February 2

Events

• 1536 - Spaniard Pedro de Mendoza founds Buenos Aires, Argentina.
• 1653 - New Amsterdam (later renamed The City of New York) is incorporated.
• 1790 - The U.S. Supreme Court convenes for the first time.
• 1848 - Mexican-American War: The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo is signed, ending the war.
• 1848 - California Gold Rush: The first ship with Chinese emigrants seeking fortune in California's gold country arrives in San Francisco, California.
• 1878 - Greece declares war on Turkey.
• 1943 - World War II: The last German forces surrender to the Soviets after the Battle of Stalingrad.
• 1980 - Reports surface that FBI personnel were targeting members of the U.S. Congress in the Abscam sting operation.
• 1989 - Soviet war in Afghanistan: The last Soviet Union armored column leaves Kabul, ending nine years of military occupation.

Births

• 1803 - Albert Sidney Johnston, American Confederate general (d. 1862)
• 1882 - James Joyce, Irish author (d. 1941)
• 1887 - Ernst Hanfstaengl, close friend and later betrayer of Hitler (d. 1975)
• 1905 - Ayn Rand, Russian-Jewish author and philosopher (d. 1982)

Deaths

• 1909 - Adolf Stoecker, antisemitic politician and founder of Germany's Christian Social Workers Party. (b. 1835)
• 1970 - Bertrand Russell, 3rd Earl Russell, English mathematician, writer and philosopher, Nobel laureate (b. 1872)
• 2005 - Max Schmeling, German boxer (b. 1905)
• 2010 - Eustace Mullins, American nationalist and author (b. 1923)