August 4

August 4 is the 216th day of the year (217th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. There are 149 days remaining until the end of the year.

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.
• 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.
• 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.
• 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 parents 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 Jewish diarist Anne Frank and her family.
• 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.
• 1954 – The Government of Pakistan approves Qaumi Tarana, written by Hafeez Jullundhry and composed by Ahmed Ghulamali Chagla, as the national anthem.
• 1958 – The Billboard Hot 100 is founded.
• 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".
• 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, was overturned by Judge Vaughn Walker in the case Perry v. Schwarzenegger.

Births

• 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, Scottish 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)
• 1755 – Nicolas-Jacques Conté, French painter and inventor (d. 1805)
• 1792 – Percy Bysshe Shelley, English poet (d. 1822)
• 1805 – William Rowan Hamilton, Irish mathematician (d. 1865)
• 1821 – James Springer White, American theologian, co-founder of the Seventh-day Adventist Church (d. 1881)
• 1821 – Louis Vuitton, French designer (d. 1892)
• 1834 – John Venn, English mathematician (d. 1923)
• 1844 – Henri Berger, German composer and royal bandmaster (d. 1929)
• 1848 – Vladimir Sukhomlinov, Russian general (d. 1926)
• 1859 – Knut Hamsun, Norwegian writer, Nobel Laureate (d. 1952)
• 1865 – Gus Kempis, South African cricketer (d. 1890)
• 1867 – Jake Beckley, American baseball player (d. 1918)
• 1870 – Sir Harry Lauder, Scottish entertainer (d. 1950)
• 1884 – Henri Cornet, French cyclist (d. 1941)
• 1888 – Syedna Taher Saifuddin, Indian Dawoodi Bohra leader, 51st Da'i al-Mutlaq (d. 1965)
• 1890 – Dolf Luque, Cuban baseball player (d. 1957)
• 1899 – Ezra Taft Benson, American 13th president of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (d. 1994)
• 1900 – Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon (Queen Elizabeth, The Queen Mother), Queen consort of King George VI of the United Kingdom (d. 2002)
• 1901 – Louis Armstrong, American jazz trumpeter and singer (d. 1971)
• 1901 – Clarence Passailaigue, Jamaican cricketer (d. 1972)
• 1902 – Wild Bill Hallahan, American baseball player (d. 1981)
• 1904 – Witold Gombrowicz, Polish novelist and dramatist (d. 1969)
• 1904 – Helen Kane, American singer, dancer, and actress (d. 1966)
• 1904 – Joe Tate, English footballer (d. 1973)
• 1906 – Eugen Schuhmacher, German zoologist (d. 1973)
• 1906 – Marie-José of Belgium, Belgian-born Queen consort of Italy, widow of King Umberto II of Italy (d. 2001)
• 1908 – Kurt Eichhorn, German conductor (d. 1994)
• 1909 – Glenn Cunningham, American middle-distance runner (d. 1988)
• 1909 – Saunders Mac Lane, American mathematician (d. 2005)
• 1910 – William Schuman, American composer (d. 1992)
• 1910 – Anita Page, American actress (d. 2008)
• 1910 – Hedda Sterne, Romanian-born American painter and printmaker
• 1912 – Aleksandr Danilovich Aleksandrov, Russian mathematician, physicist, philosopher and mountaineer (d. 1999)
• 1912 – Raoul Wallenberg, Swedish diplomat (d. 1947)
• 1913 – Robert Hayden, American poet (d. 1980)
• 1915 – Warren Avis, American entrepreneur (d. 2007)
• 1918 – Iceberg Slim (a.k.a. Robert Beck), American author of urban fiction (d. 1992)
• 1919 – Michel Déon, French writer
• 1920 – Helen Thomas, American journalist
• 1921 – Herb Ellis, American jazz guitarist (d. 2010)
• 1921 – Maurice Richard, Canadian ice hockey player (d. 2000)
• 1923 – Reg Grundy, Australian media and television mogul
• 1923 – Mushtaq Ahmad Yusufi, Pakistani satirical and humor writer
• 1926 – George Irving Bell, American mountaineer (d. 2000)
• 1927 – Jess Thomas, American tenor (d. 1993)
• 1928 – Christian Goethals, Belgian racing driver (d. 2003)
• 1929 – Kishore Kumar, Indian singer and actor (d. 1987)
• 1930 – Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, Iranian Shi'a cleric
• 1931 – Naren Tamhane, Indian cricketer (d. 2002)
• 1937 – David Bedford, English keyboardist and composer
• 1938 – Ellen Schrecker, American college professor
• 1939 – Frank Vincent, American actor
• 1940 – Abdurrahman Wahid, 4th President of Indonesia (d. 2009)
• 1940 – Timi Yuro, American singer (d. 2004)
• 1941 – Martin Jarvis, English actor
• 1941 – Ted Strickland, American politician, 68th Governor of Ohio
• 1942 – Don S. Davis, American actor and painter (d. 2008)
• 1942 – Cleon Jones, American baseball player
• 1942 – David Lange, New Zealand politician (d. 2005)
• 1943 – Bjørn Wirkola, Norwegian ski jumper
• 1943 – Vicente Alberto Álvarez Areces, Spanish politician, President of the Government of the Principality of Asturias
• 1944 – Richard Belzer, American actor and comedian
• 1944 – Doudou Ndoye‎, Senegalese lawyer and politician
• 1945 – Alan Mulally, American businessman, chairman of Ford Motor Company
• 1946 – Maureen Starkey, English ex-wife of Ringo Starr (d. 1994)
• 1947 – Klaus Schulze, German composer
• 1948 – Johnny Grubb, American baseball player
• 1949 – John Riggins, American football player
• 1952 – Moya Brennan, Irish singer
• 1952 – Gábor Demszky, Hungarian politician
• 1954 – François Valéry, French singer-songwriter and composer
• 1955 – Gerrie Coetzee, South African boxer
• 1955 – Alberto Gonzales, 80th U.S. Attorney General
• 1955 – Billy Bob Thornton, American actor and writer
• 1956 – Gerry Cooney, American boxer
• 1957 – Brooks D. Simpson, American historian
• 1957 – John Wark, Scottish footballer
• 1958 – Ian Broudie, English music producer and vocalist (Lightning Seeds)
• 1958 – Allison Hedge Coke, American poet and writer
• 1958 – Mary Decker, American middle-distance runner
• 1958 – Kym Karath, American actress
• 1959 – Robbin Crosby, American guitarist (Ratt) (d. 2002)
• 1959 – John Gormley, Irish politician
• 1960 – Dean Malenko, American professional wrestler
• 1960 – Bernard Rose, English director
• 1960 – Tim Winton, Australian writer
• 1960 – José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, 5th Prime Minister of Spain
• 1961 – Barack Obama, 44th President of the United States, Nobel Peace Prize laureate
• 1961 – Lauren Tom, American actress
• 1962 – Roger Clemens, American baseball player
• 1962 – Paul Reynolds, British guitarist (A Flock of Seagulls)
• 1964 – Andrew Bartlett, Australian politician and activist
• 1964 – Gary King, British radio presenter
• 1965 – Dennis Lehane, American crime writer
• 1965 – Fredrik Reinfeldt, 42nd Prime Minister of Sweden
• 1965 – Crystal Chappell, American actress
• 1966 – Kensuke Sasaki, Japanese professional wrestler
• 1967 – Timothy Adams, American actor
• 1967 – Michael Marsh, American sprinter
• 1968 – Daniel Dae Kim, American actor
• 1968 – Marcus Schenkenberg, Swedish model
• 1969 – Michael DeLuise, American actor
• 1969 – Troy O'Leary, American baseball player
• 1969 – Max Cavalera, Brazilian vocalist and guitarist (Sepultura, Soulfly)
• 1970 – John August, American screenwriter
• 1970 – Steve House, American mountaineer
• 1970 – Steven Jack, South African cricketer
• 1971 – Jeff Gordon, American race car driver
• 1972 – Stefan Brogren, Canadian actor
• 1973 – Eva Amaral, Spanish singer and songwriter
• 1973 – Xavier Marchand, French swimmer
• 1974 – Kily González, Argentine footballer
• 1974 – Keenan Milton, American professional skater (d. 2001)
• 1975 – Andy Hallett, American actor (d. 2009)
• 1975 – Nikos Liberopoulos, Greek footballer
• 1975 – Daniella van Graas, Dutch model and actress
• 1976 – Andrew McLeod, Australian footballer
• 1977 – Frankie Kazarian, American professional wrestler
• 1977 – Luís Boa Morte, Portuguese footballer
• 1978 – Kurt Busch, American race car driver
• 1979 – Robin Peterson, South African cricketer
• 1980 – Richard Dawson, English cricketer
• 1981 – Frédérick Bousquet, French swimmer
• 1981 – Marques Houston, American singer (IMx) and actor
• 1981 – Ben Scott, English cricketer
• 1984 – Mardy Collins, American basketball player
• 1985 – Crystal Bowersox, American singer
• 1985 – Mark Milligan, Australian footballer
• 1985 – Ha Seung-Jin, Korean basketball player
• 1985 – Luis Antonio Valencia, Ecuadorean footballer
• 1985 – Kina Grannis, American musician
• 1987 – Jang Geun Suk, Korean actor
• 1989 – Jessica Mauboy, Australian singer (Young Divas)
• 1992 – Dylan and Cole Sprouse, Italy-born American child actors, identical twins
• 1992 – Tiffany Evans, American singer
• 1994 – Mayuko Fukuda, Japanese actress
• 2001 – Seishiro Kato, Japanese child actor

Deaths

• 1060 – King Henry I of France (b. 1008)
• 1113 – Gertrude of Saxony, daughter of Bernard II, Duke of Saxony and wife of Floris I, Count of Holland (b. 1030)
• 1265 – Killed in the Battle of Evesham:
  • Hugh le Despencer, 1st Baron le Despencer (b. 1223)
  • Henry de Montfort (b. 1238)
  • Peter de Montfort (b. c. 1215)
  • Simon de Montfort, 6th Earl of Leicester (b. 1208)
• 1306 – King Wenceslaus III of Bohemia, Hungary and Poland (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
• 1718 – René Lepage de Sainte-Claire, French lord-founder of the town of Rimouski in New France (b. 1656)
• 1727 – Victor-Maurice, comte de Broglie, French general (b. 1647)
• 1741 – Andrew Hamilton, American lawyer
• 1778 – Pierre de Rigaud, French colonial governor in North America (b. 1698)
• 1792 – John Burgoyne, British general (b. 1723)
• 1795 – Timothy Ruggles, American politician (b. 1711)
• 1844 – Jakob Aall, Norwegian journalist and statesman (b. 1773)
• 1859 – Jean Vianney, French priest (b. 1786)
• 1873 – Viktor Hartmann, Russian painter (b. 1834)
• 1875 – Hans Christian Andersen, Danish writer (b. 1805)
• 1886 – Samuel Jones Tilden, Governor of New York and Democratic candidate for President of the United States in the 1876 presidential election (b. 1814)
• 1900 – Isaac Levitan, Russian painter (b. 1860)
• 1914 – Jules Lemaître, French critic and dramatist (b. 1853)
• 1919 – Dave Gregory, Australian cricketer (b. 1845)
• 1938 – Pearl White, American actress (b. 1889)
• 1957 – Washington Luís, 13th President of Brazil (b. 1869)
• 1958 – Ethel Anderson, Australian poet (b. 1883)
• 1967 – Peter Smith, English cricketer (b. 1908)
• 1976 – Roy Herbert Thomson, Canadian publisher (b. 1894)
• 1976 – Enrique Angelelli, Argentine bishop (b. 1923)
• 1981 – Melvyn Douglas, American actor (b. 1901)
• 1982 – Bruce Goff, American architect (b. 1904)
• 1985 – Don Whillans, British mountaineer (b. 1933)
• 1991 – Nikiforos Vrettakos, Greek writer and poet (b. 1912)
• 1992 – Seicho Matsumoto, Japanese writer and journalist (b. 1909)
• 1993 – Bernard Barrow, American actor (b. 1927)
• 1996 – Geoff Hamilton, British gardener and broadcaster (b. 1936)
• 1997 – Jeanne Calment, French supercentenarian, the world's oldest human on record and the only person ever to live past the age of 120 (b. 1875)
• 1998 – Yuri Artyukhin, Russian cosmonaut (b. 1930)
• 1999 – Victor Mature, American actor (b. 1915)
• 1999 – Rodney Ansell, Australian who was the inspiration for Crocodile Dundee (b. 1953)
• 2000 – Leslie Glass, American adult film actress (b. 1963)
• 2001 – Lorenzo Music, American actor (b. 1937)
• 2003 – Frederick Chapman Robbins, American pediatrician and virologist, Nobel Laureate (b. 1916)
• 2005 – Anatoly Larkin, Russian-born American physicist (b. 1932)
• 2007 – Lee Hazlewood, American country singer, songwriter and producer (b. 1929)
• 2007 – Raul Hilberg, Austrian-born American political scientist and historian of the Holocaust (b. 1926)
• 2008 – Craig Jones, English motorcycle racer (b. 1985)
• 2009 – Blake Snyder, American screenwriter (b. 1957)

Holidays and observances

• Christian Feast Day
  • Jean-Marie Vianney
  • Sithney, patron saint of mad dogs
• Constitution Day (Cook Islands)
• Matica Slovenská Day (Slovakia)
• Revolution Day (Burkina Faso)
• The first day of Fiestas de la Virgen Blanca (Vitoria-Gasteiz)

External links

• BBC: On This Day
• The New York Times: On This Day
• On This Day in Canada