August 4

August 4 is the 216th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (217th in leap years), with 149 days remaining.

Events

• 1265 - The Battle of Evesham of the Second Barons' War is fought in Worcestershire, with the army of future King Edward I of England defeating the forces of rebellious barons led by Simon de Montfort, 6th Earl of Leicester and killing de Montfort and many of his allies. This is sometimes considered the death of chivalry in England.
• 1578 - Battle of Al Kasr al Kebir - Moroccans defeat Portuguese. King Sebastian of Portugal is defeated and killed in North Africa, 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.
• 1704 - During the War of the Spanish Succession an Anglo-Dutch force seizes the rock of Gibraltar.
• 1735 - Freedom of the press: New York Weekly Journal writer John Peter Zenger is acquitted of seditious libel against the royal governor of New York, on the basis that what he published was true.
• 1753 - George Washington, then a young Virginia planter, becomes a Master Mason, the highest basic rank in the secret fraternity of Freemasonry.
• 1789 - The feudal system is abolished in France.
• 1790 - A newly passed tariff act creates the Revenue Cutter Service (the forerunner of the United States Coast Guard).
• 1821 - Atkinson & Alexander publish the Saturday Evening Post for the first time as a weekly newspaper.
• 1824 - Battle of Cos fought between Turks and Greeks.
• 1854 - The Hinomaru is established as the official flag to be flown from Japanese ships.
• 1873 - Indian Wars: While protecting a railroad survey party in Montana, the United States 7th Cavalry, under Lieutenant Colonel George Armstrong Custer, clash for the first time with the Sioux (near the Tongue River; only one man on each side is killed).
• 1892 - The family of Lizzie Borden is found murdered in their Fall River, Massachusetts home.
• 1902 - Greenwich foot tunnel under the River Thames opens.
• 1914 - World War I: Germany invaded Belgium; in response, the United Kingdom declares war on Germany. The United States proclaims neutrality.
• 1944 - Holocaust: A tip from a Dutch informer leads the Gestapo to a sealed-off area in an Amsterdam warehouse where they find Jewish diarist Anne Frank and her family.
• 1947 - The Supreme Court of Japan is established.
• 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.
  • Vietnam War: United States destroyers USS Maddox and USS C. Turner Joy are attacked in the Gulf of Tonkin. Air support from the carrier USS Ticonderoga sinks two, possibly three North Vietnamese gunboats.
• 1969 - Vietnam War: At the apartment of French intermediary Jean Sainteny in Paris, US representative Henry Kissinger and North Vietnamese representative Xuan Thuy begin secret peace negotiations. The negotiations will eventually fail.
• 1975 - The Japanese Red Army takes more than 50 hostages at the AIA building housing several embassies in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. The hostages included the U.S. consul and the Swedish charge 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.
• 1983 - Thomas Sankara becomes president of Upper Volta.
  • New York Yankee outfielder Dave Winfield accidentally killed a seagull during a baseball game and was charged by police for his "act of cruelty to animals". His manager Billy Martin quipped, "It's the first time he's hit the cutoff man."
• 1984 - The African republic Upper Volta changes its name to Burkina Faso.
• 1985 - In one of the most exciting days in sports, Tom Seaver of the Chicago White Sox won his 300th game and Rod Carew of the California Angels picked up his 3000th hit. It marked the only day in which two men reached baseball's three biggest milestones in the same day.
• 1987 - The Federal Communications Commission rescinds the Fairness Doctrine which had required radio and television stations to "fairly" present controversial issues.
• 1991 The Greek cruise ship Oceanos sinks off the 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.
• 1997 - 185,000 Teamsters union United Parcel Service drivers walk off the job.
• 2005 - Prime Minister Paul Martin announces that Michaëlle Jean will be Canada's 27th — and first black — Governor General.

Births

1222 to 1899

• 1222 - Richard de Clare, 6th Earl of Hertford, English soldier (d. 1262)
• 1290 - Duke Leopold I of Austria (d. 1326)
• 1521 - Pope Urban VII, (d. 1590)
• 1604 - François Hédelin, abbé d'Aubignac, French writer (d. 1676)
• 1701 - Thomas Blackwell, Scottisl classical scholar (d. 1757)
• 1719 - Johann Gottlob Lehmann, German minerologist and geologist (d. 1767)
• 1721 - Granville Leveson-Gower, 1st Marquess of Stafford, English politician (d. 1803)
• 1792 - Percy Bysshe Shelley, English poet (d. 1822)
• 1805 - William Rowan Hamilton, Irish mathematician (d. 1865)
• 1834 - John Venn, British mathematician (d. 1923)
• 1840 - Richard von Krafft-Ebing, German psychiatrist (d. 1902)
• 1859 - Knut Hamsun, Norwegian writer, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1952)
• 1899 - Ezra Taft Benson, president of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (d. 1994)

1900 to 1999

• 1900 - Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon, Queen Mother of the United Kingdom (d. 2002)
• 1901 - Louis Armstrong, American musician (d. 1971)
• 1904 - Witold Gombrowicz, Polish novelist and dramatist (d. 1969)
• 1906 - Eugen Schuhmacher, German zoologist (d. 1973)
• 1908 - Kurt Eichhorn, German conductor (d. 1994)
• 1909 - Glenn Cunningham, American politician (d. 2004)
• 1910 - William Schuman, American composer (d. 1992)
• 1912 - Aleksandr Danilovich Aleksandrov, Russian mathematician, physicist, philosopher, and mountaineer (d. 1999)
• 1912 - Raoul Wallenberg, Swedish diplomat
• 1913 - Robert Hayden, American poet (d. 1980)
• 1921 - Maurice Richard, Canadian hockey player (d. 2000)
• 1927 - Jess Thomas, American tenor (d. 1993)
• 1929 - Yasser Arafat, Palestine leader (d. 2004)
• 1929 - Kishore Kumar, Indian singer and actor (d. 1987)
• 1936 - Assia Djebar, Algerian writer and filmmaker
• 1937 - David Bedford, English musician
• 1942 - David Lange, Prime Minister of New Zealand (d. 2005)
• 1943 - Bjørn Wirkola, Norwegian ski jumper
• 1944 - Richard Belzer, American actor and comedian
• 1947 - Klaus Schulze, German composer
• 1955 - Billy Bob Thornton, American actor and writer
• 1958 - Mary Decker, American athlete
• 1960 - Dean Malenko, American professional wrestler
• 1960 - José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, Prime Minister of Spain
• 1961 - Barack Obama, American politician
• 1962 - Roger Clemens, baseball player
• 1967 - Mike Marsh, American athlete
• 1968 - Marcus Schenkenberg, Swedish model
• 1970 - Michael DeLuise, American actor
• 1971 - Jeff Gordon, American race car driver
• 1972 - Stefan Brogren, Canadian actor
• 1977 - Luis Boa Morte, Portuguese footballer
• 1978 - Kurt Busch, American race car driver
• 1992 - Dylan and Cole Sprouse twin actors

Deaths

1060 to 1899

• 1060 - King Henry I of France (b. 1008)
• 1265 - Killed in the Battle of Evesham:
  • Hugh le Despencer, 1st Baron le Despencer (b. 1223)
  • Henry de Montfort (b. 1238)
  • Peter de Montfort
  • Simon de Montfort, 6th Earl of Leicester (b. 1208)
• 1306 - King Wenceslaus III of Bohemia (b. 1289)
• 1338 - Thomas of Brotherton, 1st Earl of Norfolk, son of Edward I of England (b. 1300)
• 1526 - Juan Sebastián Elcano, Spanish explorer (b. 1476)
• 1578 - King Sebastian of Portugal (b. 1554)
• 1578 - Thomas Stucley, English adventurer
• 1598 - William Cecil, 1st Baron Burghley, English statesman (b. 1520)
• 1612 - Hugh Broughton, English scholar (b. 1549)
• 1639 - Juan Ruiz de Alarcón, Mexican dramatist
• 1727 - Victor-Maurice, comte de Broglie, French general (b. 1647)
• 1741 - Andrew Hamilton, American lawyer
• 1784 - Giovanni Battista Martini, Italian musician (b. 1706)
• 1795 - Timothy Ruggles, American-born Tory politician (b. 1711)
• 1875 - Hans Christian Andersen, Danish writer (b. 1805)

1900 to 1999

• 1938 - Pearl White, American actress (b. 1889)
• 1976 - Roy Herbert Thomson, Lord Thomson of Fleet, Canadian publisher (b. 1894)
• 1981 - Melvyn Douglas, American actor (b. 1901)
• 1998 - Yuri Artyukhin, cosmonaut (b. 1930)
• 1999 - Victor Mature, American actor (b. 1915)

2000 onwards

• 2001 - Lorenzo Music, American actor, writer, and producer (b. 1937)

Holidays and observances

• Roman Catholicism - Saint John Vianney – Patron Saint of Priests
• Burkina Faso - Anniversary of the Revolution
• Cook Islands - Constitution Day (celebrations begin on the last Friday in July and last up to 2 weeks.)
• El Salvador - Transfiguration Bank Holiday
• Ancient Egypt - Jubilation of the Heart of Re

External links

• BBC: On This Day

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