On This Day – February 3

• 1998 20 people die in the Cavalese cable car disaster

  The wings of a low-flying U.S. military aircraft cut the aerial tramway’s cables, causing the cabin to plunge 80 meters.

• 1989 Paraguay’s dictator, Alfredo Stroessner, is overthrown

  Stroessner had come to power in 1954 with a military coup.

• 1972 The deadliest snowstorm in history kills 4000

  The Iran Blizzard lasted a week and left whole villages without survivors.

• 1969 Yasser Arafat becomes leader of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO)

  Even after his death in 2011, Arafat remained a highly controversial figure, many Arabs praising him as a freedom fighter while many Israelis denouncing him as a terrorist.

• 1966 Luna 9 touches down on the Moon

  The unmanned Soviet spacecraft was the first to achieve a soft landing there.