This Day In European History

2nd February

Events
962: Holy Roman Emperor Otto I is crowned.
1141 Battle of Lincoln; King Stephen of England is beaten and captured.
1461: Battle of Mortimer's Cross; Yorkists defeat the Lancastrians during England's War of the Roses.
1602 First documented performance of Shakepeare's Twelfth Night.
1701: Philippe d'Anjou marches into Madrid as King Philip V of Spain; sometimes cited as the start of The War of the Spanish Succession.
1702: The Surprise of Cremona; an Austrian force under Prince Eugene of Savoy captures Cremona without a fight because the enemy commander is in bed with a local lady, from whom he is taken prisoner.
1861: King Wilhelm I of Prussia succeeds his brother to the throne.
1943: The Battle of Stalingrad ends as German troops surrender.

Births
1208: King James I of Aragon.
1649: Pope Benedict XIII.
1650: Nell Gwynne, mistress of Charles II.
1711: Wenzel von Kaunitz, Austrian chancellor.
1717: Ernst Gideon Laudon, Austrian Field Marshal.
1882: James Joyce, Irish author.

Deaths
1529: Baldassare Castiglione, Italian courtier.
1594: Giovanni Pierlugi da Palestrina, Italian composer.
1660: Gaston duc d'Orleans, French prince.

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