August
4
Events
70 – The
destruction of the Second Temple in Jerusalem by the Romans.
367 – Gratian, son of Roman Emperor Valentinian I, is named
co-Augustus by his father and associated to the throne aged
eight.
1265 – Second Barons' War: Battle of Evesham – the army of Prince
Edward (the future king Edward I of England) defeats the forces
of rebellious barons led by Simon de Montfort, 6th Earl of Leicester,
killing de Montfort and many of his allies.
1327 – First War of Scottish Independence: James Douglas leads
a raid into Weardale and almost kills Edward III of England.
1532 – the Duchy of Brittany is annexed to the Kingdom of France.
1578 – Battle of Al Kasr al Kebir – the Moroccans defeat the
Portuguese. King Sebastian of Portugal is killed in the battle,
leaving his elderly uncle, Cardinal Henry, as his heir. This
initiates a succession crisis in Portugal.
1693 – Date traditionally ascribed to Dom Perignon's invention
of Champagne, although he actually did not have anything to
do with sparkling wine.
1704 – War of the Spanish Succession: Gibraltar is captured
by an English and Dutch fleet, commanded by Admiral Sir George
Rooke and allied with Archduke Charles.
1789 – In France members of the National Constituent Assembly
take an oath to end feudalism and abandon their privileges.
1790 – A newly passed tariff act creates the Revenue Cutter
Service (the forerunner of the United States Coast Guard).
1791 – The Treaty of Sistova is signed, ending the Ottoman-Habsburg
wars.
1796 – French Revolutionary Wars: Napoleon leads the French
Army of Italy to victory in the Battle of Lonato.
1821 – Atkinson & Alexander publish the Saturday Evening
Post for the first time as a weekly newspaper.
1824 – The Battle of Kos is fought between Turk and Greek forces.
1854 – The Hinomaru is established as the official flag to be
flown from Japanese ships.
1863 – Matica slovenská, Slovakia's public-law cultural and
scientific institution focusing on topics around the Slovak
nation, is established in Martin.
1873 – Indian Wars: whilst protecting a railroad survey party
in Montana, the United States 7th Cavalry, under Lieutenant
Colonel George Armstrong Custer clashes for the first time with
the Sioux near the Tongue River; only one man on each side is
killed.
1892 – The father and stepmother of Lizzie Borden are found
murdered in their Fall River, Massachusetts home.
1902 – The Greenwich foot tunnel under the River Thames opens.
1906 – Central Railway Station, Sydney opens.
1914 – World War I: Germany invades Belgium. In response, the
United Kingdom declares war on Germany. The United States declare
their neutrality.
1916 – World War I: Liberia declares war on Germany.
1924 – Diplomatic relations between Mexico and the Soviet Union
are established.
1936 – Prime Minister of Greece Ioannis Metaxas suspends parliament
and the Constitution and establishes the 4th of August Regime.
1944 – The Holocaust: a tip from a Dutch informer leads the
Gestapo to a sealed-off area in an Amsterdam warehouse where
they find and arrest Jewish diarist Anne Frank, her family,
and four others.
1946 – An earthquake of magnitude 8.0 hits northern Dominican
Republic. 100 are killed and 20,000 are left homeless.
1947 – The Supreme Court of Japan is established.
1958 – The Billboard Hot 100 is published for the first time.
1964 – American civil rights movement: civil rights workers
Michael Schwerner, Andrew Goodman and James Chaney are found
dead in Mississippi after disappearing on June 21.
1964 – Gulf of Tonkin Incident: U.S. destroyers USS Maddox and
USS Turner Joy report coming under attack in the Gulf of Tonkin.
1965 – The Constitution of Cook Islands comes into force, giving
the Cook Islands self-governing status within New Zealand.
1969 – Vietnam War: at the apartment of French intermediary
Jean Sainteny in Paris, American representative Henry Kissinger
and North Vietnamese representative Xuan Thuy begin secret peace
negotiations. The negotiations will eventually fail.
1974 – A bomb explodes in the Italicus Express train at San
Benedetto Val di Sambro, Italy, killing 12 people and wounding
22.
1975 – The Japanese Red Army takes more than 50 hostages at
the AIA Building housing several embassies in Kuala Lumpur,
Malaysia. The hostages include the U.S. consul and the Swedish
chargé d’affaires. The gunmen win the release of five imprisoned
comrades and fly with them to Libya.
1977 – US President Jimmy Carter signs legislation creating
the United States Department of Energy.
1984 – The Republic of Upper Volta changes its name to Burkina
Faso.
1987 – The Federal Communications Commission rescinds the Fairness
Doctrine which had required radio and television stations to
present controversial issues "fairly".
1989 – Licence to Kill goes on general cinema release in the
United Kingdom.
1991 – The Greek cruise ship MTS Oceanos sinks off the Wild
Coast of South Africa.
1993 – A federal judge sentences LAPD officers Stacey Koon and
Laurence Powell to 30 months in prison for violating motorist
Rodney King's civil rights.
1995 – Operation Storm begins in Croatia.
2002 – Soham murders: 10 year old school girls Jessica Chapman
and Holly Wells go missing from the town of Soham, Cambridgeshire,
United Kingdom.
2005 – Prime Minister Paul Martin announces that Michaëlle Jean
will be Canada's 27th Governor General.
2006 – A massacre, is carried out by Sri Lankan government forces,
killing 17 employees of the French INGO Action Against Hunger
(known internationally as Action Contre la Faim, or ACF).
2007 – NASA's Phoenix spaceship is launched.
2007 – Airport police officer María del Luján Telpuk discovers
a suitcase containing the undeclared sum of US$800,000 as it
goes through an x-ray machine in Aeroparque Jorge Newbery in
Buenos Aires, sparking an international scandal involving Venezuela
and Argentina known as "Maletinazo".
2010 – California's Proposition 8, the ballot initiative prohibiting
same-sex marriage passed by the state's voters in 2008, is overturned
by Judge Vaughn Walker in the case Perry v. Schwarzenegger.
Holidays
and observances
Christian
Feast Day:
Jean-Marie Vianney
Sithney, patron saint of mad dogs
August 4 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics)
Coast Guard Day (U.S.)
Constitution Day (Cook Islands)
Johnny Cash Day (Arkansas)
Matica Slovenská Day (Slovakia)
Revolution Day (Burkina Faso)
The first day of Fiestas de la Virgen Blanca (Vitoria-Gasteiz)
For details, contact Datacentre
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