January 4

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

Events

• 871 - Battle of Reading - Ethelred of Wessex defeats 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
• 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).
• 1884 - The Fabian Society is founded in London
• 1885 - The first successful appendectomy is performed (Dr. William Grant; patient was Mary Gartside).
• 1896 - Utah is admitted as the 45th U.S. state.
• 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)
• 1962 - New York City introduces a train that operates without a crew on-board.
• 1965 - United States President Lyndon 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 in the United Kingdom (Old Bailey, 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.
• 1999 - Gunmen open fire on Shiite Muslims worshipping in an Islamabad mosque killing 16 people injuring 25.
• 2004 - Dr. Mikhail Saakashvili won Presidential Elections in the Republic of Georgia.

Births

• 1710 - Giovanni Battista Pergolesi, composer (d. 1736)
• 1720 - Johann Friedrich Agricola, composer (d. 1774)
• 1785 - Jakob Grimm, philologist, one half of the Brothers Grimm (d. 1863)
• 1809 - Louis Braille, teacher, developed writing system for the blind (d. 1852)
• 1822 - Georg Büchmann, philologist (d. 1884)
• 1838 - Charles Stratton ("General Tom Thumb"), circus performer, entertainer (d. 1883)
• 1881 - Wilhelm Lehmbruck, sculptor (d. 1919)
• 1883 - Max Eastman, writer (d. 1969)
• 1896 - Everett Dirksen, American politician (d. 1969)
• 1914 - Jane Wyman, actress
• 1930 - Don Shula, American football coach
• 1932 - Carlos Saura, director
• 1935 - Floyd Patterson, boxing champion
• 1937 - Dyan Cannon, actress
• 1943 - Doris Kearns Goodwin, writer
• 1960 - Michael Stipe, singer for R.E.M.

Deaths

• 1248 - King Sancho II of Portugal (b. 1207)
• 1821 - Elizabeth Ann Seton, American saint (b. 1774)
• 1831 - James Monroe, President of the United States (b. 1758)
• 1877 - Cornelius Vanderbilt, entrepreneur (b. 1794)
• 1941 - Henri Bergson, writer (b. 1859)
• 1960 - Albert Camus, philosopher and writer (car crash) (b. 1913)
• 1961 - Erwin Schrödinger, physicist (b. 1887)
• 1965 - T. S. Eliot, poet (b. 1888)
• 1967 - Donald Campbell, water speed record setter (b. 1921)
• 1969 - Violet and Daisy Hilton, conjoined twins, actresses
• 1986 - Christopher Isherwood, writer (b. 1904)
• 1998 - Mae Questel, actress
• 1999 - Iron Eyes Cody, actor (b. 1904)
• 2000 - Tom Fears, American football star
• 2002 - Esquivel, musician (b. 1918)
• 2002 - Antonio Todde (112) - oldest man in the world at the time (from Thiana, Sardinia, Italy) (b. 1889)
• 2003 - Conrad L. Hall, camera operator

Holidays and observances

• The eleventh day of Christmas in Western Christianity.
• Catholicism - Feast Day of St. Elizabeth Ann Seton.

January 3 - January 5 - December 4 - February 4 -- listing of all days