February 4

1555 – John Rogers is burned at the stake, the first English Protestant martyr under Queen Mary I of England.

1703 – In Edo, Japan, all but one of the  47 rōnin commit seppuku to atone for avenging their master’s death. The one who didn’t had been sent by the band to inform the lord of the area, at his capitol at Ako, of their act before turning themselves in to local authorities, and was later pardoned, but still buried with his companions when he died 44 years later.

1758 – The city of Macapá in Brazil is founded by Sebastião Cabral.

1789 – George Washington is unanimously elected as the first President of the United States by the U.S. Electoral College.

1801 – John Marshall is sworn in as the 4th Chief Justice of the United States.

1825 – The Ohio Legislature authorizes the construction of the Ohio and Erie Canal and the Miami and Erie Canal.

1859 – The Uncial Codex Sinaiticus version of the Bible is discovered in Egypt.

1861 – In Montgomery, Alabama, delegates from the first 6 seceded U.S. states, South Carolina , Mississippi , Florida, Alabama, Georgia and Louisiana, meet in convention to form a new union.

1899 – The Philippine–American War begins with the Battle of Manila, resulting in a U.S. victory with light casualties on both sides.

1941 – The United Service Organization (USO) is created to entertain American troops.

1945 – The Manila Internment Camp on the campus of the University of Santo Tomas in Manila is liberated from Japanese authority by troops of the U.S. Army 44th Tank Battalion.

1967 – NASA launches Lunar Orbiter 3 from Cape Canaveral’s Launch Complex 13 on a mission to identify possible landing sites for the Surveyor and Apollo spacecraft.

1974 – The Symbionese Liberation Army kidnaps Patty Hearst in Berkeley, California.

1976 – In Guatemala and Honduras an earthquake kills more than 22,000 people, leaving over a million homeless.

1977 –  The Lake-Dan Ryan line train, of the Chicago Transit Authority elevated train, rear ends a Ravenswood line train on the northeast corner of the Loop at Wabash Avenue and Lake Street and derails, killing 11 passengers and injuring 180 more, the worst accident in the agency’s history.

1999 – Being mistaken for a suspected criminal, immigrant Amadou Diallo is shot 41 times and killed by plainclothes New York City police officers on an unrelated stake out, who are charged with murder, but acquitted at trial.

2004 – Facebook is founded by Mark Zuckerberg and Eduardo Saverin.