1117: A chronicler in the principality of Liège recorded the great earthquake of Verona. This was one of the largest earthquakes in medieval Europe.


1920: Armand Pien, RMI meteorologist, planetarium director and well-known weatherman, was born on 2 January 1920.

1996: First Light of EIT. The EIT telescope onboard SOHO took its very first solar image at 19:12. The image shows 1 quadrant of the FOV in the 17nm bandpass.