June 4
is the 155th day of the year in the
Gregorian calendar (156th in
leap years), with 210 days remaining.
*
780 BC - The first historic
solar eclipse is recorded in
China.
*
1039 -
Henry III becomes
Holy Roman Emperor.
*
1615 - Forces under the
shogun Tokugawa Ieyasu take Osaka Castle in
Japan.
*
1760 -
Great Upheaval:
New England planters arrive to claim land in
Nova Scotia Canada taken from the
Acadians.
*
1769 - A
transit of Venus is followed five hours later by a total
solar eclipse, the shortest such interval in the historical past.
*
1783 - The
Montgolfier brothers publicly demonstrate their
montgolfière (
hot air balloon).
*
1792 -
Captain George Vancouver claims
Puget Sound for
Great Britain.
*
1794 -
British troops capture
Port-au-Prince in
Haiti.
*
1812 - Following
Louisiana's admittance as a
U.S. state, the
Louisiana Territory was renamed the
Missouri Territory.
*
1859 -
Italian Independence wars: in the
Battle of Magenta, the
French army, under
Louis-Napoleon, defeats an
Austrian army.
*
1862 -
American Civil War:
Confederate troops evacuate
Fort Pillow on the
Mississippi River, leaving the way clear for
Union troops to take
Memphis, Tennessee.
*
1876 - An express
train called the
Transcontinental Express arrives in
San Francisco, California, via the
First Transcontinental Railroad only 83 hours and 39 minutes after having left
New York City.
*
1878 -
Cyprus Convention: The
Ottoman Empire cedes
Cyprus to the
United Kingdom but retains nominal title.
*
1913 -
Emily Davison, a
suffragette, runs out in front of the king's horse,
Anmer, at the
Epsom Derby. She is trampled and dies a few days later, never having regained consciousness.
*
1917 - The very first
Pulitzer Prizes are awarded:
Laura E. Richards,
Maude H. Elliott, and
Florence Hall receive the first
Pulitzer for a
biography (for
Julia Ward Howe).
Jean Jules Jusserand receives the first
Pulitzer for
history for his work
With Americans of Past and Present Days. Herbert B. Swope receives the first
Pulitzer for
journalism for his work for the
New York World.*
1919 -
Women's rights: The
U.S. Congress approves the
19th Amendment to the United States Constitution, which guaranteed
suffrage to
women, and sends it to the
U.S. states for ratification.
*
1920 -
Hungary loses 71% of its territory and 63% of its population when the
Treaty of Trianon is signed in
Paris.
*
1928 -
Chinese warlord Zhang Zuolin assassinated by
Japanese agents.
*
1936 -
Léon Blum becomes
Prime Minister of
France.
*
1939 -
Holocaust: The
SS St. Louis, a ship carrying 963
Jewish refugees, is denied permission to land in
Florida,
United States, after already having been turned away from
Cuba. Forced to return to
Europe, most of its passengers later died in
Nazi concentration camps.
*
1940 -
World War II:
Dunkirk evacuation ends;
British forces complete evacuation of 300,000 troops from
Dunkirk in
France.
*
1942 -
World War II:
Reinhard Heydrich dies in
Prague due to the assassination of
Czechoslovak paratroopers (
Operation Anthropoid).
* 1942 -
World War II:
Battle of Midway begins.
Japanese
Admiral Chuichi Nagumo orders a strike on
Midway Island with much of the
Imperial Japanese navy.
*
1943 -
Military coup in
Argentina ousts
Ramón Castillo.
*
1944 -
World War II: A hunter-killer group of the
United States Navy capture the
German submarine U-505, marking the first time a
U.S. Navy vessel captured an enemy vessel at
sea since the
19th century.
* 1944 -
World War II:
Rome falls to the
Allies, the first
Axis powers capital to fall.
*
1967 -
Stockport Air Disaster:
British Midland flight
G-ALHG crashes in
Hopes Carr,
Stockport, killing 72 passengers and crew.
*
1970 -
Tonga gains independence from the
United Kingdom.
*
1973 -
Patent for the
ATM granted to
Don Wetzel,
Tom Barnes and
George Chastain.
*
1974 - The
Cleveland Indians attempt an ill-advised
ten cent beer promotion for a game against the
Texas Rangers at
Cleveland Municipal Stadium.
Cleveland forfeits 9-0 after alcohol-fueled mayhem and violence spreads from the stands onto the field.
*
1986 -
Jonathan Pollard pleads guilty to
espionage for selling top secret
United States military intelligence to
Israel.
*
1989 - The
Tiananmen Square protests are violently suppressed in
Beijing and are
covered live on television.
* 1989 -
Solidarity's victory in the first partly free parliamentary elections in post-war
Poland sparks off a succession of peaceful anti-
communist revolutions in
Eastern Europe and leads to creation of the so-called
Contract Sejm.
* 1989 -
Ufa train disaster: A
natural gas explosion near
Ufa,
Russia, kills 575 as two trains passing each other throw sparks near a leaky pipeline.
*
1991 - The
United Kingdom's
Conservative government announces that some
British regiments would disappear or be merged into others—the largest armed forces cuts in almost twenty years.
*
1998 -
Terry Nichols is sentenced to life in prison for his role in the
Oklahoma City bombing.
*
470 BC -
Socrates, Greek philosopher (d.
399 BC)
*
1489 -
Antoine, Duke of Lorraine (d.
1544)
*
1665 -
Zacharie Robutel de La Noue, Canadian soldier (d.
1733)
*
1694 -
François Quesnay, French economist (d.
1774)
*
1704 -
Benjamin Huntsman, English inventor and manufacturer (d.
1776)
*
1738 - King
George III of Great Britain (d.
1820)
*
1744 -
Patrick Ferguson, Scots army officer and rifle designer, killed in action (d.
1780)
*
1754 -
Franz Xaver, Baron Von Zach, Austrian scientific editor and astronomer (d.
1832)
*
1787 -
Constant Prévost, French geologist (d.
1856)
*
1801 - Sir
James Pennethorne, English architect (d.
1871)
*
1821 -
Apollon Maykov, Russian poet (d.
1897)
*
1866 -
Miina Sillanpää, Finnish politician, first female Finnish minister (d.
1952)
*
1867 -
C.G.E. Mannerheim,
President of Finland (d.
1951)
*
1877 -
Heinrich Wieland, German biochemist,
Nobel Prize laureate (d.
1957)
*
1880 -
Clara Blandick, American actress (d.
1962)
*
1881 -
Natalia Goncharova, Russian painter (d.
1962)
*
1894 -
La Bolduc, French Canadian singer (d.
1941)
*
1907 -
Rosalind Russell, American actress (d.
1976)
* 1907 -
Jacques Roumain, Haitian writer (d.
1944)
*
1910 -
Christopher Sydney Cockerell, British engineer and inventor (d.
1999)
*
1916 -
Robert F. Furchgott, American chemist, recipient of the
Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine* 1916 -
Fernand Leduc, French Canadian painter (The
Automatistes)
*
1919 -
Robert Merrill, American baritone (d.
2004)
*
1923 -
Daniel Pinkham, American composer, organist, and harpsichordist
*
1924 -
Dennis Weaver, American actor (d.
2006)
*
1926 -
Alfredo Di Stéfano, Argentine-Spanish footballer
*
1928 -
Ruth Westheimer, German-American sex therapist and author
*
1929 -
John Drew Barrymore, American actor (d.
2004)
*
1930 -
Morgana King, American actress
* 1930 -
Viktor Tikhonov, Russian ice hockey player and coach
*
1932 -
John Drew Barrymore, American actor (d.
2004)
* 1932 -
Maurice Shadbolt, New Zealand writer
*
1936 -
Bruce Dern, American actor
*
1937 -
Freddy Fender, American musician
* 1937 -
Robert Fulghum, American author
* 1937 -
Gorilla Monsoon, American professional wrestler (d.
1999)
* 1937 -
Mortimer Zuckerman, American publisher (
US News and World Report)
*
1938 -
Art Mahaffey, baseball player
*
1944 -
Michelle Phillips, American singer (
The Mamas & the Papas) and actress
*
1945 -
Gordon Waller, Scottish musician (
Peter and Gordon)
*
1947 -
Viktor Klima,
Chancellor of Austria*
1950 -
George Noory, American radio personality (
Coast to Coast AM)
*
1952 -
Parker Stevenson, American actor and director
*
1953 -
Susumu Ojima, Japanese entrepreneur (
Huser)
*
1956 -
Keith David, American actor
* 1956 -
John Hockenberry, American journalist
* 1956 -
Terry Kennedy, baseball player
*
1961 -
El DeBarge, American singer (
DeBarge)
* 1961 -
Andrea Jaeger, American tennis player
*
1962 -
Zenon Jaskuła, Polish cyclist
*
1965 -
Mick Doohan, Australian motorcycle racer
*
1966 -
Cecilia Bartoli, Italian mezzo-soprano
* 1966 -
Tiffany Million, American actress
* 1966 -
Vladimir Voevodsky, Russian mathematician
*
1969 -
Horatio Sanz, Chilean-born comedian
*
1970 -
Richie Hawtin, Canadian musician (aka
Plastikman)
*1970 -
David Pybus, British musician
*
1971 -
Noah Wyle, American actor
*
1972 -
Nikka Costa, American funk singer
* 1972 -
Derian Hatcher, American hockey player
* 1972 -
Rob Huebel, American comedian
*
1974 -
Andrew Gwynne, British politician
* 1974 -
Stefan Lessard, bassist in Dave Matthews Band
*
1975 -
Angelina Jolie, American actress
*
1977 -
Quinten Hann, Australian snooker player
*
1983 -
Emmanuel Eboue, Ivory Coast footballer
*
1985 -
Lukas Podolski, Polish-born German footballer
* 1985 -
Bar Refaeli, Israeli international supermodel
*
1986 -
Shane Kippel, Canadian actor
*
1039 -
Conrad II, Holy Roman Emperor*
1135 -
Emperor Huizong of China (b.
1082)
*
1206 -
Adèle of Champagne, wife of
Louis VII of France*
1257 - Duke
Przemysl I of Poland*
1394 -
Mary de Bohun, wife of
Henry IV of England*
1463 -
Flavio Biondo, Italian humanist (b.
1392)
*
1585 -
Muretus, French humanist (b.
1526)
*
1663 -
William Juxon,
Archbishop of Canterbury (b.
1582)
*
1798 -
Giacomo Casanova, Italian lover and writer (b.
1725)
*
1801 -
Frederick Muhlenberg, first
Speaker of the United States House of Representatives (b.
1750)
*
1830 -
Antonio José de Sucre,
South Américan independence hero and Great Marshall of
Ayacucho*
1872 -
Johan Rudolf Thorbecke, Dutch politician (d.
1798)
*
1875 -
Eduard Mörike, German poet (b.
1804)
*
1928 -
Chang Tso-lin, Chinese warlord (b.
1873)
*
1939 -
Tommy Ladnier, American musician (b.
1900)
*
1941 -
Kaiser Wilhelm II, last German emperor (b.
1859)
*
1942 -
Reinhard Heydrich, Nazi official (b.
1904)
*
1951 -
Serge Koussevitsky, Russian conductor (b.
1874)
*
1956 -
Katherine MacDonald, American actress and film producer (b.
1881)
*
1964 -
Samuil Marshak, Russian poet (b.
1887)
*
1968 -
Dorothy Gish, American actress (b.
1898)
*
1970 -
Sonny Tufts, American actor (b.
1911)
*
1971 -
Georg Lukács, Hungarian philosopher (b.
1885)
*
1973 -
Maurice René Fréchet, French mathematician (b.
1878)
* 1973 -
Murry Wilson, Record producer - Father of
Brian Wilson,
Dennis Wilson and
Carl Wilson (b.
1917)
*
1989 -
Dik Browne, American cartoonist (b.
1917 or
1918)
*
1994 -
Derek Leckenby, British guitarist (
Herman's Hermits) (b.
1943)
* 1994 -
Massimo Troisi, Italian actor (b.
1953)
*
1997 -
Ronnie Lane, British bass player with
Small Faces and
Faces (band) (b.
1946)
*
2001 - King
Dipendra of Nepal (b.
1971)
* 2001 -
John Hartford, American musician, composer (b.
1937)
*
2002 -
Fernando Belaúnde Terry,
President of Peru (b.
1912)
*
2004 -
Steve Lacy, American saxophonist (b.
1934)
* 2004 -
Nino Manfredi, Italian actor (b.
1921)
*
International Innocent Child Abuse Victim Day.
*
Tonga -
National Day.
*
Finland - National flag day of the
Finnish Defence Forces (on
Mannerheim's birthday).
*
Hong Kong -
Tiananmen Square Protest of 1989 memorial day.
Liturgical Feast days
*
Saint Francis Caracciolo (died 608)
*
Saint Petrock of Cornwall *
Saint Quirinus (died 308)
*
Saint Krista*
Saint Lucensia*
BBC: On This Day*
The New York Times: On This Day*
On this day in CanadaJune 3 -
June 5 -
May 4 -
July 4 –
listing of all days
