Historical Events on February 3

Publish date: 2024-09-25

February 3 Calendar

1377 Mass execution of population (between 2,500 and 5,000) of Cesena, Italy, by Breton troops of Giovanni Acuto under the command of Robert, Cardinal of Geneva, acting as the legate of Pope Gregory XI

First Europeans Land in South Africa

1488 Bartolomeu Dias and his crew are the first Europeans to land on South African soil at Mossel Bay (east of modern Cape Town)

1509 The Battle of Diu, naval battle at port of Diu, India between Portugal and the Ottoman Empire, establishes Portuguese trading control

Henry IV Escapes

1576 Henry of Navarre (future Henry IV) escapes from Paris

1591 German monarchy forms Protestant Union of Torgau

"The Triumph of Peace"

1634 Most elaborate masque of the Carolinian age - "The Triumph of Peace" held at Whitehall Palace, London, in front of King Charles I, written by James Shirley with sets by Inigo Jones

1653 Cardinal Mazarin returns to Paris from exile
1660 General George Monck's army reaches London
1740 Charles de Bourbon, King of Naples, invites Jews to return to Sicily
1743 Philadelphia establishes a "pesthouse" to quarantine immigrants
1752 Dutch States-General forbids export of windmills
1781 Dutch West Indies island of St Eustatia taken by British
1783 Spain recognizes US independence
1807 A British military force, under Brigadier-General Sir Samuel Auchmuty captures the city of Montevideo in the Battle of Montevideo, then part of the Spanish Empire now capital of Uruguay (Napoleonic Wars)
1809 Territory of Illinois organizes (including present-day Wisconsin)
1815 World's first commercial cheese factory established, in Switzerland
1825 Dutch North Sea coast floods
1830 The sovereignty of Greece confirmed in a London Protocol
1834 Wake Forest University is established in North Carolina
1836 Whig Party holds its 1st national convention (Albany NY)

1855 Wisconsin Supreme Coutt declares US Fugitive Slave Law unconstitutional
1857 Early ice hockey game played between teams from Swavesey and Over on Mare Fen, England [1]
1860 Thomas Clemson takes office as 1st US superintendent of agriculture

Mark Twain

1863 Samuel Clemens first uses the pen name Mark Twain in a Virginia City newspaper, the "Territorial Enterprise"

1864 Sherman's march through Mississippi
1865 Hampton Roads Peace Conference, Lincoln & Stephens reach an impasse
1867 Prince Mutsuhito, 14, becomes Emperor Meiji of Japan (1867-1912)
1869 Booth Theater at 23rd & 6th opens in NYC (Romeo & Juliet)
1870 US state of Iowa ratifies the 15th Amendment to the United States Constitution allowing suffrage for all races and colors
1876 Albert Spalding invests $800 to start sporting goods company, manufacturing first official baseball, tennis ball, basketball, golf ball and football

Jumbo the Elephant

1882 Circus owner P. T. Barnum buys his world-famous elephant Jumbo

1887 To avoid disputed national elections, the US Congress creates Electoral Count Act
1892 Russia closes down the Volozhin Yeshiva, a Lithuanian talmudical college
1894 1st US steel sailing vessel, Dirigo, launched at Bath, Maine
1895 Wilhelm Mauseth skates world record 500 m (46.8 secs)
1900 Gubernatorial candidate William Goebel is assassinated in Frankfort, Kentucky
1900 Rival forces fight for control of the Union Park ball grounds in Baltimore
1901 Dutch troops under Gen Van Heutsz conquer Batu Ilië on Sumatra
1903 Frederick Lugard occupies Kano, West Africa
1907 Josek Suk's "Asreal Symphony", dedicated to his late wife and father-in-law Antonin Dvořák, premieres at the Prague National Theatre, conducted by Karel Kovařovic
1908 Foundation of Panathinaikos in Athens, Greece.
1908 Supreme Court rules a union boycott violates Sherman Antitrust Act
1913 16th Amendment to the US Constitution, federal income tax, ratified
1913 Golden and Cawthorne's musical "Sunshine Girl" premieres in New York City
1915 Turkish & German army reach Suez Canal
1916 Canada's original Parliament buildings in Ottawa burn down
1916 Tristan Tzara publishes the Dada manifesto in Zurich, Switzerland

Sinking of USS Housatonic

1917 US ocean liner Housatonic is sunk by a German submarine, on the same day that US President Woodrow Wilson breaks off diplomatic relations with Germany

1918 Twin Peaks Tunnel for streetcars begins service in San Francisco, at 11,920 feet one of world's longest
1919 Herbert and Blossom's musical "Velvet Lady" premieres in New York City
1919 Socialist conference convenes (Berne, Switzerland)
1919 The Bolshevik army is defeated in a series of clashes with the White Russians, who are fighting to reclaim the government after the 1917 revolution
1923 Soviet Commisision of Commasars (Sovnarkom) approves plans for expanding the Red Air Fleet mail service to include passenger service, seen as the country's start of civil aviation
1923 Soviet Council of People's Commissars (Sovnarkom) approves plans for expanding the Red Air Fleet mail service to include passenger service, seen as the country's start of civil aviation
1923 The Alpha Zeta chapter of Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia founded at Pennsylvania State University.
1924 Alexei Ryko elected as President of People's commission (succeeds Lenin)

1924 Canada beats United States, 6-1 to retain the Olympic ice hockey gold medal (won at 1920 Summer Games) at the Chamonix Games; Canadian LW Harry Watson top scores with 46 points

1924 Switzerland claims the inaugural Olympic bobsleigh gold medal at the Chamonix Games, ahead of Great Britain and Belgium
1927 Uprising against regime of general Carmona in Portugal

Discovery of Homo Erectus

1928 Paleoanthropologist Davidson Black reports his findings on the ancient human fossils found at Zhoukoudian, China in the journal Nature and declares them to be a new species he names 'Sinanthropus pekinensis' (now known as 'Homo erectus')

1929 Revolutionary Socialist Party forms in Amsterdam
1930 The Indochinese Communist Party of Vietnam is established

"Apex of Moronia"

1931 Arkansas legislature passes motion to pray for soul of journalist H. L. Mencken, after he calls the state the "apex of moronia"

1931 New Zealand's worst natural disaster, the Hawke's Bay earthquake, kills 256 and injures thousands, devastating Napier and the Hawke's Bay region

"Shanghai Express"

1932 "Shanghai Express" directed by Josef von Sternberg and starring Marlene Dietrich, Clive Brook and Anna Mae Wong premieres in Los Angeles

1933 1st interstate legislative conference in US opens, Washington, D.C.

Arsonist to Berlin

1933 Dutch Communist Marinus van der Lubbe departs for Berlin (later arrested, convicted and executed for supposedly setting fire to the German Reichstag)

Goering Bans "Vorwarts"

1933 German Minister Hermann Goering bans social-democratic newspaper "Vorwarts"

Bradman Scores 212

1937 Don Bradman scores 212 (in 441 minutes!) in 5th cricket test v England

1938 Paul Osborn's "On Borrowed Time" premieres in NYC
1941 US Supreme Court upheld Federal Wage & Hour law, sets minimum wages & maximum hours
1942 1st Japanese air raid on Java
1942 Baseball owners agree to permit each club up to 14 night games in 1942
1943 "The Four Chaplains" drown after giving up their life jackets to others as the US Army transport ship Dorchester sinks in the North Atlantic [1]
1944 World War II: United States troops capture the Marshall Islands.
1945 Almost 1,000 Flying Fortresses drop 3,000 tons of bombs on Berlin
1945 Walt Disney's "3 Caballeros" released

1945 WWII: British Prime Minister Winston Churchill arrives in Yalta, Crimea, Soviet Union for the "Big Three" Yalta Conference

1947 -81°F (-63°C), Snag Yukon (North American record)
1947 1st black reporter in US Congressional press gallery (Percival Prattis)
1947 Bradman bowled by Alec Bedser for a duck in 4th Test Cricket

Fuchs Arrested for Spying

1950 Nuclear physicist Klaus Fuchs arrested on spying charges

1951 Dick Button wins US skating title for 6th time
1951 Largest purse to date in horse racing, $144,323, won by Great Circle

1953 J Fred Muggs, a chimpanzee, becomes a regular on NBC's Today Show
1954 Jeen van den Berg wins Dutch Eleven Cities Skating race (7:32)
1956 Autherine Lucy admitted to University of Alabama, and suspended for her own safety a few days later after a riot by protesters on campus
1956 Toni Sailer of Austria wins the downhill at the Cortina d'Ampezzo Winter Olympics; becomes first athlete to sweep all 3 alpine skiing events in a single Olympics
1958 Royal Teens' "Short Shorts" enters Top 40 chart & peaks at #3

The Day the Music Died

1959 "The Day the Music Died" plane crash kills musicians Buddy Holly, Richie Valens, J. P. Richardson (aka The Big Bopper), and the pilot. near Clear Lake, Iowa

1959 American Airlines Electra crashes in NY's East River, killing 65

Macmillan's "Winds of Change" Speech

1960 British Prime Minister Harold Macmillan makes his famous "wind of change" speech in Africa, against the apartheid regime, angering South African politicians

1961 6th largest snowfall in NYC history (17.4 inches or 44.2cm)
1962 John Uelses pole vaults record 489 cm

Trade Banned with Cuba

1962 US President John F. Kennedy bans all trade with Cuba except for food & drugs

1964 "Meet the Beatles" album goes Gold
1964 Black & Puerto Rican students boycott NYC public schools
1964 French sisters Marielle Goitschel (gold) and Christine Goitschel (silver) repeat (in reverse order) their top-2 finish in the slalom 2 days earlier, in the giant slalom at the Innsbruck Winter Olympics
1965 105 USAF cadets resigned for cheating in exams
1965 Braves offer Milwaukee $500,000 to terminate their lease a year earlier, the proposal is turned down
1965 Geraldine McCullough wins Widener Gold Medal for Sculpture
1965 Orbiting Solar Observatory 2 launches into Earth orbit (552/636 km)
1966 1st operational weather satellite, ESSA-1 launched US
1966 First soft landing on the Moon, by the Soviet spacecraft Luna 9

"Purple Haze"

1967 Jimi Hendrix adds vocals and overdubs for "Purple Haze" at Olympic Studios in London; basic track had been recorded by the band in January

1967 Ronald Ryan, the last person to be executed in Australia, is hanged in Pentridge Prison, Melbourne
1969 Ibuprofen launched in the UK under brand name Brufen as prescription medicine - now world's most popular anti-inflammatory painkiller [1]

Stormont Dissolved

1969 Northern Ireland Prime Minister Terence O'Neill announces the dissolution of the Stormont parliament and the holding of new elections

1971 A series of house searches by the British Army in Catholic areas of Belfast, resulting in serious rioting and gun battles
1971 KTSC TV channel 8 in Pueblo-Colorado Spgs, CO (PBS) 1st broadcast
1971 NYPD officer Frank Serpico is shot during a drug bust while his fellow officers stood outside and failed to call for assistance
1971 OPEC mandates "total embargo" against any company that rejects 55 percent tax rate
1972 US performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site
1972 XI Winter Olympic Games opens in Sapporo, Japan (1st in Asia)
1973 Dr. Hook & the Medicine Show's single "The Cover of the 'Rolling Stone'", written by Shel Silverstein, enters the top 40 and peaks at #6

1975 Billy Herman, Earl Averill, & Bucky Harris elected to Baseball Hall of Fame

1977 Martin Dihigo and John "Pop" Lloyd are elected to Baseball Hall of Fame
1978 Australia beat India 3-2 on 6th day of final test, after India are all out for 445 chasing 493 to win

Al-Sadat and Carter Meeting

1978 Egyptian President Anwar al-Sadat and US President Jimmy Carter discuss the Middle East peace process in Washington, D.C.

1979 "YMCA" by Village People peaks at #2 on pop singles chart

Carew to California

1979 Minnesota Twins trade Rod Carew to California for 4 players

Holmes vs. Holmes

1980 Larry Holmes TKOs Lorenzo Holmes in 6 for heavyweight boxing title

1980 Mohammed Ali tours Africa as President Carter's envoy
1981 Gro Harlem Brundtland is elected as the first female Prime Minister of Norway
1982 Columbia Shuttle moves to Vehicle Assembly Building at Kennedy Space Center (Florida) for mating for STS-3 mission
1982 Greatest helicopter lift, 56,888 kg, Podmoscovnoe, USSR
1982 John Sharples of England finishes 371 hours of disco dancing
1982 Porn star John Holmes ordered to stand trial for murder
1984 10th NASA Space Shuttle Mission (41B): Challenger 4 launches
1986 OPEC fails to agree upon a petroleum production agreement after a 2 day meeting in Vienna

Pixar Animation

1986 Pixar Animation Studios (Toy Story; The Incredibles) headed by Edwin Catmull and Alvy Ray Smith, is spun off from Lucasfilm, Ltd as an independent film production company, with backing of Steve Jobs

Challenger Inquiry

1986 US President Ronald Reagan announces formation of commission of enquiry on Challenger Accident

1987 MLB Montreal Expos trade pitcher Jeff Reardon to Minnesota Twins for pitcher Neal Heaton
1988 Nurses across the UK strike over pay and funding for the NHS

Appointment of Interest

1988 US Senate confirms Anthony Kennedy to seat on US Supreme Court by a 97-0 vote

1989 Baseball's National League announces Yanks' broadcaster Bill White will its 1st African American President

Coup Overthrows Stroessner

1989 Military coup overthrows Paraguayan Dictator Alfredo Stroessner who flees to Brazil

"Our Ally in War on Drugs"

1992 Defense opens calling Noriega "our ally in war on drugs"

1992 Labor strike at Royal Canadian Mint ends
1992 Maximum NY State unemployment benefits raised to $300 per week
1993 Cincinnati Reds owner Marge Schott suspended for 1 year due to racist comments

1993 Federal trial of 4 police officers charged with civil rights violations in videotaped beating of Rodney King begins in Los Angeles, California

1993 General Hospital's Tristan Rogers convicted of drunk driving

Vietnam Trade Embargo Lifts

1994 President Bill Clinton lifts US trade embargo against Vietnam

1994 STS-60 (Discovery) launches into orbit
1995 STS 63 (Discovery 19), launches into orbit
1997 Howard Stern Radio Show premieres in Detroit MI on WKRK 97.1 FM

Carl Sagan Public Memorial

1997 Public memorial held for Carl Sagan at Cornell University, Ithaca, NY

1998 Cavalese cable car disaster: 20 people killed after NATO aircraft severs a cable car line

Ciccarelli's 600th Goal

1998 Florida Panther Dino Ciccarelli is 9th NHLer to score 600 career goals

1998 Former teacher Mary Kay LeTourneau (36) violates probation with the 14 year-old father of her baby
1998 Karla Faye Tucker is executed in Texas, first woman executed in the United States since 1984
1998 NY Yankees replace general manager Bob Watson with Brian Cashman

1999 In Jammu and Kashmir the political party Democratic Janata Dal (Jammu and Kashmir) is revived.

2002 Super Bowl XXXVI, Louisiana Superdome, New Orleans, LA: New England Patriots beat St. Louis Rams, 20-17; MVP: Tom Brady, New England, QB

Spector Murders Clarkson

2003 Actress Lana Clarkson is shot and killed by Phil Spector at Spector's house in Alhambra, California

2007 A Baghdad market bombing kills at least 135 people and injures a further 339.

2008 Super Bowl XLII, University of Phoenix Stadium, Glendale, AZ: New York Giants beat New England Patriots, 17-14; MVP: Eli Manning, New York, QB

1st African American Attorney General

2009 Eric Holder becomes 82nd and 1st African American US Attorney General, succeeding Michael Mukasey

2011 All available blocks of IPv4 internet addresses are officially distributed to regional authorities.
2013 33 people are killed by a suicide bombing by an explosive-packed truck in Kirkuk, Iraq
2013 Super Bowl XLVII, Mercedes-Benz Stadium, New Orleans, LA: Baltimore Ravens beat San Francisco 49ers, 34-31; MVP: Joe Flacco, Baltimore, QB

Film & TV History

2014 Léa Seydoux receives the Lumières Award for Best Actress for the film "Grand Central"

2014 Teenage student shoots and kills a geography teacher and a police officer, and wounds 8 at School 263 on the outskirts of Moscow, Russia
2016 Lord Lucan's death certificate is granted, 42 years after he disappeared following the murder of nanny Sandra Rivett

Rand Paul Drops Out

2016 Rand Paul drops out of the Republican Presidential nomination race

Obama Visits Mosque

2016 US President Barack Obama visits his first US mosque - the Islamic Society of Baltimore mosque in Maryland

2018 Moscow, Russia has its heaviest snowfall in a day on record (43 cm / 17 inches), killing one and bringing down 2,000 trees
2019 Dam in Townsville, Australia, deliberately opened flooding 20,000 homes after city receives record 3.3ft of rain in a week

Pope Visits Arab Emirates

2019 Pope Francis arrives in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, on the first ever papal visit to the Arabian peninsula

2019 Rapper 21 Savage arrested by US immigration for overstaying his visa
2019 Super Bowl LIII, Mercedes-Benz Stadium, Atlanta, GA: New England Patriots beat Los Angeles Rams, 13-3; MVP: Julian Edelman, NE Patriots, WR; Patriots' 6th SB victory
2019 Wreckage from light aircraft carrying EPL team Cardiff City's record signing Emiliano Sala is discovered on seabed of the English Channel; cause of death, head and trunk injuries
2020 Cruise ship Diamond Princess with 3700 passengers quarantined in Yokohama port, Japan after cases of COVID-19 found on board

Democratic Iowa Caucus

2020 First Democratic caucus in Iowa won narrowly by Pete Buttigieg (most delegates) and Bernie Sanders (most votes) after lengthy delays and irregularities in reporting the results

2020 Malawi's constitutional court annuls 2019 election which saw President Peter Mutharika re-elected due to voting irregularities
2021 Engineers at MIT announce they have engineered spinach to send emails when detecting explosive materials in groundwater as part of plant nanobionic research [1]
2021 US and Russia extend their New START nuclear arms control treaty for five years, the last remaining nuclear arms deal between the two countries
2022 Austria brings into force its vaccine mandate for all, first country in Europe to do so
2022 ISIS leader Abu Ibrahim al-Hashimi al-Qurayshi blows himself and his family up during a raid by US Special Forces in Syria [1]
2023 Coldest wind chill likely ever recorded in the US of minus 108 degrees, taken at Mount Washington Observatory, New Hampshire [1]
2023 Train carrying toxic chemicals including vinyl chloride, derails in East Palestine, Ohio, starting a fire and leading to an intentional burn off of chemicals to stop a possible explosion [1]

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