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Today in History: February 4

0786 Harun al-Rashid succeeds his older brother the Abbasid Caliph al-Hadi as Caliph of Baghdad.

1508 The Proclamation of Trent is made.

1787 Shay's Rebellion, an uprising of debt-ridden Massachusetts farmers against the new U.S. government, fails.

1795 France abolishes slavery in her territories and confers slaves to citizens.

1889 Harry Longabaugh is released from Sundance Prison in Wyoming, thereby acquiring the famous nickname, "the Sundance Kid."

1899 After an exchange of gunfire, fighting breaks out between American troops and Filipinos near Manila, sparking the Philippine-American War

1906 The New York Police Department begins finger print identification.

1909 California law segregates Caucasian and Japanese schoolchildren.

1915 Germany decrees British waters as part of the war zone; all ships to be sunk without warning.

1941 The United Service Organization (U.S.O.) is formed to cater to armed forces and defense industries.

1974 Newspaper heiress Patty Hearst is kidnapped by the Symbionese Liberation Army, beginning one of the most bizarre cases in FBI history.

1986 The U.S. Post Office issues a commemorative stamp featuring Sojourner Truth.

2004 Mark Zuckerberg launches Facebook from his Harvard dormitory room

2021 First successful face and double hand transplant announced performed on 22 year-old Joe DiMeo in New York

Born on February 4

1902 Charles Lindbergh, the first man to fly solo across the Atlantic.

1906 Clyde Tombaugh, astronomer, discovered Pluto.

1962 Clint Black (61st Birthday) American country vocalist ("Killin' Time"; "Nothin' But the Taillights"), born in Long Branch, New Jersey


Joke of the Day

A man dies and goes to hell.

Once there, he finds that there is a different hell for each country, so he tries to seek out the least painful one.
At the door to German Hell, he is told: "First they put you in an electric chair for an hour. Then they lay you on a bed of nails for another hour. Then the German devil comes in and whips you for the rest of the day."
He does not like the sound of that, so he checks out American Hell, Russian Hell and many more. They are all similarly gruesome. However, at Nigerian Hell a long line of people is waiting to get in. Amazed, he asks, "What do they do here?"
He is told: "First they put you in an electric chair for an hour. Then they lay you on a bed of nails for another hour. Then the Nigerian devil comes in and whips you for the rest of the day."
"But that's the same as the others," says the man. "Why are so many people waiting to get in?"
"Because of the power cuts, the electric chair does not work. The nails were paid for but never supplied, so the bed is comfortable. And the Nigerian devil used to be a civil servant, so he comes in, signs his time sheet and goes back home for private business.