Wikipedia:Selected anniversaries/January 2
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This is a list of selected January 2 anniversaries that appears on the "On this day" section of the Main Page. To suggest a new item, in most cases you can be bold and edit this page. Please read the selected anniversaries guidelines before making your edit. However, if your addition may be controversial, or on a day that is or soon will be on the Main Page, please post your suggestion on the talk page instead.
To report an error when this appears on the Main Page, see Main Page errors.
- 366 – The Alamanni, an alliance of west Germanic tribes, crossed the frozen Rhine in large numbers to invade the Roman Empire.
- 533 – Mercurius became Pope John II, the first pope to adopt a regnal name upon elevation to the papacy.
- 1492 – The Reconquista: The Catholic Monarchs, Queen Isabella I of Castile and King Ferdinand II of Aragon, expelled Abu 'abd-Allah Muhammad XII of Granada, the last of the Moorish rulers, from the Iberian Peninsula.
- 1942 – In the largest espionage case in United States history, 33 members of a German spy ring led by former South African Boer soldier and adventurer Fritz Joubert Duquesne (pictured) were convicted by the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
- 1959 – The Soviet spacecraft Luna 1 (illustrated by model), the first spacecraft to reach the vicinity of the Moon, was launched by the Vostok rocket from the Baikonur Cosmodrome near Tyuratam, Kazakh SSR.
