February 4

February 4 is the 35th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar. There are 330 days remaining, (331 in leap years).

Events

• 211 – Roman Emperor Septimius Severus dies, leaving the Roman Empire in the hands of his two quarrelsome sons, Caracalla and Geta.
• 1454 – In the Thirteen Years' War, the Secret Council of the Prussian Confederacy sends a formal act of disobedience to the Grand Master.
• 1703 – The day that forty-six of the forty-seven ronin committed sepuku.
• 1783 – American Revolutionary War: The United Kingdom formally declares that it will cease hostilities with the United States of America.
• 1789 – George Washington is unanimously elected to be the first President of the United States by the U.S. Electoral College.
• 1792 – George Washington is unanimously elected to a second term as President of the United States by the U.S. Electoral College.
• 1794 – The French legislature abolishes slavery throughout all territories of the French Republic.
• 1801 – John Marshall sworn in as Chief Justice of the United States.
• 1810 – British Navy seizes Guadeloupe.
• 1859 – Codex Sinaiticus discovered in Egypt.
• 1861 – American Civil War: In Montgomery, Alabama the Confederate States of America is formed by delegates from six break-away United States.
• 1862 – Bacardi, one of the world's largest spirits company, was founded as a small distillery in Santiago de Cuba in eastern Cuba.
• 1899 – The Philippine-American War begins.
• 1915 – Germany establishes a submarine blockade around the UK and declares any vessel in it a legitimate target.
• 1927 – The first talkie is released – The Jazz Singer starring Al Jolson.
• 1932 – World War II: Japan occupies Harbin, China.
• 1932 – 1932 Winter Olympics open in Lake Placid, New York.
• 1932 – Asteroid 1239 Queteleta discovered by Eugène Joseph Delporte.
• 1934 – Asteroid 2824 Franke discovered by Karl Wilhelm Reinmuth.
• 1936 – Radium E. becomes the first radioactive element to be made synthetically.
• 1938 – Thornton Wilder's play Our Town opens (New York City).
• 1938 – Disney's Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs was released, and it went on to become a major box-office success, making more money than any other motion picture in 1938.
• 1941 – World War II: The United Service Organization (USO) is created to entertain American troops.
• 1943 – Battle of Stalingrad ends.
• 1945 – World War II: President Franklin D. Roosevelt, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom Winston Churchill and Soviet leader Joseph Stalin begin the Yalta Conference.
• 1948 – Ceylon (later renamed Sri Lanka) becomes independent within the British Commonwealth.
• 1957 – USS Nautilus, the first nuclear-powered submarine, logged her 60,000th nautical mile, matching the endurance of the fictional Nautilus described in Jules Verne's novel "20,000 Leagues Under the Sea".
• 1962 – Ian Fleming's The Living Daylights first published
• 1966 – All Nippon Airways Boeing 727 jet plunges into Tokyo Bay killing 133
• 1968 – Bowie Kuhn becomes the fifth commissioner of Major League Baseball, replacing William Eckert
• 1969 – Yasser Arafat takes over as chairman of the Palestine Liberation Organization.
• 1974 – The Symbionese Liberation Army kidnaps Patty Hearst in Berkeley, California.
• 1976 – In Guatemala and Honduras an earthquake kills more than 22,000.
• 1976 – 1976 Winter Olympics open in Innsbruck, Austria.
• 1977 – Fleetwood Mac releases one of the biggest-selling albums of all time, Rumours.
• 1980 – Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini names Abolhassan Banisadr as president of Iran.
• 1991 – The Baseball Hall of Fame votes to ban Pete Rose.
• 1993 – First public alpha version, 0.2 of Doom released.
• 1996 – Major snowstorm paralyzes Midwestern United States, Milwaukee, Wisconsin ties all-time record low temperature at -26°F. (-32°C)
• 1997 – O. J. Simpson is found to be civilly liable for the deaths of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman.
• 1997 – Enroute to Lebanon, two Israeli Sikorsky CH-53 troop-transport helicopters collide in mid-air over northern Galilee, Israel killing 73.
• 1997 – After at first contesting the results, Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic recognizes opposition victories in the November 1996 elections.
• 1998 – An earthquake measuring 6.1 on the Richter Scale in northeast Afghanistan kills more than 5,000.
• 1999 – Hugo Chávez Frías, Venezuelan military and politician, is elected President of Venezuela.
• 1999 – Unarmed West African immigrant Amadou Diallo is shot dead by four plainclothes New York City police officers on an unrelated stake-out, enflaming race-relations in the city.
• 2000 – USS Iwo Jima (LHD-7) launched.
• 2003 – The Federal Republic of Yugoslavia is officially renamed to Serbia and Montenegro and adopts a new constitution.
• 2007 – Super Bowl XLI will take place from Dolphins Stadium in Miami, Florida.

Births

• 1840 – Hiram Stevens Maxim, American inventor of the Maxim Gun (d. 1916)
• 1841 – Clément Ader, French aviation pioneer (d. 1926)
• 1842 – Arrigo Boito, Italian poet and composer (d. 1918)
• 1871 – Friedrich Ebert, president of the Weimar Republic (d. 1925)
• 1873 – Étienne Desmarteau, Canadian athlete (d. 1905)
• 1881 – Fernand Léger, French painter (d. 1955)
• 1889 – Walter Catlett, American character actor (d. 1960)
• 1892 – Prince George I, Duke of Westrogothia (d. 1971)
• 1897 – Ludwig Erhard, German Bundeskanzler (Federal Chancellor) (d. 1977)
• 1902 – Charles Lindbergh, U.S. aviator (d. 1974)
• 1902 – Hartley William Shawcross, British prosecutor (d. 2003)
• 1904 – MacKinlay Kantor, U.S. writer (d. 1977)
• 1906 – Dietrich Bonhoeffer, German theologian (d. 1945)
• 1906 – Clyde Tombaugh, U.S. astronomer (d. 1997)
• 1909 – Robert Coote, British actor (d. 1982)
• 1912 – Erich Leinsdorf, Austrian conductor (d. 1993)
• 1912 – Byron Nelson, American golfer
• 1913 – Rosa Parks, U.S. civil rights activist
• 1914 – Alfred Andersch, German narrator and author of radio drama (d. 1980)
• 1914 or 1918 – Ida Lupino, English actress, director, writer (d. 1995)
• 1915 – Norman Wisdom, English actor, comedian
• 1915 – William Talman, American actor (1968)
• 1917 – Yahya Khan, President of Pakistan (d. 1980)
• 1918 – Janet Waldo, American actress
• 1921 – Betty Friedan, U.S. feminist
• 1922 – William Phipps, American actor
• 1923 – Conrad Bain, Canadian-American actor
• 1925 – Russell Hoban, U.S. writer
• 1931 – Isabel Martínez de Perón, third wife of Argentine dictator Juan Perón
• 1935 – Martti Talvela, Finnish bass (d. 1989)
• 1936 – David Brenner, American comedian
• 1936 – Gary Conway, American actor
• 1940 – George Romero, U.S. horror movie writer, producer, director
• 1940 – John Schuck, American actor
• 1943 – Alberto_João_Jardim, Portuguese dictator
• 1943 – Ken Thompson, American computer scientist
• 1947 – Dan Quayle, Former Vice President of the United States
• 1948 – Alice Cooper, U.S. rock musician
• 1949 – Michael Beck, American actor
• 1950 – Pamela Franklin, British actress
• 1952 – Lisa Eichhorn, American actress
• 1953 – Kitaro, Japanese composer
• 1959 – Lawrence Taylor, American football star
• 1959 – Pamelyn Ferdin, American actress
• 1960 – Jonathan Larson, American composer (d. 1996)
• 1961 – Stewart O'Nan, American author
• 1962 – Clint Black, U.S. country musician
• 1964 – Noodles, U.S. guitarist of The Offspring
• 1967 – Sergei Grinkov, Russian figure skater (d. 1995)
• 1970 – Gabrielle Anwar, English actress
• 1973 – Oscar De La Hoya, Mexican-American boxing champion
• 1975 – Natalie Imbruglia, Australian musician
• 1988 – Carly Patterson, United States artistic gymnast

Deaths

• 211 – Septimius Severus, Emperor of Rome (b. 146)
• 708 – Pope Sisinnius
• 784 – Hrabanus Maurus, German poet
• 856 – Rabanus Maurus, Bishop of Mainz
• 869 – Saint Cyril, after whom the Cyrillic alphabet is named (b. 827)
• 1713 – Anthony Ashley Cooper, 3rd Earl of Shaftesbury, (b. 1671)
• 1781 – Josef Myslivecek, composer (b. 1737)
• 1894 – Adolphe Sax, Belgian instrument maker, inventor of the saxophone (b. 1814)
• 1928 – Hendrik Lorentz, Dutch physicist and Nobel laureate (b. 1853)
• 1933 – Archibald Sayce, educator (b. 1846)
• 1936 – Wilhelm Gustloff, German leader of the Swiss Nazi party (b. 1895)
• 1944 – Yvette Guilbert, French singer and actress (b. 1867)
• 1958 – Henry Kuttner, science fiction author (b. 1915)
• 1968 – Neal Cassady, writer (b. 1926)
• 1968 – Gilbert H. Grosvenor, President of the National Geographic Society
• 1969 – Thelma Ritter, actress (b. 1905)
• 1974 – Satyendra Nath Bose, Indian physicist (b. 1894)
• 1975 – Louis Jordan, musician (b. 1908)
• 1978 – Bergen Evans, television host
• 1983 – Karen Carpenter, U.S. singer, musician (Carpenters) (b. 1950)
• 1984 – Anna Anderson, claiminat to the throne of Russia
• 1987 – Liberace, U.S. musician (b. 1919)
• 1987 – Carl Rogers, psychologist (b. 1902)
• 1995 – Godfrey Brown, athlete and teacher (b. 1915)
• 1995 – Patricia Highsmith, author (b. 1921)
• 1999 – Amadou Bailo Diallo, shot by New York City police
• 2000 – Doris Coley, singer, member of the Shirelles (b. 1941)
• 2000 – Carl Albert, former Speaker of the United States House of Representatives
• 2001 – Iannis Xenakis, Greek/French composer (b. 1922)
• 2001 – J. J. Johnson, jazz trombonist and jazz composer (b. 1924)
• 2005 – Ossie Davis, American actor (b. 1917)

Holidays and observances

• Ancient Latvia – Biezputras Diena observed
• Saint Paul of Tarsus
• Independence Day in Sri Lanka (1948)

• Angolan Anniversary of the Outbreak of Armed Struggle against Portugese Colonialism

External links

• BBC: On This Day

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