May 4: Today in History – Historical Events
18th Century – What Happened on May 4 – The 1700s
1. 4th May 1776: Rhode Island today declared independence from Great Britain.
2. 4th May 1780: US Revolutionary Samuel Adams and James Bowdoin founded the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in Boston today.
3. 4th May 1783: Herschel today reported seeing a red glow near lunar crater Aristarchus.
4. 4th May 1799: In the Battle of Srirangapatam in the fourth Anglo-Mysore War, Tipu Sultan was killed today the British Army under the command of George Harris, bringing an end to the siege of Srirangapatam.
19th Century – May 4 This Day That Year – The 1800s
5. 4th May 1814: King Ferdinand of Spain today signed the Decree of 4th May, which returned Spain to absolutism.
6. 4th May 1814: In France, the Bourbon reign was restored today.
7. 4th May 1818: A treaty against illegal slave handling was signed today by the Netherlands and Britain.
8. 4th May 1834: Charles Darwin’s expedition today reached 200 KM from the Atlantic Ocean.
9. 4th May 1843: Great Britain annexes Natal.
10. 4th May 1846: US state Michigan today ended the death penalty.
11. 4th May 1851: A quarter of the city of San Francisco was today destroyed in a major fire.
12. 4th May 1859: The Cornwall Railways today linked the country of Devon and Cornwall in England by operating across the Royal Albert Bridge.
13. 4th May 1863: The battle of Chancellorsville ended as the Union Army retreated.
14. 4th May 1866: The Woodward’s garden in San Francisco was today opened to the public.
15. 4th May 1869: In Japan the Naval Battle of Hakodate takes place.
16. 4th May 1886: The first practical phonograph, the gramophone was today patented by Chichester Bell and Charles S Tainter.
17. 4th May 1888: A military covenant was signed today by Spain and Italy.
18. 4th May 1986: At Cripple Creek in Colorado, a grease fire ignited half a ton of dynamite.
19. 4th May 1896: The first edition of the London Daily Mail was published today.
20. 4th May 1897: About 200 people were killed at Rue Jean Goujon in a fire in Paris bazaar.
20th Century – Important Events On This Day May 4th – The 1900s
21. 4th May 1904: In Manchester England, Charles Henry Rolls and Frederik Henry Royce met at the Midland Hotel to form Rolls-Royce.
22. 4th May 1904: The US today took control of the property for the construction of the Panama Canal.
23. 4th May 1905: In the suburban Long Islands, the largest race track in the world Belmont Park opened today.
24. 4th May 1910: The Canadian Currency Act 1910, received the Royal assent today.
25. 4th May 1912: the Turkish island of Rhodes was today occupied by the Italian marines.
26. 4th May 1916: After a demand from President Wilson Germany agreed to limit its submarine warfare.
27. 4th May 1917: To aid convoying ships to England, a flotilla of US destroyer ships arrived in Queenstown in Ireland.
28. 4th May 1919: After news from the Paris Peace Conference that the Allies intended to give Shantung to Japan, demonstrations organized by students erupted in China.
29. 4th May 1923: Prohibition was revoked in New York State today.
30. 4th May 1923: In Vienna, there were bloody street battles between Nazis, socialists and Police today.
31. 4th May 1924: The eighth Olympic games opened today in Paris, France.
32. 4th May 1924: Fascists and Communists win in the German Republic Elections.
33. 4th May 1925: Today the League of Nations held a conference on arms control and poison gas usage.
34. 4th May 1927: The first balloon flight to reach an altitude of 40,000 feet.
35. 4th May 1927: Today Nicaragua agreed to hold US-supervised presidential elections in 1928.
36. 4th May 1931: Mustafa Kemal Pasja became Turkish President today.
37. 4th May 1933: This year’s Pulitzer Prize was awarded to Archibald Macleish for Conquistador.
38. 4th May 1936: Harold L Davis was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Honey in the Horn.
39. 4th May 1938: Douglas Hyde, a protestant, became the first President of Eire.
40. 4th May 1942: The American and the Japanese carriers launched their attack on each other marking the commencement of the Battle of Coral Sea.
41. 4th May 1942: Food rationing started in the United States.
42. 4th May 1942: Ellen Glasgow was today awarded the Pulitzer Prize for In This Our Life.
43. 4th May 1942: Four hundred and fifty prominent Dutch were held hostages by the German occupiers.
44. 4th May 1945: German troops surrender today in Netherlands, Denmark and Norway.
45. 4th May 1946: In a two-day riot in the Alcatraz prison in San Francisco Bay, five people died.
46. 4th May 1948: Nazi SS officer in the Netherlands, Hans Rauter was convicted for crimes against humanity by the Hague Court of Justice. He was executed on 24th March 1949.
47. 4th May 1949: In an air crash in Turin, 31 people, which included the Torino Soccer team, were killed.
48. 4th May 1953: Earnest Hemmingway was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for his work The Old Man and the Sea.
49. 4th May 1954: A court tennis match between Yale and Princeton was played today. This was the first inter-collegiate court tennis match to be played in the US.
50. 4th May 1954: The US today performed the atmospheric nuclear test on Bikini Island.
51. 4th May 1956: The National Monument for Dams was unveiled today by Queen Juliana in Amsterdam.
52. 4th May 1956: The United States today performed an atmospheric nuclear test today at Enwetak.
53. 4th May 1957: The first primetime rock show “Rock n’ Roll Show” was hosted by Alan Freed.
54. 4th May 1957: The Anna Frank Foundation was founded today in Amsterdam.
55. 4th May 1958: Colombia chooses Alberto Llears Camargo as President.
56. 4th May 1959: Perry Como and Jazz musician Ella Fitzgerald won the first Grammy award(music award).
57. 4th May 1961: The first on-the-road Space mobile lecture was delivered today.
58. 4th May 1961: Malcolm Ross and Victor Prather reached a record altitude of 34,668 meters in a balloon today.
59. 4th May 1962: The US today performed an atmospheric nuclear test at Christmas Island.
60. 4th May 1964: In Geneva, there was a conference of 70 GATT countries.
61. 4th May 1964: Richard Hofstadter was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for his work Anti-intellectualism.
62. 4th May 1966: The Soviet Government today signed an award for building a Fiat factory in the USSR.
63. 4th May 1967: The United States today launched Lunar Orbiter 4 which began orbiting the moon on 7th May.
64. 4th May 1969: “No Place to be Somebody” by Charles Gordone, premiered today in New York City.
65. 4th May 1970: At Kent State in Ohio, a National Guard kills four people.
66. 4th May 1970: The existence of a Russian military advisor in Egypt was today confirmed by Premier Kosygin.
67. 4th May 1970: During the anti-Vietnam war protests at Kent State University four students were killed and nine others were injured when Ohio National Guardsmen opened fire on the protesting students.
68. 4th May 1970: This year’s Pulitzer Prize was awarded to Erik H Erikson for his work “Gandhi’s Truth.
69. 4th May 1972: In South Vietnam, a revolutionary government was formed by the Vietcong in Quang Tri.
70. 4th May 1972: The Don’t Make A Wave Committee, a young environmental organization established in Canada in the year 1971, changed its name to “Green Pease Foundation”.
71. 4th May 1973: The Pope was today visited by Patriarch Shenuda II of Kopitisch Church.
72. 4th May 1975: Baseball’s one-millionth run of all time was scored today by Bob Watson of Houston.
73. 4th May 1978: Russian leader Brezhnev today visited West Germany.
74. 4th May 1979: NASA today launched Fltsatcom-2.
75. 4th May 1979: Britain gets its first woman Prime Minister when Margaret Thatcher was elected as Prime Minister of Britain today.
76. 4th May 1981: The discount rate was raised to 14% by the Federal Reserve Board today.
77. 4th May 1981: Silvana Cruciata ran 15K in 49:44.0 and created a female world record.
78. 4th May 1982: HMS Sheffield the British destroyer was hit by Exocet Rocket today, off Falkland Island killing 20 of its crew members.
79. 4th May 1983: China, today performed a nuclear test at Lop Nor, People’s Republic of China.
80. 4th May 1984: Dave Kingman’s fly ball got struck in the Metro dome ceiling and never came down.
81. 4th May 1986: President Babrak Karmal today resigned as party leader in Afghanistan.
82. 4th May 1987: In a National Historic Landmark, the First Bank of the United States was listed today.
83. 4th May 1987: For the first time live models were used for advertising Playtex bra.
84. 4th May 1988: The USSR today performed a nuclear test at its Semipalatinsk test site at Eastern Kazak.
85. 4th May 1989: NASA today launched the Magellan mission to Venus from Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
86. 4th May 1991: The President of the United States George H.W. Bush was hospitalized today owing to an erratic heartbeat.
87. 4th May 1994: The historic accord on the Palestinian autonomy that granted self-rule in the Gaza Strip and the Jericho was today signed by Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin and PLO leader Yasser Arafat.
88. 4th May 1998: Serial murderer and domestic terrorist Ted Kaczynski was today handed four sentences and 30 years by a federal judge in Sacramento California after Kaczynski accepted a plea agreement to spare him from the death penalty.
21st Century – May 4 This Day In History – The 2000s
89. 4th May 2000: For the first time, the citizens of London elected their Mayor today.
90. 4th May 2001: The first Santiago Calatrava-designed structure in the United States, the Milwaukee Art Museum addition, opened to the public today.
91. 4th May 2002: Victor Espinoza, astride “War Emblem” won the 128th Kentucky Derby in 2:01.3.
92. 4th May 2007: The Scottish National Party today became the largest party in Scottish Parliament for the first time today after they won the Scottish General Elections.
93. 4th May 2010: Pablo Picasso’s Painting “Nude, Green Leaves and Bust” was today sold for $106,5 million.
94. 4th May 2012: Google today received the first self-driving vehicle testing license in Las Vegas.
95. 4th May 2012: In Nuevo Laredo Mexico they found 14 decapitated bodies and 9 bodies hung from a bridge today.
96. 4th May 2013: In Baniyas, 77 people were killed by the Syrian Army.
97. 4th May 2013: Bombs kill 5 US soldiers today in Kandahar in Afghanistan.
98. 4th May 2014: In Panama, Juan Carlos was today elected President of Panama.
99. 4th May 2015: The 2015 World Snooker Championship was today won by Stuart Bingham.
100. 4th May 2016: John Kasich today withdrew from the race for Republican Presidential nominee.
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