Today in History - February 4 | Social media giant began with one simple - and dubious - question
On February 4, 2004, a Harvard University undergrad named Mark Zuckerberg, shown right, introduced TheFacebook.com, a social networking site for his fellow students.
The site - which is today worth billions of dollars - had its origins in a website called Facemash, created by Zuckerberg in his dorm room, after hacking the Harvard student database.
The budding tech mogul populated the site with pictures to make a "hot or not" game, in which users compared photos of students. That game was eventually shut down.
Zuckerberg and Facebook co-founders Dustin Moskovitz, Chris Hughes and Eduardo Saverin soon made their creation available to other US universities and then high schools before it became available for the wider public.
Twenty-one years on, Facebook has more than 3 billion active daily users and continues to take centre stage in many of the world's cultural and political debates.
It's also made Zuckerberg one of the richest men in the world, with an estimated fortune of $US240 billion ($390 billion).
On February 4, 1974, American media heiress Patty Hearst was kidnapped from her apartment in California by the radical Symbionese Liberation Army (SLA) organisation.
Neighbours reported seeing Hearst, 19, struggling as she was carried away, blindfolded by her armed abductors who began firing their guns wildly.
Events that night began one of the most bizarre kidnappings in history.
Patty stunned the US public when she was photographed holding a machine gun as the group robbed a bank in San Francisco.
In September, 1975, Hearst was finally captured and arrested for armed robbery.
While her rescue was a relief for her family, even though she defended herself by saying she'd been brainwashed by the SLA, she was sentenced to seven years behind bars for her role in the bank robbery.
Leaders of the main Allied nations during World War II gathered at the Crimean resort of Yalta on February 4, 1945, to discuss the future of Europe after the impending defeat of Nazi Germany.
Seated, from left, were British Prime Minister Winston Churchill, US President Franklin Roosevelt and Soviet leader Josef Stalin.
The hefty ransom of 46,000 kilograms of silver was paid by the English crown for the release of KIng Richard I of England, known as the Lionheart, on February 4, 1194.
The war-loving monarch had been captured by forces loyal to the Holy Roman Emperor while travelling back from the Holy Land.
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