"THE PASSING OF TIME"

You wouldn't know it, what with all the groundhog flim-flam going on today, but February 2nd is no slouch:

1536 - The Argentine city of Buenos Aires was founded by Pedro de Mendoza of Spain.

1653 - New Amsterdam, now known as New York City, was incorporated.

1848 - The Mexican War was ended with the signing of the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo. The treaty turned over portions of land to the US including Texas, New Mexico, Nevada, Utah, Arizon, California and parts of Colorado and Wyoming.

1848 - The first shipload of Chinese emigrants arrived in San Francisco.

1863 - Samuel Langhorne Clemens used the pseudonym Mark Twain for the first time.

1876 - The National League of Professional Baseball Clubs was formed in New York.

1878 - Greece declared war on Turkey.

1892 - William Painter patented the crown-cork bottle cap. (All hail that guy)

1893 - The Edison Studio in West Orange, NJ made history when they filmed the first motion picture close-up. The studio was owned and operated by Thomas Edison.

1897 - The PA state capitol in Harrisburg was destroyed by fire.

1900 - Six US cities (Boston, Detroit, Milwaukee, Baltimore, Chicago, and St. Louis) formed baseball's American League.

1913 - Grand Central Terminal officially opened at 12:01 a.m.

1935 - Leonard Keeler conducted the first test of the polygraph machine, in Portage, WI.

1943 - During World War II, the remainder of Nazi forces from the Battle of Stalingrad surrendered to the Soviets.

1945 - President Roosevelt and British Prime Minister Winston Churchill left for a summit in Yalta with Soviet leader Josef Stalin.

1946 - The first Buck Rogers automatic pistol was made.

1946 - The Mutual Broadcasting System aired "Twenty Questions" for the first time on radio. The show moved to television 3 years later.

1949 - Golfer Ben Hogan was seriously injured in an auto accident in Van Horn, TX.

1950 - "What's My Line" debuted on CBS television.

1962 - The 8th and 9th planets aligned for the first time in 400 years.

1967 - The American Basketball Association was formed by representatives of the NBA.

1971 - Idi Amin assumed power in Uganda after a coup that ousted President Milton Obote.

1990 - South African President F.W. de Klerk lifted a ban on the African National Congress and promised to free Nelson Mandela.

1998 - President Clinton introduced the first balanced budget in 30 years.

2004 - The poison ricin was found in an office of Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist.

I feel like the day should have a name, besides, you know, Groundhog Day.