May 4
May 4 is the 124th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (125th in leap years ). There are 241 days remaining.
Events
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 .
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 .
1863 - American Civil War : Battle of Chancellorsville - The battle ends with a Union retreat.
1869 - Naval Battle of Hakodate 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 , killing 8 and wounding 60. The police fire into the crowd.
1904 - Construction begins 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 1959 - The first Grammy Awards are announced.
1961 - American civil rights movement : The "Freedom Riders " begin a bus trip through the South.
1963 - A fire at a theater in Diourbel, Senegal kills 64 people.
1964 - The soap opera Another World NBC in the United States .
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, 9 are wounded.
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 .
1985 - In Gothenburg , Sweden , Bobbysocks win the thirtieth Eurovision Song Contest for Norway singing "La det swinge" (Let it swing).
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.
1991 In Rome , Italy , Carola wins the thirty-sixth Eurovision Song Contest for Sweden singing "Fångad av en stormvind" (Trapped in a storm wind).
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 - Several tornadoes hit the Midwestern part of the United States during the night, killing at least 45 people.
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.
Births
1008 - King Henry I of France (d. 1060 )
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 )
1826 - Frederic Edwin Church , painter (d. 1900 )
1827 - John Hanning Speke , British explorer (d. 1864 )
1852 - Alice Pleasance Liddell , for whom Lewis Carroll wrote Alice in Wonderland (d. 1934)
1873 - Joe De Grasse , Canadian film director (d. 1940 )
1889 - Francis Cardinal Spellman , American religious leader (d. 1967 )
1918 - Tanaka Kakuei , Japanese political leader (d. 1993 )
1921 - Edo Murtić , Croatian painter
1923 - Eric Sykes , British actor and comedian
1928 - Maynard Ferguson , jazz musician
1928 - Hosni Mubarak , President of Egypt
1929 - Audrey Hepburn , Belgian actress (d. 1993 )
1929 - Sidney Lamb , linguist
1930 - Roberta Peters , American soprano
1936 - El Cordobes , bullfighter
1937 - Dick Dale , guitarist
1941 - George Will , writer
1942 - Tammy Wynette , country musician (d. 1998 )
1942 - Nickolas Ashford , producer, songwriter, musician (Ashford and Simpson )
1944 - Roger Rees , British-born actor
1945 - Narasinham Ram , journalist
1949 - John Force , NHRA drag racer
1954 - Pia Zadora , actress
1956 - David Guterson , author
1956 - Ulrike Meyfarth , winner of Olympic Games in the high jump
1958 - Keith Haring , graphical artist (d. 1990 )
1959 - Randy Travis , country musician
1962 - Oleta Adams , US singer
1967 - Ana Gasteyer , actress
1971 - Mike Dirnt , musician (Green Day )
1979 - Lance Bass , musician (NSYNC )
1994 - Alexander Gould , actor (Finding Nemo )
Deaths
1799 - Tipu Sultan , Muslim Indian military leader (b. c. 1750 )
1824 - Joseph Joubert , French essayist and moralist (b. 1754 )
1849 - Hokusai , painter and ukiyo-e artist (b. 1760 )
1880 - Edward Clark , governor of Texas (b. 1815 )
1903 - Goce Delchev , Bulgarian revolutionary (b. 1872 )
1975 - Moe Howard , actor, comedian; member of the Three Stooges (b. 1897 )
1980 - Josip Broz Tito , president of Yugoslavia (b. 1892 )
1984 - Bob Clampett , cartoonist, creator of Bugs Bunny (b. 1913 )
1984 - Diana Dors , British actress (b. 1931 )
1986 - Henri Toivonen , Finnish rally car driver (b. 1956 )
Holidays and observances
External links
May 3 - May 5 - April 4 - June 4 -- listing of all days
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