✦ DateLore

On This Day · The 4th day of the year

January 4

A look at January 4 through the almanac — historic events, famous birthdays including Jacob Grimm and Emperor Zhezong, and the day's notable deaths and observances.

♑ZodiacCapricorn ◈BirthstoneGarnet ❀Birth flowerCarnation
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Events

10 notable moments
  1. 2019

    Koszalin escape room fire

    A fire in an escape room in Koszalin, Poland, kills five teenagers through carbon monoxide poisoning.

    2019 fire in Koszalin,
  2. 2010

    Burj Khalifa

    The Burj Khalifa, the current tallest building in the world, officially opens in Dubai.

    Skyscraper in Dubai, United
  3. 2004

    Spirit (rover)

    Spirit, a NASA Mars rover, lands successfully on Mars at 04:35 UTC.

    Former NASA Mars rover,
  4. 1972

    Rose Heilbron

    Rose Heilbron becomes the first female judge to sit at the Old Bailey in London, UK.

    British barrister and judge
  5. 1951

    Korean War

    Korean War: Chinese and North Korean forces capture Seoul for the second time.

    1950–1953 conflict in Korean
  6. 1944

    World War II

    World War II: Operation Carpetbagger, involving the dropping of arms and supplies to resistance fighters in Europe, begins.

    1939–1945 global conflict
  7. 1909

    Aeneas Mackintosh

    Explorer Aeneas Mackintosh of the Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition escaped death by fleeing across ice floes.

    British officer and explorer
  8. 1896

    Utah

    Utah is admitted as the 45th U.S. state.

    U.S. state
  9. 1853

    Solomon Northup

    After having been kidnapped and sold into slavery in the American South, Solomon Northup regains his freedom; his memoir Twelve Years a Slave later becomes a national bestseller.

    Free-born African American kidnapped
  10. 1762

    Spain

    Great Britain declares war on Spain, which meant the entry of Spain into the Seven Years' War.

    Country in Southern and
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Famous birthday twins

Born on January 4

Jacob Grimm

b. 1785

German philologist and mythologist

Emperor Zhezong

b. 1077

of China

Gao Xingjian

b. 1940

Chinese novelist, playwright, and critic, Nobel Prize laureate

Günter Schabowski

b. 1929

German journalist and politician

Johann Friedrich Agricola

b. 1720

German organist and composer

Carl Humann

b. 1839

German archaeologist, architect, and engineer

Marianne Werner

b. 1924

German shot putter

Georg Elser

b. 1903

German carpenter and attempted assassin of Adolf Hitler

Deaths

  • 2010Tsutomu Yamaguchi, Japanese engineer
  • 1965T. S. Eliot, American-English poet, playwright, and critic, Nobel Prize laureate
  • 1961Erwin Schrödinger, Austrian physicist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate
  • 1960Albert Camus, French novelist, philosopher, and journalist, Nobel Prize laureate
  • 1943Marina Raskova, Russian pilot and navigator
  • 1941Henri Bergson, French philosopher and academic, Nobel Prize laureate

Holidays & observances

  • —Christian feast day: Angela of Foligno
  • —Christian feast day: Elizabeth Ann Seton
  • —Christian feast day: Ferréol of Uzès
  • —Christian feast day: Mavilus
  • —Christian feast day: Pharaildis of Ghent
  • —Christian feast day: Rigobert
  • —Christian feast day: January 4 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics)
  • —The eleventh of the Twelve Days of Christmas. (Western Christianity)

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