| 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. |
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