4 February: Rebels Secede; Patty Hearst Kidnapped; Liberace, Lux Interior Die

Today is Thursday, Feb. 4, the 35th day of 2010. There are 330 days left in the year. The UPI Almanac.Today's Highlight in History:
On Feb. 4, 1783, Britain's King George III proclaimed a formal cessation of hostilities in the American Revolutionary War.
On this date:
In 1789, electors chose George Washington to be the first president of the United States.
In 1792, George Washington is unanimously elected to a second term as president of the United States in a vote of the Electoral College.
In 1801, John Marshall was sworn in as chief justice of the United States.
In 1861, delegates from six Southern states met in Montgomery, Ala., to form the Confederate States of America. Also in 1861, the 25-year period of conflict known as the Apache War began at Apache Pass, Ariz., with the arrest of Apache Chief Cochise for raiding a ranch. Cochise escaped his U.S. Army captors and declared war.
In 1913, Civil rights pioneer Rosa Parks was born Rosa Louise McCauley in Tuskegee, Ala.
In 1932, New York Gov. Franklin D. Roosevelt opened the Winter Olympic Games at Lake Placid.
In 1938, Adolf Hitler seized control of the German army and put Nazi officers in key posts as part of a plan that led to World War II.
In 1941, the United Service Organizations (USO) came into existence.
In 1945, President Franklin D. Roosevelt, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill and Soviet leader Josef Stalin began a wartime conference at Yalta.
In 1948, the island nation of Ceylon — now Sri Lanka — became an independent dominion within the British Commonwealth.
In 1974, newspaper heiress Patricia Hearst was kidnapped in Berkeley, Calif., by the Symbionese Liberation Army.

In 1976, more than 23,000 people died when a severe earthquake struck Guatemala with a magnitude of 7.5, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.
In 1997, a civil jury found O.J. Simpson liable for the deaths of his ex-wife, Nicole Brown Simpson, and her friend Ronald Goldman.
In 1999, Amadou Diallo, an unarmed West African immigrant, was shot and killed in front of his Bronx home by four plainclothes New York City police officers who said they mistook his wallet for a gun. The police fired 41 shots at Diallo. (The officers were acquitted at trial.)
In 2000, Austrian President Thomas Klestil swore in a coalition government that included Joerg Haider's (yohrg HY'-durz) far-right Freedom Party, a development which triggered European Union sanctions. Former House Speaker Carl Albert died in McAlester, Okla. at age 91.
In 2003, Yugoslavia was dissolved and replaced with a loose union of its remaining two republics, Serbia and Montenegro.
In 2004, the Massachusetts high court declared that gays were entitled to marry. Facebook was launched as a social networking Web site limited to Harvard University students.
In 2005, gunmen kidnapped Italian journalist Giuliana Sgrena in Baghdad. (Sgrena was freed a month later; however, an Italian agent who'd secured her release was killed by U.S. gunfire at a checkpoint.)
In 2006, widespread Muslim protests of published caricatures depicting Muhammad in a negative light turned violent. Angry demonstrators smashed windows, set fires and burned flags and Syrian mobs burned Danish and Norwegian embassies. Also in 2006, nearly 100 people were killed and more than 250 injured in a stampede at a Philippine stadium where thousands were on hand for a popular game show.
In 2007, severe flooding in Jakarta killed at least 20 people and drove 340,000 Indonesians from their homes.
In 2008, U.S. President George W. Bush introduced a $3.1 trillion budget for fiscal 2009, including proposed increases in military spending but cutbacks in most domestic programs.
In 2009, President Barack Obama imposed a $500,000 cap on executive pay for companies receiving federal bailout money; the president also signed a bill extending health coverage to 4 million uninsured children.
Today's Birthdays: Actor William Phipps is 88. Actor Conrad Bain is 87. Former Argentinian President Isabel Peron is 79. Actor Gary Conway is 74. Movie director George A. Romero is 70. Rock musician John Steel (The Animals) is 69. Singer Florence LaRue (The Fifth Dimension) is 66. Former Vice President Dan Quayle is 63. Rock singer Alice Cooper is 62. Actor Michael Beck is 61. Actress Lisa Eichhorn is 58. Football Hall-of-Famer Lawrence Taylor is 51. Rock singer Tim Booth is 50. Rock musician Henry Bogdan is 49. Country singer Clint Black is 48. Rock musician Noodles (The Offspring) is 47. Country musician Dave Buchanan (Yankee Grey) is 44. Actress Gabrielle Anwar is 40. Actor Rob Corddry is 39. Singer David (dah-VEED') Garza is 39. Actor Michael Goorjian is 39. Boxer Oscar De La Hoya is 37. Rock musician Rick Burch (Jimmy Eat World) is 35. Singer Natalie Imbruglia (em-BROO'-lee-ah) is 35. Rapper Cam'ron is 34. Rock singer Gavin DeGraw is 33. Olympic gold medal gymnast-turned-singer Carly Patterson is 22.
Those Born On This Date Include: Polish-born American patriot Tadeusz Kosciuszko (1746); French cubist painter Fernand Leger (1881); aviator Charles Lindbergh (1902); legendary golfer Byron Nelson (1912); actress Ida Lupino (1918); & author Betty Friedan (1921).
Today In Entertainment History
In 1938, "Our Town," Thornton Wilder's play about small-town life in America, opened on Broadway.
In 1961, singer Johnny Burnette underwent an emergency appendectomy in Los Angeles and was forced to cancel a British tour. He's known for the hit "You're Sixteen," which was on the Top 40 charts at the time.
In 1969, Columbia Records signed Johnny Winter to a five-year, $300,000 contract, which was unprecedented for a new artist.
In 1971, The Osmonds received their first gold record, for "One Bad Apple."
In 1977, The album "Rumours" by Fleetwood Mac was released.
In 1983, singer Karen Carpenter died of cardiac arrest in Downey, Calif., at age 32. She had suffered from the eating disorder anorexia nervosa.
In 1987, Liberace died at his home in Palm Springs, Calif., of AIDS-related complications. He was 67.
Liberace's publicist Denise Collier
In 1993, entertainer Ben Vereen was discharged from a rehabiliation center in New Jersey. He had been getting therapy for seven months after he was hit by a truck near his home in Malibu, California.
In 2000, singer Doris Kenner-Jackson of the Shirelles died in Goldsboro, N.C. at age 58.
In 2005, actor and civil rights activist Ossie Davis died in Miami Beach, Fla. at age 87.
In 2009, Lux Interior, co-founder and lead singer of the horror-punk band the Cramps, died in Glendale, Calif. at age 62.
Thought for Today: "Character consists of what you do on the third and fourth tries." — James Michener, American author (1907-1997).