January 4

1745 | Columbia University was founded at Kings College, New York.

1789 | Founder: Thomas Nelson died.

1821 | The First American canonized Saint Elizabeth Ann Seton died.

1847 | Entrepreneur Samuel Colt sells the first revolver pistol to the U.S. government.

1877 | Entrepreneur Cornelius Vanderbilt died.

1863 | Entrepreneur James Plimpton patents the four-wheeled roller skates.

1883 | Author Max Eastman was born.

1887 | Thomas Stevens completes a round-world bicycle adventure.

1893 | Democrat President Grover Cleveland granted amnesty to Mormon polygamy.

1896 | Statehood: Utah joins the Union.

1915 | Moses Alexander was the first Jewish Governor elected in Idaho.

1926 | Irving Berlin weds Ellin Mackay.

1936 | Billboard magazine publishes the first music hit parade.

1943 | Historian Doris Kearns Goodwin was born.

1951 | Korean War: China recaptures Seoul.

1960 | Entertainer Michael Stipe was born.

1962 | In New York City, New York commissions the first automated subway train.

1965 | Poet T.S. Eliot died.

1965 | Democrat President Lyndon Johnson delivers his “Great Society” address.

1975 | Republican President Gerald Ford established a commission on the CIA’s domestic operations.

1997 | Entrepreneur Harry Helmsley died.

1989 | U.S. F-14s shoot down two Libyan jet fighters.

2004 | Author John Toland died.