February 3 - the day in history

On this day, the first version of the dollar or paper money was issued in the US.

Today is Wednesday, February 3, the thirty fourth day of 2005.
There are 331 days left in the year.

Highlights in history on this date:

1690 - The first paper money in America is issued by the colony of Massachusetts.

1830 - Greece is declared independent under protection of France, Russia and Britain at London conference, ending the revolution against Ottoman occupation.
1848 - Britain annexes country between Orange and Vaal Rivers in South Africa.
1865 - US President Abraham Lincoln attends a peace conference with Confederates in an attempt to end the Civil War. The talks deadlock over Southern autonomy.

1913 - Bulgarians resume war with Turkey; the 16th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, providing for a federal income tax, is ratified.
1917 - The United States breaks off diplomatic relations with Germany, which announced a policy of unrestricted submarine warfare.
1931 - Earthquake kills 256 people in Hawks Bay, New Zealand.
1943 - British bombers pound German city of Hamburg during World War II.
1945 - U.S. forces recapture Manila in Philippines from Japanese in World War II.
1959 - A plane crash near Clear Lake, Iowa, claims the lives of rock-and-roll stars Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens and JP "The Big Bopper" Richardson.
1966 - Unmanned Soviet spaceship makes soft landing on Moon and begins sending signals back to Earth.
1969 - Dr. Eduardo Mondlane, president of Mozambique National Liberation Front, is assassinated by time bomb in Tanzania.
1973 - Fighting in Vietnam comes to a halt after a cease-fire between the United States and North Vietnam goes into effect.
1977 - Gen. Tafari Banti, Ethiopia's chief of state, is killed in gun battle that breaks out around Addis Ababa headquarters of nation's feuding military leaders.
1984 - An infertile woman in a California hospital becomes what is believed to be world's first to give birth to baby from donated embryo.
1989 - In Paraguay, top military commander seizes power in coup following night of fighting.
1991 - Iraq creates a third oil slick to defend Kuwait Bay against possible allied assault.
1996 - An earthquake ravages Lijiang, China, killing at least 210 people and injuring 3,700 others.

2000 - US Federal investigators say that Alaska Airlines Flight 261 flew upside down moments before it crashed in the Pacific in January, killing all 88 aboard.
2002 - A powerful earthquake strikes the Turkish province of Afyon, killing 43 people, injuring 300, and damaging more than 600 buildings.
2004 - Singapore says it has signed an international treaty giving it the authority to prosecute suspects caught in its territorial waters but accused of piracy elsewhere.

Today's Birthdays:
Gertrude Stein, US author (1874-1946)
Norman Rockwell, US artist (1894-1978)
Alvar Aalto, Finnish architect and designer (1898-1976)
Waheeda Rehman, actress
James Michener, US author (1907-1997)
Morgan Fairchild, US actress (1950--)
Deepti Naval, actress
Maura Tierney, US actress (1965--)

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