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. Before doing so, please review the selected anniversaries guidelines. If your suggestion is potentially controversial or relates to a day currently or soon to appear on the Main Page, post it on the talk page instead.
Please note:
- Events listed on the Main Page are selected based on article quality and to provide a diverse range of topics, rather than solely on the importance or significance of the events.
- Only four or five events are featured each day; therefore, not all important or significant events can be included.
- An event is generally excluded if it is already the subject of the scheduled featured article, featured list or picture of the day.
To report an error in content currently on the Main Page, see Wikipedia:Main Page/Errors. If a listed event is inaccurate, please first seek consensus and update the corresponding article before making changes here.
Staging area
Images
Use only ONE image at a time
- Video clip of the execution of Topsy
Ariel Sharon
Palace of Whitehall
Nancy Pelosi
Ineligible
| Blurb | Reason |
|---|---|
| 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 |
| 1936 – Billboard magazine published its first music hit parade. | date not cited |
| 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 U Nu of the Anti-Fascist People's Freedom League as its first Prime Minister. | outdated |
| 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. | unreferenced section |
| 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 |
| 1989 – Two American F-14A Tomcats shot down two Libyan MiG-23 Flogger Es that appeared to be attempting to engage them over the Gulf of Sidra in the Mediterranean Sea. | refimprove |
| 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 |
| 2010 – The Burj Khalifa skyscraper, the world's tallest structure, officially opened in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. | lead too short |
Eligible
- 1698 – Most of London's Palace of Whitehall, the main residence of the English monarchs dating from 1530, was destroyed by fire.
- 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.
- 1885 – Sino-French War: French troops under General François Oscar de Négrier defeated a numerically superior Qing Chinese force at Nui Bop in northern Vietnam.
- 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.
- 1970 – A magnitude 7.5 Msd earthquake struck Tonghai County, China, killing at least 15,000 people and spurring the creation of the nation's largest earthquake monitoring system.
- 1973 – Last of the Summer Wine, the longest running sitcom in the world, premiered as an episode of the BBC's Comedy Playhouse.
- 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.
January 4: Perihelion of the Earth (06:36 UTC, 2015); Independence Day in Burma (1948)
- 1798 – After having been invested as Prince of Wallachia, Constantine Hangerli arrived in Bucharest to assume the throne.
- 1847 – American gun inventor Samuel Colt made his first large sale of his revolvers to the Texas Rangers.
- 1912 – The Boy Scout Association was incorporated throughout the then British Empire by royal charter.
- 1951 – Korean War: Chinese and North Korean troops captured Seoul.
- 2004 – Spirit (artist's impression pictured), the first of two rovers of NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Mission, landed successfully on Mars at 04:35 Ground UTC.