962 Otto I invades Italy and is crowned Holy Roman Emperor.
1032 Conrad II claims the throne of France.
1494 Columbus begins the practice of using Indians as slaves.
1571 All eight members of a Jesuit mission in Virginia are murdered by Indians who pretended to be their friends.
1626 Charles I is crowned King of England. Fierce internal struggles between the monarchy and Parliament characterized 17th century English politics.
1848 The Treaty of Guadeloupe Hidalgo formally ends the Mexican War.
1865 Confederate raider William Quantrill and his bushwackers rob citizens, burn a railroad depot and steal horses from Midway, Kentucky.
1870 The press agencies Havas, Reuter and Wolff sign an agreement whereby between them they can cover the whole world.
1876 The National Baseball League is founded with eight teams.
1900 Six cities, Boston, Detroit, Milwaukee, Baltimore, Chicago and St. Louis agree to form baseball's American League.
1901 Mexican government troops are badly beaten by Yaqui Indians.
1916 U.S. Senate votes independence for Philippines, effective in 1921.
1921 Airmail service opens between New York and San Francisco. Airmail's First Day.
1934 Alfred Rosenberg is made philosophical chief of the Nazi Party.
1939 Hungary breaks relations with the Soviet Union.
1943 Last of the German strongholds at Stalingrad surrender to the Red Army.
1944 The Germans stop an Allied attack at Anzio, Italy.
1945 Some 1,200 Royal Air Force planes blast Wiesbaden and Karlsruhe.
1948 The United States and Italy sign a pact of friendship, commerce and navigation.
1959 Arlington and Norfolk, Va., peacefully desegregate public schools.
1960 The U.S. Senate approves 23rd Amendment calling for a ban on the poll tax.
1972 The Winter Olympics begin in Sapporo, Japan.
1978 U.S. Jewish leaders bar a meeting with Egypt's Anwar Sadat.
1987 Largest steel strike in American history, in progress since August, ends.
Born on February 2
1754 Charles Maurice de Tallyrand-Perigord, minister of foreign affairs for Napoleon I, who represented France brilliantly at the Congress of Vienna.
1882 James Joyce, Irish novelist and poet (Ulysses, Portrait of a Young Man).
1890 Charles Correl, radio performer.
1895 George Halas, National Football League co-founder.