Wikipedia:Selected anniversaries/January 4
This is a list of selected January 4 anniversaries that appear in the "On this day" section of the Main Page. To suggest a new item, in most cases, you can be bold and edit this page. Before doing so, please review the selected anniversaries guidelines. If your suggestion is potentially controversial or relates to a day currently or soon to appear on the Main Page, post it on the talk page instead.
Please note:
- Events listed on the Main Page are selected based on article quality and to provide a diverse range of topics, rather than solely on the importance or significance of the events.
- Only four or five events are featured each day; therefore, not all important or significant events can be included.
- An event is generally excluded if it is already the subject of the scheduled featured article, featured list or picture of the day.
To report an error in content currently on the Main Page, see Wikipedia:Main Page/Errors. If a listed event is inaccurate, please first seek consensus and update the corresponding article before making changes here.
Staging area
Images
Use only ONE image at a time
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An 1855 engraving of Samuel Colt -
Video clip of the execution of Topsy
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Ariel Sharon -
Solomon Northup -
Nancy Pelosi -
Sao Shwe Thaik -
Aeneas Mackintosh -
Artist's depiction of a Mars Exploration Rover -
Constantine Hangerli
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Ineligible
| Blurb | Reason |
|---|---|
| Independence Day in Myanmar (1948) | refimprove section |
| 46 BC – Caesar's Civil War: Forces loyal to Julius Caesar were defeated in the Battle of Ruspina by the Republican forces of the Optimates. | single source |
| 1847 – American gun inventor Samuel Colt sold the first thousand of his Colt Walker revolvers to the Texas Rangers. | Orange "additional sources needed" banner |
| 1854 – Captain William McDonald aboard the Samarang discovered the McDonald Islands, uninhabited, barren islands located in the Southern Ocean about two-thirds of the way from Madagascar to Antarctica. | unreferenced section |
| 1885 – Sino-French War: French troops under General Oscar de Négrier defeated a larger Qing Chinese force at the Battle of Núi Bop in northern Vietnam. | Single source |
| 1884 – The Fabian Society, an intellectual movement whose purpose is to advance the socialist cause by gradualist and reformist methods rather than revolutionary means, was founded in London. | refimprove section |
| 1903 – Topsy, a circus elephant considered unmanageable, was executed by electrocution at publicity event advertising the opening of Luna Park, Coney Island, captured on film by the Edison Manufacturing Company. | refimprove section |
| 1912 – The Boy Scouts Association was incorporated throughout the British Empire by royal charter. | Numerous issues |
| 1944 – World War II: The U.S. Army Air Forces began Operation Carpetbagger, a military operation involving the dropping of arms and supplies to resistance fighters across Europe. | no footnotes |
| 1948 – Burma achieved independence from the British Empire, with Sao Shwe Thaik as its first president. | Missing key info - President for 4 yrs but only two quotes from his speeches and no other info |
| 1974 – Harry Schwarz and Mangosuthu Buthelezi signed the Mahlabatini Declaration of Faith, the first declaration by black and white South African leaders to commit to non-violence and a non-discriminatory society. | missing page numbers |
| 1976 – The Troubles: Volunteers from the Ulster Volunteer Force shot dead five Irish Catholic civilians in County Armagh, Northern Ireland. | combined with Kingsmill massacre on January 5 |
| 1998 – A massive ice storm struck eastern Canada and the northeastern United States, eventually killing over 30 people, injuring over 340 others, and causing extensive damage to the area's electrical infrastructure. | refimprove section |
| 2006 – Prime minister of Israel Ariel Sharon suffered a severe hemorrhagic stroke, leaving Ehud Olmert as Acting Prime Minister. | refimprove section |
| 2018 – A passenger train collided with a truck and derailed in the Free State, South Africa, killing 21 people and injuring 254 others. | "Outdated" orange banner |
| Moses Mendelssohn |d|1786| | Too much uncited |
| T. S. Eliot |d|1965| | Too much uncited |
Eligible
- 1698 – Most of London's Palace of Whitehall, the main residence of English monarchs since 1530, was destroyed by fire.
- 1853 – Solomon Northup (pictured) regained his freedom after having been sold into slavery in the American South; his memoir Twelve Years a Slave later became a bestseller.
- 1936 – Billboard published its first music hit parade.
- 1970 – A magnitude-7.1 earthquake occurred in Tonghai County, China, killing at least 15,000 people.
- 1973 – Last of the Summer Wine, the longest-running sitcom in the world, premiered as an episode of the BBC's Comedy Playhouse.
- 1977 – The English punk-rock band Sex Pistols' lewd and disruptive behaviour at Heathrow Airport prompted the record label EMI to end their contract.
- 1989 – Two American F-14 Tomcats shot down two Libyan MiG-23 Floggers that appeared to be attempting to engage them over the Gulf of Sidra.
- 2004 – Spirit (artist's impression depicted), the first of two rovers of NASA's Mars Exploration Rover mission, successfully landed on Mars.
- 2007 – Nancy Pelosi became Speaker of the United States House of Representatives, becoming the highest-ranking woman in the history of the U.S. government.
- 2010 – The Burj Khalifa, the world's tallest structure, officially opened in Dubai.
- 2020 – Sembawang Hot Spring Park in Singapore reopened after being redeveloped by the National Parks Board.
- Born/died this day: | Amadeus VI, Count of Savoy |b|1334| Louis Braille |b|1809| Josef Suk |b|1874| Doreen Valiente |b|1922| Nellie Cashman |d|1925|Brian Josephson |b|1940 | Albert Camus |d|1960 | Brian Horrocks |d|1985 |
January 4: Colonial Repression Martyrs' Day in Angola (1961)
Rose Heilbron
- 1798 – After his appointment as Prince of Wallachia, Constantine Hangerli arrived in Bucharest to assume the throne.
- 1909 – British explorer Aeneas Mackintosh, a member of the Nimrod Expedition, escaped death by fleeing across ice floes.
- 1951 – Korean War: Chinese and North Korean troops captured Seoul from United Nations forces.
- 1972 – Rose Heilbron (pictured) became the first female judge to sit at the Central Criminal Court of England and Wales.
- 2019 – A fire in an escape room in Koszalin, Poland, killed five teenagers.
- Johanna Westerdijk (b. 1883)
- Arthur Rose Eldred (d. 1951)
- Erwin Schrödinger (d. 1961)
- David Berman (b. 1967)