The 2nd day of the year

Born on 2 January

Every 2 January birthday from 1920 to 2026 was Capricorn, in every time zone.

Star sign
CapricornEarth, cardinal, ruled by Saturn.
Birthstone
GarnetThe same as on the 1912 list.
Birth flower
Carnation, SnowdropUsually taken today to mean devotion and hope.
Most common weekdays
Friday and Monday16 times each between 1920 and 2026.
Where the sun stands on 2 January. The marked arc is every position it has held on 2 January, midnight to midnight UTC, in any year since 1920.

Your year

Without JavaScript, the pages for each birth year give the generation and Chinese animal for a birth on 2 January in any year.

Which weekday 2 January falls on

Across the 107 years from 1920 to 2026, 2 January falls on every day of the week: Friday 16, Monday 16, Sunday 15, Tuesday 15, Wednesday 15, Saturday 15, Thursday 15.

1991Wed
1992Thu
1993Sat
1994Sun
1995Mon
1996Tue
1997Thu
1998Fri
1999Sat
2000Sun
2001Tue
2002Wed
2003Thu
2004Fri
2005Sun
2006Mon
2007Tue
2008Wed
2009Fri
2010Sat
2011Sun
2012Mon
2013Wed
2014Thu
2015Fri
2016Sat
2017Mon
2018Tue
2019Wed
2020Thu
2021Sat
2022Sun
2023Mon
2024Tue
2025Thu
2026Fri

Showing 2 January in the 36 most recent years. Every weekday →

How common a birthday 2 January is

In England and Wales, from 1995 to 2014, an average of 1,712 babies were born on 2 January in each year of the twenty, making it the 359th most common of the 366 dates, where 26 September came first with 1,974 and 26 December last with 1,359.

Office for National Statistics, How popular is your birthday? Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. What a ranking like this can and cannot say →

Born on 2 January

18 people born on 2 January, from English Wikipedia's list of births on this day, chosen and ordered by how many Wikipedia and other Wikimedia projects have a page about them.
NameYearsKnown for
Thérèse of Lisieux1873–1897French Discalced Carmelite nun, Doctor of the Church
Rudolf Clausius1822–1888German mathematical physicist and professor
Mehmed IV1642–169319th Sultan of the Ottoman Empire (1648–1687)
Mily Balakirev1837–1910Russian composer, pianist, and conductor
Cuba Gooding Jr.1968–American actor
Osman III1699–1757Sultan of the Ottoman Empire from 1754 to 1757
Maxi Rodríguez1981–Argentine association football player
Dziga Vertov1896–1954Soviet documentary filmmaker
Kate Bosworth1983–American actress
Toshiki Kaifu1931–2022Japanese politician
Barry Goldwater1909–1998American politician and military officer
Tia Carrere1967–American actress
Paz Vega1976–Spanish actress
Kemi Badenoch1980–British politician and Leader of the Opposition to the British Government (2024–present) and Leader of the Conservative Party since 2024
Ernst Barlach1870–1938German expressionist sculptor, printmaker and writer
Loïc Rémy1987–French footballer
Carlos Soler1997–Spanish association football player
Piero di Cosimo1462–1522Italian painter

Died on 2 January

12 people who died on 2 January, chosen and ordered the same way from Wikipedia's list of deaths on this day.
NameYearsKnown for
Frederick William IV1795–1861King of Prussia
Siad Barre1919–1995Head of State of Somalia
Nimr al-Nimr1959–2016Saudi Shia Sheikh in al-Awamiyah in Saudi Arabia's Eastern Province
George Biddell Airy1801–1892English mathematician and astronomer
Pontormo1494–1557Florentine Mannerist painter
Pete Postlethwaite1946–2011English character actor
Bob Einstein1942–2019American comedian and actor
John Berger1926–2017British painter, writer and art critic
Ágnes Keleti1921–2025Hungarian-Israeli artistic gymnast
Roman Dmowski1864–1939Polish politician
Dick Powell1904–1963American actor
James Longstreet1821–1904Confederate Army general

Names are the titles of the English Wikipedia articles; years and the short descriptions are from Wikidata, which publishes under CC0, checked and corrected by hand where they needed it, and nothing is said about anybody beyond that. Ask for a removal.

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Every date in January