This Day in History on February 3 - History and Headlines

February 3, 1959: The Day the Music Died

By Major Dan on February 3, 2019 February 3, Music

A Brief History On February 3, 1959, a Beechcraft Bonanza airplane crashed in Clear Lake, Iowa, a crash that would become one of the most famous plane crashes in aviation and music history. When the light plane hit the ground in wintry weather, the lives of 3 early Rock and Roll stars were lost, an incident often referred to as “The Day the Music Died.” On that fateful day, music fans lost Buddy Holly, The Big Bopper (aka J.P. Richardson), and the young Ritchie Valens. Digging Deeper The airplane involved in the tragedy was a 1947 model of the Beechcraft…

February 3, 1953: 2000 Blacks Massacred on São Tomé Island (Batepa Massacre)

By Major Dan on February 3, 2018 Crime, February 3, Politics

A Brief History On February 3, 1953, one of the worst atrocities of the second half of the 20th Century in a tiny nation occurred when the Portuguese colonial administration and the planters on the island of São Tomé in the tiny island nation of São Tomé and Principe massacred 2000 “creole” peasants (known as forros) when the peasants hesitated to agree to work the sugar cane, coffee, and cacao fields. Digging Deeper Portugal had colonized the small islands off the Equatorial Atlantic coast of Africa in 1493, and as was the fashion of the time, enslaved the native African…

February 3, 1995: First Woman to Pilot Space Shuttle (Eileen Collins)

By Major Dan on February 3, 2017 February 3, Vehicles

A Brief History On February 3, 1995, Space Shuttle mission STS-63 lifted off from the Kennedy Space Center at Cape Canaveral Florida for space with a woman pilot for the first time. Digging Deeper Eileen Collins, born in Elmira, New York in 1956, graduated with a bachelor of arts degree in mathematics and economics from Syracuse University in 1979 and went on to earn a Master of Science degree in operations research from Stanford University in 1986 and a Master of Arts degree in space systems management from Webster University in 1989. A career in the Air Force was in this…

2014 Super Bowl XLVIII: Most Watched TV Event Ever!

By Major Dan on February 3, 2015 February 3, Sports

From the Series Lil’ History Chips On February 3, 2014, one year ago today, Fox Broadcasting announced that the previous day’s Super Bowl XLVIII (no. 48)had been the most watched television event in U.S. history with 111 million people watching the Seattle Seahawks beat the daylights out of the Denver Broncos 43-8 in the Meadowlands of New Jersey. This game was also significant as it was the first Super Bowl played in cold weather in an open-air stadium. Though both teams entered the game with a regular season record of 13-3, the game lost much of its competitiveness as the…

February 3, 1913: United States Makes it Legal to Institute an Income Tax

By Major Dan on February 3, 2014 Crime, February 3, The Bizarre

A Brief History On February 3, 1913, a dark day indeed for Americans, the 16th Amendment to the Constitution of the United States was adopted, making it legal to institute an income tax! Digging Deeper Digging deeper, we find that income taxes did not meet constitutional requirements for the federal government to levy such taxes and an amendment was required to allow congress to pass laws levying such taxes. Prior to implementation of the income tax, the main sources of revenue for the United States government were tariffs and excise taxes. Since those taxes raised prices for everyone, they proportionately…