Wikipedia:Selected anniversaries/February 3
February 3: Setsubun in Japan; Four Chaplains' Day in the United States.
- 1488 – Portuguese explorer Bartolomeu Dias landed in Mossel Bay, having sailed around the Cape of Good Hope and the southern tip of Africa.
- 1509 – Turkish-Portuguese War: Portugal defeated a joint fleet of Mamlûk Burji Sultanate of Egypt, Ottoman Empire, the Zamorin of Calicut and the Sultan of Gujarat at the Battle of Diu off the coast of Diu, India.
- 1867 – Crown Prince Mutsuhito (pictured) succeeded his father Kōmei as Emperor of Japan, taking the title Meiji.
- 1959 – The Day the Music Died: A small plane crashed near Clear Lake, Iowa, USA, killing American rock and roll musicians Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens, and J.P. "The Big Bopper" Richardson.
- 1966 – The Soviet spacecraft Luna 9 became the first space probe to land on the Moon and transmit pictures from the lunar surface to Earth.
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