Reuters historical calendar - January 3

LONDON, Jan 2 (Reuters) Following are some of the major events to have occurred on January 3 in history: 1924 - Howard Carter, British Egyptologist, found the sarcophagus of Tutankhamun in the Valley of the Kings near Luxor.

1946 - William Joyce was hanged for treason in London. Known as ''Lord Haw Haw'', he broadcast Nazi propaganda to Britain during World War Two.

1961 - US President Dwight Eisenhower broke off diplomatic relations with Cuba.

1963 - Dick Powell, US film actor and director, died. He starred in musicals including ''42nd Street'' before taking on heavier roles, notably in ''Murder My Sweet''.

1967 - Jack Ruby, who shot Lee Harvey Oswald before he could be tried for the 1963 assassination of President Kennedy, died in hospital.

1990 - Manuel Antonio Noriega, deposed leader of Panama, surrendered to invading US troops after spending 10 days under siege in the Vatican embassy.

1993 - Presidents Boris Yeltsin and George Bush signed the Start-II Treaty, eliminating about two thirds of the Russian and US nuclear stockpiles.

1999 - The US space agency launched the second of two unmanned space missions to search Mars for signs of water.

2002 - Freddy Heineken, whose grandfather founded the world-famous Dutch brewery, died. He had been management board chairman of Heineken Holding NV, which controlled Europe's biggest brewer.

2002 - Paris-based Reporters sans Frontieres (Reporters Without Borders) said in its annual assessment of press freedom that 31 journalists and 10 media collaborators were killed in the line of duty in 2001. The number jailed or attacked rose dramatically to 489 and 716 respectively.

2004 - A Paris-bound Egyptian Boeing 737 operated by Flash Airlines, crashed into the Red Sea killing all 148 passengers and crew on board.

2004 - The US lander carrying the Spirit rover, a robotic explorer designed to search for signs of life on Mars, arrived safely, after seven months of space travel.

2006 - Urbano Lazzaro, World War Two resistance fighter who captured Italy's fascist dictator Benito Mussolini as he tried to escape Allied forces, died aged 81.

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