Following are some of the major events to have occurred on January 4:
1908 – Mulai Hafid was proclaimed Sultan of Morocco at Fez.
1948 – The British colony of Burma was proclaimed an independent republic with U Thakin Nu as prime minister.
1964 – Pope Paul VI began a visit to the Holy Land, which included the first visit by a pope to Jerusalem.
1978 – Said Hammami, the Palestine Liberation Organisation’s representative in Britain, was assassinated in London.
1985 – Coptic Pope Shenouda III returns to Cairo after 40-month banishment to desert monastery.
1995 – Newt Gingrich was elected speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, the first Republican in the post in 40 years.
2004 – Rival Afghan factions attending the Loya Jirga national assembly agreed on a constitution, paving the way for free elections after nearly a quarter of a century of war.
2007 – World’s first bullet train outside Japan launched in Taiwan.
2007 – Nancy Pelosi, a liberal California Democrat, was sworn in as the first woman speaker of the U.S.
2010 – Grand opening of Burj Khalifa in Dubai.
2017 – London’s Natural History Museum bids farewell to Dippy the Dinosaur.
(Reuters)
