FEB 03
- 1815 - Switzerland: World's first commercial cheese factory established.
- 1821 - Birthday: Elizabeth Blackwell, English-American physician (first woman to receive a medical degree in USA) born in Bristol, England.
- 1863 - Samuel Clemens used the pen name Mark Twain in a Virginia City newspaper (Territorial Enterprise).
- 1882 - P. T. Barnum bought his world famous circus elephant Jumbo.
- 1904 - Birthday: Charles "Pretty Boy" Floyd, American gangster and FBI Most Wanted born in Adairsville, Georgia.
- 1917 - US President Woodrow Wilson ended diplomatic relations with Germany.
- 1917 - SS Housatonic was sunk by German submarine (killing all 8 crew members).
- 1945 - Germany: Allies use flying Fortresses to drop 3,000+ tons of bombs on Berlin.
- 1962 - US President John F. Kennedy banned all trade with Cuba (except food & drugs).
- 1966 - 1st soft landing on Moon (Soviet Luna 9).
- 1984 - Birthday: Elizabeth Holmes, CEO of Theranos (Forbes 2014: youngest selfmade female billionaire) born in Washington, D.C.
- 1994 - US Trade embargo against Vietnam lifted by President Bill Clinton.
- 2007 - Iraq: Bombing in a market in Baghdad killed 135+ people.
- 2009 - Eric Holder became 82nd and 1st African American US Attoney General, succeeding Michael Mukasey.
- 2011 - All remaining blocks of IPv4 internet addresses were officially distributed to the regional authorities.
- 2013 - Iraq: 33 people were killed by a suicide bombing (using a truck) in Kirkuk.
- 2019 - Pope Francis arrived in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, marks first papal visit to the Arabian peninsula.
- 2020 - Due to observed cases of coronavirus (COVID-19) onboard, Cruise ship Diamond Princess with 3700 passengers quarantined in Yokohama port, Japan.