What Happened On February 3 - On This Day

  • February
  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • 4
  • 5
  • 6
  • 7
  • 8
  • 9
  • 10
  • 11
  • 12
  • 13
  • 14
  • 15
  • 16
  • 17
  • 18
  • 19
  • 20
  • 21
  • 22
  • 23
  • 24
  • 25
  • 26
  • 27
  • 28
  • 29
1234567891011121314151617181920212223242526272829
  • Summary
  • Events
  • Birthdays
  • Deaths
  • Weddings
  • Film & TV
  • Music
  • Sport
  • 1451 Sultan Mehmed II, the Conqueror inherits the throne of the Ottoman Empire
  • 1509 Battle of Diu: Portuguese Armada defeats a Mamluk Egyptian fleet in a naval battle at the port of Diu, India, establishing Portuguese trading control in the Indian Ocean
  • 1870 Iowa ratifies the 15th Amendment to the United States Constitution, allowing suffrage for all races and colors
  • 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')
  • The Hastings post office damaged after the 1931 earthquake

    Hawke's Bay Earthquake

    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
  • 1966 First soft landing on the Moon, by the Soviet spacecraft Luna 9
More February 3 Events
  • 1960 "La Dolce Vita" directed by Federico Fellini and starring Marcello Mastroianni and Anita Ekberg has its film premiere in Italy
  • 1959 Plane crash known as "The Day the Music Died" kills musicians Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens, J. P. Richardson (aka The Big Bopper), and the pilot near Clear Lake, Iowa
  • 1876 Albert Spalding invests $800 to start a sporting goods company, manufacturing the first official baseball, tennis ball, basketball, golf ball, and football

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

February 3, 1882

  • Joseph E. Johnston

    1807 - 1891
  • Elizabeth Blackwell

    1821 - 1910
  • Robert Gascoyne-Cecil

    1830 - 1903
  • Pretty Boy Floyd

    1904 - 1934
  • Elizabeth Holmes

    41 Years Old
More Birthdays on February 3
  • Nathan Lane

    69 Years Old
  • Isla Fisher

    49 Years Old
  • Felix Mendelssohn

    1809 - 1847
  • Daddy Yankee

    48 Years Old
  • George Nissen

    1914 - 2010
  • Bob Simpson

    1936 - 2025
  • Emile Griffith

    1938 - 2013
  • Carol Mann

    1941 - 2018
  • Fran Tarkenton

    85 Years Old
  • Fred Lynn

    73 Years Old

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

February 3, 1931

  • 1112 Ramon Berenguer III of Barcelona and Douce I of Provence marry, uniting the fortunes of those two states.
  • 1547 Russian Tsar Ivan IV [Ivan the Terrible] (17) marries Anastasia Romanova (17)
  • 1910 Author James Weldon Johnson (38) weds civil rights activist Grace Nail Johnson (24) at her family's home
  • 1999 American actress Angelina Jolie (23) divorces actor Jonny Lee Miller (26) after 3 years of marriage
More February 3 Weddings
  • John of Gaunt

    1340 - 1399
  • Johannes Gutenberg

    - 1468
  • Edward Charles Pickering

    1846 - 1919
  • Woodrow Wilson

    1856 - 1924
  • August Horch

    1868 - 1951
  • Griselda Blanco

    1943 - 2012
More February 3 Deaths
  • Elizabeth Blackwell (inset) organised medical relief for Union Army soldiers in the Civil War. Her work led to the US Sanitary Commission which ran 30 centres like this one in Alexandria, Virginia, in 1863

    America’s First Woman Doctor

    Elizabeth Blackwell, the first woman in the United States to receive a medical degree and the first woman on the British medical register, was born on this day. February 3, 1821
  • Page one of the original copy of the Constitution of the United States

    Weekly Quiz for February 3 - 9

    In 1870 the US ratified the 15th amendment to the constitution, what did it then do? From which university did Mark Zuckerberg launch Facebook in 2004?
  • 2 Feb
  • Calendar
  • Feb 4
  • A seemingly well-fed Carlos (left) at a shooting party, thought to be in the 1890s

    How Portugal Lost Its Monarchy

    February 1, 1908
  • Mark Twain c1900. Photograph: Topical Press Agency/Getty Images

    The Hidden Depths of Mark Twain

    February 2, 1863
  • Liberace in the 1950s at the peak of his highly successful career

    I'm Not Gay Insists 'Fruit-Flavoured, Mincing' Liberace

    February 4, 1987
  • A blurry photo from the 1880s of early “Bobbies” in their top hats on duty in London

    ‘Bobbies’ Take To The Streets Of London

    February 5, 1788
  • February
  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • 4
  • 5
  • 6
  • 7
  • 8
  • 9
  • 10
  • 11
  • 12
  • 13
  • 14
  • 15
  • 16
  • 17
  • 18
  • 19
  • 20
  • 21
  • 22
  • 23
  • 24
  • 25
  • 26
  • 27
  • 28
  • 29
1234567891011121314151617181920212223242526272829 SummaryEventsBirthdaysDeathsWeddingsFilm & TVMusicSport
  • Summary
  • Events
  • Birthdays
  • Deaths
  • Weddings
  • Film & TV
  • Music
  • Sport
Full Calendar
  • All Days 12345678910111213141516171819202122232425262728293031
  • All Months JanuaryFebruaryMarchAprilMayJuneJulyAugustSeptemberOctoberNovemberDecember
  • All TypesEventsBirthdaysDeathsWeddings
  • Search

Search the largest and most accurate independent site for today in history.

  • All Days 12345678910111213141516171819202122232425262728293031
  • All Months JanuaryFebruaryMarchAprilMayJuneJulyAugustSeptemberOctoberNovemberDecember
  • All TypesEventsBirthdaysDeathsWeddings
  • Search

Tag » What Day Is February 3rd