February 04
1783
England proclaimed the formal end to the hostilities with the United States.
1787
Shays’s Rebellion, an uprising of Massachusetts farmers, was defeated.
1789
George Washington and John Adams are elected the president and vice president of the United States.
1861
Delegates from six southern states met at Montgomery, Ala., to form the Confederate States of America.
1945
Roosevelt, Churchill, and Stalin met at the Yalta Conference.
1948
Ceylon (now Sri Lanka) gained independence from the United Kingdom.
1969
The Palestine National Congress appointed Yasir Arafat head of the Palestine Liberation Organization.
1974
Patricia Hearst, the granddaughter of newspaper mogul William Randolph Hearst, was kidnapped by the Symbionese Liberation Army.
1976
Benjamin Britten, British composer, died.
2003
The country of Yugoslavia disappeared, to be replaced by the loose federation of Serbia and Montenegro.
2004
The Massachusetts Supreme Court declared that gays had the right to marry.
Birthdays
Charles Lindbergh
1902–1974, American Aviator.
Tadeusz Kosciusko
general (1746)
Fernand Léger
painter (1881)
Clyde William Tombaugh
astronomer (1906)
Rosa Parks
civil rights activist (1913)
Betty Friedan
feminist (1921)
George Romero
filmmaker (1939)
Dan Quayle
vice president (1947)
Oscar De La Hoya
boxer (1973)