On this day: 2 February

Selected events and births on 2 February, from Wikipedia’s “On this day”.

Events

• 506 – Alaric II, King of the Visigoths, promulgated a collection of Roman law known as the Breviary of Alaric (excerpt pictured). Read more: Alaric II Visigothic Kingdom Roman law
• 1207 – Terra Mariana, comprising present-day Estonia and Latvia, was established as a principality of the Holy Roman Empire. Read more: Terra Mariana Principality Holy Roman Empire
• 1594 – Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina dies at the age of 68. Read more: Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina
• 1659 – Jan van Riebeeck, the founder of Cape Town, produced the first bottle of South African wine. Read more: Jan van Riebeeck Cape Town South African wine
• 1709 – Scottish sailor Alexander Selkirk was rescued by English captain Woodes Rogers and his crew after spending four years as a castaway on an uninhabited island in the Pacific, providing the inspiration for Daniel Defoe's novel Robinson Crusoe. Read more: Alexander Selkirk Woodes Rogers Castaway
• 1725 – J. S. Bach led the first performance of his chorale cantata Mit Fried und Freud ich fahr dahin, BWV 125, based on Luther's paraphrase of the Nunc dimittis. Read more: Johann Sebastian Bach Chorale cantata cycle Mit Fried und Freud ich fahr dahin, BWV 125
• 1913 – New York City's Grand Central Terminal, the world's largest train station by number of platforms, opened immediately after midnight. Read more: Grand Central Terminal Railway platform
• 1934 – The Export–Import Bank of the United States, the country's official export credit agency, was established. Read more: Export–Import Bank of the United States Export credit agency
• 2004 – Swiss tennis player Roger Federer became the top-ranked men's singles player, a position he held for a record 237 consecutive weeks. Read more: Roger Federer List of ATP number 1 ranked singles tennis players
• 2009 – Omid, Iran's first domestically made satellite, was launched from Semnan Space Center. Read more: Omid Satellite Semnan Space Center

Born on this day

• 1938 – Norman Fowler, English journalist and politician, Secretary of State for Transport Read more: Norman Fowler, Baron Fowler Secretary of State for Transport
• 1939 – Mary-Dell Chilton, American chemist and inventor and one of the founders of modern plant biotechnology Read more: Mary-Dell Chilton Biotechnology
• 1946 – Alpha Oumar Konaré, Malian academic and politician, 3rd President of Mali Read more: Alpha Oumar Konaré List of heads of state of Mali
• 1952 – John Cornyn, American lawyer and politician, 49th Attorney General of Texas Read more: John Cornyn Texas Attorney General
• 1952 – Park Geun-hye, South Korean politician, 11th President of South Korea Read more: Park Geun-hye President of South Korea
• 1953 – Duane Chapman, American bounty hunter[citation needed] Read more: Duane Chapman Wikipedia:Citation needed
• 1963 – Andrej Kiska, Slovak entrepreneur and philanthropist, President of Slovakia Read more: Andrej Kiska President of Slovakia
• 1966 – Michael Misick, Caicos Islander politician, Premier of the Turks and Caicos Islands Read more: Michael Misick Premier of the Turks and Caicos Islands
• 1987 – Athena Imperial, Filipino journalist, Miss Earth-Water 2011 Read more: Athena Imperial Miss Earth 2011
• 2001 – Westcol, Colombian online streamer Read more: WestCOL
• 2004 – Eleonore Caburet, French rhythmic gymnast Read more: Eleonore Caburet
• 2006 – Lucas Bergvall, Swedish footballer Read more: Lucas Bergvall

Text from Wikipedia: Selected anniversaries / February 2 and the linked articles, via the Wikimedia “On this day” feed, under CC BY-SA 4.0. We leave out entries about wars, violence and disasters to keep this page family-friendly.