On This Day for February 3 - Fifteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution ratified, Felix Mendelssohn is featured, and more

Created: 2020-02-03 11:02 Updated: 2020-02-03 11:02 Notebook: On this Day in History

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February 03

Felix Mendelssohn, painting by Wilhelm Hensel.

FEATURED BIOGRAPHY

1809

Felix Mendelssohn

FEATURED EVENT

1870

Fifteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution ratified

MORE EVENTS ON THIS DAY

2005: American lawyer and judge Alberto R. Gonzales was sworn in as the attorney general of the United States, becoming the first Hispanic to occupy the post.

1995: American astronaut Eileen Collins became the first woman to pilot a space shuttle, the Discovery. [Take our Space Exploration quiz .]

1975: Egyptian singer Umm Kulthūm, who was one of the most famous Arab singers and public personalities of the 20th century, died in Cairo. [ Test your knowledge of musicians .]

1959: American rock 'n' roll singer Buddy Holly was killed in a plane crash at age 22.

1874: Avant-garde American writer Gertrude Stein , whose Paris home was a salon for the leading artists and writers of the period between World Wars I and II, was born.

1811: American newspaper editor Horace Greeley, known as one of the most persuasive antislavery voices in the antebellum North, was born in Amherst, New Hampshire.

SEE ALL EVENTS ON THIS DAY

ALSO BORN ON THIS DAY

1894

Norman Rockwell
American illustrator

1956

Nathan Lane
American actor

1874

Gertrude Stein
American writer

1821

Elizabeth Blackwell
British American physician

1904

Pretty Boy Floyd
American gangster