What happened on February 3? There are more than 286 events that were made this day in history. Here are the important historical events, facts, and some myths about this day.
Interesting Facts & Myths About February 3
February 3 is the 34th day of the year 2024. There are 332 days remaining until the end of this year. The day of the week is Saturday. This day falls under the 5th week of the year 2024.
On this day in Austin, Texas 78763 sunrise occured at 07:18 AM and sunset occured at 06:09 PM (local time).
The zodiac sign of a person born on this day is Aquarius. The modern birthstone for this month is Amethyst while the mystical birthstone is Bloodstone.
According to the Chinese calendar, there are 7 days remaining before the start of the next Chinese New Year (February 10, 2024).
Is your birthday coming up in two days? Are you not curious to find out who is sharing your special day? Discover all the April 26 famous birthdays. There are fun facts about that day that you must know. (Sponsored link)
Historical Events For February 3
- 313Edict 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.
- 1112Ramon Berenguer III of Barcelona and Douce I of Provence marry, uniting the fortunes of those two states.
- 1377More than 2,000 people of the Italian city of Cesena are slaughtered by Papal Troops (Cesena Bloodbath).
- 1451Sultan Mehmed II inherits the throne of the Ottoman Empire.
- 1488Bartolomeu Dias of Portugal lands in Mossel Bay after rounding the Cape of Good Hope, becoming the first known European to travel so far south.
- 1509The Battle of Diu, between Portugal and the Ottoman Empire takes place in Diu, India.
- 1534The Irish rebel Silken Thomas is executed by the order of Henry VIII in London, England.
- 1637Tulip mania collapses in the United Provinces (now the Netherlands) as sellers could no longer find buyers for their bulb contracts.
- 1690The colony of Massachusetts issues the first paper money in America.
- 1706During the Battle of Fraustadt Swedish forces defeat a superior Saxon-Polish-Russian force by deploying a double envelopment.
- 1781American Revolutionary War: British forces seize the Dutch-owned Caribbean island Sint Eustatius.
- 1783American Revolutionary War: Spain recognizes United States independence.
- 1787Shays’ Rebellion is crushed.
- 1807A 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.
- 1809The Illinois Territory is created.
- 1813José de San Martín defeats a Spanish royalist army at the Battle of San Lorenzo, part of the Argentine War of Independence.
- 1830The sovereignty of Greece is confirmed in a London Protocol.
- 1834Wake Forest University is established.
- 1852Justo José de Urquiza defeats Juan Manuel de Rosas at the Battle of Caseros.
- 1870The Fifteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution is ratified, guaranteeing voting rights to citizens regardless of race.
- 1900Governor of Kentucky William Goebel dies of wound sustained in an assassination attempt three days earlier in Frankfort, Kentucky.
- 1913The Sixteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution is ratified, authorizing the Federal government to impose and collect an income tax.
- 1916Parliament buildings in Ottawa, Canada burn down.
- 1917World War I: The United States breaks off diplomatic relations with Germany a day after the latter announced a new policy of unrestricted submarine warfare.
- 1918The 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.
- 1931The Hawke’s Bay earthquake, New Zealand’s worst natural disaster, kills 258.
- 1943The 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.
- 1944World War II: During the Gilbert and Marshall Islands campaign, U.S. Army and Marine forces seize Kwajalein Atoll from the defending Japanese garrison.
- 1945World 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.
- 1945World War II: The United States and the Philippine Commonwealth begin a month-long battle to retake Manila from Japan.
- 1947The lowest temperature in North America is recorded in Snag, Yukon.
- 1957Senegalese political party Democratic Rally merges into the Senegalese Party of Socialist Action (PSAS).
- 1958Founding of the Benelux Economic Union, creating a testing ground for a later European Economic Community.
- 1959A 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.
- 1960British 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.
- 1961A 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.
- 1961The 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.
- 1966The unmanned Soviet Luna 9 spacecraft makes the first controlled rocket-assisted landing on the Moon.
- 1967Ronald Ryan, the last person to be executed in Australia, is hanged in Pentridge Prison, Melbourne.
- 1969In Cairo, Yasser Arafat is appointed Palestine Liberation Organization leader at the Palestinian National Congress.
- 1971New 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.
- 1972The first day of the seven-day 1972 Iran blizzard, which would kill at least 4,000 people, making it the deadliest snowstorm in history.
- 1973New Year’s Day in Chinese calendar. Start of the year of the Water Ox in Chinese astrology.
- 1984John 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.
- 1984Space Shuttle program: STS-41-B is launched using Space Shuttle Challenger.
- 1989After 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.
- 1989A military coup overthrows Alfredo Stroessner, dictator of Paraguay since 1954.
- 1995Astronaut Eileen Collins becomes the first woman to pilot the Space Shuttle as mission STS-63 gets underway from Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
- 1996The Lijiang earthquake in Lijiang, Yunnan, China.
- 1998Cavalese 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.
- 1998Karla Faye Tucker is executed in Texas becoming the first woman executed in the United States since 1984.
- 2007A Baghdad market bombing kills at least 135 people and injures a further 339.
- 2008The 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.
- 2011All available blocks of IPv4 internet addresses are officially distributed to regional authorities.
Who Were Born On February 3?
- 1338Jeanne de Bourbon, wife of Charles V of France (d. 1378)
- 1677Jan Santini Aichel, Czech architect (d. 1723)
- 1689Blas de Lezo, Spanish admiral (d. 1741)
- 1690Richard Rawlinson, English minister (d. 1755)
- 1721Friedrich Wilhelm von Seydlitz, Prussian general (d. 1773)
- 1747Samuel Osgood, American patriot (d. 1813)
- 1777John Cheyne, British physician, surgeon and author (d. 1836)
- 1795Antonio José de Sucre, South American independence leader (d. 1830)
- 1807Joseph E. Johnston, American Confederate general (d. 1891)
- 1808Princess Marie of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach, Princess of Prussia (d. 1877)
- 1809Felix Mendelssohn, German composer (d. 1847)
- 1811Horace Greeley, American journalist, editor, and publisher (d. 1872)
- 1817Achille Ernest Oscar Joseph Delesse, French geologist (d. 1881)
- 1821Elizabeth Blackwell, American physician (d. 1910)
- 1824Ranald MacDonald, Canadian-born Scottish educator and interpreter (d. 1894)
- 1826Walter Bagehot, English essayist, journalist and businessman (d. 1877)
- 1830Robert Arthur Talbot Gascoyne-Cecil, 3rd Marquess of Salisbury, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (d. 1903)
- 1842Sidney Lanier, American writer (d. 1881)
- 1843William Cornelius Van Horne, American-born railway pioneer and executive (d. 1915)
- 1857Giuseppe Moretti, Italian sculptor (d. 1935)
- 1859Hugo Junkers, German aircraft designer (d. 1935)
- 1862James Clark McReynolds, American Supreme Court Justice (d. 1946)
- 1872Lou Criger, American baseball player (d. 1934)
- 1874Gertrude Stein, American writer (d. 1946)
- 1876William Tedmarsh, English-born American silent movie actor (d. 1937)
- 1887Georg Trakl, Austrian poet (d. 1914)
- 1887Juan Negrín, Spanish Prime Minister (d. 1956)
- 1889Carl Theodor Dreyer, Danish film director (d. 1968)
- 1893Gaston Julia, French mathematician (d. 1978)
- 1894Norman Rockwell, American illustrator (d. 1978)
- 1898Alvar Aalto, Finnish architect (d. 1976)
- 1899Doris Speed, English actress (d. 1994)
- 1899João Café Filho, Brazilian president (d. 1970)
- 1899Lao She, Chinese writer (d. 1966)
- 1903Douglas Douglas-Hamilton, Scottish aviator (d. 1973)
- 1903Joe Stripp, American baseball player d. 1989
- 1904Luigi Dallapiccola, Italian composer (d. 1975)
- 1904Pretty Boy Floyd, American gangster (d. 1934)
- 1905Arne Beurling, Swedish/American mathematician(d. 1986)
- 1907James Michener, American author (d. 1997)
- 1909André Cayatte, French filmmaker (d. 1989)
- 1909Simone Weil, French philosopher (d. 1943)
- 1911Jehan Alain, French organist and composer (d. 1940)
- 1911Robert Earl Jones, American actor (d. 2006)
- 1912Jacques Soustelle, French anthropologist (d. 1990)
- 1912Mary Carlisle, American actress and singer
- 1913Richard Seaman, British racing driver (d. 1939)
- 1918Helen Stephens, American runner (d. 1994)
- 1918Joey Bishop, American entertainer, member of the Rat Pack (d. 2007)
- 1918Shlomo Goren, Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi of Israel (d. 1994)
- 1920Henry Heimlich, American physician
- 1920Russell Arms, American actor and singer
- 1920Tony Gaze, Australian racing driver
- 1923Alys Robi, Canadian singer
- 1924E. P. Thompson, English socialist historian, (The Making of the English Working Class), (d. 1993)
- 1924Martial Asselin, Canadian politician and lieutenant governor of Quebec
- 1925John Fiedler, American voice actor (d. 2005)
- 1925Keith Dunstan, Australian author and journalist
- 1925Leon Schlumpf, member of the Swiss Federal Council
- 1926Hans-Jochen Vogel, German politician
- 1926Shelley Berman, American comedian
- 1927Blas Ople, Filipino politician (d. 2003)
- 1927Joan Lowery Nixon, American writer (d. 2003)
- 1927Kenneth Anger, American Underground Filmmaker
- 1927Val Doonican, Irish singer and entertainer
- 1928Frankie Vaughan, English singer (d. 1999)
- 1929Ken Shipp, American football coach
- 1930Gillian Ayres, English painter
- 1932Peggy Ann Garner, American actress (d. 1984)
- 1933Paul Sarbanes, American politician
- 1934Juan Carlos Calabró, Argentine actor
- 1936Jim Marshall, American photographer (d. 2010)
- 1937Billy Meier, Swiss ufologist
- 1938Emile Griffith, US Virgin Islands boxer
- 1938Victor Buono, American actor (d. 1982)
- 1939Michael Cimino, American film director
- 1940Fran Tarkenton, American football player
- 1941Bridget Hanley, American actress
- 1941Dory Funk, Jr., American professional wrestler
- 1941Neil Bogart, American record executive (d. 1982)
- 1943Blythe Danner, American actress
- 1943Dennis Edwards, American singer (The Temptations)
- 1943Shawn Phillips, American singer, guitarist and songwriter
- 1944Trisha Noble, Australian singer and actress
- 1945Bob Griese, American football player
- 1945Johnny Cymbal, American singer and songwriter (d. 1993)
- 1947Dave Davies, English musician (The Kinks)
- 1947Melanie Safka, American singer-songwriter
- 1947Paul Auster, American novelist
- 1947Stephen McHattie, Canadian actor
- 1948Carlos Felipe Ximenes Belo, East Timorese politician, Nobel Peace laureate
- 1948Henning Mankell, Swedish author
- 1948Jim Lockhart, Irish musician (Horslips)
- 1949Arthur Kane, American musician (d. 2004)
- 1949Donald Palma, American musician
- 1949Hennie Kuiper, Dutch cyclist
- 1950Morgan Fairchild, American actress
- 1951Eugenijus Riabovas, Lithuanian football manager
- 1952Fred Lynn, American baseball player
- 1953Savvas Tsitouridis, Greek politician
- 1954Tiger Williams, Canadian ice hockey player
- 1955Kirsty Wark, British broadcast journalist
- 1955Stephen Euin Cobb, American novelist
- 1956John Jefferson, American football player
- 1956Lee Ranaldo, American musician (Sonic Youth)
- 1956Nathan Lane, American actor
- 1957Chico Serra, Brazilian racing driver
- 1957Steven Stapleton, English musician (Nurse With Wound)
- 1958Joe F. Edwards, Jr., American astronaut
- 1958N. Gregory Mankiw, American economist
- 1959Ferzan Özpetek, Turkish film director
- 1959Lol Tolhurst, English musician (The Cure)
- 1959Thomas Calabro, American actor
- 1959Yasuharu Konishi, Japanese musician (Pizzicato Five)
- 1960Joachim Löw, German football manager
- 1960Kerry Von Erich, American professional wrestler (d. 1993)
- 1961Jay Adams, American skateboarder
- 1961Keith Gordon, American actor
- 1961Linda Eder, American singer
- 1962Marty Jannetty, American professional wrestler
- 1962Michele Greene, American actress
- 1963Raghuram Rajan, American economist
- 1965Karlous Marx Shinohamba, Namibian politician
- 1965Kathleen Kinmont, American actress
- 1965Maura Tierney, American actress
- 1966Frank Coraci, American film director
- 1966Kostas Patavoukas, Greek basketball player
- 1967Bob Taylor, English footballer
- 1967Dave Benson Phillips, English children’s TV presenter
- 1967Mixu Paatelainen, Finnish footballer and coach
- 1968Vlade Divac, Serbian basketball player
- 1969Retief Goosen, South African golfer
- 1969Robert Pack, American basketball player
- 1970Óscar Córdoba, Colombian footballer
- 1970Warwick Davis, English actor
- 1971Elisa Donovan, American actress
- 1971Hong Seok-cheon, South Korean actor
- 1971Rockwilder, American hip-hop/R&B producer
- 1971Sarah Kane, English playwright (d. 1999)
- 1971Sean Dawkins, American football player
- 1971Vincent Elbaz, French actor
- 1972Jesper Kyd, Danish film and video game music composer
- 1972Mart Poom, Estonian footballer
- 1973Ilana Sod, Mexican journalist
- 1974Julie Meadows, American pornographic actress
- 1974Konrad Gałka, Polish swimmer
- 1974Miriam Yeung, Hong Kong actress
- 1976Dwayne Rudd, American football player
- 1976Isla Fisher, Scottish-Australian actress
- 1976Mathieu Dandenault, Canadian ice hockey player
- 1976Tim Heidecker, American comedian
- 1977Daddy Yankee, Puerto Rican reggaeton singer/rapper
- 1978Adrian R'Mante, American actor
- 1978Eliza Schneider, American actress and singer
- 1978Joan Capdevila, Spanish footballer
- 1980Kim E-Z, former member of the Korean girl group, Baby V.O.X.
- 1980Sarah Lewitinn, American writer
- 1981Alisa Reyes, American actress and singer
- 1981Maurice Ross, Scottish footballer
- 1982Alan Gurr, Australian V8 Supercar driver
- 1982Bridget Regan, American actress
- 1982Jessica Harp, American singer (The Wreckers)
- 1983Gabriel Sargissian, Armenian chess Grandmaster
- 1983Richard Bartel, American football player
- 1983Silambarasan Rajendar, Indian actor
- 1984Sara Carbonero, Spanish TV presenter and journalist
- 1985Andrei Kostitsyn, Belarusian hockey player
- 1986Lucas Duda, American baseball player
- 1987Angela Fong, Canadian professional wrestler, model, cheerleader
- 1988Gregory van der Wiel, Dutch footballer
- 1988Kyuhyun, South Korean singer (Super Junior)
- 1988Nicola Redomi, Italian footballer
- 1989Ryne Sanborn, American actor
- 1989Slobodan Rajković, Serbian footballer
- 1990Sean Kingston, Jamaican-American singer
- 1993Getter Jaani, Estonian actress and singer
Who Died On February 3?
- 619Laurence of Canterbury, 2nd Archbishop of Canterbury
- 699Saint Werburgh
- 1014Sweyn Forkbeard, King of Denmark, England and Norway (b. c. 960)
- 1116King Coloman of Hungary (b. 1070)
- 1399John of Gaunt, 1st Duke of Lancaster (b. 1340)
- 1428Ashikaga Yoshimochi, Japanese shogun (b. 1386)
- 1451Murad II, Ottoman Sultan (b. 1404)
- 1468Johannes Gutenberg, German publisher (b. c. 1398)
- 1549Sri Suriyothai, Chief Queen of Ayutthaya
- 1566George Cassander, Flemish theologian (b. 1513)
- 1619Henry Brooke, 11th Baron Cobham, English conspirator (b. 1564)
- 1737Tommaso Ceva, Italian mathematician (b. 1648)
- 1802Pedro Rodríguez, Conde de Campomanes, Spanish statesman (b. 1723)
- 1820Emperor Gia Long the founded the Nguyễn Dynasty, the last of the Vietnamese dynasties (b. 1762)
- 1832George Crabbe, English naturalist (b. 1754)
- 1862Jean-Baptiste Biot, French physicist (b. 1774)
- 1866François-Xavier Garneau, French Canadian poet and historian (b. 1809)
- 1873Isaac Baker Brown, English gynaecologist and surgeon (b. 1811)
- 1874King William Charles Lunalilo of Hawaiʻi (b. 1835)
- 1889Belle Starr, American outlaw (b. 1848)
- 1922John Butler Yeats, Northern Irish artist (b. 1839)
- 1924Woodrow Wilson, 28th President of the United States, Nobel laureate (b. 1856)
- 1929Agner Krarup Erlang, Danish scientist (b. 1878)
- 1935Hugo Junkers, German engineer (b. 1859)
- 1936Sophie of Schönburg-Waldenburg, consort of William of Wied, Prince of Albania (b. 1885)
- 1937Marija Leiko, Latvian film actress (b. 1887)
- 1945Roland Freisler, Nazi leader (b. 1893)
- 1947Marc Mitscher, American Navy Admiral (b. 1887)
- 1952Harold L. Ickes, American administrator and politician (b. 1874)
- 1955Vasili Blokhin, Soviet Union executioner (b. 1895)
- 1956Émile Borel, French mathematician (b. 1871)
- 1956Johnny Claes, Belgian racing driver (b. 1916)
- 1959The Day the Music Died: Buddy Holly, American singer (b. 1936)
- 1959The Day the Music Died: J.P. “The Big Bopper” Richardson, American singer (b. 1930)
- 1959The Day the Music Died: Ritchie Valens, American singer (b. 1941)
- 1959The Day the Music Died: Roger Peterson, pilot (b. 1937)
- 1960Fred Buscaglione, Italian singer and actor (b. 1921)
- 1961Anna May Wong, American actress (b. 1905)
- 1961Viscount Dunrossil, Australian governor-general (b. 1893)
- 1964Sir Albert Richardson, English architect (b. 1880)
- 1967Joe Meek, English record producer (b. 1929)
- 1969Eduardo Mondlane Mozambican independence founder (b. 1920)
- 1975Umm Kulthum, Egyptian singer (b. 1904)
- 1975William D. Coolidge, American physicist and inventor (b. 1873)
- 1985Frank Oppenheimer, American physicist (b. 1912)
- 1989John Cassavetes, American actor (b. 1929)
- 1989Lionel Newman, American movie music orchestra leader, composer and arranger (b. 1916)
- 1991Harry Ackerman, American TV executive producer (b. 1912)
- 1991Nancy Kulp, American actress (b. 1921)
- 1998Fat Pat, American rapper (Screwed Up Click) (b. 1970)
- 1998Karla Faye Tucker, American murderer (b. 1959)
- 2003Lana Clarkson, American actress and model (b. 1962)
- 2004Jason Raize, American actor (b. 1975)
- 2006Al Lewis, American actor (b. 1923)
- 2009Sheng-yen, Buddhist monk and founder of Dharma Drum Mountain. (b. 1930)
- 2010Regina, Crown Princess of Austria (b. 1925)
- 2011Maria Schneider, French actress (b. 1952)
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