As of today, January 4, 2023

What happened like today in Greece and the world.

1493: Christopher Columbus boards the only ship he has left, the “Ninia” and takes the way back, after his first voyage and the discovery of the new world.

1642: England is headed for civil war. King Charles I sends soldiers to arrest members of Parliament.

1717: Holland, England and France sign the Triple Alliance against Spain.

1754: Founded as King’s College by the Church of England, Columbia University in New York.

1823: Greek Revolution: The famous battle of the same name takes place in Mavra Litharia of Corinth between Greeks under the chieftains Geraris, Zaimis and Petimezas and Turks with an army of 3,500 people under Deli Ahmet from the great army of Dramalis. Only 600 Turks will be saved, fleeing to Patras.

1847: Samuel Colt sells his first revolver to the US government.

1863: James Plimpton from New York patents roller skates with 4 wheels in the USA.

1884: The Fabian Society is founded in London. It is a British movement of intellectuals with socialist overtones, which paved the way for the creation of the Labor Party.

1885: An organ of order slaps the British charge d’affaires in Athens, Arthur Nicholson, causing a diplomatic incident.

1887: Elections in Greece. Charilaos Trikoupis is solemnly declared the winner. The “Modernist Party” gathers 90 of the 150 seats and will govern uninterruptedly for three years.

1887: Panagis Vallianos offers the sum of 2,500,000 drachmas for the construction of the National Library.

1896: Utah becomes the 45th US state.

1912: The Earth is coming closer than ever to the Moon, at 356,375 kilometers.

1914: The “Mona Lisa” returns to the Louvre Museum, from where it was stolen in 1911.

1924: Eleftherios Venizelos returns to Athens, after 38 months of self-exile.

1926: General Theodoros Pangalos announces that he is personally assuming the exercise of legislative and executive power, thereby openly imposing a dictatorial regime.

1930: The Agricultural Bank of Greece begins its operation, with the lawyer and politician Konstantinos Godikas as its first director. In July 2012, its healthy part will be absorbed by Piraeus Bank.

1936: The American music magazine Billboard publishes the first charts.

1943: During the occupation, because of his resistance action against the Germans, Georgios Ivanov, swimmer and pole vaulter of Iraklis Thessaloniki, is executed. In his honor, the team of Herakles gives his name to the indoor basketball court.

1948: The critical battle of Konitsa ends with the withdrawal of the Democratic Army, after its failed attempt to capture the city, which would have ensured the “Provisional Democratic Government” its official seat. On the same day the former British colony of Weimar declares its independence, after 62 years of occupation.

1951: A decree is signed for the establishment of a Public Electricity Company.

1953: For the first time, the post offices of the Greek state show a surplus of 7 billion drachmas.

1956: Konstantinos Karamanlis founds a new political organization called the National Radical Union (ERU).

1960: The countries of central and northern Europe that do not belong to the socialist camp, nor to the EEC, establish the European Free Trade Association EFTA.

1960: The French writer, Albert Camus, is killed in a traffic accident. “To football I owe everything I know about morality and duty,” he wrote in 1957, the year he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature. In his youth in Algiers he was actively involved in football (he played goalkeeper), which he had to give up when he fell ill with tuberculosis.

1967: The Doors release their self-titled debut album. Contains the hits: ‘Break On Through (To the Other Side)’, ‘Alabama Song’, ‘Light My Fire’ and ‘The End’.

1970: The Beatles, without John Lennon, re-record vocals and a guitar solo for Paul McCartney’s song Let It Be at EMI Studios in London. It is their last show as a band.

1982: The Prime Minister, Andreas Papandreou, fires the Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs, Asimakis Fotila, while he is in Brussels.

1998: A passenger dies of an asthma attack on Olympic Air Flight 417 to New York because the airline does not have non-smoking seats. His family earns 1.4 dollars in court.

1998: Over 172 people are killed in three remote villages, from massacres taking place in Algeria.

2004: 37-year-old Mikheil Saakashvili wins Georgia’s presidential election with 96% of the vote and becomes the youngest leader in Europe.

2006: Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid al Maktoum takes over as ruler of Dubai following the death of his older brother.

2006: Ehud Olmert becomes prime minister of Israel.

2010: The tallest skyscraper in the world, Burj Khalifa, also known as Burj Dubai, is inaugurated in Dubai, with a height of 828 meters.

2014: Islamic armed jihadist units aligned with the Islamic State occupy the Iraqi city of Fallujah.

Births

1334 – Amadeus VI, Count of Savoy

1643 – Isaac Newton, English physicist and mathematician

1710 – Giovanni Battista Pergolesi, Italian composer and musician

1737 – Louis-Bernard Guiton de Morvaux, French chemist and politician

1785 – Jacob Grimm, German philologist and folklorist

1788 – Athanasios Diakos, Greek general

1809 – Louis Braille, French professor, inventor of the Braille code

1848 – Katsura Taro, Prime Minister of Japan

1896 – André Masson, French painter and draftsman

1901 – Cyril Lionel Robert James, Trinidadian writer

1913 – Malietoa Tanumafili II, King of Samoa

1914 – Jean-Pierre Vernan, French historian and anthropologist

1921 – Giuseppe Benati, Italian director

1930 – Sorrell Book, American actor

1933 – Patriarch of Georgia Ilias II

1940 – Brian Josephson, Welsh physicist

1941 – George Kosmatos, Greek director

1946 – Ramsey Campbell, English writer

1948 – Kostas Davourlis, Greek football player

1953 – Andreas Vgenopoulos, Greek businessman

1957 – Soti Triantafillou, Greek writer

1966 – Christian Kern, Austrian politician

1980 – Bobbi Eden, Dutch pornographic actress

1986 – James Milner, English footballer

1988 – Anestis Argyriou, Greek football player

1990 – Toni Kroos, German soccer player

Deaths

1207 – Simon II, Duke of Lorraine

1248 – Sancho II, King of Portugal

1286 – Anna Angelina of Epirus, princess of Achaia

1424 – Giacomo Attentolo Sforza, Italian contotiero

1428 – Frederick I, Elector of Saxony

1665 – Hermann Fortunatos, Margrave of Baden-Rodemachern

1808 – Benedict of Savoy, Italian general

1825 – Ferdinand I, King of the Two Sicilies

1880 – Anselm Feuerbach, German painter

1901 – Nikolaos Gyzis, Greek painter

1941 – Henri Bergson, French philosopher

1943 – George Ivanov, Polish athlete

1960 – Albert Camus, French philosopher

1961 – Erwin Schrödinger, Austrian physicist

1962 – Hans Lammers, German SS officer

1965 – Thomas Stearns Eliot, American poet

1967 – Donald Campbell, English driver

1975 – Augustus Theologite, Greek politician

1976 – Epaminondas Thomopoulos, Greek painter

1977 – Ibrahim Bitsaktsiou, Albanian politician

1986 – Phil Lynott, Irish musician

1989 – Thanasis Mylonas, Greek actor

1997 – Jason Chatzikraniotis, Greek politician

2000 – Spyridon Markezinis, Greek politician

2006 – Maktoum bin Rashid al Maktoum, President of the United Arab Emirates

2007 – Marais Willioen, South African politician

2007 – Sandro Salvadore, Italian soccer player

2008 – Yannis Tamtakos, Greek political activist

2010 – Johan Ferrier, politician from Suriname

2011 – Mohamed Bouazizi, Tunisian activist

2013 – Nikos Samaras, Greek volleyball player

2021 – Tanya Roberts, American actress.