Wednesday 2nd of January 1557

Painter Jacopo Pontormo dies of unknown causes at the age of 63 in Firenze, Toscana, Italy.

Saturday 2nd of January 1892

42-year-old Writer Guy Henri René Albert de Maupassant tries to commit suicide by cutting his throat in Paris, Île-de-France, France.

Thursday 2nd of January 1896

Film director Dziga Vertov known for Man with a Movie Camera is born as David Abelevich Kaufman in Białystok, Województwo Podlaskie, Poland.

Saturday 2nd of January 1904

49-year-old Bigamist and multiple murderer Johann Otto Hoch aka The Bluebeard Murderer marries Mrs Anna Hendrickson as John Jacob Adolf Schmidt in Hammond, Indiana, United States.

Hoch disappeared with $500 of Hendrickson's money on 20 January.

Friday 2nd of January 1920

Science fiction writer and professor of biochemistry Isaac Asimov is born as Isaak Yudovich Ozimov in Petrovichi, Smolensk Oblast, Russia.

Monday 2nd of January 1933

Conceptual artist On Kawara is born in Kariya, Chūbu, Japan.

Saturday 2nd of January 1937

Actor Ross Alexander commits suicide by a shot in the head at the age of 30 in Los Angeles, California, United States.

It has been reported that Alexander used the same gun his wife Aleta Freel shot herself with 13 months earlier when she found out about his homosexuality.

Sunday 2nd of January 1938

Land Art artist Robert Irving Smithson is born in Passaic, New Jersey, United States.

Sunday 2nd of January 1938

Serial killer Ian Brady aka The Moors Murderers (with Myra Hindley) is born as Ian Duncan Stewart in Rottenrow Maternity Hospital, Glasgow, Scotland, United Kingdom.

Friday 2nd of January 1942

Joachim Guschinow is murdered by doctor and serial killer Marcel Petiot aka The Triangular Chamber of Death Murderer in 21 Rue Le Sueur, Paris, XVIe, Île-de-France, France.

Tuesday 2nd of January 1951

33-year-old Carl Mosser, his 29-year-old wife Thelma, 7-year-old Ronald Dean, 5-year-old Gary Carl, 3-year-old Pamela Sue and the family dog are shot dead by 23-year-old Spree killer Billy William Edward Cook aka Billy Boy Cockeyed Cook in Tulsa, Oklahoma, United States.

Cook forced them to drive around at gunpoint for 72 hours in the midwest. Their bodies were dumped in a mine shaft near Joplin, Missouri.

Wednesday 2nd of January 1952

Musician Patrick Miller aka Minimal Man is born in Glendale, California, United States.

Friday 2nd of January 1953

25-year-old Kathleen Maloney is raped and strangled by serial killer John Christie aka The Strangler of 10 Rillington Place in 10 Rillington Place, London, Greater London, United Kingdom.

Saturday 2nd of January 1954

During Italy’s first television-transmission 78-year-old 260th Pope Pius XII warns the Italian families for the dangers of television in family life in Vatican City, Rome, Lazio, Italy.

Sunday 2nd of January 1955

President of Panama José Antonio Remón Cantera is fired upon at a race track by an unknown revolutionary commando with sub-machineguns at the age of 47 in Panama City, Provincia de Panamá, Panama.

Remón died in hospital two hours later. Two other men including one of Remón's bodyguards were also killed in the attack.

Thursday 2nd of January 1958

Multiple murderer Robert Lee Willie aka Dead Man Walking is born in Covington, Louisiana, United States.

Saturday 2nd of January 1960

Cyclist Fausto Angelo Coppi aka Il Campionissimo dies of malaria at the age of 41 in Tortona, Piemonte, Italy.

Tuesday 2nd of January 1968

59-year-old Dentist Philip Blaiberg becomes the second man to have a heart transplant in Groote Schuur Hospital, Cape Town, Cape Province, South Africa.

Blaiberg lived nineteen months with his new heart.

Saturday 2nd of January 1971

66 die in crush in Ibrox Park, Glasgow, Scotland, United Kingdom.

As thousands of spectators were leaving the ground by stairway 13, it appears that someone, possibly a child being carried on his father's shoulders, fell, causing a massive chain-reaction pile-up of people. Over 200 people were injured.

Sunday 2nd of January 1972

17-year-old Timothy Jack McCoy is stabbed to death by serial killer John Wayne Gacy aka The Killer Clown in 8213 West Summerdale Avenue, Chicago, Cook, Illinois, United States.

Gacy picked up McCoy from Chicago's Greyhound bus terminal.

Wednesday 2nd of January 1974

28-year-old Serial killer Jürgen Bartsch aka Der Kirmesmörder marries 24-year-old Gisela Deike in Landeskrankenhaus Eickelborn, Eickelbornstraße, Lippstadt, Nordrhein-Westfalen, Germany.

Tuesday 2nd of January 1979

Start of the trial against 29-year-old Serial killer and cannibal Richard Trenton Chase aka The Vampire of Sacramento in San Jose, California, United States.

Friday 2nd of January 1981

35-year-old Serial killer Peter William Sutcliffe aka The Yorkshire Ripper is arrested with prostitute Olivia Reivers in Light Trades House, Melbourne Avenue, Sheffield, South Yorkshire, United Kingdom.

Friday 2nd of January 1987

23-year-old Deborah Dudley is abducted and held imprisoned by serial killer Gary Heidnik aka The Cellar of Horror Murderer in 3520 North Marshall Street, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States.

Dudley was fatally electrocuted on 18 March 1987 and Heidnik disposed of her body in the New Jersey Pine Barrens.

Thursday 2nd of January 1992

41-year-old Maryann Holloman is strangled and cut to pieces by serial killer Joel Rifkin aka The Long Island Ripper in New York, Manhattan, New York, United States.

Holloman’s body was placed in an oil drum found in Coney Island Creek on 2 July 1992.

Sunday 2nd of January 2000

The Wai Kru before a Muay Thai fight at Ratchadamnoen Stadium in Bangkok, Central Thailand, Thailand.

Tuesday 2nd of January 2007

36-year-old Murderer and cannibal Nicolas Cocaign aka Le Cannibale de Rouen kills his 41-year-old cellmate Thierry Baudry, cut open his chest with a razorblade and ate part of his lung, which he presumed to be his heart in Maison d'Arrêt, Rouen, Haute-Normendie, France.

A third convict, David Lagrue watched the act in stupefied terror and committed suicide in prison in November 2009.