#TodayInHistory – February 3
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February 3 – Some important events on this day
1377 👉🏼 Mass execution of population (between 2,500 and 5,000) of Cesena, Italy, by Breton troops of Giovanni Acuto under the command of Robert, Cardinal of Geneva, acting as the legate of Pope Gregory XI
1451 👉🏼 Sultan Mehmed II, the Conqueror inherits the throne of the Ottoman Empire
1509 👉🏼 The Battle of Diu, naval battle at port of Diu, India between Portugal and the Ottoman Empire, establishes Portuguese trading control
1815 👉🏼 World’s first commercial cheese factory established, in Switzerland
1870 👉🏼 US state of Iowa ratifies the 15th Amendment of the United States Constitution allowing suffrage for all races & colour
1882 👉🏼 Circus owner P. T. Barnum buys his world-famous elephant Jumbo
1928 👉🏼 Paleoanthropologist Davidson Black reports his findings on the ancient human fossils found at Zhoukoudian, China in the journal Nature and declares them to be a new species he names ‘Sinanthropus pekinensis’ (now known as ‘Homo erectus’)
1931 👉🏼 Arkansas legislature passes motion to pray for soul of journalist H. L. Mencken, after he calls the state the “apex of moronia”
1931 👉🏼 New Zealand’s worst natural disaster, the Hawke’s Bay earthquake, kills 256 and injures thousands, devastating Napier and the Hawke’s Bay region.
New Zealand’s worst ever natural disaster occurred on this day, when a 7.9 magnitude earthquake struck 15km north of the town of Napier in the Hawke’s Bay region. The quake killed 256 people and left thousands injured. By the end of the month, 597 aftershocks had been recorded.
The effects were severe, most buildings in the Napier and Hastings city centers were destroyed completely. The local governments were initially overwhelmed by the task of rebuilding, and New Zealand’s building codes were re-examined, which led to an overhaul in regulations and to the reinforcing of many buildings built in the 1930s and 1940s.
The reconstruction of Hawke’s Bay towns took place at the height of the Art Deco movement, thus Napier and Hastings are recognized as having one of the finest collections of Art Deco buildings anywhere in the world.
1959 👉🏼 “The Day the Music Died” plane crash kills musicians Buddy Holly, Richie Valens, J. P. Richardson and pilot near Clear Lake, Iowa.
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1960 👉🏼 “La Dolce Vita” directed by Federico Fellini and starring Marcello Mastroianni and Anita Ekberg has its film premiere in Italy
1966 👉🏼 1st soft landing on Moon (Soviet Luna 9)
1979 👉🏼 “YMCA” by Village People peaks at #2 on pop singles chart
2020 👉🏼 Cruise ship Diamond Princess with 3700 passengers quarantined in Yokohama port, Japan after cases of COVID-19 found on board