February 3

February 3 in recent years

2024 (Saturday)

2023 (Friday)

2022 (Thursday)

2021 (Wednesday)

2020 (Monday)

2019 (Sunday)

2018 (Saturday)

2017 (Friday)

2016 (Wednesday)

2015 (Tuesday)

February 3 is the 34th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar; 331 days remain until the end of the year (332 in leap years).

Events

• 1112 – Ramon Berenguer III, Count of Barcelona and Douce I, Countess of Provence marry, uniting the fortunes of those two states.
• 1377 – More than 2,000 people of the Italian city of Cesena are killed by the Condottieri (papal armed forces) in the "Cesena Bloodbath".
• 1451 – Sultan Mehmed II inherits the throne of the Ottoman Empire.
• 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.
• 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.
• 1534 – Irish rebel Silken Thomas (Thomas FitzGerald, 10th Earl of Kildare) is executed by the order of Henry VIII in London, England.
• 1690 – The colony of Massachusetts issues the first paper money in the Americas.
• 1706 – During the Battle of Fraustadt Swedish forces defeat a superior Saxon-Polish-Russian force by deploying a double envelopment.
• 1781 – American Revolutionary War: British forces seize the Dutch-owned Caribbean island Sint Eustatius.
• 1783 – American Revolutionary War: Spain recognizes United States independence.
• 1787 – Militia led by General Benjamin Lincoln crush the remnants of Shays' Rebellion in Petersham, Massachusetts.
• 1807 – A British military force, under Brigadier-General Sir Samuel Auchmuty captures the Spanish Empire city of Montevideo, now the capital of Uruguay.
• 1809 – The Territory of Illinois is created by the 10th United States Congress.
• 1813 – José de San Martín defeats a Spanish royalist army at the Battle of San Lorenzo, part of the Argentine War of Independence.
• 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.
• 1834 – Wake Forest University is established.
• 1852 – Justo José de Urquiza defeats Juan Manuel de Rosas at the Battle of Caseros.
• 1870 – The Fifteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution is ratified, guaranteeing voting rights to citizens regardless of race.
• 1897 – The Greco-Turkish War breaks out.
• 1900 – Governor of Kentucky William Goebel dies of wound sustained in an assassination attempt three days earlier in Frankfort, Kentucky.
• 1913 – The Sixteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution is ratified, authorizing the Federal government to impose and collect an income tax.
• 1916 – The Centre Block of the Parliament buildings in Ottawa, Canada burns down with the loss of 7 lives.
• 1917 – World War I: The United States breaks off diplomatic relations with Germany a day after the latter announced a new policy of unrestricted submarine warfare.
• 1918 – The Twin Peaks Tunnel in San Francisco, California begins service as the longest streetcar tunnel in the world at 11,920 feet (3,633 meters) long.
• 1930 – Communist Party of Vietnam is founded at a "Unification Conference" held in Kowloon, British Hong Kong.
• 1931 – The Hawke's Bay earthquake, New Zealand's worst natural disaster, kills 258.
• 1933 – Adolf Hitler announces that the expansion of Lebensraum into Eastern Europe, and its ruthless Germanisation, are the ultimate geopolitical objectives of Third Reich foreign policy.
• 1943 – The SS Dorchester is sunk by a German U-boat. Only 230 of 902 men aboard survive. The Chapel of the Four Chaplains, dedicated by President Harry Truman, is one of many memorials established to commemorate the Four Chaplains story.
• 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.
• 1957 – Senegalese political party Democratic Rally merges into the Senegalese Party of Socialist Action (PSAS).
• 1958 – Founding of the Benelux Economic Union, creating a testing ground for a later European Economic Community.
• 1959 – Deaths of rock and roll musicians Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens, and J. P. "The Big Bopper" Richardson, in a plane crash near Clear Lake, Iowa.
• 1960 – British Prime Minister Harold Macmillan speaks of "a wind of change", signalling that his Government was likely to support decolonisation.
• 1961 – The United States Air Forces 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.
• 1966 – The unmanned Soviet Luna 9 spacecraft makes the first controlled rocket-assisted landing on the Moon.
• 1967 – Ronald Ryan, the last person to be executed in Australia, is hanged in Pentridge Prison, Melbourne.
• 1969 – In Cairo, Yasser Arafat is appointed Palestine Liberation Organization leader at the Palestinian National Congress.
• 1971 – New York Police Officer Frank Serpico is shot during a drug bust in Brooklyn and survives to later testify against police corruption.
• 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.
• 1984 – John Buster and the research team at Harbor-UCLA Medical Center announce history's first embryo transfer, from one woman to another resulting in a live birth.
• 1984 – Space Shuttle program: STS-41-B is launched using Space Shuttle Challenger.
• 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.
• 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.
• 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.
• 2007 – A Baghdad market bombing kills at least 135 people and injures a further 339.
• 2014 – Two people are shot and killed and 29 students are taken hostage at a high school in Moscow, Russia.

Births

• 1338 – Joanna of Bourbon (d. 1378)
• 1392 – Henry Percy, 2nd Earl of Northumberland, English commander (d. 1455)
• 1677 – Jan Santini Aichel, Czech architect, designed the Karlova Koruna Chateau (d. 1723)
• 1689 – Blas de Lezo, Spanish admiral (d. 1741)
• 1690 – Richard Rawlinson, English minister and historian (d. 1755)
• 1721 – Friedrich Wilhelm von Seydlitz, Prussian general (d. 1773)
• 1736 – Johann Georg Albrechtsberger, Austrian composer and theorist (d. 1809)
• 1747 – Samuel Osgood, American soldier and politician, 1st United States Postmaster General (d. 1813)
• 1757 – Joseph Forlenze, Italian ophthalmologist and surgeon (d. 1833)
• 1763 – Caroline von Wolzogen, German author (d. 1847)
• 1777 – John Cheyne, Scottish physician and author (d. 1836)
• 1795 – Antonio José de Sucre, Venezuelan general and politician, 2nd President of Bolivia (d. 1830)
• 1807 – Joseph E. Johnston, American general and politician (d. 1891)
• 1808 – Princess Marie of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach (d. 1877)
• 1809 – Felix Mendelssohn, German pianist, composer, and conductor (d. 1847)
• 1811 – Horace Greeley, American journalist and politician (d. 1872)
• 1817 – Achille Ernest Oscar Joseph Delesse, French geologist and mineralogist (d. 1881)
• 1817 – Émile Prudent, French pianist and composer (d. 1863)
• 1821 – Elizabeth Blackwell, American physician and educator (d. 1910)
• 1824 – Ranald MacDonald, American explorer and educator (d. 1894)
• 1826 – Walter Bagehot, English journalist and businessman (d. 1877)
• 1830 – Robert Gascoyne-Cecil, 3rd Marquess of Salisbury, English politician, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (d. 1903)
• 1842 – Sidney Lanier, American composer and poet (d. 1881)
• 1843 – William Cornelius Van Horne, American-Canadian businessman (d. 1915)
• 1857 – Giuseppe Moretti, Italian sculptor, designed the Vulcan statue (d. 1935)
• 1859 – Hugo Junkers, German engineer, designed the Junkers J 1 (d. 1935)
• 1862 – James Clark McReynolds, American lawyer and judge (d. 1946)
• 1872 – Lou Criger, American baseball player and manager (d. 1934)
• 1874 – Gertrude Stein, American author, poet, and playwright (d. 1946)
• 1878 – Gordon Coates, New Zealand soldier and politician, 21st Prime Minister of New Zealand (d. 1943)
• 1887 – Georg Trakl, Austrian pharmacist and poet (d. 1914)
• 1889 – Artur Adson, Estonian poet, playwright, and critic (d. 1977)
• 1889 – Carl Theodor Dreyer, Danish director and screenwriter (d. 1968)
• 1892 – Juan Negrín, Spanish physician and politician, 67th Prime Minister of Spain (d. 1956)
• 1893 – Gaston Julia, Algerian-French mathematician and academic (d. 1978)
• 1894 – Norman Rockwell, American painter and illustrator (d. 1978)
• 1898 – Alvar Aalto, Finnish architect, designed the Finlandia Hall and Aalto Theatre (d. 1976)
• 1899 – Café Filho, Brazilian journalist, lawyer, and politician, 18th President of Brazil (d. 1970)
• 1900 – Mabel Mercer, English-American singer (d. 1984)
• 1901 – Arvid Wallman, Swedish diver (d. 1982)
• 1903 – Douglas Douglas-Hamilton, 14th Duke of Hamilton, Scottish soldier, pilot, and politician (d. 1973)
• 1904 – Pretty Boy Floyd, American gangster (d. 1934)
• 1905 – Paul Ariste, Estonian linguist and academic (d. 1990)
• 1905 – Arne Beurling, Swedish-American mathematician and academic (d. 1986)
• 1906 – George Adamson, Indian-English author and activist (d. 1989)
• 1907 – James A. Michener, American author and philanthropist (d. 1997)
• 1909 – André Cayatte, French lawyer and director (d. 1989)
• 1909 – Simone Weil, French mystic and philosopher (d. 1943)
• 1911 – Jehan Alain, French organist and composer (d. 1940)
• 1911 – Robert Earl Jones, American actor (d. 2006)
• 1912 – Jacques Soustelle, French anthropologist and politician (d. 1990)
• 1914 – Mary Carlisle, American actress, singer, and dancer
• 1915 – Johannes Kotkas, Estonian wrestler and hammer thrower (d. 1998)
• 1917 – Shlomo Goren, Polish-Israeli rabbi and general (d. 1994)
• 1918 – Joey Bishop, American actor and producer (d. 2007)
• 1918 – Helen Stephens, American runner, baseball player, and manager (d. 1994)
• 1920 – Russell Arms, American actor and singer (d. 2012)
• 1920 – Tony Gaze, Australian race car driver and pilot (d. 2013)
• 1920 – Henry Heimlich, American physician and author
• 1924 – E. P. Thompson, English historian and author (d. 1993)
• 1924 – Martial Asselin, Canadian lawyer and politician, 25th Lieutenant Governor of Quebec (d. 2013)
• 1925 – Shelley Berman, American actor and comedian
• 1925 – John Fiedler, American actor (d. 2005)
• 1926 – Hans-Jochen Vogel, German soldier and politician, 8th Mayor of Berlin
• 1927 – Kenneth Anger, American actor, director, and screenwriter
• 1927 – Blas Ople, Filipino journalist and politician, 21st President of the Senate of the Philippines (d. 2003)
• 1932 – Peggy Ann Garner, American actress (d. 1984)
• 1932 – Stuart Hall, Jamaican-English sociologist and theorist (d. 2014)
• 1933 – Paul Sarbanes, American lawyer and politician
• 1934 – Juan Carlos Calabró, Argentinian actor and screenwriter (d. 2013)
• 1936 – Elizabeth Peer, American journalist (d. 1984)
• 1936 – Bob Simpson, Australian cricketer and coach
• 1937 – Billy Meier, Swiss author and photographer
• 1938 – Victor Buono, American actor (d. 1982)
• 1938 – Emile Griffith, American boxer and trainer (d. 2013)
• 1939 – Michael Cimino, American director, producer, and screenwriter (d. 2016)
• 1940 – Fran Tarkenton, American football player and sportscaster
• 1941 – Dory Funk, Jr., American wrestler and trainer
• 1941 – Howard Phillips, American lawyer and politician (d. 2013)
• 1943 – Blythe Danner, American actress
• 1943 – Dennis Edwards, American singer
• 1943 – Shawn Phillips, American-South African singer-songwriter and guitarist
• 1945 – Johnny Cymbal, Scottish-American singer-songwriter and producer (d. 1993)
• 1945 – Bob Griese, American football player and sportscaster
• 1947 – Paul Auster, American author and poet
• 1947 – Dave Davies, English singer-songwriter, guitarist, and producer
• 1947 – Stephen McHattie, Canadian actor and director
• 1947 – Melanie Safka, American singer-songwriter and guitarist
• 1948 – Henning Mankell, Swedish author and playwright (d. 2015)
• 1949 – Arthur Kane, American bass player (d. 2004)
• 1949 – Hennie Kuiper, Dutch cyclist and manager
• 1950 – Morgan Fairchild, American actress
• 1950 – Pamela Franklin, English actress
• 1951 – Eugenijus Riabovas, Lithuanian footballer and manager
• 1951 – Michael Ruppert, American journalist and author (d. 2014)
• 1952 – Fred Lynn, American baseball player and sportscaster
• 1953 – Rebecca Wells, American novelist, actress, and theatre director
• 1954 – Tiger Williams, Canadian ice hockey player and coach
• 1956 – John Jefferson, American football player and coach
• 1956 – Nathan Lane, American actor and comedian
• 1956 – Lee Ranaldo, American singer-songwriter, guitarist, and producer
• 1957 – Eric Lander, American mathematician, geneticist, and academic
• 1957 – Steven Stapleton, English singer-songwriter
• 1958 – Joe F. Edwards, Jr., American commander, pilot, and astronaut
• 1958 – Greg Mankiw, American economist and academic
• 1959 – Yasuharu Konishi, Japanese DJ, producer, and songwriter
• 1959 – Ferzan Özpetek, Turkish-Italian director and screenwriter
• 1959 – Lol Tolhurst, English drummer
• 1959 – Óscar Iván Zuluaga, Colombian economist and politician, 67th Colombian Minister of Finance
• 1960 – Tim Chandler, American bass player
• 1960 – Marty Jannetty, American wrestler and trainer
• 1960 – Joachim Löw, German footballer and manager
• 1960 – Kerry Von Erich, American wrestler (d. 1993)
• 1961 – Linda Eder, American singer and actress
• 1962 – Michele Greene, American actress and singer
• 1963 – Raghuram Rajan, Indian economist and academic
• 1964 – Indrek Tarand, Estonian historian, journalist, and politician
• 1965 – Kathleen Kinmont, American actress, producer, and screenwriter
• 1965 – Maura Tierney, American actress and producer
• 1966 – Frank Coraci, American director and screenwriter
• 1966 – Danny Morrison, New Zealand cricketer and sportscaster
• 1966 – Lee Eung-kyung, South Korean actress
• 1967 – Mixu Paatelainen, Finnish footballer and coach
• 1968 – Vlade Divac, Serbian-American basketball player and sportscaster
• 1969 – Beau Biden, American soldier, lawyer, and politician, 44th Attorney General of Delaware (d. 2015)
• 1969 – Retief Goosen, South African golfer
• 1970 – Óscar Córdoba, Colombian footballer
• 1970 – Warwick Davis, English actor, producer, and screenwriter
• 1971 – Hong Seok-cheon, South Korean actor
• 1972 – Jesper Kyd, Danish pianist and composer
• 1972 – Mart Poom, Estonian footballer
• 1973 – Ilana Sod, Mexican journalist and producer
• 1974 – Kim Je-dong, South Korean comedian and host
• 1975 – Brad Thorn, New Zealand rugby player
• 1976 – Isla Fisher, Australian actress
• 1977 – Marek Židlický, Czech ice hockey player
• 1978 – Joan Capdevila, Spanish footballer
• 1982 – Becky Bayless, American wrestler
• 1982 – Marie-Ève Drolet, Canadian speed skater
• 1982 – Jessica Harp, American singer-songwriter and guitarist
• 1984 – Sara Carbonero, Spanish journalist
• 1984 – Kim Joon, South Korean rapper and actor
• 1985 – Angela Fong, Canadian wrestler and actress
• 1985 – Andrei Kostitsyn, Belarusian ice hockey player
• 1986 – Lucas Duda, American baseball player
• 1986 – David Edwards, Welsh footballer
• 1986 – Mathieu Giroux, Canadian speed skater
• 1986 – Kanako Yanagihara, Japanese actress
• 1988 – Cho Kyuhyun, South Korean singer
• 1988 – Gregory van der Wiel, Dutch footballer
• 1989 – Slobodan Rajković, Serbian footballer
• 1989 – Ryne Sanborn, American actor, singer, and dancer
• 1990 – Meng Jia, Chinese singer and actress
• 1990 – Sean Kingston, American-Jamaican singer-songwriter
• 1991 – Nikola Hofmanova, Austrian tennis player
• 1991 – Adrian Quaife-Hobbs, Welsh race car driver
• 1992 – Milo, American rapper and producer
• 1992 – Luke Keary, Australian rugby player
• 1996 – Rhap Salazar, Filipino singer-songwriter and actor
• 1997 – Paige Mary Hourigan, New Zealand tennis player

Deaths

• 699 – Werburgh, English nun and saint (b. 650)
• 865 – Ansgar, Frankish archbishop (b. 801)
• 995 – William IV, Duke of Aquitaine (b. 937)
• 1014 – Sweyn Forkbeard, king of Denmark, England, and parts of Norway (b. 960)
• 1116 – Coloman, King of Hungary (b. 1070)
• 1399 – John of Gaunt, Belgian-English politician, Lord High Steward (b. 1340)
• 1428 – Ashikaga Yoshimochi, Japanese shogun (b. 1386)
• 1451 – Murad II, Ottoman sultan (b. 1404)
• 1468 – Johannes Gutenberg, German publisher, invented the Printing press (b. 1398)
• 1566 – George Cassander, Flemish theologian and author (b. 1513)
• 1618 – Philip II, Duke of Pomerania (b. 1573)
• 1619 – Henry Brooke, 11th Baron Cobham, English politician, Lord Warden of the Cinque Ports (b. 1564)
• 1737 – Tommaso Ceva, Italian mathematician and academic (b. 1648)
• 1802 – Pedro Rodríguez, Count of Campomanes, Spanish economist and politician (b. 1723)
• 1813 – Juan Bautista Cabral, Argentinian sergeant (b. 1789)
• 1820 – Gia Long, Vietnamese emperor (b. 1762)
• 1832 – George Crabbe, English surgeon and poet (b. 1754)
• 1862 – Jean-Baptiste Biot, French physicist, astronomer, and mathematician (b. 1774)
• 1866 – François-Xavier Garneau, Canadian poet, author, and historian (b. 1809)
• 1873 – Isaac Baker Brown, English gynecologist and surgeon (b. 1811)
• 1874 – Lunalilo of Hawaii (b. 1835)
• 1883 – Richard Wagner, German director and composer (b. 1813)
• 1889 – Belle Starr, American criminal (b. 1848)
• 1922 – John Butler Yeats, Irish painter and illustrator (b. 1839)
• 1924 – Woodrow Wilson, American historian, academic, and politician, 28th President of the United States, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1856)
• 1929 – Agner Krarup Erlang, Danish mathematician and engineer (b. 1878)
• 1935 – Hugo Junkers, German engineer, designed the Junkers J 1 (b. 1859)
• 1944 – Yvette Guilbert, French singer and actress (b. 1865)
• 1945 – Roland Freisler, German lawyer and judge (b. 1893)
• 1947 – Marc Mitscher, American admiral and pilot (b. 1887)
• 1952 – Harold L. Ickes, American journalist and politician, 32nd United States Secretary of the Interior (b. 1874)
• 1955 – Vasily Blokhin, Russian general (b. 1895)
• 1956 – Émile Borel, French mathematician and academic (b. 1871)
• 1956 – Johnny Claes, English-Belgian race car driver and trumpet player (b. 1916)
• 1959 – The Day the Music Died
  • The Big Bopper, American singer-songwriter and guitarist (b. 1930)
  • Buddy Holly, American singer-songwriter and guitarist (b. 1936)
  • Ritchie Valens, American singer-songwriter and guitarist (b. 1941)
• 1960 – Fred Buscaglione, Italian singer and actor (b. 1921)
• 1961 – William Morrison, 1st Viscount Dunrossil, Scottish-Australian captain and politician, 14th Governor-General of Australia (b. 1893)
• 1961 – Anna May Wong, American actress (b. 1905)
• 1967 – Joe Meek, English songwriter and producer (b. 1929)
• 1969 – C. N. Annadurai Indian journalist and politician, 7th Chief Minister of Madras State (b. 1909)
• 1969 – Eduardo Mondlane Mozambican activist and academic (b. 1920)
• 1975 – William D. Coolidge, American physicist and engineer (b. 1873)
• 1975 – Umm Kulthum, Egyptian singer-songwriter and actress (b. 1904)
• 1985 – Frank Oppenheimer, American physicist and academic (b. 1912)
• 1989 – John Cassavetes, American actor, director, and screenwriter (b. 1929)
• 1989 – Lionel Newman, American pianist, composer, and conductor (b. 1916)
• 1991 – Nancy Kulp, American actress (b. 1921)
• 1993 – Françoys Bernier, Canadian pianist and conductor (b. 1927)
• 1996 – Audrey Meadows, American actress and banker (b. 1922)
• 1998 – Fat Pat, American rapper (b. 1970)
• 1999 – Gwen Guthrie, American singer-songwriter and pianist (b. 1950)
• 2005 – Zurab Zhvania, Georgian biologist and politician, 4th Prime Minister of Georgia (b. 1963)
• 2005 – Ernst Mayr, German-American biologist and ornithologist (b. 1904)
• 2006 – Al Lewis, American actor and activist (b. 1923)
• 2009 – Sheng-yen, Chinese monk and scholar, founded the Dharma Drum Mountain (b. 1930)
• 2010 – Dick McGuire, American basketball player and coach (b. 1926)
• 2010 – Frances Reid, American actress (b. 1914)
• 2011 – Maria Schneider, French actress (b. 1952)
• 2012 – Toh Chin Chye, Singaporean academic and politician, 1st Deputy Prime Minister of Singapore (b. 1921)
• 2012 – Ben Gazzara, American actor and director (b. 1930)
• 2012 – Terence Hildner, American general (b. 1962)
• 2012 – Raj Kanwar, Indian director, producer, and screenwriter (b. 1961)
• 2012 – Zalman King, American actor, director, and producer (b. 1942)
• 2012 – Andrzej Szczeklik, Polish physician and academic (b. 1938)
• 2013 – Cardiss Collins, American politician (b. 1931)
• 2013 – Oscar Feltsman, Ukrainian-Russian composer and producer (b. 1921)
• 2013 – James Muri, American soldier and pilot (b. 1918)
• 2013 – Jam Mohammad Yousaf, Pakistani politician, Chief Minister of Balochistan (b. 1954)
• 2014 – Louise Brough, American tennis player (b. 1923)
• 2014 – Richard Bull, American actor (b. 1924)
• 2014 – Gloria Leonard, American porn actress and publisher (b. 1940)
• 2015 – Martin Gilbert, English historian, author, and academic (b. 1936)
• 2015 – Mary Healy, American actress and singer (b. 1918)
• 2015 – Charlie Sifford, American golfer (b. 1922)
• 2015 – Nasim Hasan Shah, Pakistani lawyer and judge, 12th Chief Justice of Pakistan (b. 1929)
• 2016 – Joe Alaskey, American voice actor and singer (b. 1952)
• 2016 – Mark Farren, Irish footballer (b. 1982)
• 2016 – Balram Jakhar, Indian lawyer and politician, 23rd Governor of Madhya Pradesh (b. 1923)
• 2016 – Saulius Sondeckis, Lithuanian violinist and conductor (b. 1928)

Holidays and observances

• Christian feast day:
  • Aaron the Illustrious (Syriac Orthodox Church)
  • Ansgar
  • Berlinda of Meerbeke
  • Blaise
  • Celsa and Nona
  • Claudine Thévenet
  • Dom Justo Takayama (Philippines and Japan)
  • Hadelin
  • Margaret of England
  • Werburgh
  • February 3 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics)
• Communist Party of Vietnam Foundation Anniversary (Vietnam)
• Day of the Virgin of Suyapa (Honduras)
• Earliest day on which Shrove Tuesday can fall, while March 9 is the latest; celebrated on Tuesday before Ash Wednesday (Christianity)
• Four Chaplains Day (United States, also considered a Feast Day by the Episcopal Church)
• Heroes' Day (Mozambique)
• Martyrs' Day (São Tomé and Príncipe)
• Setsubun (Japan)
• Veterans' Day (Thailand)

External links

• BBC: On This Day
• The New York Times: On This Day
• Today in Canadian History