February 4

960 Emperor Taizu's coronation on February 4, 960 launched China's Song Dynasty (960 -1279), which would last over three centuries. The Song Dynasty was the first government in world history to issue banknotes or paper money. This dynasty also saw the first known use of gunpowder, as well as first discernment of true north using a compass.

Palace portrait on a hanging scroll of Emperor Taizu

1600 German astronomer Johannes Kepler first met the Danish astronomer Tycho Brahe on February 4, 1600, at Benátky nad Jizerou (55 miles from Prague), the site where Brahe's new observatory was being constructed. Over the next two months he stayed as a guest, analyzing some of Tycho's observations of Mars. After Tycho's unexpected death in October 1601, Kepler was appointed his successor as imperial mathematician to Emperor Rudolf II.

1682 The German chemist Johann Friedrich Böttger was born on February 4, 1682. He was the first European to discover the ancient Chinese secret of the creation of hard-paste porcelain in 1708. Production began the following year and the first pieces went on sale at the Leipzig Easter Fair in 1710.

1789 George Washington was elected the first president of the United States on February 4, 1789.
He was elected as a Federalist. Washington won 69 electoral votes, John Adams 34 votes. No one else received more than nine. As a result of the great difficulty in communicating and convening for assembly due to a lack of functioning roads, poorly maintained bridges and slow postal delivery, it took two months for George Washington to learn he had won the presidency.

Portrait of George Washington by Gilbert Stuart

1798 The 18-year-old Elizabeth Guerney committed herself to the Christian faith on February 4, 1798 after hearing a sermon by the American Quaker, William Savery. She married Joseph Fry, a Quaker banker two and a half years later and took up prison reform. As the famous "angel of the prisons," Elizabeth Fry was a major driving force behind new legislation to make the treatment of prisoners more humane,

1802 On February 4, 1794, the French National Convention voted to abolish the slave trade throughout all territories of the French Republic. Unlike some other nations' abolition efforts, the French abolished slavery and the slave trade simultaneously, making it an immediate change. Napoleon Bonaparte reinstated slavery in the French colonies in 1802, although it was ultimately abolished again in 1848.

1804 French chef Alexis Soyer was born on February 4, 1810. The most celebrated cook in early Victorian England, he catered Queen Victoria's coronation breakfast, developed soup kitchens in London and Ireland, designed his own cooking stove and gaders, and worked with Florence Nightingale to address malnutrition in the British military.

1846 The first Mormon pioneers made their exodus from Nauvoo, Illinois, westward on February 4, 1846. Led by Brigham Young, they endured an epic thousand-mile trek across desert country, reaching the valley of the Great Salt Lake in Utah on July 24, 1847. On their arrival the Mormon pioneers began to construct a society in isolation, based on their beliefs and values.

Mormon pioneers crossing the Mississippi on the ice

1862 After years of painstaking experimentation, Spanish American wine merchant Don Facundo Bacardi created a new rum in 1862. By filtering the beverage through charcoal, then ageing it in rum barrels, he perfected a lighter, mellower and milder rum than the rough and unrefined traditional ones of his era. Don Facundo and his brother José first sold Bacardi in a shop in a small distillery in the town of Santiago De Cuba in eastern Cuba on February 4, 1862.

1894 The first American color comic strip, The Unfortunate Fate of a Well-Intentioned Dog, debuted in The World on February 4, 1894. It was drawn by Walt McDougall, in collaboration with Mark Fenderson. McDougall's satirical cartoons, published in major outlets like the New York World and The North American, were influential in the 1884 US. presidential election, leading to political cartoons becoming a fixture in American newspapers.

1899 The Philippine–American War broke out on February 4, 1899 when an American soldier, under orders to keep insurgents away from his unit's encampment, fired upon a Filipino soldier in Manila, the Philippines. The conflict resulted in the deaths of tens of thousands of combatants as well as at least 200,000 civilians, mostly from a cholera epidemic.

1902 Charles Lindbergh was born on February 4, 1902 in his grandfather’s home in Detroit, Michigan. He was the only child of Charles August Lindbergh, a lawyer and later an U.S. congressman and Evangeline Lodgehand, a pretty chemistry teacher. Charles grew up on the family farm in Little Falls, Minnesota on the banks of the Mississippi. Friendless and self absorbed, he hunted, fished and had a special interest in machinery.

1912 Parachutes at the dawn of the aviation age were bulky and, inconveniently, had to be pre-opened. Among those trying to improve upon their design was French tailor Franz Reichelt. In 1911 a successful test took place with a dummy at the Eiffel Tower in Paris. Reichelt had no evidence that his parachute would work with a real person when he jumped from the Eiffel Tower on February 4, 1912  before a crowd of spectators and reporters. The chute failed to open, and he plummeted to his death.

Picture published in Dutch magazine De Prins der Geïllustreerde Bladen

1936 Radium E (bismuth-210) became the first radioactive element to be made synthetically on February 4, 1936. This happened when. Dr. John Jacob Livingood was bombarding several elements with 5-MeV deuterons at the radiation lab at University of California, Berkeley. He noted that irradiated bismuth emits fast electrons with a 5-day half-life, which matched the behaviour of radium E.

1938 Disney released Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs on February 4, 1938. The full length animated movie Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs cost $1.5 million to make. Disney borrowed a large part of the cost but three years later, after completion in 1937, it became the highest-grossing sound film of that era.

1948 Ceylon became independent within the British Commonwealth on February 4, 1948. After gaining independence, Ceylon remained a Dominion within the British Commonwealth until 1972. It was then that it adopted a new constitution, officially changed its name to the "Republic of Sri Lanka" and severed its remaining ties to the British monarchy.

1957 Elizabeth Taylor almost called off her wedding to film producer Mike Todd on February 4, 1957. The ceremony, at the beach resort of Acapulco, Mexico, was delayed for more than an hour before Todd convinced the highly strung actress to go through with it. Singer Eddie Fisher was best man and his wife Debbie Reynolds was maid of honor.  Fisher went on to marry Taylor after an affair following Todd's death in a plane crash.

1969 The Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) was founded in 1964 with the purpose of the "liberation of Palestine" through armed struggle, with much of its violence aimed at Israeli civilians. Yasser Arafat took over as chairman of the PLO on February 4, 1969, a position he held until his death in November 2004.

1971 Rolls-Royce declared itself bankrupt on February 4, 1971, one of Britain’s largest corporate failures. The company had become hopelessly crippled by its mismanagement of development of its advanced RB211 jet engine and the consequent cost over-runs, though it ultimately proved a great success.

1974 John Lennon and Yoko Ono mutually agree to a trial separation on February 4, 1974, which effectively kicked off the former Beatle's notorious eighteen-month "lost weekend." During this time, Lennon would consume lots of drugs and alcohol and -- at Yoko's request -- take up with Ono associate May Pang.

2000 Will Wright was inspired to create The Sims by the 1991 Oakland firestorm. He lost his home in the fire, and wanted to create a game that emulated his experience of rebuilding his life in the aftermath. The video game was first released on February 4, 2000.

2004 The mainstream online social network Facebook was founded by Mark Zuckerberg on February 4, 2004, along with four fellow Harvard College students and roommates. Four days after Facebook went live it had just 650 users. Originally known as 'TheFacebook,' the company changed the name to just Facebook after purchasing the domain name facebook.com in 2005 for $200,000.

2013 The highest wave ever detected by a buoy was 62.3 feet (19m) high and happened on February 4, 2013, in the North Atlantic Ocean between Iceland and the United Kingdom at coordinates 59° N, 11° W. While the 62.3-foot wave is the official record, larger waves have been observed by humans but not recorded by buoys. For example, in 2002, a ship reported encountering a 95-foot wave in the North Atlantic.

2019 An estimated 50 million people gathered to bathe on February 4, 2019 during Allahabad Ardh Kumbh Mela in Allahabad, India. Kumbh Mela is a mass Hindu pilgrimage of faith in which Hindus gathered for ritual bathing in the Ganges River. It was probably the largest ever human gathering on a single day.