March 4Birthdays & History

On this day: March 4 in history

Oldest first. Tap a year to see it on the World Chronicle timeline.

1. 51Nero, later to become Roman emperor, is given the title princeps iuventutis (head of the youth).Europe
2. 306Martyrdom of Saint Adrian of Nicomedia.Middle East
3. 581Yang Jian declares himself Emperor Wen of Sui, ending the Northern Zhou and beginning the Sui dynasty.Asia
4. 852Croatian Knez Trpimir I issues a statute, a document with the first known written mention of the Croats name in Croatian sources.Europe
5. 938Translation of the relics of martyr Wenceslaus I, Duke of Bohemia, Prince of the Czechs.Europe
6. 1152Frederick I Barbarossa is elected King of Germany.Europe
7. 1171Alexios II Komnenos is crowned Byzantine co-emperor to his father Manuel I Komnenos.Europe
8. 1238The Battle of the Sit River begins two centuries of Mongol horde domination of Rus.Asia
9. 1351Ramathibodi becomes King of Siam.Asia
10. 1386Władysław II Jagiełło (Jogaila) is crowned King of Poland.Europe
11. 1461Wars of the Roses in England: Lancastrian King Henry VI is deposed by his House of York cousin, who then becomes King Edward IV.Europe
12. 1493Explorer Christopher Columbus arrives back in Lisbon, Portugal, aboard his ship Niña from his voyage to what are now The Bahamas and other islands in the Caribbean.EuropeLatin America
13. 1519Hernán Cortés arrives in Mexico in search of the Aztec civilization and its wealth.Latin America
14. 1628The Massachusetts Bay Colony is granted a Royal charter.North America
15. 1665English King Charles II declares war on the Netherlands, marking the start of the Second Anglo-Dutch War.Europe
16. 1675John Flamsteed is appointed the first Astronomer Royal of England.Europe
17. 1681Charles II grants a land charter to William Penn for the area that will later become Pennsylvania.North America
18. 1686After being unofficially established as a settlement in 1678, the Dominican mission of Ilagan is founded in the Philippines.Asia
19. 1773Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart departs Italy after the last of his three tours there.Europe
20. 1776American Revolutionary War: The Continental Army fortifies Dorchester Heights with cannon, leading the British troops to abandon the Siege of Boston.North AmericaEurope
21. 1789In New York City, the first Congress of the United States meets, putting the United States Constitution into effect.North America
22. 1790France is divided into 83 départements, cutting across the former provinces in an attempt to dislodge regional loyalties based on ownership of land by the nobility.Europe
23. 1791Vermont is admitted to the United States as the fourteenth state.North America
24. 1794The 11th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution is passed by the U.S. Congress.North America
25. 1797John Adams is inaugurated as the 2nd President of the United States of America, becoming the first President to begin his presidency on March 4.North America
26. 1804Castle Hill Rebellion: Irish convicts rebel against British colonial authority in the Colony of New South Wales.Europe
27. 1813Cyril VI of Constantinople is elected Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople.Middle East
28. 1814War of 1812: Americans defeat British forces at the Battle of Longwoods between London, Ontario and Thamesville, near present-day Wardsville, Ontario.EuropeNorth America
29. 1837The city of Chicago is incorporated.North America
30. 1848Carlo Alberto di Savoia signs the Statuto Albertino that will later represent the first constitution of the Regno d'Italia.Europe
31. 1849Zachary Taylor, 12th President of the United States of America and Millard Fillmore, 12th Vice President, did not take their respective oaths of office (they did so the following day), leading to the erroneous theory that outgoing President pro tempore of the United States Senate David Rice Atchison had assumed the role of acting president for one day.North America
32. 1861The first national flag of the Confederate States of America (the "Stars and Bars") is adopted.North America
33. 1865U.S. politician Andrew Johnson makes his drunk vice-presidential inaugural address in Washington, D.C.North America
34. 1865The third and final national flag of the Confederate States of America is adopted by the Confederate Congress.North America
35. 1878Pope Leo XIII reestablishes the Catholic Church in Scotland, recreating sees and naming bishops for the first time since 1603.Europe
36. 1882Britain's first electric trams run in east London.Europe
37. 1890The longest bridge in Great Britain, the Forth Bridge in Scotland, measuring 8,094 feet (2,467 m) long, is opened by the Duke of Rothesay, later King Edward VII.Europe
38. 1899Cyclone Mahina sweeps in north of Cooktown, Queensland, with a 12 metres (39 ft) wave that reaches up to 5 kilometres (3.1 mi) inland, killing over 300.Oceania
39. 1901William McKinley is inaugurated President of the United States for the second time; Theodore Roosevelt is vice president.North America
40. 1908The Collinwood school fire, Collinwood near Cleveland, Ohio, kills 174 people.North America
41. 1909U.S. President William Howard Taft uses what became known as a Saxbe fix, a mechanism to avoid the restriction of the U.S. Constitution's Ineligibility Clause, to appoint Philander C. Knox as U.S. Secretary of State.North America
42. 1913First Balkan War: The Greek army engages the Turks at Bizani, resulting in victory two days later.EuropeMiddle East
43. 1913The United States Department of Labor is formed.North America
44. 1917Jeannette Rankin of Montana becomes the first female member of the United States House of Representatives.North America
45. 1918A case of influenza is recorded at Camp Funston, Kansas, conventionally marking the beginning of the worldwide Spanish flu pandemic.North AmericaEurope
46. 1933Franklin D. Roosevelt is inaugurated as the 32nd President of the United States.North America
47. 1933The Parliament of Austria is suspended because of a quibble over procedure – Chancellor Engelbert Dollfuss initiates an authoritarian rule by decree.Europe
48. 1933The United States Senate confirms Frances Perkins as United States Secretary of Labor and she is sworn in the same day, making her the first female member of the United States Cabinet.North America
49. 1941World War II: The United Kingdom launches Operation Claymore on the Lofoten Islands, the first large-scale British Commando raid.Europe
50. 1943World War II: The Battle of the Bismarck Sea in the south-west Pacific comes to an end.Oceania
51. 1943World War II: The Battle of Fardykambos, one of the first major battles between the Greek Resistance and the occupying Royal Italian Army, begins. It ends on 6 March with the surrender of an entire Italian battalion and the liberation of the town of Grevena.Europe
52. 1944World War II: After the success of Big Week, the USAAF begins a daylight bombing campaign of Berlin.Europe
53. 1946The sixth President of Finland, Gustaf Mannerheim, submits his resignation for health reasons.Europe
54. 1955An order to protect the endangered Saimaa ringed seal (Pusa hispida saimensis) is legalized.Europe
55. 1957The S&P 500 stock market index is introduced, replacing the S&P 90.North America
56. 1960The French freighter La Coubre explodes in Havana, Cuba, killing 100.EuropeLatin America
57. 1962A Caledonian Airways Douglas DC-7 crashes shortly after takeoff from Cameroon, killing 111 – the worst crash of a DC-7.Africa
58. 1966A Canadian Pacific Air Lines DC-8-43 explodes on landing at Tokyo International Airport, killing 64 people.North AmericaAsia
59. 1966In an interview in the London Evening Standard, the Beatles' John Lennon declares that the band is "more popular than Jesus now".Europe
60. 1970French submarine Eurydice explodes underwater, resulting in the loss of the entire 57-man crew.Europe
61. 1976The Northern Ireland Constitutional Convention is formally dissolved in Northern Ireland, resulting in direct rule of Northern Ireland from London by the British parliament.Europe
62. 1977The 1977 Vrancea earthquake in eastern and southern Europe kills more than 1,500, mostly in Bucharest, Romania.Europe
63. 1980Nationalist leader Robert Mugabe wins a sweeping election victory to become Zimbabwe's first black prime minister.Africa
64. 1985The Food and Drug Administration approves a blood test for HIV infection, used since then for screening all blood donations in the United States.North America
65. 1986The Soviet Vega 1 begins returning images of Halley's Comet and the first images of its nucleus.Europe
66. 1990Lennox Sebe, President for life of the South African Bantustan of Ciskei, is ousted from power in a bloodless military coup led by Brigadier Oupa Gqozo.Africa
67. 1990American basketball player Hank Gathers dies after collapsing during the semifinals of a West Coast Conference tournament game.North America
68. 1994Space Shuttle program: The Space Shuttle Columbia is launched on STS-62.North America
69. 1996A derailed train in Weyauwega, Wisconsin (USA) causes the emergency evacuation of 2,300 people for 16 days.North America
70. 1998Gay rights: Oncale v. Sundowner Offshore Services, Inc.: 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.North America
71. 2001BBC bombing: A massive car bomb explodes in front of the BBC Television Centre in London, seriously injuring one person; the attack was attributed to the Real IRA.Europe
72. 2002Afghanistan: Seven American Special Operations Forces soldiers and 200 Al-Qaeda Fighters are killed as American forces attempt to infiltrate the Shah-i-Kot Valley on a low-flying helicopter reconnaissance mission.AsiaNorth America
73. 2009The International Criminal Court (ICC) issues an arrest warrant for Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir for war crimes and crimes against humanity in Darfur. Al-Bashir is the first sitting head of state to be indicted by the ICC since its establishment in 2002.Africa
74. 2012A series of explosions is reported at a munitions dump in Brazzaville, the capital of the Republic of the Congo, killing at least 250 people.Africa
75. 2015At least 34 miners die in a suspected gas explosion at the Zasyadko coal mine in the rebel-held Donetsk region of Ukraine.Europe
76. 2018Former MI6 spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter are poisoned with a Novichok nerve agent in Salisbury, England, causing a diplomatic uproar that results in mass-expulsions of diplomats from all countries involved.Europe
77. 2020Nik Wallenda becomes the first person to walk over the Masaya Volcano in Nicaragua.Latin America

Source: Wikipedia "March 4" / CC BY-SA 4.0