On This Day (February 3rd) Multiple Choice

1. 1690 – The colony of Massachusetts is the first in the Americas to issue what?

2. 1807 – A British military force, under the command of Brigadier-General Sir Samuel Auchmuty captures which Spanish Empire city ?

3. 1943 – Eric Haydock, English bass player, was born in Stockport, UK. He was the original bass guitarist in which band ?

4. 1945 – World War II: The United States and the Philippine Commonwealth begin a month-long battle to retake which city from Japan ?

5. 1953 - J Fred Muggs becomes a regular on NBC's Today Show. What is he ?

6. 1959 – Rock and roll musicians Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens, and J. P. "The Big Bopper" Richardson are killed in a plane crash near which city ?

7. 1961 – The United States Air Forces begins which operation ensuring a "Doomsday Plane" is always in the air ?

8. 1966 – The Soviet Union's Luna 9 becomes the first spacecraft to do what ?

9. 1972 – The first day of a seven-day blizzard, which would kill at least 4,000 people, making it the deadliest snowstorm in history, in which Asian country ?

10. 1982 - John Sharples of England finishes 371 hours of what ?

11. 1984 – John Buster and the research team at Harbor-UCLA Medical Center announce history's first successful what ?

12. 1989 – South African President P. W. Botha resigns as leader of the National Party after suffering from what ?

13. 1994 - Actor Jean-Claude Van Damme weds Darcy Lapier in in which Asian city ?

14. 1998 – A United States military pilot causes the death of 20 people when his low-flying plane hits what near Trento, Italy ?

15. 2014 – Two people are shot and killed and 29 students are taken hostage at a high school in which Russian city ?

16. 2023 - A freight train carrying hazardous cargoes derails and catches fire releasing chemicals to the air and contaminating which US river?