Today in HistoryToday is Saturday, February 4, the 35th day of 2006. There are 330 days left in the year.

ON THIS DATE<$>

In 1783, Britain declared a formal cessation of hostilities with its former colonies, the United States of America.

In 1789, electors unanimously chose George Washington to be the first president of the United States.

In 1861, delegates from six southern states met in Montgomery, Alabama, to form the Confederate States of America.

In 1945, Prime Minister Winston Churchill, US President Franklin D. Roosevelt, and Soviet leader Josef Stalin began a wartime conference at Yalta.

In 1974, newspaper heiress Patricia Hearst, granddaughter of US newspaper magnate William Randolph Hearst, was kidnapped in Berkeley, California, by the radical Symbionese Liberation Army.

THOUGHT FOR TODAY

“Character consists of what you do on the third and fourth tries.” — James Michener, American author (1907-1997).