February 4

2024 Calendar

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

Events

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 – 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

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)

Births

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 writer (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

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)

Observances

Independence Day (Sri Lanka)
Rosa Parks Day (United States)
Day of the Armed Struggle (Angola)
World Cancer Day