📜 This Day in History

February 4

• 960Emperor Taizu came to power, initiating the Song dynasty of China that eventually lasted for more than three centuries.
• 1555Marian Restoration: Because he opposed Catholicism, John Rogers was burned at the stake as the first English Protestant executed for heresy under the reign of Mary I.
• 1859Constantin von Tischendorf rediscovered the Codex Sinaiticus, a 4th-century great uncial codex of the Bible in Greek, in Saint Catherine's Monastery, Egypt.
• 1969Yasser Arafat was elected chairman of the Palestine Liberation Organization.
• 1999Four plain-clothes New York City police officers shot and killed Amadou Diallo, an unarmed 23-year-old immigrant from Guinea, prompting outrage both in and outside the city.
• 2015Shortly after takeoff from Taipei Songshan Airport, the crew of TransAsia Airways Flight 235 shut down the wrong engine in response to a flameout, leading to a crash that resulted in 43 deaths.

Born on this day

• 1897Ludwig Erhard, German soldier and politician, second Chancellor of West Germany (died 1977)
• 1902Charles Lindbergh, American pilot and explorer (died 1974)
• 1913Rosa Parks, American civil rights activist (died 2005)
• 1947Dan Quayle, American sergeant, lawyer, and politician, 44th Vice President of the United States