Today in History....February 2

On this day in …

* 1653, New Amsterdam -- now New York City -- was incorporated

* 1876, the National League of Professional Base Ball Clubs was formed in New York

* 1880, the first electric streetlight was installed in Wabash, Indiana. The city paid the Brush Electric Light Company of Cleveland, Ohio, $100 to install a light on the top of the courthouse. A month later the city commissioned four more lights to be installed. Residents of Wabash became the first Americans to wear their sunglasses at night

* 1887, Groundhog Day, featuring a rodent meteorologist, is celebrated for the first time at Gobbler's Knob in Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania. According to tradition, if a groundhog comes out of its hole on this day and sees its shadow, there will be six more weeks of winter weather; no shadow means an early spring

* 1942, Vidkun Quisling, a collaborator with the German occupiers of Norway, is established as prime minister of a puppet government.

* 1943, the remainder of Nazi forces, ym"sh, from the Battle of Stalingrad surrendered in a major victory for the Soviets in World War II

* 1948, President Truman sent to Congress a 10-point civil rights program calling for measures against lynching, poll taxes and job discrimination

* 1949, United States rejects proposal for conference with Stalin

* 1971, one week after toppling the regime of Ugandan leader Milton Obote, Major General Idi Amin declares himself president of Uganda and chief of the armed forces. Amin, head of the Ugandan army and air force since 1966, seized power while Obote was out of the country