January 4

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

Dec - January - Feb
Su Mo Tu We Th Fr Sa
1 2 3
4 5 6 7 8 9 10
11 12 13 14 15 16 17
18 19 20 21 22 23 24
25 26 27 28 29 30 31
2004 day arrangement
All days

Table of contents

1 Events
2 Births
3 Deaths
4 Holidays and observances

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
1931 - Adi Lady Lala Mara, Fijian chieftainess and former First Lady; widow of long-time former Prime Minister and President, Ratu Sir Kamisese Mara.
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)
1896 - Joseph Hubert Reinkens, German Old Catholic bishop (b. 1821)
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

Feast day of St Elizabeth Ann Seton
The eleventh day of Christmas in Western Christianity

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