May 4 May 4 is the 124th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (125th in leap years). There are 241 days remaining. Events 1400-1899 1471 - Wars of the Roses: The Battle of Tewkesbury - Edward IV defeats a Lancastrian Army and kills Edward, Prince of Wales. 1493 - Pope Alexander VI divides the New World between Spain and Portugal along the Demarcation Line. 1494 - Christopher Columbus lands in Jamaica. 1626 - Dutch explorer Peter Minuit arrives in New Netherland (present day Manhattan Island) aboard the See Meeuw. 1675 - King Charles II of England orders the construction of the Greenwich Observatory. 1776 - Rhode Island becomes the first American colony to renounce allegiance to King George III. 1814 - Emperor Napoleon I of France arrives at Portoferraio on the island of Elba to begin his exile. 1855 - American adventurer William Walker departs from San Francisco with about 60 men to conquer Nicaragua. 1863 - American Civil War: Battle of Chancellorsville - The battle ends with a Union retreat. 1871 - The National Association, the first professional baseball league, begins its first season. 1886 - Haymarket Square Riot: A bomb is thrown at policemen trying to break up a labor rally in Chicago, Illinois, killing 8 and wounding 60. The police fire into the crowd. 1900-1999 1904 - Construction begins on the Panama Canal. 1910 - The Royal Canadian Navy is created. 1912 - Italy occupies the island of Rhodes. 1919 - May Fourth Movement: Student demonstrations take place in Tiananmen Square in Beijing, China, protesting the Treaty of Versailles, which had transferred Chinese territory to Japan. 1924 - The 1924 Summer Olympics open in Paris, France. 1930 - British police arrest Mahatma Gandhi and place him in Yeravda Central Prison. 1932 - In Atlanta, Georgia, mobster Al Capone begins to serve an eleven year sentence for tax evasion. 1942 - World War II: Battle of the Coral Sea - The battle begins with the launch of attack aircraft from American and Japanese aircraft carriers. 1945 - World War II: Liberation of the concentration camp Neuengamme near Hamburg by the British Army. 1945 - World War II: Surrender of the North Germany Army to Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery. 1946 - In San Francisco Bay, US Marines from the Treasure Island Marine Barracks stop a two-day riot at Alcatraz federal prison. Five people were killed in the riot. 1948 - Norman Mailer's first novel, The Naked and the Dead, is published. 1953 - Ernest Hemingway is awarded the Pulitzer Prize for The Old Man and the Sea 1959 - The first Grammy Awards are announced. 1961 - American civil rights movement: The "Freedom Riders" begin a bus trip through the South. 1964 - The soap opera Another World debuts on NBC in the United States. 1970 - Vietnam War: Kent State shootings - The Ohio National Guard, sent to Kent State University after the ROTC building was burnt down, opens fire on students protesting at the United States' invasion of Cambodia. Four students are killed, 9 are wounded. 1974 - An all-female Japanese team reaches the summit of Manaslu, becoming the first women to climb an 8,000 metre peak. 1979 - Margaret Thatcher becomes the first woman Prime Minister of the United Kingdom. 1985 - In Gothenburg, Sweden, Bobbysocks win the thirtieth Eurovision Song Contest for Norway singing "La det swinge" (Let it swing). 1989 - Iran-Contra Affair: Former White House aide Oliver North is convicted of three crimes and was acquitted of nine other charges. The convictions, however, were later overturned on appeal. 1990 - Latvia proclaims independence. 1991 In Rome, Italy, Carola wins the thirty-sixth Eurovision Song Contest for Sweden singing "Fångad av en stormwind" (Trapped in a storm wind). 1994 - Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin and PLO leader Yasser Arafat sign a peace accord regarding Palestinian autonomy granting self-rule in the Gaza Strip and Jericho. 1996 - José María Aznar is appointed Prime Minister of Spain, thus ending 13 years of Socialist rule. 1998 - A federal judge in Sacramento, California gives "Unabomber" Theodore Kaczynski four life sentences plus 30 years after Kaczynski accepted a plea agreement sparing him from the death penalty. 1999 - Several tornadoes hit the Midwestern part of the United States during the night killing at least 45 people. 1999 - In California, Manuel Babbitt is executed for the 1980 murder of Leah Schendel. While on death row Babbitt was awarded a Purple Heart for injuries he received in the Vietnam War. 2000-2099 2002 - An EAS Airlines BAC 1-11-500 crashes in a suburb of Kano, Nigeria shortly after takeoff killing more than 148 people. 2003 - The Outbreak of 2003 begins. Ninety-four tornadoes begin the week-long outbreak. Births 1000-1899 1008 - King Henry I of France (d. 1060) 1733 - Jean-Charles de Borda, French mathematician, physicist, political scientist, and sailor (d. 1799) 1772 - Friedrich Arnold Brockhaus, German publisher (d. 1823) 1796 - Horace Mann, American educator (d. 1859) 1820 - Julia Tyler, First Lady of the United States (d. 1889) 1825 - Thomas Henry Huxley, English scientist (d. 1895) 1826 - Frederic Edwin Church, painter (d. 1900) 1827 - John Hanning Speke, British explorer (d. 1864) 1852 - Alice Pleasance Liddell, for whom Lewis Carroll wrote Alice in Wonderland (d. 1934) 1873 - Joe De Grasse, Canadian film director (d. 1940) 1889 - Francis Cardinal Spellman, American religious leader (d. 1967) 1900-1999 1918 - Tanaka Kakuei, Japanese political leader (d. 1993) 1921 - Edo Murtić, Croatian painter 1923 - Eric Sykes, British actor and comedian 1928 - Maynard Ferguson, jazz musician 1928 - Hosni Mubarak, President of Egypt 1929 - Audrey Hepburn, Belgian actress (d. 1993) 1929 - Sidney Lamb, linguist 1930 - Roberta Peters, American soprano 1936 - El Cordobes, bullfighter 1937 - Dick Dale, guitarist 1941 - George Will, writer 1942 - Tammy Wynette, country musician (d. 1998) 1942 - Nickolas Ashford, producer, songwriter, musician (Ashford and Simpson) 1944 - Roger Rees, British-born actor 1945 - Narasinham Ram, journalist 1949 - John Force, NHRA drag racer 1954 - Pia Zadora, actress 1956 - David Guterson, author 1956 - Ulrike Meyfarth, winner of Olympic Games in the high jump 1958 - Keith Haring, graphical artist (d. 1990) 1959 - Randy Travis, country musician 1967 - Ana Gasteyer, actress 1968 - Loren Kahle, tennis player 1971 - Mike Dirnt, musician (Green Day) 1979 - Lance Bass, musician (NSYNC) 1994 - Alexander Gould, Nemo in Finding Nemo Deaths 1700-1899 1799 - Tipu Sultan, Muslim Indian military leader (b. c. 1750) 1824 - Joseph Joubert, French essayist and moralist (b. 1754) 1849 - Hokusai, painter and ukiyo-e artist (b. 1760) 1880 - Edward Clark, governor of Texas (b. 1815) 1900-1999 1903 - Goce Delchev, Bulgarian revolutionary (b. 1872) 1975 - Moe Howard, actor, comedian; member of the Three Stooges (b. 1897) 1980 - Josip Broz Tito, president of Yugoslavia (b. 1892) 1984 - Bob Clampett, cartoonist, creator of Bugs Bunny (b. 1913) 1984 - Diana Dors, British actress (b. 1931) Holidays and observances International - World Asthma Day The Netherlands - Remembrance of the dead (1940-1945) China - Youth Day (observing May Fourth Movement) May 3 - May 5 - April 4 - June 4 -- listing of all days FAVORITE ARTICLES: History of the World    History of the United States    History of Europe    Ancient History    History    Military History    World War I    Bombing of Dresden    California    US Constitution    Frank Sinatra    Boston    Marbury v. Madison This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License at http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html You may copy and modify it as long as the entire work (including additions) remains under this license. You must provide a link to http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html To view or edit this article at Wikipedia go to http://www.wikipedia.org/wiki/May_4