November 4 is the 308th day of the year (309th in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar, with 57 days remaining.

Events

1500-1899

• 1576 - Eighty Years' War: In Belgium, Spain captures Antwerp (after three days the city was nearly destroyed).
• 1612 - Moscow China Town taken by Russian troops under command of Dmitry Pozharsky
• 1677 - The future Mary II of England marries William, Prince of Orange. They would later be known as William and Mary.
• 1852 - Count Camillo Benso di Cavour became the prime minister of Piedmont-Sardinia, which soon expanded to become Italy.
• 1861 - The University of Washington opens in Seattle, Washington as the Territorial University
• 1864 - American Civil War: Battle of Johnsonville - Confederate troops bombard a Union supply base and destroy millions of dollars in material.
• 1869 - The first issue of scientific journal Nature is published.
• 1884 - U.S. presidential election, 1884: Democrat Grover Cleveland defeats Republican James G. Blaine in a very close contest to win the first of his non-consecutive terms.
• 1889 - Menelek of Shoa obtains the allegiance of a large majority of the Ethiopian nobility, paving the way for him to be crowned emperor.
• 1890 - City & South London Railway: London's first deep level tube railway opens between King William Street and Stockwell.
• 1899 - Sigmund Freud's The Interpretation of Dreams is published.

1900-1999

• 1918 - World War I: Austria-Hungary surrenders to Italy.
• 1918 - The German Revolution began when forty-thousand sailors took over the port in Kiel.
• 1921 - The Sturmabteilung or SA is formally formed by Adolf Hitler
• 1922 - In Egypt, British archaeologist Howard Carter and his men find the entrance to King Tutankhamen's tomb in the Valley of the Kings.
• 1924 - Nellie Tayloe Ross of Wyoming elected as the first woman governor in the United States.
• 1928 - Arnold Rothstein, New York City's most notorious gambler, is shot to death over a poker game.
• 1939 - World War II: US President Franklin D. Roosevelt orders the United States Customs Service to implement the Neutrality Act of 1939, allowing cash-and-carry purchases of weapons by belligerents.
• 1942 - World War II: Second Battle of El Alamein - Disobeying a direct order by Adolf Hitler, General Field Marshal Erwin Rommel leads his forces on a five-month retreat.
• 1948 - T.S. Eliot wins the Nobel Prize in Literature.
• 1952 - U.S. presidential election, 1952: Republican Dwight D. Eisenhower defeats Democrat Adlai Stevenson.
• 1956 - Soviet troops invade Hungary to crush the Hungarian revolution that started on October 23. Thousands are killed, more are wounded and nearly a quarter million leave the country.
• 1957 - The Soviet Union launches Sputnik 2 with a dog named Laika on board, becoming the first country to launch a living creature into orbit. The capsule was not designed to be retrievable and she died a few hours later from stress and overheating.
• 1960 - Filming wraps on The Misfits, starring Marilyn Monroe and Clark Gable (this was the last film either performed in).
• 1966 - Two thirds of Florence, Italy are submerged as the Arno and Po rivers flood; 113 people die, 30,000 are rendered homeless, and countless rennaisance artworks and books are destroyed.
• 1970 - Vietnam War: Vietnamization - The United States turns control of the air base in the Mekong Delta over to South Vietnam.
• 1979 - Iran hostage crisis begins: Iranian radicals, mostly students, invade the United States embassy in Tehran and take 90 hostages (63 of whom are American).
• 1980 - U.S. presidential election, 1980: Republican challenger Ronald Reagan defeats incumbent Democrat Jimmy Carter by a wide margin.
• 1986 - The Iran-Contra scandal is first made public in Lebanese magazine "Al Shiraa".
• 1993 - Jean Chrétien takes office as Prime Minister of Canada.
• 1993 - Bolivia becomes a member of the Berne Convention copyright treaty.
• 1993 - A series of fires destroy 1000 homes in southern California, causing between 500 million and 1 billion USD of damage. Half of the fires turn out to be arson.
• 1995 - After attending a peace rally in Tel Aviv's Kings Square, Israeli prime minister Yitzhak Rabin is mortally wounded by an extreme right-wing Israeli assassin. He dies of his wounds later that night in a Tel Aviv Hospital.

2000-2099

• 2001 - Hurricane Michelle hits Cuba destroying crops and thousands of homes.
• 2001 - The Police Service of Northern Ireland is established.
• 2003 - The largest ever solar flare is recorded. (X28)

Births

1400-1899

• 1470 - King Edward V of England, one of the two Princes in the Tower
• 1631 - Mary of Orange, eldest daughter of Charles I of England and mother of William III of England
• 1744 - Johann Bernoulli, III, Swiss mathematician
• 1765 - Pierre Girard, French mathematician (d. 1836)
• 1874 - Aleksandr Vasilevich Kolchak, Russian military commander (d. 1920)
• 1879 - Will Rogers, American humorist and entertainer (d. 1935)

1900-1999

• 1909 - Skeeter Webb, American baseball player (d. 1986)
• 1912 - Vadim Salmanov, composer (d. 1978)
• 1914 - Martin Balsam, actor (d. 1996)
• 1916 - Walter Cronkite, news broadcaster
• 1918 - Art Carney, actor (d. 2003)
• 1923 - Freddy Heineken, Dutch businessman (d. 2002)
• 1929 - Doris Roberts, actress
• 1932 - Thomas Klestil, president of Austria (d. 2004)
• 1932 - Noam Pitlik, actor/director (d. 1999)
• 1937 - Loretta Swit, American actress
• 1944 - Scherrie Payne, singer; member of The Supremes
• 1946 - Robert Mapplethorpe, American photographer (d. 1989)
• 1946 - Laura Bush, First Lady of the United States
• 1955 - Matti Vanhanen, prime minister of Finland
• 1961 - Kathy Griffin, comedienne, actress
• 1961 - Ralph Macchio, actor
• 1969 - Matthew McConaughey, American actor
• 1969 - P. Diddy, American rap musician
• 1972 - Luis Figo, Portuguese football star
• 1975 - Eduard Kokcharov, Handball player

Deaths

1600-1899

• 1652 - Jean-Charles de la Faille, Belgian mathematician
• 1698 - Rasmus Bartholin, Danish mathematician
• 1847 - Felix Mendelssohn, German composer
• 1870 - Comte de Lautreamont, poet, writer

1900-1999

• 1918 - Wilfred Owen, British poet
• 1924 - Gabriel Fauré, French composer
• 1928 - Arnold Rothstein, gambler
• 1930 - Buddy Bolden, American jazz musician (b. 1877)
• 1955 - Cy Young, American baseball player
• 1956 - Art Tatum, American jazz musician
• 1968 - Michel Kikoine, Belarus painter (b. 1892)
• 1980 - Elsie MacGill, aeronautical engineer, "Queen of the Hurricanes"
• 1982 - Dominique Dunne, actress (Poltergeist) (b. 1959)
• 1986 - Kurt Hirsch, German mathematician
• 1995 - Yitzhak Rabin, Prime Minister of Israel

2000-2099

• 2000 - Ian Sneddon, British mathematician
• 2003 - Richard Wollheim, British philosopher

Holidays

• Italy - celebration of the victory on WWI, the day of the Armed Forces
• Bahá'í Faith - Feast of Qudrat (Power) - First day of the 13th month of the Bahá'í Calendar

November 3 - November 5 - October 4 - December 4 - more historical anniversaries