January 4

January 4 is the 4th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar. There are 361 days remaining (362 in leap years).

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Events

• 871 – Battle of Reading – Ethelred of Wessex fights a Danish invasion army .
• 1493 – Christopher Columbus leaves the New World, ending his first journey .
• 1642 – English Civil War: King Charles I of England attacks Parliament .
• 1698 – Most of the Palace of Whitehall in London, the main residence of the English monarchs, is destroyed by fire.
• 1717 – The Netherlands, England and France sign the Triple Alliance.
• 1762 – England declares war on Spain and Naples .
• 1847 – Samuel Colt sells his first revolver pistol to the United States government.
• 1850 – The first American ice-skating club is formed (Philadelphia, Pennsylvania).
• 1854 – The McDonald Islands are discovered by Captain William McDonald aboard the Samarang.
• 1884 – The Fabian Society is founded in London
• 1885 – The first successful appendectomy is performed by Dr. William W. Grant on Mary Gartside.
• 1896 – Utah is admitted as the 45th U.S. state.
• 1912 – The Scout Association is incorporated throughout the British Commonwealth by Royal Charter.
• 1936 – Mickey's Polo Team, a short animated film featuring Charlie Chaplin, Oliver Hardy, Stan Laurel and Harpo Marx in a polo match against various Disney characters, is first released.
• 1936 – Billboard magazine publishes its first pop music charts.
• 1944 – World War II: The Battle of Monte Cassino begins.
• 1948 – Burma gains its independence from the United Kingdom.
• 1951 – Korean War: Chinese and North Korean forces capture Seoul.
• 1957 – After 69 years the last issue of Colliers magazine is published.
• 1958 – Sputnik 1 falls to Earth from its orbit (launched on October 4, 1957).
• 1959 – Luna 1 becomes the first spacecraft to reach the vicinity of the Moon.
• 1962 – New York City introduces a train that operates without a crew on-board.
• 1965 – United States President Lyndon B. Johnson proclaims his "Great Society" during his State of the Union address.
• 1967 – Donald Campbell dies as his jet-powered Bluebird K7 crashes during an attempt to break the water speed record.
• 1972 – Rose Heilbron becomes the first woman judge to sit at the Old Bailey in London.
• 1974 – United States President Richard Nixon refuses to hand over materials subpoenaed by the Senate Watergate Committee.
• 1987 – An Amtrak train en route to Boston from Washington, DC collides with Conrail engines, killing 16.
• 1998 – Wilaya of Relizane massacres in Algeria; over 170 are killed in three remote villages.
• 1999 – Gunmen open fire on Shiite Muslims worshipping in an Islamabad mosque killing 16 people injuring 25.
• 2004 – Dr. Mikhail Saakashvili is elected the President of the Georgia.
• 2004  – Spirit, a NASA Mars Rover, lands successfully on Mars at 04:35 UTC.

Births

• 1334 – Amadeus VI of Savoy (d. 1383)
• 1643 (Old Style) – Isaac Newton, English scientist and philosopher (d. 1727)
• 1710 – Giovanni Battista Pergolesi, Italian composer (d. 1736)
• 1720 – Johann Friedrich Agricola, German composer (d. 1774)
• 1785 – Jakob Grimm, German philologist and folklorist (d. 1863)
• 1809 – Louis Braille, French teacher of the blind (d. 1852)
• 1822 – Georg Büchmann, philologist (d. 1884)
• 1832 – George Tryon, British admiral (d. 1893)
• 1838 – Charles Stratton ("General Tom Thumb"), American circus performer, entertainer (d. 1883)
• 1874 – Josef Suk, Czech composer and violinist (d. 1935)
• 1881 – Wilhelm Lehmbruck, German sculptor (d. 1919)
• 1883 – Max Eastman, American writer (d. 1969)
• 1896 – Everett Dirksen, American politician (d. 1969)
• 1896 – André Masson, French artist (d. 1987)
• 1900 – James Bond, American ornithologist (d. 1989)
• 1901 – C. L. R. James, writer and journalist (d. 1989)
• 1905 – Sterling Holloway, American actor (d. 1992)
• 1914 – Jane Wyman, American actress
• 1915 – Kanagawa Kusotaro, inventor of the revolutionary system for growing large strawberries in pre-war Japan, involving planting on the banks of rivers when the trees above are colored golden, and using human feces as fertilizer.
• 1917 – Jesse White, American actor (d. 1997)
• 1920 – William Colby, director of the CIA (d. 1996)
• 1927 – Barbara Rush, American actress
• 1930 – Don Shula, American football coach
• 1930 – Sorrell Booke, American actor (d. 1994)
• 1931 – Adi Lady Lala Mara, Fijian chieftainess and First Lady; wife of Prime Minister and President, Ratu Sir Kamisese Mara
• 1932 – Carlos Saura, director
• 1935 – Floyd Patterson, American boxer
• 1937 – Dyan Cannon, American actress
• 1937 – Grace Bumbry, American opera singer
• 1940 – Helmut Jahn, German architect
• 1941 – Maureen Reagan, American political activist (d. 2001)
• 1943 – Doris Kearns Goodwin, writer
• 1956 – Bernard Sumner, English rock musician, New Order
• 1957 – Patty Loveless, American singer
• 1960 – Michael Stipe, American vocalist for R.E.M.
• 1963 – Till Lindemann, German vocalist for Rammstein
• 1963 – Dave Foley, Canadian comedian, actor
• 1965 – Julia Ormond, English actress
• 1966 – Deana Carter, American singer
• 1971 – Garrison Hearst, American football player
• 1978 – Dwight Freeney, American football player

Deaths

• 1066 – Edward the Confessor, King of England (or January 5)
• 1248 – King Sancho II of Portugal (b. 1207)
• 1695 – François Henri de Montmorency-Bouteville, duc de Luxembourg, French general (b. 1628)
• 1782 – Ange-Jacques Gabriel, French architect (b. 1698)
• 1804 – Charlotte Lennox, English author and poet
• 1821 – Elizabeth Ann Seton, American saint (b. 1774)
• 1831 – James Monroe, President of the United States (b. 1758)
• 1877 – Cornelius Vanderbilt, American entrepreneur (b. 1794)
• 1896 – Joseph Hubert Reinkens, German Old Catholic bishop (b. 1821)
• 1940 – Flora Finch, English born film comedienne and actress
• 1941 – Henri Bergson, French philosopher (b. 1859)
• 1960 – Albert Camus, Algerian-born French philosopher and writer (car crash) (b. 1913)
• 1961 – Erwin Schrödinger, Austrian physicist (b. 1887)
• 1965 – T. S. Eliot, American poet (b. 1888)
• 1967 – Donald Campbell, English water speed record setter (b. 1921)
• 1969 – Violet and Daisy Hilton, conjoined twins, actresses
• 1970 – Jean-Etienne Valluy, French general (b. 1899)
• 1985 – Brian Horrocks, British general (b. 1895)
• 1986 – Christopher Isherwood, English writer (b. 1904)
• 1986 – Phil Lynott, Irish musician (b. 1949)
• 1990 – Doc Edgerton, American electrical engineering (b. 1903)
• 1998 – Mae Questel, American actress (b. 1908)
• 1999 – Iron Eyes Cody, American actor (b. 1904)
• 2000 – Tom Fears, American football star
• 2002 – Esquivel, musician (b. 1918)
• 2003 – Conrad Hall, American cinematographer (b. 1927)
• 2004 – Brian Gibson, English film director (b. 1944)
• 2004  – Jake Hess, American Gospel singer (b. 1927)
• 2004  – Jeff Nuttall, English poet, publisher, actor, painter, sculptor, jazz trumpeter, social commentator, and author (b. 1933)
• 2004  – Joan Aiken, English author (b. 1924)
• 2004  – John Toland, American author and historian (b. 1912)
• 2005 – Humphrey Carpenter, English author and biographer (b. 1946)
• 2005  – Ali al-Haidri, Iraqi governor of Baghdad (assassinated)
• 2005  – Frank Harary, mathematician (b. 1921)
• 2005  – Robert Heilbroner, American economist (b. 1919)
• 2005  – Bud Poile, Canadian hockey player (b. 1924)
• 2005  – Alton Tobey, American artist (b. 1914)

Holidays and observances

• Feast day of St Elizabeth Ann Seton
• The tenth day and eleventh night of Christmas in Western Christianity

External links

• BBC: On This Day

January 3 – January 5 – December 4 – February 4 — listing of all days