Wikipedia:Selected anniversaries/February 3
This is a list of selected February 3 anniversaries that appear in the "On this day" section of the Main Page. To suggest a new item, in most cases, you can be bold and edit this page. Please read the selected anniversaries guidelines before making your edit. However, if your addition might be controversial or on a day that is or will soon be on the Main Page, please post your suggestion on the talk page instead.
Please note that the events listed on the Main Page are chosen based more on relative article quality and to maintain a mix of topics, not based solely on how important or significant their subjects are. Only four to five events are posted at a time and thus not everything that is "most important and significant" can be listed. In addition, an event is generally not posted this year if it is also the subject of the scheduled featured article, featured list or picture of the day.
To report an error when this appears on the Main Page, see Main Page errors. Please remember that this list defers to the supporting articles, so it is best to achieve consensus and make any necessary changes there first.
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Images
Use only ONE image at a time
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The Meiji Emperor of Japan -
The Meiji Emperor of Japan -
Landing capsule of Luna 9
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Mossel Bay in 2006 -
Wreckage of the plane crash that killed Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens, and the Big Bopper -
Monument to Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens, and The Big Bopper near Clear Lake, Iowa -
A tulip from a 1637 Dutch catalog -
Painting of the Battle of San Lorenzo -
José de San Martín
Ineligible
| Blurb | Reason |
|---|---|
| 1488 – Portuguese explorer Bartolomeu Dias landed in Mossel Bay, becoming the first known European to have sailed around the Cape of Good Hope and the southern tip of Africa. | refimprove |
| 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. | {{refimprove section}}, {{unreferenced section}} |
| 1815 – The first factory for the industrial production of cheese opened in Switzerland. | Need to verify date, {{unreferenced section}} |
| 1867 – Crown Prince Mutsuhito succeeded his father Kōmei as Emperor of Japan, taking the title Meiji. | needs more footnotes |
| 1931 – New Zealand's deadliest natural disaster, the 7.9 MW Hawke's Bay earthquake, struck, killing 256. | refimprove section |
| 1966 – The Soviet spacecraft Luna 9 became the first space probe to land on the Moon and transmit pictures from the lunar surface. | Tagged with {{refimprove}} |
| 1984 – A woman under the care of Dr. John Buster of the Harbor–UCLA Medical Center in Los Angeles, California, gave birth to a baby that resulted from the first successful embryo transfer from one person to another. | lead too short |
| 1998 – Despite attracting a large national and international movement advocating the commutation of her sentence to life imprisonment, Karla Faye Tucker became the first woman to be executed in the United States since 1984. | {{refimprove}} |
Eligible
- 1637 – The contract prices of rare tulip bulbs in the Dutch Republic, which had been steadily climbing for three months, abruptly dropped, marking the decline of tulip mania.
- 1807 – Napoleonic Wars: The United Kingdom captured Montevideo, now the capital of Uruguay, from the Spanish Empire.
- 1852 – The Argentine Confederation were defeated in the Platine War by an alliance consisting of the Empire of Brazil, Uruguay and the Argentine provinces of Entre Ríos and Corrientes.
- 1870 – The Fifteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution was ratified, granting voting rights to citizens regardless of "race, color, or previous condition of servitude".
- 1913 – The Sixteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution was ratified, allowing the U.S. Congress to levy an income tax without apportioning it among the States or basing it on census results.
- 1959 – American rock and roll musicians Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens, and J.P. "The Big Bopper" Richardson were killed when their plane crashed shortly after taking off from Mason City Municipal Airport in Iowa.
- 1998 – A United States Marines Corps EA-6B Prowler inadvertently severed a cable supporting a gondola of an aerial tramway in Cavalese, Italy, sending 20 people plummeting to their deaths.
February 3: Setsubun in Japan; Feast day of Dom Justo Takayama in Japan and the Philippines; Four Chaplains' Day in the United States
- 1781 – American Revolutionary War: British forces captured the Dutch island of Sint Eustatius with only two shots fired.
- 1813 – Argentine War of Independence: José de San Martín and his Regiment of Mounted Grenadiers gained a largely symbolic victory against a royalist army in the Battle of San Lorenzo.
- 1967 – Ronald Ryan became the last person to be legally executed in Australia, sparking public protests across the country.
- 1989 – Alfredo Stroessner (pictured), whose rule as President of Paraguay for 35 years was marked by an uninterrupted period of repression in his country, was overthrown in a military coup by Andrés Rodríguez.
- 2010 – A cast of L'Homme qui marche I by Swiss sculptor Alberto Giacometti sold for £65 million (US$103.7 million), setting the record for most expensive sculpture sold at a public auction.