3 February 1948

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Ohio train derailment: A freight train containing vinyl chloride and other hazardous materials derails and burns in East Palestine, Ohio, United States, releasing hydrogen chloride and phosgene into the air and contaminating the Ohio River.

A school shooting in Moscow, Russia leaves two people dead and one wounded.

One hundred five people are killed when Kam Air Flight 904 crashes in the Pamir Mountains in Afghanistan.

Cavalese cable car disaster: A United States military pilot causes the death of 20 people when his low-flying plane cuts the cable of a cable-car near Trento, Italy.

Astronaut Eileen Collins becomes the first woman to pilot the Space Shuttle as mission STS-63 gets underway from Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

Space Shuttle program: STS-60 is launched, carrying Sergei Krikalev, the first Russian cosmonaut to fly aboard the Shuttle.

After a stroke two weeks previously, South African President P. W. Botha resigns as leader of the National Party, but stays on as president for six more months.

A military coup overthrows Alfredo Stroessner, dictator of Paraguay since 1954.

Doctor John Buster and a research team at Harbor-UCLA Medical Center in the United States announce history's first embryo transfer, from one woman to another resulting in a live birth.

Space Shuttle program: STS-41-B is launched using Space Shuttle Challenger.