On This Day - February 3rd

On this day in the year 1451 on the common era (CE) sultan Mehmed II, the Conqueror inherits the throne of the Ottoman Empire.

On this day in the year 1783 CE, Spain recognizes the independence of the United States from British Empire.

On this day in 1855 CE the Wisconsin Supreme Court declares that the United States Fugitive Slave Law is unconstitutional; fifteen years later Iowa ratifies the fifteenth amendment to the United States Constitution, allowing suffrage for all races and colors. Seventy-seven years after that, in 1967 CE, Percival Prattis becomes the first African American reporter to enter the press Gallery of the United States Congress; forty-two years later Eric Holder becomes the eighty-second Attorney General of United States and the first African American to hold the office.

In 1863 CE Samuel Clemens first uses the pen name Mark Twain in the Territorial Enterprise, a Viginia Newspaper.

In 1887 CE, the United States Congress establishes the Electoral Count Act in order to avoid disputed national elections, the reliability of this law would not be seriously tested until January 6^th, 2021 when the outgoing president Donald Trump encouraged an armed group of insurrectionists to riot and storm the U.S. Capitol so that they might prevent the fulfillment and certification of the electoral count.

In 1913 CE the sixteenth amendment to the United States Constitution is ratified, instituting a federal income tax.

In 1959 CE, musicians Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens, J. P. Richardson (aka The Big Bopper) die in a plane crash, along with their pilot, near Clear Lake, Iowa, thereafter this becomes memorialized as the day the music died.

In 1966 CE the Union of Soviet Socialist Republic’s spacecraft Luna 9 makes the first soft landing on the surface of the moon; thirty-one years later a public memorial is held for Carl Sagan at Cornell University, Ithaca, NY

In 1972 CE the United States performs a nuclear test at the Nevada Test Site; seven years later the Minnesota Twins become the first and only team in baseball history to trade away the reigning batting champion when they send Rod Carew to the California Angels…Twins repeat this blunder in 2023 with Luis Arraez.

In 1986 CE, the sainted pope John Paul II meets with the sainted Mother Teresa of Calcutta in Calcutta, India…the two greatest figures of late twentieth century Catholicism; thirty-five years later, pope Francis the Good arrives in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, on the first ever papal visit to the Arabian Peninsula.