The passenger ferry MV Rabaul Queen capsized and sank in rough conditions in the Solomon Sea, resulting in at least 88 deaths.
2 February 960
A Saturday in history
Weekday
Saturday
Season
Winter (N. Hemisphere)
Century
10th century
Records
544
- 2012
2009Omid, Iran's first domestically made satellite, was launched from Semnan Space Center.
- 2007
Following a Derby di Sicilia match in Catania, football violence caused the death of police officer Filippo Raciti, leading to new safety regulations at Italian sporting events.
2004Swiss tennis player Roger Federer became the top-ranked men's singles player, a position he held for a record 237 consecutive weeks.
1974The F-16 Fighting Falcon (pictured), the most numerous fixed-wing aircraft currently in military service, made its first flight.
1972The Troubles: Protestors burned the British Embassy in Ireland following the massacre of 14 civilians in Derry by British forces.
- 1963
Cold War in Asia: 113 alleged communists were arrested and detained without trial by Singapore's security agencies.
1942The first act of the Norwegian resistance movement took place with the bombing of Oslo East Station by the Osvald Group to protest the inauguration of Vidkun Quisling.
1934The Export–Import Bank of the United States, the country's official export credit agency, was established.
1913New York City's Grand Central Terminal, the world's largest train station by number of platforms, opened immediately after midnight.
1848Mexican–American War: During the American occupation of Mexico City, diplomats signed the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, which ended the war and had Mexico cede 1.36 million square kilometres (530,000 sq mi) of territory and the United States pay US$15 million.
1725J. S. Bach led the first performance of his chorale cantata Mit Fried und Freud ich fahr dahin, BWV 125, based on Luther's paraphrase of the Nunc dimittis.
1709Scottish sailor Alexander Selkirk was rescued by English captain Woodes Rogers and his crew after spending four years as a castaway on an uninhabited island in the Pacific, providing the inspiration for Daniel Defoe's novel Robinson Crusoe.
1659Jan van Riebeeck, the founder of Cape Town, produced the first bottle of South African wine.
1594Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina dies at the age of 68.
- 1438
Nine leaders of the Transylvanian peasant revolt were executed in Torda.
1207Terra Mariana, comprising present-day Estonia and Latvia, was established as a principality of the Holy Roman Empire.
- 1033
An assembly at the Abbey of Payerne crowned Conrad II (pictured) king of Burgundy.
506Alaric II, King of the Visigoths, promulgated a collection of Roman law known as the Breviary of Alaric (excerpt pictured).
Photo archive
24 historic images from this day — tap to open the gallery.
What was life like?
Prices, jobs, food, music and everyday routine — the world as it felt to live in.
Sources & fact check
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