March 4

The United States Constitution originally provided that the President of the United States was to be inaugurated on this date, starting in 1793 and the repeating every four years until 1933. In 1933, the 20th Amendment changed the presidential inauguration date to January 20.

Events

• 303 or 304 - Martyrdom of Saint Adrian of Nicomedia.
• 1152 - Frederick I Barbarossa is elected King of the Germans.
• 1461 - Wars of the Roses in England: Lancastrian King Henry VI is deposed by his Yorkist cousin, who then becomes King Edward IV.
• 1665 - Start of the Second Anglo-Dutch War.
• 1681 - Charles II of England grants a land charter to William Penn for the area that will later become Pennsylvania.
• 1789 - In New York City, the first U.S. Congress meets and declares the new Constitution of the United States is in effect.
• 1790 - France is divided into 83 départements, which cut across the former provinces in an attempt to dislodge regional loyalties based on noble ownership of land.
• 1791 - Vermont is admitted as the 14th U.S. state.
• 1804 - The Battle of Vinegar Hill, colony of New South Wales (Australia)
• 1837 - Chicago is granted a city charter by Illinois.
• 1849 - America goes without a President for one day. The expiration of James K. Polk's term occurred at 12pm, but Zachary Taylor was not sworn in until the next day. Although rejected by constitutional experts, some believe that David Rice Atchison, the President pro tempore of the United States Senate at the time, was the "acting president".
• 1861 - The "Stars and Bars" is adopted as the flag of the Confederate States of America.
• 1877 - Emile Berliner invents the microphone.
• 1877 - Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky's ballet Swan Lake debuts.
• 1881 - A Study in Scarlet, the first Sherlock Holmes story, begins.
• 1902 - In Chicago, the American Automobile Association is established.
• 1904 - Russo-Japanese War: Russian troops in Korea retreat toward Manchuria followed by 100,000 Japanese troops.
• 1913 - The United States Department of Commerce and United States Department of Labor are established by splitting the duties of the 10-year-old Dept. of Commerce and Labor.
• 1917 - Jeannette Rankin of Montana becomes the first female member of the United States House of Representatives.
• 1933 - Frances Perkins becomes United States Secretary of Labor, first female member of the United States Cabinet.
• 1933 - President Franklin D. Roosevelt outlines his "New Deal" in his inauguration speech.
• 1941 - Great Britain launches Operation Claymore on the Lofoten Islands, during World War II.
• 1944 - In Ossining, New York, Louis Buchalter, the leader of 1930s crime syndicate Murder, Inc, is executed at Sing Sing.
• 1954 - Peter Bent Brigham Hospital in Boston announces the first successful kidney transplant.
• 1963 - In Paris six people are sentenced to death for conspiring to assassinate President Charles de Gaulle.
• 1966 - John Lennon says, "We (The Beatles) are more popular than Jesus" which sparks controversy in the United States.
• 1975 - Charlie Chaplin is knighted by Queen Elizabeth II of England.
• 1977 - The 1977 Bucharest Earthquake in southern and eastern Europe kills more than 1,500.
• 1989 - Time, Inc. and Warner Communications announce plans for a merger forming Time-Warner.
• 1993 - Authorities announce the capture of suspected World Trade Center bombing conspirator Mohammad Salameh.
• 1994 - Four terrorists are convicted for their roles in the World Trade Center bombing which killed six and injured more than a thousand.
• 1995 - The World Summit on Social Development begins in Copenhagen.
• 1997 - United States President Bill Clinton bars federal funding for any research on human cloning.
• 1998 - Gay rights: The Supreme Court of the United States rules that federal laws banning on-the-job sexual harassment also apply when both parties are the same sex.
• 1999 - Monica Lewinsky's book detailing her affair with Bill Clinton goes on sale in the United States.
• 1999 - In a military court, Captain Richard Ashby of the United States Marines is acquitted of the charge of reckless flying which resulted in the deaths of 20 skiers in the Italian Alps when his low-flying jet hit a gondola cable.
• 2003 - Tough Crowd with Colin Quinn redebuts on Comedy Central
• 2004 - The files of Supreme Court Justice Harry Blackmun are released to the public five years after his death.
• 2004 - FIFA reveals its list of 100 Greatest Living Footballers (otherwise known as the "FIFA 100")
  

  Births

• 1394 - Prince Henry the Navigator, explorer (d. 1460)
• 1678 - Antonio Vivaldi, Italian composer (d. 1741)
• 1768 - August Friedrich Wilhelm Holtzhausen, engineer (d. 1827)
• 1793 - Karl Lachmann, philologist (d. 1851)
• 1876 - Léon-Paul Fargue, poet (d. 1947)
• 1877 - Garrett Morgan, inventor (d. 1963)
• 1879 - Josip Murn - Aleksandrov, Slovene poet (d. 1901)
• 1888 - Knute Rockne, American football star, coach (d. 1931)
• 1897 - Lefty O'Doul, baseball star, restaurateur (d. 1969)
• 1901 - Charles Goren, bridge expert (d. 1991)
• 1903 - Luis Carrero Blanco, Spanish statesman (d. 1973)
• 1906 - Meindert DeJong American author of children's books (d. 1991)
• 1909 - Harry Helmsley, real estate entrepreneur (d. 1997)
• 1913 - John Garfield, actor (d. 1952)
• 1914 - Ward Kimball, animator (d. 2002)
• 1916 - Hans Eysenck, psychologist (d. 1997)
• 1925 - Paul Mauriat, musician
• 1926 - Iñigo Sanz, professor of Law
• 1928 - Alan Sillitoe, writer
• 1929 - Bernard Haitink, Dutch conductor
• 1932 - Miriam Makeba, singer
• 1932 - Ed "Big Daddy" Roth, custom car designer (d. 2001)
• 1934 - Janez Strnad, Slovene physicist
• 1934 - Barbara McNair, American singer
• 1936 - Jim Clark, racing driver (d. 1968)
• 1938 - Don Perkins, American football player
• 1939 - Paula Prentiss, American actress
• 1941 - Adrian Lyne, director
• 1942 - Charles C. Krulak, 31st Commandant of the Marine Corps
• 1947 - Jan Garbarek, Norwegian musician
• 1948 - Chris Squire, British musician (Yes)
• 1948 - James Ellroy, writer
• 1950 - Rick Perry, Governor of Texas
• 1950 - Billy Gibbons, musician (ZZ Top)
• 1951 - Kenny Dalglish footballer and football manager
• 1951 - Chris Rea, British singer and musician
• 1953 - James Smith, boxer
• 1954 - Willie Thorne, English snooker player
• 1954 - Adrian Zmed, American actor, dancer
• 1954 - Catherine O'Hara, Canadian actress, comedienne
• 1954 - Irina Ratushinskaya, Russian writer
• 1958 - Patricia Heaton, actress (Everybody Loves Raymond)
• 1960 - Mykelti Williamson, actor
• 1961 - Ray Mancini, boxer
• 1963 - Jason Newsted, former bassist of Metallica
• 1965 - Gary Helms, Kickboxer
• 1966 - Kevin Johnson, basketball player
• 1966 - Grand Puba, rap musician
• 1967 - Evan Dando, musician
• 1968 - Patsy Kensit, actress
• 1970 - Kim Kitaine, erotic actress (d. 1999)
• 1987 - Ding Junhui, Chinese snooker player
  

  Deaths

• 1496 - Sigismund of Austria - Regent of Tyrol and Further Austria (b. 1427)
• 1619 - Anne of Denmark, consort of James I of England, (b. 1574)
• 1852 - Nikolai Gogol, writer, (b. 1809)
• 1858 - Matthew Perry, (b. 1794)
• 1868 - Jesse Chisholm, Old West pioneer (b. 1805)
• 1948 - Antonin Artaud, French avant garde actor, director, author (b. 1896)
• 1959 - Maxey Long, American athlete (b. 1878)
• 1963 - William Carlos Williams, writer, (b. 1883)
• 1977 - Andrés Caicedo, Colombian writer (b. 1951)
• 1979 - Willi Unsoeld, climber
• 1986 - Richard Manuel, Canadian musician
• 1990 - Hank Gathers, American basketball player
• 1994 - John Candy, comedian and actor, (b. 1950)
• 1996 - Minnie Pearl, country music performer (b. 1912)
• 1999 - Harry Blackmun, associate justice of the United States Supreme Court, (b. 1908)
• 1999 - Karel van het Reve, Dutch writer, (b. 1921)
• 2001 - Glenn Hughes, leather dude of popular music group The Village People
• 2001 - Harold Stassen, politician, (b. 1907)
• 2001 - Glenn Hughes, American musician (The Village People)
• 2001 - Harold Stassen, American politician
• 2003 - Jaba Ioseliani, politician (b. 1926)
• 2005 - Nicola Calipari, Italian Secret Service (b. 1953)
  

  Holidays and observances

• Catholicism - Feast day of St Casimir
• Mauritius - Maha Shivaratree
  

  External links

• BBC: On This Day

March 3 - March 5 - February 4 - April 4 -- listing of all days