On February 3

A freight train derailed in East Palestine, Ohio, releasing hazardous materials into the surrounding area.

Russia's first school shooting took place when a student opened fire at School No. 263 in Moscow, resulting in the deaths of a teacher and a police officer.

An edition of L'Homme qui marche I, a bronze sculpture by Swiss sculptor Alberto Giacometti, was sold for £65 million, setting the record for the most expensive sculpture sold at auction.

Al-Qaeda insurgency in Yemen: 23 convicts, including several militants associated with al-Qaeda, escaped from a prison administered by the Political Security Organization in Sanaa, Yemen.

Despite a large international movement advocating the commutation of her sentence to life imprisonment, Karla Faye Tucker became the first woman to be executed in the United States since 1984.

In mission STS-63, astronaut Eileen Collins (pictured) became the first woman to pilot the Space Shuttle.

Steve Jobs purchased Pixar from Lucasfilm and launched it as an independent computer-animation studio.

The deadliest blizzard in history began in Iran and continued for a week leaving more than 4,000 people dead.

American rock and roll musicians Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens, and J. P. "The Big Bopper" Richardson died in a plane crash (wreckage pictured) shortly after takeoff from Mason City Municipal Airport in Iowa.

Hundreds of native creoles known as Forros were massacred on São Tomé Island by the colonial administration and Portuguese landowners.

World War II: Free French and British forces began the Battle of Keren to capture the strategic town of Keren in Italian East Africa.

Adolf Hitler announced that the conquest of Lebensraum in Eastern Europe, and its "ruthless Germanisation", were the geopolitical objectives of Reich foreign policy.

The Communist Party of Indochina, the Communist Party of Annam and the Communist League of Indochina merged to form the Communist Party of Vietnam.

Reconstruction era: The Fifteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution was ratified, formally prohibiting race-based disenfranchisement in the United States.

Moldavia and Wallachia formally united, creating the Romanian United Principalities.

The Argentine Confederation was defeated in the Platine War by an alliance consisting of Brazil, Uruguay and the Argentine provinces of Entre Ríos and Corrientes.

Argentine War of Independence: José de San Martín and the Mounted Grenadiers Regiment defeated Spanish royalist forces in the Battle of San Lorenzo (depicted).

Mudéjar revolt: King James I of Aragon entered the formerly Muslim-held city of Murcia following its surrender three days earlier.

Emperor Henry III declared Drogo of Hauteville to be count of all Apulian and Calabrian Normans.