February 4



This day marks the approximate midpoint of winter in the Northern Hemisphere and of summer in the Southern Hemisphere (starting the season at the December solstice).

Events

 * 211 – Roman Emperor Septimius Severus dies at Eboracum (modern York, England) while preparing to lead a campaign against the Caledonians. He leaves the empire in the control of his two quarrelling sons.
 * 634 – Battle of Dathin: Rashidun forces under Yazid ibn Abi Sufyan defeat an outnumbered Byzantine force near Gaza in Palestine.
 * 960 – The coronation of Zhao Kuangyin as Emperor Taizu of Song, initiating the Song dynasty period of China that would last more than three centuries.
 * 1169 – A strong earthquake struck the Ionian coast of Sicily, causing tens of thousands of injuries and deaths, especially in Catania.
 * 1454 – In the Thirteen Years' War, the Secret Council of the Prussian Confederation sends a formal act of disobedience to the Grand Master.
 * 1555 – John Rogers is burned at the stake, becoming the first English Protestant martyr under Mary I of England.
 * 1703 – In Edo (now Tokyo), 46 of the Forty-seven Ronin commit seppuku (ritual suicide) as recompense for avenging their master's death.
 * 1758 – Macapá, Brazil is founded.
 * 1789 – George Washington is unanimously elected as the first President of the United States by the U.S. Electoral College.
 * 1794 – The French legislature abolishes slavery throughout all territories of the French First Republic. It will be reestablished in the French West Indies in 1802.
 * 1797 – The Riobamba earthquake strikes Ecuador, causing up to 40,000 casualties.
 * 1801 – John Marshall is sworn in as Chief Justice of the United States.
 * 1810 – The Royal Navy seizes Guadeloupe.
 * 1820 – The Chilean Navy under the command of Lord Cochrane completes the 2-day long Capture of Valdivia with just 300 men and 2 ships.
 * 1825 – The Ohio Legislature authorizes the construction of the Ohio and Erie Canal and the Miami and Erie Canal.
 * 1846 – The first Mormon pioneers make their exodus from Nauvoo, Illinois, westward towards Salt Lake Valley.
 * 1859 – The Codex Sinaiticus is discovered in Egypt.
 * 1861 – American Civil War: In Montgomery, Alabama, delegates from six break-away U.S. states meet and form the Confederate States of America.
 * 1899 – The Philippine–American War begins with the Battle of Manila.
 * 1932 – Second Sino-Japanese War: Harbin, Manchuria, falls to Japan.
 * 1936 – Radium becomes the first radioactive element to be made synthetically.
 * 1941 – The United Service Organization (USO) is created to entertain American troops.
 * 1945 – World War II: Santo Tomas Internment Camp is liberated from Japanese authority.
 * 1945  – World War II: The Yalta Conference between the "Big Three" (Churchill, Roosevelt, and Stalin) opens at the Livadia Palace in the Crimea.
 * 1945  – World War II: The British Indian Army and Imperial Japanese Army begin a series of battles known as the Battle of Pokoku and Irrawaddy River operations.
 * 1948 – Ceylon (later renamed Sri Lanka) becomes independent within the British Commonwealth.
 * 1961 – Angolan War of Independence begins.
 * 1966 – All Nippon Airways Flight 60 plunges into Tokyo Bay, killing 133.
 * 1967 – Lunar Orbiter program: Lunar Orbiter 3 lifts off from Cape Canaveral's Launch Complex 13 on its mission to identify possible landing sites for the Surveyor and Apollo spacecraft.
 * 1969 – Yasser Arafat takes over as chairman of the Palestine Liberation Organization.
 * 1974 – The Symbionese Liberation Army kidnaps Patty Hearst in Berkeley, California.
 * 1974  – M62 coach bombing: The Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) explodes a bomb on a bus carrying off-duty British Armed Forces personnel in Yorkshire, England. Nine soldiers and three civilians are killed.
 * 1975 – Haicheng earthquake (magnitude 7.3 on the Richter scale) occurs in Haicheng, Liaoning, China.
 * 1976 – In Guatemala and Honduras an earthquake kills more than 22,000.
 * 1977 – A Chicago Transit Authority elevated train rear-ends another and derails, killing 11 and injuring 180, the worst accident in the agency's history.
 * 1992 – A coup d'état is led by Hugo Chávez against Venezuelan President Carlos Andrés Pérez.
 * 1996 – Major snowstorm paralyzes Midwestern United States, Milwaukee, Wisconsin and ties all-time record low temperature at −26 °F (−32.2 °C)
 * 1997 – En route to Lebanon, two Israeli Sikorsky CH-53 troop-transport helicopters collide in mid-air over northern Galilee, Israel killing 73.
 * 1998 – The 5.9 Mw Afghanistan earthquake shakes the Takhar Province with a maximum Mercalli intensity of VII (Very strong). With 2,323 killed, and 818 injured, damage is considered extreme.
 * 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.
 * 2003 – The Bengali Hindus declare the independence of the Republic of Bangabhumi from Bangladesh.
 * 2003 – The Federal Republic of Yugoslavia is officially renamed Serbia and Montenegro and adopts a new constitution.
 * 2004 – Facebook, a mainstream online social networking site, is founded by Mark Zuckerberg.
 * 2006 – A stampede occurs in the PhilSports Arena near Manila, killing 71 people.
 * 2015 – A TransAsia Airways aircraft with 58 people on board, en route from the Taiwanese capital Taipei to Kinmen, crashes into the Keelung River just after take-off, killing at least 31 people.

Births

 * 1505 – Mikołaj Rej, Polish poet and author (d. 1580)
 * 1575 – Pierre de Bérulle, French cardinal and theologian, founded the French school of spirituality (d. 1629)
 * 1646 – Hans Erasmus Aßmann, German poet and politician (d. 1699)
 * 1676 – Giacomo Facco, Italian violinist and composer (d. 1753)
 * 1677 – Johann Ludwig Bach, German violinist and composer (d. 1731)
 * 1688 – Pierre de Marivaux, French author and playwright (d. 1763)
 * 1725 – Dru Drury, English entomologist and author (d. 1804)
 * 1740 – Carl Michael Bellman, Swedish poet and composer (d. 1795)
 * 1778 – Augustin Pyramus de Candolle, Swiss botanist, mycologist, and academic (d. 1841)
 * 1799 – Almeida Garrett, Portuguese journalist and author (d. 1854)
 * 1808 – Josef Kajetán Tyl, Czech actor and playwright (d. 1856)
 * 1831 – Oliver Ames, American financier and politician, 35th Governor of Massachusetts (d. 1895)
 * 1848 – Jean Aicard, French poet, author, and playwright (d. 1921)
 * 1849 – Jean Richepin, French poet, author, and playwright (d. 1926)
 * 1862 – Édouard Estaunié, French novelist (d. 1942)
 * 1865 – Abe Isoo, Japanese minister and politician (d. 1949)
 * 1871 – Friedrich Ebert, German lawyer and politician, 1st President of Germany (d. 1925)
 * 1872 – Gotse Delchev, Greek activist and educator (d. 1903)
 * 1873 – Étienne Desmarteau, Canadian shot putter and discus thrower (d. 1905)
 * 1875 – Ludwig Prandtl, German physicist and engineer (d. 1953)
 * 1877 – Eddie Cochems, American football player and coach (d. 1953)
 * 1881 – Eulalio Gutiérrez, Mexican general and politician, President of Mexico (d. 1939)
 * 1881  – Fernand Léger, French painter and sculptor (d. 1955)
 * 1891 – M. A. Ayyangar, Indian lawyer and politician, 2nd Speaker of the Lok Sabha (d. 1978)
 * 1892 – E. J. Pratt, Canadian poet and academic (d. 1964)
 * 1895 – Nigel Bruce, English actor (d. 1953)
 * 1896 – Friedrich Glauser, Austrian-Swiss author (d. 1938)
 * 1896  – Friedrich Hund, German physicist and academic (d. 1997)
 * 1897 – Ludwig Erhard, German soldier and politician, 2nd Chancellor of West Germany (d. 1977)
 * 1900 – Jacques Prévert, French poet and screenwriter (d. 1977)
 * 1902 – Charles Lindbergh, American pilot and explorer (d. 1974)
 * 1902  – Hartley Shawcross, Baron Shawcross, German-English lawyer and politician, Attorney General for England and Wales (d. 2003)
 * 1903 – Alexander Imich, Polish-American chemist, parapsychologist, and academic (d. 2014)
 * 1904 – MacKinlay Kantor, American author and screenwriter (d. 1977)
 * 1906 – Dietrich Bonhoeffer, German pastor and theologian (d. 1945)
 * 1906  – Clyde Tombaugh, American astronomer and academic, discovered Pluto (d. 1997)
 * 1908 – Julian Bell, English poet and academic (d. 1937)
 * 1912 – Ola Skjåk Bræk, Norwegian banker and politician, Norwegian Minister of Industry (d. 1999)
 * 1912  – Erich Leinsdorf, Austrian-American conductor (d. 1993)
 * 1912  – Byron Nelson, American golfer and sportscaster (d. 2006)
 * 1913 – Rosa Parks, American civil rights activist (d. 2005)
 * 1913  – Richard Seaman, English race car driver (d. 1939)
 * 1914 – Alfred Andersch, German-Swiss author and publisher (d. 1980)
 * 1915 – William Talman, American actor and screenwriter (d. 1968)
 * 1915  – Norman Wisdom, English singer-songwriter and actor (d. 2010)
 * 1917 – Yahya Khan, Pakistan general and politician, 3rd President of Pakistan (d. 1980)
 * 1918 – Ida Lupino, English-American actress and director (d. 1995)
 * 1918  – Luigi Pareyson, Italian philosopher and author (d. 1991)
 * 1920 – Janet Waldo, American actress and voice artist (d. 2016)
 * 1921 – Betty Friedan, American author and activist (d. 2006)
 * 1921  – Lotfi A. Zadeh, Azerbaijani-American mathematician and computer scientist
 * 1923 – Conrad Bain, Canadian-American actor (d. 2013)
 * 1923  – James Dibble, Australian journalist (d. 2010)
 * 1925 – Russell Hoban, American author and illustrator (d. 2011)
 * 1925  – Stanley Karnow, American journalist and historian (d. 2013)
 * 1925  – Christopher Zeeman, English mathematician and academic (d. 2016)
 * 1926 – Gyula Grosics, Hungarian footballer and manager (d. 2014)
 * 1926  – Dave Sands, Australian boxer (d. 1952)
 * 1927 – Rolf Landauer, German-American physicist and academic (d. 1999)
 * 1928 – Oscar Cabalén, Argentinian race car driver (d. 1967)
 * 1928  – Osmo Antero Wiio, Finnish journalist, academic, and politician (d. 2013)
 * 1929 – Julien Chouinard, Canadian lawyer and judge (d. 1987)
 * 1929  – Eduard Zimmermann, German journalist (d. 2009)
 * 1930 – Tibor Antalpéter, Hungarian volleyball player and diplomat, Hungarian Ambassador to the United Kingdom (d. 2012)
 * 1930  – Arthur E. Chase, American businessman and politician (d. 2015)
 * 1930  – Jim Loscutoff, American basketball player (d. 2015)
 * 1931 – Isabel Martínez de Perón, Argentinian dancer and politician, 41st President of Argentina
 * 1935 – Ali Nassirian, Iranian actor and screenwriter
 * 1935  – Martti Talvela, Finnish opera singer (d. 1989)
 * 1935  – Collin Wilcox, American actress (d. 2009)
 * 1936 – David Brenner, American comedian, actor, and author (d. 2014)
 * 1936  – Gary Conway, American actor and screenwriter
 * 1936  – Claude Nobs, Swiss businessman, founded the Montreux Jazz Festival (d. 2013)
 * 1937 – John Devitt, Australian swimmer
 * 1937  – David Newman, American director and screenwriter (d. 2003)
 * 1938 – Frank J. Dodd, American businessman and politician, president of the New Jersey Senate (d. 2010)
 * 1938  – Birju Maharaj, Indian dancer and choreographer
 * 1939 – Stan Lundine, American lawyer and politician, Lieutenant Governor of New York
 * 1940 – George A. Romero, American director and producer
 * 1941 – Jiří Raška, Czech skier and coach (d. 2012)
 * 1941  – John Steel, English drummer
 * 1943 – Alberto João Jardim, Portuguese journalist and politician, 2nd President of the Regional Government of Madeira
 * 1943  – Wanda Rutkiewicz, Lithuanian-Polish mountaineer (d. 1992)
 * 1943  – Ken Thompson, American computer scientist and programmer, co-developed the B programming language
 * 1947 – Dennis C. Blair, American admiral and politician, 3rd Director of National Intelligence
 * 1947  – Dan Quayle, American sergeant, lawyer, and politician, 44th Vice President of the United States
 * 1948 – Alice Cooper, American singer-songwriter
 * 1948  – Rod Grams, American journalist and politician (d. 2013)
 * 1948  – Mienoumi Tsuyoshi, Japanese sumo wrestler
 * 1949 – Michael Beck, American actor
 * 1949  – Rasim Delić, Bosnian general (d. 2010)
 * 1951 – Patrick Bergin, Irish actor
 * 1951  – Dariush Eghbali, Iranian singer-songwriter
 * 1952 – Jenny Shipley, New Zealand educator and politician, 36th Prime Minister of New Zealand
 * 1952  – Li Yinhe, Chinese sociologist and sexologist
 * 1953 – Kitarō, Japanese keyboard player, composer, and producer
 * 1955 – Mikuláš Dzurinda, Slovak politician, Prime Minister of Slovakia
 * 1957 – Don Davis, American composer and conductor
 * 1957  – Evan Wolfson, American lawyer and activist
 * 1958 – Tomasz Pacyński, Polish journalist and author (d. 2005)
 * 1959 – Lawrence Taylor, American football player and sportscaster
 * 1960 – Siobhan Dowd, English author and activist (d. 2007)
 * 1960  – Adrienne King, American actress, dancer, and painter
 * 1960  – Jonathan Larson, American composer and playwright (d. 1996)
 * 1961 – Denis Savard, Canadian ice hockey player and coach
 * 1962 – Clint Black, American singer-songwriter, guitarist, and producer
 * 1962  – Stephen Hammond, English banker and politician
 * 1966 – Viatcheslav Ekimov, Russian cyclist
 * 1966  – Kyōko Koizumi, Japanese actress and singer
 * 1967 – Sergei Grinkov, Russian figure skater (d. 1995)
 * 1970 – Gabrielle Anwar, English actress
 * 1971 – Rob Corddry, American actor, producer, and screenwriter
 * 1971  – Eric Garcetti, American lieutenant and politician, 42nd Mayor of Los Angeles
 * 1972 – Dara Ó Briain, Irish comedian and television host
 * 1972  – Giovanni Silva de Oliveira, Brazilian footballer and manager
 * 1973 – Oscar De La Hoya, American boxer
 * 1973  – Manny Legace, Canadian ice hockey player and sportscaster
 * 1975 – Natalie Imbruglia, Australian singer-songwriter
 * 1977 – Gavin DeGraw, American singer-songwriter
 * 1979 – Andrei Arlovski, Belarusian mixed martial artist and actor
 * 1979  – Giorgio Pantano, Italian race car driver
 * 1980 – Kenta Kiritani, Japanese actor and singer
 * 1980  – Raimonds Vaikulis, Latvian basketball player
 * 1981 – Jason Kapono, American basketball player
 * 1981  – Johan Vansummeren, Belgian cyclist
 * 1982 – Chris Sabin, American wrestler
 * 1982  – Ivars Timermanis, Latvian basketball player
 * 1982  – Tomas Vaitkus, Lithuanian cyclist
 * 1983 – Hannibal Buress, American stand-up comedian, actor, screenwriter
 * 1983  – Lee Stempniak, American ice hockey player
 * 1984 – Sandeep Acharya, Indian singer (d. 2013)
 * 1984  – Mauricio Pinilla, Chilean footballer
 * 1986 – Maximilian Götz, German race car driver
 * 1986  – Mahmudullah Riyad, Bangladeshi cricketer
 * 1987 – Darren O'Dea, Irish footballer
 * 1987  – Lucie Šafářová, Czech tennis player
 * 1988 – Carly Patterson, American gymnast and singer
 * 1990 – Haruka Tomatsu, Japanese voice actress and singer
 * 1993 – Bae Noo-ri, South Korean actress

Deaths

 * 211 – Septimius Severus, Roman emperor (b. 145)
 * 708 – Pope Sisinnius (b. 650)
 * 856 – Rabanus Maurus, Frankish archbishop and theologian (b. 780)
 * 1498 – Antonio del Pollaiolo, Italian artist (b. 1429/1433)
 * 1508 – Conrad Celtes, German poet and scholar (b. 1459)
 * 1555 – John Rogers, English clergyman and translator (b. 1505)
 * 1590 – Gioseffo Zarlino, Italian composer and theorist (b. 1517)
 * 1615 – Giambattista della Porta, Italian playwright and scholar (b. 1535)
 * 1617 – Lodewijk Elzevir, Dutch publisher, co-founded the House of Elzevir (b. 1546)
 * 1713 – Anthony Ashley-Cooper, 3rd Earl of Shaftesbury, English philosopher and politician (b. 1671)
 * 1774 – Charles Marie de La Condamine, French mathematician and geographer (b. 1701)
 * 1799 – Étienne-Louis Boullée, French architect and educator (b. 1728)
 * 1781 – Josef Mysliveček, Czech composer (b. 1737)
 * 1843 – Theodoros Kolokotronis, Greek general (b. 1770)
 * 1894 – Adolphe Sax, Belgian instrument maker, invented the Saxophone (b. 1814)
 * 1905 – Louis-Ernest Barrias, French sculptor and academic (b. 1841)
 * 1926 – İskilipli Mehmed Atıf Hoca, Turkish author and scholar (b. 1875)
 * 1928 – Hendrik Lorentz, Dutch physicist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1853)
 * 1933 – Archibald Sayce, English linguist and educator (b. 1846)
 * 1940 – Nikolai Yezhov, Russian police officer and politician (b. 1895)
 * 1943 – Frank Calder, English-Canadian ice hockey player and journalist (b. 1877)
 * 1944 – Arsen Kotsoyev, Russian author and translator (b. 1872)
 * 1956 – Savielly Tartakower, Russian-French chess player, journalist, and author (b. 1887)
 * 1958 – Henry Kuttner, American author and screenwriter (b. 1915)
 * 1959 – Una O'Connor, Irish-American actress (b. 1880)
 * 1968 – Neal Cassady, American novelist and poet (b. 1926)
 * 1970 – Louise Bogan, American poet and critic (b. 1897)
 * 1974 – Satyendra Nath Bose, Indian physicist, mathematician, and academic (b. 1894)
 * 1975 – Louis Jordan, American singer-songwriter and saxophonist (Tympany Five) (b. 1908)
 * 1982 – Alex Harvey, Scottish singer-songwriter and guitarist (b. 1935)
 * 1982  – Georg Konrad Morgen, German lawyer and judge (b. 1909)
 * 1983 – Karen Carpenter, American singer and drummer (The Carpenters) (b. 1950)
 * 1984 – Patrick Nagel, American painter and illustrator (b. 1945)
 * 1987 – Liberace, American singer-songwriter and pianist, (b. 1919)
 * 1987  – Meena Keshwar Kamal, Afghan activist, founded the Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan (b. 1956)
 * 1987  – Carl Rogers, American psychologist and academic (b. 1902)
 * 1990 – Whipper Billy Watson, Canadian-American wrestler and trainer (b. 1915)
 * 1992 – John Dehner, American actor (b. 1915)
 * 1992  – Lisa Fonssagrives, Swedish fashion model (b. 1911)
 * 1994 – Fred De Bruyne, Belgian cyclist and manager (b. 1930)
 * 1995 – Patricia Highsmith, American author (b. 1921)
 * 2000 – Carl Albert, American lawyer and politician, 54th Speaker of the United States House of Representatives (b. 1908)
 * 2001 – J.J. Johnson, American trombonist and composer (b. 1924)
 * 2001  – Iannis Xenakis, Greek-French composer and architect (b. 1922)
 * 2002 – Count Sigvard Bernadotte of Wisborg (b. 1907)
 * 2003 – Benyoucef Benkhedda, Algerian pharmacist and politician (b. 1920)
 * 2005 – Ossie Davis, American actor, director, and playwright (b. 1917)
 * 2006 – Betty Friedan, American author and activist (b. 1921)
 * 2007 – José Carlos Bauer, Brazilian footballer and manager (b. 1925)
 * 2007  – Ilya Kormiltsev, Russian-English poet and translator (b. 1959)
 * 2007  – Barbara McNair, American singer and actress (b. 1934)
 * 2007  – Jules Olitski, Ukrainian-American painter and sculptor (b. 1922)
 * 2008 – Augusta Dabney, American actress (b. 1918)
 * 2008  – Stefan Meller, Polish academic and politician, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Poland (b. 1942)
 * 2009 – Lux Interior, American singer-songwriter (The Cramps) (b. 1946)
 * 2010 – Kostas Axelos, Greek-French philosopher and author (b. 1924)
 * 2010  – Helen Tobias-Duesberg, Estonian-American composer (b. 1919)
 * 2011 – Martial Célestin, Haitian lawyer and politician, 1st Prime Minister of Haiti (b. 1913)
 * 2012 – István Csurka, Hungarian journalist and politician (b. 1934)
 * 2012  – Florence Green, English soldier (b. 1901)
 * 2012  – Robert Daniel, American farmer, soldier, and politician (b. 1936)
 * 2012  – Mike deGruy, American director, producer, and cinematographer (b. 1951)
 * 2013 – Donald Byrd, American trumpet player (b. 1932)
 * 2013  – Reg Presley, English singer-songwriter (b. 1941)
 * 2014 – Keith Allen, Canadian-American ice hockey player, coach, and manager (b. 1923)
 * 2014  – Eugenio Corti, Italian soldier, author, and playwright (b. 1921)
 * 2014  – Dennis Lota, Zambian footballer (b. 1973)
 * 2014  – Wu Ma, Chinese actor, director, producer, and screenwriter (b. 1942)
 * 2015 – Wes Cooley, American soldier and politician (b. 1932)
 * 2015  – Fitzhugh L. Fulton, American colonel and pilot (b. 1925)
 * 2015  – Koos Van Den Akker, Dutch-American fashion designer (b. 1939)
 * 2016 – Edgar Mitchell, American captain, pilot, and astronaut (b. 1930)
 * 2016  – Maurice White, American singer-songwriter and producer (b. 1941)

Holidays and observances

 * Christian feast day:
 * Andrew Corsini
 * Gilbert of Sempringham
 * John de Brito
 * Rabanus Maurus
 * Rimbert
 * Veronica
 * February 4 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics)
 * Earliest day on which Ash Wednesday can fall, while March 10 is the latest; celebrated on the first day of Lent (Christianity)
 * Day of the Armed Struggle (Angola)
 * Independence Day (Sri Lanka)
 * Rosa Parks Day (California and Missouri, United States)
 * World Cancer Day