TODAY IN HISTORY
we live in a slightly mad world


Feb 3 1882
P.T. Barnum purchases the elephant Jumbo. He keeps him for three years until the animal’s skull is crushed by a train. After his death, Jumbo gets extra exposure, as his stuffed skin and skeleton are shown separately.
Feb 3 1913

In one of the blackest days in U.S. history, the 16th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution was ratified. This amendment created the income tax.

Feb 3 1959

3 Feb

The Day the Music Died: A small plane carrying The Big Bopper (J.P. Richardson), Buddy Holly, and Richie Valens crashes near Mason City, Iowa, while en route to a show in Fargo, North Dakota.

Feb 3 1998

The tail of a U.S. marine tactical surveillance jet on a training mission severs a tram cable at a ski resort near Trento in northern Italy, sending 20 skiers nearly 300 feet to their deaths.

Feb 3 1998

Female axe murderer Karla Faye Tucker executed by lethal injection at Huntsville State Prison, Texas. Tucker had brutally murdered Jerry Dean and Deborah Thornton with a pickaxe in 1983. The last woman executed in Texas was also an axe murderer, Chipita Rodriguez, who was hanged in 1863.