UK, 
US, 
Australia & 
IrelandAt A Glance
2 January 2012 at a glance
- Day of the week
- 2 January 2012 was a Monday.
- Billboard Hot 100 No. 1
- The Billboard Hot 100 No. 1 was “We Found Love” by Rihanna featuring Calvin Harris.
- Top Film of 2012
- The highest-grossing film worldwide released in 2012 was The Avengers.
- Bestselling Novel of 2012
- “Fifty Shades of Grey” by E. L. James was No. 1 on Publishers Weekly's US fiction list for 2012.
- Top-Rated TV Show
- “NCIS” (CBS) was No. 1 in the Nielsen ratings for the 2012–13 season.
- Star sign
- The star sign for 2 January is Capricorn.
- Chinese zodiac
- In the Chinese zodiac, 2 January 2012 fell in the Year of the Rabbit.
- Birthstone
- The birthstone for January is Garnet.
- Moon phase
- The moon phase on 2 January 2012 was Waxing Gibbous.
On this day: 2 January
- 1959 Luna 1, the first spacecraft to reach the vicinity of the Moon and to orbit the Sun, is launched by the Soviet Union.
- 1963 Vietnam War: The Viet Cong wins its first major victory, at the Battle of Ap Bac.
- 1967 Ronald Reagan, past movie actor and future President of the United States, is sworn in as Governor of California.
- 1991 Sharon Pratt Dixon becomes the first African American woman mayor of a major city and first woman Mayor of the District of Columbia.
- 2004 Stardust successfully flies past Comet Wild 2, collecting samples that are returned to Earth.
Famous people born on January 2
- Jim Bakker, American televangelist (1940–2026)
- Kemi Badenoch, English politician (born 1980)
- Dax Shepard, American actor (born 1975)
- Kate Bosworth, American actress (born 1983)
Source: Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0)
Choose your country: the charts, news and leaders change to match.
Events of 2012 in the United States
A selection from Wikipedia's '2012 in the United States'. Not a complete list.
- March 2 – Dr. Seuss' The Lorax is released in theaters.
- March 20 – John Carter records one of the biggest losses in cinema history, forcing Disney to take a $200 million writedown and chairman Rich Ross to resign.
- May 4 – The Avengers, directed by Joss Whedon, is released by Marvel Studios as the sixth film of the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) and the final film in its "Phase One" slate.
Life in the US in 2012
President
Barack Obama
Gas (per gallon)
$3.68
Loaf of Bread
$1.84
Average House
$256,900
Weekly Wage
$757
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