Template:Selected anniversaries/January 4

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  1903: Topsy, an elephant, is electrocuted by the owners of Luna Park, Coney Island. The event is documented in the film Electrocuting an Elephant.

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  1932: Mathematician and academic Shoshichi Kobayashi born. He will work on Riemannian and complex manifolds, transformation groups of geometric structures, and Lie algebras.

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  2002: Capacitor plague affects several brands of portable envy devices.

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  2003: Portable envy components at risk of capacitor plague.

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  2003: George Plimpton published first in prize-winning series of articles on capacitor plague.