Events
of the day
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.
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
