January 2 birthdays & history

Famous people born on January 2

• 1873Thérèse of Lisieux, French nun and saint
• 1822Rudolf Clausius, Polish-German physicist and mathematician
• 1837Mily Balakirev, Russian pianist and composer
• 1968Cuba Gooding, Jr., American actor and producer
• 1981Maxi Rodríguez, Argentine footballer
• 1896Dziga Vertov, Polish-Russian director and screenwriter
• 1983Kate Bosworth, American actress
• 1976Paz Vega, Spanish actress
• 1967Tia Carrere, American actress
• 1997Carlos Soler, Spanish footballer

What happened on January 2

• 533Mercurius, a Roman priest, was elected Pope John II; he was likely the first pope to adopt a new name upon elevation to the papacy.
• 1818The British Institution of Civil Engineers is founded by a group of six engineers; Thomas Telford would later become its first president.
• 1860French mathematician Urbain Le Verrier announced the putative discovery of the planet Vulcan at a meeting at the French Academy of Sciences in Paris.
• 1900American statesman and diplomat John Hay announces the Open Door Policy to promote trade with China.
• 1900Chicago Canal opens.
• 1921World premiere of the science fiction play R.U.R. by the Czech writer Karel Čapek in a theater in Hradec Králové.
• 1949Luis Muñoz Marín is inaugurated as the first democratically elected Governor of Puerto Rico.
• 1954India establishes its highest civilian awards, the Bharat Ratna and the Padma Vibhushan.
• 1959The Soviet Luna 1, the first spacecraft to reach the vicinity of the Moon, was launched by a Vostok rocket from the Baikonur Cosmodrome.
• 1967Ronald Reagan began his career in government when he was sworn in as the 33rd governor of California.
• 1991Sharon Pratt Dixon was sworn in as the mayor of Washington, D.C., becoming the first African-American woman to hold the position.
• 2004The Stardust space probe flew by the comet Wild 2 and collected particle samples from its coma, which were later returned to Earth.

Also observed on January 2

• Ancestry Day (Haiti)
• Berchtold's Day (Switzerland)
• The Day after New Year's Day (New Zealand)
• Kaapse Klopse (Cape Town, South Africa)
• The first day of Blacks and Whites' Carnival, celebrated until January 7 (Colombia)
• The ninth of the Twelve Days of Christmas (Western Christianity)