Today in History in 1974 Richard Nixon signs a bill lowering the maximum US speed limit to 55 miles per hour in order to conserve gasoline during an OPEC embargo.

The On This Day In History archives at “Simple English Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia” contains over 200,000 events, birthdays and deaths from 6,000 years of history. Here is a roundup of a few of them:

January 2 is the second day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. There are 363 days remaining until the end of the year (364 in leap years).

EVENTS

366 – Many Alamanni cross the frozen Rhine, invading the Roman Empire.

533 – Mercurius became Pope John II. He was the first pope to use a papal name.

1492 – Reconquista: Granada, the last Moorish stronghold in Spain, surrenders.

1757 – The United Kingdom captures Calcutta, India.

1777 – American Revolutionary War: American forces under command of George Washington hold back a British attack at the Battle of Assunpink Creek near Trenton, New Jersey.

1788 – Georgia becomes the 4th state to ratify the United States Constitution.

1793 – Russia and Prussia partition Poland.

1815 – Lord Byron marries Anna Isabella Milbanke, Seaham, County Durham.

1818 – British Institution of Civil Engineers formed.

1859 – Erastus Beadle publishes The Dime Book of Practical Etiquette.

1860 – The discovery of the planet Vulcan was announced at a meeting of the Académie des Sciences in Paris. People later realized that this planet does not exist.

1863 – American Civil War: The Battle of Stones River, which started on December 31, 1862, ends in a Union victory.

1870 – Construction of the Brooklyn Bridge begins.

1871 – Amadeus I becomes King of Spain.

1872 – Brigham Young is arrested for bigamy (25 wives).

1879 – Fred Spofforth claims the first hat-trick in test cricket. It happens on the Sydney Cricket Ground against England.

1882 – John D. Rockefeller unites his oil holdings into the Standard Oil trust.

1890 – Alice Sanger becomes the first female staffer for the White House.

1893 – Introduction by Webb C. Ball of the General Railroad Timepiece Standards in North America: Railroad chronometers.

1900 – John Hay announces the Open Door Policy to promote trade with China.

1900 – The Chicago Canal opens.

1905 – Russo-Japanese War: The Russian fleet surrenders at Port Arthur, China.

1907 – France officially separates church and state.

1911 – Two people are killed in a gunfight in East London.

1917 – The Royal Bank of Canada takes over Quebec Bank.

1920 – Under A. Mitchell Palmer, United States Attorney General, United States Department of Justice agents launch raids against people with leftist and anarchist views, in 30 cities across 23 US States.

1921 – The Spanish steamship Santa Isabel sinks off the coast of Galicia, killing 213 people. 56 people are rescued.

1921 – The first religious radio broadcast (KDKA AM in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania) .

1921 – The DeYoung Museum opens in Golden Gate Park, San Francisco.

1923 – United States Secretary of the Interior Albert Fall resigns due to the Teapot Dome scandal.

1929 – Canada and the United States agree on a plan to preserve Niagara Falls.

1935 – Bruno Hauptmann goes on trial for the murder of Charles Lindbergh Jr., infant son of aviator Charles Lindbergh.

1941 – World War II: German bombing severely damaged the Llandaff Cathedral, built in 1290 on the bank of the River Taff in Cardiff, Wales.

1941 – The U.S. government announces its Liberty ship program. They plan to build 200 freighters. Over 2,700 ships were built by the end of the war.

1942 – World War II: Manila is captured by Japanese forces.

1942 – The United States Navy opens a blimp base at Lakehurst, New Jersey.

1944 – World War II: US and Australian forces land on Papua New Guinea in an attempt to cut off a Japanese retreat.

1945 – World War II: Nuremberg is severely bombed by the Allies.

1946 – King Zog is unable to resume his rule over Albania after World War II. He abdicates but still claims to be King of Albania.

1949 – Luis Muñoz Marín became the first democratically elected Governor of Puerto Rico.

1955 – Panamanian president José Antonio Remon is assassinated.

1955 – The lost Inca city of Paititi is re–discovered by Hans Ertl.

1957 – San Francisco and Los Angeles stock exchanges merge.

1959 – The Soviet Union launches the Luna 1 spacecraft.

1959 – CBS Radio cancels four soap operas: Backstage Wife, Our Gal Sunday, Road of Life, and This is Nora Drake.

1963 – Vietnam War: The Viet Cong wins its first major victory in the Battle of Ap Bac.

1967 – Ronald Reagan becomes Governor of California.

1968 – Dr. Christiaan Barnard performs the second successful heart transplant.

1971 – 66 die in stairway crush at Rangers v Celtic football match, Glasgow, Scotland.

1974 – Richard Nixon signs a bill lowering the maximum US speed limit to 55 miles per hour in order to conserve gasoline during an OPEC embargo.

1976 – The Gale of January 1976 begins, causing flooding on southern North Sea coasts. 82 people are eventually killed.

1979 – Sid Vicious goes on trial for the murder of Nancy Spungen.

1981 – Peter Sutcliffe, the Yorkshire Ripper, is arrested.

1983 – The musical Annie is ends its first Broadway run after 2,377 shows at the Uris Theatre.

1991 – Sharon Pratt Dixon is sworn in as mayor of Washington, D.C. becoming the first African American woman to lead a city of that size and importance.

1992 – Paraguay becomes a member of the Berne Convention copyright treaty.

1993 – Leaders of the three warring groups in Bosnia meet to discuss peace plans.

1996 – The Akademia Nauk stratovolcano on Russia's Kamchatka Peninsula erupts.

1998 – Russia begins to circulate new rubles to slow inflation and promote confidence.

1999 – A major snowstorm hits the Midwestern United States, causing 14 inches (360 mm) of snow at Milwaukee, Wisconsin and 19 inches (480 mm) at Chicago. In Chicago, temperatures drop to −13 °F (−25 °C), and 68 deaths are reported.

2002 – Levy Mwanawasa becomes the third President of Zambia.

2002 – Eduardo Duhalde becomes interim President of Argentina.

2003 – The spill from the oil tanker Prestige reaches France.

2004 – Stardust successfully flies past Comet Wild 2, collecting samples that it will return to Earth two years later.

2006 – The roof of an ice rink in Bad Reichenhall, Bavaria, collapses, killing 15 people.

2006 – 12 miners are killed in an explosion at a coal mine in Sago, West Virginia.

2016 – Saudi Arabia executes 47 prisoners in one day, including Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr.

2017 – A bomb attack in Baghdad kills at least 35 people.

2018 – A bus plunges off a cliff near Pasamayo, Peru (to the north of Lima), killing at least 48 people.

2024 – 2024 Haneda Airport runway collision happened in Japan.