Thursday, February 04th
The 035th day of 2010.
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Today's Highlights in History
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On Feb. 4, 1974, newspaper heiress Patricia Hearst was kidnapped in Berkeley, Calif., by the Symbionese Liberation Army. (Go to article.)
On Feb. 4, 1902, Charles A. Lindbergh, the American aviator who became the first man to fly the Atlantic solo nonstop from the United States to Europe, was born. Following his death on Aug. 26, 1974, his obituary appeared in The Times. (Go to obit. | Other Birthdays)
Editorial Cartoon of the Day
On February 4, 1882, Harper's Weekly featured a cartoon about public safety. (See the cartoon and read an explanation.)
On this date in:
1783 Britain declared a formal cessation of hostilities in the American Revolutionary War.
1789 Electors unanimously chose George Washington to be the first president of the United States.
1801 John Marshall was sworn in as chief justice of the United States.
1861 Delegates from six southern states met in Montgomery, Ala., to form the Confederate States of America.
1913 Civil rights pioneer Rosa Parks was born Rosa Louise McCauley in Tuskegee, Ala.
1938 The Thornton Wilder play "Our Town" opened on Broadway.
1941 The United Service Organizations (USO) was formed.
1945 President Franklin D. Roosevelt, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill and Soviet leader Josef Stalin began a wartime conference at Yalta.
1948 The island nation of Ceylon - now Sri Lanka - became an independent dominion within the British Commonwealth.
1977 The album "Rumours" by Fleetwood Mac was released.
1983 Singer Karen Carpenter died at age 32.
1987 Pianist Liberace died at age 67.
1997 A civil jury found O.J. Simpson liable for the deaths of his ex-wife, Nicole Brown Simpson, and her friend Ronald Goldman.
1999 Unarmed West African immigrant Amadou Diallo was shot and killed in front of his Bronx home by four plainclothes New York City police officers who said they mistook his wallet for a gun. The police fired 41 shots at Diallo.
2000 A coalition government that included Joerg Haider's far-right Freedom Party came to power in Austria, triggering European Union sanctions.
2003 Yugoslavia was dissolved and replaced with a loose union of its remaining two republics, Serbia and Montenegro.
2004 The Massachusetts high court declared that gays were entitled to marry.
2004 Facebook was launched as a social networking Web site limited to Harvard University students.
Current Birthdays
Clint Black turns 48 years old today.
AP Photo/Peter Kramer Country musician Clint Black turns 48 years old today.
87 Conrad Bain
Actor ("Diff'rent Strokes")
70 George A. Romero
Director
63 Dan Quayle
Former vice president
62 Alice Cooper
Rock singer
51 Lawrence Taylor
Football Hall of Famer
39 Rob Corddry
Actor
35 Natalie Imbruglia
Rock singer
22 Carly Patterson
Gymnast
Historic Birthdays
Charles A. Lindbergh
2/4/1902 - 8/26/1974
American aviator
(Go to obit.)
85 Mark Hopkins
2/4/1802 - 6/17/1887
American educator and theologian
85 Clement Ader
2/4/1841 - 3/5/1926
French engineer and pioneer of flight
78 Ludwig Prandtl
2/4/1875 - 8/15/1953
German physicist, "father of aerodynamics"
70 Jacques Copeau
2/4/1879 - 10/20/1949
French actor/critic/director
74 Fernand Leger
2/4/1881 - 8/17/1955
French painter
75 George Kennedy Bell
2/4/1883 - 10/3/1958
English Anglican bishop of Chichester
95 Raymond Dart
2/4/1893 - 11/22/1988
Australian-bn. South African physical anthropologist
73 MacKinlay Kantor
2/4/1904 - 10/11/1977
American author/newspaperman
39 Dietrich Bonhoeffer
2/4/1906 - 4/9/1945
German Protestant theologian
90 Clyde W. Tombaugh
2/4/1906 - 1/17/1997
American astronomer who discovered Pluto
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