Events on February 4 42
Year 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.
Year 634
Battle of Dathin: Rashidun forces under Yazid ibn Abi Sufyan defeat an outnumbered Byzantine force near Gaza in Palestine.
Year 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.
Year 1169
A strong earthquake struck the Ionian coast of Sicily, causing tens of thousands of injuries and deaths, especially in Catania.
Year 1454
In the Thirteen Years' War, the Secret Council of the Prussian Confederation sends a formal act of disobedience to the Grand Master.
Year 1555
John Rogers is burned at the stake, becoming the first English Protestant martyr under Mary I of England.
Year 1703
In Edo (now Tokyo), 46 of the Forty-seven Ronin commit seppuku (ritual suicide) as recompense for avenging their master's death.
Year 1789
George Washington is unanimously elected as the first President of the United States by the U.S. Electoral College.
Year 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.
Year 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.
Year 1825
The Ohio Legislature authorizes the construction of the Ohio and Erie Canal and the Miami and Erie Canal.
Year 1846
The first Mormon pioneers make their exodus from Nauvoo, Illinois, westward towards Salt Lake Valley.
Year 1861
American Civil War: In Montgomery, Alabama, delegates from six break-away U.S. states meet and form the Confederate States of America.
Year 1945
World War II: The Yalta Conference between the "Big Three" (Churchill, Roosevelt, and Stalin) opens at the Livadia Palace in the Crimea.
Year 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.
Year 1948
Ceylon (later renamed Sri Lanka) becomes independent within the British Commonwealth.
Year 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.
Year 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.
Year 1975
Haicheng earthquake (magnitude 7.3 on the Richter scale) occurs in Haicheng, Liaoning, China.
Year 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.
Year 1992
A coup d'état is led by Hugo Chávez against Venezuelan President Carlos Andrés Pérez.
Year 1996
Major snowstorm paralyzes Midwestern United States, Milwaukee, Wisconsin and ties all-time record low temperature at −26 °F (−32.2 °C)
Year 1997
En route to Lebanon, two Israeli Sikorsky CH-53 troop-transport helicopters collide in mid-air over northern Galilee, Israel killing 73.
Year 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.
Year 1999
Unarmed West African immigrant Amadou Diallo is shot 41 times by four plainclothes New York City police officers on an unrelated stake-out, inflaming race relations in the city.
Year 2003
The Federal Republic of Yugoslavia is officially renamed Serbia and Montenegro and adopts a new constitution.
Year 2004
Facebook, a mainstream online social networking site, is founded by Mark Zuckerberg.
Year 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.