Historical Events on January 4.

1.  1847, 4th Jan: Samuel Colt sold the first revolver to the US government.

2.  1881, 4th Jan: Lokmanya Tilak started the Kesari newspaper in Pune.

3.  1885, 4th Jan: First successful appendix removal surgery performed by Dr. William W. Grant performed on Mary Gartside.

4.  1932, 4th Jan: Pandit Nehru sentenced to two years of imprisonment for participating in the Civil Disobedience Movement.

5.  1944, 4th Jan: Hitler’s ordinance was issued to enlist all boys and girls above the age of 10 in the service of the nation.

6.  1954, 4th Jan: Meherchand Mahajan became the 3rd Chief Justice of India.

7.  1958, 4th Jan: Sputnik-1, the first man-made satellite, returned to Earth.

8.  1962, 4th Jan: The first driverless train opened in New York, USA.

9.  2004, 4th Jan: Spirit, a NASA Mars rover, landed successfully on Mars.

10.  2010, 4th Jan: Burj Khalifa, the world’s tallest building, was inaugurated. 

Famous Birthdays & Birth Anniversaries on January 4.

1.  1809: Louis Braille, a French educator and inventor of a system of reading and writing for use by the blind or visually impaired.

2.  1813: Sir Isaac Pitman, a teacher of the English language who developed the most widely used system of shorthand, known now as Pitman shorthand.

3.  1889: M. Patanjali Shastri, the 2nd chief justice of India.

4.  1904:  S. S. Vasan, an Indian journalist, writer, advertiser, film producer, director, and business tycoon.

5.  1914: Indira Sant, a Marathi poet from Maharashtra, India.

6.  1925: Pradeep Kumar, an Indian actor.

7.  1925: Gopaldas Neeraj, an Indian poet and author of Hindi literature.

8.  1931: Nirupa Roy, an Indian actress.

9.  1941: Kalpnath Rai, an Indian politician.

10.  1952: Justice T. S. Thakur, the 43ʳᵈ Chief Justice of India.

11.  1957: Gurdas Maan, an Indian singer, songwriter, choreographer, and actor mainly associated with Punjabi language music and films.

Death Anniversaries of famous people on January 4.

1.  1852: Gabriel Cramer, a Genevan mathematician.

2.  1907: Govardhanram Tripathi, an Indian Gujarati language novelist. 

3.  1960: Albert Camus, a French philosopher, author, and journalist.

4.  1961: Erwin Schrödinger, a Nobel Prize-winning Austrian-Irish physicist.

5.  1965: T. S. Eliot, an American-born British poet, essayist, publisher, playwright, literary critic, and editor. 

6.  1994: R. D. Burman, an Indian music director.

7.  2011: Salman Taseer, a Pakistani businessman, and a liberal politician.

4-January-1881

Publication of newspaper 'Kesri' started.

4-January-1889

Judge M. Patanjali Sastri, Chief Justice of India, was born.

4-January-1892

J. C. Kumarappa, a Gandhian by thought, was born.

4-January-1906

Prince of Wales laid the foundation stone of Victoria Memorial Hall at Calcutta.

4-January-1907

Govind Rai, renowned Gujarati novelist and writer of 'Saraswati Chandra', passed away.

4-January-1909

Prabhakar Padhye, modern Marathi litterateur, was born.

4-January-1914

Indira Sant, famous Marathi poet, was born.

4-January-1924

Vidyadhar Gokhle, editor, playwright and politician, was born.

4-January-1931

Maulana Mohammad Ali Jauhar, great orator, eminent journalist, fighter and one of the founders of Jamia Millia Islamia, died at London during the first Round Table Conference. He was closely associated to Mahatma Gandhi and took active part in Civil Disobedience Movement.

4-January-1932

Mahatma Gandhi and other members of his All-India National Congress are back in jail again. After the collapse of the London conference, British authorities cracked down even harder on Gandhi and his followers, and the Mahatma urged Indians to increase their acts of civil disobedience. "Wake up from sleep," Gandhi said as he ordered a boycott of British goods. "Discard foreign cloth. Discard narcotics. Discard violence. Defy all orders calculated to crush the national spirit." The government declared Gandhi's Congress an illegal organization. Under new laws, even peaceful picketing is illegal. The Congress party responded to the crackdown by recruiting more followers and striking more plants.

4-January-1937

R. Surendranath, cricketer (Indian pace bowler in 11 Tests early 60s), was born in Meerut.

4-January-1940

Shrikant Sinkar, famous Marathi novelist, was born.

4-January-1948

Burma achieved its independence from Great Britain. In 1989, Burma changed its name to Myanmar to reflect the multi-ethnic composition of the country. Apart from the Burmese, the main ethnic minority groups are the Karen, Shan, Mon, Chin, and Kachin. Just as the Burmese did against the British, almost all of these ethnic groups have struggled against the Burmese government for self-determination.

4-January-1954

Judge Mehr Chand Mahajan became the Chief Justice of India. He helded this office till 22/12/1954.

4-January-1958

Waverley John Anderson, Scottish viscount and Governor of Bengal, died at the age of 75.

4-January-1964

The First Diesel Engine came out of the Varanasi Diesel Engine Carshed.

4-January-1966

Indo-Pak Summit, the peace talk between Pakistan and Indian leaders, started at Tashkent. The prominent personalities were Lal Bahadur Shastri and Gen. Ayub Khan.

4-January-1967

Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd. began delivery of the MIG aircraft.

4-January-1972

Pakistan proposed to talk after the war.

4-January-1992

The goverment promulgates an ordinance to prevent countermanding of election in the event of death of independent candidates.

4-January-1993

K. Margabandhu, former UCO Bank chief, was arrested on charges of amassing wealth beyond his means.

4-January-1994

Rahul Dev Burman, famous music director better known as 'Pancham Da', died at the age of 56.

4-January-1995

IAF batch (Angel of Mercy) returns from Somalia after 16 months of stay and 700 sorties.

4-January-1998

V.D.I.S. nets Rs.10,500 crores with Rs 33,000 crore black money disclosed in 4,66,031 declarations made.

4-January-1999

Karnataka's Farah Khan made it three-in-a-row in the National ladies billiards championship in Delhi.