Republican Party takes control of Congress for first time in 40 years

On January 4, 1809, Louis Braille is born in Coupvray, France. He would go on to develop the writing system for visually impaired readers that bears his name: braille. Braille lost his sight in an accident at age three. As a student at the National Institute for Blind Children in Paris, Braille discovered a system […]

Angered over a card game dispute, 16-year-old John Wesley Hardin shoots Benjamin Bradley dead in the street, likely on January 4, 1870. Although less famous than Billy the Kid, Jesse James, or Wyatt Earp, John Wesley Hardin is believed to hold the gunslinger’s record for killing the most men in the shortest period. From the […]

German Field Marshal Alfred von Schlieffen, mastermind of an aggressive German military strategy that will soon be used, in modified form, at the start of the Great War, dies on this day in 1913 in Berlin. The son of a Prussian general, Schlieffen entered the army in 1854 and participated in both the Seven Weeks’ […]

Elected in 1964, Patsy T. Mink is sworn in on January 4, 1965, as the first Asian American woman and first woman of color to serve in the U.S. Congress. Throughout her career, the U.S. representative for Hawaii was a strong supporter of civil and women’s rights, as well as an advocate for children, labor […]

Two trains collide in Sangi, Pakistan, on January 4, 1990, killing between 200 and 300 people and injuring an estimated 700 others. This was the worst rail accident to date in Pakistan. The train Zakaria Bahauddin (named after a holy man according to Pakistani tradition) had a capacity of 1,400 passengers and often traveled the […]

The Democratic representative held the gavel for eight years.