Reuters historical calendar - February 4

London, Feb 3 (Reuters) Following are some of the major events to have occurred on February 4 in history: 1904 - The Russo-Japanese war began when Japan laid siege to Port Arthur.

1945 - British Prime Minister Winston Churchill, US President Franklin Roosevelt and Soviet leader Joseph Stalin met at Yalta in the Crimea to discuss plans for the defeat of the Axis powers and decide on the post-war world.

1971 - British carmaker Rolls-Royce declared itself bankrupt.

1972 - Zambian President Kenneth Kaunda banned the opposition United Progressive Party and arrested its leader, Simon Kapwepwe, and more than 120 supporters.

1974 - Patricia Hearst, granddaughter of US newspaper magnate William Randolph Hearst, was kidnapped by the Symbionese Liberation Army.

1976 - An earthquake measuring 7.5 on the Richter scale and resulting mudslides killed 23,000 people near Guatemala City; 1.5 million people were made homeless.

2000 - Austria's new coalition of conservatives and Joerg Haider's far-right Freedom Party took office, amid violent protests at home and uproar abroad.

2003 - The Yugoslav parliament endorsed the creation of a loose union of Serbia and Montenegro.

2004 - Pakistan's top nuclear scientist Abdul Qadeer Khan accepted full responsibility for leaking weapons secrets and equipment to Iran, Libya and North Korea. The government pardoned him a day later.

2006 - US feminist pioneer Betty Friedan, who co-founded the National Organization for Women, died aged 85.

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