Today, January 2

1492 – The truce effecting the surrender of Granada, the last Moor stronghold in Spain, comes into force, completing the 700+ year long Reconquista.

1777 – American forces under the command of George Washington repulse a British counterattack at the Battle of the Assunpink Creek near Trenton, New Jersey.

1788 – Georgia becomes the fourth state to ratify the United States Constitution

1791 – Lenape and Wyandot warriors stage an attack at the Big Bottom settlement along the Muskingum river in modern day southeast Ohio, killing several settlers, marking the beginning of the Northwest Indian War.

1920 – U.S. Attorney General Palmer orders a second series of raids that began in November with another 6000 suspected communists and anarchists being arrested.

1942 – Fritz Joubert Duquesne and his German spy ring, the largest in U.S. history, are convicted of espionage.
Manila is declared an ‘open city’ and surrenders to invading Japanese forces during World War II.

1949 – Luis Muñoz Marín is inaugurated as the first elected Governor of Puerto Rico.

1967 – Ronald Reagan is sworn in as Governor of California.

1974 – President Nixon signs the National U.S. 55mph Speed Limit bill into law.

1975 – President Ford signs The Federal Rules of Evidence bill into law.

2004 – The NASA probe Stardust successfully flies past Comet 81P/Wild 2, collecting samples of comet dust that are returned to Earth.