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 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.
- 1886 - Haymarket Square Riot: A bomb is thrown at policemen trying to break up a labor rally in Chicago, Illinois, 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 had 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 to serve an eleven year 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 concentration camp Neuengamme 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 were killed in the riot.
- 1948 - Norman Mailer's first novel, The Naked and the Dead, is published.
- 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.
- 1964 - The American soap opera Another World debuts at 3PM as a half-hour show.
- 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 metre peak.
- 1979 - Margaret Thatcher becomes the first woman Prime Minister of the United Kingdom.
- 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, were later overturned on appeal.
- 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, publisher (d. 1823)
- 1796 - Horace Mann, educator (d. 1859)
- 1820 - Julia Tyler, First Lady of the United States (d. 1889)
- 1825 - Thomas Henry Huxley, 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, film director (d. 1940)
- 1889 - Francis Cardinal Spellman, 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 - Hosni Mubarak, President of Egypt
- 1928 - Maynard Ferguson, jazz musician
- 1929 - Audrey Hepburn (d. 1993)
- 1929 - Sidney Lamb, linguist
- 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")
- 1945 - Narasinham Ram, journalist
- 1954 - Pia Zadora, actress
- 1956 - Ulrike Meyfarth, winner of Olympic Games in the high jump
- 1956 - David Guterson, author
- 1958 - Keith Haring, graphical artist (d. 1990)
- 1959 - Randy Travis, country musician
- 1967 - Ana Gasteyer, actress
- 1971 - Mike Dirnt, musician ("Green Day")
- 1979 - Lance Bass, musician ("NSYNC")
- 1994 - Alexander Gould, "Nemo" in Finding Nemo
Deaths
Holidays and observances
May 3 - May 5 - April 4 - June 4 -- listing of all days
