Sun · 27 SepMoon 99%Field Kp 4 · active Quote · Marcus Aurelius Riddle of the day Card of the dayHow today feels →

This day in history

This day in history: 3 February

Events, births and deaths on this date, ordered by how many people look them up.

Share

← Previous day2 Feb

Events53

Born on this day · Died on this day167 · 90

Next day →4 Feb

Key facts

310 historical events, births and deaths are listed for 3 February.
Entries come from Wikipedia’s day pages and are ordered by page views.
2026: Islamist militants massacred at least 162 while injuring and kidnapping dozens in two villages in Kwara State, Nigeria.

Holidays and observances

Christian feast day: Aaron the Illustrious (Syriac Orthodox Church)

Christian feast day: Ansgar

Christian feast day: Berlinda of Meerbeke

Christian feast day: Blaise

Christian feast day: Celsa and Nona

Christian feast day: Claudine Thévenet

Christian feast day: Dom Justo Takayama (Philippines and Japan)

Christian feast day: February 3 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics)

Christian feast day: Hadelin

Christian feast day: Margaret of England

Christian feast day: Werburgh

Communist Party of Vietnam Foundation Anniversary (Vietnam)

Events

2026Islamist militants massacred at least 162 while injuring and kidnapping dozens in two villages in Kwara State, Nigeria.

2023Ohio train derailment: A freight train containing vinyl chloride and other hazardous materials derails and burns in East Palestine, Ohio, United States, releasing hydrogen chloride and phosgene into the air and contaminating the Ohio River.

2014A school shooting in Moscow, Russia leaves two people dead and one wounded.

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

2005One hundred five people are killed when Kam Air Flight 904 crashes in the Pamir Mountains in Afghanistan.

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.

1995Astronaut Eileen Collins becomes the first woman to pilot the Space Shuttle as mission STS-63 gets underway from Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

1994Space Shuttle program: STS-60 is launched, carrying Sergei Krikalev, the first Russian cosmonaut to fly aboard the Shuttle.

1989After a stroke two weeks previously, 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.

1984Doctor John Buster and a research team at Harbor-UCLA Medical Center in the United States 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.

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.

1971New York Police Officer Frank Serpico is shot during a drug bust in Brooklyn and survives to later testify against police corruption.

1966The Soviet Union's Luna 9 becomes the first spacecraft to make a soft landing on the Moon, and the first spacecraft to take pictures from the surface of the Moon.

1961The United States Air Force 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 des

1960British Prime Minister Harold Macmillan speaks of "a wind of change", signalling that his Government is likely to support decolonisation.

1959Rock and roll musicians Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens, and J. P. "The Big Bopper" Richardson are killed in a plane crash along with the pilot near Clear Lake, Iowa, an event later known as The Day the Music Died.

1959Sixty-five people are killed when American Airlines Flight 320 crashes into the East River on approach to LaGuardia Airport in New York City.

1958Founding of the Benelux Economic Union, creating a testing ground for a later European Economic Community.

1953The Batepá massacre occurs in São Tomé when the colonial administration and Portuguese landowners unleash a wave of violence against the native creoles known as forros.

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 and 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.

1944World War II: During the Gilbert and Marshall Islands campaign, U.S. Army and Marine forces seize Kwajalein Atoll from the defending Japanese garrison.

1943The SS Dorchester is sunk by a German U-boat. Only 230 of 902 men aboard survive.

1933Adolf Hitler announces that the expansion of Lebensraum into Eastern Europe, and its ruthless Germanisation, are the ultimate geopolitical objectives of Nazi foreign policy.

1931The Hawke's Bay earthquake, New Zealand's worst natural disaster, kills 258.

1930The Communist Party of Vietnam is founded at a "Unification Conference" held in Kowloon, British Hong Kong.

1927A revolt against the military dictatorship of Portugal breaks out at Porto.

1918The Twin Peaks Tunnel in San Francisco, California begins service as the longest streetcar tunnel in the world at 11,920 feet (3,630 meters) long.

1917World War I: The American entry into World War I begins when diplomatic relations with Germany are severed due to its unrestricted submarine warfare.

1916The Centre Block of the Parliament buildings in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada burns down with the loss of seven lives.

1913The Sixteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution is ratified, authorizing the Federal government to impose and collect an income tax.

1870The Fifteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution is ratified, guaranteeing voting rights to male citizens regardless of race.

1862Moldavia and Wallachia formally unite to create the Romanian United Principalities.

1830The London Protocol of 1830 establishes the full independence and sovereignty of Greece from the Ottoman Empire as the final result of the Greek War of Independence.

1813José de San Martín defeats a Spanish royalist army at the Battle of San Lorenzo, part of the Argentine War of Independence.

1809The Territory of Illinois is created by the 10th United States Congress.

1807A British military force, under Brigadier-General Sir Samuel Auchmuty captures the Spanish Empire city of Montevideo, now the capital of Uruguay.

1787Militia led by General Benjamin Lincoln crush the remnants of Shays' Rebellion in Petersham, Massachusetts.

Born on this day

2004Rei, Japanese rapper and singer

2004Scoot Henderson, American basketball player

2001Rhys Williams, English footballer

2001Tre Mann, American basketball player

1999Kanna Hashimoto, Japanese actress

1998Aurélien Giraud, French skateboarder

1998Isaiah Roby, American basketball player

1998Tyler Huntley, American football player

1995Tao Tsuchiya, Japanese actress

1994Rougned Odor, Venezuelan baseball player

1993Adam Reach, English footballer

1992James White, American football player

1992Olli Aitola, Finnish ice hockey player

1990Sean Kingston, American-Jamaican singer-songwriter

1989Jia, Chinese singer and actress

1989Slobodan Rajković, Serbian footballer

1988Cho Kyu-hyun, South Korean singer

1987Elvana Gjata, Albanian singer

1986Kanako Yanagihara, Japanese actress

1986Mathieu Giroux, Canadian speed skater

1985Andrei Kostitsyn, Belarusian ice hockey player

1985Angela Fong, Canadian wrestler and actress

1984Elizabeth Holmes, American fraudster, founder of Theranos

1984Matthew Moy, American actor

1982Becky Bayless, American wrestler

1982Bridget Regan, American actress

1982Marie-Ève Drolet, Canadian speed skater

1978Amal Clooney, British-Lebanese barrister and activist

1978Joan Capdevila, Spanish footballer

1977Adia Barnes, American basketball player and coach

1977Daddy Yankee, Puerto Rican singer, songwriter, rapper, actor and record producer

1977Maitland Ward, American actress and model

1977Marek Židlický, Czech ice hockey player

1976Eihi Shiina, Japanese fashion model and actress

1976Isla Fisher, Omani-Australian actress

1976Mathieu Dandenault, Canadian ice hockey player

1976Tim Heidecker, American actor, comedian, and musician

1974Ayanna Pressley, American politician

1973Ilana Sod, Mexican journalist and producer

1971Elisa Donovan, American actress

Died on this day

2025Harry Jayawardena, Sri Lankan industrialist (born 1942)

2025Kandiah Balendra, Sri Lankan corporate leader and executive (born 1940)

2020George Steiner, French-American philosopher, author, and critic (born 1929)

2019Julie Adams, American actress (born 1926)

2019Kristoff St. John, American actor (born 1966)

2017Dritëro Agolli, Albanian poet, writer and politician (born 1931)

2016Balram Jakhar, Indian lawyer and politician, 23rd Governor of Madhya Pradesh (born 1923)

2016Joe Alaskey, American actor (born 1952)

2016József Kasza, Serbian politician and economist (born 1945)

2015Charlie Sifford, American golfer (born 1922)

2015Martin Gilbert, English historian, author, and academic (born 1936)

2015Mary Healy, American actress and singer (born 1918)

2015Nasim Hasan Shah, Pakistani lawyer and judge, 12th Chief Justice of Pakistan (born 1929)

2013Cardiss Collins, American politician (born 1931)

2013James Muri, American soldier and pilot (born 1918)

2013Jam Mohammad Yousaf, Pakistani politician, Chief Minister of Balochistan (born 1954)

2013Oscar Feltsman, Ukrainian-Russian composer and producer (born 1921)

2012Andrzej Szczeklik, Polish physician and academic (born 1938)

2012Ben Gazzara, American actor and director (born 1930)

2012Raj Kanwar, Indian director, producer, and screenwriter (born 1961)

2012Terence Hildner, American general (born 1962)

2012Toh Chin Chye, Singaporean academic and politician, 1st Deputy Prime Minister of Singapore (born 1921)

2012Zalman King, American actor, director, and producer (born 1942)

2011Maria Schneider, French actress (born 1952)

2010Dick McGuire, American basketball player and coach (born 1926)

2010Frances Reid, American actress (born 1914)

2009Sheng-yen, Chinese monk and scholar, founded the Dharma Drum Mountain (born 1930)

2006Al Lewis, American actor and activist (born 1923)

2005Ernst Mayr, German-American biologist and ornithologist (born 1904)

2005Zurab Zhvania, Georgian biologist and politician, 4th Prime Minister of Georgia (born 1963)

Quote of the day

“Begin at once to live, and count each separate day as a separate life.”

Seneca

Questions people ask

Where do the entries come from?

From Wikipedia’s on-this-day pages for this language, updated once a day and ordered by how often each article is read.

This day in history

Every question has its own page

Journal

What you should know, before others do

Weekly insights. One article. One practice. No noise.

Cookies

We use essential cookies to run the platform. Analytics and marketing cookies are only turned on once you consent — you can change your choice at any time.