Today In History

Today is Thursday, Feb. 4, the 35th day of 2021. There are 330 days left in the year.

TODAY’S HIGHLIGHT

› 1789: Electors chose George Washington to be the first president of the United States.

ON THIS DATE

› 1861: Delegates from six southern states that had recently seceded from the Union met in Montgomery, Alabama, to form the Confederate States of America.

› 1913: Rosa Parks, a Black woman whose 1955 refusal to give up her seat on a Montgomery, Ala., city bus to a white man sparked a civil rights revolution, was born Rosa Louise McCauley in Tuskegee.

› 1944: The Bronze Star Medal, honoring “heroic or meritorious achievement or service,” was authorized by President Franklin D. Roosevelt.

› 1962: St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital was founded in Memphis, Tennessee, by entertainer Danny Thomas.

› 1974: Newspaper heiress Patricia Hearst, 19, was kidnapped in Berkeley, California, by the radical Symbionese Liberation Army.

› 2004: The Massachusetts high court declared that gay couples were entitled to nothing less than marriage, and that Vermont-style civil unions would not suffice.

TODAY’S BIRTHDAYS

Actor Jerry Adler is 92. Former Argentinian President Isabel Peron is 90. Actor Gary Conway is 85. Actor John Schuck is 81. Rock musician John Steel (The Animals) is 80. Singer Florence LaRue (The Fifth Dimension) is 79. Rock singer Alice Cooper is 73. Actor Michael Beck is 72. Actor Lisa Eichhorn is 69. Football Hall of Famer Lawrence Taylor is 62. Actor Pamelyn Ferdin is 62. Rock singer Tim Booth is 61. Rock musician Henry Bogdan is 60. Country singer Clint Black is 59. Rock musician Noodles (The Offspring) is 58. Actor Gabrielle Anwar is 51. Actor Rob Corddry is 50. Singer David Garza is 50. Actor Michael Goorjian is 50. TV personality Nicolle Wallace is 49. Rock musician Rick Burch (Jimmy Eat World) is 46. Singer Natalie Imbruglia is 46. Rapper Cam’ron is 45. Rock singer Gavin DeGraw is 44. Rock singer Zoe Manville is 37. Actor/musician Bashy, aka Ashley Thomas, is 36. Olympic gold medal gymnast-turned-singer Carly Patterson is 33. Actor Kyla Kenedy (TV: “Speechless”) is 18.