Historical Events on Tuesday, 3rd February

03/02/2026

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

On 3 February 2026, hundreds of extremist militants attacked the villages of Woro and Nuku in Kwara State, Nigeria, killing at least 162 residents. The attack was conducted after village residents rejected the militants demand to adopt their version of Sharia law and bowing to their demands of letting them go through the village. The attackers also torched a number of buildings and kidnapped several people. Reports on the allegiance of the perpetrators varied, with Nigerian President Bola Tinubu blaming Boko Haram, and local House of Representatives member Mohammed Omar Bio blaming the Islamic State-linked Lakurawa. It was one of the deadliest attacks in Nigeria in months. Nigerian sources labelled the event the Kwara massacre.

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03/02/2023

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.

On February 3, 2023, at 8:55 p.m. EST (UTC−5), a Norfolk Southern freight train derailed in East Palestine, Ohio, United States. The train was carrying hazardous materials when 38 cars derailed. Several railcars burned for more than two days and emergency crews also conducted controlled burns of several railcars, which released hydrogen chloride and phosgene into the air. Residents within a 1-mile (1.6-kilometer) radius were evacuated. Agencies from Ohio, Pennsylvania, West Virginia, and Virginia assisted in the emergency response.

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03/02/2014

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

On 3 February 2014, a school shooting occurred at School No. 263 in the Otradnoye District of Moscow, Russia. 15-year-old pupil Sergey Gordeyev, armed with a rifle, killed his geography teacher and held his classmates as hostages, before opening fire on first responders who arrived at the scene, killing a policeman and severely wounding a patrolman. In the following negotiations led by the perpetrator's father, the teenager released the hostages and was detained.

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03/02/2007

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

The February 2007 Al-Saydiya market bombing was the detonation of a large truck bomb in a busy market in the Iraqi capital of Baghdad. The suicide attack killed at least 135 people and injured 339 others. The bomb, estimated to be about one ton in weight, brought down at least 10 buildings and coffee shops and obliterated market stalls in a largely Shi‘ite enclave less than a half-mile from the Tigris River.

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03/02/2005

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

Kam Air Flight 904 was a scheduled passenger domestic flight from Herat Airport in Herat to Kabul International Airport in Afghanistan's capital Kabul. On 3 February 2005 the aircraft crashed in mountainous terrain killing all 97 passengers and 8 crew on board.

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03/02/1998

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.

The Cavalese cable car crash, also known as Strage del Cermis, occurred on 3 February 1998, near the Italian town of Cavalese, a ski resort in the Dolomites some 40 kilometres (25 mi) northeast of Trento. Twenty people were killed when a United States Marine Corps EA-6B Prowler aircraft, flying too low and too fast, against regulations, cut a cable supporting a cable car of an aerial lift.

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03/02/1995

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

Eileen Marie Collins is an American retired NASA astronaut and Air Force colonel. A flight instructor and test pilot, Collins was the first woman to pilot the Space Shuttle and the first to command a Space Shuttle mission.

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03/02/1994

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

The Space Shuttle program was the fourth human spaceflight program carried out by the U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), which accomplished routine transportation for Earth-to-orbit crew and cargo from 1981 to 2011. Its official program name was carried over from the 1969 plan for the Space Transportation System (STS) of reusable spacecraft. Only the shuttle and supporting rockets were funded for development; a proposed nuclear lunar shuttle in the plan was cancelled in 1972. It flew 135 missions and carried 355 astronauts from 16 countries, many on multiple trips.

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03/02/1989

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.

Stroke is a medical condition in which poor blood flow to a part of the brain causes cell death. There are two main types of stroke: ischemic, due to lack of blood flow, and hemorrhagic, due to bleeding. Both cause parts of the brain to stop functioning properly.

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A military coup overthrows Alfredo Stroessner, dictator of Paraguay since 1954.

The 1989 Paraguayan coup d'état, also known as La Noche de la Candelaria, was a coup d'état that took place on 2–3 February 1989 in Asunción, Paraguay, led by General Andrés Rodríguez against the regime of long-time leader Alfredo Stroessner. The bloody overthrow which saw numerous soldiers killed in street fighting was sparked by a power struggle in the highest echelons of the government. Rodríguez's takeover spelled the end of El Stronato, Stroessner's thirty-four year long rule—at the time the longest in Latin America—and led to an array of reforms which abolished numerous draconian laws and led to the liberalization of Paraguay.

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03/02/1984

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.

John Edmond Buster is an American physician who, while working at the University of California at Los Angeles School of Medicine, directed the research team that performed the first embryo transfer from one woman to another resulting in a live birth. It was performed at the Harbor-UCLA Medical Center, reported in July 1983, and culminated in the announcement of the birth on February 3, 1984. In the procedure, an embryo that was just beginning to develop was transferred from the woman in whom it had been conceived by artificial insemination to another woman who gave birth to the infant 38 weeks later. The sperm used in the artificial insemination came from the husband of the woman who bore the baby.

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Space Shuttle program: STS-41-B is launched using Space Shuttle Challenger.

The Space Shuttle program was the fourth human spaceflight program carried out by the U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), which accomplished routine transportation for Earth-to-orbit crew and cargo from 1981 to 2011. Its official program name was carried over from the 1969 plan for the Space Transportation System (STS) of reusable spacecraft. Only the shuttle and supporting rockets were funded for development; a proposed nuclear lunar shuttle in the plan was cancelled in 1972. It flew 135 missions and carried 355 astronauts from 16 countries, many on multiple trips.

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03/02/1972

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.

The Iran blizzard of February 1972 was the deadliest blizzard in history, as recorded by the Guinness Book of Records. A week-long period of low temperatures and severe winter storms, lasting 3–9 days in February 1972, resulted in the deaths of over 4,000 people. Storms dumped more than 7.9 metres of snow across rural areas in northwestern, central and southern Iran. The blizzard came after four years of drought.

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03/02/1971

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

Francesco Vincent "Frank" Serpico is an American retired New York City Police Department detective, best known for whistleblowing on police corruption. In the late 1960s and early 1970s, he was a plainclothes police officer working in Brooklyn, the Bronx and Manhattan to expose vice racketeering. In 1967, he reported credible evidence of widespread police corruption, to no effect. In 1970, he contributed to a front-page story in The New York Times on widespread corruption in the NYPD, which drew national attention to the problem. Mayor John V. Lindsay appointed a five-member panel to investigate accusations of police corruption, which became the Knapp Commission.

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03/02/1966

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.

The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR), also known as the Soviet Union, was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until its dissolution in 1991. It was the world's third-most populous country, largest by area, and bordered twelve countries. A diverse multinational state, it was organized as a federal union of national republics, the largest and most populous being the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic. In practice, its government and economy were highly centralized. As a one-party state governed by the Communist Party, it was the flagship communist state. Its capital and largest city was Moscow.

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03/02/1961

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.

The United States Air Force (USAF) is the air service branch of the United States Armed Forces. It is a part of the United States Department of Defense (DoD) and is one of the six armed forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. Tracing its origins to 1 August 1907, as a part of the United States Army Signal Corps, the Air Force was established by transfer of personnel from the Army Air Forces with the enactment of the National Security Act of 1947. It is the second youngest branch of the United States Armed Forces and the fourth in order of precedence. The United States Air Force articulates its core missions as air supremacy, global integrated intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance, rapid global mobility, global strike, and command and control.

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03/02/1960

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

The prime minister of the United Kingdom is the head of government of the United Kingdom. The prime minister advises the sovereign on the exercise of much of the royal prerogative, chairs the Cabinet, and selects its ministers. Modern prime ministers hold office by virtue of their ability to command the confidence of the House of Commons, so they are invariably members of Parliament.

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03/02/1959

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.

Charles Hardin Holley, known professionally by his stage name Buddy Holly, was an American singer, songwriter, and musician who was a central and pioneering figure of rock and roll. He was born to a musical family in Lubbock, Texas, during the Great Depression, and learned to play guitar and sing alongside his two siblings.

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

American Airlines Flight 320 was a scheduled flight between Chicago Midway Airport and New York City's LaGuardia Airport. On February 3, 1959, the Lockheed L-188 Electra performing the flight crashed into the East River during its approach to LaGuardia Airport, killing 65 of the 73 people on board. Weather conditions in the area were poor, and the aircraft descended through dense clouds and fog. As it approached the runway, it flew lower than the intended path and crashed into the icy river 4,900 feet (1,500 m) short of the runway. At the time of the crash, American Airlines had been flying the newly developed Lockheed Electra in commercial service for only about two weeks, and the accident was the first involving the aircraft type.

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03/02/1958

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

The Benelux Union or Benelux is a politico-economic union, alliance and formal international intergovernmental cooperation of three neighbouring states in Western Europe: Belgium, the Netherlands, and Luxembourg. The name is a syllabic abbreviation formed from the initial syllable of each country's name and was first used to name the customs agreement that initiated the union. It is now used more generally to refer to the geographic, economic, and cultural grouping of the three countries.

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03/02/1953

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.

The Batepá massacre occurred on 3 February 1953 in colonial São Tomé when hundreds of native creoles known as forros were massacred by the colonial administration and Portuguese landowners. Many forros believed the government intended to force them to work as contract laborers, to which they objected. In response, the governor blamed the unrest on communists and ordered the military to round up such individuals and for civilians to protect themselves. This quickly turned into a bloodbath, resulting in the deaths of hundreds of forros. No communist conspiracy was ever proven.

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03/02/1945

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.

Berlin, the capital of Germany, was subject to 363 air raids during the Second World War. It was bombed by the RAF Bomber Command between 1940 and 1945, the United States Army Air Forces' Eighth Air Force between 1943 and 1945, and the French Air Force in 1940 and between 1944 and 1945 as part of the Allied campaign of strategic bombing of Germany. It was also attacked by aircraft of the Red Air Force in 1941 and particularly in 1945, as Soviet forces closed on the city. British bombers dropped 45,517 tons of bombs, while American aircraft dropped 22,090.3 tons. As the bombings continued, more and more people fled the city. By May 1945, 1.7 million people had fled.

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World War II: The United States and the Philippine Commonwealth begin a month-long battle to retake Manila from Japan.

The Commonwealth of the Philippines was an unincorporated territory and commonwealth (dependency) of the United States that existed from 1935 to 1946. It was established following the Tydings–McDuffie Act to replace the Insular Government of the Philippine Islands and was designed as a transitional administration in preparation for full Philippine independence. Its foreign affairs remained managed by the United States.

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03/02/1944

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

World War II, or the Second World War, was a global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies and the Axis powers. Nearly all of the world's countries participated. Tanks and aircraft played major roles, the latter enabling the strategic bombing of cities and delivery of the only nuclear weapons used in war. World War II was the deadliest conflict in history, causing the death of 60 to 75 million people. Millions died as a result of massacres, starvation, disease, and genocides including the Holocaust. After the Allied victory, Germany, Austria, Japan, and Korea were occupied, and German and Japanese leaders were tried for war crimes.

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03/02/1943

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

Dorchester was a coastal passenger steamship requisitioned and operated by the War Shipping Administration (WSA) in January 1942 for wartime use as a troop ship allocated to United States Army requirements. The ship was operated for WSA by its agent Atlantic, Gulf & West Indies Steamship Lines (Agwilines). The ship was in convoy SG 19 from New York to Greenland transiting the Labrador Sea when it was torpedoed by a German U-boat on February 3, 1943. The ship sank with loss of 674 of the 904 on board with one of the 230 survivors lost after rescue. The story of four Army chaplains, known as the "Four Chaplains" or the "Immortal Chaplains," who all gave away their life jackets to save others before they died, gained fame and led to many memorials.

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03/02/1933

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

Adolf Hitler was an Austrian-born German politician who was the dictator of Germany during the Nazi era from 1933 until his suicide in 1945. He rose to power as the leader of the Nazi Party, becoming the chancellor of Germany in 1933 and then taking the title of Führer und Reichskanzler in 1934. Germany's invasion of Poland on 1 September 1939 under his leadership marked the outbreak of the Second World War. Throughout the ensuing conflict, Hitler was closely involved in the direction of German military operations and was central to the perpetration of the Holocaust, the genocide of about six million Jews and millions of other victims.

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03/02/1931

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

The 1931 Hawke's Bay earthquake, also known as the Napier earthquake, occurred in New Zealand at 10:47 am on 3 February, killing 256, injuring thousands and devastating the Hawke's Bay region. It remains New Zealand's deadliest natural disaster. Centred 15 km north of Napier, it lasted for two and a half minutes and had a magnitude of 7.8 Ms. There were 525 aftershocks recorded in the following two weeks, with 597 being recorded by the end of February. The main shock could be felt in much of New Zealand, with reliable reports coming in from as far south as Timaru, on the east coast of the South Island.

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03/02/1930

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

The Communist Party of Vietnam (CPV) is the sole legal party of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam (SRV). Founded in 1930 by Ho Chi Minh, the CPV dominantly established the government of Democratic Republic of Vietnam (DRV), before becoming the sole ruling party when its state was known as the North Vietnam in 1954 after the First Indochina War and all of Vietnam in 1975 after the Vietnam War. Although it nominally exists alongside the Vietnam Fatherland Front, it maintains a unitary government and has centralized control over the state, military, and media. The supremacy of the CPV is guaranteed by Article 4 of the national constitution. The Vietnamese public generally refer to the CPV as simply "the Party" or "our Party".

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03/02/1927

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

The February 1927 Revolt, sometimes also referred to as the February 1927 Revolution, was a military rebellion in Portugal that took place between February 3 and 9, 1927, centered in Porto, the city where the insurgents' command center was installed and fought the main challenges. The revolt, led by Adalberto Gastão de Sousa Dias, ended with the surrender and arrest of the rebels and resulted in about 80 deaths and 360 injuries in Porto and more than 70 deaths and 400 injuries in Lisbon. It was the first consequent attempt to overthrow the Military Dictatorship that was then consolidated in Portugal following the 28 May 1926 coup d'état, which occurred nine months earlier, initiating a set of insurrectionary movements that became known as the Reviralhism.

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03/02/1918

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.

The Twin Peaks Tunnel is a 2.27-mile-long (3.65 km) light rail/streetcar tunnel in San Francisco, California. The tunnel runs under Twin Peaks and is used by the K Ingleside, L Taraval, M Ocean View and S Shuttle lines of the Muni Metro system.

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03/02/1917

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

World War I, or the First World War, also known as the Great War, was a global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies and the Central Powers. Major areas of conflict included Europe and the Middle East, as well as parts of Africa and the Asia-Pacific. The war saw important developments in weaponry including tanks, aircraft, artillery, machine guns, and chemical weapons. One of the deadliest conflicts in history, it resulted in an estimated 15 to 22 million military and civilian casualties and genocide. The movement of large numbers of people was a major factor in the deadly Spanish flu pandemic.

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03/02/1916

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

The Centre Block is the main building of the Canadian parliamentary complex on Parliament Hill, in Ottawa, Ontario, containing the House of Commons and Senate chambers, as well as the offices of a number of members of parliament, senators, and senior administration for both legislative houses. It is also the location of several ceremonial spaces, such as the Hall of Honour, the Memorial Chamber, and Confederation Hall.

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03/02/1913

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

The Sixteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution allows Congress to levy an income tax without apportioning it among the states on the basis of population. It was passed by Congress in 1909 in response to the 1895 Supreme Court case of Pollock v. Farmers' Loan & Trust Co. The Sixteenth Amendment was ratified by the requisite number of states on February 3, 1913, and effectively overruled the Supreme Court's ruling in Pollock.

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03/02/1870

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

The Fifteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution prohibits the federal government or any state from denying or abridging a citizen's right to vote "on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude." It was ratified on February 3, 1870, as the third and last of the Reconstruction Amendments.

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03/02/1862

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

The United Principalities of Moldavia and Wallachia, commonly called United Principalities or Wallachia and Moldavia, was the personal union of the Principality of Moldavia and the Principality of Wallachia. The union was formed on 5 February [O.S. 24 January] 1859 when Alexandru Ioan Cuza was elected as the Domnitor of both principalities. Their separate autonomous vassalage in the Ottoman Empire continued with the unification of both principalities. On 3 February [O.S. 22 January] 1862, Moldavia and Wallachia formally united to create the Romanian United Principalities or Romania the core of the Romanian nation state.

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03/02/1830

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.

The London Protocol of 1830, also known as the Protocol of Independence in Greek historiography, was a treaty signed between France, Russia, and Great Britain on 3 February 1830. It was the first official international diplomatic act that recognized Greece as a fully sovereign and independent state, separate from the Ottoman Empire. The protocol afforded Greece the political, administrative, and commercial rights of an independent state, and defined the northern border of Greece from the mouth of the Achelous or Aspropotamos river to the mouth of the Spercheios river. As a result of the Greek War of Independence, which had broken out in 1821, the autonomy of Greece in one form or another had been recognized already since 1826, and a provisional Greek government under Governor Ioannis Kapodistrias existed, but the conditions of the Greek autonomy, its political status, and the borders of the new Greek state, were being debated between the Great Powers, the Greeks, and the Ottoman government.

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03/02/1813

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

José Francisco de San Martín y Matorras, nicknamed "the Liberator of Argentina, Chile and Peru", was an Argentine general and the primary leader of the southern and central parts of South America's successful struggle for independence from the Spanish Empire who served as the Protector of Peru. Born in Yapeyú, Corrientes, in modern-day Argentina, he left the Viceroyalty of the Río de la Plata at the early age of seven to study in Málaga, Spain.

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03/02/1809

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

The Territory of Illinois was an organized incorporated territory of the United States that existed from March 1, 1809, until December 3, 1818, when the southern portion of the territory was admitted to the Union as the State of Illinois. Its capital was the former French village of Kaskaskia on the Mississippi River. The northern half of the territory, modern Wisconsin and parts of modern Minnesota and Michigan became part of the Territory of Michigan in 1818.

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03/02/1807

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

Lieutenant-General Sir Samuel Auchmuty was a British army officer who served in a number of military campaigns in India, Africa and South America during the Napoleonic era.

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03/02/1787

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

Benjamin Lincoln was an American army officer. He served as a major general in the Continental Army during the American Revolutionary War. Lincoln was involved in three major surrenders during the war: his participation in the Battles of Saratoga contributed to John Burgoyne's surrender of a British army, he oversaw the largest American surrender of the war at the 1780 siege of Charleston, and, as George Washington's second in command, he formally accepted the British surrender at Yorktown.

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03/02/1783

Spain–United States relations are first established.

The Kingdom of Spain and the United States of America maintain bilateral international relations. The Spaniards were the first Europeans to establish a permanent settlement in what is now United States territory. The first settlement in modern-day United States territory was San Juan, Puerto Rico, founded in 1521 by Spanish explorer Juan Ponce de León. 35 years later, Spanish admiral Pedro Menéndez de Avilés founded the city of St. Augustine, Spanish Florida, which became a small outpost that never grew very large. More permanent, much larger territories were established in New Mexico and California, with a few in Texas and Arizona, forming part of the colonial history of the United States. Although the Spanish elements in the history of the United States were mostly ignored by American historians in the decades after independence, the concept of the "Spanish borderlands" in the American Southwest was developed by American historians in the 20th century, which integrated Spain into U.S. history.

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03/02/1781

American Revolutionary War: British forces seize the Dutch-owned Caribbean island Sint Eustatius.

The American Revolutionary War, also known as the Revolutionary War or American War of Independence, was the armed conflict that comprised the final eight years of the broader American Revolution, in which American Patriot forces organized as the Continental Army and commanded by George Washington defeated the British Army. The conflict was fought in North America, the Caribbean, and the Atlantic Ocean. The war's outcome seemed uncertain for most of the war, but Washington and the Continental Army's decisive victory in the Siege of Yorktown in 1781 led King George III and the Kingdom of Great Britain to negotiate an end to the war. In 1783, in the Treaty of Paris, the British monarchy acknowledged the independence of the Thirteen Colonies, leading to the establishment of the United States as an independent and sovereign nation.

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03/02/1716

The 1716 Algiers earthquake sequence began with an Mw  7.0 mainshock that caused severe damage and killed 20,000 in Algeria.

The 1716 Algiers earthquake was part of a seismic sequence which began in February and ended in May 1716. The largest and most destructive shock occurred on February 3 with an estimated moment magnitude of 7.0. The earthquakes with an epicenter thought to be in the Algiers region had a maximum European macroseismic scale (EMS-98) intensity of IX (Destructive), killing approximately 20,000 people. The earthquake was felt in Catania and Syracuse on the Italian island Sicily.

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03/02/1706

During the Battle of Fraustadt Swedish forces defeat a superior Saxon-Polish-Russian force by deploying a double envelopment.

The Battle of Fraustadt was fought on 2 February 1706 (O.S.) / 3 February 1706 / 13 February 1706 (N.S.) between Sweden and Saxony-Poland and their Russian allies near Fraustadt in Poland. During the Battle of Fraustadt on February 3, August II was only 120 km away, with a cavalry force about 8,000 men strong. According to Cathal Nolan that caused Swedish General Rehnskiöld to rush to engage Schulenburg. The Swedes were outnumbered by more than two to one by Saxons, mercenaries, and Russians. Ignoring the odds, Rehnsköld attacked the enemy's well-entrenched position. He sent cavalry to drive off defending Saxon horse on either wing and complete a classic double envelopment. The manoeuvre meant they could attack from behind into the center rear of the enemy's main line. The result was 8,000 Russian deaths and 5,000 Saxons and German mercenaries taken prisoner. The battle is a textbook example of a perfect pincer movement and was one of Sweden's key victories in the Great Northern War.

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03/02/1690

The colony of Massachusetts issues the first paper money in the Americas.

The Massachusetts Bay Colony (1628–1691), more formally the Colony of Massachusetts Bay, was an English settlement on the east coast of North America around Massachusetts Bay, one of the several colonies later reorganized as the Province of Massachusetts Bay. The lands of the settlement were in southern New England, with initial settlements on two natural harbors and surrounding land about 15.4 miles (24.8 km) apart—the areas around Salem and Boston, north of the previously established Plymouth Colony. The territory nominally administered by the Massachusetts Bay Colony covered much of central New England, including portions of Massachusetts, Maine, New Hampshire, and Connecticut.

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03/02/1639

The House of Assembly of Barbados meets for the first time.

The House of Assembly of Barbados is the lower house of the bicameral Parliament of Barbados. It has 30 Members of Parliament (MPs), who are directly elected in single member constituencies using the simple-majority system for a term of five years. The House of Assembly sits roughly 40–45 days a year and is presided over by a Speaker. If the Speaker elected by the Assembly is not an MP currently in the House of Assembly, that Speaker becomes the 31st member of the Assembly, having a vote on motions that are tied.

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03/02/1637

Tulip Mania collapses within the Dutch Republic.

Tulip mania was a period during the Dutch Golden Age when contract prices for some bulbs of the recently introduced and fashionable tulip reached extraordinarily high levels. The major acceleration started in 1634 and then dramatically collapsed in February 1637. It is generally considered to have been the first recorded speculative bubble or asset bubble in history. In many ways, the tulip mania was more of a then-unknown socio-economic phenomenon than a significant economic crisis. It had no critical influence on the prosperity of the Dutch Republic, which was one of the world's leading economic and financial powers in the 17th century, with the highest per capita income in the world from about 1600 to about 1720. The term tulip mania is now often used metaphorically to refer to any large economic bubble when asset prices deviate from intrinsic values.

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03/02/1583

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.

The Battle of São Vicente was a minor naval engagement that took place off São Vicente, Portuguese Brazil on 3 February 1583 between three English ships, and three Spanish galleons. The English under Edward Fenton on an expedition having failed to enter the Pacific, then attempted to trade off Portuguese Brazil but were intercepted by a detached Spanish squadron under Commodore Andrés de Equino. After a moonlit battle briefly interrupted by a rainstorm the Spanish were defeated with one galleon sunk and another heavily damaged along with heavy losses. Fenton then attempted to resume trading but without success and thus returned to England.

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03/02/1509

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.

The Portuguese Empire was the first European colonial empire, existing between 1415 and 1999. In conjunction with the Spanish Empire, it ushered in the European Age of Discovery. It achieved a global scale, controlling vast portions of the Americas, Africa and various islands in Asia and Oceania. It was one of the most powerful empires of the early modern period, while at its greatest extent in 1820, covering 5.5 million square km, making it among the largest empires in history. Composed of colonies, factories, and later overseas territories, it was the longest-lived colonial empire in history, from the conquest of Ceuta in North Africa in 1415 to the handover of Macau to China in 1999.

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03/02/1488

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.

Bartolomeu Dias was a Portuguese mariner and explorer. In February 1488, he became the first European navigator to round the southern tip of Africa and to demonstrate that the most effective southward route for ships is in the open ocean, well to the west of the African coast. His discoveries were later used by Vasco da Gama to establish a sea route between Europe and Asia.

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03/02/1451

Sultan Mehmed II inherits the throne of the Ottoman Empire.

Sultan is a position with several historical meanings. Originally, it was an Arabic abstract noun meaning "strength", "authority", "rulership", derived from the verbal noun سلطة sulṭah, meaning "authority" or "power". Later, it came to be used as the title of certain rulers who claimed almost full sovereignty without claiming the overall caliphate, or to refer to a powerful governor of a province within the caliphate. The adjectival form of the word is "sultanic", and the state and territories ruled by a sultan, as well as his office, are referred to as a sultanate.

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03/02/1112

Ramon Berenguer III, Count of Barcelona, and Douce I, Countess of Provence, marry, uniting the fortunes of those two states.

Ramon Berenguer III the Great was the count of Barcelona, Girona, and Ausona from 1086, Besalú from 1111, Cerdanya from 1117, and count of Provence in the Holy Roman Empire, from 1112, all until his death in Barcelona in 1131. As Ramon Berenguer I, he was Count of Provence in right of his wife.

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03/02/1047

Drogo of Hauteville is elected as count of the Apulian Normans during the Norman conquest of Southern Italy.

Drogo of Hauteville was the second Norman Count of Apulia. He led the Normans of Southern Italy after the death of his brother, William Iron Arm.

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