May 4Birthdays & History

On this day: May 4 in history

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

1. 1256The Augustinian monastic order is constituted at the Lecceto Monastery when Pope Alexander IV issues a papal bull Licet ecclesiae catholicae.Europe
2. 1415Religious reformer John Wycliffe is condemned as a heretic at the Council of Constance.Europe
3. 1436Assassination of the Swedish rebel (later national hero) Engelbrekt Engelbrektsson (27 April O.S.).Europe
4. 1471Wars of the Roses: The Battle of Tewkesbury: Edward IV defeats a Lancastrian Army and kills Edward of Westminster, Prince of Wales.Europe
5. 1493In the papal bull Inter caetera, Pope Alexander VI divides the New World between Spain and Portugal along the Line of Demarcation.Europe
6. 1626Having been appointed the director-general of New Netherland, Dutch explorer Peter Minuit arrives in present day Manhattan Island aboard the See Meeuw.EuropeNorth America
7. 1738The Imperial Theatrical School, the first ballet school in Russia, is founded.Europe
8. 1776Rhode Island becomes the first American colony to renounce allegiance to King George III.North America
9. 1799Fourth 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.Europe
10. 1814Emperor Napoleon arrives at Portoferraio on the island of Elba to begin his exile.Europe
11. 1814King Ferdinand VII abolishes the Spanish Constitution of 1812, returning Spain to absolutism.Europe
12. 1823Brazilian War of Independence: A Brazilian squadron led by Lord Cochrane engages a Portuguese squadron under João de Campos off Salvador, Bahia.Latin AmericaEurope
13. 1836Formation of Ancient Order of Hibernians.North America
14. 1859The Cornwall Railway opens across the Royal Albert Bridge linking Devon and Cornwall in England.Europe
15. 1869The 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.Asia
16. 1871The National Association, the first professional baseball league, opens its first season in Fort Wayne, Indiana.North America
17. 1886Haymarket 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.North America
18. 1904The United States begins construction of the Panama Canal.North AmericaLatin America
19. 1910The Royal Canadian Navy is created.North America
20. 1912Italy begins the invasion and occupation of the Ottoman island of Rhodes.EuropeMiddle East
21. 1919May Fourth Movement: Student demonstrations take place in Tiananmen Square in Beijing, China, protesting the Treaty of Versailles, which transferred Chinese territory to Japan.AsiaAsia
22. 1926The United Kingdom general strike begins.Europe
23. 1927The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences is incorporated.North America
24. 1932Having 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.North America
25. 1942World War II: The Battle of the Coral Sea begins with an attack by aircraft from the United States aircraft carrier USS Yorktown on Japanese naval forces at Tulagi Island in the Solomon Islands. The Japanese forces had invaded Tulagi the day before.North AmericaAsiaOceania
26. 1945World 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.Europe
27. 1945World War II: Neuengamme concentration camp near Hamburg is liberated by the British Army.Europe
28. 1946In 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.North America
29. 1949The 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.Europe
30. 1953Ernest Hemingway wins the Pulitzer Prize for The Old Man and the Sea.North America
31. 1959The 1st Annual Grammy Awards are held.North America
32. 1961American civil rights movement: The "Freedom Riders" begin a bus trip through the South.North America
33. 1961Malcolm 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).North America
34. 1970Vietnam 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.AsiaNorth America
35. 1972The Don't Make A Wave Committee, a fledgling environmental organization founded in Canada in 1971, officially changes its name to Greenpeace Foundation.North America
36. 1973The 108-story Sears Tower in Chicago is topped out at 1,451 feet (442 m) as the world's tallest building.North America
37. 1978The South African Defence Force attacks a SWAPO base at Cassinga in southern Angola, killing about 600 people.Africa
38. 1979Margaret Thatcher becomes the first female Prime Minister of the United Kingdom.Europe
39. 1982Twenty sailors are killed when the British Type 42 destroyer HMS Sheffield is hit by an Argentinian Exocet missile during the Falklands War.EuropeLatin America
40. 1988The PEPCON disaster rocks Henderson, Nevada, as tons of Space Shuttle fuel detonate during a fire.North America
41. 1989Space Shuttle Atlantis launches on mission STS-30 to deploy the Venus-bound Magellan space probe.North America
42. 1989Iran–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.Middle EastNorth America
43. 1990Latvia declares independence from the Soviet Union.Europe
44. 1994Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin and PLO leader Yasser Arafat sign a peace accord, granting self-rule in the Gaza Strip and Jericho.Middle East
45. 1998A 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.North America
46. 2000Ken Livingstone becomes the first Mayor of London (an office separate from that of the Lord Mayor of London).Europe
47. 2002One hundred three people are killed and 51 are injured in a plane crash near Mallam Aminu Kano International Airport in Kano, Nigeria.Africa
48. 2007Greensburg, 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.North America
49. 2014Three people are killed and 62 injured in a pair of bombings on buses in Nairobi, Kenya.Africa
50. 2019The 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.Europe
51. 2023Nine 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.Europe

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