February 4th – Facebook’s Birthday

THUNDER BAY – Facebook was created on this day in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg. Facebook is a social media giant that has grown to massive scope in today’s world.

When Facebook was launched on February 4, 2004 Mark Zuckerberg and his college roommates and fellow Harvard University students Eduardo Saverin, Andrew McCollum,Dustin Moskovitz and Chris Hughes.

The reach of social media today is far greater than anyone might have first thought. Today hundreds of millions of people are on Facebook. In Thunder Bay, Facebook records that there are 70,ooo accounts in the city.

Many people connect with their friends, past associates, and keep up on the latest news and information.

Significant Events on February 4 From Wikipedia

• 211 – Roman Emperor Septimius Severus dies at Eboracum (modern York, England) while preparing to lead a campaign against the Caledonians. He leaves the empire in the control of his two quarrelling sons.
• 634 – Battle of Dathin: Rashidun forces under Yazid ibn Abi Sufyan defeat the Christian Arabs around Gaza (Palestine).
• 960 – The coronation of Zhao Kuangyin as Emperor Taizu of Song, initiating the Song Dynasty period of China that would last more than three centuries.
• 1169 – A strong earthquake struck the Ionian coast of Sicily, causing tens of thousands of injuries and deaths, especially in Catania.
• 1454 – In the Thirteen Years’ War, the Secret Council of the Prussian Confederation sends a formal act of disobedience to the Grand Master.
• 1703 – In Edo (now Tokyo), 46 of the Forty-seven Ronin commit seppuku (ritual suicide) as recompense for avenging their master’s death.
• 1758 – Macapá, Brazil is founded.
• 1789 – George Washington is unanimously elected as the first President of the United States by the U.S. Electoral College.
• 1794 – The French legislature abolishes slavery throughout all territories of the French Republic. It will be reestablished in the French West Indies in 1802.
• 1797 – The Riobamba earthquake strikes Ecuador, causing up to 40,000 casualties.
• 1801 – John Marshall is sworn in as Chief Justice of the United States.
• 1810 – The Royal Navy seizes Guadeloupe.
• 1820 – The Chilean Navy under the command of Lord Cochrane completes the 2-day long Capture of Valdivia with just 300 men and 2 ships.
• 1825 – The Ohio Legislature authorizes the construction of the Ohio and Erie Canal and the Miami and Erie Canal.
• 1846 – The first Mormon pioneers make their exodus from Nauvoo, Illinois, westward towards Salt Lake Valley.
• 1859 – The Codex Sinaiticus is discovered in Egypt.
• 1861 – American Civil War: In Montgomery, Alabama, delegates from six break-away U.S. states meet and form the Confederate States of America.
• 1899 – The Philippine–American War begins with the Battle of Manila.
• 1932 – Second Sino-Japanese War: Harbin, Manchuria, falls to Japan.
• 1936 – Radium becomes the first radioactive element to be made synthetically.
• 1941 – The United Service Organization (USO) is created to entertain American troops.
• 1945 – World War II: Santo Tomas Internment Camp is liberated from Japanese authority.
• 1945 – World War II: The Yalta Conference between the “Big Three” (Churchill, Roosevelt, and Stalin) opens at the Livadia Palace in the Crimea.
• 1945 – World War II: The British Indian Army and Imperial Japanese Army begin a series of battles known as the Battle of Pokoku and Irrawaddy River operations.
• 1948 – Ceylon (later renamed Sri Lanka) becomes independent within the British Commonwealth.
• 1966 – All Nippon Airways Flight 60 plunges into Tokyo Bay, killing 133.
• 1967 – Lunar Orbiter program: Lunar Orbiter 3 lifts off from Cape Canaveral’s Launch Complex 13 on its mission to identify possible landing sites for the Surveyor and Apollo spacecraft.
• 1969 – Yasser Arafat takes over as chairman of the Palestine Liberation Organization.
• 1974 – The Symbionese Liberation Army kidnaps Patty Hearst in Berkeley, California.
• 1974 – M62 coach bombing: The Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) explodes a bomb on a bus carrying off-duty British Armed Forces personnel in Yorkshire, England. Nine soldiers and three civilians are killed.
• 1975 – Haicheng earthquake (magnitude 7.3 on the Richter scale) occurs in Haicheng, Liaoning, China.
• 1976 – In Guatemala and Honduras an earthquake kills more than 22,000.
• 1977 – A Chicago Transit Authority elevated train rear-ends another and derails, killing 11 and injuring 180, the worst accident in the agency’s history.
• 1980 – Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini names Abolhassan Banisadr as president of Iran.
• 1992 – A coup d’état is led by Hugo Chávez against Venezuelan President Carlos Andrés Pérez.
• 1996 – Major snowstorm paralyzes Midwestern United States, Milwaukee, Wisconsin and ties all-time record low temperature at −26 °F (−32.2 °C)
• 1997 – En route to Lebanon, two Israeli Sikorsky CH-53 troop-transport helicopters collide in mid-air over northern Galilee, Israel killing 73.
• 1997 – After at first contesting the results, Serbian President Slobodan Milošević recognizes opposition victories in the November 1996 elections.
• 1998 – An earthquake measuring 6.1 on the Richter Scale in northeast Afghanistan kills more than 5,000.
• 1999 – Unarmed West African immigrant Amadou Diallo is shot dead by four plainclothes New York City police officers on an unrelated stake-out, inflaming race-relations in the city.
• 2003 – The Bengali Hindus declares the independence of the Republic of Bangabhumi from Bangladesh.
• 2003 – The Federal Republic of Yugoslavia is officially renamed Serbia and Montenegro and adopts a new constitution.
• 2004 – Facebook, a mainstream online social networking site, is founded by Mark Zuckerberg.
• 2006 – A stampede occurs in the ULTRA Stadium near Manila killing 71.