3 February
Notable Births
Rei (singer)
b. 2004
Japanese singer and rapper (born 2004)
Scoot Henderson
b. 2004
American basketball player (born 2004)
Tre Mann
b. 2001
American basketball player (born 2001)
Kanna Hashimoto
b. 1999
Japanese actress and singer (born 1999)
Tyler Huntley
b. 1998
American football player (born 1998)
Isaiah Roby
b. 1998
American basketball player (born 1998)
Tao Tsuchiya
b. 1995
Japanese actress and model (born 1995)
Rougned Odor
b. 1994
Venezuelan baseball player (born 1994)
James White (running back)
b. 1992
American football player (born 1992)
Sean Kingston
b. 1990
American singer (born 1990)
Jia (singer)
b. 1989
Chinese singer and actress
Slobodan Rajković
b. 1989
Serbian footballer (1989)
Cho Kyu-hyun
b. 1988
South Korean singer (born 1988)
Elvana Gjata
b. 1987
Albanian singer and songwriter (born 1987)
Andrei Kostitsyn
b. 1985
Belarusian ice hockey player (born 1985)
Elizabeth Holmes
b. 1984
American businesswoman convicted of fraud (born 1984)
Becky Bayless
b. 1982
American professional wrestler
Marie-Ève Drolet
b. 1982
Short-track speed skater
Bridget Regan
b. 1982
American actress
Joan Capdevila
b. 1978
Spanish footballer
Notable Deaths
Harry Jayawardena
d. 2025
Sri Lankan industrialist (1942–2025)
George Steiner
d. 2020
French and American Writer, literary critic and philosopher (1929–2020)
Julie Adams
d. 2019
American actress (1926–2019)
Kristoff St. John
d. 2019
American actor (1966–2019)
Dritëro Agolli
d. 2017
Albanian poet, writer, and politician
Joe Alaskey
d. 2016
American actor (1952–2016)
Balram Jakhar
d. 2016
Indian politician (1923–2016)
József Kasza
d. 2016
Serbian politician
Martin Gilbert
d. 2015
British historian (1936–2015)
Mary Healy (entertainer)
d. 2015
American actress (1918-2015)
Charlie Sifford
d. 2015
American professional golfer (1922–2015)
Nasim Hasan Shah
d. 2015
Pakistani judge (1929–2015)
Cardiss Collins
d. 2013
American politician (1931–2013)
Oscar Feltsman
d. 2013
Russian composer
James Muri
d. 2013
US Air Force officer
Jam Mohammad Yousaf
d. 2013
Pakistani politician (1954–2012)
Toh Chin Chye
d. 2012
Singaporean politician (1921–2012)
Ben Gazzara
d. 2012
American actor (1930–2012)
Terence Hildner
d. 2012
United States Army brigadier general (1962-2010)
Raj Kanwar
d. 2012
Indian film director
On This Day in History
All 53 ›2026
Islamist militants massacred at least 162 while injuring and kidnapping dozens in two villages in Kwara State, Nigeria.
2026 Kwara State attacks
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.
East Palestine, Ohio, train derailment
2014
A school shooting in Moscow, Russia leaves two people dead and one wounded.
2014 Moscow school shooting
2007
A Baghdad market bombing kills at least 135 people and injures a further 339.
February 2007 Al-Saydiya market bombing
2005
One hundred five people are killed when Kam Air Flight 904 crashes in the Pamir Mountains in Afghanistan.
Kam Air Flight 904
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 Cavalese cable car crash
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 Collins
1994
Space Shuttle program: STS-60 is launched, carrying Sergei Krikalev, the first Russian cosmonaut to fly aboard the Shuttle.
Space Shuttle 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.
Stroke
1989
A military coup overthrows Alfredo Stroessner, dictator of Paraguay since 1954.
1989 Paraguayan coup d'état
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 Buster
1984
Space Shuttle program: STS-41-B is launched using Space Shuttle Challenger.
Space Shuttle program
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.
1972 Iran blizzard
1971
New York Police Officer Frank Serpico is shot during a drug bust in Brooklyn and survives to later testify against police corruption.
Frank Serpico
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.
Soviet Union
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.
United States Air Force
1960
British Prime Minister Harold Macmillan speaks of "a wind of change", signalling that his Government is likely to support decolonisation.
Prime Minister of the United Kingdom
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.
Buddy Holly
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.
American Airlines Flight 320
1958
Founding of the Benelux Economic Union, creating a testing ground for a later European Economic Community.
Benelux