From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
February 3 is the 34th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. There are 331 days remaining until the end of the year (332 in leap years).
[edit] Events
- 313 – Edict of Milan: Constantine the Great and co-emperor Valerius Licinius met at a conference in Milan. They proclaimed a policy of religious freedom, ending the persecution of Christians in the Roman Empire.
- 1112 – Ramon Berenguer III of Barcelona and Douce I of Provence marry, uniting the fortunes of those two states.
- 1377 – More than 2,000 people of the Italian city of Cesena are slaughtered by Papal Troops (Cesena Bloodbath).
- 1451 – Sultan Mehmed II inherits the throne of the Ottoman Empire.
- 1488 – Bartolomeu Dias of Portugal lands in Mossel Bay after rounding the Cape of Good Hope, becoming the first known European to travel so far south.
- 1509 – The Battle of Diu, between Portugal and the Ottoman Empire takes place in Diu, India.
- 1534 – The Irish rebel Silken Thomas is executed by the order of Henry VIII in London, England.
- 1637 – Tulip mania collapses in the United Provinces (now the Netherlands) as sellers could no longer find buyers for their bulb contracts.
- 1690 – The colony of Massachusetts issues the first paper money in America.
- 1706 – During the Battle of Fraustadt Swedish forces defeat a superior Saxon-Polish-Russian force by deploying a double envelopment.
- 1781 – American Revolutionary War: British forces seize the Dutch-owned Caribbean island Sint Eustatius.
- 1783 – American Revolutionary War: Spain recognizes United States independence.
- 1787 – Shays' Rebellion is crushed.
- 1807 – A British military force, under Brigadier-General Sir Samuel Auchmuty captures the city of Montevideo, then part of the Spanish Empire now the capital of Uruguay.
- 1809 – The Illinois Territory is created.
- 1813 – José de San Martín defeats a Spanish royalist army at the Battle of San Lorenzo, part of the Argentine War of Independence.
- 1830 – The sovereignty of Greece is confirmed in a London Protocol.
- 1834 – Wake Forest University is established.
- 1852 – Justo José de Urquiza defeats Juan Manuel de Rosas at the Battle of Caseros.
- 1870 – The Fifteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution is ratified, guaranteeing voting rights to citizens regardless of race.
- 1900 – Governor of Kentucky William Goebel dies of wound sustained in an assassination attempt three days earlier in Frankfort, Kentucky.
- 1913 – The Sixteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution is ratified, authorizing the Federal government to impose and collect an income tax.
- 1916 – Parliament buildings in Ottawa, Canada burn down.
- 1917 – World War I: The United States breaks off diplomatic relations with Germany a day after the latter announced a new policy of unrestricted submarine warfare.
- 1918 – The Twin Peaks Tunnel in San Francisco, California begins service as the longest streetcar tunnel in the world at 11,920 feet (3,633 meters) long.
- 1931 – The Hawke's Bay earthquake, New Zealand's worst natural disaster, kills 258.
- 1943 – The USAT Dorchester is sunk by a German U-boat. Only 230 of 902 men aboard survived. The Chapel of the Four Chaplains, dedicated by President Harry Truman, is one of many memorials established to commemorate the Four Chaplains story.
- 1944 – World War II: During the Gilbert and Marshall Islands campaign, U.S. Army and Marine forces seize Kwajalein Atoll from the defending Japanese garrison.
- 1945 – World War II: As part of Operation Thunderclap, 1,000 B-17s of the Eighth Air Force bomb Berlin, a raid which kills between 2,500 to 3,000 and dehouses another 120,000.
- 1945 – World War II: The United States and the Philippine Commonwealth begin a month-long battle to retake Manila from Japan.
- 1947 – The lowest temperature in North America is recorded in Snag, Yukon.
- 1957 – Senegalese political party Democratic Rally merges into the Senegalese Party of Socialist Action (PSAS).
- 1958 – Founding of the Benelux Economic Union, creating a testing ground for a later European Economic Community.
- 1959 – A plane crash near Clear Lake, Iowa kills Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens, The Big Bopper, and pilot Roger Peterson and the incident becomes known as The Day the Music Died.
- 1960 – British Prime Minister Harold Macmillan speaks of the "a wind of change" of increasing national consciousness blowing through colonial Africa, signalling that his Government is likely to support decolonisation.
- 1961 – The United States Air Forces begins Operation Looking Glass, and over the next 30 years, a "Doomsday Plane" is always in the air, with the capability of taking direct control of the United States' bombers and missiles in the event of the destruction of the SAC's command post.
- 1961 – A protest by agricultural workers in Baixa de Cassanje, Portuguese Angola, turns into a revolt, opening the Angolan War of Independence, the first of the Portuguese Colonial Wars.
- 1966 – The unmanned Soviet Luna 9 spacecraft makes the first controlled rocket-assisted landing on the Moon.
- 1967 – Ronald Ryan, the last person to be executed in Australia, is hanged in Pentridge Prison, Melbourne.
- 1969 – In Cairo, Yasser Arafat is appointed Palestine Liberation Organization leader at the Palestinian National Congress.
- 1971 – New York Police Officer Frank Serpico is shot during a drug bust in Brooklyn and survives to later testify against police corruption. Many believe the incident proves that NYPD officers tried to kill him.
- 1972 – The first day of the seven-day 1972 Iran blizzard, which would kill at least 4,000 people, making it the deadliest snowstorm in history.
- 1984 – John Buster and the research team at Harbor-UCLA Medical Center announce history's first embryo transfer, from one woman to another resulting in a live birth.
- 1984 – Space Shuttle program: STS-41-B is launched using Space Shuttle Challenger.
- 1989 – After a stroke two weeks previous, South African President P. W. Botha resigns as leader of the National Party, but stays on as president for six more months.
- 1989 – A military coup overthrows Alfredo Stroessner, dictator of Paraguay since 1954.
- 1995 – Astronaut Eileen Collins becomes the first woman to pilot the Space Shuttle as mission STS-63 gets underway from Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
- 1996 – The Lijiang earthquake in Lijiang, Yunnan, China.
- 1998 – Karla Faye Tucker is executed in Texas becoming the first woman executed in the United States since 1984.
- 1998 – Cavalese cable car disaster: a United States Military pilot causes the death of 20 people when his low-flying plane cuts the cable of a cable-car near Trento, Italy.
- 2007 – A Baghdad market bombing kills at least 135 people and injures a further 339.
- 2008 – The New York Giants defeated the heavily favored and previously undefeated 18-0 New England Patriots in Super Bowl XLII, 17-14, in what is known to be one of the greatest upsets in sports history.
- 2011 – All available blocks of IPv4 internet addresses are officially distributed to regional authorities.
[edit] Births
- 1338 – Jeanne de Bourbon, wife of Charles V of France (d. 1378)
- 1677 – Jan Santini Aichel, Czech architect (d. 1723)
- 1689 – Blas de Lezo, Spanish admiral (d. 1741)
- 1690 – Richard Rawlinson, English minister (d. 1755)
- 1721 – Friedrich Wilhelm von Seydlitz, Prussian general (d. 1773)
- 1747 – Samuel Osgood, American patriot (d. 1813)
- 1777 – John Cheyne, British physician, surgeon and author (d. 1836)
- 1795 – Antonio José de Sucre, South American independence leader (d. 1830)
- 1807 – Joseph E. Johnston, American Confederate general (d. 1891)
- 1808 – Princess Marie of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach, Princess of Prussia (d. 1877)
- 1809 – Felix Mendelssohn, German composer (d. 1847)
- 1811 – Horace Greeley, American journalist, editor, and publisher (d. 1872)
- 1817 – Achille Ernest Oscar Joseph Delesse, French geologist (d. 1881)
- 1821 – Elizabeth Blackwell, American physician (d. 1910)
- 1824 – Ranald MacDonald, Canadian-born Scottish educator and interpreter (d. 1894)
- 1826 – Walter Bagehot, English essayist, journalist and businessman (d. 1877)
- 1830 – Robert Arthur Talbot Gascoyne-Cecil, 3rd Marquess of Salisbury, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (d. 1903)
- 1842 – Sidney Lanier, American writer (d. 1881)
- 1843 – William Cornelius Van Horne, American-born railway pioneer and executive (d. 1915)
- 1857 – Giuseppe Moretti, Italian sculptor (d. 1935)
- 1859 – Hugo Junkers, German aircraft designer (d. 1935)
- 1862 – James Clark McReynolds, American Supreme Court Justice (d. 1946)
- 1872 – Lou Criger, American baseball player (d. 1934)
- 1874 – Gertrude Stein, American writer (d. 1946)
- 1876 – William Tedmarsh, English-born American silent movie actor (d. 1937)
- 1887 – Juan Negrín, Spanish Prime Minister (d. 1956)
- 1887 – Georg Trakl, Austrian poet (d. 1914)
- 1889 – Carl Theodor Dreyer, Danish film director (d. 1968)
- 1893 – Gaston Julia, French mathematician (d. 1978)
- 1894 – Norman Rockwell, American illustrator (d. 1978)
- 1898 – Alvar Aalto, Finnish architect (d. 1976)
- 1899 – João Café Filho, Brazilian president (d. 1970)
- 1899 – Lao She, Chinese writer (d. 1966)
- 1899 – Doris Speed, English actress (d. 1994)
- 1903 – Douglas Douglas-Hamilton, Scottish aviator (d. 1973)
- 1903 – Joe Stripp, American baseball player d. 1989
- 1904 – Luigi Dallapiccola, Italian composer (d. 1975)
- 1904 – Pretty Boy Floyd, American gangster (d. 1934)
- 1905 – Arne Beurling, Swedish/American mathematician(d. 1986)
- 1907 – James Michener, American author (d. 1997)
- 1909 – André Cayatte, French filmmaker (d. 1989)
- 1909 – Simone Weil, French philosopher (d. 1943)
- 1911 – Jehan Alain, French organist and composer (d. 1940)
- 1911 – Robert Earl Jones, American actor (d. 2006)
- 1912 – Jacques Soustelle, French anthropologist (d. 1990)
- 1912 – Mary Carlisle, American actress and singer
- 1913 – Richard Seaman, British racing driver (d. 1939)
- 1918 – Joey Bishop, American entertainer, member of the Rat Pack (d. 2007)
- 1918 – Shlomo Goren, Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi of Israel (d. 1994)
- 1918 – Helen Stephens, American runner (d. 1994)
- 1920 – Russell Arms, American actor and singer
- 1920 – Tony Gaze, Australian racing driver
- 1920 – Henry Heimlich, American physician
- 1923 – Alys Robi, Canadian singer
- 1924 – E. P. Thompson, English socialist historian, (The Making of the English Working Class), (d. 1993)
- 1924 – Martial Asselin, Canadian politician and lieutenant governor of Quebec
- 1925 – Keith Dunstan, Australian author and journalist
- 1925 – John Fiedler, American voice actor (d. 2005)
- 1925 – Leon Schlumpf, member of the Swiss Federal Council
- 1926 – Shelley Berman, American comedian
- 1926 – Hans-Jochen Vogel, German politician
- 1927 – Kenneth Anger, American Underground Filmmaker
- 1927 – Val Doonican, Irish singer and entertainer
- 1927 – Joan Lowery Nixon, American writer (d. 2003)
- 1927 – Blas Ople, Filipino politician (d. 2003)
- 1928 – Frankie Vaughan, English singer (d. 1999)
- 1929 – Ken Shipp, American football coach
- 1930 – Gillian Ayres, English painter
- 1932 – Peggy Ann Garner, American actress (d. 1984)
- 1933 – Paul Sarbanes, American politician
- 1933 – Than Shwe, Burmese military ruler
- 1934 – Juan Carlos Calabró, Argentine actor
- 1936 – Jim Marshall, American photographer (d. 2010)
- 1937 – Billy Meier, Swiss ufologist
- 1938 – Victor Buono, American actor (d. 1982)
- 1938 – Emile Griffith, US Virgin Islands boxer
- 1939 – Michael Cimino, American film director
- 1940 – Fran Tarkenton, American football player
- 1941 – Neil Bogart, American record executive (d. 1982)
- 1941 – Dory Funk, Jr., American professional wrestler
- 1941 – Bridget Hanley, American actress
- 1943 – Blythe Danner, American actress
- 1943 – Dennis Edwards, American singer (The Temptations)
- 1943 – Shawn Phillips, American singer, guitarist and songwriter
- 1944 – Trisha Noble, Australian singer and actress
- 1945 – Johnny Cymbal, American singer and songwriter (d. 1993)
- 1945 – Bob Griese, American football player
- 1947 – Paul Auster, American novelist
- 1947 – Dave Davies, English musician (The Kinks)
- 1947 – Stephen McHattie, Canadian actor
- 1947 – Melanie Safka, American singer-songwriter
- 1948 – Carlos Felipe Ximenes Belo, East Timorese politician, Nobel Peace laureate
- 1948 – Henning Mankell, Swedish author
- 1948 – Jim Lockhart, Irish musician (Horslips)
- 1949 – Arthur Kane, American musician (d. 2004)
- 1949 – Hennie Kuiper, Dutch cyclist
- 1949 – Donald Palma, American musician
- 1950 – Morgan Fairchild, American actress
- 1951 – Eugenijus Riabovas, Lithuanian football manager
- 1952 – Fred Lynn, American baseball player
- 1953 – Savvas Tsitouridis, Greek politician
- 1954 – Tiger Williams, Canadian ice hockey player
- 1955 – Stephen Euin Cobb, American novelist
- 1955 – Kirsty Wark, British broadcast journalist
- 1956 – John Jefferson, American football player
- 1956 – Nathan Lane, American actor
- 1956 – Lee Ranaldo, American musician (Sonic Youth)
- 1957 – Chico Serra, Brazilian racing driver
- 1957 – Steven Stapleton, English musician (Nurse With Wound)
- 1958 – Joe F. Edwards, Jr., American astronaut
- 1958 – N. Gregory Mankiw, American economist
- 1959 – Thomas Calabro, American actor
- 1959 – Yasuharu Konishi, Japanese musician (Pizzicato Five)
- 1959 – Lol Tolhurst, English musician (The Cure)
- 1959 – Ferzan Özpetek, Turkish film director
- 1960 – Kerry Von Erich, American professional wrestler (d. 1993)
- 1960 – Joachim Löw, German football manager
- 1961 – Jay Adams, American skateboarder
- 1961 – Linda Eder, American singer
- 1961 – Keith Gordon, American actor
- 1962 – Michele Greene, American actress
- 1962 – Marty Jannetty, American professional wrestler
- 1963 – Raghuram Rajan, American economist
- 1965 – Kathleen Kinmont, American actress
- 1965 – Karlous Marx Shinohamba, Namibian politician
- 1965 – Maura Tierney, American actress
- 1966 – Frank Coraci, American film director
- 1966 – Kostas Patavoukas, Greek basketball player
- 1967 – Dave Benson Phillips, English children's TV presenter
- 1967 – Mixu Paatelainen, Finnish footballer and coach
- 1967 – Bob Taylor, English footballer
- 1968 – Vlade Divac, Serbian basketball player
- 1969 – Retief Goosen, South African golfer
- 1969 – Robert Pack, American basketball player
- 1970 – Óscar Córdoba, Colombian footballer
- 1970 – Warwick Davis, English actor
- 1971 – Sean Dawkins, American football player
- 1971 – Elisa Donovan, American actress
- 1971 – Vincent Elbaz, French actor
- 1971 – Hong Seok-cheon, South Korean actor
- 1971 – Sarah Kane, English playwright (d. 1999)
- 1971 – Rockwilder, American hip-hop/R&B producer
- 1972 – Jesper Kyd, Danish film and video game music composer
- 1972 – Mart Poom, Estonian footballer
- 1973 – Ilana Sod, Mexican journalist
- 1974 – Konrad Gałka, Polish swimmer
- 1974 – Julie Meadows, American pornographic actress
- 1974 – Miriam Yeung, Hong Kong actress
- 1976 – Mathieu Dandenault, Canadian ice hockey player
- 1976 – Isla Fisher, Scottish-Australian actress
- 1976 – Tim Heidecker, American comedian
- 1976 – Dwayne Rudd, American football player
- 1977 – Daddy Yankee, Puerto Rican reggaeton singer/rapper
- 1978 – Joan Capdevila, Spanish footballer
- 1978 – Adrian R'Mante, American actor
- 1978 – Eliza Schneider, American actress and singer
- 1980 – Sarah Lewitinn, American writer
- 1980 – Kim E-Z, former member of the Korean girl group, Baby V.O.X.
- 1981 – Alisa Reyes, American actress and singer
- 1981 – Maurice Ross, Scottish footballer
- 1982 – Alan Gurr, Australian V8 Supercar driver
- 1982 – Jessica Harp, American singer (The Wreckers)
- 1982 – Bridget Regan, American actress
- 1983 – Richard Bartel, American football player
- 1983 – Silambarasan Rajendar, Indian actor
- 1983 – Gabriel Sargissian, Armenian chess Grandmaster
- 1984 – Sara Carbonero, Spanish TV presenter and journalist
- 1985 – Andrei Kostitsyn, Belarusian hockey player
- 1986 – Lucas Duda, American baseball player
- 1987 – Angela Fong, Canadian professional wrestler, model, cheerleader
- 1988 – Kyuhyun, South Korean singer (Super Junior)
- 1988 – Nicola Redomi, Italian footballer
- 1988 – Gregory van der Wiel, Dutch footballer
- 1989 – Slobodan Rajković, Serbian footballer
- 1989 – Ryne Sanborn, American actor
- 1990 – Sean Kingston, Jamaican-American singer
- 1993 – Getter Jaani, Estonian actress and singer
[edit] Deaths
- 619 – Laurence of Canterbury, 2nd Archbishop of Canterbury
- 699 – Saint Werburgh
- 1014 – Sweyn Forkbeard, King of Denmark, England and Norway (b. c. 960)
- 1116 – King Coloman of Hungary (b. 1070)
- 1399 – John of Gaunt, 1st Duke of Lancaster (b. 1340)
- 1428 – Ashikaga Yoshimochi, Japanese shogun (b. 1386)
- 1451 – Murad II, Ottoman Sultan (b. 1404)
- 1468 – Johannes Gutenberg, German publisher (b. c. 1398)
- 1549 – Sri Suriyothai, Chief Queen of Ayutthaya
- 1566 – George Cassander, Flemish theologian (b. 1513)
- 1619 – Henry Brooke, 11th Baron Cobham, English conspirator (b. 1564)
- 1737 – Tommaso Ceva, Italian mathematician (b. 1648)
- 1802 – Pedro Rodríguez, Conde de Campomanes, Spanish statesman (b. 1723)
- 1820 – Emperor Gia Long the founded the Nguyễn Dynasty, the last of the Vietnamese dynasties (b. 1762)
- 1832 – George Crabbe, English naturalist (b. 1754)
- 1862 – Jean-Baptiste Biot, French physicist (b. 1774)
- 1866 – François-Xavier Garneau, French Canadian poet and historian (b. 1809)
- 1873 – Isaac Baker Brown, English gynaecologist and surgeon (b. 1811)
- 1874 – King William Charles Lunalilo of Hawaiʻi (b. 1835)
- 1889 – Belle Starr, American outlaw (b. 1848)
- 1922 – John Butler Yeats, Northern Irish artist (b. 1839)
- 1924 – Woodrow Wilson, 28th President of the United States, Nobel laureate (b. 1856)
- 1929 – Agner Krarup Erlang, Danish scientist (b. 1878)
- 1935 – Hugo Junkers, German engineer (b. 1859)
- 1936 – Sophie of Schönburg-Waldenburg, consort of William of Wied, Prince of Albania (b. 1885)
- 1937 – Marija Leiko, Latvian film actress (b. 1887)
- 1945 – Roland Freisler, Nazi leader (b. 1893)
- 1947 – Marc Mitscher, American Navy Admiral (b. 1887)
- 1952 – Harold L. Ickes, American administrator and politician (b. 1874)
- 1955 – Vasili Blokhin, Soviet Union executioner (b. 1895)
- 1956 – Émile Borel, French mathematician (b. 1871)
- 1956 – Johnny Claes, Belgian racing driver (b. 1916)
- 1959 – The Day the Music Died
- 1960 – Fred Buscaglione, Italian singer and actor (b. 1921)
- 1961 – Viscount Dunrossil, Australian governor-general (b. 1893)
- 1961 – Anna May Wong, American actress (b. 1905)
- 1964 – Sir Albert Richardson, English architect (b. 1880)
- 1967 – Joe Meek, English record producer (b. 1929)
- 1969 – Eduardo Mondlane Mozambican independence founder (b. 1920)
- 1975 – William D. Coolidge, American physicist and inventor (b. 1873)
- 1975 – Umm Kulthum, Egyptian singer (b. 1904)
- 1985 – Frank Oppenheimer, American physicist (b. 1912)
- 1989 – John Cassavetes, American actor (b. 1929)
- 1989 – Lionel Newman, American movie music orchestra leader, composer and arranger (b. 1916)
- 1991 – Harry Ackerman, American TV executive producer (b. 1912)
- 1991 – Nancy Kulp, American actress (b. 1921)
- 1998 – Fat Pat, American rapper (Screwed Up Click) (b. 1970)
- 1998 – Karla Faye Tucker, American murderer (b. 1959)
- 2003 – Lana Clarkson, American actress and model (b. 1962)
- 2004 – Jason Raize, American actor (b. 1975)
- 2006 – Al Lewis, American actor (b. 1923)
- 2009 – Sheng-yen, Buddhist monk and founder of Dharma Drum Mountain. (b. 1930)
- 2010 – Regina, Crown Princess of Austria (b. 1925)
- 2011 – Maria Schneider, French actress (b. 1952)
[edit] Holidays and observances
[edit] External links
