1. On January 4, 1493, Queen Isabella I of Spain approved Christopher Columbus's plan for a second voyage to the West Indies.
2. On January 4, 1785, American statesman Thomas Jefferson became the United States Minister to France.
3. On January 4, 1896, X - rays were first demonstrated at the Physical Society in Berlin, Germany.
4. On January 4, 1904, prior to the outbreak of the Russo - Japanese War, Japanese troops began landing on the Korean Peninsula.
5. On January 4, 1917, Cai Yuanpei took office as the president of Peking University.
6. On January 4, 1921, the Literary Research Association was founded in Beijing.
7. On January 4, 1932, the Indian National Congress was declared illegal by the British authorities.
8. On January 4, 1942, Japanese troops began landing on the Bataan Peninsula in the Philippines.
9. On January 4, 1948, Burma declared its independence from the British Commonwealth.
10. On January 4, 1952, the United States conducted a hydrogen bomb test in the Marshall Islands.
11. On January 4, 1960, the European Free Trade Association was founded.
12. On January 4, 1972, India and Pakistan signed the Simla Agreement.
13. On January 4, 1980, in the Iran hostage crisis, 50 American hostages had been held in Iran for 100 days.
14. On January 4, 1992, China established diplomatic relations with Ukraine.
15. On January 4, 1999, the Rainbow Bridge in綦江, Chongqing suddenly collapsed as a whole, killing 40 people.
16. On January 4, 2004, the American Mars rover Spirit successfully landed on the surface of Mars.
17. On January 4, 2011, large - scale popular protests broke out in Tunisia, marking the beginning of the Arab Spring movement.
18. On January 4, 2014, China's Antarctic Taishan Station was completed and opened.
19. On January 4, 2017, the world's first quantum - secure communication trunk line, the Beijing - Shanghai Trunk Line, was officially opened.
20. On January 4, 2020, the China National Space Administration first released a group photo of the Earth and the Moon taken by Tianwen - 1.