What happened on August 4? There are more than 274 events that were made this day in history. Here are the important historical events, facts, and some myths about this day.
Interesting Facts & Myths About August 4
August 4 is the 217th day of the year 2024. There are 149 days remaining until the end of this year. The day of the week is Sunday. This day falls under the 31st week of the year 2024.
On this day in Roxbury, Pennsylvania 17251 sunrise occured at 06:10 AM and sunset occured at 08:22 PM (local time).
The zodiac sign of a person born on this day is Leo. The modern birthstone for this month is Peridot while the mystical birthstone is Diamond.
According to the Chinese calendar, there are 178 days remaining before the start of the next Chinese New Year (January 29, 2025).
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Historical Events For August 4
- 70The destruction of the Second Temple in Jerusalem by the Romans.
- 367Gratian, son of Roman Emperor Valentinian I, is named co-Augustus by his father and associated to the throne aged eight.
- 1265Second Barons’ War: Battle of Evesham – the army of Prince Edward (the future king Edward I of England) defeats the forces of rebellious barons led by Simon de Montfort, 6th Earl of Leicester, killing de Montfort and many of his allies.
- 1327First War of Scottish Independence: James Douglas leads a raid into Weardale and almost kills Edward III of England.
- 1532the Duchy of Brittany is annexed to the Kingdom of France.
- 1578Battle of Al Kasr al Kebir – the Moroccans defeat the Portuguese. King Sebastian of Portugal is killed in the battle, leaving his elderly uncle, Cardinal Henry, as his heir. This initiates a succession crisis in Portugal.
- 1693Date traditionally ascribed to Dom Perignon’s invention of Champagne, although he actually did not have anything to do with sparkling wine.
- 1704War of the Spanish Succession: Gibraltar is captured by an English and Dutch fleet, commanded by Admiral Sir George Rooke and allied with Archduke Charles.
- 1789In France members of the National Constituent Assembly take an oath to end feudalism and abandon their privileges.
- 1790A newly passed tariff act creates the Revenue Cutter Service (the forerunner of the United States Coast Guard).
- 1791The Treaty of Sistova is signed, ending the Ottoman-Habsburg wars.
- 1796French Revolutionary Wars: Napoleon leads the French Army of Italy to victory in the Battle of Lonato.
- 1821Atkinson & Alexander publish the Saturday Evening Post for the first time as a weekly newspaper.
- 1824The Battle of Kos is fought between Turk and Greek forces.
- 1854The Hinomaru is established as the official flag to be flown from Japanese ships.
- 1863Matica slovenská, Slovakia’s public-law cultural and scientific institution focusing on topics around the Slovak nation, is established in Martin.
- 1873Indian Wars: whilst protecting a railroad survey party in Montana, the United States 7th Cavalry, under Lieutenant Colonel George Armstrong Custer clashes for the first time with the Sioux near the Tongue River; only one man on each side is killed.
- 1892The father and stepmother of Lizzie Borden are found murdered in their Fall River, Massachusetts home.
- 1902The Greenwich foot tunnel under the River Thames opens.
- 1906Central Railway Station, Sydney opens.
- 1914World War I: Germany invades Belgium. In response, the United Kingdom declares war on Germany. The United States declare their neutrality.
- 1916World War I: Liberia declares war on Germany.
- 1924Diplomatic relations between Mexico and the Soviet Union are established.
- 1936Prime Minister of Greece Ioannis Metaxas suspends parliament and the Constitution and establishes the 4th of August Regime.
- 1944The Holocaust: a tip from a Dutch informer leads the Gestapo to a sealed-off area in an Amsterdam warehouse where they find and arrest Jewish diarist Anne Frank, her family, and four others.
- 1946An earthquake of magnitude 8.0 hits northern Dominican Republic. 100 are killed and 20,000 are left homeless.
- 1947The Supreme Court of Japan is established.
- 1958The Billboard Hot 100 is published for the first time.
- 1964American civil rights movement: civil rights workers Michael Schwerner, Andrew Goodman and James Chaney are found dead in Mississippi after disappearing on June 21.
- 1964Gulf of Tonkin Incident: U.S. destroyers USS Maddox and USS Turner Joy report coming under attack in the Gulf of Tonkin.
- 1965The Constitution of Cook Islands comes into force, giving the Cook Islands self-governing status within New Zealand.
- 1969Vietnam War: at the apartment of French intermediary Jean Sainteny in Paris, American representative Henry Kissinger and North Vietnamese representative Xuan Thuy begin secret peace negotiations. The negotiations will eventually fail.
- 1974A bomb explodes in the Italicus Express train at San Benedetto Val di Sambro, Italy, killing 12 people and wounding 22.
- 1975The Japanese Red Army takes more than 50 hostages at the AIA Building housing several embassies in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. The hostages include the U.S. consul and the Swedish chargé d’affaires. The gunmen win the release of five imprisoned comrades and fly with them to Libya.
- 1977US President Jimmy Carter signs legislation creating the United States Department of Energy.
- 1984The Republic of Upper Volta changes its name to Burkina Faso.
- 1987The Federal Communications Commission rescinds the Fairness Doctrine which had required radio and television stations to present controversial issues “fairly”.
- 1989Licence to Kill goes on general cinema release in the United Kingdom.
- 1991The Greek cruise ship Ship MTS sinks off the Wild Coast of South Africa.
- 1993A federal judge sentences LAPD officers Stacey Koon and Laurence Powell to 30 months in prison for violating motorist Rodney King’s civil rights.
- 1995Operation Storm begins in Croatia.
- 2002Soham murders: 10 year old school girls Jessica Chapman and Holly Wells go missing from the town of Soham, Cambridgeshire, United Kingdom.
- 2005Prime Minister Paul Martin announces that Michaëlle Jean will be Canada’s 27th Governor General.
- 2006A massacre, is carried out by Sri Lankan government forces, killing 17 employees of the French INGO Action Against Hunger (known internationally as Action Contre la Faim, or ACF).
- 2007Airport police officer María del Luján Telpuk discovers a suitcase containing the undeclared sum of US$800,000 as it goes through an x-ray machine in Aeroparque Jorge Newbery in Buenos Aires, sparking an international scandal involving Venezuela and Argentina known as “Maletinazo”.
- 2007NASA’s Phoenix spaceship is launched.
- 2010California’s Proposition 8, the ballot initiative prohibiting same-sex marriage passed by the state’s voters in 2008, is overturned by Judge Vaughn Walker in the case Perry v. Schwarzenegger.
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Who Were Born On August 4?
- 1222Richard de Clare, 6th Earl of Hertford, English soldier (d. 1262)
- 1290Duke Leopold I of Austria (d. 1326)
- 1521Pope Urban VII (d. 1590)
- 1604François Hédelin, abbé d'Aubignac, French writer (d. 1676)
- 1701Thomas Blackwell, Scottish classical scholar (d. 1757)
- 1719Johann Gottlob Lehmann, German mineralogist and geologist (d. 1767)
- 1721Granville Leveson-Gower, 1st Marquess of Stafford, English politician (d. 1803)
- 1755Nicolas-Jacques Conté, French painter and inventor (d. 1805)
- 1792Percy Bysshe Shelley, English poet (d. 1822)
- 1805William Rowan Hamilton, Irish mathematician (d. 1865)
- 1821James Springer White, American theologian (d. 1881)
- 1821Louis Vuitton, French designer (d. 1892)
- 1834John Venn, English mathematician (d. 1923)
- 1839Walter Pater, English essayist and critic (d. 1894)
- 1844Henri Berger, German composer and royal bandmaster (d. 1929)
- 1848Vladimir Sukhomlinov, Russian general (d. 1926)
- 1859Knut Hamsun, Norwegian writer, Nobel Laureate (d. 1952)
- 1865Gus Kempis, South African cricketer (d. 1890)
- 1867Jake Beckley, American baseball player (d. 1918)
- 1870Sir Harry Lauder, Scottish entertainer (d. 1950)
- 1876Giovanni Giuriati, Italian politician (d. 1970)
- 1884Béla Balázs, Hungarian-Jewish film critic, writer and poet (d. 1949)
- 1884Henri Cornet, French cyclist (d. 1941)
- 1888Syedna Taher Saifuddin, Indian Dawoodi Bohra leader, 51st Da'i al-Mutlaq (d. 1965)
- 1890Dolf Luque, Cuban baseball player (d. 1957)
- 1891Margit Makay, Hungarian actress (d. 1989)
- 1899Ezra Taft Benson, American religious figure (d. 1994)
- 1900Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon, Scottish consort of George VI (d. 2002)
- 1901Clarence Passailaigue, Jamaican cricketer (d. 1972)
- 1901Louis Armstrong, American jazz trumpeter and singer (d. 1971)
- 1902Wild Bill Hallahan, American baseball player (d. 1981)
- 1904Helen Kane, American singer, dancer, and actress (d. 1966)
- 1904Joe Tate, English footballer (d. 1973)
- 1904Witold Gombrowicz, Polish novelist and dramatist (d. 1969)
- 1906Eugen Schuhmacher, German zoologist (d. 1973)
- 1906Marie-José of Belgium, consort of Umberto II of Italy (d. 2001)
- 1908Kurt Eichhorn, German conductor (d. 1994)
- 1909Glenn Cunningham, American middle-distance runner (d. 1988)
- 1909Saunders Mac Lane, American mathematician (d. 2005)
- 1910Anita Page, American actress (d. 2008)
- 1910Hedda Sterne, Romanian-born American painter and printmaker (d. 2011)
- 1910William Schuman, American composer (d. 1992)
- 1912Aleksandr Danilovich Aleksandrov, Russian mathematician and mountaineer (d. 1999)
- 1912Raoul Wallenberg, Swedish diplomat (d. 1947)
- 1913Robert Hayden, American poet (d. 1980)
- 1915Warren Avis, American entrepreneur (d. 2007)
- 1918Iceberg Slim, American author (d. 1992)
- 1919Michel Déon, French writer
- 1920Helen Thomas, American journalist
- 1921Herb Ellis, American jazz guitarist (d. 2010)
- 1921Maurice Richard, Canadian ice hockey player (d. 2000)
- 1923Mushtaq Ahmad Yusufi, Pakistani satirical and humor writer
- 1923Reg Grundy, Australian media and television mogul
- 1926George Irving Bell, American mountaineer (d. 2000)
- 1927Jess Thomas, American tenor (d. 1993)
- 1928Christian Goethals, Belgian racing driver (d. 2003)
- 1929Kishore Kumar, Indian singer and actor (d. 1987)
- 1930Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, Iranian Shi'a cleric
- 1931Naren Tamhane, Indian cricketer (d. 2002)
- 1932Liang Congjie, Chinese environmentalist (d. 2010)
- 1934Dallas Green, American baseball player
- 1937David Bedford, English keyboardist and composer
- 1938Ellen Schrecker, American college professor
- 1939Frank Vincent, American actor
- 1940Larry Knechtel, keyboard and bass player (d. 2009)
- 1940Timi Yuro, American singer (d. 2004)
- 1941Martin Jarvis, English actor
- 1941Ted Strickland, American politician
- 1942Cleon Jones, American baseball player
- 1942David Lange, New Zealand politician (d. 2005)
- 1942Don S. Davis, American actor and painter (d. 2008)
- 1943Bjørn Wirkola, Norwegian ski jumper
- 1943Vicente Alberto Álvarez Areces, Spanish politician
- 1944Doudou Ndoye, Senegalese lawyer and politician
- 1944Richard Belzer, American actor and comedian
- 1945Alan Mulally, American businessman
- 1946Maureen Starkey, English ex-wife of Ringo Starr (d. 1994)
- 1947Klaus Schulze, German composer
- 1948Johnny Grubb, American baseball player
- 1949John Riggins, American football player
- 1952Gábor Demszky, Hungarian politician
- 1952Moya Brennan, Irish singer
- 1953Hiroyuki Usui, Japanese footballer
- 1954Anatoliy Kinakh, Ukrainian politician
- 1954François Valéry, French singer-songwriter and composer
- 1955Alberto Gonzales, 80th U.S. Attorney General
- 1955Billy Bob Thornton, American actor and writer
- 1955Dariusz Lipiński, Polish politician
- 1956Gerry Cooney, American boxer
- 1957Brooks D. Simpson, American historian
- 1957John Wark, Scottish footballer
- 1958Allison Hedge Coke, American poet and writer
- 1958Ian Broudie, English music producer and vocalist (Lightning Seeds)
- 1958Kym Karath, American actress
- 1958Mary Decker, American middle-distance runner
- 1959John Gormley, Irish politician
- 1959Robbin Crosby, American guitarist (Ratt) (d. 2002)
- 1960Bernard Rose, English director
- 1960Dean Malenko, American professional wrestler
- 1960José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, 5th Prime Minister of Spain
- 1960Tim Winton, Australian writer
- 1961Barack Obama, 44th President of the United States, Nobel Peace Prize laureate
- 1961Eddie James, American murderer and sex offender
- 1961Lauren Tom, American actress
- 1961Peter Reichert, German footballer
- 1962Paul Reynolds, British guitarist (A Flock of Seagulls)
- 1962Roger Clemens, American baseball player
- 1964Andrew Bartlett, Australian politician and activist
- 1964Gary King, British radio presenter
- 1965Crystal Chappell, American actress
- 1965Dennis Lehane, American crime writer
- 1965Fredrik Reinfeldt, 42nd Prime Minister of Sweden
- 1965James Tupper, Canadian actor
- 1965Wayne Pacelle, President and CEO of the Humane Society of the United States
- 1966Kensuke Sasaki, Japanese professional wrestler
- 1967Michael Marsh, American sprinter
- 1967Timothy Adams, American actor
- 1968Daniel Dae Kim, American actor
- 1968Lee Mack, British comedian
- 1968Marcus Schenkenberg, Swedish model
- 1969Mark Bickley, Australian AFL football player
- 1969Max Cavalera, Brazilian vocalist and guitarist (Sepultura, Soulfly)
- 1969Michael DeLuise, American actor
- 1969Troy O'Leary, American baseball player
- 1970Bret Baier, FOX News Channel anchor
- 1970John August, American screenwriter
- 1970Steve House, American mountaineer
- 1970Steven Jack, South African cricketer
- 1971Jeff Gordon, American race car driver
- 1972Stefan Brogren, Canadian actor
- 1973Eva Amaral, Spanish singer and songwriter
- 1973Marcos Roberto Silveira Reis, Brazilian footballer
- 1973Marek Penksa, Slovak footballer
- 1973Xavier Marchand, French swimmer
- 1974Keenan Milton, American professional skater (d. 2001)
- 1974Kily González, Argentine footballer
- 1975Andy Hallett, American actor (d. 2009)
- 1975Daniella van Graas, Dutch model and actress
- 1975Jutta Urpilainen, Finnish politician
- 1975Nikos Liberopoulos, Greek footballer
- 1976Andrew McLeod, Australian rules footballer
- 1977Frankie Kazarian, American professional wrestler
- 1977Luís Boa Morte, Portuguese footballer
- 1978Kurt Busch, American race car driver
- 1979Robin Peterson, South African cricketer
- 1980Richard Dawson, English cricketer
- 1981Ben Scott, English cricketer
- 1981Marques Houston, American singer (IMx) and actor
- 1984Mardy Collins, American basketball player
- 1985Crystal Bowersox, American singer
- 1985Ha Seung-Jin, Korean basketball player
- 1985Kina Grannis, American musician
- 1985Luis Antonio Valencia, Ecuadorean footballer
- 1985Mark Milligan, Australian footballer
- 1986Nick Augusto, Italian-American drummer (Trivium)
- 1987Jang Geun-suk, Korean actor
- 1988Carly Foulkes, Canadian model and actress
- 1989Jessica Mauboy, Australian singer (Young Divas)
- 1991Lucinda Dryzek, British actress
- 1991River Viiperi, Spanish Model
- 1991Thiago Cardoso, Brazilian footballer
- 1992Cole Sprouse, American actor
- 1992Dylan Sprouse, American actor
- 1992Tiffany Evans, American singer
- 1994Kevin Van Fleet, Notorious bird watcher and friend of Bob Saget
- 1994Mayuko Fukuda, Japanese actress
- 2001Seishiro Kato, Japanese actor
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Who Died On August 4?
- 1060King Henry I of France (b. 1008)
- 1113Gertrude of Saxony, daughter of Bernard II, Duke of Saxony and wife of Floris I, Count of Holland (b. 1030)
- 1265Killed in the Battle of Evesham: Henry de Montfort (b. 1238)
- 1265Killed in the Battle of Evesham: Hugh le Despencer, 1st Baron le Despencer (b. 1223)
- 1265Killed in the Battle of Evesham: Peter de Montfort (b. c. 1215)
- 1265Killed in the Battle of Evesham: Simon de Montfort, 6th Earl of Leicester (b. 1208)
- 1306King Wenceslaus III of Bohemia, Hungary and Poland (b. 1289)
- 1338Thomas of Brotherton, 1st Earl of Norfolk, son of Edward I of England (b. 1300)
- 1526Juan Sebastián Elcano, Spanish explorer (b. 1476)
- 1578King Sebastian of Portugal (b. 1554)
- 1578Thomas Stukley, English adventurer (b. c. 1520)
- 1598William Cecil, 1st Baron Burghley, English statesman (b. 1520)
- 1612Hugh Broughton, English scholar (b. 1549)
- 1639Juan Ruiz de Alarcón, Mexican dramatist
- 1718René Lepage de Sainte-Claire, French lord-founder of the town of Rimouski in New France (b. 1656)
- 1727Victor-Maurice, comte de Broglie, French general (b. 1647)
- 1741Andrew Hamilton, American lawyer
- 1778Pierre de Rigaud, French colonial governor in North America (b. 1698)
- 1792John Burgoyne, British general (b. 1723)
- 1795Timothy Ruggles, American politician (b. 1711)
- 1804Adam Duncan, 1st Viscount Duncan Royal Navy Admiral (b. 1731)
- 1834Dimitrios Panourgias Greek military commander during the Greek War of Independence (b. 1754)
- 1844Jakob Aall, Norwegian journalist and statesman (b. 1773)
- 1859Jean Vianney, French priest (b. 1786)
- 1873Viktor Hartmann, Russian painter (b. 1834)
- 1875Hans Christian Andersen, Danish writer (b. 1805)
- 1886Samuel Jones Tilden, Governor of New York and Democratic candidate for President of the United States in the 1876 presidential election (b. 1814)
- 1900Isaac Levitan, Russian painter (b. 1860)
- 1914Jules Lemaître, French critic and dramatist (b. 1853)
- 1919Dave Gregory, Australian cricketer (b. 1845)
- 1938Pearl White, American actress (b. 1889)
- 1941Mihály Babits, Hungarian writer and poet (b. 1883)
- 1942Alberto Franchetti, Italian opera composer (b. 1860)
- 1957Washington Luís Pereira de Sousa, 13th President of Brazil (b. 1869)
- 1958Ethel Anderson, Australian poet (b. 1883)
- 1959József Révai, Hungarian politician (b. 1898)
- 1967Peter Smith, English cricketer (b. 1908)
- 1976Enrique Angelelli, Argentine bishop (b. 1923)
- 1976Roy Herbert Thomson, Canadian publisher (b. 1894)
- 1981Melvyn Douglas, American actor (b. 1901)
- 1982Bruce Goff, American architect (b. 1904)
- 1985Don Whillans, British mountaineer (b. 1933)
- 1991Nikiforos Vrettakos, Greek writer and poet (b. 1912)
- 1992Seicho Matsumoto, Japanese writer and journalist (b. 1909)
- 1993Bernard Barrow, American actor (b. 1927)
- 1996Geoff Hamilton, British gardener and broadcaster (b. 1936)
- 1997Jeanne Calment, French supercentenarian, the world’s oldest human on record and the only person ever to live past the age of 122 (b. 1875)
- 1998Yuri Artyukhin, Russian cosmonaut (b. 1930)
- 1999Rodney Ansell, Australian who was the inspiration for Crocodile Dundee (b. 1953)
- 1999Victor Mature, American actor (b. 1913)
- 2000Leslie Glass, American adult film actress (b. 1963)
- 2001Lorenzo Music, American actor (b. 1937)
- 2003Frederick Chapman Robbins, American pediatrician and virologist, Nobel Laureate (b. 1916)
- 2005Anatoly Larkin, Russian-born American physicist (b. 1932)
- 2005Iván Szabó, Hungarian politician (b. 1934)
- 2007Lee Hazlewood, American country singer, songwriter and producer (b. 1929)
- 2007Raul Hilberg, Austrian-born American political scientist and historian of the Holocaust (b. 1926)
- 2008Craig Jones, English motorcycle racer (b. 1985)
- 2009Blake Snyder, American screenwriter (b. 1957)
- 2011Naoki Matsuda, Japanese Soccer player (b. 1977)
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