2 February in history
8 events that happened on 2 February, from 506 to 2007.
✦ Anniversary of the day
1536 CE 490 years ago
Pedro de Mendoza founds Buenos Aires
The Spanish expedition founded a settlement on the Río de la Plata. Hunger and attacks forced its abandonment in 1541, and Juan de Garay refounded Buenos Aires in 1580.
1653 CE 373 years ago
New Amsterdam receives municipal government
The Dutch settlement on Manhattan was granted its own city government under Director-General Peter Stuyvesant. The English seized it in 1664 and renamed it New York.
1848 CE 178 years ago
Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo ends the Mexican-American War
Mexico ceded about half its territory, including California, Nevada, Utah and most of Arizona and New Mexico, to the United States for 15 million dollars, and recognised Texas as American.
1943 CE 83 years ago
German Sixth Army's last units surrender at Stalingrad
The final German forces in Stalingrad's northern pocket laid down their arms. Some 91,000 were taken prisoner, and the defeat marked a turning point of the war on the Eastern Front.
1990 CE 36 years ago
F. W. de Klerk lifts the ban on the ANC
Opening parliament in Cape Town, South Africa's President legalised the African National Congress and other banned groups and announced Nelson Mandela's release. Negotiations to end apartheid followed.
2007 CE 19 years ago
IPCC finds global warming is 'very likely' caused by humans
Released in Paris, the summary of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change's fourth assessment called warming 'unequivocal' and very likely due to human emissions. The panel shared that year's Nobel Peace Prize.
