Today In History [4th February, 2015]

A chronological timetable of historical events that occurred on this day in history. Historical facts of the day in the areas of military, politics, science, music, sports, arts, entertainment and more. Discover what happened today in history.

February 4
786           Harun al-Rashid succeeds his older brother the Abbasid Caliph al-Hadi as Caliph of Baghdad.
1194           Richard I, King of England, is freed from captivity in Germany.
1508           The Proclamation of Trent is made.
1787           Shay's Rebellion, an uprising of debt-ridden Massachusetts farmers against the new U.S. government, fails.
1795           France abolishes slavery in her territories and confers slaves to citizens.
1889           Harry Longabaugh is released from Sundance Prison in Wyoming, thereby acquiring the famous nickname, "the Sundance Kid."
1899           After an exchange of gunfire, fighting breaks out between American troops and Filipinos near Manila, sparking the Philippine-American War
1906           The New York Police Department begins finger print identification.
1909           California law segregates Caucasian and Japanese schoolchildren.
1915           Germany decrees British waters as part of the war zone; all ships to be sunk without warning.
1923           French troops take the territories of Offenburg, Appenweier and Buhl in the Ruhr as a part of the agreement ending World War I.
1932           Governor Franklin D. Roosevelt inaugurates the Winter Olympics at Lake Placid, N.Y.
1941           The United Service Organization (U.S.O.) is formed to cater to armed forces and defense industries.
1944           The Japanese attack the Indian Seventh Army in Burma.
1945           The Big Three, American, British and Soviet leaders, meet in Yalta to discuss the war aims.
1966           Senate Foreign Relations Committee begins televised hearings on the Vietnam War.
1980           Syria withdraws its peacekeeping force in Beirut.
1986           The U.S. Post Office issues a commemorative stamp featuring Sojourner Truth.

Born on February 4
1881           Fernand Leger, French painter.
1900           Jacques Prevert, French poet, screenwriter (The Visitors of the Evening, The Children of Paradise).
1902           Charles Lindbergh, the first man to fly solo across the Atlantic.
1906           Dietrich Bonhoeffer, German Protestant theologian.
1906           Clyde Tombaugh, astronomer, discovered Pluto.
1913           Rosa Lee Parks, civil rights activist.
1921           Betty Friedan, writer, feminist, founded the National Organization of Women in 1966.
1925           Russell Hoban, artist and writer (Bedtime for Frances, The Mouse and His Child).
1932           Robert Coover, novelist & short story writer.
1947           Dan Quayle, vice president under President George H.W. Bush.