February 4

Birthdays:

1973 ~ Oscar de la Hoya, Mexican-American boxer.

1948 ~ Alice Cooper (né Vincent Damon Furnier), American musician.

1947 ~ Dan Quayle, 44^th Vice President of the United States.  He served under President George H. W. Bush.

1940 ~ George Romero (d. July 16, 2017), American cult film director who made zombies mainstream.  He is best known for his 1968 film, Night of the Living Dead.  He died of lung cancer at age 77.

1936 ~ David Norris Brenner (d. Mar. 15, 2014), the American comedian who ruled The Tonight Show.  He died of cancer at age 78.

1931 ~ Isabel Martínez de Perón, President of Argentina.  She served as President from July 1974 until March 1976.

1925 ~ Stanley Abram Karnow (d. Jan. 27, 2013), American reporter who mastered the story of Vietnam.  He died 8 days before his 88^th birthday.

1925 ~ Christopher Zeeman (d. Feb. 13, 2016), British mathematician.  He died 9 days after his 91^st birthday.

1921 ~ Betty Friedan (née Betty Naomi Goldstein, d. Feb. 4, 2006), American feminist and author.  She died on her 85^th birthday.

1921 ~ Lofti Zadeh (d. Sept. 6, 2017), Iranian mathematician and computer scientist.  He died at age 96.

1913 ~ Rosa Parks (d. Oct. 24, 2005), American civil rights activist.  She is best known for not giving up her seat on a bus during the days of segregation.  She died at age 92.

1906 ~ Dietrich Bonhoeffer (d. Apr. 9, 1945), German theologian.  He was known for his staunch resistance to the Nazi dictatorship and the persecution of the Jews.  He was arrested in April 1943 and sent to Fossenbürg concentration camp, where he died at age 39.

1906 ~ Clyde Tombaugh (d. Jan. 17, 1997), American astronomer who first cited the dwarf planet, Pluto.  He died 18 days before his 91^st birthday.

1902 ~ Charles Lindbergh (d. Aug. 26, 1974), American aviator and pioneer in early aviation.  In 1927, he was the first person to fly solo across the Atlantic Ocean.  He died at age 72.

1883 ~ Reinhold Rudenberg (d. Dec. 25, 1961), German inventor and pioneer of electron microscopy.  He died at age 78.

1881 ~ Fernand Léger (né Joseph Fernand Henri Léger, d. Aug. 17, 1955), French painter.  He died at age 74.

1831 ~ Oliver Ames (d. Oct. 22, 1895), 35^th Governor of Massachusetts.  He died at age 64.

Events that Changed the World:

2017 ~ The New England Patriots and the Philadelphia Eagles played in Super Bowl LII, which was played in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

2004 ~ Mark Zuckerberg (b. 1984) created Facebook a social networking site on the internet.

1998 ~ Over 5,000 people were killed in a 5.9 magnitude earthquake that hit northeast Afghanistan.

1992 ~ Hugo Chávez (1954 ~ 2013) lead a coup d’état against Venezuelan President Carlos André Pérez.

1980 ~ The Ayatollah Khomeini appointed Abolhassan Banisadr (b. 1933) as president of Iran.  He would take office on the following day.

1976 ~ An earthquake in Guatemala and Honduras killed more than 22,000 people.

1974 ~ Heiress Patty Hearst (b. 1954) was kidnapped by the Symbionese Liberation Army.

1969 ~ Yasser Arafat (1929 ~ 2004) became Chairman of the Palestine Liberation Organization.  He had been appointed to the PLO the previous day.

1948 ~ Ceylon gained its independence from the British Commonwealth.  The country was later renamed Sri Lanka.

1945 ~ Winston Churchill (1874 ~ 1965), Franklin D. Roosevelt (1982 ~ 1945), and Joseph Stalin (1878 ~ 1953) met at the Yalta Conference in the Crimea.  The purpose of the meeting was to discuss Germany and the reorganization of Europe post-World War II.

1941 ~ The United Service Organization (USO) was formed to entertain American troops.

1936 ~ Radium became the first radioactive element to be made synthetically.

1899 ~ The Philippine-American War began with the Battle of Manila.

1861 ~ Delegates from the six Southern states that seceded from the Union, met in Montgomery, Alabama and formed the Confederate States of America.  The initial six states were: South Carolina, Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, Georgia, and Louisiana.

1859 ~ The Codex Sinaiticus was discovered in Egypt.

1846 ~ The first Mormon pioneers began their trek from Nauvoo, Illinois toward the Utah Territory.

1801 ~ John Marshall (1755 ~ 1835) was sworn in as the 4^th Chief Justice of the United States.  He served in that office until his death on July 6, 1835.

1797 ~ The Riobamba earthquake hit Ecuador.  There were over 40,000 people killed.

1794 ~ The French government abolished slavery throughout all its territories in the French Republic.

1789 ~ George Washington (1732 ~ 1799) was unanimously elected as the first President of the United States by the Electoral College.

1169 ~ A strong earthquake struck the Ionia coast of Sicily.  Tens of thousands lost their lives.

960 ~ Zhao Kuangyi (927 ~ 976) was crown as Emperor Taizu of Song, thereby marking the start of the Chinese Song dynasty, which lasted over 300 years.

Good-Byes:

2016 ~ Maurice White (b. Dec. 19, 1941), American musician and vibrant frontman and founder of the 1970s megagroup Earth, Wind and Fire.  He died at age 74.

2016 ~ Edgar Dean Mitchell (b. Sept. 17, 1930), American astronaut who had an epiphany in space.  While looking out of his spacecraft and seeing the Earth and the stars, he was overwhelmed with a sense of “connectedness” and became obsessed with esoteric scientific phenomena and extraterrestrial life.  He died at age 85.

2013 ~ Donald Byrd (né Donaldson Toussaint L’Ouverture Byrd, II, b. Dec. 9, 1932), African-American jazz trumpeter who moved from hard bop to funk.  He died at age 80.

2013 ~ Essie Mae Washington-Williams (b. Oct. 12, 1925), American black daughter of a famed segregationist.  She was the daughter of Senator Strom Thurmond and Carrie Butler, his family’s maid.  She died at age 87.

2012 ~ Florence Green (b. Feb. 19, 1901), British soldier who served in the Woman’s Royal Air Force during World War I.  She also has the distinction of being the last survivor of World War I from any country.  She died 15 days before her 111^th birthday.

2010 ~ William McGarvey “Bill” Dudley (b. Dec. 24, 1921), American NFL halfback who was known as “Bullet Bill.”  He died at age 88.

2006 ~ Betty Friedan (née Betty Naomi Goldstein, d. Feb. 4, 1921), American feminist and author.  She died on her 85^th birthday

2005 ~ Ossie Davis (né Raiford Chatman Davis, b. Dec. 18, 1917), African-American actor and civil rights activist.  He was married to Ruby Dee.  He died at age 87.

2002 ~ Helen Dodson Prince (b. Dec. 31, 1905), American astronomer.  She is best known for her pioneering work in solar flares.  She died at age 96.

2000 ~ Carl Albert (b. May 10, 1908), Speaker of the United States House of Representatives.  He was a politician from Oklahoma and served as Speaker of the House from January 1971 until January 1977.  He died at age 91.

1995 ~ Patricia Highsmith (née Mary Patricia Plangman, b. Jan. 19, 1921), American author.  She is best known for writing psychological thrillers, such as Strangers on a Train.  Her novel The Price of Salt was adapted in to the 2015 movie Carol.  She died 3 weeks after her 74^th birthday.

1987 ~ Liberace (né Władziu Valentino Liberace, b. May 16, 1919), American pianist.  He died at age 67.

1983 ~ Karen Carpenter (b. Mar. 2, 1950), American singer and drummer.  She died of anorexia about a month before her 33^rd birthday.

1974 ~ Satyendra Nath Bose (b. Jan. 1, 1894), Indian mathematician.  He is best known for his work on quantum mechanics.  He died about a month after his 80^th birthday.

1941 ~ David Emmanuel (b. Jan. 31, 1854), Romanian mathematician.  He died 4 days after his 87^th birthday.

1928 ~ Hendrik Lorentz (b. July 18, 1853), Dutch physicist and recipient of the 1902 Nobel Prize in Physics.  He died at age 74.

1774 ~ Charles Marie de la Condamine (b. Jan. 28, 1701), French mathematician.  He died 7 days after his 73^rd birthday.

708 ~ Pope Sisinnius (b. 650).  He was Pope for only about 20 days, from January 15, 708 until his death on this date.  The exact date of his birth is not known.