On February 3, 1966, the Soviet Union accomplished the first
controlled landing on the moon, when the unmanned spacecraft
Lunik 9 touches down on the Ocean of Storms.

After its soft landing, the circular capsule opened like a flower,
deploying its antennas, and began transmitting photographs
and television images back to Earth. The 220-pound landing
capsule was launched from Earth on January 31.

Lunik 9 was the third major lunar first for the Soviet space
program: On September 14, 1959, Lunik 2 became the first
manmade object to reach the moon when it impacted with
the lunar surface, and on October 7 of the same year Lunik
3 flew around the moon and transmitted back to Earth the
first images of the far side of the moon.

The first views from the Moon’s surface taken by the Soviet
Luna 9  lander, captured on Feb. 4, 1966.

On February 3, 2002, the New England Patriots shocked football
fans everywhere by defeating the heavily favored St. Louis Rams,
20-17, to take home their first Super Bowl victory.

Pats’ kicker Adam Vinatieri (below) made a 48-yard field goal to
win the game just as the clock expired.

New England Patriots’ quarterback Tom Brady.

Rising American rock stars Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens and J.P.
“The Big Bopper” Richardson, along with pilot Roger Peterson, 
were killed when their chartered Beechcraft Bonanza plane
crashed in Iowa a few minutes after takeoff from Mason City on
a flight headed for Moorhead, Minnesota.      

Investigators blamed the crash on bad weather and pilot error.

After mechanical difficulties with the tour bus, Holly had chartered
a plane for his band to fly between stops on the Winter Dance
Party Tour. However, Richardson, who had the flu, convinced
Holly’s band member Waylon Jennings to give up his seat, and
Ritchie Valens won a coin toss for another seat on the plane.

Singer Don McLean (above) memorialized Holly, Valens and
Richardson in the 1972 No. 1 hit “American Pie,” which
refers to February 3, 1959 as “the day the music died.”

Holly’s headstone in the City of Lubbock Cemetery.

The first Groundhog Day celebration in 1887.

On February 2, 1887, Groundhog Day, featuring a rodent
meteorologist, was celebrated for the first time at Gobbler’s
Knob in Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania.

According to tradition, if a groundhog comes out of its hole
on this day and sees its shadow, it gets scared and runs
back into its burrow, predicting six more weeks of winter
weather; no shadow means an early spring.

Groundhog Day has its roots in the ancient Christian tradition
of Candlemas (below) when clergy would bless and distribute
candles needed for winter.       

CARLATA BRADLEY

 
1952

Eugene Curran Kelly (August 23, 1912 – February 2, 1996)

Gene Kelly starred in, choreographed, and, with Stanley Donen,
co-directed some of the most well-regarded musical films of the
1940s and 1950s.

Kelly’s health declined steadily in the late 1980s and early 1990s.

In July 1994, he suffered a stroke and stayed in Ronald Reagan
UCLA Medical Center hospital for seven weeks. In early 1995, he
had another stroke which made him severely disabled. Kelly died
on February 2, 1996.

1949