4 July

414 – Emperor Theodosius II, age 13, yields power to his older sister Aelia Pulcheria who reigns as regent and proclaimed herself empress (Augusta) of the Eastern Roman Empire.
836 – Pactum Sicardi, peace between the Principality of Benevento and the Duchy of Naples.
993 – Saint Ulrich of Augsburg is canonized.
1054 – A supernova is seen by Chinese, Arab, and possibly Amerindian observers near the star Zeta Tauri. For several months it remains bright enough to be seen during the day. Its remnants form the Crab Nebula.
1120 – Jordan II of Capua is anointed as prince after his infant nephew's death.
1187 – The Crusades: Battle of Hattin – Saladin defeats Guy of Lusignan, King of Jerusalem.
1253 – Battle of West-Capelle: John I of Avesnes defeats Guy of Dampierre.
1359 – Francesco II Ordelaffi of Forlì surrenders to the Papal commander Gil de Albornoz.
1456 – The Siege of Nándorfehérvár (Belgrade) begins. (Part of the Ottoman wars in Europe)
1534 – Christian III is elected King of Denmark and Norway in the town of Rye.
1569 – The King of Poland and the Grand Duke of Lithuania, Sigismund II Augustus finally sign the document of union between Poland and Lithuania, creating new country known as Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth.
1610 – The Battle of Klushino between forces of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth and Russia during the Polish-Muscovite War.
1634 – The city of Trois-Rivières is founded in New France (Quebec, Canada)
1636 – City of Providence, Rhode Island forms.
1744 – The Treaty of Lancaster, in which the Iroquois ceded lands between the Allegheny Mountains and the Ohio River to the British colonies, is signed in Lancaster, Pennsylvania.
1754 – French and Indian War: George Washington surrenders Fort Necessity to French Capt. Louis Coulon de Villiers.
1774 – Orangetown Resolutions adopted in the Province of New York, one of many protests against the British Parliament's Coercive Acts

The United States declares its independence in 1776.
1776 – American Revolution: The United States Declaration of Independence is adopted by the Second Continental Congress.
1778 – American Revolutionary War: American forces under George Clark capture Kaskaskia during the Illinois campaign.
1802 – At West Point, New York the United States Military Academy opens.
1803 – The Louisiana Purchase is announced to the American people.
1810 – The French occupy Amsterdam.
1817 – At Rome, New York, United States, construction on the Erie Canal begins.
1826 – Thomas Jefferson, third president of the United States, dies the same day as John Adams, second president of the United States, on the fiftieth anniversary of the adoption of the United States Declaration of Independence.
1827 – Slavery is abolished in New York State.
1831 – Samuel Francis Smith wrote My Country, 'Tis of Thee for the Boston, MA July 4th festivities.
1837 – Grand Junction Railway, the world's first long-distance railway, opens between Birmingham and Liverpool.
1838 – The Iowa Territory is organized.
1855 – In Brooklyn, New York, the first edition of Walt Whitman's book of poems, titled Leaves of Grass, is published.
1862 – Lewis Carroll tells Alice Liddell a story that would grow into Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and its sequels.
1863 – American Civil War: Siege of Vicksburg – Vicksburg, Mississippi surrenders to Ulysses S. Grant after 47 days of siege. 150 miles up the Mississippi River, a Confederate Army is repulsed at the Battle of Helena, Arkansas.
1863 – American Civil War: The Army of Northern Virginia withdraws from the battlefield after its loss at the Battle of Gettysburg, signalling an end to the Southern invasion of the North.
1865 – Alice's Adventures in Wonderland is published.
1878 – Thoroughbred horses Ten Broeck and Mollie McCarty run a match race, immortalized in the song Molly and Tenbrooks.
1879 – Anglo-Zulu War: the Zululand capital of Ulundi is captured by British troops and burnt to the ground, thus, ending the war and forcing King Cetshwayo to flee.
1881 – In Alabama, the Tuskegee Institute opens.
1886 – The people of France offer the Statue of Liberty to the people of the United States.
1886 – The first scheduled Canadian transcontinental train arrives in Port Moody, British Columbia.
1887 – The founder of Pakistan, Quaid-i-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah, joins Sindh-Madrasa-tul-Islam, Karachi.
1892 – Western Samoa changes the International Date Line, so that year there were 367 days in this country, with two occurrences of Monday, July 4.
1894 – The short-lived Republic of Hawaii is proclaimed by Sanford B. Dole.
1903 – Dorothy Levitt is reported as the first woman in the world to compete in a 'motor race'.
1910 – African-American boxer Jack Johnson knocks out white boxer Jim Jeffries in a heavyweight boxing match sparking race riots across the United States.
1913 – President Woodrow Wilson addresses American Civil War veterans at the Great Reunion of 1913.
1918 – Ottoman sultan Mehmed VI ascends to the throne.
1918 – Bolsheviks kill Tsar Nicholas II of Russia and his family (Julian calendar date).
1927 – First flight of the Lockheed Vega.
1934 – Leo Szilard patents the chain-reaction design for the atomic bomb.
1939 – Lou Gehrig, recently diagnosed with Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, tells a crowd at Yankee Stadium that he considers himself "The luckiest man on the face of the earth" as he announces his retirement from major league baseball.
1941 – Nazi Germans massacre Polish scientists and writers in the captured Ukrainian city of Lviv.
1943 – World War II: Beginning of the Battle of Kursk, the largest full-scale battle in history and the world's largest tank battle at Prokhorovka village.
1946 – After 381 years of near-continuous colonial rule by various powers, the Philippines attains full independence from the United States.
1947 – The "Indian Independence Bill" is presented before the British House of Commons, proposing the partition of the Provinces of British India into two sovereign countries – India and Pakistan.
1950 – The first broadcast by Radio Free Europe.
1951 – A court in Czechoslovakia sentences American journalist William N. Oatis to ten years in prison on a charge of espionage.
1960 – Due to the post-Independence Day admission of Hawaii as the 50th U.S. state on August 21, 1959, the 50-star flag of the United States debuts in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania almost ten and a half months later (see Flag Act).
1966 – President Lyndon B. Johnson signs the Freedom of Information Act into United States law. The act goes into effect the next year.
1969 – Two teens (one male, one female) are attacked at Blue Rock Springs in California. They are the second (known) victims of the Zodiac Killer. The male survives.
1976 – Israeli commandos raid Entebbe airport in Uganda, rescuing all but four of the passengers and crew of an Air France jetliner seized by Palestinian terrorists.
1977 – The George Jackson Brigade plants a bomb at the main power substation for the Washington state capitol in Olympia in solidarity with a prison strike at the Walla Walla State Penitentiary Intensive Security Unit
1982 – Iranian diplomats kidnapping (1982): four Iranian diplomats are kidnapped by Lebanese militia in Lebanon.
1987 – In France, former Gestapo chief Klaus Barbie (aka the "Butcher of Lyon") is convicted of crimes against humanity and is sentenced to life imprisonment.
1993 – Sumitomo Chemical's resin plant in Nihama explodes killing one worker and injuring three others.
1997 – NASA's Pathfinder space probe lands on the surface of Mars.
2004 – The cornerstone of the Freedom Tower is laid on the site of the World Trade Center in New York City.
2005 – The Deep Impact collider hits the comet Tempel 1.
2006 – North Korea tests four short-range missiles, one medium-range missile, and a long-range Taepodong-2. The long-range Taepodong-2 reportedly fails in mid-air over the Sea of Japan.
2009 – The Statue of Liberty's crown reopens to the public after 8 years, due to security reasons following the World Trade Center attacks.

Holidays and observances

Christian Feast Day:
Andrew of Crete
Bertha of Artois
Bl Catherine Jarrige
Elizabeth of Portugal, patron saint of Coimbra (city holiday), known there as Rainha Santa Isabela.
Oda of Canterbury
Bl Pier Giorgio Frassati
Ulrich of Augsburg
July 4 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics)
Filipino-American Friendship Day (Philippines)
Independence Day, celebrates the Declaration of Independence of the United States from Great Britain in 1776. (United States and its dependencies)
Liberation Day (Rwanda)