Wikipedia:Selected anniversaries/February 2

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 * 506 – Alaric II, King of the Visigoths, promulgated a collection of Roman law known as the Breviary of Alaric.
 * 1101 – By descending from a window while his gaolers were getting drunk, Ranulf Flambard, the first recorded prisoner in the Tower of London (pictured), became the first to escape the building.
 * 1438 – Nine leaders of the Transylvanian peasant revolt were executed at Torda.
 * 1659 – Jan van Riebeeck, the founder of Cape Town, produced the first bottle of South African wine (vineyard pictured).
 * 1850 – Ute Wars: Brigham Young announced his decision to go to war against the Timpanogos, who were hostile to the Mormon settlement at Fort Utah.
 * 1913 – New York City's Grand Central Terminal, the world's largest train station by number of platforms, opened immediately after midnight.
 * 1920 – The signing of the Treaty of Tartu ended the Estonian War of Independence, with Soviet Russia agreeing to recognize the country's independence and renounce in perpetuity all rights to its territory.
 * 1942 – The 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.
 * 1943 – World War II: The Soviet Red Army captured 91,000 tired and starving German soldiers, ending the Battle of Stalingrad, one of the bloodiest battles in human history.
 * 1963 – 113 alleged communists were arrested and detained without trial by Singapore's security agencies.
 * 1972 - Protestors burned the British Embassy in Ireland following the massacre of 14 civilians in Derry by British forces.
 * 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.
 * 2009 – Omid, Iran's first domestically made satellite, was successfully launched from Semnan Space Center.
 * 2012 – The passenger ferry MV Rabaul Queen capsized and sank in rough conditions in the Solomon Sea, resulting in at least 88 deaths.
 * Born/died this day: | Piotr Skarga |b|1536| Alix Le Clerc |b|1576| Isaac Titsingh |d|1812| Vincenzo Dimech |d|1831|  José Guadalupe Posada |b|1852| Frederick William Vanderbilt |b|1856|  Alexander Cameron Rutherford |b|1857|  Julia Nava de Ruisánchez |b|1883|  Alfred Delp |d|1945 |  Abraham Iyambo |bd|1961; 2013| Peter Lundgren  |b|1963|  Mary Docherty |d|2000| Abu Salman Shahjahanpuri |d|2021

February 2: Candlemas (Western Christianity); Groundhog Day in Canada and the United States


 * 1709 – Scottish 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.
 * 1934 – The Export–Import Bank of the United States, the country's official export credit agency, was established.
 * 1974 – The F-16 Fighting Falcon (pictured), the most numerous fixed-wing aircraft currently in military service, made its first flight.
 * 2004 – Swiss tennis player Roger Federer became the top-ranked men's singles player, a position he held for a record 237 consecutive weeks.