May 4
is the 124th day of the year in the
Gregorian calendar (125th in
leap years). There are 241 days remaining.
*
1256 -
Augustinian monastic order constituted at
Lecceto Monastery when
Pope Alexander IV issues a
papal bull Licet ecclesiae catholicae*
1415 - Religious reformers
John Wycliffe and
Jan Hus were condemned as
heretics at the
Council of Constance.
*
1471 -
Wars of the Roses: The
Battle of Tewkesbury –
Edward IV defeats a
Lancastrian Army and kills
Edward,
Prince of Wales.
*
1493 -
Pope Alexander VI divides the
New World between
Spain and
Portugal along the
Demarcation Line.
*
1494 -
Christopher Columbus lands in
Jamaica.
*
1626 -
Dutch explorer Peter Minuit arrives in
New Netherland (present day
Manhattan Island) aboard the
See Meeuw.
*
1675 - King
Charles II of England orders the construction of the
Royal Greenwich Observatory.
*
1776 -
Rhode Island becomes the first
American colony to renounce allegiance to King
George III.
*
1799 -
Fourth Anglo-Mysore War: The
Battle of Seringapatam – The siege of
Seringapatam ends when the city is assaulted and the
Tipu Sultan killed by the besieging British army, under the command of
General George Harris.
*
1814 -
Emperor Napoleon I of France arrives at
Portoferraio on the island of
Elba to begin his exile.
*
1855 -
American adventurer William Walker departs from
San Francisco with about 60 men to conquer
Nicaragua.
*
1859 -
Cornwall Railway opened across the
Royal Albert Bridge linking the counties of
Devon and
Cornwall in
England.
*
1863 -
American Civil War:
Battle of Chancellorsville – The
battle ends with a
Union retreat.
*
1865 -
Abraham Lincoln buried in
Springfield, Illinois, three weeks after his
assassination.
*
1869 - The
Naval Battle of Hakodate takes place in
Japan.
*
1871 - The
National Association, the first professional baseball league, begins its first season.
*
1886 -
Haymarket Square Riot: A bomb is thrown at policemen trying to break up a
labor rally in
Chicago, Illinois,
United States, killing eight and wounding 60. The
police fire into the crowd.
*
1904 - Construction begins by the
United States on the
Panama Canal.
*
1910 - The
Royal Canadian Navy is created.
*
1912 -
Italy occupies the island of
Rhodes.
*
1919 -
May Fourth Movement: Student demonstrations take place in
Tiananmen Square in
Beijing,
China, protesting the
Treaty of Versailles, which transferred
Chinese territory to
Japan.
*
1924 - The
1924 Summer Olympics open in
Paris,
France.
*
1930 -
British police arrest
Mahatma Gandhi and place him in
Yeravda Central Prison.
*
1932 - In
Atlanta, Georgia,
mobster Al Capone begins serving an eleven-year prison sentence for
tax evasion.
*
1942 -
World War II:
Battle of the Coral Sea – The
battle begins with the launch of attack aircraft from
American and
Japanese
aircraft carriers.
*
1945 -
World War II: Liberation of the
Neuengamme concentration camp near
Hamburg by the
British Army.
* 1945 -
World War II: Surrender of the
North Germany Army to
Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery.
*
1946 - In
San Francisco Bay,
US Marines from the
Treasure Island Marine Barracks stop a two-day
riot at
Alcatraz federal prison. Five people are killed in the riot.
*
1948 -
Norman Mailer's first novel,
The Naked and the Dead, is published.
*
1949 - The entire
Torino football (soccer) team (except for one player who did not take the trip due to an injury) is killed in
a plane crash at the
Superga hill at the edge of
Turin,
Italy.
*
1953 -
Ernest Hemingway is awarded the
Pulitzer Prize for
The Old Man and the Sea.
*
1961 -
American civil rights movement: The "
Freedom Riders" begin a bus trip through the
South.
*
1964 - The long running soap opera
Another World debuts on
NBC which would ran until
1999.
*
1970 -
Vietnam War:
Kent State shootings – The
Ohio National Guard, sent to
Kent State University after the
ROTC building was burnt down, opens fire on students protesting at the
United States' invasion of
Cambodia. Four students are killed, nine are wounded.
*
1972 - The
Don't Make A Wave Committee, a fledgling
environmental organization founded in
Canada in
1971, officially changed its name to "
Greenpeace Foundation".
*
1974 - An all-female
Japanese team reaches the summit of
Manaslu, becoming the first women to climb an 8,000-meter peak.
*
1979 -
Margaret Thatcher becomes the first woman
Prime Minister of the United Kingdom.
*
1980 -
President Josip Broz Tito of
Yugoslavia dies in
Ljubljana at the age of 87.
*
1989 -
Iran-Contra Affair: Former
White House aide
Oliver North is convicted of three crimes and was acquitted of nine other charges. The convictions, however, are later overturned on appeal.
*
1990 -
Latvia proclaims independence.
*
1994 -
Israeli
Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin and
PLO leader
Yasser Arafat sign a
peace accord regarding
Palestinian autonomy granting self-rule in the
Gaza Strip and
Jericho.
*
1996 -
José María Aznar is appointed
Prime Minister of
Spain, thus ending 13 years of
Socialist rule.
*
1998 - A federal judge in
Sacramento, California, gives "
Unabomber"
Theodore Kaczynski four life sentences plus 30 years after
Kaczynski accepted a plea agreement sparing him from the
death penalty.
*
1999 - In
California,
Manuel Babbitt is executed for the
1980 murder of
Leah Schendel. While on
death row Babbitt was awarded a
Purple Heart for injuries he received in the
Vietnam War.
*
2002 - An
EAS Airlines BAC 1-11-500 crashes in a suburb of
Kano,
Nigeria shortly after takeoff killing more than 148 people.
*
2003 -
The Outbreak of 2003 begins. Ninety-four tornadoes begin the week-long outbreak.
*
2006 -
Zacarias Moussaoui is sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole for involvement in the
September 11, 2001 attacks. He is spared the death penalty.
* 2006 - A
Jewish synagogue in
Petah Tikva is desecrated, The desecraters sprayed
swastikas, devil related signs and the name "Rammstein" of the
tanz metal German band.
* 2006 -
Local elections take place in
England.
* 2006 - One of the worst thunderstorms in decades hits
Glasgow,
Scotland and the surrounding area.
*
1008 -
Khajeh Abdollah Ansari The Persian Sufi (d.
1088)
* 1008 - King
Henry I of France (d.
1060)
*
1654 -
Kangxi Emperor of China (d.
1722)
*
1655 -
Bartolomeo Cristofori, Italian maker of musical instruments (d.
1731)
*
1715 -
Richard Graves, English writer (d.
1804)
*
1733 -
Jean-Charles de Borda, French mathematician, physicist, political scientist, and sailor (d.
1799)
*
1772 -
Friedrich Arnold Brockhaus, German publisher (d.
1823)
*
1781 -
Karl Christian Friedrich Krause, German philosopher (d.
1832)
*
1796 -
Horace Mann, American educator (d.
1859)
*
1820 -
Julia Tyler,
First Lady of the United States (d.
1889)
*
1825 -
Thomas Henry Huxley, English scientist (d.
1895)
* 1825 -
Augustus Le Plongeon, French antiquitarian (d.
1908)
*
1826 -
Frederic Edwin Church, American painter (d.
1900)
*
1827 -
John Hanning Speke, British explorer (d.
1864)
*
1852 -
Alice Pleasance Liddell, English schoolgirl model for Alice in Wonderland (d.
1934)
*
1864 -
Marie Booth, the third daughter of
William and
Catherine Booth (d.
1937)
*
1870 -
Alexandre Benois, Russian artist (d.
1960)
*
1873 -
Joe De Grasse, Canadian film director (d.
1940)
*
1889 -
Francis Cardinal Spellman, American religious leader (d.
1967)
*
1903 -
Luther Adler, American stage actor (d.
1984)
*
1913 -
Lady Katherine Brandram, née Princess of Greece and Denmark
*
1916 -
Jane Jacobs, Canadian author and activist (d.
2006)
*
1918 -
Tanaka Kakuei, Japanese political leader (d.
1993)
* 1918 -
Thomas Mead, Australian politician and journalist (d.
2004)
*
1919 -
Dory Funk, Professional wrestler (d.
1973)
*
1921 -
Edo Murtić, Croatian painter (d.
2005)
*
1923 -
Ed Cassidy, American musician (
Spirit)
* 1923 -
Eric Sykes, British actor and comedian
* 1923 -
Godfrey Quigley, British actor (d.
1994)
*
1925 -
Maurice R. Greenberg, American businessman
*
1928 -
Maynard Ferguson, Canadian musician
* 1928 -
Hosni Mubarak,
President of Egypt*
1929 -
Audrey Hepburn, Belgian actress (d.
1993)
* 1929 -
Sidney Lamb, American linguist
*
1930 -
Roberta Peters, American soprano
*
1931 -
Gennady Rozhdestvensky, Russian conductor
*
1936 -
El Cordobes, Spanish bullfighter
*
1937 -
Dick Dale, American guitarist
*
1939 -
Amos Oz, Israeli writer, novelist, and journalist
*
1941 -
George Will, American writer
*
1942 -
Nickolas Ashford, American record producer, songwriter, musician (
Ashford and Simpson)
*
1943 -
Mikhail Chemiakin, Russian painter
*
1944 -
Roger Rees, British-born actor
*
1945 -
Narasinham Ram, Indian journalist
*
1946 -
John Watson, Northern Irish racecar driver
*
1949 -
John Force, American race car driver
*
1951 -
Colin Bass, British bassist (
Camel)
* 1951 -
Mick Mars, American guitarist (
Mötley Crüe)
*
1954 -
Pia Zadora, American actress
*
1956 -
David Guterson, American author
* 1956 -
Ulrike Meyfarth, German athlete
* 1956 -
Ken Oberkfell, American baseball player
*
1958 -
Keith Haring, American graphical artist (d.
1990)
*
1959 -
Randy Travis, American musician
* 1959 -
Scott Armstrong, American professional wrestling referee
*
1961 -
Luis Herrera, Colombian cyclist
*
1962 -
Oleta Adams, American singer
*
1967 -
Ana Gasteyer, American actress
*
1968 -
Julian Barratt, English comedian and musician, one half of
The Mighty Boosh*
1969 -
Ryan Shamrock, Wrestling valet
*
1972 -
Mike Dirnt, American musician (
Green Day)
* 1972 -
Manny Aybar, baseball player
*
1974 -
Miguel Cairo, baseball player
*
1976 -
Jason Michaels, baseball player
*
1979 -
Lance Bass, American singer (
*NSYNC)
*
1981 -
Eric Djemba-Djemba, Cameroon footballer
*
1982 -
Robert Hill, Australian athlete
* 1982 -
Markus Rogan, Austrian swimmer
*
1983 -
Trisha Krishnan, Indian actress
*
1985 -
Anthony Fedorov, American singer
*
1987 -
Francesc Fabregas, Spanish footballer
*
1994 -
Alexander Gould, American actor
*
1471 -
Edward of Westminster, Prince of Wales (killed in battle) (b.
1453)
* 1471 -
Edmund Beaufort, 4th Duke of Somerset, English military commander (executed)
*
1506 -
Husayn Bayqarah, ruler of Herat (b.
1438)
*
1519 -
Lorenzo II de' Medici, Duke of Urbino (b.
1492)
*
1566 -
Luca Ghini, Italian physician and botanist (b.
1490)
*
1615 -
Adriaan van Roomen, Flemish mathematician (b.
1561)
*
1626 -
Arthur Lake, Bishop of Bath and Wells, English bishop and Bible translator (b.
1569)
*
1677 -
Isaac Barrow, English mathematician (b.
1630)
*
1684 -
John Nevison, English highwayman (b.
1639)
*
1729 -
Louis-Antoine, Cardinal de Noailles, French cardinal (b.
1651)
*
1734 -
James Thornhill, English painter
*
1737 -
Eustace Budgell, English writer (b.
1686)
*
1774 -
Anthony Ulrich II, Duke of Brunswick-Lüneburg (b.
1714)
*
1776 -
Jacques Saly, French sculptor (b.
1717)
*
1790 -
Matthew Tilghman, American delegate to the Continental Congress (b.
1718)
*
1799 -
Tipu Sultan, Indian military leader
*
1811 -
Nikolay Kamensky, Russian general (b.
1776)
*
1824 -
Joseph Joubert, French essayist and moralist (b.
1754)
*
1849 -
Hokusai, Japanese artist (b.
1760)
*
1880 -
Edward Clark, Governor of Texas (b.
1815)
*
1903 -
Goce Delchev, Bulgarian revolutionary (b.
1872)
*
1922 -
Viktor Kingissepp, Estonian Bolshevik politician (b.
1888)
*
1938 -
Carl von Ossietzky, German pacifist, recipient of the
Nobel Peace Prize (b.
1889)
*
1945 -
Fedor von Bock, German field marshal (b.
1880)
*
1955 -
Georges Enescu, Romanian composer (b.
1881)
*
1961 -
Anita Stewart, American film actress (b.
1895)
*
1969 -
Osbert Sitwell, English writer (b.
1892)
*
1970 -
Kent State victims:
**
Allison Krause (b.
1951)
**
Jeffrey Miller (b.
1950)
**
Sandra Scheuer (b.
1949)
**
William Schroeder (b.
1950)
*
1972 -
Edward Calvin Kendall, American chemist, recipient of the
Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (b.
1886)
*
1975 -
Moe Howard, American actor and comedian (b.
1897)
*
1980 -
Josip Broz Tito,
President of Yugoslavia (b.
1892)
*
1984 -
Bob Clampett, American cartoonist (b.
1913)
* 1984 -
Diana Dors, British actress (b.
1931)
*
1985 -
Clarence Wiseman, the 10th General of
The Salvation Army (b.
1907)
*
1986 -
Henri Toivonen, Finnish race car driver (b.
1956)
*
1987 -
Paul Butterfield, American blues harmonica player (b.
1942)
*
1992 -
Gregor Mackenzie, Labour Party (UK) politician (b.
1927)
*
2005 -
David Hackworth, U.S. Army officer and military journalist (b.
1930)
*
International Firefighters' Day.
*
The Netherlands -
Remembrance of the Dead.
*
People's Republic of China -
Youth Day (青年节, commemorating
May Fourth Movement).
*
Republic of China -
Literary Day (文藝節, commemorating
May Fourth Movement).
*
Star Wars day, "May the 4th be with you" pun on "May the force be with you"
in the
Roman Catholic Church:
*
Saint Judas Cyriacus*
Saint Ladislaus of Gielnow*
Saint Florian*
Saint Godehard*
Saint Malou*
Saint Ethelred*
Saint Silvianus*
Saint Titianus*
Saint Willerik*
Saint John Houghton,
Saint Robert Lawrence,
Saint Augustine Webster,
Saint Richard Reynolds, and
Saint John Hale; all put to death in
1535.
*
Saint Monica of Hippo (d.
387)
*
Blessed Catherine of Park*
Apple Matters: On This Day*
BBC: On This Day*
The New York Times: On This DayMay 3 -
May 5 -
April 4 -
June 4 –
listing of all days
