On this day: 4 May
Events, births and deaths on 4 May. Every date is checked against Wikidata.
Years ago today
1 year ago2025
Nothing recorded for that year.
10 years ago2016
- Deaths · Jean-Baptiste Bagaza
100 years ago1926
- Events · 1926 United Kingdom general strike
1000 years ago1026
Within 100 years of that
- 1008 · Births · Henry I of France
- 1006 · Births · Khwaja Abdullah Ansari
- 1038 · Deaths · Gotthard of Hildesheim
Events · 21
- 1471Battle of Tewkesbury — 1471 battle
- 1677Battle of Surabaya (1677) — battle during the Trunajaya rebellion
- 1799Fourth Anglo-Mysore War — war
- 1823Battle of 4 May — 1823 naval battle during the Brazilian War of Independence
- 1869Naval Battle of Hakodate — 1869 battle
- 1886Haymarket affair — aftermath of a bombing that took place at a labor demonstration on Tuesday, May 4, 1886, at Haymarket Square in Chicago
- 1910Royal Canadian Navy — maritime warfare branch of Canada's military
- 1912Battle of Rhodes — 1912 battle in the Italo-Turkish War
- 1919May Fourth Movement — Chinese cultural and political movement beginning with protests on 4 May 1919 in Beijing
- 19261926 United Kingdom general strike — May 1926 UK labour dispute
- 1942Battle of the Coral Sea — 1942 major naval battle in the Pacific Theater of World War II
- 1949Superga air disaster — aviation accident
- 1961Freedom Riders — U.S. activists who rode interstate buses in interracial groups to show the continuing prevalence of segregation
- 1970Kent State shootings — 1970 shootings in Kent, Ohio, US during student-led protest of Vietnam War
- 1988PEPCON disaster — 1988 explosion and fire at a Nevada chemical plant
- 2000Mayor of London — directly elected mayor who leads the Greater London Authority
- 20002000 London mayoral election — mayoral election in London
- 2002EAS Airlines Flight 4226 — aviation accident
- 20072007 Greensburg tornado — 2007 EF5 tornado in Kansas, U.S
- 20192019 W Series — 2019 women's-only Racing Event
- 2023Mladenovac and Smederevo shootings — Mass shooting in Serbia
Births · 60
- 1006(Julian date)Khwaja Abdullah Ansari — 11th-century Sufi scholar and saint
- 1008Henry I of France — king of the Franks from 1031 to 1060 (1008–1060)
- 1654Kangxi Emperor — 3rd Emperor of the Qing dynasty (r. 1661–1722)
- 1655Bartolomeo Cristofori — Italian maker of musical instruments (1655–1731)
- 1677Françoise Marie de Bourbon — French duchess, princess
- 1733Jean-Charles de Borda — French scientist, political advisor and sailor (1733-1799)
- 1767Tyagaraja — Indian composer of Carnatic music
- 1770François Gérard — French painter (1770–1837)
- 1772Friedrich Arnold Brockhaus — German encyclopedia publisher and editor (1772-1823)
- 1794Heinrich Boie — German zoologist (1794–1827)
- 1796Horace Mann — American politician (1796-1859)
- 1796William Hickling Prescott — American historian and Hispanist (1796–1859)
- 1825Thomas Henry Huxley — British biologist and comparative anatomist (1825–1895)
- 1826Frederic Edwin Church — American landscape painter (1826–1900)
- 1827John Hanning Speke — British military officer and explorer (1827–1864)
- 1852Alice Liddell — English woman, basis of the character in "Alice in Wonderland" (1852–1934)
- 1883Wang Jingwei — Chinese politician, leader of Wang Jingwei regime (1883-1944)
- 1889Francis Spellman — American Roman Catholic cardinal (1889–1967)
- 1904Umm Kulthum — Egyptian singer and actress (1904–1975)
- 1913Princess Katherine of Greece and Denmark — youngest child of King Constantine I of Greece and Sophia of Prussia
- 1916Jane Jacobs — American–Canadian journalist, author, and activist (1916–2006)
- 1918Kakuei Tanaka — Japanese politician (1918–1993)
- 1923Eric Sykes — English actor and director (1923-2012)
- 1925Ruth First — South African politician (1925-1982)
- 1928Hosni Mubarak — President of Egypt from 1981 to 2011
Deaths · 60
- 783(Julian date)Arbeo of Freising — Medieval bishop and author
- 1003(Julian date)Herman II, Duke of Swabia — German noble (died 1003)
- 1038(Julian date)Gotthard of Hildesheim — 11th‑century German Benedictine abbot and bishop of Hildesheim, Cluniac reformer and Catholic saint
- 1406(Julian date)Coluccio Salutati — Italian humanist
- 1436Engelbrekt Engelbrektsson — regent (1390–1436)
- 1471(Julian date)Edward of Westminster — Prince of Wales
- 1506Husayn Bayqarah — Timurid monarch
- 1519(Julian date)Lorenzo de' Medici, Duke of Urbino — Italian noble (1492-1519)
- 1571Pierre Viret — Swiss theologian
- 1604Claudio Merulo — Italian organist and composer
- 1605Ulisse Aldrovandi — Italian naturalist (1522-1605)
- 1615Adriaan van Roomen — Belgian mathematician (1561–1615)
- 1677Isaac Barrow — English Christian theologian, and mathematician (1630-1677)
- 1729Louis Antoine de Noailles — Catholic cardinal (1651-1729)
- 1734James Thornhill — British painter (1675-1734)
- 1774Duke Anthony Ulrich of Brunswick — Russian general (1714-1774)
- 1799Tipu Sultan — Ruler of the Kingdom of Mysore from 1782 to 1799
- 1816Samuel Dexter — American politician (1761–1816) who served in Congress and in Presidential Cabinets of John Adams and Thomas Jefferson
- 1824Joseph Joubert — French moralist and essayist
- 1859Joseph Diez Gergonne — French mathematician
- 1903Gotse Delchev — Macedonian Bulgarian revolutionary (1872–1903)
- 1912Nettie Stevens — American geneticist (1861–1912)
- 1916Joseph Plunkett — Irish nationalist, poet, journalist and 1916 Easter Rising leader
- 1919Milan Rastislav Štefánik — Slovak politician, diplomat, French Army general and astronomer (1880-1919)
- 1922Viktor Kingissepp — Estonian communist revolutionary (1888-1922)
Dates verified against Wikidata (CC0). Titles and descriptions come from Wikidata.