| 3 February 1014 | Denmark, Norway, England [political events] | Following the death of Sewyn I (Sven Forkbeard), king of Denmark, Norway, and England, he is succeeded by his sons, Harold, in Denmark, and Cnut, in England. However, when the English king Aethelred II is restored, Cnut is forced to return to Denmark. |
| 3 February 1194 | England, Holy Roman Empire, France [diplomacy] | King Richard I the Lionheart of England is released by the Holy Roman Emperor Henry VI in Mainz, in the Rhineland Palatinate, Germany; as he returns to England, he builds up an anti-French coalition in the Rhineland and Low Countries. His brother, the self-proclaimed King John of England, flees to the French court on hearing of his release. |
| 3 February 1388 | England [law and government] | The ‘merciless parliament’ meets and convicts the courtiers of King Richard II of England, who are accused by the lords appellant. The lords appellant take control of the government. |
| 3 February 1461 | England [Wars of the Roses (1455–85)] | The Yorkist forces of Edward, Earl of March (the future King Edward IV of England), defeat and break Lancastrian forces including French, Breton, and Irish troops at Mortimer's Cross, Herefordshire, England. Owen Tudor (Pembroke) is captured and beheaded. |
| 3 February 1576 | France [French Wars of Religion (1562–80)] | King Henry III of Navarre escapes from Paris, and returns to Béarn in southwest France and command of the Pyrenean Huguenots (French Protestants), having formally abjured Catholicism at Tours on 5 January in favour of his former Huguenot faith. |
| 3 February 1830 | Greece [political events] | Greece is declared independent of the Ottoman Empire at the London Conference and granted the protection of France, Russia, and Britain. |
| 3 February 1852 | Argentina [political events] | Juan Manuel de Rosas is overthrown as dictator of Argentina at the Battle of Caseros by the insurgent Justo de Urquiza, supported by Brazilian and Uruguayan forces. |
| 3 February 1874 | USA [births and deaths] | Gertrude Stein, US avant-garde writer and eccentric, born in Allegheny, Pennsylvania (–1946). |
| 3 February 1915 | Poland, Russian Empire, Germany [World War I (1914–18)] | The German army uses poison gas at Bolimov, Poland, on the Eastern Front. It is the first time that they have used poison gas on a significant scale. |
| 3 February 1924 | [births and deaths] | (Thomas) Woodrow Wilson, 28th president of the USA 1913–21, a Democrat, dies in Washington, DC (67). |
| 3 February 1934 | Germany [aircraft] | Deutsche Lufthansa start the first regular transatlantic airmail service, completing the journey from Berlin, Germany to Buenos Aires, Argentina in four days. |
| 3 February 1966 | USSR [space exploration] | Soviet spacecraft Luna 9 (launched 31 January) makes the first soft landing on the Moon and transmits photographs and soil data for three days. |
| 3 February 1977 | Ethiopia [political events] | Colonel Mengistu Haile Mariam becomes leader of Ethiopia after killing the existing head of state, General Teferi Bante, and six other leading members of the ruling military council. |
| 3 February 1981 | Norway [law and government] | Labour politician Gro Harlem Brundtland becomes the first woman prime minister of Norway. |
| 3–13 February 2007 | England Hungary [animal husbandry] | An outbreak of the H5N1 strain of avian flu is confirmed at a turkey farm in Suffolk in England, prompting the slaughter of 159,000 birds. Subsequent scientific investigation into the source of the infection suggests a link to an earlier outbreak of the virus in Hungary. |
