History of 4th February

211 - Roman Emperor Septimius Severus dies, leaving the Roman Empire in the hands of his two quarrelsome sons, Caracalla and Geta.
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.
1194 - Richard I Lion Hearted pays Leopold O Fenrik VI's ransom of 100,000
1454 - In the Thirteen Years' War, the Secret Council of the Prussian Confederation sends a formal act of disobedience to the Grand Master.
1508 - Maximilian I assumes imperial title without being crowned
1586 - Robert Dudley, earl of Leicester, becomes governor of Neth
1600 - Tycho Brahe & Johannes Kepler meet for 1st time near Prague
1620 - Prince Bethlen Gabor signs peace with emperor Ferdinand II
1657 - Oliver Cromwell grants residency to Luis Caravajal
1697 - 3 VOC-ships anchor at Dirk-Hartogeiland, Australia
1699 - 350 rebellious Streltsi executed in Moscow
1703 - In Edo (now Tokyo), 46 of the Forty-Seven Ronin commit seppuku (ritual suicide) as recompense for avenging their master's death.
1782 - British garrison surrenders to French & Spanish fleet
1783 - Worst quake in 8 years kills some 50,000 (Calabria, Italy)
1787 - 1st Anglican bishops of NY & Pennsylvania consecrated in London
1787 - Shays' Rebellion (of debt-ridden Massachusetts farmers) fails
1789 - 1st electoral college chooses Washington & Adams as Pres & VP
1794 - French National Convention proclaims abolishment of slavery
1797 - Earthquake in Quito, Ecuador kills 41,000
1803 - William Dunlap, adapts French melodrama "Voice of Nature"
1810 - Royal Navy seizes Guadeloupe.
1822 - Free American Blacks settle Liberia, West Africa
1824 - J W Goodrich introduces rubber galoshes to public
1846 - Mormons leave Nauvoo, Mo for settlement in west
1847 - 1st US telegraph co established in Maryland
1849 - University of Wisconsin begins in 1 room with 20 students
1854 - Alvan Bovay proposes name "Republican Party," Ripon, Wisc
1855 - Soldiers shoot Jewish families in Coro, Venezuela
1859 - The Codex Sinaiticus is discovered in Egypt.
1861 - Confederate constitutional convention meets for 1st time, Montgomery Ala, Ga, Fla, La, Miss & SC elect Jefferson Davis pres of Confederacy
1864 - 24th Amendment abolishes Poll tax
1864 - Skirmish at Big Black River Bridge, Mississippi
1865 - Hawaiian Board of Education formed
1865 - Robert E Lee is named commander-in-chief of Confederate Army
1866 - Mary Baker Eddy cures her injuries by opening a bible
1875 - Princess Louise marries Prince Philip von Saksen-Coburg-Gotha in Belg
1880 - Steele MacKay's "Hazel Kirke," premieres in NYC
1887 - Interstate Commerce Act authorizes federal regulation of railroads
1895 - 1st rolling lift bridge opens, Chicago
1899 - Revolt against US occupation of Philippines
1899 - The Philippine-American War begins.
1903 - Stanley Cup: Montreal AAA beat Winn Victorias, 2 games to 1 & 1 tie
1904 - John Millington Synges "Well of Saints," premieres in Dublin
1913 - Louis Perlman patents demountable auto tire-carrying wheel rim
1913 - National Institute of Arts & Letters founded
1914 - US Congress approves Burnett-anti-immigration law
1915 - Experiments to find cause of pellagra begin at Miss Penitentiary
1917 - Belgium Council of Flanders established
1919 - City of Bremen's Soviet Republic overthrown
1920 - 1st flight from London to South Africa takes-off (lasts 1½ months)
1922 - WGY-AM in Schenectady NY begins radio transmissions
1924 - 1st Winter Olympic games close at Chamonix France
1924 - George Kelly's "Show-Off," premieres in NYC
1926 - Austrian chancellor Seipel wants to join Germany
1927 - KGA-AM in Spokane WA begins radio transmissions
1929 - Archie Jackson scores 164 on Test Cricket debut v England at Adelaide
1930 - 1st tieless, soundless, shockless streetcar tracks, New Orleans
1931 - National League adopts a deader baseball
1932 - 3rd Winter Olympic games open in Lake Placid, NY
1932 - Japanese troop occupy Harbin, Manchuria
1932 - World War II: Japan occupies Harbin, China.
1933 - -Feb 10] Crew of Dutch "7 Provinces" mutiny after pay cuts
1933 - German Pres Von Hindenburg limits freedom of the press
1936 - 1st radioactive substance produced synthetically (radium E)
1937 - Jim Margie, Philadelphia, bowls 900 in 3 (unsanctioned) games
1938 - "Our Town," by Thornton Wilder opens on Broadway
1938 - Hitler seizes control of German army & puts Nazi in key posts
1939 - Glenn Cunningham (top miler) says 4-min mile beyond human effort
1941 - British tanks occupy Maus Libya
1941 - Former Dutch premier De Geer flies to Berlin
1941 - United Service Organization (USO) founded
1942 - Clinton Pierce becomes 1st US general wounded in action in WW II
1943 - Bertolt Brecht's "Der gute Mensch von Sezuan," premieres in Zurich
1944 - Jean Anouilh's "Antigone," premieres in Paris
1944 - US 7th Infantry Division captures Kwajalein
1945 - FDR, Churchill & Stalin meet at Yalta
1946 - Garson Kanin's "Born Yesterday," premieres in NYC
1948 - Sri Lanka (formerly Ceylon) declares independence from UK
1949 - Failed assassination attempt on Shah of Persia
1951 - US female Figure Skating championship won by Sonya Klopfer
1951 - US male Figure Skating championship won by Richard Button
1952 - 1st black executive of a major TV station (Jackie Robinson-WNBC NY)
1956 - AL plans to test automatic intentional walk during spring training
1957 - 1st electric portable typewriter placed on sale (Syracuse NY)
1958 - "Oh, Captain!" opens at Alvin Theater NYC for 192 performances
1958 - Hall of Fame fails to elect anyone for 1st time since 1950
1959 - Israel begins exporting copper ore
1960 - BBWAA voters fail to elect a new Hall of Fame member
1960 - Giants move their offices to Candlestick Park
1960 - Lionel Bart's musical "Fings ain't wot they used t'be," premieres
1961 - Sputnik 7 launches into Earth orbit; probable Venus probe failure
1962 - "Gay Life" closes at Shubert Theater NYC after 113 performances
1962 - Russian newspaper Izvestia reports baseball is an old Russian game
1962 - US female Figure Skating championship won by Barbara Roles
1962 - US male Figure Skating championship won by Monty Hoyt
1964 - Amendment 24 outlaws poll tax
1964 - FAA begins 6 month test of reactions to sonic booms over Okla City
1965 - US performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site
1966 - All-Nippon Airways 727 crashes off Haneda Airport (Japan); kills 133
1967 - "Wild Thing" hits #20 on the pop singles chart by Senator Bobby
1967 - US launches Lunar Orbiter 3
1968 - "Golden Rainbow" opens at Shubert Theater NYC for 355 performances
1968 - Bowie Kuhn replaces William Eckert as 5th commissioner of baseball
1969 - 41,163, then largest NBA crowd, watches doubleheader Cin-Det, SD-Bost
1969 - Beatles appoint Eastman & Eastman, as general cousel to Apple
1969 - John Madden is named head coach of NFL's Oakland Raiders
1969 - Lonnie Elder's "Ceremonies in Dark Old Men," premieres in NYC
1969 - Yassar Arafats takes over as chairman of PLO
1970 - "Charles Aznavour" opens at Music Box Theater NYC for 23 performances
1970 - "Gantry" opens at George Abbott Theater NYC for 1 performance
1970 - US performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site
1971 - Apollo 14 lander Antares lands on Moon (Shepard & Mitchell)
1971 - Baseball announces a special hall of fame wing for blacks
1971 - British car maker Rolls Royce declared itself bankrupt
1971 - Govt exhibit under construction collapses, kills 65 in Brazil
1971 - National Guard mobilized to quell rioting in Wilmington NC
1972 - 6th round of Strategic Arms Limitation Talks ends in Vienna Austria
1972 - Sen Strom Thurmond suggests John Lennon be deported
1973 - "No, No Nanette" closes at 46th St Theater NYC after 861 performances
1973 - Islanders & Sabres had a penalty free game
1973 - Manfred Kokot runs world record 50m indoor (5.61 sec)
1973 - Reshef, Israel's missile boat, unveiled
1974 - Benzine rationing ends in Netherlands
1974 - Chimpanzee Nim Chimsky signs his 1st word, at 2½ months
1974 - Gas rationing ends in Netherlands
1974 - Patricia Hearst (19) kidnapped by Symbionese Liberation Army
1975 - Haicheng earthquake, M 7.3, occurred in Haicheng, Liaoning, China.
1976 - 12th Winter Olympic games opens in Innsbruck, Austria
1976 - 7.5 earthquake kills 22,778 in Guatemala & Honduras
1976 - Judge Oliver upholds Seitz's decision on Andy Messersmith free agency
1976 - US performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site
1977 - 30th NHL All-Star Game: Wales beat Campbell 4-3 at Vancouver
1977 - Elevated train jumps track, crashes onto Chicago st (11 die, 200 hurt)
1977 - Fleetwood Mac's "Rumours" released
1977 - Wings release "Maybe I'm Amazed"
1979 - "Co-Ed Fever," TV Comedy, debut & cancelled that outing on CBS
1979 - End of last 3+day D/N game for 15 yrs (WSC, SCG)
1979 - Joanne Carner wins LPGA Colgate Triple Crown Golf Tournament
1980 - Bani Sadr sworn in as premier of Iran
1980 - Joanne Carner wins LPGA Whirlpool Golf Championship of Deer Creek
1982 - "Pump Boys & Dinettes" opens at Princess Theater NYC for 573 perfs
1982 - Indoor distance record for a paper airplane (47m) Tacoma Wash
1982 - Musical "Pump Boys & Dinettes," premieres in NYC
1982 - Suriname premier Chin A Sen flees
1983 - Jose Happart becomes mayor of Voeren Belgium
1983 - US male Figure Skating championship won by Scott Hamilton
1984 - "9" closes at 46th St Theater NYC after 739 performances
1984 - "Backstage Magic" opens at CommuniCore
1984 - Frank Aquilera sets world frisbee distance record (168m) Las Vegas
1985 - 20 countries (but not US) sign UN treaty outlawing torture
1985 - Naval exercises canceled when US refuses to tell NZ of nuclear weapons
1986 - 38th NHL All-Star Game: Wales beat Campbell 4-3 (OT) at Hartford
1986 - Israeli fighters intercept Libyan liner (passenger plane)
1987 - Pres Reagan's veto of Clean Water Act is overridden by Congress
1987 - Stars & Stripes beats Australia's Kookaburra 3, sweeps America's Cup
1987 - Sacramento Kings score only 4 points 1st quarter against Lakers; fewest in a period since introduction of 24 second shot-clock in 1954
1988 - Panamanian leader Manuel Noriega indicted on drug charges
1989 - Dean Jones scores 216 v WI at the Adelaide Oval
1990 - 10 Israeli tourists murdered near Cairo
1990 - Anders Holmertz swims world record 400 m freestyle (3:40.81)
1990 - Danny Everett runs world record 400m indoor (45:04)
1990 - Lyudmila Narozhi-Lenko runs world record 60m hurdles indoor (7.69)
1990 - NFL Pro Bowl: NFC beats AFC 27-21
1990 - Pat Bradley wins Oldsmobile LPGA Golf Classic
1990 - Richard Hadlee takes his 400th Test Cricket wicket (Sanjay Manjrekar)
1990 - St Petersburg Pelicans beat West Palm Beach Tropics 12-4 to win 1st Senior Professional Baseball Association Championship
1991 - Hall of Fame's board of directors vote 12-0 to bar Pete Rose
1991 - Martin Crowe & Andrew Jones make 467 stand v SL, world record
1991 - US postage raises from 25 cents to 29 cents
1993 - Admiral Studeman, ends term as acting director of CIA
1993 - Marge Schott suspended from baseball for 1 year due to racism
1993 - Russian space agency tests a 82' wide space mirror
1994 - 10th Soap Opera Digest Awards - Days of Our Live wins
1994 - 20 die in armed assault on mosque in Khartum Sudan
1994 - Merlene Ottey runs world record 50 m indoor (6.00 sec)
1994 - Russian team beats ladies world record 4x800 m indoor (8:18.71)
1995 - Dean Jones completes 324* for Victoria v South Australia
1995 - Sandra Volker swims female European record 50m backstroke (27.77)
1995 - Zimbabwe's 1st Test Cricket victory, over Pakistan by an inning
1996 - NFL Pro Bowl: NFC beats AFC 20-13
1997 - 73 Israelis die when army copters collide
1997 - Mario LeMieux is 7th NHL player to score 600 goals
1997 - OJ Simpson found libel in murders of Ron Goldman & Nicole Simpson
1997 - Sec of State Margaret Albright announces she just discovered that her grandparents were Jewish
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 Milošević recognizes opposition victories in the November 1996 elections.
1998 - Bill Gates gets a pie thrown in his face in Brussels Belgium
1998 - An earthquake measuring 6.1 on the Richter Scale in northeast Afghanistan kills more than 5,000.
1999 - The New Carissa runs aground near Coos Bay, Oregon.
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 - German extortionist Klaus-Peter Sabotta is jailed for life for attempted murder and extortion in connection with the sabotage of German railway lines.
2003 - The Federal Republic of Yugoslavia is officially renamed to Serbia and Montenegro and adopts a new constitution.
2006 - A stampede occurs in the ULTRA Stadium near Manila killing 71.