On This Day — 3 January

2026

The United States conducts airstrikes across northern Venezuela, including the capital Caracas and captures Venezuelan president Nicolás Maduro and first lady Cilia Flores.

United States

2024

At least 91 people are killed in bombings in Kerman, Iran, during a ceremony commemorating the assassination of Iranian General Qasem Soleimani four years earlier.

2024 Kerman bombings

2023

Singapore's Jurong Bird Park permanently closes.

Jurong Bird Park

2020

Iranian General Qasem Soleimani is killed by an American airstrike near Baghdad International Airport, igniting global concerns of a potential armed conflict.

Qasem Soleimani

2019

Chang'e 4 makes the first soft landing on the far side of the Moon, deploying the Yutu-2 lunar rover.

Chang'e 4

2018

For the first time in history, all five major storm surge gates in the Netherlands are closed simultaneously in the wake of a storm.

2016

In response to the execution of Nimr al-Nimr, Iran ends its diplomatic relations with Saudi Arabia.

Nimr al-Nimr

2015

Boko Haram militants destroy the entire town of Baga in north-east Nigeria, starting the Baga massacre and killing as many as 2,000 people.

Boko Haram

2009

The first block of the blockchain of the decentralized payment system Bitcoin, called the Genesis block, is established by the creator of the system, Satoshi Nakamoto.

Payment system

2004

Flash Airlines Flight 604 crashes into the Red Sea, resulting in 148 deaths, making it one of the deadliest aviation accidents in Egyptian history.

Flash Airlines Flight 604

2002

Israeli–Palestinian conflict: Israeli forces seize the Palestinian freighter Karine A in the Red Sea, finding 50 tons of weapons.

Israeli–Palestinian conflict

1999

The Mars Polar Lander is launched by NASA.

Mars Polar Lander

1994

Baikal Airlines Flight 130 crashes near Mamoney, Irkutsk, Russia, resulting in 125 deaths.

Baikal Airlines Flight 130

1993

In Moscow, Russia, George H. W. Bush and Boris Yeltsin sign the second Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START).

George H. W. Bush

1992

CommutAir Flight 4821 crashes on approach to Adirondack Regional Airport, in Saranac Lake, New York, killing two people.

CommutAir Flight 4821

1990

United States invasion of Panama: Manuel Noriega, former leader of Panama, surrenders to American forces.

United States invasion of Panama

1987

Varig Flight 797 crashes near Akouré in the Ivory Coast, resulting in 50 deaths.

Varig Flight 797

1977

Apple Computer is incorporated.

Apple Inc.

1976

The International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, adopted by the United Nations General Assembly, comes into force.

International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights

1962

Pope John XXIII excommunicates Fidel Castro.

Pope John XXIII

1961

Cold War: After a series of economic retaliations against one another, the United States severs diplomatic relations with Cuba.

Cold War

1961

The SL-1 nuclear reactor, near Idaho Falls, Idaho, is destroyed by a steam explosion in the only reactor incident in the United States to cause immediate fatalities.

SL-1

1961

A protest by agricultural workers in Baixa de Cassanje, Portuguese Angola, turns into a revolt, opening the Angolan War of Independence, the first of the Portuguese Colonial Wars.

Baixa de Cassanje

1961

Aero Flight 311 crashes into the forest in Kvevlax, Finland, killing 25 people.

Aero Flight 311

1959

Alaska is admitted as the 49th U.S. state.

Alaska

1958

The West Indies Federation is formed.

West Indies Federation

1957

The Hamilton Watch Company introduces the first electric watch.

Hamilton Watch Company

1956

A fire damages the top part of the Eiffel Tower.

Eiffel Tower

1953

Frances P. Bolton and her son, Oliver from Ohio, become the first mother and son to serve simultaneously in the U.S. Congress.

Frances P. Bolton

1949

The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas, the central bank of the Philippines, is established.

Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas

1947

Proceedings of the U.S. Congress are televised for the first time.

United States Congress

1946

Popular Canadian American jockey George Woolf suffers a concussion during a freak racing accident; he dies from the injury the following day. The annual George Woolf Memorial Jockey Award is created to honor him.

Canadian Americans

1944

World War II: US flying ace Major Greg "Pappy" Boyington is shot down in his Vought F4U Corsair by Captain Masajiro Kawato flying a Mitsubishi A6M Zero.

World War II

1933

Minnie D. Craig becomes the first woman elected as Speaker of the North Dakota House of Representatives, the first woman to hold a Speaker position anywhere in the United States.

Minnie D. Craig

1920

Over 640 are killed after a magnitude 6.4 earthquake strikes the Mexican states Puebla and Veracruz.

1920 Xalapa earthquake

1913

An Atlantic coast storm sets the lowest confirmed barometric pressure reading (955.0 mb (28.20 inHg)) for a non-tropical system in the continental United States.

January 1913 Atlantic coast storm

1913

First Balkan War: Greece completes its capture of the eastern Aegean island of Chios, as the last Ottoman forces on the island surrender.

First Balkan War

1911

A magnitude 7.7 earthquake destroys the city of Almaty in Russian Turkestan.

1911 Kebin earthquake

1911

A gun battle in the East End of London leaves two dead. It sparked a political row over the involvement of then-Home Secretary Winston Churchill.

Siege of Sidney Street

1885

Sino-French War: Beginning of the Battle of Núi Bop.

Sino-French War

1871

In the Battle of Bapaume, an engagement in the Franco-Prussian War, General Louis Faidherbe's forces bring about a Prussian retreat.

Battle of Bapaume (1871)

1870

Construction work begins on the Brooklyn Bridge in New York, United States.

Brooklyn Bridge

1868

Meiji Restoration in Japan: The Tokugawa shogunate is abolished; agents of Satsuma and Chōshū seize power.

Meiji Restoration

1861

American Civil War: Delaware votes not to secede from the United States.

American Civil War

1848

Joseph Jenkins Roberts is sworn in as the first president of Liberia.

Joseph Jenkins Roberts

1833

Captain James Onslow, in the Clio, reasserts British sovereignty over the Falkland Islands.

Reassertion of British sovereignty over the Falkland Islands (1833)

1815

Austria, the United Kingdom, and France form a secret defensive alliance against Prussia and Russia.

Prussia

1777

American Revolutionary War: American forces under General George Washington defeat British forces at the Battle of Princeton, helping boost patriot morale.

American Revolutionary War

1749

Benning Wentworth issues the first of the New Hampshire Grants, leading to the establishment of Vermont.

Benning Wentworth

1749

The first issue of Berlingske, Denmark's oldest continually operating newspaper, is published.

Berlingske

1653

By the Coonan Cross Oath, the Eastern Church in India cuts itself off from colonial Portuguese tutelage.

Coonan Cross Oath

1521

Pope Leo X excommunicates Martin Luther in the papal bull Decet Romanum Pontificem.

Pope Leo X

250

Emperor Decius orders everyone in the Roman Empire (except Jews) to make sacrifices to the Roman gods.

Decius

69

The Roman legions on the Rhine refuse to declare their allegiance to Galba, instead proclaiming their legate, Aulus Vitellius, as emperor.

AD 69