May 4

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 Royal 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.
• 1869 - Naval Battle of Hakodate in Japan.
• 1871 - The National Association, the first professional baseball league, begins its first season.
• 1886 - Haymarket Square Riot: A bomb is thrown at policemen trying to break up a labor rally in Chicago, 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 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 serving an eleven-year prison 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 Neuengamme concentration camp 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 are killed in the riot.
• 1948 - Norman Mailer's first novel, The Naked and the Dead, is published.
• 1949 - The entire Torino football (soccer) team (except for one player who did not take the trip due to an injury) is killed in a plane crash at the Superga hill at the edge of Turin, Italy.
• 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.
• 1963 - A fire at a theater in Diourbel, Senegal kills 64 people.
• 1964 - The soap opera Another World debuts on NBC in the United States.
• 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-meter peak.
• 1979 - Margaret Thatcher becomes the first woman Prime Minister of the United Kingdom.
• 1985 - In Gothenburg, Sweden, Bobbysocks win the thirtieth Eurovision Song Contest for Norway singing "La det swinge" (Let it swing).
• 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, are later overturned on appeal.
• 1990 - Latvia proclaims independence.
• 1991 In Rome, Italy, Carola wins the thirty-sixth Eurovision Song Contest for Sweden singing "Fĺngad av en stormvind" (Trapped in a storm wind).
• 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, German publisher (d. 1823)
• 1781 - Karl Christian Friedrich Krause, German philosopher (d. 1832)
• 1796 - Horace Mann, American educator (d. 1859)
• 1820 - Julia Tyler, First Lady of the United States (d. 1889)
• 1825 - Thomas Henry Huxley, English 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, Canadian film director (d. 1940)
• 1889 - Francis Cardinal Spellman, American 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 - Maynard Ferguson, jazz musician
• 1928 - Hosni Mubarak, President of Egypt
• 1929 - Audrey Hepburn, Belgian actress (d. 1993)
• 1929 - Sidney Lamb, linguist
• 1930 - Roberta Peters, American soprano
• 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)
• 1944 - Roger Rees, British-born actor
• 1945 - Narasinham Ram, journalist
• 1949 - John Force, NHRA drag racer
• 1954 - Pia Zadora, actress
• 1956 - David Guterson, author
• 1956 - Ulrike Meyfarth, winner of Olympic Games in the high jump
• 1958 - Keith Haring, graphical artist (d. 1990)
• 1959 - Randy Travis, country musician
• 1962 - Oleta Adams, US singer
• 1967 - Ana Gasteyer, actress
• 1971 - Mike Dirnt, musician (Green Day)
• 1979 - Lance Bass, musician (NSYNC)
• 1994 - Alexander Gould, actor (Finding Nemo)
  

  Deaths

• 1799 - Tipu Sultan, Muslim Indian military leader (b. c. 1750)
• 1824 - Joseph Joubert, French essayist and moralist (b. 1754)
• 1849 - Hokusai, painter and ukiyo-e artist (b. 1760)
• 1880 - Edward Clark, governor of Texas (b. 1815)
• 1903 - Goce Delchev, Bulgarian revolutionary (b. 1872)
• 1975 - Moe Howard, actor, comedian; member of the Three Stooges (b. 1897)
• 1980 - Josip Broz Tito, president of Yugoslavia (b. 1892)
• 1984 - Bob Clampett, cartoonist, creator of Bugs Bunny (b. 1913)
• 1984 - Diana Dors, British actress (b. 1931)
• 1986 - Henri Toivonen, Finnish rally car driver (b. 1956)
  

  Holidays and observances

• International - World Asthma Day
• The Netherlands - Remembrance of the dead (1940-1945)
• China - Youth Day (observing May Fourth Movement)
  

  External links

• BBC: On This Day

May 3 - May 5 - April 4 - June 4 -- listing of all days