On February 3rd...

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474 Byzantine Emperor Leo I died.

1014 Viking King Sweyn Forkbeard died.

1116 King Coloman of Hungary died.

1576 Henry of Navarre (future Henry IV) escaped from Paris, France, during the St. Bartholomew's Day Massacre.

1690 The first paper money in America was issued by the Colony of Massachusetts.

1743 Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, established a "pesthouse" to quarantine immigrants.

1748 American politician Samuel Osgood was born.

1783 Spain recognized the independence of the United States.

1805 U.S. General Samuel Ryan Curtis was born.

1807 A British military force captured Montevideo (in what is now Uruguay).
1807 Confederate General Joseph E. Johnston was born.

1809 The Territory of Illinois was organized.
1809 Composer Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy was born.

1811 Newspaper publisher Horace Greeley was born.

1813 José de San Martín fought in his first battle for Argentinian independence.

1815 The world's first commercial cheese factory was established, in Switzerland.

1821 Physician Elizabeth Blackwell was born.

1830 The sovereignty of Greece was guaranteed by the London Protocol.

1834 Wake Forest University was established.

1836 The Whig Party held its first national convention, in Albany, New York.

1842 Poet Sidney Lanier was born.

1853 Inventor Hudson Maxim was born.

1855 The Wisconsin Supreme Court ruled that the U. S. Fugitive Slave Law was unconstitutional.

1865 The Hampton Roads Peace Conference ended in an impasse.

1867 Prince Mutsuhito became Emperor Meiji of Japan.

1874 Author Gertrude Stein was born.

1876 Albert Spalding began his sports equipment manufacturing company.

1881 Ornithologist John Gould died.

1882 P. T. Barnum purchased Jumbo the elephant.

1887 The U. S. Congress passed the Electoral Count Act.

1889 "Wild West" outlaw Belle Starr died.

1894 The first U. S. steel sailing vessel, Dirigo, was launched at Bath, Maine.
1894 Artist Norman Rockwell was born.

1900 Rival forces fought for control of the Union Park ball grounds in Baltimore, Maryland.
1900 Kentucky gubernatorial candidate William Goebel was assassinated in Frankfort.

1904 Charles Arthur "Pretty Boy" Floyd, armed robber and murderer, was born.

1907 Author James Michener was born.

1908 The U. S. Supreme Court ruled that a union boycot violates the Sherman Antitrust Act.

1913 The 16th Amendment, allowing establishment of a federal income tax, was ratified.

1917 The United States ended diplomatic relations with Germany.

1918 Comedian Joey Bishop was born.

1919 The League of Nations met for the first time.

1920 Eugene O'Neill's first full-length play, Beyond the Horizon, debuted on Broadway.

1924 Woodrow Wilson, 28th President of the United States, died.

1931 An earthquake killed 258 persons in New Zealand.

1935 Engineer Hugo Junkers died.

1940 Football player Fran Tarkenton was born.

1941 The U. S. Supreme Court upheld the Federal Wage and Hour Act, setting minumum wages and maximum hours.

1943 The SS Dorchester was sunk by a German torpedo.

1944 U. S. troops captured the Marshall Islands.

1947 Percival Prattis became the first black reporter to be allowed in the U. S. Congressional press gallery.

1950 Karl Seitz, former President of Austria, died.

1958 Belgium, the Netherlands, and Luxembourg signed treaties at The Hague, Netherlands, establishing a Benelux Economic Union.

1959 Buddy Holly, Richie Valens, J. P. Richards, and their pilot were killed in a plane crash near Clear Lake, Iowa.
1959 An American Airlines Electra crashed into the East River near La Guardia Airport, New York, New York, killing 64 persons.

1962 U. S. President John F. Kennedy banned all trade with Cuba except for food and drugs.

1966 The Soviet spacecraft Luna 9 became the first man-made object to make a soft landing on the Moon.
1966 The first operational weather satellite, ESSA-1, was launched by the United States.

1969 President Eduardo C. Mondlane of Mozambique was assassinated.

1972 The 11th Winter Olympic Games opened in Sapporo, Japan.

1979 Painter Aaron Douglas died.

1980 Larry Holmes scored a 6th-round TKO against Lorenzo Holmes to win the heavyweight boxing title.

1981 Gro Harlem Brundtland was elected as the first female Prime Minister of Norway.

1989 Paraguayan President Alfredo Stroessner was overthrown by a military coup.

1991 Actress Nancy Kulp died.

1996 Actress Audrey Meadows died.

1998 A U. S. military plane severed a cable car line in Cavalese, Italy, killing 20 persons.

2002 The New England Patriots defeated the St. Louis Rams 20-17 in Super Bowl XXXVI.

2006 Louis Woodard Jones, record-setting runner, died.
2006 Actor Al Lewis died.

2007 A bombing in a Baghdad, Iraq, market killed at least 135 people and injured about 340 others.

2008 The New York Giants defeated the New England Patriots 17-14 in Super Bowl XLII.

2010 Regina, Crown Princess of Austria, died.

2012 Actor Ben Gazzara died.

2013 A suicide bomber killed 33 persons in Kirkuk, Iraq.
2013 The Baltimore Ravens defeated the San Francisco 49ers 34-31 in Super Bowl XLVII.

2016 Musician Maurice White died.

2018 Dennis Edwards. lead singer of The Temptations, died.

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This page was last updated on February 02, 2019.