1160 Emperor Frederick Barbarossa hurtles prisoners, including children, at the Italian city of Crema, forcing its surrender.
1238 The Mongols take over Vladimir, Russia.
1690 The first paper money in America is issued in the Massachusetts Bay Colony.
1783 Spain recognizes United States' independence.
1904 Colombian troops clash with U.S. Marines in Panama.
1908 The U.S. Supreme Court rules that union-sponsored boycotts are illegal, and applies the Sherman Antitrust Act to labor as well as capital.
1912 New U.S. football rules are set: field shortened to 100 yds.; touchdown counts six points instead of five; four downs are allowed instead of three; and the kickoff is moved from midfield to the 40 yd. line.
1917 A German submarine sinks the U.S. liner Housatonic off coast of Sicily. The United States severs diplomatic relations with Germany.
1920 The Allies demand that 890 German military leaders stand trial for war crimes.
1927 President Calvin Coolidge signs a bill creating the Federal Radio Commission to regulate the airwaves.
1943 Finland begins talks with the Soviet Union.
1944 The United States shells the Japanese homeland for the first time at Kurile Islands.
1945 The Allies drop 3,000 tons of bombs on Berlin.
1945 The month-long Battle of Manila begins.
1954 Millions greet Queen Elizabeth in Sydney on her first royal trip to Australia.
1962 President John F. Kennedy bans all trade with Cuba.
1966 Soviet Luna 9 achieves soft landing on the moon.
1971 OPEC decides to set oil prices without consulting buyers.
1984 The Environmental Protection Agency orders a ban on the pesticide EDB for grain products.
Born on February 3
1809 Felix Mendelssohn, German composer and pianist (Overture to a Midsummer Night's Dream).
1811 Horace Greely, founder of the New York Tribune and abolitionist.
1821 Elizabeth Blackwell, first woman to get an MD from a U.S. medical school.
1874 Gertrude Stein, poet and novelist (Three Lives, The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas).
1894 Norman Rockwell, artist and illustrator who painted scenes of small-town America. Most of his work appeared in the The Saturday Evening Post.
1898 Alvar Aalto, Finnish architect.
1907 James A. Michener, novelist (Tales of the South Pacific).
1909 Simone Weil, philosopher, member of the French resistance in WWII.