th Count of Barcelona, and Lord of Montpellier from 1213 to 1276; King of Majorca from 1231 to 1276; and King of Valencia from 1238 to 1276.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

RoyaltyDied aged 68

View profile Photo (modified): Unknown author · Public domain

1536 · 490 yrs

Toyotomi Hideyoshi

Toyotomi Hideyoshi (豊臣秀吉; Japanese pronunciation:, 16 February 1537 – 18 September 1598), otherwise known as Kinoshita Tōkichirō (木下藤吉郎) and Hashiba Hideyoshi (羽柴秀吉), was a Japanese samurai and daimyō (feudal lord) of the late Sengoku and Azuchi-Momoyama periods, regarded as the second "Great Unifier" of Japan.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

PoliticsDied aged 62

View profile Photo (modified): Kanō Mitsunobu · Public domain

1649 · 377 yrs

Benedict XIII

Pope Benedict XIII (Latin: Benedictus XIII; Italian: Benedetto XIII; 2 February 1649 – 21 February 1730), born Pietro Francesco (or Pierfrancesco) Orsini and later called Vincenzo Maria Orsini, was head of the Catholic Church and leader of the Papal States from 29 May 1724 to his death in February 1730.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

ReligionDied aged 81

View profile Photo (modified): Unidentified painter · Public domain

1743 · 283 yrs

Joseph Banks

Sir Joseph Banks, 1st Baronet (24 February 1743 – 19 June 1820) was an English naturalist, botanist, and patron of the natural sciences. Banks made his name on the 1766 natural-history expedition to Newfoundland and Labrador.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

ScienceDied aged 77

View profile Photo (modified): Joshua Reynolds · Public domain

1754 · 272 yrs

Charles-Maurice de Talleyrand-Périgord

Charles-Maurice de Talleyrand-Périgord (French:; 2 February 1754 – 17 May 1838), 1st Prince of Benevento, then Prince of Talleyrand, was a French secularized clergyman, statesman, and leading diplomat. After studying theology, he became Agent-General of the Clergy in 1780.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

PoliticsDied aged 85

View profile Photo (modified): François Gérard · Public domain

1769 · 257 yrs

Ivan Krylov

Ivan Andreyevich Krylov (Russian: Ива́н Андре́евич Крыло́в; 13 February 1769 – 21 November 1844) is Russia's best-known fabulist and probably the most epigrammatic of all Russian authors. Formerly a dramatist and journalist, he only discovered his true genre at the age of 40.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

LiteratureDied aged 75

View profile Photo (modified): Ivan Eggink · Public domain

1873 · 153 yrs

Konstantin von Neurath

Konstantin Hermann Karl Freiherr von Neurath (2 February 1873 – 14 August 1956) was a German politician, diplomat and convicted Nazi war criminal who served as Foreign Minister of Germany between 1932 and 1938. Born to a Swabian noble family, Neurath began his diplomatic career in 1901.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

MilitaryDied aged 83

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1882 · 144 yrs

Abdullah I of Jordan

Abdullah I (Abdullah bin Hussein; 2 February 1882 – 20 July 1951) was the ruler of Jordan from 11 April 1921 until his assassination in 1951. He was the Emir of Transjordan, a British protectorate, until 25 May 1946, after which he was king of an independent Jordan.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

RoyaltyWould be 144

View profile Photo (modified): Author not identified at this source · Public domain

1882 · 144 yrs

James Joyce

James Augustine Aloysius Joyce (born James Augusta Joyce; 2 February 1882 – 13 January 1941) was an Irish novelist, poet, and literary critic. He contributed to the modernist movement and is regarded among the most influential and important writers of the 20th century.

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LiteratureWould be 144

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1886 · 140 yrs

Frank Lloyd

Frank William George Lloyd (2 February 1886 – 10 August 1960) was a Scottish-American film director, screenwriter, producer and actor. He was among the founders of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, and was its president from 1934 to 1935.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

FilmWould be 140

View profile Photo (modified): Anonymous photographer, not identified anywhere · Public domain

1891 · 135 yrs

Antonio Segni

Antonio Segni (Italian:; 2 February 1891 – 1 December 1972) was an Italian politician and statesman who served as the president of Italy from 1962 to 1964, and as Prime Minister of Italy from 1955 to 1957 and again from 1959 to 1960.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

PoliticsWould be 135

View profile Photo (modified): Presidenza della Repubblica · Attribution

1905 · 121 yrs

Ayn Rand

Alice O'Connor (born Alisa Zinovyevna Rosenbaum; February 2, 1905 – March 6, 1982), better known by her pen name Ayn Rand, was a Russian-American writer and philosopher. She is known for her fiction and for developing a philosophical system which she named Objectivism.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

LiteratureWould be 121

View profile Photo (modified): Photo portrait credited to "Talbot" (though not on original dust jacket). Published by the Bobbs-Merrill Company . · Public domain

Showing 12 of 27

Famous deaths20

1769 · 257 yrs

Clement XIII

Pope Clement XIII (Latin: Clemens XIII; Italian: Clemente XIII; 7 March 1693 – 2 February 1769), born Carlo della Torre di Rezzonico, was head of the Catholic Church and leader of the Papal States from 6 July 1758 to his death in February 1769. He was installed on 16 July 1758.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

ReligionDied aged 75

View profile Photo (modified): Anton Raphael Mengs · Public domain

1826 · 200 yrs

Jean Anthelme Brillat-Savarin

Jean Anthelme Brillat-Savarin (French pronunciation:; 2 April 1755 – 2 February 1826) was a French lawyer and politician, who, as the author of Physiologie du goût (The Physiology of Taste), became celebrated for his culinary reminiscences and reflections on the craft and science of cookery and the art of eating.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

LawDied aged 70

View profile Photo (modified): Louis-Jean Allais / After Jean Baptist Ponce Lambert · Public domain

1857 · 169 yrs

Michael Glinka

Mikhail Ivanovich Glinka (Russian: Михаил Иванович Глинка, romanized: Mikhail Ivanovich Glinka, IPA:; 1 June 1804 – 15 February 1857) was the first Russian composer to gain wide recognition within his own country and is often regarded as the fountainhead of Russian classical music.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

MusicDied aged 53

View profile Photo (modified): Sergey Lvovich Levitsky · Public domain

1907 · 119 yrs

Dmitri Mendeleev

Dmitri Ivanovich Mendeleev ( MEN-dəl-AY-əf; 8 February 1834 – 2 February 1907) was a Russian chemist known for formulating the periodic law and creating a version of the periodic table of elements.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

ScienceDied aged 72

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1937 · 89 yrs

Lou Andreas-Salomé

Lou Andreas-Salomé (born either Louise von Salomé or Luíza Gustavovna Salomé or Lioulia von Salomé, Russian: Луиза Густавовна Саломе; 12 February 1861 – 5 February 1937) was a Russian-born psychoanalyst and a well-traveled author, narrator, and essayist from a French Huguenot-German family.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

PhilosophyDied aged 75

View profile Photo (modified): Hofatelier Elvira · Public domain

1942 · 84 yrs

Daniil Kharms

Daniil Ivanovich Kharms (né Yuvachev; Russian: Даниил Иванович Хармс; 30 December 1905 – 2 February 1942) was a Russian avant-gardist and absurdist poet, writer and dramatist in the early Soviet era.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

LiteratureWould be 120

View profile Photo (modified): Unknown author · Public domain

1969 · 57 yrs

Boris Karloff

William Henry Pratt (23 November 1887 – 2 February 1969), known professionally as Boris Karloff, was an English actor.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

FilmWould be 138

View profile Photo (modified): . The original uploader was Wikiwatcher1 at English Wikipedia . · Public domain

1970 · 56 yrs

Bertrand Russell

Bertrand Arthur William Russell, 3rd Earl Russell (18 May 1872 – 2 February 1970), was an English mathematician and philosopher. A founder of analytic philosophy, he was a leading philosopher of the 20th century who produced pioneering work in logic, set theory, and philosophy of language.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

PhilosophyDied aged 97

View profile Photo (modified): Bassano Ltd · Public domain

1974 · 52 yrs

Imre Lakatos

Imre Lakatos (UK:, US:; Hungarian: Lakatos Imre; 9 November 1922 – 2 February 1974) was a Hungarian philosopher of mathematics and science, known for his thesis of the fallibility of mathematics and its "methodology of proofs and refutations" in its pre-axiomatic stages of development, and also for introducing the…

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

PhilosophyWould be 103

View profile Photo (modified): Library of the London School of Economics and Political Science · No restrictions

1979 · 47 yrs

Sid Vicious

John Simon Ritchie (born Simon John Ritchie; 10 May 1957 – 2 February 1979), known professionally as Sid Vicious, was an English musician, best known as the second bassist for the punk rock band Sex Pistols.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

MusicWould be 69

View profile Photo (modified): Chicago Art Department c/o: L. Schorr · CC BY 2.0

1994 · 32 yrs

Marija Gimbutas

Marija Gimbutas (Lithuanian: Marija Birutė Alseikaitė-Gimbutienė, pronounced; January 23, 1921 – February 2, 1994) was a Lithuanian archaeologist and anthropologist known for her research into the Neolithic and Bronze Age cultures of "Old Europe" and for her Kurgan hypothesis, which located the Proto-Indo-European…

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

ScholarshipWould be 105

View profile Photo (modified): Monica Boirar · CC BY-SA 3.0

1995 · 31 yrs

Donald Pleasence

Donald Henry Pleasence ( PLEZ-ənss; 5 October 1919 – 2 February 1995) was an English actor. He was known for his "bald head and intense, staring eyes," and played more than 250 stage, film, and television roles across a nearly 60-year career.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

FilmWould be 107

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Showing 12 of 20

Events5

1848 · 178 yrs

Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo

The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo officially ended the Mexican–American War (1846–1848). It was signed on the 2nd of February 1848 in the town of Guadalupe Hidalgo.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

Politics

1920 · 106 yrs

Treaty of Tartu

The Treaty of Tartu (Estonian: Tartu rahuleping, lit. 'Tartu peace', Russian: Юрьевский (Тартуский) договор) is a peace treaty that was signed in Tartu on 2 February 1920 between the Republic of Estonia and Soviet Russia, ending the 1918–1920 Estonian War of Independence.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

Politics

1959 · 67 yrs

Dyatlov Pass incident

The Dyatlov Pass incident (Russian: Гибель тургруппы Дятлова, romanized: Gibel turgruppy Dyatlova, lit. 'Death of the Dyatlov Hiking Group') was an event in which nine Soviet ski hikers died in the northern part of the Ural Mountains ridge in the Russian SFSR on 1 or 2 February 1959 under undetermined circumstances.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

Disaster

1971 · 55 yrs

Ramsar Convention

The Ramsar Convention on Wetlands of International Importance Especially as Waterfowl Habitat is an international treaty for the conservation and sustainable use of Ramsar sites (wetlands). It is also known as the Convention on Wetlands.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

Politics

1982 · 44 yrs

Hama Massacre

The Hama massacre (Arabic: مجزرة حماة) occurred in February 1982 when the Syrian Arab Army and the Defense Companies paramilitary force, under the orders of President Hafez al-Assad, besieged the town of Hama for 27 days in order to quell an uprising by the Fighting Vanguard of the Muslim Brotherhood against the…

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

Tragedy

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