January 2 in History

Georgia's ratification vote wasn't close. The convention in Augusta approved the Constitution unanimously on January 2, 1788, making Georgia the fourth state to join the new union. Speed mattered. Georgia was the youngest and most vulnerable of the original thirteen colonies, with a population under 83,000 — including roughly 30,000 enslaved people. Creek and Cherokee nations controlled most of the western territory. Spanish Florida sat to the south. Georgia needed a strong federal government the way a small country needs a big ally. The delegates didn't even debate. They signed. Three states had ratified before them — Delaware, Pennsylvania, and New Jersey. But Georgia was the first Southern state to say yes. And unlike the contentious fights in Massachusetts and Virginia that followed, Georgia's decision took less than a day. Protection first. Philosophy later.

A bomb hidden in the inaugural ceremony of a new railway line killed Lalit Narayan Mishra, India's Minister of Railways, at Samastipur, Bihar. He'd been cutting the ribbon. Mishra was one of the most powerful politicians in Indira Gandhi's Congress party. The investigation dragged on for decades. Three men were eventually convicted in 2014 — thirty-nine years after the blast.

On January 2 of the Year of the Four Emperors, the Roman legions stationed in Germania Superior refused to swear their annual oath of loyalty to Emperor Galba. Within days, they proclaimed Vitellius, their regional commander, as emperor instead. Galba was murdered in the Roman Forum two weeks later. Vitellius himself lasted only months before Vespasian's forces dragged him through the streets and killed him.

Washington's army had crossed the Delaware the week before. Now they stood behind Assunpink Creek in Trenton, New Jersey, daring the British to come across. On January 2, 1777, Cornwallis sent three charges at the bridge. All three failed. American artillery tore the redcoats apart at close range. That night, Washington slipped away south and marched to Princeton. Cornwallis woke up to empty campfires. He'd been outfoxed twice in a week.

Lenape and Wyandot warriors attacked a small settlement called Big Bottom on the Muskingum River in the Ohio Country on January 2, 1791. Twelve settlers and two soldiers died. The blockhouse had been left unfinished — one wall was still open. The massacre helped trigger the Northwest Indian War, a conflict that dragged on until 1795 and reshaped American expansion into the Ohio Valley.

French astronomer Edmond Lescarbault claimed he'd spotted a planet crossing the Sun. Urbain Le Verrier — the man who'd predicted Neptune — believed him and announced the discovery of "Vulcan" to the French Academy of Sciences. Astronomers searched for decades. Nobody found it. The orbital irregularities Le Verrier attributed to Vulcan were eventually explained by Einstein's general relativity. The planet never existed.

Three days of fighting along Stones River near Murfreesboro, Tennessee ended on January 2, 1863, when Braxton Bragg's Confederate army retreated. The Union lost nearly 13,000 men. The Confederates lost over 10,000. It was one of the bloodiest battles of the entire war by percentage of casualties. Lincoln later wrote that the Union victory at Stones River gave him the morale boost he needed to issue the Emancipation Proclamation.

Two Latvian anarchists barricaded themselves in a house on Sidney Street in London's East End. Police surrounded the building. Home Secretary Winston Churchill showed up personally to watch the siege unfold. The house caught fire. Churchill ordered the fire brigade to stand back and let it burn. Both men died inside. The incident sparked outrage — a government minister had turned a police matter into a spectacle.

Karel Capek's play R.U.R. premiered in Hradec Kralove on January 2, 1921. It introduced the word "robot" to every language on Earth. Capek's brother Josef coined it from the Czech word robota, meaning forced labor. In the play, artificial workers rebel against their human creators. The premise has been recycled in science fiction ever since — from Asimov to Blade Runner to Westworld.

German bombers hit Cardiff on January 2, 1941, and Llandaff Cathedral took a direct blow. The blast gutted the nave, shattered medieval windows, and collapsed the roof. The cathedral had stood since the twelfth century. Restoration took nearly two decades. Jacob Epstein's aluminum sculpture "Christ in Majesty" was installed during the rebuild — a modern figure presiding over 800-year-old walls.