This Day In European History

4th January

Events
871: Battle of Reading; King Aethelred I of Wessex fails to repel an invading Danish army.
1642: King Charles I of Britain breaks protocol and enters the House of Commons with soldiers to try and arrest five MPs.
1825: King Francis I of the Two Sicilies inherits the throne.
1999: The single European currency begins; called the 'euro' it is the first since the era of Charlemagne over a millennia before.

Births
1581: James Ussher, Irish Bishop who calculated that the Earth was created in 4004 BC.
1710: Giovanni Battista Pergolesi, Italian composer and musician.
1785: Jacob Grimm, German author and philologist.
1809 Louis Braille, French inventor of Braille.
1852 Joseph Joffre, Catalan-French WW1 general.

Deaths
1399: Nicolas Eymeric, Spanish Inquisitor and author of the 'Directorium Inquisitorum'.
1695: Francois-Henri de Montmorency-Bouteville, French Marshall.
1786 Moses Mendelssohn, German philosopher.
1965: T. S. Eliot, British poet and writer of 'The Waste Land'.

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