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 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.
• 1869 - Naval Battle of Hakodate in Japan.
• 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 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 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 stormvind" (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)
• 1781 - Karl Christian Friedrich Krause, German philosopher (d. 1832)
• 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
• 1925 - Thomas Henry Huxley, British biologist
• 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
• 1971 - Mike Dirnt, musician (Green Day)
• 1979 - Lance Bass, musician (NSYNC)
• 1994 - Alexander Gould, actor (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