This Day in History – February 2
Today is the 33rd day of 2013. There are 332 days left in the year.
Today’s Highlight
1999: Hugo Chavez takes office as Venezuela’s president, seven years after he tried to overthrow the government in a military coup.
Other Events
1535: The Argentine city of Buenos Aires is founded by Pedro de Mendoza of Spain.
1653: New Amsterdam — now New York City — with a population of 800, gains a city charter from the Dutch.
1872: Holland sells trading posts on African Gold Coast to Britain.
1919: A monarchy is proclaimed in Portugal.
1971: Idi Amin assumes power in Uganda following a coup that ousted President Milton Obote.
1979: After 14 years in exile, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini returns from Paris and becomes the de facto leader of Iran.
1980: Reports surface that the FBI had conducted a sting operation targeting members of US Congress using phony Arab businessmen in what became known as ‘Abscam’, a codename protested by Arab-Americans.
1990: South African President FW de Klerk lifts the ban on the African National Congress and promises to release political prisoner Nelson Mandela.
1995: The leaders of Israel, Jordan, the PLO and Egypt sit down together for the first time in Cairo in an attempt to revive Israel’s troubled accord with Palestinians.
2009: Moammar Gadhafi of Libya is elected as leader of the African Union.
2011: A massive cyclone strikes northeastern Australia, tearing off roofs, toppling trees and cutting electricity to thousands — the most powerful storm to hit the area in nearly a century.
2012: NASA, which relies solely on Russia to take US crews to the space station, says it still has confidence in the quality of Russia’s manned rockets, despite an embarrassing series of glitches and failures in Moscow’s space programme.
Today’s Birthdays
Eleanor (Nell) Gwyn, English actress (1651-1687); James Joyce, Irish author (1882-1941); Jussi Bjoerling, Swedish tenor (1911-1960); Abba Eban, Israeli ambassador, foreign minister and author (1915-2002); Valery Giscard d’Estaing, former French president (1926-); Graham Nash, British pop singer (1942-); Farrah Fawcett, US actress/model (1947-2009); Christie Brinkley, U.S. model (1954-); Shakira, Latin singer (1977-).
— AP
