January 4Birthdays & History

On this day: January 4 in history

Oldest first. Tap a year to see it on the World Chronicle timeline.

1. 46 BCJulius Caesar fights Titus Labienus in the Battle of Ruspina.AfricaEurope
2. 871Battle of Reading: Æthelred of Wessex and his brother Alfred are defeated by a Danish invasion army.Europe
3. 1642English Civil War: King Charles I, accompanied by 400 soldiers, attempts to arrest five members of Parliament for treason, only to discover the men had been tipped off and fled.Europe
4. 1649English Civil War: The Rump Parliament votes to put Charles I on trial.Europe
5. 1717The Netherlands, Great Britain, and France sign the Triple Alliance.Europe
6. 1762Great Britain declares war on Spain, which meant the entry of Spain into the Seven Years' War.Europe
7. 1798Constantine Hangerli arrives in Bucharest, Wallachia, as its new Prince, invested by the Ottoman Empire.Middle East
8. 1844The first issue of the Swedish-languaged Saima newspaper founded by J. V. Snellman is published in Kuopio, Finland.Europe
9. 1853After having been kidnapped and sold into slavery in the American South, Solomon Northup regains his freedom; his memoir Twelve Years a Slave later becomes a national bestseller.North America
10. 1854The McDonald Islands are discovered by Captain William McDonald aboard the Samarang.Oceania
11. 1863The New Apostolic Church, a Christian and chiliastic church, is established in Hamburg, Germany.Europe
12. 1878Russo-Turkish War (1877–78): Sofia is liberated from Ottoman rule.Middle East
13. 1884The Fabian Society is founded in London, United Kingdom.Europe
14. 1885Sino-French War: French troops under General Oscar de Négrier defeat a numerically superior Qing force at Núi Bop in northern Vietnam.EuropeAsia
15. 1896Utah is admitted as the 45th U.S. state.North America
16. 1903Topsy, an elephant, is electrocuted by the owners of Luna Park, Coney Island. The Edison film company records the film Electrocuting an Elephant of Topsy's death.North America
17. 1909Explorer Aeneas Mackintosh of the Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition escaped death by fleeing across ice floes.World
18. 1912The Scout Association is incorporated throughout the British Empire by royal charter.Europe
19. 1918The Finnish Declaration of Independence is recognized by Russia, Sweden, Germany and France.Europe
20. 1944World War II: Operation Carpetbagger, involving the dropping of arms and supplies to resistance fighters in Europe, begins.Europe
21. 1946The first day of a three-day "disastrous" tornado outbreak across the south-central United States leaves 41 people dead and at least 412 others injured.North America
22. 1948Burma gains its independence from the United Kingdom, becoming an independent republic.AsiaEurope
23. 1951Korean War: Chinese and North Korean forces capture Seoul for the second time.Asia
24. 1956The Greek National Radical Union is formed by Konstantinos Karamanlis.Europe
25. 1958Sputnik 1, the first artificial Earth satellite, launched by the Soviet Union in 1957, falls to Earth from orbit.Europe
26. 1959Luna 1 becomes the first spacecraft to reach the vicinity of the Moon.World
27. 1965Aeroflot Flight 101/X-20 crashes on approach to Alma-Ata Airport, killing 64 people.Asia
28. 1967The Doors released their eponymous debut album.North America
29. 1972Rose Heilbron becomes the first female judge to sit at the Old Bailey in London, UK.Europe
30. 1975This date overflowed the 12-bit field that had been used in TOPS-10. There were numerous problems and crashes related to this bug while an alternative format was developed.World
31. 1976The Troubles: The Ulster Volunteer Force shoots dead six Irish Catholic civilians in County Armagh, Northern Ireland. The next day, gunmen would shoot dead ten Protestant civilians nearby in retaliation.Europe
32. 1987The Maryland train collision: An Amtrak train en route to Boston from Washington, D.C., collides with Conrail engines in Chase, Maryland, United States, killing 16 people.North America
33. 1989Second Gulf of Sidra incident: A pair of Libyan MiG-23 "Floggers" are shot down by a pair of US Navy F-14 Tomcats during an air-to-air confrontation.AfricaNorth America
34. 1990In Pakistan's deadliest train accident an overloaded passenger train collides with an empty freight train, resulting in 307 deaths and 700 injuries.Asia
35. 1998A massive ice storm hits eastern Canada and the northeastern United States, continuing through January 10 and causing widespread destruction.North America
36. 1999Former professional wrestler Jesse Ventura is sworn in as governor of Minnesota, United States.North America
37. 2000A Norwegian passenger train departing from Trondheim, collides with a local train coming from Hamar in Åsta in Åmot Municipality; 19 people are killed and 68 injured in the accident.Europe
38. 2004Mikheil Saakashvili is elected President of Georgia following the November 2003 Rose Revolution.Europe
39. 2004Spirit, a NASA Mars rover, lands successfully on Mars at 04:35 UTC.North America
40. 2006Ehud Olmert becomes acting Prime Minister of Israel after the incumbent, Ariel Sharon, suffers a second, apparently more serious stroke.Middle East
41. 2007The 110th United States Congress convenes, electing Nancy Pelosi as the first female Speaker of the House in U.S. history.North America
42. 2008A Let L-410 Turbolet crashes in the Los Roques Archipelago in Venezuela, killing 14 people.Latin America
43. 2010The Burj Khalifa, the current tallest building in the world, officially opens in Dubai.Middle East
44. 2013A gunman kills eight people in a house-to-house rampage in Kawit, Cavite, Philippines.Asia
45. 2018Hennenman–Kroonstad train crash: A passenger train operated by Shosholoza Meyl collides with a truck on a level crossing at Geneva Station between Hennenman and Kroonstad, Free State, South Africa. Twenty people are killed and 260 injured.EuropeAfrica
46. 2019A fire in an escape room in Koszalin, Poland, kills five teenagers through carbon monoxide poisoning.Europe

Source: Wikipedia "January 4" / CC BY-SA 4.0