Wikipedia:Selected anniversaries/January 4

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This is a list of selected January 4 anniversaries that appear in the "On this day" section of the Main Page. To suggest a new item, in most cases, you can be bold and edit this page. Please read the selected anniversaries guidelines before making your edit. However, if your addition might be controversial or on a day that is or will soon be on the Main Page, please post your suggestion on the talk page instead.

Please note that the events listed on the Main Page are chosen based more on relative article quality and to maintain a mix of topics, not based solely on how important or significant their subjects are. Only four to five events are posted at a time and thus not everything that is "most important and significant" can be listed. In addition, an event is generally not posted this year if it is also the subject of the scheduled featured article or picture of the day.

To report an error when this appears on the Main Page, see Main Page errors. Please remember that this list defers to the supporting articles, so it is best to achieve consensus and make any necessary changes there first.

← January 3	January 5 →

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Images

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An 1855 engraving of Samuel Colt
Video clip of the execution of Topsy
Ariel Sharon
Nancy Pelosi
Sao Shwe Thaik
Constantine Hangerli
Rose Heilbron
Aeneas Mackintosh

Ineligible

Blurb	Reason
Independence Day in Myanmar (1948)	refimprove section
46 BC – Caesar's Civil War: Forces loyal to Julius Caesar were defeated in the Battle of Ruspina by the Republican forces of the Optimates.	single source
1847 – American gun inventor Samuel Colt sold the first thousand of his Colt Walker revolvers to the Texas Rangers.	Orange "additional sources needed" banner
1854 – Captain William McDonald aboard the Samarang discovered the McDonald Islands, uninhabited, barren islands located in the Southern Ocean about two-thirds of the way from Madagascar to Antarctica.	unreferenced section
1885 – Sino-French War: French troops under General Oscar de Négrier defeated a larger Qing Chinese force at the Battle of Núi Bop in northern Vietnam.	Single source
1884 – The Fabian Society, an intellectual movement whose purpose is to advance the socialist cause by gradualist and reformist methods rather than revolutionary means, was founded in London.	refimprove section
1903 – Topsy, a circus elephant considered unmanageable, was executed by electrocution at publicity event advertising the opening of Luna Park, Coney Island, captured on film by the Edison Manufacturing Company.	refimprove section
1912 – The Boy Scouts Association was incorporated throughout the British Empire by royal charter.	Numerous issues
1944 – World War II: The U.S. Army Air Forces began Operation Carpetbagger, a military operation involving the dropping of arms and supplies to resistance fighters across Europe.	no footnotes
1948 – Burma achieved independence from the British Empire, with Sao Shwe Thaik as its first president.	Missing key info - President for 4 yrs but only two quotes from his speeches and no other info
1974 – Harry Schwarz and Mangosuthu Buthelezi signed the Mahlabatini Declaration of Faith, the first declaration by black and white South African leaders to commit to non-violence and a non-discriminatory society.	missing page numbers
1976 – The Troubles: Volunteers from the Ulster Volunteer Force shot dead five Irish Catholic civilians in County Armagh, Northern Ireland.	combined with Kingsmill massacre on January 5
1998 – A massive ice storm struck eastern Canada and the northeastern United States, eventually killing over 30 people, injuring over 340 others, and causing extensive damage to the area's electrical infrastructure.	refimprove section
2006 – Prime minister of Israel Ariel Sharon suffered a severe hemorrhagic stroke, leaving Ehud Olmert as Acting Prime Minister.	refimprove section
unreferenced section

Eligible

1853 – Solomon Northup regained his freedom after having been sold into slavery in the American South; his memoir Twelve Years a Slave later became a bestseller.
1909 – British explorer Aeneas Mackintosh (pictured), a member of the Nimrod Expedition, escaped death by fleeing across ice floes.
1951 – Korean War: Chinese and North Korean troops captured Seoul from United Nations forces.
1972 – Rose Heilbron (pictured) became the first female judge to sit at the Central Criminal Court of England and Wales.
1973 – Last of the Summer Wine, the longest-running sitcom in the world, premiered as an episode of the BBC's Comedy Playhouse.
1977 – The English punk-rock band Sex Pistols lewd and disruptive behaviour at Heathrow Airport prompts the record label EMI to end their contract with them
2007 – Nancy Pelosi became Speaker of the United States House of Representatives, becoming the highest-ranking woman in the history of the U.S. government.
2010 – The Burj Khalifa, the world's tallest structure, officially opened in Dubai.
2018 – A passenger train collided with a truck and derailed in the Free State, South Africa, killing 21 people and injuring 254 others.
2020 – Sembawang Hot Spring Park in Singapore reopened after being redeveloped by the National Parks Board.

Born/died this day: | Moses Mendelssohn |d|1786| Louis Braille |b|1809| George Tryon |b|1832| Johanna Westerdijk |b|1883| Doreen Valiente |b|1922| Erwin Schrödinger |d|1961| T. S. Eliot |d|1965| David Berman |b|1967| Brian Horrocks |d|1985 |Tom Acker |d|2021

January 4: Colonial Repression Martyrs' Day in Angola (1961)

Artist's depiction of a Mars Exploration Rover

1698 – Most of London's Palace of Whitehall, the main residence of English monarchs since 1530, was destroyed by fire.
1798 – After his appointment as Prince of Wallachia, Constantine Hangerli arrived in Bucharest to assume the throne.
1936 – Billboard published its first music hit parade.
1989 – Two American F-14 Tomcats shot down two Libyan MiG-23 Floggers that appeared to be attempting to engage them over the Gulf of Sidra.
2004 – Spirit (artist's impression depicted), the first of two rovers of NASA's Mars Exploration Rover mission, successfully landed on Mars.

Amadeus VI, Count of Savoy (b. 1334)
Josef Suk (b. 1874)
Nellie Cashman (d. 1925)
Arthur Rose Eldred (d. 1951)

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