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“The past is but the beginning of a beginning, and all that is or has been is but the twilight of the dawn.”
~ H. G. Wells
Wikiquote (H. G. Wells (September 21, 1866 – August 13, 1946) was a British writer best known for his science fiction novels such as The War of the Worlds, The Invisible Man, and The Time Machine; also for Kipps, The History of Mr. Polly and other social satires.)
February 3rd, 1112
Ramon Berenguer III of Barcelona and Douce I of Provence marry, uniting the fortunes of those two states.
Wikipedia Painting: Ramon Berenguer III the Great was the count of Barcelona, Girona, and Ausona from 1082 (jointly with Berenguer Ramon II and solely from 1097), Besalú from 1111, Cerdanya from 1117, and Provence, in the Holy Roman Empire, from 1112, all until his death in Barcelona in 1131.
February 3rd, 1377
Roman Empire:
1377 - "Cesena Bloodbath:" More than 2,000 people of the Italian city of Cesena are slaughtered by Papal Troops.
Wikipedia Image: Papal troops under the command of Robert of Geneva (the future Antipope Clement VII) sack the city of Cesena, killing thousands in what has become known as the Cesena Bloodbath.
February 3rd, 1451
Ottoman Empire (Turkish Empire or Turkey):
1451 - Sultan Mehmed II inherits the throne of the Ottoman Empire
Wikipedia Image: Ottoman Empire Maximal extent with the vassal states of the Ottoman Empire in AD 1590s; Battle of Kosovo (1389); Fall of Constantinople (1453); Sultan Mehmed I Ottoman miniature, 1413-1421; Fall of Constantinople (1453); Siege of Rhodes (1522); Battle of Kosovo (1389); Battle of Mohács (1526).
February 3rd, 1488
Bartolomeu Dias of Portugal lands in Mossel Bay after rounding the Cape of Good Hope, becoming the first known European to travel so far south.
Wikipedia Image: Bartolomeu Dias; a nobleman of the Portuguese royal household, was a Portuguese explorer (He sailed around the southernmost tip of Africa in 1488, the first European known to have done so)
February 3rd, 1509
Battle of Diu: Naval battle between Portugal and the Ottoman Empire takes place in Diu, India.
Wikipedia Photo: Battle of Diu; A naval battle (The Portuguese victory was critical - Mamluks and Arabs retreated, easing the Portuguese strategy of controlling the Indian Ocean to route trade down the Cape of Good Hope, circumventing the traditional spice route controlled by the Arabs and the Venetians through the Red Sea and Persian Gulf).
February 3rd, 1690
The colony of Massachusetts issues the first paper money in America.
Wikipedia Image: Massachusetts issued the colonies' first public currency, credit History.org
February 3rd, 1706
Battle of Fraustadt: Swedish forces defeat a superior Saxon - Polish - Russian force by deploying a double envelopment.
Wikipedia Painting: Shays’ Rebellion and the Making of a Nation; A Bloody Encounter @copy; Bryant White
February 3rd, 1781
American Revolutionary War:
1781 - Capture of Sint Eustatius; British forces seize the Dutch-owned Caribbean island Sint Eustatius.
1783 - Spain recognizes United States independence.
Wikipedia Paintings: Washington Crossing the Delaware, by Emanuel Leutz; Battle of the Chesapeake, French (left) and British (right) lines; Battle of Bunker Hill, The Death of General Warren at the Battle of Bunker Hill by John Trumbull; The Defeat of the Floating Batteries at Gibraltar, September 13, 1782, by John Singleton Copley; Washington and the Comte de Rochambeau at Yorktown, 1781; "The surrender at Saratoga" shows General Daniel Morgan in front of a French de Vallière 4-pounder; Surrender of Cornwallis at Yorktown by (John Trumbull, 1797).
Painting: Battle of Cape Saint Vincent, by Thomas Buttersworth (1768-1842).
February 3rd, 1787
Shays' Rebellion: Militia led by General [[Benjamin Lincoln crush the remnants of Shays' Rebellion in Petersham, Massachusetts.
Wikipedia Painting: Shays’ Rebellion and the Making of a Nation; A Bloody Encounter @copy; Bryant White
February 3rd, 1807
A British military force, under Brigadier-General Sir Samuel Auchmuty captures the city of Montevideo, then part of the Spanish Empire now the capital of Uruguay.
Wikipedia Image: South America is a continent located in the Western Hemisphere, mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a relatively small portion in the Northern Hemisphere. The continent is also considered a subcontinent of the Americas.
February 3rd, 1813
Argentine War of Independence:
1813 - José de San Martín defeats a Spanish royalist army.
1852 - Argentine Civil Wars: Battle of Caseros; Justo José de Urquiza defeats Juan Manuel de Rosas.
Wikipedia Photo: Buenos Aires, capital and largest city of Argentina; ● Perito Moreno Glacier Patagonia Argentina ● Iguazu Falls (Iguazu River forms the boundary between Argentina and Brazil).
Crossing of the Andes ● Battle of Salta ● 22 May 1810 Open Cabildo ● Battle of San Lorenzo ● Battle of Suipacha ● 1813 Assembly ● Shooting of Liniers ● Jujuy Exodus.
February 3rd, 1913
Fifteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution is ratified, guaranteeing voting rights to citizens regardless of race.
Wikipedia Photo: United States Supreme Court building; Guardian of Law, by James Earle Fraser, US Supreme Court, Washington, DC, USA.
February 3rd, 1913
Sixteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution is ratified, authorizing the Federal government to impose and collect an income tax.
Wikipedia Income tax in the United States; "A Present for the Kid", editorial cartoon; The United States income tax forms. ● 1913 Income Tax Litigation - 1913 Cartoon About The Federal Income Fine Art Print - Everett
February 3rd, 1917
World War I:
1917 - The United States breaks off diplomatic relations with Germany a day after the latter announced a new policy of unrestricted submarine warfare.
Wikipedia Photo: Trenches on the Western Front; a British Mark IV Tank crossing a trench; Royal Navy battleship HMS Irresistible sinking after striking a mine at the Battle of the Dardanelles; a Vickers machine gun crew with gas masks, and German Albatros D.III biplanes. National Archives and Records Administration.
Print: German WWI Zeppelin Bombing Warsaw Poland Postcard (technically a Schutte-Lanz airship)
February 3rd, 1931
Earthquake:
1931 - Hawke's Bay earthquake; New Zealand's worst natural disaster, kills 258.
Wikipedia Image: Preliminary Determination of Epicenters / Aleppo Syria; Anchorage, Alaska - March 28, 1964 Prince William Sound USA earthquake and tsunami; 8.9 Mega Earthquake Strikes Japan; Tsunami Swirls Japan's Ibaraki Prefecture March 12 2011. credit NOAA / NGDC, NOAA National Geophysical Data Center, USGS, National Geographics.
February 3rd, 1944
World War II:
1944 - Gilbert and Marshall Islands campaign; Battle of Kwajalein - the United States Army and Marine forces seize Kwajalein Atoll from the defending Japanese garrison.
1945 - Operation Thunderclap; 1,000 B-17s of the United States Eighth Air Force bomb Berlin, a raid which kills between 2,500 to 3,000 and dehouses another 120,000.
1945 - Battle of Manila; The United States and Philippine Commonwealth begin a month-long battle to retake Manila from Japan.
Wikipedia Photo: Bombing of Dresden in World War II; August Schreitmüller's sculpture 'Goodness' surveys Dresden after a firestorm started by Allied bombers in 1945.
USS Bunker Hill was hit by kamikazes piloted by Ensign Kiyoshi Ogawa and another airman on 11 May 1945. 389 personnel were killed or missing from a crew of 2,600; Ensign Kiyoshi Ogawa, who flew his aircraft into the USS Bunker Hill during a Kamikaze mission on 11 May 1945; Kamikaze Missions - Lt Yoshinori Yamaguchi's Yokosuka D4Y3 (Type 33 Suisei) "Judy" in a suicide dive against USS Essex. The dive brakes are extended and the non-self-sealing port wing tank is trailing fuel vapor and/or smoke 25 November 1944.
German V1 flying-bomb and V2 Rockets - Preparations for a Salvo Launch of V-2 Rockets in the Heidelager near Blizna (Poland) (1944), credit German History in Documents and Images GHDI.
Eastern Front (World War II); Germans race towards Stalingrad. August 1942; Soviet children during a German air raid in the first days of the war, June 1941, by RIA Novosti archive; Soviet sniper Roza Shanina in 1944. About 400,000 Soviet women served in front-line duty units Caucasus Mountains, winter 1942/43; Finnish ski patrol: the invisible enemy of the Soviet Army with an unlimited supply of skis; Men of the German Engineers Corps cross a river which is swollen after the first autumn rains, to strengthen bridges linking the German positions on the central front in Russia. by Keystone / Getty Images. October 1942; Russian snipers fighting on the Leningrad front during a blizzard. Photo by Hulton Archive / Getty Images, 1943; German soldiers surrendering to the Russians in Stalingrad, the soldier holding the white flag of surrender is dressed in white so that there could be no doubt of his intentions, a Russian soldier is on the right of the photograph. by Keystone / Getty Images, January 1943.
February 3rd, 1959
In an incident that becomes known as The Day the Music Died: A plane crash near Clear Lake, Iowa kills Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens, The Big Bopper and pilot Roger Peterson.
Wikipedia Photo: Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens and The Big Bopper.
February 3rd, 1972
Deadliest snowstorm in history: Iran blizzard; which would kill at least 4,000 people.
Wikipedia Image: Iran blizzard (unusually severe blizzard swept over Iran on January 8, 2008, bringing extreme cold and deep snow to much of the desert country, satellite images), credit Earth Observatory NASA.
February 3rd, 1984
NASA (National Aeronautics and Space Administration) Space Shuttle program:
1984 - Space Shuttle Challenger lifts off for mission STS-41-B.
1995 - Space Shuttle Discovery lifts off for mission STS-63 is launched - Astronaut Eileen Collins becomes the first woman to pilot the Space Shuttle.
Wikipedia Photo: Space Shuttle program; STS-28 August 8-13, 1989, Space Shuttle Columbia arrives at Launch Pad 39B after the rollout from the Vehicle Assembly Building the night before ● An electrical storm and driving rain preceded the first night launch of a shuttle mission on August 30, 1983 ● Columbia’s second mission launched on November 12, 1981. (Commanded by Joe H. Engle and piloted by Richard H. Truly, it was also the last time NASA flew a rookie crew and the external fuel tank was painted white.) credit NASA.
February 3rd, 2014
Modern conflicts in the Middle East, social unrest and terrorist attacks:
2014 - Moscow school shooting; Two people are shot and killed and 29 students are taken hostage at a high school in Moscow, Russia.
2007 - Baghdad market bombing; kills at least 135 people and injures a further 339.
Wikipedia Photo: Middle East satellite image, NASA. ● Camels are seen early morning on a beach in the Marina area of Dubai October 16, 2008. (Steve Crisp, Reuters) ● A portrait of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad burns during clashes between rebels and Syrian troops in Selehattin, near Aleppo, on July 23, 2012. (Bulent Kilic, AFP / GettyImages) ● Egyptians gather in their thousands in Tahrir Square to mark the one year anniversary of the revolution on Jan. 25, 2012 in Cairo Egypt. Tens of thousands have gathered in the square on the first anniversary of the Arab uprising which toppled President Hosni Mubarak. (Jeff J Mitchell, Getty Images) ● Black smoke rises above the Tehran skyline as supporters of Mir Hossein Mousavi burn tires and other material in the streets as they fight running battles with police to protest the declared results of the Iranian presidential election in Tehran, Iran, Saturday, June 13, 2009. (Ben Curtis, AP) ● The Iron Dome defense system fires to interecpt incoming missiles from Gaza in the port town of Ashdod, Thursday, Nov. 15, 2012. (Tsafrir Abayov, AP)
February 3rd, 2011
All available blocks of IPv4 Internet addresses are officially distributed to regional authorities.
Wikipedia Image: Internet.