What happened on January 4 ?

1066 - Edward the Confessor, pre-Norman conquest English king (b. ca. 1004) (disputed)

1248 - King Sancho II of Portugal (b. 1207)

1564 - Hosokawa Ujitsuna, Japanese military commander (b. 1514)

1695 - François Henri de Montmorency-Bouteville, duc de Luxembourg, French general (b. 1628)

1752 - Gabriel Cramer, Swiss mathematician (b. 1704)

1761 - Stephen Hales, English physiologist, chemist, and inventor (b. 1677)

1773 - Anton Losenko, Russian painter (b. 1737)

1782 - Ange-Jacques Gabriel, French architect (b. 1698)

1804 - Charlotte Lennox, English author and poet

1821 - Elizabeth Ann Seton, American saint (b. 1774)

1825 - King Ferdinand I of the Two Sicilies (b. 1751)

1877 - Cornelius Vanderbilt, American entrepreneur (b. 1794)

1883 - Antoine Eugène Alfred Chanzy, French general (b. 1823)

1896 - Joseph Hubert Reinkens, German Old Catholic bishop (b. 1821)

1903 - Gulstan Ropert, Roman Catholic prelate (b. 1839)

1919 - Georg von Hertling, Chancellor of Germany (b. 1843)

1931 - Art Acord, American actor and rodeo performer (b. 1890)

1941 - Henri Bergson, French philosopher, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Literature (b. 1859)

1960 - Albert Camus, Algerian-born French philosopher and writer, Nobel Prize laureate (automobile accident) (b. 1913)

1961 - Erwin Schrödinger, Austrian physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1887)

1962 - Hans Lammers, SS officer (b. 1879)

1965 - T. S. Eliot, American-born writer, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1888)

1967 - Donald Campbell, English water speed record setter (b. 1921)

1969 - Violet and Daisy Hilton, English conjoined twin actresses (b. 1908)

1970 - Jean-ÿtienne Valluy, French general (b. 1899)

1971 - Arthur Ford, American psychic spiritual medium, clairaudient (b. 1896)

1985 - Brian Horrocks, British general (b. 1895)

1986 - Christopher Isherwood, English writer (b. 1904)

1986 - Phil Lynott, Irish singer and musician (Thin Lizzy) (b. 1949)

1990 - Doc Edgerton, American electrical engineer (b. 1903)

1998 - Mae Questel, American actress (b. 1908)

1999 - Iron Eyes Cody, American actor (b. 1904)

2003 - Conrad Hall, American cinematographer (b. 1927)

2003 - Yfrah Neaman, Lebanese-born violinist (b. 1923)

2003 - Sabine Ulibarri, Mexican American writer (b. 1919)

2004 - Joan Aiken, English author (b. 1924)

2004 - Brian Gibson, English film director (b. 1944)

2004 - Jake Hess, American singer (b. 1927)

2004 - Jeff Nuttall, English writer, publisher, actor, artist, and jazz trumpeter (b. 1933)

2004 - John Toland, American author and historian (b. 1912)

2005 - Humphrey Carpenter, English author and biographer (b. 1946)

2005 - Ali al-Haidri, Iraqi governor of Baghdad (assassinated)

2005 - Frank Harary, American mathematician (b. 1921)

2005 - Robert Heilbroner, American economist (b. 1919)

2005 - Bud Poile, Canadian hockey player (b. 1924)

2005 - Alton Tobey, American artist

2006 - Maktoum bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Prime Minister of the United Arab Republics and Ruler of Dubai (b. 1946)