January 4 - over the years

On a day when Loius Braille and Issac Newton were born, Christopher Columbus leaves the New World, ending his first journey.

Today is Tuesday, January 4, the fourth day of 2005
There are 361 days left in the year.

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A quick recap of what has gone on this date in history

1493 - Christopher Columbus leaves the New World, ending his first journey.

1642 - English Civil War: King Charles I of England attacks Parliament.
1698 - Most of the Palace of Whitehall in London, the main residence of the English monarchs, was destroyed by fire.

1717 - The Netherlands, England and France sign the Triple Alliance.
1762 - England declares war on Spain and Naples.

1847 - Samuel Colt sells his first revolver pistol to the US government.

1854 - The McDonald Islands were discovered by Captain William McDonald.
1884 - The Fabian Society is founded in London
1885 - The first successful appendectomy is performed by Dr William Grant.
1896 - Utah is admitted as the 45th US state.

1908 - Mulai Hafid was proclaimed Sultan of Morocco at Fez.
1923 - Vladimir Lenin dictated a postscript to a letter that has become known as his political "testament" in which he suggested Stalin was too rude to be general secretary of the Communist party and should be replaced.
1948 - The British governor of Burma formerly handed over power, Union of Burma was proclaimed an independent republic with U Thakin Nu as its first PM. 1958 - Sputnik I, the world's first artificial satellite launched in October 1957 by the Soviet Union, disintegrated and fell to earth.
1960 - Albert Camus, Algerian-born French existentialist writer, died in a car accident.
1964 - Pope Paul VI began a visit to the Holy Land, which included the first visit by a pope to Jerusalem.
1965 - TS Eliot, American-born English poet, playwright and Nobel Prize winner, died. He wrote The Waste Land, Murder in the Cathedral, and Four Quartets.
1967 - Donald Campbell, British car and speedboat racer, was killed on Coniston Water in England during an attempt to break the world water speed record.
1978 - Said Hammami, the Palestine Liberation Organisation's representative in Britain, was assassinated in London.
1995 - Newt Gingrich was formally elected speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, the first Republican in the post in 40 years.

2000 - Former Ivory Coast President Henri Konan Bedie arrived in Paris to take up residence after being overthrown in a Christmas Eve coup.
2002 - The world's oldest man, 112-year-old Antonio Todde who swore the secret of his longevity was a daily glass of red wine, died on the Italian island of Sardinia. In a bizarre twist of fate, Italy's oldest woman, 110-year-old Maria Grazia Broccolo, died only hours later in a small town south of Rome.
2003 - The Raelians, a UFO cult that believes aliens landed on Earth 25,000 years ago and started the human race through cloning, said a cloned baby was born to a Dutch woman. Cloning experts however swiftly dismissed the claim as a baseless stunt.
2004 - Millions of children given polio drops across India. Rival Afghan factions attending the Loya Jirga agreed on a national constitution, paving the way for the first free elections after nearly a quarter-century of war.

Today's birthdays:
Isaac Newton, English scientist and philosopher (1643-1727)
Jakob Grimm, one half of the Brothers Grimm (1785-1863)
Louis Braille, French teacher, inventor of a writing system for blind (1809-1852)
Sterling Holloway
Jane Wyman actress (1914- -)
Nirupa Roy, actress (1931- 2004)
Carlos Saura, director (1932- - )
Floyd Patterson, boxer (1935- - )
Michael Stipe, lead singer of REM (1960- - )