Did you know
In 1994, Space Shuttle program: STS-60 is launched, carrying Sergei Krikalev, the first Russian cosmonaut to fly aboard the Shuttle. This featured entry focuses on the immediate decision and its direct historical impact.
February 3 in History
1994 — Space Shuttle program: STS-60 is launched, carrying Sergei Krikalev, the first Russian cosmonaut to fly aboard the Shuttle
February 3 spans 53 recorded events across recorded history, from 1047 to 2026. Below is a curated digest of the most significant moments tied to this date.
By thisDay.info Editorial Team · — Wikipedia
Historical Events
53 events
1047 – 2026
Today in history
More major events on February 3
The featured story and these ranked highlights form a quick summary. Every recorded event remains available in the chronology below.
- 1830 The 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. Source
- 1783 Spain–United States relations are first established. Source
- 1984 Space Shuttle program: STS-41-B is launched using Space Shuttle Challenger. Source
Did you know
The Space Shuttle program was the fourth human spaceflight program carried out by the U.S. This helps explain why the event mattered beyond the initial announcement.
Did you know
National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), which accomplished routine transportation for Earth-to-orbit crew and cargo from 1981 to 2011. This clarifies the institutional and public response around the event.
Did you know
Its official program name was carried over from the 1969 plan for the Space Transportation System (STS) of reusable spacecraft. This shows how the event shaped policy and public communication in the same period.
Did you know
Only the shuttle and supporting rockets were funded for development; a proposed nuclear lunar shuttle in the plan was canceled in 1972. This helps explain why the event mattered beyond the initial announcement.
1047
Drogo of Hauteville is elected as count of the Apulian Normans during the Norman conquest of Southern Italy.
Second Count of Apulia and Calabria
1112
Ramon Berenguer III, Count of Barcelona, and Douce I, Countess of Provence, marry, uniting the fortunes of those two states.
12th c. Catalan ruler and Holy Roman Empire nobleman
1451
Sultan Mehmed II inherits the throne of the Ottoman Empire.
Noble title with several historical meanings
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.
Portuguese maritime explorer (c. 1450–1500)
1509
The Portuguese navy defeats a joint fleet of the Ottoman Empire, the Republic of Venice, the Sultan of Gujarat, the Mamlûk Burji Sultanate of Egypt, the Zamorin of Calicut, and the Republic of Ragusa at the Battle of Diu in Diu, India.
Colonial empire between 1415 and 1999
1583
Battle of São Vicente takes place off Portuguese Brazil where three English warships led by navigator Edward Fenton fight off three Spanish galleons sinking one in the process.
Part of the Anglo–Spanish War (1583)
1637
Tulip Mania collapses within the Dutch Republic.
17th-century economic bubble in the Netherlands
1639
The House of Assembly of Barbados meets for the first time.
Lower house of the Parliament of Barbados
1690
The colony of Massachusetts issues the first paper money in the Americas.
1628-1691 English colony in North America
1706
During the Battle of Fraustadt Swedish forces defeat a superior Saxon-Polish-Russian force by deploying a double envelopment.
Part of the Great Northern War (1706)
1716
The 1716 Algiers earthquake sequence began with an Mw 7.0 mainshock that caused severe damage and killed 20,000 in Algeria.
Earthquake in Algeria
1781
American Revolutionary War: British forces seize the Dutch-owned Caribbean island Sint Eustatius.
1775–1783 conflict in North America
1787
Militia led by General Benjamin Lincoln crush the remnants of Shays' Rebellion in Petersham, Massachusetts.
American army officer (1733–1810)
1807
A British military force, under Brigadier-General Sir Samuel Auchmuty captures the Spanish Empire city of Montevideo, now the capital of Uruguay.
British Army officer (1758–1822)
1809
The Territory of Illinois is created by the 10th United States Congress.
Territory of the U.S. between 1809–1818
1813
José de San Martín defeats a Spanish royalist army at the Battle of San Lorenzo, part of the Argentine War of Independence.
Argentine general and leader (1778–1850)
1830
The 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.
Agreement between the United Kingdom, France, and Russia
1862
Moldavia and Wallachia formally unite to create the Romanian United Principalities.
1859–1881 personal union and early form of the modern Romanian state
1870
The Fifteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution is ratified, guaranteeing voting rights to male citizens regardless of race.
1870 amendment prohibiting denial of voting rights on the basis of race
1913
The Sixteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution is ratified, authorizing the Federal government to impose and collect an income tax.
1913 amendment
1916
The Centre Block of the Parliament buildings in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada burns down with the loss of seven lives.
Main building of Canada's parliament
1917
World War I: The American entry into World War I begins when diplomatic relations with Germany are severed due to its unrestricted submarine warfare.
Global conflict from 1914 to 1918
1918
The 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.
Light rail tunnel in San Francisco, California
1927
A revolt against the military dictatorship of Portugal breaks out at Porto.
Military rebellion in Porto, Portugal
1930
The Communist Party of Vietnam is founded at a "Unification Conference" held in Kowloon, British Hong Kong.
Sole legal party of Vietnam
1931
The Hawke's Bay earthquake, New Zealand's worst natural disaster, kills 258.
Deadliest earthquake in New Zealand
1933
Adolf Hitler announces that the expansion of Lebensraum into Eastern Europe, and its ruthless Germanisation, are the ultimate geopolitical objectives of Nazi foreign policy.
Dictator of Germany from 1933 to 1945
1943
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 and 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.
U.S. unincorporated territory in southeast Asia from 1935 to 1946
1953
The 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.
1953 killing of native creoles in colonial São Tomé
1958
Founding of the Benelux Economic Union, creating a testing ground for a later European Economic Community.
Western European politico-economic union
1959
Rock 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.
1959
Sixty-five people are killed when American Airlines Flight 320 crashes into the East River on approach to LaGuardia Airport in New York City.
1959 aviation accident
1960
British Prime Minister Harold Macmillan speaks of "a wind of change", signalling that his Government is likely to support decolonisation.
Head of government
1961
The 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 destruction of the SAC's command post.
Air service branch of the U.S. military
1966
The 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.
Country in Eurasia from 1922 to 1991
1971
New York Police Officer Frank Serpico is shot during a drug bust in Brooklyn and survives to later testify against police corruption.
American police officer and whistleblower (born 1936)
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.
Deadliest blizzard in history
1984
Doctor 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.
American physician
1984
Space Shuttle program: STS-41-B is launched using Space Shuttle Challenger.
1972–2011 United States human spaceflight program
1989
After 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.
1989
A military coup overthrows Alfredo Stroessner, dictator of Paraguay since 1954.
Military overthrow of Alfredo Stroessner
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.
American astronaut and pilot (born 1956)
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.
1998 incident involving a US Marine Corps aircraft and a cable car in Italy
2005
One hundred five people are killed when Kam Air Flight 904 crashes in the Pamir Mountains in Afghanistan.
2005 aircraft accident in Afghanistan
2007
A Baghdad market bombing kills at least 135 people and injures a further 339.
2007 truck bombing of a market in Baghdad, Iraq
2014
A school shooting in Moscow, Russia leaves two people dead and one wounded.
Mass shooting and hostage taking in Moscow, Russia
2023
Ohio 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.
2023 disaster in Ohio, United States
2026
Islamist militants massacred at least 162 while injuring and kidnapping dozens in two villages in Kwara State, Nigeria.
Massacre by Terrorist militants in Nigeria