2003 – U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell presented evidence to the U.N. concerning Iraq’s material breach of U.N. Resolution 1441. https://www.npr.org/2023/02/03/1151160567/colin-powell-iraq-un-weapons-mass-destruction
1428 – King Alfonso V, orders Sicily’s Jews to attend conversion sermons
1488 – Roman catholic German emperor Maximilian I caught in Belgium
1572 – Beggars assault Oisterwijk Netherlands, drive nuns out
1576 – Henry of Navarre converts to Roman Catholicism in order to ensure his right to the throne of France.
1597 – A group of early Japanese Christians, known as the 26 Martyrs, are killed by the new government of Japan for being seen as a threat to Japanese society
1644 – First US livestock branding law passed, by Connecticut
1649 – Prince of Wales proclaimed King Charles II of Great Britain by Covenanter Parliament of Scotland
1782 – The Spanish captured Minorca from the British.
1783 – Sweden recognized the independence of the United States.
1778 – Articles of Confederation ratified by 2nd state, South Carolina
1803 – English explorer George Bass and crew set sail from Sydney to Tahiti and Chile – they’re never seen again
1811 – Prince of Wales (future George IV) made Regent after George III deemed insane
1846 – “The Oregon Spectator”, based in Oregon City, became the first newspaper published on the Pacific coast.
1861 – Samuel Goodale patented the moving picture peep show machine.
1869 – The biggest gold nugget in history is found – The “Welcome Stranger” was found at Moliagul in Australia and had a calculated refined weight of 71.081 kg.
1885 – Congo State was established under Leopold II of Belgium, as a personal possession.
1901 – Loop-the-loop centrifugal RR (roller coaster) patented by Ed Prescot
1909 – The world’s first synthetic plastic is developed – Belgian chemist Leo Baekeland announced his invention of Bakelite at a meeting of the American Chemical Society that day.
1916 – Enrico Caruso recorded “”O Sole Mio”” for the Victor Talking Machine Company
1917 – The U.S. Congress passed the Immigration Act of 1917 (Asiatic Barred Zone Act) with an overwhelming majority. The action overrode President Woodrow Wilson’s December 14, 1916 veto.
1919 – Hollywood film studio United Artists founded by Charlie Chaplin, Douglas Fairbanks, Mary Pickford and D. W. Griffith
1924 – The BBC time signals, or “pips”, from Greenwich Observatory were heard for the first time. They are broadcast every hour.
1933 – Marinus van der Lubbe passes Dutch-German border, will later set fire to the German Reichstag
1937 – U.S. President Roosevelt proposed enlarging the U.S. Supreme Court. The plan failed.
1943 – Amsterdam resistance group CS-6 shoots Nazi General Seyffardt
1945 – US troops under General Douglas MacArthur enter Manilla
1952 – In New York City, four signs were installed at 44th Street and Broadway in Times Square that told pedestrians “don’t walk.”
1953 – The Walt Disney’s film “Peter Pan” opened at the Roxy Theatre in New York City.
1956 – NY Mayor Robert Wagner & Brooklyn Boro President Frank Cashmore sponsor a bill to create a $30M Brooklyn Sports Center Authority to build
1958 – A hydrogen bomb known as the Tybee Bomb is lost by the US Air Force off the coast of Savannah, Georgia, never to be recovered
1962 – Black and White parents stage an overnight sit-in after school board denies transfer requests of nine Black families for their children to be transferred to newer school facility in Englewood, New Jersey
1969 – “Turn-On” debuts & cancelled by ABC after flopping so badly
1971 – Apollo 14, 3rd US manned Moon expedition, lands near Fra Mauro; Alan Shepard & Edward Mitchell (Apollo 14) walk on Moon for 4 hours
1973 – Funeral for LC William Nolde, last US soldier killed in Vietnam War
1974 – John Murtha becomes the first Vietnam War veteran elected to the Congress of the United States.
1980 – Egyptian parliament votes to end boycott of Israel
1981 – Military jury in North Carolina convicts Robert Garwood of collaborating with the enemy during the Vietnam War
1982 – Great Britain imposed economic sanctions against Poland and Russia in protest against martial law in Poland.
1988 – A pair of indictments were unsealed in Florida, accusing Panama’s military leader, Gen. Manuel Antonio Noriega, of bribery and drug trafficking.
1991 – A Michigan court bars Dr Jack Kevorkian from assisting in suicides
1993 – Grenade explodes in Sarajevo, killing 63 & injuring 160
1994 – White separatist Byron De La Beckwith was convicted in Jackson, MS, of the 1963 murder of civil rights leader Medgar Evers.
1997 – Switzerland’s “Big Three” banks announced they would create a $71 million fund for Holocaust victims and their families.
2003 – U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell presented evidence to the U.N. concerning Iraq’s material breach of U.N. Resolution 1441.
2004 – Rebels from the Revolutionary Artibonite Resistance Front capture the city of Gonaves, starting the 2004 Haiti rebellion.
2013 – UK House of Commons votes in favour of same-sex marriage
2014 – US President Obama and journalists globally call for the release of 3 Al Jazeera journalists detained in Egypt
2016 – Computer hackers try to steal 1 billion from Federal Reserve Bank of New York using Bangladesh banking codes, steal 81 million before a typo alerts authorities
2019 – Pope Francis admits for the first time that clerics have sexually abused nuns
2020 – US Senate votes to acquit President Donald Trump 52-48 on charges of abuse of power and 53-47 on obstruction of Congress
REFERENCE: history.net, onthisday.com, thepeopleshistory.com, timeanddate.com, scopesys.com, on-this-day.com
