On This Day in History - February 3rd - Almanac

Today is Saturday, Feb. 3, the 34th day of 2018 with 331 to follow.

The moon is waning. Morning stars are Jupiter, Mars, Mercury and Saturn. Evening stars are Neptune, Uranus and Venus.

Those born on this date are under the sign of Aquarius. They include German composer Felix Mendelssohn in 1809; U.S. journalist Horace Greeley in 1811; Elizabeth Blackwell, the first woman doctor of medicine, in 1821; poet and novelist Gertrude Stein in 1874; artist Norman Rockwell in 1894; gangster Charles Arthur "Pretty Boy" Floyd in 1904; author James Michener in 1907; comedian Shelley Berman in 1925; actor John Fiedler in 1925; football Hall of Fame quarterback Fran Tarkenton in 1940 (age 78); actor Blythe Danner in 1943 (age 75); football Hall of Fame quarterback Bob Griese in 1945 (age 73); musician Dave Davies (The Kinks) in 1947 (age 71); Nobel Peace Prize laureate Carlos Filipe Ximenes Belo in 1948 (age 70); actor Morgan Fairchild in 1950 (age 68); actor Pamela Franklin in 1950 (age 68); actor Nathan Lane in 1956 (age 62); actor Thomas Calabro in 1959 (age 59); actor Maura Tierney in 1965 (age 53); professional golfer Retief Goosen in 1969 (age 49); actor Warwick Davis in 1970 (age 48); Isla Fisher in 1976 (age 42); actor Maitland Ward in 1977 (age 41); human rights lawyer Amal Clooney in 1978 (age 40); rapper Sean Kingston in 1990 (age 28).

On this date in history:

In 1690, Massachusetts Colony issued the first paper money in America.

In 1783, Spain recognized the independence of the United States from Great Britain.

In 1870, the 15th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution was ratified. It decreed that the right to vote shall not be denied on account of race, color or previous condition of servitude.

In 1913, the 16th Amendment, allowing establishment of an income tax, became part of the U.S. Constitution after ratification by Wyoming.

In 1917, the United States severed relations with Germany following the former's announcing its intention of waging unrestricted submarine warfare the previous day, on Feb. 2, 1917.

In 1924, Woodrow Wilson, the 28th president of the United States, died in Washington at the age of 67.

In 1959, singers Buddy Holly, J.P. "The Big Bopper" Richardson and Ritchie Valens, and their pilot, Roger Peterson, were killed in a plane crash near Clear Lake, Iowa.

In 1966, the Soviet Union accomplished the first controlled landing on the moon when the unmanned spacecraft Luna 9 touched down on the Ocean of Storms.

In 1973, the Endangered Species Act was signed into law by U.S. President Richard Nixon.

In 1994, the United States ended a trade embargo on Vietnam after 19 years.

In 1994, Space Shuttle Discovery blasted off into space with the first Russian cosmonaut aboard a U.S. spacecraft.

In 1998, Texas executed Karla Faye Tucker, the first female inmate to be put to death by the state in 135 years.

In 1998, a U.S. Marine jet clipped a cable car wire in a northern Italian ski resort, killing 20 people.

In 2004, the discovery of the lethal poison ricin in the mailroom of U.S. Sen. Bill Frist, R-Tenn., the Senate majority leader, forced the temporary closing of three Senate office buildings in Washington.

In 2005, more than 50 people died when a train rammed a trailer carrying a wedding party at a railroad crossing in India.

In 2005, 104 people aboard an Afghan airliner died when it crashed in the mountains near Kabul. It was Afghanistan's worst air disaster.

In 2006, an Egyptian ferry sank in the Red Sea off the coast of Egypt, an accident that killed nearly 1,000 people.

In 2007, a truck bomb exploded in a Baghdad market killing at least 135 people and injuring more than 300.

In 2008, Serbian President Boris Tadic, a pro-Western leader who favored closer ties with the United States, won re-election over a hard-line Radical Party candidate.

In 2011, the New York City Council approved a measure banning smoking in 1,700 parks and along 14 miles of beaches.

A thought for the day: "The purpose of life is not to be happy. It is to be useful, to be honorable, to be compassionate, to have it make some difference that you have lived and lived well." -- Ralph Waldo Emerson