Title: February 4 Content: ==Events== === Up to 1900 === * 211 – Roman Emperor Septimius Severus dies, leaving the Roman Empire in the hands of his two quarrelsome sons, Caracalla and Geta. * 960 - Song Taizu, founder of the Song Dynasty in China, comes to power in a coup. * 1169 - Mount Etna on Sicily erupts. It is known exactly how many people were killed. * 1454 – In the Thirteen Years' War, the Secret Council of the Prussian Confederacy sends a formal act of disobedience to the Grand Master. * 1546 - The Siege of Pskov in the Livland War ends with the last Polish-Lithuanian forces leaving the city. * 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. * 1797 - An earthquake in Riobamba, Ecuador, kills up to 40,000 people. * 1801 – John Marshall is sworn in as Chief Justice of the United States. * 1810 – The British Navy seizes Guadeloupe. * 1820 - The Chilean Navy completes the 2-day long capture of Valdivia, with just 300 men and 2 ships. * 1825 - A flood along North Sea coasts kills around 800 people. * 1846 - The first Mormon pioneers leave Nauvoo, Illinois, westward to what later became Salt Lake City. * 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. * 1897 - Germany's first-known ice hockey game takes place in Berlin. * 1899 – The Philippine-American War begins. * 1899 - The German football club Werder Bremen is founded. === 1901 1950 === * 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 movie 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: US 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. === 1951 2000 === * 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". * 1960 – Lorraine, Quebec is founded. * 1962 – Ian Fleming's The Living Daylights first published. * 1966 – All Nippon Airways Boeing 727 jet plunges into Tokyo Bay killing 133. * 1967 - Lunar Orbiter 3 launches from Cape Canaveral, Florida. * 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. * 1975 - A magnitude 7.3 earthquake occurs in Haicheng, Liaoning, China. * 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. * 1992 - Future- President Hugo Chávez leads a failed coup in Venezuela against Carlos Andres Perez. * 1996 – A major snowstorm paralyzes the Midwestern United States. Milwaukee, Wisconsin ties its 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 – En route 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 – Unarmed West African immigrant Amadou Diallo is shot dead by four plainclothes New York City police officers on an unrelated stake-out, inflaming race-relations in the city. * 2000 – USS Iwo Jima (LHD-7) launched. * 2000 – German extortionist Klaus-Peter Sabotta is jailed for life for attempted murder and extortion in connection with sabotage of German railway lines. === From 2001 === * 2002 - The charity Cancer Research UK is founded. * 2003 - The Hindu minority of Bangladesh declares the independence of Bangabhumi. * 2003 – The Federal Republic of Yugoslavia is officially renamed to Serbia and Montenegro and adopts a new constitution. * 2004 - The social networking site Facebook is founded by Mark Zuckerberg. * 2006 - A stampede at the ULTRA Stadium in Manila kills 71 people. * 2007 – Super Bowl XLI takes place from Dolphins Stadium in Miami, Florida, USA. * 2013 - It is announced that the remains dug up in a car park in Leicester are those of King Richard III of England. * 2014 - The Scottish Parliament approves the legalization of same-sex marriage in Scotland, after England and Wales had also legalized it, in 2013. * 2015 - TransAsia Airways Flight 235 crashes shortly after take-off from Taipei, Taiwan, killing 31 people. * 2018 - American football: The Philadelphia Eagles win the Super Bowl for the first time, defeating the New England Patriots. ==Births== === Up to 1900 === * 1483 - Ridolfo Ghirlandaio, Italian painter (d. 1561) * 1505 - Nicolaus Rey, Polish poet (d. 1580) * 1620 - Gustaf Bonde, Swedish statesman (d. 1667) * 1639 - Alessandro Melani, Italian composer (d. 1703) * 1646 – Hans Erasmus Assmann, Freiherr von Abschatz, German statesman and poet (d. 1699) * 1676 - Giacomo Focco, Italian violinist and composer (d. 1753) * 1677 – Johann Ludwig Bach, German composer (d. 1731) * 1740 - Carl Michael Bellman, Swedish poet and composer (d. 1795) * 1746 – Tadeusz Kosciuszko, Polish general and national hero of Poland and Lithuania (d. 1817) * 1808 – Josef Kajetan Tyl, Czech playwright (d. 1856) * 1811 – Aristide Cavaillé-Coll, French organist (d. 1899) * 1831 - Oliver Ames, 35th Governor of Massachusetts (d. 1895) * 1840 - Hiram Stevens Maxim, American inventor (d. 1916) * 1846 - Nikolay Umov, Russian physicist (d. 1915) * 1848 - Jean Aicard, French poet, author and playwright (d. 1921) * 1849 - Jean Richepin, French poet (d. 1926) * 1860 - Jackson Showalter, American chess player (d. 1935) *1862 - Hjalmar Hammarskjöld, Swedish politician (d. 1953) * 1868 - Constance Georgine, Countess Markiewicz, Irish political activist (d. 1927) * 1871 – Friedrich Ebert, President of Germany (d. 1925) * 1872 – Gotse Delchev, Bulgarian revolutionary (d. 1903) * 1873 - Mikhail Prishkin, Soviet-Russian writer (d. 1954) * 1875 – Ludwig Prandtl, German physicist (d. 1953) * 1881 - Yakov Protazanov, Soviet-Russian movie director (d. 1945) * 1881 - Kliment Voroshilov, Soviet-Russian politician (d. 1969) * 1881 - Fernand Léger, French artist (d. 1955) * 1881 - Eulalio Gutiérrez, Interim President of Mexico (d. 1939) * 1882 - Princess Louise of Orléans (d. 1958) * 1883 - Jakob Sildnik, Estonian photographer and movie maker (d. 1973) * 1891 - M. A. Ayyangar, Indian politician, Speaker of the Lok Sabha (d. 1978) * 1892 - Andreu Nin, Catalan politician (d. 1937) * 1893 - Raymond Dart, Australian scientist (d. 1988) * 1895 – Nigel Bruce, English actor (d. 1953) * 1896 – Friedrich Hund, German physicist (d. 1997) * 1897 – Ludwig Erhard, Chancellor of Germany (d. 1977) * 1897 – Emperor Iyasu V of Ethiopia (d. 1935) * 1900 – Jacques Prévert, French poet (d. 1977) === 1901 1925 === * 1902 – Charles Lindbergh, American pilot (d. 1974) * 1902 – Hartley Shawcross, British lawyer and politician (d. 2003) * 1904 - Deng Yingchao, wife of Chinese leader Zhou Enlai (d. 1992) * 1904 - MacKinlay Kantor, American writer (d. 1977) * 1906 – Dietrich Bonhoeffer, German theologian (d. 1945) * 1906 - Sabine Bonhoeffer, twin sister of Dietrich Bonhoeffer (d. 1999) * 1906 – Clyde Tombaugh, American astronomer (d. 1997) * 1906 - Colette Darfeuil, French actress (d. 1998) * 1907 - Otto Ohlendorf, German SS group leader and war criminal (d. 1951) * 1912 – Byron Nelson, American golfer (d. 2006) * 1912 - Louis-Albert Vachon, Canadian archbishop (d. 2006) * 1913 – Rosa Parks, American Civil Rights activist (d. 2005) * 1915 – Norman Wisdom, British actor and comedian (d. 2010) * 1917 – Agha Muhammad Yahya Khan, Last President of United Pakistan (d. 1980) * 1918 – Ida Lupino, English actress and movie director (d. 1996) * 1920 - Morton Deutsch, American social psychologist (d. 2017) * 1920 - Janet Waldo, American actress (d. 2016) * 1921 - Lotfi A. Zadeh, Soviet-born mathematician and computer scientist (d. 2017) * 1921 – Betty Friedan, American feminist, activist and writer (d. 2006) * 1922 – Bhimsen Joshi, Indian singer and musician (d. 2011) * 1923 - Conrad Bain, Canadian-American actor (d. 2013) * 1923 - Bonar Bain, Canadian actor (d. 2005) * 1923 - Belisario Betancur, 53rd President of Colombia * 1925 - Jutta Hipp, German-American jazz pianist, composer and painter (d. 2003) * 1925 - Christopher Zeeman, British mathematician (d. 2016) === 1926 1950 === * 1926 – Gyula Grosics, Hungarian footballer (d. 2014) * 1927 - Horst Ehmke, German politician (d. 2017) * 1927 - John Martinkovic, American football player (d. 2018) * 1928 – Kim Yong-nam, North Korean politician * 1929 – Jerry Adler, American actor * 1929 – Eduard Zimmermann, German journalist and television presenter (d. 2009) * 1930 - Arthur E. Chase, American businessman and politician (d. 2015) * 1930 - Jim Loscutoff, American basketball player (d. 2015) * 1931 – Isabel Perón, former President of Argentina * 1932 - Gerhard Hund, German chess player, son of Friedrich Hund * 1935 - Martti Talvela, Finnish bass (d. 1989) * 1936 - David Brenner, American comedian, actor and author (d. 2014) * 1936 – Gary Conway, American actor * 1938 - Donald W. Riegle, Jr., United States Senator * 1940 - George A. Romero, American movie director (d. 2017) * 1941 - Jiri Raska, Czech ski jumper (d. 2012) * 1941 – John Steel, British musician * 1943 - Wanda Rutkiewicz, Polish mountaineer (d. 1989) * 1943 – Ken Thompson, American computer scientist * 1945 - Tony Haygarth, English actor (d. 2017) * 1947 - Dennis C. Blair, American admiral, 3rd Director of Central Intelligence * 1947 – Dan Quayle, 44th Vice President of the United States * 1948 – Alice Cooper, American musician * 1948 - Marisol, Spanish actress & singer * 1948 – Ram Baran Yadav, 1st President of Nepal === 1951 1975 === * 1951 - Patrick Bergin, Irish actor * 1952 – Jenny Shipley, 36th Prime Minister of New Zealand * 1953 - Kitaro, Japanese composer * 1954 - Andrei Karlov, Russian diplomat (d. 2016) * 1955 – Mikulas Dzurinda, former Prime Minister of Slovakia * 1960 - Mark Dawson, English-American talent manager and producer * 1962 – Clint Black, American musician * 1962 - John Gordon Sinclair, Scottish actor * 1962 - Stephen Hammond, English politician * 1963 - Pirmin Zurbriggen, Swiss skier * 1964 – Noodles, American guitarist * 1966 - Viatcheslav Ekimov, Russian cyclist * 1967 - Sergei Grinkov, Russian figure skater (d. 1995) * 1969 - Dallas Drake, Canadian ice hockey player * 1970 - Gabrielle Anwar, English actress * 1971 - Eric Garcetti, 42nd Mayor of Los Angeles, California * 1971 - Rob Corddry, American actor, director and producer * 1972 – Giovanni Silva de Oliveira, Brazilian footballer * 1972 – Dara Ó Briain, Irish comedian * 1973 – Oscar de la Hoya, Mexican-American boxer * 1974 - Mijntje Denners, Dutch field hockey player * 1975 – Natalie Imbruglia, Australian singer and actress * 1975 – Vittorio Arrigoni, Italian activist (d. 2011) === From 1976 === * 1976 – Cam'ron, American rapper and actor * 1977 – Gavin DeGraw, American singer * 1979 – Andrei Arlovski, Belarussian mixed martial artist and actor * 1980 – Raimonds Vaikulis, Latvian basketball player * 1981 – Jason Kapono, American basketball player * 1982 – Ivars Timermanis, Latvian basketball player * 1982 – Kimberly Wyatt, American singer (Pussycat Dolls) * 1982 – Chris Sabin, American professional wrestler * 1983 – Miguel Garcia, Portuguese footballer * 1983 – Lee Stempniak, American ice hockey player * 1984 – Mauricio Pinilla, Chilean footballer * 1985 – Bug Hall, American actor * 1986 – Asif Ali, Indian actor * 1987 – Darren O'Dea, Irish footballer * 1987 – Lucie Safarova, Czech tennis player * 1988 – Jeff Horn, Australian professional boxer * 1988 – Carly Patterson, American gymnast * 1989 – Shogo Suzuki, Japanese actor and musician * 1990 – Haruka Tomatsu, Japanese voice actress and singer * 1991 – Mathew Leckie, Australian footballer ==Deaths== === Up to 1900 === * 211 – Septimius Severus, Emperor of Rome (born 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 (born 827) * 1161 - King Inge I of Norway (b. 1135) * 1615 - Giovanni Battista della Porta, Italian polymath (born 1535) * 1694 - Natalya Kyrillovna Naryshkina, Tsaritsa of Russia (born 1651) * 1713 – Anthony Ashley Cooper, 3rd Earl of Shaftesbury (born 1671) * 1774 - Charles Marie de La Condamine, French mathematician and geographer (born 1701) * 1781 – Josef Myslivecek, composer (born 1737) * 1843 - Theodoros Kolokotronis, Greek general (born 1770) * 1894 – Adolphe Sax, Belgian instrument maker, inventor of the saxophone (born 1814) === 1901 2000 === * 1905 – Louis-Ernest Barrias, French sculptor (born 1841) * 1928 – Hendrik Lorentz, Dutch physicist and Nobel laureate (born 1853) * 1928 - Manche Masemola, South African girl and Christian martyr (born 1913) * 1933 – Archibald Sayce, educator (born 1846) * 1935 - J. Henry Birtles, English rugby player (born 1874) * 1936 – Wilhelm Gustloff, German leader of the Swiss Nazi party (born 1895) * 1941 - Louis Lincoln Emmerson, 27th Governor of Illinois (born 1863) * 1943 - Frank Calder, first NHL President (born 1877) * 1944 – Yvette Guilbert, French singer and actress (born 1867) * 1953 - Antonio Conte, Italian fencer (born 1867) * 1956 - Savielly Tartakower, Polish chess player (born 1887) * 1958 – Henry Kuttner, science fiction writer (born 1915) * 1967 - Albert Orsborn, 6th General of the Salvation Army (born 1886) * 1968 – Neal Cassady, writer (born 1926) * 1968 – Gilbert H. Grosvenor, President of the National Geographic Society (born 1875) * 1969 – Thelma Ritter, actress (born 1905) * 1974 – Satyendra Nath Bose, Indian physicist (born 1894) * 1975 – Louis Jordan, musician (born 1908) * 1983 – Karen Carpenter, U.S. singer, musician (Carpenters) (born 1950) * 1984 – Anna Anderson, claimant to the throne of Russia (born 1896) * 1987 – Liberace, American musician (born 1919) * 1987 – Carl Rogers, psychologist (born 1902) * 1992 - Lisa Fonssagrives, Swedish model (born 1911) * 1995 – Godfrey Brown, athlete and teacher (born 1915) * 1995 – Patricia Highsmith, American writer (born 1921) * 1999 – Amadou Bailo Diallo, shot by New York City police (born 1975) * 2000 – Doris Coley, singer, member of the Shirelles (born 1941) * 2000 – Carl Albert, former Speaker of the United States House of Representatives (born 1908) === From 2001 === * 2001 – Iannis Xenakis, Greek-French composer (born 1922) * 2001 – J. J. Johnson, jazz trombonist and jazz composer (born 1924) * 2002 - Agatha Barbara, Maltese politician (born 1923) * 2002 - George Nader, American actor (born 1921) * 2005 – Ossie Davis, American actor (born 1917) * 2006 - Betty Friedan, American feminist, activist and writer (born 1921) * 2007 - Barbara McNair, American singer and actress (born 1934) * 2008 - Stefan Meller, Polish politician (born 1942) * 2009 - Lux Interior, American musician (born 1946) * 2011 - Lena Nyman, Swedish actress (born 1944) * 2011 - Martial Celestin, Haitian lawyer, diplomat and politician (born 1913) * 2012 - Mike deGruy, American documentary movie maker (born 1951) * 2012 - Andrew Wight, Australian screenwriter and producer (born 1960) * 2012 - Florence Green, British supercentenarian and last-surviving World War I service veteran (born 1901) * 2013 - Reg Presley, English singer-songwriter (born 1941) * 2013 - Essie Mae Washington-Williams, American educator (born 1925) * 2014 - Wu Ma, Chinese- Hong Kong actor and director (born 1942) * 2014 - Keith Allen, Canadian ice hockey player (born 1923) * 2015 - Sajida Mubarak Atrous al-Rishawi, Iraqi terrorist (born 1970) * 2015 - Eduardo Laborde, Argentine rugby player (born 1967) * 2015 - Fitzhugh L. Fulton, American NASA research pilot (born 1925) * 2015 - Wes Cooley, American politician (born 1932) * 2016 - Maurice White, American singer (born 1941) * 2016 - Marlow Cook, American politician (born 1926) * 2016 - Edgar Whitcomb, American politician, 43rd Governor of Indiana (born 1917) * 2016 - Axl Rotten, American professional wrestler (born 1971) * 2016 - Dave Mirra, American BMX rider (born 1974) * 2016 - Edgar Mitchell, American astronaut (born 1930) * 2017 - Basil Hetzel, Australian medical researcher (born 1922) * 2017 - Bano Qudsia, Pakistani writer (born 1928) * 2017 - Georgi Taratorkin, Russian actor (born 1945) * 2017 - Hans van der Hoek, Dutch footballer (born 1933) * 2017 - John Howes, American professor of Asian Studies (born 1924) * 2017 - Steve Lang, Canadian rock musician (born 1949) * 2017 - Marc Spitz, American writer (born 1969) * 2018 - Alan Baker, English mathematician (born 1939) * 2018 - Martin Grüner, German politician (born 1929) * 2018 - Edwin Jackson, American football player (born 1991) * 2018 - John Mahoney, British-American actor (born 1940) * 2018 - Séamus Pattison, Irish politician (born 1936) * 2018 - Wojciech Pokora, Polish actor (born 1934) ==Observances== * Independence Day (Sri Lanka) * Rosa Parks Day (United States) * Day of the Armed Struggle (Angola) * World Cancer Day February 04