February 3 in Pop Culture History
1690 – The first paper money in America was issued today, in the Colony of Massachusetts.
1834 -Wake Forest University was established in North Carolina.
1870 – The 15th Amendment was ratified in the US, granting every citizen, regardless of race, the right to vote
1891 – The official electrical lighting of London streets commenced.
1889 – Outlaw Belle Starr was murdered in Oklahoma, shot twice in the back.
1913 – The Sixteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution was ratified, authorizing the Federal government to impose and collect an income tax.
1923 (Volcano Eruption) Kamchatka.
1943 – The SS Dorchester is sunk by a German U-boat. Only 230 of 902 men aboard survive; the event is described in the the Four Chaplains Story.
1947 – The coldest weather ever recorded in the North America was at Snag, Yukon: -63 °C or -81 °F.
1953 – Jacques Cousteau’s book The Silent World was published.
1959 – The Day The Music Died: Big Bopper, Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens and Pilot Roger Peterson crashed in a cornfield near Clear Lake, Iowa.
1968 – # 1 Hit February 3, 1968 – February 9, 1968: The Lemon Pipers – Green Tambourine
1973 – # 1 Hit February 3, 1973 – February 23, 1973: Elton John – Crocodile Rock
1984 – The Challenger (STS-10) launched from the Kennedy Space Center.
2001 – # 1 Hit February 3, 2001 – February 16, 2001: Shaggy featuring Ricardo ‘Rikrok’ Ducent – It Wasn’t Me
2008 – The Naked Brothers Band premiered on Nickelodeon.
2009 – Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling was made a knight of the Légion d’Honneur, which is France’s highest civilian award.