February 4

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 Eugene 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 Chavez 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 degF. (-32 degC)
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 Cavaille-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 Hammarskjold, 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 Leger, French artist (d. 1955)
1881 - Eulalio Gutierrez, Interim President of Mexico (d. 1939)
1882 - Princess Louise of Orleans (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 Prevert, 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 Peron, 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 O 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 Gruner, German politician (born 1929)
2018 - Edwin Jackson, American football player (born 1991)
2018 - John Mahoney, British-American actor (born 1940)
2018 - Seamus 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