/year

February 3 in history

225 sourced entries recorded on February 3, from 301 CE to 2023 CE. Every line is quoted from the revision it came from.

Events

  • 301May 30 – Sima Lun briefly usurps the Jin Dynasty.source
  • 313Edict of Milan: Constantine the Great and co-emperor Licinius meet at a conference in Mediolanum (modern Milan). They proclaim a policy of religious freedom for all, ending the persecution of Christians in the Roman Empire and returning property confiscated from Christians. The edict is posted in Nicomedia on June 13.source
  • 1101Ranulf Flambard, bishop of Durham, escapes from the Tower of London and flees to Normandy. There he joins Robert Curthose, duke of Normandy, who has just returned from the Crusades.source
  • 1112Ramon Berenguer III ("the Great"), count of Barcelona, obtains the county of Provence through his marriage to the heiress, Douce I. Ramon's dominion stretches as far east as Nice (modern France).source
  • 1161Battle of Oslo: King Inge I of Norway ("the Hunchback") is defeated and killed while fighting the forces of Haakon II ("the Broadshouldered") who succeeds Inge, with 5-year-old Magnus V as co-ruler, but not without challenges to his sovereignty.source
  • 1313William de Sancto Claro, the Bishop of Dunkeld and commonly known as William Sinclair, is issued a safe conduct pass by England's King Edward II in order to return to Scotland from Rome.source
  • 1357The Estates General in France meets and passes Étienne Marcel's Great Ordinance in an attempt to impose limits on the monarchy, in particular in fiscal and monetary matters.source
  • 1374After invading Cyprus, the Republic of Genoa bombards the city of Kyrenia, but the Cypriots repel the invasion and force the Genoese to retreat to Nicosia.source
  • 1377The Pope's representative in northern Italy, Robert de Geneve (the future antipope Clement VII), and mercenaries commanded by English soldier of fortune John Hawkwood, complete the three-day pillaging of Cesena in the Papal States, and 4,000 antipapal rebels are massacred.source
  • 1385(2 Muharram 787 AH) The madrasa (a religious school) of the Emir of Artuqid Empire, Majd al-Din Isa Al-Zahir, is dedicated and the date is placed on an inscription on the wall. The building is now a historic landmark in the city of Mardin, now located in Turkey.source
  • 1388The five Lords Appellant, regents for King Richard II open a new session of the House of Commons and the House of Lords with the goal of exposing King Richard's attempt to make peace with France in order to drive them from power. After hearing the case of the Lords Appellant, the Parliament convicts five of King Richard's associates— Lord Chancellor Michael de la Pole; London's former Lord Mayor Nicholas Brembre; Duke of Ireland Robert de Vere; Archbishop of York Alexander Neville; and Chief Justice Robert Tresilian— guilty of ""living in vice, deluding the said king" and embracing the mammon of iniquity for themselves".source
  • 1392Brancaleone Doria, the conqueror of most of the island of Sardinia, announces that he has recovered most of the territories that had been captured by his challenger, Martin of Aragon.source
  • 1401The Byzantine Emperor Manuel II Palaiologos, who has spent almost two months in England as the guest of King Henry IV, accepts a payment of 3,000 English gold marks in support of an alliance between the two nations, then makes plans to depart England for France.source
  • 1413The 10th and final English Parliament of King Henry IV opens its session, but closes abruptly after six weeks because of the death of the King.source
  • 1459The coronation of François II as Duke of the semi-independent Duchy of Brittany takes place in Nantes.source
  • 1485Three days after returning to Germany following his pilgrimage to the Holy Land, John V, Count of Nassau-Siegen founds the Franciscan monastery at his capital in Siegen.source
  • 1490The Scottish Parliament opens in Edinburgh to address matters of lands confiscated in the year before.source
  • 1498King Henry grants John Cabot a royal patent for a second westward sea voyage toward North America, with hopes that Cabot will discover a seaward route to Asia. The patent declares that "By thiesee presentes geve and graunte to our well beloved John Kaboto, Venecian, sufficient auctorite and power that he may take at his pleasure vi englisshe shippes and theym convey and lede to the londe and Iles of late founde y the seid John in our name." The expedition launches in early May, but with fewer ships than promised.source
  • 1509Battle of Diu: The Portuguese defeat a coalition of Indians, Muslims and Italians.source
  • 1509Battle of Diu is fought.source
  • 1517The Ottoman Sultan Selim I makes a triumphant entry into Cairo after his Janissaries have cleared the area of the Mamluk defenders.source
  • 1537the rebel Thomas FitzGerald, 10th Earl of Kildare ("Silken Thomas"), imprisoned in the Tower of London, is hanged, drawn and quartered, with his five uncles, at Tyburn.source
  • 1549Burmese–Siamese War: Burmese viceroy Thado Dhamma Yaza I of Prome slays Sri Suriyothai, queen consort of the Ayutthaya Kingdom, on her war elephant, when she intervenes in battle to protect the life of her husband.source
  • 1567Polish victory at the Battle of Runafer in Estonia.source
  • 1571Miler Magrath is appointed Church of Ireland Archbishop of Cashel (being translated from Clogher) while simultaneously retaining the title of Roman Catholic Bishop of Down and Connor. He will retain his new post until his death in 1622.source
  • 1590Peter Ernst I von Mansfeld-Vorderort, the German-born commander of the Spanish Imperial Army captures the German fortress of Rheinberg after a four-year long siege during the Eighty Years' War.source
  • 1605Sir Arthur Chichester is appointed Lord Deputy of Ireland, an office he will hold for a decade.source
  • 1605The 1605 Keichō earthquake, of estimated 7.9 magnitude, strikes Japan south of the island of Honshu, and triggers a tsunami that washes away hundreds of houses and kills thousands of people.source
  • 1625Francesca Caccini's opera La liberazione di Ruggiero has its premiere, stated in Florence in Italy. The opera will continue to be staged almost 400 years later, as late as the year 2018.source
  • 1628In what is now the South American nation of Chile, the indigenous Mapuche lay siege to the Spanish colonial settlement of Nacimiento. The Spanish captain and a force of 40 men are able to hold out until reinforcements arrive two days later, but the attackers take muskets and two cannons.source
  • 1637Tulip mania collapses in the Dutch Republic.source
  • 1651Pierre de Bex, former mayor of Liège, arrested for conspiring against the statesource
  • 1651Muggletonianism inaugurated.source
  • 1653Cardinal Mazarin returns to Paris from exile.source
  • 1653Cardinal Mazarin returns to Paris from exile.source
  • 1660General George Monck, at the head of his troops, enters London on horseback, accompanied by his principal officers and the commissioners of the Rump Parliament. Bells ring as they pass but the crowds in the streets are unenthusiastic and the troops are "astonished at meeting with so different a reception to that which they had received elsewhere during their march.".source
  • 1700The 'Lesser Great Fire' destroys a substantial part of central Edinburgh, Scotland.source
  • 1700"Lesser Great Fire" around Parliament Close, Edinburgh, leaves 400 families homeless.source
  • 1711A total lunar eclipse occurs, at 12:31 UT.source
  • 1716The 1716 Algiers earthquake sequence begins with a Mw 7.0 mainshock that causes severe damage and kills 20,000 in Algeria.source
  • 1719February 3 (January 23 Old Style) – The Riksdag of the Estates (the parliament of Sweden) recognizes Ulrika Eleonora's claim to the Swedish throne, after she has agreed to sign a new Swedish constitution. Thus, she is recognized as queen regnant of Sweden.source
  • 1729the foundation stone is laid for the new Irish Houses of Parliament on College Green in Dublin, designed by Edward Lovett Pearce MP as the world's first purpose-built bicameral legislative building.source
  • 1730The Daily Advertiser is founded in London as the first newspaper funded by advertising.source
  • 1731A fire in Brussels at the Coudenberg Palace, at this time the home of the ruling Austrian Duchess of Brabant, destroys the building, including the state records stored therein.source
  • 1735All 256 people on board the Dutch East India Company ships Vliegenthart and Anna Catherina die when the two ships sink in a gale off of the Netherlands coast. The wreckage of Vliegenthart remains undiscovered until 1981.source
  • 1757French artist Robert Picault begins the rescue of the frescoes at the King's Chamber of the Palace of Fontainebleau before architect Ange-Jacques Gabrel begins renovations.source
  • 1757Artist Robert Picault begins the rescue of the frescoes at the King's Chamber of the Palace of Fontainebleau before architect Ange-Jacques Gabrel begins renovations.source
  • 1774The Privy Council of Great Britain, as advisors to King George III, votes for the King's abolition of free land grants of North American lands. Henceforward, land is to be sold at auction to the highest bidder.source
  • 1781Fourth Anglo-Dutch War – Capture of Sint Eustatius: British forces take the Dutch Caribbean island of Sint Eustatius, with only a few shots fired. On November 26 it is retaken by Dutch-allied French forces.source
  • 1781American Revolutionary War and Fourth Anglo-Dutch War: The Dutch Caribbean island of Sint Eustatius (which has been supplying the United States) surrenders to Admiral Rodney.source
  • 1783American Revolutionary War: Great Britain acknowledges the independence of the United States of America. At this time, the Spanish government does not grant diplomatic recognition.source
  • 1783American Revolutionary War: Britain awards the United States independence. Spain refuses to grant diplomatic recognition to the United States.source
  • 1789Prime Minister William Pitt the Younger introduces a Regency Bill to Parliament so that the Prince of Wales may serve as regent for his father George III during a period of mental illness, but the King recovers before the Bill becomes law.source
  • 1797Battle of Faenza: A French corps (9,000 men) under General Claude-Victor Perrin defeats the forces from the Papal States, at Castel Bolognese near Faenza, Italy.source
  • 1802Leclerc and the first 5,000 of 20,000 troops arrive at Cap-François (modern Cap-Haïtien).source
  • 1807Napoleonic Wars and Anglo-Spanish War: Battle of Montevideo – The British Army captures Montevideo from the Spanish Empire, as part of the British invasions of the Río de la Plata.source
  • 1809The Illinois Territory is created from the western part of the Indiana Territory.source
  • 1813Argentine War of Independence: José de San Martín and his Regiment of Mounted Grenadiers gain a largely symbolic victory against a Spanish royalist army in the Battle of San Lorenzo.source
  • 1815The first commercial cheese factory is founded in Switzerland.source
  • 1818Jeremiah Chubb is granted a British patent for the Chubb detector lock.source
  • 1818Jeremiah Chubb is granted a patent for the Chubb detector lock.source
  • 1821Sir Thomas Brisbane is commissioned as Governor to succeed Macquarie. He replaces Macquarie on 1 December of the same year.source
  • 1823Gioachino Rossini's opera Semiramide is first performed, at La Fenice in Venice.source
  • 1823Jackson Male Academy, precursor of Union University, opens in Alabama.source
  • 1823Jackson Male Academy, precursor of Union University, opens in Tennessee.source
  • 1825Swedish Prison and Probation Service is founded.source
  • 1825Vendsyssel-Thy, once part of the Jutland peninsula forming westernmost Denmark, becomes an island after a flood drowns its 1 km wide isthmus.source
  • 1830The London Protocol establishes the full independence and sovereignty of Greece from the Ottoman Empire, as the result of the Greek War of Independence.source
  • 1830John Guard arrives in Sydney with a cargo of whale oil, the first to be shipped from the South Island.source
  • 1831Prince Louis, Duke of Nemours, elected king of the Belgians but declined the honour.source
  • 1834Wake Forest University is founded as the Wake Forest Manual Labor Institute in Wake Forest, North Carolina.source
  • 1836A new fourpence coin (groat or "joey") is declared legal tender prior to its first minting since 1800.source
  • 1843Uruguayan Civil War: Argentina supports Oribe of Uruguay, and begins a siege of Montevideo.source
  • 1848Jørgen Løvland, politician and Prime Minister of Norway (died 1922)source
  • 1852Battle of Caseros, Argentina: The Argentine provinces of Entre Rios and Corrientes, allied with Brazil and members of Colorado Party of Uruguay, defeat Buenos Aires troops under Juan Manuel de Rosas.source
  • 1857The National Deaf Mute College (later renamed Gallaudet University) is established in Washington, D.C., becoming the first school for the advanced education of the deaf.source
  • 1865American Civil War: Hampton Roads Conference: Union and Confederate leaders discuss peace terms.source
  • 1867February 3 (Keiō 2, 29th day of the 12th month) – Mutsuhito ascended to the throne as Emperor Meiji.source
  • 1867The late Emperor Kōmei's 14-year-old son, Prince Mutsuhito, becomes Emperor Meiji of Japan in a brief ceremony in Kyoto, ending the Late Tokugawa shogunate.source
  • 1870The Fifteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, guaranteeing African American men the right to vote, is passed.source
  • 1875Third Carlist War: Battle of Lácar – Carlist commander Torcuato Mendíri secures a brilliant victory, when he surprises and routs a Government force under General Enrique Bargés at Lácar, east of Estella, nearly capturing newly crowned King Alfonso XII. The Carlists take several pieces of artillery, more than 2,000 rifles, and 300 prisoners. 800 men of both sides are killed (mostly government troops).source
  • 1879Mosley Street in Newcastle upon Tyne (England) becomes the world's first public highway to be lit by the electric incandescent light bulb invented by Joseph Swan.source
  • 1882American showman P. T. Barnum acquires the elephant Jumbo from the London Zoo.source
  • 1892Jørund Telnes, farmer, teacher, writer and politician (born 1845).source
  • 1895Marie-Thérèse Joniaux condemned to death for multiple poisoningssource
  • 1905The first performance of A Shropshire Lad, the setting to music of the 1896 set of 63 poems of A. E. Housman by Arthur Somervell as a song-cycle, takes place at Aeolian Hall in London.source
  • 1908Panathinaikos A.O., a well-known professional multi-sports club of Greece, is founded in Athens.source
  • 1913The Sixteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution is ratified, authorizing the Federal government to impose and collect income taxes on all sources of income.source
  • 1918Finnish Civil War: Battle of Oulu – The White Guard defeats the Reds.source
  • 1922According to Railway Ministry of Japan official confirmed report, A surface avalanche hit a passenger train near by Katsuyama shelter in Utatonami (now Itoigawa), Niigata Prefecture. There were 90 fatalities and 40 people were hurt.source
  • 1928First hutbe in Turkishsource
  • 1931The Hawkes Bay earthquake, New Zealand's worst, kills 256 people, mainly in Napier and Hastingssource
  • 1933Adolf Hitler gives a secret speech to his military leaders, outlining his plans to rearm Germany in defiance of the Treaty of Versailles and to adopt a policy of Lebensraum in eastern Europe.source
  • 1940February 2–11 – Scheduled dates for the 1940 Winter Olympics in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany, cancelled in November 1939 due to WWII (originally allocated to Sapporo, Japan).source
  • 1941WWII: The Nazis forcibly restore Pierre Laval to the office of Prime Minister in occupied Vichy France.source
  • 1943Howrah Bridge in Calcutta commissioned.source
  • 1945March 3 – Battle of Manila United States forces enter the outskirts of Manila to capture it from the Japanese Imperial Army, starting the battle.source
  • 1947P.L. Prattis becomes the first African American news correspondent allowed in the United States House of Representatives and Senate press galleries.source
  • 1947The lowest air temperature in North America (−63 degrees Celsius) was recorded in Snag, in the Yukon Territory.source
  • 1953Batepá massacre: Hundreds of native creoles, known as forros, are massacred in São Tomé, by the colonial administration and Portuguese landowners.source
  • 1954Records are set during a massive snowstorm when 115.9 L/m2 snow falls on Grivița, a layer of snow 175 m thick is found in Călărași and a high windspeed of 126 km/h is reported in Bucharest.source
  • 1958Luxembourg, Belgium, and the Netherlands sign a treaty creating the Benelux Economic Union.source
  • 1959A chartered plane transporting musicians Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens and The Big Bopper with pilot Roger Peterson goes down in foggy conditions near Clear Lake, Iowa, killing all four on board. The tragedy is later termed "The Day the Music Died", popularized in Don McLean's 1971 song "American Pie".source
  • 1959American Airlines Flight 320, a Lockheed L-188 Electra from Chicago crashes into the East River on approach to New York City's LaGuardia Airport, killing 65 of the 73 people on board.source
  • 1959A chartered plane transporting musicians Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens and The Big Bopper crashes in foggy conditions near Clear Lake, Iowa, killing all four occupants on board, including pilot Roger Peterson. The tragedy is later termed "The Day the Music Died", popularized in Don McLean's 1971 song "American Pie". Future country star Waylon Jennings was scheduled to be on the plane, but gave up his seat to The Big Bopper.source
  • 1960Prime Minister of the United Kingdom Harold Macmillan makes the Wind of Change speech to the South African Parliament in Cape Town (although he had first made the speech, to little publicity, in Accra, Gold Coast – modern-day Ghana – on January 10).source
  • 1962A United States embargo against Cuba is announced.source
  • 1964Cyclone Dora strikes the west coast of Cape York Peninsula causing extensive damage to the Edward River and Mitchell River Aboriginal missions.source
  • 1964January 29 – February 9 – The 1964 Winter Olympics are held in Innsbruck, Austria.source
  • 1965Terje Langli, cross-country skier.source
  • 1966The unmanned Soviet Luna 9 spacecraft makes the first controlled rocket-assisted landing on the Moon.source
  • 1967Ronald Ryan becomes the last man hanged in Australia, for murdering a guard while escaping from prison in December 1965.source
  • 1972February 3–13 – The 1972 Winter Olympics are held in Sapporo, Japan.source
  • 1977In northern Japan a blizzard piles snow on rooftops, causing many to collapse killing at least 31 people.source
  • 1978The American firm Goodyear acquires the National Tire Industry (INSA) for 45 million dollars.source
  • 1979Ayatollah Khomeini creates the Council of the Islamic Revolution.source
  • 1982Syrian president Hafez al-Assad orders the army to purge the city of Harran of the Muslim Brotherhood.source
  • 1983Prime Minister of Australia Malcolm Fraser is granted a double dissolution of both houses of parliament, for elections on March 5, 1983. As Fraser is being granted the dissolution, Bill Hayden resigns as leader of the Australian Labor Party, and in the subsequent leadership spill Bob Hawke is elected as Hayden's successor unopposed.source
  • 1984STS-41-B: Space Shuttle Challenger is launched on the 10th Space Shuttle mission.source
  • 1984John Buster and the research team at Harbor–UCLA Medical Center announce history's first embryo transfer from one woman to another, resulting in a live birth.source
  • 1985Roger Vangheluwe consecrated as bishop of Bruges by Cardinal Godfried Danneelssource
  • 1986Pixar is founded by John Lasseter along with Steve Jobs.source
  • 1989After a stroke, State President of South Africa P. W. Botha resigns as Leader of the National Party.source
  • 1992South African State President F.W. de Klerk and Nelson Mandela, African National Congress leader, are jointly awarded the Felix Houphouet-Boigny Peace Prize at the UNESCO headquarters in Paris.source
  • 1994In the aftermath of the Chadian–Libyan conflict, the International Court of Justice rules that the Aouzou Strip belongs to the Republic of Chad.source
  • 1994The Libya–Chad Territorial Dispute case was decided by the International Court of Justice in favor of Chadsource
  • 1996The 6.6 Mw earthquake near Lijiang in South-west China kills up to 322 people, injures 17,000, and leaves 300,000 homeless.source
  • 19961996 Lijiang earthquake hit Lijiang City and left at least 322 killed, 3,925 serious injuries, and 13,000 injuries.source
  • 20022002 Afyon earthquake: A 6.0 magnitude earthquake strikes Afyonkarahisar Province, Turkey, killing 41 people and damaging thousands of buildings.source
  • 2005Avowed feminist and militant atheist Carmen Argibay is sworn into the Supreme Court.source
  • 2007A truck bomb explodes in Baghdad, Iraq, killing at least 135 people and injures 339 others.source
  • 2010Elazar ben Tsedaka ben Yitzhaq, 83, Samaritan High Priest.source
  • 2010The sculpture L'Homme qui marche I by Alberto Giacometti sells in London for £65 million (US$103.7 million), setting a new world record for a work of art sold at auction.source
  • 2012February 3–4: Malta Eurovision Song Contest is held at the MFCC in Ta' Qali.source
  • 20132013 Liechtenstein general election: The Progressive Citizens' Party led by Adrian Hasler wins a plurality of 10 seats in the Landtag.source
  • 2018Football: season start of the 2018 Sudan Premier Leaguesource
  • 20192019 Salvadoran presidential election: Nayib Bukele is elected president.source
  • 2019Pope Francis arrives in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, becoming the first pope to visit the Arabian Peninsula.source
  • 2021Taiwan establishes a trade office in Guyana, much to the chagrin of China.source
  • 2023The US announces it is tracking alleged Chinese spy balloons over the Americas, later announcing that the balloons did not collect any information. One balloon drifts from Yukon to South Carolina before being shot down the next day, and a second hovers over Colombia and Brazil. This event is followed by subsequent detections and shootdowns of high-altitude objects elsewhere.source
  • 2023A Norfolk Southern train carrying hazardous materials derails in East Palestine, Ohio. Multiple train cars burn for more than two days, followed by emergency crews conducting a controlled burn of several additional cars, releasing hydrogen chloride and phosgene into the atmosphere.source
  • 2023February 1 – February 11: 2022 FIFA Club World Cup in Morocco.source

Births

  • 1112Abu Ishaq Ibrahim ibn Ahmad al-Mustazhir, was the son of Abbasid caliph al-Mustazhir and Ismah.source
  • 1267February 3 (or February 3, 1266) – Richard FitzAlan, 8th Earl of Arundel (died 1302)source
  • 1338Joanna of Bourbon, queen consort of France (died 1378)source
  • 1393Henry Percy, 2nd Earl of Northumberland (died 1455)source
  • 1428Helena Palaiologina, Queen of Cyprus (died 1458)source
  • 1478Edward Stafford, 3rd Duke of Buckingham (died 1521)source
  • 1504Scipione Rebiba, Italian cardinal (died 1577)source
  • 1512John Hamilton, archbishop of St Andrews (died 1571)source
  • 1544César de Bus, French Catholic priest (died 1607)source
  • 1664Jens Bircherod, bishop (died 1720)source
  • 1677Jan Santini Aichel, Czech architect (died 1723)source
  • 1689Blas de Lezo, admiral of the Spanish Empire (died 1741)source
  • 1721Friedrich Wilhelm von Seydlitz, Prussian general (died 1773)source
  • 1728Charles Rainsford, British general (died 1809)source
  • 1761Dorothea von Medem, Latvian diplomat, duchess of Courland (died 1821)source
  • 1795Antonio José de Sucre, Venezuelan revolutionary leader, general and statesman (died 1830)source
  • 1809Felix Mendelssohn, German composer (died 1847)source
  • 1809Felix Mendelssohn, German composer (died 1847)source
  • 1811Horace Greeley, American journalist, editor, and publisher (died 1872)source
  • 1812William Fraser Tolmie, Scottish-Canadian scientist, politician (died 1886)source
  • 1821Elizabeth Blackwell, first American female physician (died 1910)source
  • 1830Robert Gascoyne-Cecil, 3rd Marquess of Salisbury, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (died 1903)source
  • 1833Abu Bakar of Johor, Malaysian sultan (died 1895)source
  • 1842Sidney Lanier, American writer (died 1881)source
  • 1873Hugh Trenchard, British military aviation pioneer (died 1956)source
  • 1874Gertrude Stein, American writer, patron of the arts (died 1946)source
  • 1901Ramón J. Sender, novelist (died 1982)source
  • 1909Simone Weil, French philosopher (died 1943)source
  • 1939Michael Cimino, American film director (died 2016)source

Deaths

  • 639K'inich Yo'nal Ahk I, ajaw of Piedras Negrassource
  • 700Werburgh, Anglo-Saxon princesssource
  • 865Ansgar, Frankish monk and archbishop (born 801)source
  • 929Guy, Margrave of Tuscany, second husband (third lover) of the Roman noblewoman Marozia, dies. He is succeeded by his brother Lambert as margrave of Tuscany.source
  • 929Guy ("the Philosopher"), margrave of Tuscany (Italy)source
  • 938Zhou Ben, general of Wu (born 862)source
  • 994William IV, duke of Aquitaine (born 937)source
  • 1014Sweyn Forkbeard, king of Denmark and England (born 960)source
  • 1014King Sweyn Forkbeard dies at Gainsborough after a reign of five weeks. He is succeeded by Harald II who becomes king of Denmark, while Cnut is elected by the Vikings of the Danelaw as king of England.source
  • 1066Rostislav of Tmutarakan, Kievan Rus' prince (born 1038)source
  • 1094Al-Muqtadi, Abbasid caliph (born 1056)source
  • 1094Caliph of Baghdad al-Muqtadi dies and is succeeded by his nominated heir Ahmad (al-Mustazhir).source
  • 1094Teishi, Japanese empress (born 1013)source
  • 1106Khalaf ibn Mula'ib, Uqaylid emirsource
  • 1116Coloman, King of Hungary ("the Learned") dies after a 21-year reign in which he has consolidated the feudal system in Hungary and expanded the frontier (partly by overthrowing Petar Snačić, king of Croatia).source
  • 1116Coloman ("the Learned"), king of Hungarysource
  • 1116Coloman, King of Hungary dies and is succeeded by his son Stephen II. The succession occurs during the wider Venetian-Hungarian struggle over the Dalmatian coast.source
  • 1161Inge I ("the Hunchback"), king of Norway (born 1135)source
  • 1215February 3 (or February 4) – Eustace, bishop of Elysource
  • 1239Kujō Ninshi, Japanese empress consort (born 1173)source
  • 1252Sviatoslav III of Vladimir, Prince of Novgorod (born 1196)source
  • 1399John of Gaunt, 1st Duke of Lancaster, English prince (born 1340)source
  • 1399John of Gaunt, Duke of Aquitaine uncle of King Richard II of England and father of Henry Bolingbroke, dies and King Richard becomes ruler of the Duchy.source
  • 1428Ashikaga Yoshimochi, Japanese shōgun (born 1386)source
  • 1451Murad II, Ottoman Sultan (born 1404)source
  • 1451Murad II, Sultan of the Ottoman Empire, dies and is succeeded (on February 18) by his son, Mehmed II.source
  • 1468Johannes Gutenberg, inventor of printing press with replaceable letters (born c.1398)source
  • 1475John IV, Count of Nassau-Siegen (born 1410)source
  • 1520Sten Sture the Younger, Viceroy of Sweden (born 1493)source
  • 1520Sten Sture the Younger, regent (born 1493)source
  • 1520Sten Sture the Younger dies. Danish troops takes Västerås. Sture's widow Christina Gyllenstierna takes command of the city of Stockholm as the head of the Sture party. Anna Eriksdotter (Bielke) take command of the city of Kalmar.source
  • 1537Thomas FitzGerald, 10th Earl of Kildare, Anglo-Irish noble, rebel (executed) (born 1513)source
  • 1537Thomas FitzGerald, 10th Earl of Kildare, was hanged in Tyburn (born 1513)source
  • 1562Georg Giese, German merchant (born 1497)source
  • 1615February 3 or February 5 – Dom Justo Takayama, Japanese warlord (born 1552)source
  • 1617Prospero Alpini, Italian physician and botanist from the Republic of Venice (born 1553)source
  • 1618Philip II, Duke of Pomerania-Stettin (born 1573)source
  • 1636Petrus Kenicius, archbishop (born 1555)source
  • 1669Catharina Questiers, Dutch poet (born 1631)source
  • 1679Moroccan troops from Fez are killed, along with their commander Moussa ben Ahmed ben Youssef, in a battle against rebels in the Jbel Saghro mountain range, but Moroccan Sultan Ismail Ibn Sharif is able to negotiate a ceasefire allowing his remaining troops safe passage back home.source
  • 1715Gottfried Vopelius, German academic (born 1645)source
  • 1762Beau Nash, leader of fashion, 87source
  • 1802Pedro Rodríguez, Count of Campomanes, Spanish statesman, writer (born 1723)source
  • 1832George Crabbe, English poet and naturalist (born 1754)source
  • 1862Jean-Baptiste Biot, French physicist, astronomer and mathematician (born 1774)source
  • 1874William Charles Lunalilo, last monarch of the House of Kamehameha (born 1835)source
  • 1901Fukuzawa Yukichi, writer and educator (born 1835)source
  • 1924Woodrow Wilson, 28th President of the United States, Nobel Peace Prize recipient (born 1856)source
  • 1937Thomas Moles, Ulster Unionist politician and journalist (born 1871).source
  • 1961Anna May Wong, American actress (born 1905)source
  • 1988René Massigli, 99, French diplomat, ambassador to the U.K. and Turkey.source
  • 1998Cavalese cable car disaster: A United States military pilot causes the deaths of 20 people near Trento, Italy, when his low-flying EA-6B Prowler severs the cable of a cable-car.source
  • 2004Mrs. Ngô Bá Thành, lawyer, politician and activist (born 1931)source
  • 2022Islamic State leader Abu Ibrahim al-Hashimi al-Qurashi is killed in Atme during a counter-terrorism raid by U.S. special forces in north-western Syria.source