May
4
Independence
Day
Latvia : May 4 1990
May
4 : International Firefighters Day
International
Firefighters' Day (IFFD) is observed on May 4. It was instituted
after proposal emailed out across the world on January 4, 1999
due to the deaths of five firefighters in tragic circumstances
in a wildfire in Australia. May 4 used to be a traditional Firefighters'
Day in many European countries, because it is the day of Saint
Florian, patron saint of firefighters.
Events
1256 – The Augustinian monastic order is constituted at the
Lecceto Monastery when Pope Alexander IV issues a papal bull
Licet ecclesiae catholicae.
1415 – Religious reformers John Wycliffe and Jan Hus are condemned
as heretics at the Council of Constance.
1436 – Assassination of the Swedish rebel (later national hero)
Engelbrekt Engelbrektsson
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 Line of Demarcation.
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 Royal Greenwich Observatory.
1686 – The Municipality of Ilagan is founded in the Philippines.
1776 – Rhode Island becomes the first American colony to renounce
allegiance to King George III.
1799 – Fourth Anglo-Mysore War: The Battle of Seringapatam:
The siege of Seringapatam ends when the city is invaded and
Tipu Sultan killed by the besieging British army, under the
command of General George Harris.
1814 – Emperor Napoleon I of France arrives at Portoferraio
on the island of Elba to begin his exile.
1814 – King Ferdinand VII of Spain signs the Decrete of the
4th of May, returning Spain to absolutism.
1836 – Formation of Ancient Order of Hibernians
1855 – American adventurer William Walker departs from San Francisco
with about 60 men to conquer Nicaragua.
1859 – The Cornwall Railway opens across the Royal Albert Bridge
linking the counties of Devon and Cornwall in England.
1863 – American Civil War: The Battle of Chancellorsville ends
with a Union retreat.
1869 – The Naval Battle of Hakodate Bay is fought in Japan.
1871 – The National Association, the first professional baseball
league, opens its first season in Fort Wayne, Indiana.
1886 – Haymarket Square Riot: A bomb is thrown at policemen
trying to break up a labor rally in Chicago, Illinois, United
States, killing eight and wounding 60. The police fire into
the crowd.
1904 – The United States begins construction of the Panama Canal.
1904 – Charles Stewart Rolls meets Frederick Henry Royce at
the Midland Hotel in Manchester, England.
1910 – The Royal Canadian Navy is created.
1912 – Italy occupies the Greek island of Rhodes.
1919 – May Fourth Movement: Student demonstrations take place
in Tiananmen Square in Beijing, China, protesting the Treaty
of Versailles, which transferred Chinese territory to Japan.
1932 – In Atlanta, Georgia, mobster Al Capone begins serving
an eleven-year prison sentence for tax evasion.
1942 – World War II: The Battle of the Coral Sea begins with
an attack by aircraft from the United States aircraft carrier
USS Yorktown on Japanese naval forces at Tulagi Island in the
Solomon Islands. The Japanese forces had invaded Tulagi the
day before.
1945 – World War II: Neuengamme concentration camp near Hamburg
is liberated by the British Army.
1945 – World War II: The North German Army surrenders to Field
Marshal Bernard Montgomery.
1946 – In San Francisco Bay, U.S. Marines from the nearby Treasure
Island Naval Base stop a two-day riot at Alcatraz federal prison.
Five people are killed in the riot.
1949 – The entire Torino football team (except for two players
who did not take the trip: Sauro Tomà, due to an injury and
Renato Gandolfi, because of coach request) is killed in a plane
crash at the Superga hill at the edge of Turin, Italy.
1953 – Ernest Hemingway wins the Pulitzer Prize for The Old
Man and the Sea.
1959 – The 1st Grammy Awards are held.
1961 – American civil rights movement: The "Freedom Riders"
begin a bus trip through the South.
1970 – Vietnam War: Kent State shootings: the Ohio National
Guard, sent to Kent State University after disturbances in the
city of Kent the weekend before, opens fire killing four unarmed
students and wounding nine others. The students were protesting
the United States' invasion of Cambodia.
1972 – The Don't Make A Wave Committee, a fledgling environmental
organization founded in Canada in 1971, officially changes its
name to "Greenpeace Foundation".
1974 – An all-female Japanese team reaches the summit of Manaslu,
becoming the first women to climb an 8,000-meter peak.
1979 – Margaret Thatcher becomes the first female Prime Minister
of the United Kingdom.
1982 – Twenty sailors are killed when the British Type 42 destroyer
HMS Sheffield is hit by an Argentinian Exocet missile during
the Falklands War.
1988 – The PEPCON disaster rocks Henderson, Nevada, as tons
of space shuttle fuel detonate during a fire.
1989 – Iran-Contra Affair: Former White House aide Oliver North
is convicted of three crimes and acquitted of nine other charges.
The convictions, however, are later overturned on appeal.
1990 – Latvia proclaims the renewal of its independence after
the Soviet occupation.
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.
1998 – A federal judge in Sacramento, California, gives "Unabomber"
Theodore Kaczynski four life sentences plus 30 years after Kaczynski
accepts a plea agreement sparing him from the death penalty.
2000 – Ken Livingstone becomes the first Mayor of London.
2001 – The Milwaukee Art Museum addition, the first Santiago
Calatrava-designed structure in the United States, opens to
the public.
2002 – An EAS Airlines BAC 1-11-500 crashes in a suburb of Kano,
Nigeria shortly after takeoff killing more than 148 people.
2007 – Greensburg, Kansas is almost completely destroyed by
a 1.7 mi wide EF-5 tornado.
Holidays
and observances
Bird Day
(United States)
Cassinga Day (Namibia)
Deep Day (Eritrea)
Christian Feast Day:
Blessed Ceferino Giménez Malla
Florian
Gotthard of Hildesheim
Judas Cyriacus
Monica of Hippo
Sacerdos of Limoges
Venerius of Milan
May 4 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics)
Day of the adoption of the Declaration of independence (Latvia)
Death of Milan Rastislav Štefánik Day (Slovakia)
Greenery Day (Japan)
International Firefighters' Day
May Fourth Movement commemorations:
Literary Day (Republic of China)
Youth Day (People's Republic of China)
Remembrance Day for Martyrs and Disabled (Afghanistan)
Remembrance of the Dead (Netherlands)
Star Wars Day
Youth Day (Fiji)
For details, contact Datacentre
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