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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