On this day in conspiracies

In the early evening, the comedienne Mabel Normand visits Taylor at his Alvarado Court bungalow to collect some books; he walks her to her car at around a quarter to eight. Sometime after she leaves, Taylor is shot once in the back inside the bungalow.

In a post on the Art Bell forums, Titor predicts a US civil war beginning around 2004 amid unrest over that year's presidential election, worsening into full conflict by 2008, and warns of a catastrophic nuclear war in 2015 that would devastate American cities. He also urges readers to learn about mad cow disease.

Civilians and local news in Billings, Montana photograph the balloon overhead, forcing the story into the open. The Pentagon publicly acknowledges it is tracking a high-altitude surveillance balloon on 2 February.

The Department of Energy issues a proposed rule setting energy-efficiency standards for new cooking products. DOE's own analysis notes many current gas models would not meet the proposed levels; the department stresses the rule would apply only to newly manufactured stoves, not existing ones, and would not take effect until 2027.

U.S. District Judge Jesse Furman sentences Schulte to 40 years in prison. The Justice Department describes his theft as the largest data breach in CIA history and one of the largest unauthorized disclosures of classified information the United States has ever seen.

TechCrunch publishes “AI layoffs or AI-washing?”, crystallizing the skeptical reading and noting that AI was the stated reason for more than 50,000 layoffs in 2025 while genuine, verified AI replacement of those workers was far harder to document.