On this day: 2 January
Events, births and deaths on 2 January. Every date is checked against Wikidata.
Years ago today
1 year ago2025
- Deaths · Ágnes Keleti
- Deaths · Francesc Antich Oliver
10 years ago2016
- Deaths · Nimr al-Nimr
- Deaths · Ardhendu Bhushan Bardhan
- Deaths · Gisela Mota Ocampo
100 years ago1926
Within 10 years of that
- 1920 · Births · Isaac Asimov
- 1931 · Births · Toshiki Kaifu
- 1928 · Births · Daisaku Ikeda
1000 years ago1026
Within 100 years of that
- 951 · Deaths · Emperor Yin of Later Han
- 1096 · Deaths · William de St-Calais
Events · 12
- 1777Battle of the Assunpink Creek — 1777 battle between American and British troops
- 1788Georgia — state of the United States of America
- 1791Big Bottom Massacre — battle
- 1963Battle of Ap Bac — 1963 battle of the Vietnam War
- 19711971 Ibrox disaster — crush among the crowd at an Old Firm football game
- 19781978 massacre at Multan Colony Textile Mills — killing of ~200 striking workers in Pakistan
- 1988Condor Flugdienst Flight 3782 — 1988 aviation accident
- 1993
- 2016execution of Nimr al-Nimr — 2016 execution of a Shia cleric and others in Saudi Arabia
- 20202020 New Taipei helicopter crash — 2 January 2020 helicopter crash in Taiwan
- 20222022 Kazakh unrest — series of protests in Kazakhstan that began on 2 January 2022 after an LPG price increase
- 20242024 Haneda Airport runway collision — aviation accident in Tokyo, Japan
Births · 60
- 869(Julian date)Yōzei — Emperor of Japan
- 1403(Julian date)Basilios Bessarion — Greek theologian, cardinal bishop and Latin Patriarch of Constantinople (1403-1472)
- 1462(Julian date)Piero di Cosimo — Italian painter (1462–1522)
- 1642Mehmed IV — 19th Sultan of the Ottoman Empire (1648–1687)
- 1699Osman III — 25th Sultan of the Ottoman Empire (1754–1757)
- 1727James Wolfe — British Army officer (1727–1759)
- 1729Johann Daniel Titius — German astronomer
- 1822Rudolf Clausius — German mathematical physicist and professor (1822–1888)
- 1827(Julian date)Pyotr Semyonov-Tyan-Shansky — Russian geographer, art collector and statistician
- 1836Mendele Mocher Sforim — Yiddish-Hebrew writer (1836-1917)
- 1837Mily Alexeyevich Balakirev — Russian composer, pianist, and conductor (1837–1910)
- 1870Ernst Barlach — German expressionist sculptor, printmaker and writer (1870–1938)
- 1873Thérèse of Lisieux — French Discalced Carmelite nun, Doctor of the Church (1873–1897)
- 1873Anton Pannekoek — Dutch astronomer and Marxist theorist (1873-1960)
- 1895Folke Bernadotte — Swedish diplomat (1895–1948)
- 1896Dziga Vertov — Russian-Soviet documentary/avantgarde filmmaker (1896-1954)
- 1903Kane Tanaka — Japanese supercentenarian
- 1904Walter Heitler — physicist (1904-1981)
- 1905Luigi Zampa — Italian film director (1905-1991)
- 1905Michael Tippett — English composer (1905-1996)
- 1909Barry Goldwater — American politician and military officer (1909–1998)
- 1920Isaac Asimov — American writer and biochemist (1920–1992)
- 1928Daisaku Ikeda — Japanese Buddhist leader (1928–2023)
- 1931Toshiki Kaifu — Japanese politician (1931-2022)
- 1938Lynn Conway — American computer scientist and electrical engineer (1938–2024)
Deaths · 60
- 951Emperor Yin of Later Han — Later Han emperor
- 1184(Julian date)Theodora Komnene, Duchess of Austria — Duchess consort of Austria
- 1470(Julian date)Heinrich Reuß von Plauen — Grand Master of the Teutonic Knights (1400-1470)
- 1512(Julian date)Svante Nilsson — Swedish statesman (1460-1512)
- 1543(Julian date)Francesco Canova da Milano — Italian composer, 1497-1543
- 1557Pontormo — Florentine Mannerist painter
- 1647Zhang Xianzhong — Chinese rebel leader (1606-1647)
- 1726Domenico Zipoli — Italian composer, organist and Jesuit missionary
- 1816Louis-Bernard Guyton de Morveau — French chemist and politician (1737-1816)
- 1850Manuel de la Peña y Peña — President of Mexico (1789-1850)
- 1861Frederick William IV of Prussia — King of Prussia (1795–1861)
- 1892George Biddell Airy — English mathematician and astronomer (*1801 – †1892)
- 1904James Longstreet — Confederate Army general (1821–1904)
- 1913Léon Teisserenc de Bort — French climatologist (1855–1913)
- 1915Karl Goldmark — Hungarian-born Viennese composer (1830–1915)
- 1917Léon Flameng — French racing cyclist
- 1924Sabine Baring-Gould — English hagiographer, antiquarian, novelist, eclectic scholar, folk song collector (1834-1924)
- 1939
- 1953Guccio Gucci — Italian businessman and fashion designer, founder of Gucci (1881–1953)
- 1963Dick Powell — American actor (1904-1963)
- 1963Jack Carson — Canadian-born American-based film actor
- 1968Cuno Hoffmeister — German astronomer (1892–1968)
- 1974Tex Ritter — American country musician (1905–1974)
- 1977Erroll Garner — American jazz pianist and composer (1921–1977)
- 1986Una Merkel — American actress (1903–1986)
Dates verified against Wikidata (CC0). Titles and descriptions come from Wikidata.