February 3 ...

In 1468 inventor of the printing press Johann Gutenberg died at age 67. In 1690 the first paper money in America was issued by the Massachusetts colony. The currency was used to pay soldiers that were fighting in the war against Quebec. In 1783 Spain recognized the independence of the United States. In 1787 Shays' Rebellion was defeated, ending an uprising that would prompt negotiations that would result in the drafting of the Constitution of the United States. In 1809 the territory of Illinois was created; also on this day, composer Felix Mendelssohn was born in Hamburg, Germany. In 1811 newspaper editor and publisher Horace Greeley was born in Amherst, NY. In 1836 the Whig Party held its first national convention, in Albany, NY. In 1870 the 15th Amendment, granting blacks the right to vote, was ratified. In 1894 painter Norman Rockwell was born in New York City. In 1907 writer James Michener was born in New York City. In 1913 the Sixteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution ratified, authorizing the federal income tax. In 1916 Canada's original Parliament Buildings, in Ottawa, burned down. In 1917 the US broke off diplomatic relations with Germany, which had announced a policy of unrestricted submarine warfare. In 1924 former President Woodrow Wilson died in Washington, DC, at age 67. In 1930 the chief justice of the United States, William Howard Taft, resigned for health reasons. In 1941 the Nazis forcibly restored Pierre Laval to office in occupied Vichy, France. In 1943 during World War II, the US transport ship Dorchester, which was carrying troops to Greenland, sank after being hit by a torpedo. (Four Army chaplains gave their life belts to four other men, and went down with the ship.) In 1945 the Soviet Union agreed to enter World War II against Japan. In 1959 a plane crash near Clear Lake, IA, claimed the lives of rock 'n' roll stars Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens, and J.P. "The Big Bopper" Richardson. In 1966 the first rocket-assisted controlled landing on the Moon was made by the Soviet space vehicle Luna IX. In 1969 the Palestine National Congress appointed Yasser Arafat head of the Palestine Liberation Organization. In 1994 the space shuttle Discovery lifted off, carrying Sergei Krikalev, the first Russian cosmonaut to fly aboard a US spacecraft. In 1995 the space shuttle Discovery blasted off with a woman, Air Force Lt. Colonel Eileen Collins, in the pilot's seat for the first time in NASA history.