What happened on January 4 ?

46 BC ? Titus Labienus bloodly defeats Julius Caesar in the Battle of Ruspina.

871 - Battle of Reading - Ethelred of Wessex fights, and is defeated by, a Danish invasion army.

1066 - Battle of Hastings (1066)

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, is 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 United States government.

1854 - The McDonald Islands are discovered by Captain William McDonald aboard the Samarang.

1865 - The New York Stock Exchange opens its first permanent headquarters at 10-12 Broad near Wall Street in New York City.

1884 - The Fabian Society is founded in London.

1885 - The first successful appendectomy is performed by Dr. William W. Grant on Mary Gartside.

1896 - Utah is admitted as the 45th U.S. state.

1912 - The Scout Association is incorporated throughout the British Commonwealth by Royal Charter.

1936 - Mickey's Polo Team, a short animated film featuring Charlie Chaplin, Oliver Hardy, Stan Laurel and Harpo Marx in a polo match against various Disney characters, is first released.

1936 - Billboard magazine publishes its first pop music charts.

1944 - World War II: The Battle of Monte Cassino begins.

1948 - Burma gains its independence from the United Kingdom.

1951 - Korean War: Chinese and North Korean forces capture Seoul.

1957 - After 69 years the last issue of Collier's Weekly magazine is published.

1958 - Sputnik 1 falls to Earth from its orbit (launched on October 4, 1957).

1959 - Luna 1 becomes the first spacecraft to reach the vicinity of the Moon.

1962 - New York City introduces a train that operates without a crew on-board.

1965 - United States President Lyndon B. Johnson proclaims his "Great Society" during his State of the Union address.

1972 - Rose Heilbron becomes the first woman judge to sit at the Old Bailey in London.

1974 - United States President Richard Nixon refuses to hand over materials subpoenaed by the Senate Watergate Committee.

1987 - An Amtrak train en route to Boston from Washington, DC collides with Conrail engines, killing 16 (Chase, Maryland rail wreck).

1989 - A pair of Libyan MiG-23 "Floggers" are shot down by a pair of US Navy F-14 Tomcats during an air-to-air confrontation.

1990 - A crowded passenger train collides with a standing freight train in Pakistan's Sindh province, killing 300 people.

1998 - Wilaya of Relizane massacres in Algeria; over 170 are killed in three remote villages.

1999 - Former professional wrestler Jesse Ventura was sworn in as governor of Minnesota.

1999 - Gunmen open fire on Shiite Muslims worshipping in an Islamabad mosque, killing 16 people and injuring 25.

1999 - A proposal emailed out across the world led to the International Firefighters' Day institution.

2001 - RuneScape (Now known as RuneScape Classic) was released.

2004 - Dr. Mikhail Saakashvili is elected the President of Georgia.

2004 - Spirit, a NASA Mars Rover, lands successfully on Mars at 04:35 UTC.

2006 - Prime Minister Ariel Sharon of Israel suffers a second, apparently more serious stroke. His authority is transferred to Acting Prime Minister Ehud Olmert.

2006 - Serious media mixup when media organisations mistakenly reported that 12 miners were found alive in the Sago Mine Disaster. Several USA newspapers had frontpage headlines such as "ALIVE!", when in fact 12 miners had perished.