What happened on February 3 ?

1377 - more than 2,000 people of the Italian city of Cesena are slaughtered by Papal Troops (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 at the tip of Africa, becoming the first known European to travel this far south.

1690 - The colony of Massachusetts issues the first paper money in America.

1783 - American Revolutionary War: Spain recognizes United States independence.

1787 - Shays' Rebellion is crushed, ending an uprising that would prompt negotiations that would result in the drafting of the Constitution of the United States.

1809 - Illinois Territory is created.

1815 - The first commercial cheese factory is founded (Switzerland).

1834 - The Baptist State Convention of North Carolina establishes the Wake Forest Manual Labor Institute, today known as Wake Forest University.

1867 - Prince Mutsuhito becomes Emperor Meiji of Japan.

1870 - The 15th Amendment to the United States Constitution is passed.

1900 - Gubernatorial candidate William Goebel is assassinated in Frankfort, Kentucky. Former Secretary of State Caleb Powers was later found guilty in a conspiracy to kill Goebel.

1913 - The 16th Amendment to the United States Constitution is ratified, authorizing the Federal government to impose and collect income tax.

1916 - Parliament buildings in Ottawa, Canada burn down.

1917 - World War I: The United States breaks off diplomatic relations with Germany a day after Germany announces a new policy of unrestricted submarine warfare.

1918 - The Twin Peaks Tunnel begins service as the longest streetcar tunnel in the world at 11,920 feet (3,633 meters) long).

1931 - The Napier earthquake, New Zealand's worst natural disaster, kills 258.

1941 - World War II: The Nazis forcibly restore Pierre Laval to office in occupied Vichy, France.

1944 - United States troops capture the Marshall Islands.

1945 - World War II: Soviet Union agrees to enter the Pacific Theatre conflict against Japan.

1947 - Percival Prattis becomes the first African American news correspondent allowed in the United States House and Senate press gallery.

1947 - Coldest ever temperature recorded in North America at Snag, Yukon, -63 degrees Celsius

1952 - The earliest known tropical storm makes landfall in South Florida.

1957 - Senegalese political party Democratic Rally merges into the Senegalese Party of Socialist Action (PSAS).

1959 - The Day The Music Died: A plane crash kills rock-and-roll performers Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens, and The Big Bopper.

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 Palestinian Liberation Organization leader at the Palestinian National Congress.

1984 - Astronauts from Space Shuttle Challenger make first untethered spacewalk.

1988 - Iran-Contra Affair: The United States House of Representatives rejects President Ronald Reagan's request for $36.25 million to aid Nicaraguan Contras.

1989 - After a stroke, P.W. Botha resigns party leadership and the presidency of South Africa.

1997 - Sixth general elections held in Pakistan under 1973 constitution.

1998 - Karla Faye Tucker is executed in Texas becoming the first woman executed in the United States since 1984.

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.

1999 - In Jammu & Kashmir the political party Democratic Janata Dal (Jammu and Kashmir) is revived.