ON THIS DAY FEBRUARY 3
1187 Saladin, Sultan of Egypt and Syria, destroys Jerusalem’s crusader army at the Battle of the Horns of Hattin.
1844 Great auks – a species of flightless birds – join the ranks of the dodo.
1871 Wild West outlaw Jesse James brazenly robs a bank in Corydon, Iowa, of $45 000. 1886 The New-York Tribune becomes the first newspaper to use a linotype machine, eliminating typesetting by hand.
1900 The British evacuate Rustenburg and occupy Commando Nek and Silkaatsnek. 1913 A common tern is ringed in Maine. It is found dead in 1919 in Africa becoming the bird known to have crossed the Atlantic.
1915 After exploding a bomb in the US Senate reception room the day before, Erich Muenter, a German instructor at Cornell University, shoots JP Morgan for representing the British government in war contract negotiations. 1928 John Logie Baird demonstrates the first colour television transmission in London. 1938 The world speed record for a steam locomotive is set in England by the Mallard, which reaches a speed of 202.58 km/h.
1940 To stop ships from falling into German hands, the French fleet at Mers El Kébir, is bombarded by the British fleet, causing the loss of three battleships and 1 200 sailors. 1952 The SS United States sets sail on her maiden voyage, during which she takes the Blue Riband away from the RMS Queen Mary. 1959 Gary Player wins the first of his 9 major titles at the British Open at Muirfield.
1969 The biggest explosion in rocketry occurs when the Soviet N-1 rocket explodes and destroys its launchpad at Baikonur Cosmodrome – debris is spread over 10 km. 1976 Sweden’s Björn Borg beats Ilie Năstase of Romania for the first of 5 Wimbledon titles. 1988 The warship USS Vincennes shoots down Iran Air Flight 655 over the Persian Gulf, killing all 290 people aboard.
2012 Antonio Esfandiari wins a record $18.3 million after winning the 2012 World Series of Poker, which had a $1m Buy-In.
2019 Over a million people are told to evacuate Japan’s Kyushu island amid warnings of mudslides after heavy rain. HISTORIAN