May 4

Historic Events

2023

Nine people are killed and thirteen injured in a spree shooting in Mladenovac and Smederevo, Serbia. It is the second mass shooting in the country in two days. ›

2019

The inaugural all-female motorsport series, W Series, takes place at Hockenheimring. The race was won by Jamie Chadwick, who would go on to become the inaugural series champion. ›

2014

Three people are killed and 62 injured in a pair of bombings on buses in Nairobi, Kenya. ›

2007

Greensburg, Kansas is almost completely destroyed by the 2007 Greensburg tornado, a 1.7-mile wide EF5 tornado. It was the first-ever tornado to be rated with the new Enhanced Fujita scale. ›

2002

One hundred three people are killed and 51 are injured in a plane crash near Mallam Aminu Kano International Airport in Kano, Nigeria. ›

2000

Ken Livingstone becomes the first Mayor of London (an office separate from that of the Lord Mayor of London). ›

1998

A federal judge in Sacramento, California, gives "Unabomber" Theodore Kaczynski four life sentences plus 30 years after Kaczynski accepts a plea agreement sparing him from the death penalty. ›

1994

Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin and PLO leader Yasser Arafat sign a peace accord, granting self-rule in the Gaza Strip and Jericho. ›

1990

Latvia declares independence from the Soviet Union. ›

1989

Iran–Contra affair: Former White House aide Oliver North is convicted of three crimes and acquitted of nine other charges; the convictions are later overturned on appeal. ›

1989

Space Shuttle Atlantis launches on mission STS-30 to deploy the Venus-bound Magellan space probe. ›

1988

The PEPCON disaster rocks Henderson, Nevada, as tons of Space Shuttle fuel detonate during a fire. ›

1982

Twenty sailors are killed when the British Type 42 destroyer HMS Sheffield is hit by an Argentinian Exocet missile during the Falklands War. ›

1979

Margaret Thatcher becomes the first female Prime Minister of the United Kingdom. ›

1978

The South African Defence Force attacks a SWAPO base at Cassinga in southern Angola, killing about 600 people. ›

1973

The 108-story Sears Tower in Chicago is topped out at 1,451 feet (442 m) as the world's tallest building. ›

1972

The Don't Make A Wave Committee, a fledgling environmental organization founded in Canada in 1971, officially changes its name to Greenpeace Foundation. ›

1970

Vietnam War: Kent State shootings: The Ohio National Guard, sent to Kent State University after disturbances in the city of Kent the weekend before, opens fire killing four unarmed students and wounding nine others. The students were protesting the Cambodian Campaign of the United States and South Vietnam. ›

1961

American civil rights movement: The "Freedom Riders" begin a bus trip through the South. ›

1961

Malcolm Ross and Victor Prather attain a new altitude record for manned balloon flight ascending in the Strato-Lab V open gondola to 113,740 feet (34.67 km). ›

1959

The 1st Annual Grammy Awards are held. ›

1953

Ernest Hemingway wins the Pulitzer Prize for The Old Man and the Sea. ›

1949

The entire Torino football team (except for two players who did not take the trip: Sauro Tomà, due to an injury and Renato Gandolfi, because of coach request) is killed in a plane crash. ›

1946

In San Francisco Bay, U.S. Marines from the nearby Treasure Island Naval Base stop a two-day riot at Alcatraz Federal Penitentiary. Five people are killed in the riot. ›

1945

World War II: Neuengamme concentration camp near Hamburg is liberated by the British Army. ›

1945

World War II: The German surrender at Lüneburg Heath is signed, coming into effect the following day. It encompasses all Wehrmacht units in the Netherlands, Denmark and northwest Germany. ›

1932

Having been incarcerated at the Cook County Jail since his sentencing on October 24, 1931, mobster Al Capone is transferred to the federal penitentiary in Atlanta after the U.S. Supreme Court denies his appeal for conviction of tax evasion. ›

1927

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences is incorporated. ›

1926

The United Kingdom general strike begins. ›

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. ›

1912

Italy begins the invasion and occupation of the Ottoman island of Rhodes. ›

1910

The Royal Canadian Navy is created. ›

1904

The United States begins construction of the Panama Canal. ›

1886

Haymarket affair: In Chicago, United States, a homemade bomb is thrown at police officers trying to break up a labor rally, killing one officer. Ensuing gunfire leads to the deaths of a further seven officers and four civilians. ›

1871

The National Association, the first professional baseball league, opens its first season in Fort Wayne, Indiana. ›

1869

The four-day Naval Battle of Hakodate begins. The newly formed Imperial Japanese Navy defeats the remnants of the Tokugawa shogunate navy in the Sea of Japan off the city of Hakodate, leading to the surrender of the Ezo Republic on May 17. ›

1859

The Cornwall Railway opens across the Royal Albert Bridge linking Devon and Cornwall in England. ›

1836

Formation of Ancient Order of Hibernians. ›

1823

Brazilian War of Independence: A Brazilian squadron led by Lord Cochrane engages a Portuguese squadron under João de Campos off Salvador, Bahia. ›

1814

Emperor Napoleon arrives at Portoferraio on the island of Elba to begin his exile. ›

1814

King Ferdinand VII abolishes the Spanish Constitution of 1812, returning Spain to absolutism. ›

1799

Fourth Anglo-Mysore War: The Battle of Seringapatam: The siege of Seringapatam ends when the city is invaded and Tipu Sultan killed by the besieging British army, under the command of General George Harris. ›

1776

Rhode Island becomes the first American colony to renounce allegiance to King George III. ›

1738

The Imperial Theatrical School, the first ballet school in Russia, is founded. ›

1626

Having been appointed the director-general of New Netherland, Dutch explorer Peter Minuit arrives in present day Manhattan Island aboard the See Meeuw. ›

1493

In the papal bull Inter caetera, Pope Alexander VI divides the New World between Spain and Portugal along the Line of Demarcation. ›

1471

Wars of the Roses: The Battle of Tewkesbury: Edward IV defeats a Lancastrian Army and kills Edward of Westminster, Prince of Wales. ›

1436

Assassination of the Swedish rebel (later national hero) Engelbrekt Engelbrektsson (27 April O.S.). ›

1415

Religious reformer John Wycliffe is condemned as a heretic at the Council of Constance. ›

1256

The Augustinian monastic order is constituted at the Lecceto Monastery when Pope Alexander IV issues a papal bull Licet ecclesiae catholicae. ›