On This Day in History: January 2

Roman legions in Germania Superior proclaim their commander, Aulus Vitellius, as emperor on January 2, 69 CE in Cologne, following unrest against Emperor Galba, kicking off the tumultuous Year of the Four Emperors. Expand +

Christopher of Bavaria, King of Denmark, Sweden, and Norway, dies suddenly on January 6. 1448  at Helsingborg, Sweden, at the age of 31, leading to the end of his reign and his burial in Roskilde Cathedral, with his widow Queen Dorothea marrying his successor, Christian I.

Granada, the last stronghold of Moorish ruler, Sultan Boabdil (Muhammad XII) in Spain surrenders to the Catholic Monarchs, Ferdinand II and Isabella I; ending the nearly 800-year Moorish rule in Spain.

Vasco da Gama departs from Lisbon on his first voyage to India.

The Council of Trent concludes its meetings, marking the end of the Council's discussions on church reform.

Tsar Ivan IV, known as Ivan the Terrible suppresses a rebellion in Novgorod, Russia, executing thousands. The massacre lasted from January 2 to Feb 12, 1570

American forces led by George Washington, Commander-in-Chief of the Continental Army, held the British at the Battle of the Assunpink Creek in Trenton on January 2, 1777, during the American Revolutionary War and went around them during the night  to attack and defeat the British forces in Princeton on January 3, 1277 (Battle of Princeton)

Georgia ratifies the Articles of Confederation becoming the fourth State of the Union.

Stephen F. Austin receives a grant of land in Texas from Mexico, initiating American colonization.

Richard Wagner's opera Der fliegende Holländer (The Flying Dutchman) premiered on January 2, 1843, at the Königliches Hoftheater Dresden (now the Semperoper), with Wagner himself conducting. launching his significant career and his appointment as co-chapel master in Dresden.

The construction of the Brooklyn Bridge in New York City begins on January 2, 1870 after years of planning. The bridge connecting Manhattan and Brooklyn, opened thirteen years later on May 24, 1883.

John D. Rockefeller's Standard Oil Trust is formed on January 2, 1882, as a business trust agreement that centralized control of numerous oil companies under a board of nine trustees, with Rockefeller as the dominant figure. The structure created a powerful monopoly that managed production, refining, and distribution across the U.S..

Alice Sanger becomes the first female White House staffer. She was appointed by President Benjamin Harrison as a stenographer and clerk, handling correspondence and helping the First Lady, a significant step for women in government employment.

NASA's spacecraft Stardust, flies within 155 miles from the comet P/Wild 2, on January 2, 2004 and collects dust grains and the cometary material. Stardust sealed its collected matter inside a sample reentry capsule, which separated from Stardust and landed in the Utah desert on Jan. 15, 2006. They were later revealed to contain the amino acid glycine, an essential building block of life.  Expand +