The death report! (link)

Natural disasters in 1989

Hurricane Hugo

Loma Prieta earthquake

1989 Newcastle earthquake

People who died on January 04 (various years)

2007 – Osman Waqialla, Sudanese artist and calligrapher

2007 – Marais Viljoen, former State President of South Africa

2007 – Jan Schröder, Dutch cyclist

2007 – Sandro Salvadore, Italian footballer

2007 – Gáspár Nagy, Hungarian poet and writer

2007 – Steve Krantz, American film and TV producer (Fritz the Cat)

2007 – Grenfell (Gren) Jones, Welsh newspaper cartoonist

2007 – Sir Lewis Hodges, British Air Chief Marshal

2007 – Helen Hill, American independent film-maker

2007 – Ben Gannon, Australian theatre film and television producer

2006 – Maktoum bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Prime Minister of the United Arab Emirates and Ruler of Dubai

2006 – Irving Layton, Canadian poet

2005 – Alton Tobey, American artist

2005 – Bud Poile, Canadian ice hockey player

2005 – Robert Heilbroner, American economist

2005 – Frank Harary, American mathematician

2005 – Ali al-Haidri, Iraqi governor of Baghdad (assassinated)

2005 – Guy Davenport, American author, artist, and scholar

2005 – Humphrey Carpenter, English author

2004 – John Toland, American historian

2004 – Jeff Nuttall, English writer

2004 – Jake Hess, American singer

2004 – Brian Gibson, English film director

2004 – Joan Aiken, English author

2003 – Sabine Ulibarri, Mexican American writer

2003 – Yfrah Neaman, Lebanese-born violinist

2003 – Conrad Hall, American cinematographer

1999 – Iron Eyes Cody, American actor

1998 – Mae Questel, American actress

1997 – Harry Helmsley, American real estate mogul

1995 – Sol Tax, American anthropologist

1995 – Eduardo Mata, Mexican conductor and composer

1994 – RD Burman, Indian musician

1990 – Doc Edgerton, American electrical engineer

1986 – Phil Lynott, Irish musician (Thin Lizzy)

1986 – Christopher Isherwood, English writer

1985 – Brian Horrocks, British general

1981 – Ruth Lowe, Canadian pianist and composer (I’ll Never Smile Again)

1971 – Arthur Ford, American clairaudient

1970 – Jean-Étienne Valluy, French general

1967 – Donald Campbell, British motorboat racer

1965 – T. S. Eliot, American-born writer, Nobel laureate

1962 – Hans Lammers, German SS officer

1961 – Erwin Schrödinger, Austrian physicist, Nobel laureate

1960 – Albert Camus, Algerian-born French philosopher and writer, Nobel laureate

1941 – Henri Bergson, French philosopher, Nobel laureate

1931 – Art Acord, American actor

1920 – Benito Pérez Galdós, Spanish novelist

1919 – Georg von Hertling, Chancellor of Germany

1903 – Gulstan Ropert, Roman Catholic prelate

1896 – Joseph Hubert Reinkens, German Old Catholic bishop

1891 – Antoine Labelle, Quebec catholic priest

1883 – Antoine Eugène Alfred Chanzy, French general

1877 – Cornelius Vanderbilt, American entrepreneur

1825 – King Ferdinand I of the Two Sicilies

1821 – Elizabeth Ann Seton, American saint

1804 – Charlotte Lennox, English author and poet (bc. 1730)

1782 – Ange-Jacques Gabriel, French architect

1773 – Anton Losenko, Russian painter

1761 – Stephen Hales, English physiologist

1752 – Gabriel Cramer, Swiss mathematician

1695 – François Henri de Montmorency-Bouteville, duc de Luxembourg, French general

1584 – Tobias Stimmer, Swiss painter and drawer

1564 – Hosokawa Ujitsuna, Japanese military commander

1248 – King Sancho II of Portugal

1066 – Edward the Confessor, pre-Norman conquest English king (b. ca. 1004) (disputed)