NOW & THEN
FEBRUARY 2
1424: King James I wed Lady Jane Beaufort, daughter of the Earl of Somerset, at Southwark.
1461: Battle of Mortimer’s Cross, in which Yorkists defeated Lancastrians.
1635: New Amsterdam (now New York City) was incorporated by the Dutch.
1645: Battle of Inverlochy, between Royalists and Covenanters.
1801: Parliament of United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland assembled for the first time.
1836: The first public railway opened in London, from Spa Road to Deptford, on the London & Greenwich Railway.
1852: The first public flushing lavatory for men was opened in Fleet Street, London.
1876: Welsh Football Association was formed.
1880: Frozen meat from Sydney, Australia, was imported to Britain for the first time aboard SS Strathleven.
1896: Socialist Sunday Schools started in Glasgow.
1913: Grand Central Station, New York, the world’s largest railway station, was opened.
1914: Cub Scouts were founded at Robertsbridge, Sussex.
1917: Wartime bread rationing was introduced in Britain.
1919: Monarchy was proclaimed in Portugal.
1923: No2 Savoy Hill on Thames Embankment opened as first permanent HQ of the BBC, next door to Savoy Hotel.
1924: Caliphate was abolished by Turkey’s National Assembly.
1932: Wooden money issued in Washington DC printed on spruce and cedar wood, as an emergency to keep depositors in business after the local bank folded. The wooden dollar is now a lucky talisman.
1932: Disarmament conference was held in Geneva, with 60 countries represented.
1943: German Army surrendered to Russians at Stalingrad.
1972: British Embassy in Dublin burned down by protesters against “Bloody Sunday” killings in Londonderry the previous weekend.
1989: South Africa’s President PW Botha, recovering from stroke, resigned as leader of National Party but indicated he would stay on as head of state.
1989: The wreck of the first British-built submarine was discovered in the Solent, 78 years after she was lost by the Royal Navy.
1990: South African president
FW de Klerk lifted 30-year ban on African National Congress.
1990: Sebastian Coe retired from athletics after failing to take part in 1,500 metres at the Commonwealth Games in Auckland due to a viral infection.
1996: Yarrow Shipbuilders announced 650 job losses at its Clydeside yard.
2004: Swiss tennis player Roger Federer became the No 1 ranked men’s singles player, a position he would hold for a record 237 weeks.
2009: Heavy snow fell across large parts of the UK, disrupting travel and closing thousands of schools. South-east England suffered the worst snow it has seen for 18 years, causing the closure of Heathrow’s runways.
2020: A patient in Tayside became the first person in Scotland confirmed as suffering from coronavirus.