Anniversaries and commemorations come and go daily. Most of us, even the best historians, miss most occasions. If we think of history as events then we are faced with a continually showering in the grains of sand. Nevertheless, we do pick out certain patterns in the remembrance of historical dates. The blog here reminds us of some dates where the local, state, national, and global perspectives entwine.
On 4, Sunday February 1894, Adolphe Sax, Belgian instrument maker, inventor of the saxophone, died (b. 1814)
On 4, Tuesday February 1919, Richard Bowyer Smith, died (born 1837), inventor
On 4, Tuesday February 1919, (4-5) Pressburg (Bratislava) becomes the capital of Slovakia.
On 4, Tuesday February 1919, Peter Butterworth, English actor and comedian, born (d. 1979)
On 4, Tuesday February 1919, Janet Waldo, American actress, born (d. 2016)
On 4, Tuesday February 1919, John C. Bates, American general, died (b. 1842)
On 4, Friday February 1944, Punch Gunalan, Malaysian badminton star, born (d. 2012)
On 4, Friday February 1944, Maruja Carrasco, Spanish botanist and academic, born (d. 2018)
On 4, Friday February 1944, Yvette Guilbert, French singer and actress, died (b. 1867)
On 4, Wednesday February 1959, Pamelyn Ferdin, American former child actress; animal rights activist, born
On 4, Wednesday February 1959, Raquel Morell, Mexican actress, born
On 4, Wednesday February 1959, Lawrence Taylor, American football player, born
On 4, Wednesday February 1959, Una O’Connor, Irish actress, died (b. 1880)
On 4, Tuesday February 1969, In Cairo, Yasser Arafat is elected Palestine Liberation Organization leader at the Palestinian National Congress.
On 4, Sunday February 1979, Andrei Arlovski, Belarusian mixed martial artist, born
On 4, Sunday February 1979, Claude Massop, Jamaican gang leader of the Shower Posse Gang, died (b. c. 1949)
On 4, Saturday February 1989, The Western Australian state election, 1989 is held. Peter Dowding returns as Premier when the Labor Party wins 31 seats albeit with a 10% fall in votes.
On 4, Saturday February 1989, Kevin Naiqama, Australian-Fijian rugby league player, born
On 4, Saturday February 1989, Larissa Ramos, Brazilian Miss Earth 2009 winner, born
On 4, Friday February 1994, Labor MP John Dawkins resigns.
On 4, Friday February 1994, Jane Arbor, British writer, died (b. 1903)
On 4, Thursday February 1999, Unarmed Guinean immigrant Amadou Diallo is shot dead by New York City police officers on an unrelated stake-out, inflaming race relations in the city.
On 4, Thursday February 1999, Mohammad Soltani Mehr, Iranian footballer, born
On 4, Wednesday February 2009, Heavy rain causes major flooding at Ingham in north Queensland.
On 4, Tuesday February 2014, Ken Smith resigns as Speaker of the Victorian Parliament after launching an attack on independent MP Geoff Shaw during the first question time of the year, being replaced by deputy speaker Christine Fyffe. Smith told Parliament that Shaw had been “colluding” with Labor to destabilise the state government.
Other On This Day days in history
Neville Buch
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