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.

On This Day – February 2

1990 The South African Apartheid system of racial segregation begins to disintegrate

President de Klerk announced the unbanning of the African Nation Congress (ANC) and his intentions to release Nelson Mandela.
1943 The Battle of Stalingrad comes to an end as the Axis Powers surrender

Germany’s defeat marked a turning point in World War II.
1925 20 mushers embark on a journey to transport medicine to Nome, Alaska, inspiring the Iditarod Race

The Iditarod is the world’s longest and most challenging dog sled race.
1922 “Ulysses” by James Joyce is published

The novel is considered one of the most important works of modernist literature.
1852 The first public flushing toilet is opened in London

Using the “Public Waiting Room” at 95 Fleet Street cost 2 pence.

2003 Space Shuttle Columbia disintegrates on its way back to Earth

All 7 astronauts were killed in the disaster.
1979 Ayatollah Khomeini returns to Iran after 15 years in exile

His triumphant return marked the beginning of the Iranian Revolution.
1968 Eddie Adams takes one of the Vietnam War’s best-known pictures

The image of the execution of a Vietcong officer in Saigon helped build opposition to the war.
1960 Four black students start the Greensboro sit-ins

Their refusal to leave a “whites only” lunch counter was a milestone in the fight against racial segregation in the United States.
1884 The first fascicle of the “Oxford English Dictionary” is published

The book contained entries A to Ant.