On this day: 2 January

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

Events

• 533 – Mercurius, a Roman priest, was elected Pope John II; he was likely the first pope to adopt a new name upon elevation to the papacy. Read more: Pope John II Papal name
• 1860 – French mathematician Urbain Le Verrier announced the putative discovery of the planet Vulcan at a meeting at the French Academy of Sciences in Paris. Read more: Urbain Le Verrier Vulcan (hypothetical planet) French Academy of Sciences
• 1959 – The Soviet Luna 1, the first spacecraft to reach the vicinity of the Moon, was launched by a Vostok rocket from the Baikonur Cosmodrome. Read more: Luna 1 Vostok (rocket family) Baikonur Cosmodrome
• 1967 – Ronald Reagan began his career in government when he was sworn in as the 33rd governor of California. Read more: Ronald Reagan List of governors of California
• 2004 – The Stardust space probe flew by the comet Wild 2 and collected particle samples from its coma, which were later returned to Earth. Read more: Stardust (spacecraft) 81P/Wild Coma (comet)

Born on this day

• 1933 – Richard Riley, American politician, 6th United States Secretary of Education Read more: Richard Riley United States Secretary of Education
• 1952 – Indulis Emsis, Latvian biologist and politician, 9th Prime Minister of Latvia Read more: Indulis Emsis Prime Minister of Latvia
• 1967 – Jón Gnarr, Icelandic actor and politician; 20th Mayor of Reykjavík Read more: Jón Gnarr Mayor of Reykjavík
• 1972 – Shiraz Minwalla, Indian theoretical physicist and string theorist Read more: Shiraz Minwalla Theoretical physics String theory
• 1972 – Rodney MacDonald, Canadian educator and politician, 26th Premier of Nova Scotia Read more: Rodney MacDonald Premier of Nova Scotia
• 1999 – Georgios Kalaitzakis, Greek basketball player Read more: Georgios Kalaitzakis
• 2000 – Spencer Arrighetti, American baseball player Read more: Spencer Arrighetti
• 2001 – Cole Caufield, American ice hockey player Read more: Cole Caufield
• 2001 – Luiz Henrique, Brazilian footballer Read more: Luiz Henrique (footballer, born 2001)
• 2003 – CJ Egan-Riley, English footballer Read more: CJ Egan-Riley
• 2003 – Elye Wahi, French footballer Read more: Elye Wahi
• 2006 – Claudio Echeverri, Argentine footballer Read more: Claudio Echeverri

Text from Wikipedia: Selected anniversaries / January 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.