1468 – Johannes Gutenberg the German publisher and inventor of the Printing press died on the 3rd February 1468 (born 1398).
1690 – The colony of Massachusetts issued the first paper money in America on the 3rd February 1690.
1809 – Felix Mendelssohn the German pianist, composer, and conductor was born on the 3rd February 1809 (died 1847).
1809 – The Illinois Territory was created on the 3rd February 1809.
1870 – The Fifteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution was ratified on the 3rd February 1870, guaranteeing voting rights to citizens regardless of race.
1904 – Pretty Boy Floyd the American gangster was born on the 3rd February 1904 (died 1934).
1916 – Parliament buildings in Ottawa, Canada burnt down on the 3rd February 1916.
1918 – The Twin Peaks Tunnel in San Francisco, California began service as the longest streetcar tunnel in the world on the 3rd February 1918, at 11,920 feet (3,633 meters) long.
1927 – Val Doonican the Irish singer was born on the 3rd February 1927.
1931 – The Hawke’s Bay earthquake, New Zealand‘s worst natural disaster was on the 3rd February 1931, killing 258 people.
1945 ~ Bob Bright from Bobby & Laurie, the Australian singing duo of the 1960s, was born on the 3rd February 1945.
1947 – Dave Davies the English singer-songwriter and guitarist from The Kinks was born on the 3rd February 1947.
1947 – The lowest temperature in North America was recorded in Snag, Yukon on the 3rd February 1947.
1950 – Morgan Fairchild the American actress was born on the 3rd February 1950.
1956 – Lee Ranaldo the American singer-songwriter and guitarist from Sonic Youth was born on the 3rd February 1956.
1959 – A plane crash near Clear Lake, Iowa killed Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens, The Big Bopper, and pilot Roger Peterson on the 3rd February 1959, which became known as The Day the Music Died.
1966 – The unmanned Soviet Luna 9 spacecraft made the first controlled rocket-assisted landing on the Moon on the 3rd February 1966.
1967 – Ronald Ryan, the last person to be executed in Australia, was hanged in Pentridge Prison, Melbourne on the 3rd February 1967.
1971 ~ Gabriel Rossi the Italian Australian comedian was born on the 3rd February 1971. The official Gabriel Rossi website: www.GabrielRossi.com & The Gabriel Rossi Facebook Fan Page
1972 – The first day of the seven-day 1972 Iran blizzard was on the 3rd February 1972, which killed at least 4,000 people, making it the deadliest snowstorm in history.
1976 – Isla Fisher the Omani-Australian actress was born on the 3rd February 1976.
1984 – John Buster and the research team at Harbor-UCLA Medical Center announcde history’s first embryo transfer on the 3rd February 1984, from one woman to another resulting in a live birth.
1984 – Space Shuttle program: STS-41-B was launched using Space Shuttle Challenger on the 3rd February 1984.
1986 – Rebel Wilson the Australian actress was born on the 3rd February 1986.
1995 – Astronaut Eileen Collins became the first woman to pilot the Space Shuttle on the 3rd February 1995, as mission STS-63 got underway from Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
1998 – Karla Faye Tucker was executed in Texas on the 3rd February 1998, becoming the first woman executed in the United States since 1984.
1998 – Cavalese cable car disaster: a United States Military pilot caused the death of 20 people on the 3rd February 1998, when his low-flying plane cut the cable of a cable-car near Trento, Italy.