📜 This Day in History

February 2

• 506Alaric II, King of the Visigoths, promulgated a collection of Roman law known as the Breviary of Alaric.
• 1594Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina dies at the age of 68.
• 1725J. S. Bach led the first performance of his chorale cantata Mit Fried und Freud ich fahr dahin, BWV 125, based on Luther's paraphrase of the Nunc dimittis.
• 1942The 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.
• 1974The F-16 Fighting Falcon, the most numerous fixed-wing aircraft currently in military service, made its first flight.
• 2012The passenger ferry MV Rabaul Queen capsized and sank in rough conditions in the Solomon Sea, resulting in at least 88 deaths.

Born on this day

• 1882James Joyce, Irish novelist, short story writer, and poet (died 1941)
• 1905Ayn Rand, Russian-born American novelist and philosopher (died 1982)
• 1926Valéry Giscard d'Estaing, French academic and politician, 20th President of France (died 2020)
• 1977Shakira, Colombian singer-songwriter, producer, and actress