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This Day in History on 4 January
The historical events hold a lot of value for aspirants who are sitting for UPSC competitive exams including that of the IAS Exam.
On this page, we will list all historical events that have occurred on 4 January. The students can refer them while preparing for all competitive exams and banking exams.
Important Days
World Braille Day
Important Events
1649: English Civil War: The Rump Parliament votes to put Charles I on trial.
1847: Samuel Colt sold the first revolver to the US government.
1881: Lokmanya Tilak started the Kesari newspaper in Pune.
1885: First successful appendix removal surgery performed by Dr. William W. Grant performed on Mary Gartside.
1932: Pandit Nehru sentenced to two years of imprisonment for participating in the Civil Disobedience Movement.
1944: Hitler’s ordinance was issued to enlist all boys and girls above the age of 10 in the service of the nation.
1954: Meherchand Mahajan became the 3rd Chief Justice of India.
1958: Sputnik-1, the first man-made satellite, returned to Earth.
1962: The first driverless train opened in New York, USA.
1987: The 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.
1989: Second 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.
1990: In Pakistan’s deadliest train accident an overloaded passenger train collides with an empty freight train, resulting in 307 deaths and 700 injuries.
1998: A massive ice storm hits eastern Canada and the northeastern United States, continuing through January 10 and causing widespread destruction.
1999: Former professional wrestler Jesse Ventura is sworn in as governor of Minnesota, United States.
2004: Spirit, a NASA Mars rover, lands successfully on Mars at 04:35 UTC.
2004: Mikheil Saakashvili is elected President of Georgia following the November 2003 Rose Revolution.
2006: Ehud Olmert becomes acting Prime Minister of Israel after the incumbent, Ariel Sharon, suffers a second, apparently more serious stroke.
2007: The 110th United States Congress convenes, electing Nancy Pelosi as the first female Speaker of the House in U.S. history.
2010: The Burj Khalifa, the current tallest building in the world, officially opens in Dubai.
2013 – A gunman kills eight people in a house-to-house rampage in Kawit, Cavite, Philippines.
2018 – Hennenman–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.
Birth Anniversary
1809: Louis Braille, a French educator and inventor of a system of reading and writing for use by the blind or visually impaired.
1813: Sir Isaac Pitman, a teacher of the English language who developed the most widely used system of shorthand, known now as Pitman shorthand.
1889: M. Patanjali Shastri, the 2nd chief justice of India.
1904: S. S. Vasan, an Indian journalist, writer, advertiser, film producer, director, and business tycoon.
1914: Indira Sant, a Marathi poet from Maharashtra, India.
1925: Pradeep Kumar, an Indian actor.
1925: Gopaldas Neeraj, an Indian poet and author of Hindi literature.
1931: Nirupa Roy, an Indian actress.
1941: Kalpnath Rai, an Indian politician.
1952: Justice T. S. Thakur, the 43ʳᵈ Chief Justice of India.
1957: Gurdas Maan, an Indian singer, songwriter, choreographer, and actor mainly associated with Punjabi language music and films.
1889 – M. Patanjali Sastri, Indian lawyer and jurist, 2nd Chief Justice of India (d. 1963)
1941: Kalpnath Rai, Indian politician (d. 1999)
Death Anniversary
1852: Gabriel Cramer, a Genevan mathematician.
1907: Govardhanram Tripathi, an Indian Gujarati language novelist.
1960: Albert Camus, a French philosopher, author, and journalist.
1961: Erwin Schrödinger, a Nobel Prize-winning Austrian-Irish physicist.
1965: T. S. Eliot, an American-born British poet, essayist, publisher, playwright, literary critic, and editor.
1994: R. D. Burman, an Indian music director.
2011: Salman Taseer, a Pakistani businessman, and a liberal politician.
1931: Mohammad Ali Jouhar, Indian journalist, activist, and scholar (b. 1878)
1985: Brian Horrocks, Indian-English general (b. 1895)
1994: R. D. Burman, Indian film composer and music director (b. 1939)
2016: S. H. Kapadia, Indian lawyer, judge, and politician, 38th Chief Justice of India (b. 1947)
2016: Stephen W. Bosworth, American academic and diplomat, United States Ambassador to South Korea (b. 1939)
2017: Milt Schmidt, Canadian ice hockey player, coach and general manager (b. 1918)
2017: Georges Prêtre, French orchestral and opera conductor (b. 1924)
2019: Harold Brown, 14th United States Secretary of Defense (b. 1927)
2020: Tom Long, Australian actor (b. 1940)