August 4th. TODAY IN HISTORY

August 4 is the 216th day of the year (217th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. There are 149 days remaining until the end of the year.


70 – The destruction of the Second Temple in Jerusalem by the Romans.

367 – Gratian, son of Roman Emperor Valentinian I, is named co-Augustus by his father and associated to the throne aged eight.

1265 – Second Barons' War: Battle of Evesham – the army of Prince Edward (the future king Edward I of England) defeats the forces of rebellious barons led by Simon de Montfort, 6th Earl of Leicester, killing de Montfort and many of his allies.

1327 – First War of Scottish Independence: James Douglas leads a raid into Weardale and almost kills Edward III of England.

1532 – the Duchy of Brittany is annexed to the Kingdom of France.

1578 – Battle of Al Kasr al Kebir – the Moroccans defeat the Portuguese. King Sebastian of Portugal is killed in the battle, leaving his elderly uncle, Cardinal Henry, as his heir. This initiates a succession crisis in Portugal.

1693 – Date traditionally ascribed to Dom Perignon's invention of Champagne, although he actually did not have anything to do with sparkling wine.

1704 – War of the Spanish Succession: Gibraltar is captured by an English and Dutch fleet, commanded by Admiral Sir George Rooke and allied with Archduke Charles.

1789 – In France members of the National Constituent Assembly take an oath to end feudalism and abandon their privileges.

1790 – A newly passed tariff act creates the Revenue Cutter Service (the forerunner of the United States Coast Guard).

1791 – The Treaty of Sistova is signed, ending the Ottoman–Habsburg wars.

1796 – French Revolutionary Wars: Napoleon leads the French Army of Italy to victory in the Battle of Lonato.

1821 – Atkinson & Alexander publish The Saturday Evening Post for the first time as a weekly newspaper.

1824 – The Battle of Kos is fought between Turk and Greek forces.

1854 – The Hinomaru is established as the official flag to be flown from Japanese ships.

1863 – Matica slovenská, Slovakia's public-law cultural and scientific institution focusing on topics around the Slovak nation, is established in Martin.

1873 – American Indian Wars: whilst protecting a railroad survey party in Montana, the United States 7th Cavalry, under Lieutenant Colonel George Armstrong Custer clashes for the first time with the Sioux near the Tongue River; only one man on each side is killed.

1892 – The father and stepmother of Lizzie Borden are found murdered in their Fall River, Massachusetts home.

1902 – The Greenwich foot tunnel under the River Thames opens.

1906 – Central railway station, Sydney opens.

1914 – World War I: Germany invades Belgium. In response, the United Kingdom declares war on Germany. The United States declare their neutrality.

1924 – Diplomatic relations between Mexico and the Soviet Union are established.

1936 – Prime Minister of Greece Ioannis Metaxas suspends parliament and the Constitution and establishes the 4th of August Regime.

1944 – The Holocaust: a tip from a Dutch informer leads the Gestapo to a sealed-off area in an Amsterdam warehouse where they find and arrest Jewish diarist Anne Frank, her family, and four others.

1946 – An earthquake of magnitude 8.0 hits northern Dominican Republic. 100 are killed and 20,000 are left homeless.

1947 – The Supreme Court of Japan is established.

1958 – The Billboard Hot 100 is published for the first time.

1964 – American civil rights movement: civil rights workers Michael Schwerner, Andrew Goodman and James Chaney are found dead in Mississippi after disappearing on June 21.

1964 – Gulf of Tonkin incident: U.S. destroyers USS Maddox and USS Turner Joy report coming under attack in the Gulf of Tonkin.

1965 – The Constitution of Cook Islands comes into force, giving the Cook Islands self-governing status within New Zealand.

1969 – Vietnam War: At the apartment of French intermediary Jean Sainteny in Paris, American representative Henry Kissinger and North Vietnamese representative Xuan Thuy begin secret peace negotiations. The negotiations will eventually fail.

1974 – A bomb explodes in the Italicus Express train at San Benedetto Val di Sambro, Italy, killing 12 people and wounding 22.

1975 – The Japanese Red Army takes more than 50 hostages at the AIA Building housing several embassies in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. The hostages include the U.S. consul and the Swedish Chargé d'affaires. The gunmen win the release of five imprisoned comrades and fly with them to Libya.

1977 – U.S. President Jimmy Carter signs legislation creating the United States Department of Energy.

1984 – The Republic of Upper Volta changes its name to Burkina Faso.

1987 – The Federal Communications Commission rescinds the Fairness Doctrine which had required radio and television stations to present controversial issues "fairly".

1991 – The Greek cruise ship MTS Oceanos sinks off the Wild Coast of South Africa.

1993 – A federal judge sentences Los Angeles Police Department officers Stacey Koon and Laurence Powell to 30 months in prison for violating motorist Rodney King's civil rights.

1995 – Operation Storm begins in Croatia.

2002 – Soham murders: 10 year old school girls Jessica Chapman and Holly Wells go missing from the town of Soham, Cambridgeshire, United Kingdom.

2005 – Prime Minister Paul Martin announces that Michaëlle Jean will be Canada's 27th Governor General.

2006 – A massacre, is carried out by Sri Lankan government forces, killing 17 employees of the French INGO Action Against Hunger (known internationally as Action Contre la Faim, or ACF).

2007 – NASA's Phoenix spaceship is launched.

2007 – Airport police officer María del Luján Telpuk discovers a suitcase
containing the undeclared sum of US$800,000 as it goes through an x-ray machine in Aeroparque Jorge Newbery in Buenos Aires, Argentina sparking an international scandal involving Venezuela and Argentina known as "Maletinazo".

2010 – California's Proposition 8, the ballot initiative prohibiting same-sex marriage passed by the state's voters in 2008, is overturned by Judge Vaughn Walker in the case Perry v. Schwarzenegger.

Births

• 1222 – Richard de Clare, 6th Earl of Gloucester, English soldier (d. 1262)
• 1290 – Leopold I, Duke of Austria (d. 1326)
• 1521 – Pope Urban VII (d. 1590)
• 1604 – François Hédelin, abbé d'Aubignac, French writer (d. 1676)
• 1701 – Thomas Blackwell, Scottish classical scholar (d. 1757)
• 1719 – Johann Gottlob Lehmann, German mineralogist and geologist (d. 1767)
• 1721 – Granville Leveson-Gower, 1st Marquess of Stafford, English politician (d. 1803)
• 1755 – Nicolas-Jacques Conté, French painter and inventor (d. 1805)
• 1792 – Percy Bysshe Shelley, English poet (d. 1822)
• 1805 – William Rowan Hamilton, Irish mathematician (d. 1865)
• 1821 – James Springer White, American theologian (d. 1881)
• 1821 – Louis Vuitton, French designer (d. 1892)
• 1834 – John Venn, English mathematician (d. 1923)
• 1839 – Walter Pater, English essayist and critic (d. 1894)
• 1844 – Henri Berger, German composer and royal bandmaster (d. 1929)
• 1848 – Vladimir Sukhomlinov, Russian general (d. 1926)
• 1859 – Knut Hamsun, Norwegian writer, Nobel Laureate (d. 1952)
• 1865 – Gus Kempis, South African cricketer (d. 1890)
• 1867 – Jake Beckley, American baseball player (d. 1918)
• 1870 – Sir Harry Lauder, Scottish entertainer (d. 1950)
• 1876 – Giovanni Giuriati, Italian politician (d. 1970)
• 1884 – Henri Cornet, French cyclist (d. 1941)
• 1884 – Béla Balázs, Hungarian-Jewish film critic, writer and poet (d. 1949)
• 1888 – Syedna Taher Saifuddin, Indian Dawoodi Bohra leader, 51st Da'i al-Mutlaq (d. 1965)
• 1890 – Dolf Luque, Cuban baseball player (d. 1957)
• 1891 – Margit Makay, Hungarian actress (d. 1989)
• 1899 – Ezra Taft Benson, American religious figure (d. 1994)
• 1900 – Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon, Scottish consort of George VI (d. 2002)
• 1901 – Louis Armstrong, American jazz trumpeter and singer (d. 1971)
• 1901 – Clarence Passailaigue, Jamaican cricketer (d. 1972)
• 1902 – Bill Hallahan, American baseball player (d. 1981)
• 1904 – Witold Gombrowicz, Polish novelist and dramatist (d. 1969)
• 1904 – Helen Kane, American singer, dancer, and actress (d. 1966)
• 1904 – Joe Tate, English footballer (d. 1973)
• 1906 – Eugen Schuhmacher, German zoologist (d. 1973)
• 1906 – Marie José of Belgium, consort of Umberto II of Italy (d. 2001)
• 1908 – Kurt Eichhorn, German conductor (d. 1994)
• 1909 – Glenn Cunningham, American middle-distance runner (d. 1988)
• 1909 – Saunders Mac Lane, American mathematician (d. 2005)
• 1910 – Anita Page, American actress (d. 2008)
• 1910 – William Schuman, American composer (d. 1992)
• 1910 – Hedda Sterne, Romanian-born American painter and printmaker (d. 2011)
• 1912 – Aleksandr Danilovich Aleksandrov, Russian mathematician and mountaineer (d. 1999)
• 1912 – Raoul Wallenberg, Swedish diplomat (d. 1947)
• 1913 – Robert Hayden, American poet (d. 1980)
• 1915 – Warren Avis, American entrepreneur (d. 2007)
• 1917 – John Fitch, American racing driver
• 1918 – Iceberg Slim, American author (d. 1992)
• 1919 – Michel Déon, French writer
• 1920 – Helen Thomas, American journalist
• 1921 – Herb Ellis, American jazz guitarist (d. 2010)
• 1921 – Maurice Richard, Canadian ice hockey player (d. 2000)
• 1922 – Luis Aponte Martínez, Puerto Rican archbishop (d. 2012)
• 1923 – Reg Grundy, Australian media and television mogul
• 1923 – Mushtaq Ahmad Yusufi, Pakistani satirical and humor writer
• 1926 – George Irving Bell, American mountaineer (d. 2000)
• 1927 – Jess Thomas, American tenor (d. 1993)
• 1928 – Christian Goethals, Belgian racing driver (d. 2003)
• 1929 – Kishore Kumar, Indian singer and actor (d. 1987)
• 1930 – Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, Iranian Shi'a cleric
• 1931 – Naren Tamhane, Indian cricketer (d. 2002)
• 1932 – Liang Congjie, Chinese environmentalist (d. 2010)
• 1934 – Dallas Green, American baseball player
• 1935 – Hans-Walter Eigenbrodt, German footballer (d. 1997)
• 1937 – David Bedford, English keyboardist and composer (d. 2011)
• 1938 – Ellen Schrecker, American college professor
• 1939 – Frank Vincent, American actor
• 1940 – Timi Yuro, American singer (d. 2004)
• 1940 – Larry Knechtel, keyboard and bass player (d. 2009)
• 1941 – Martin Jarvis, English actor
• 1941 – Ted Strickland, American politician
• 1942 – Don S. Davis, American actor and painter (d. 2008)
• 1942 – Cleon Jones, American baseball player
• 1942 – David Lange, New Zealand politician (d. 2005)
• 1943 – Bjørn Wirkola, Norwegian ski jumper
• 1943 – Vicente Álvarez Areces, Spanish politician
• 1944 – Richard Belzer, American actor and comedian
• 1944 – Doudou Ndoye, Senegalese lawyer and politician
• 1945 – Alan Mulally, American businessman
• 1946 – Maureen Starkey, English ex-wife of Ringo Starr (d. 1994)
• 1947 – Klaus Schulze, German composer
• 1948 – Johnny Grubb, American baseball player
• 1949 – John Riggins, American football player
• 1952 – Moya Brennan, Irish singer
• 1952 – Gábor Demszky, Hungarian politician
• 1953 – Hiroyuki Usui, Japanese footballer
• 1954 – Anatoliy Kinakh, Ukrainian politician
• 1954 – François Valéry, French singer-songwriter and composer
• 1955 – Alberto Gonzales, 80th U.S. Attorney General
• 1955 – Dariusz Lipiński, Polish politician
• 1955 – Billy Bob Thornton, American actor and writer
• 1956 – Gerry Cooney, American boxer
• 1957 – Brooks D. Simpson, American historian
• 1957 – John Wark, Scottish footballer
• 1958 – Ian Broudie, English music producer and vocalist (The Lightning Seeds)
• 1958 – Allison Hedge Coke, American poet and writer
• 1958 – Mary Decker, American middle-distance runner
• 1958 – Kym Karath, American actress
• 1959 – Robbin Crosby, American guitarist (Ratt) (d. 2002)
• 1959 – John Gormley, Irish politician
• 1960 – Dean Malenko, American professional wrestler
• 1960 – Bernard Rose, English director
• 1960 – Tim Winton, Australian writer
• 1960 – José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, 5th Prime Minister of Spain
• 1961 – Eddie James, American murderer and sex offender
• 1961 – Barack Obama, 44th President of the United States, Nobel Peace Prize laureate
• 1961 – Peter Reichert, German footballer
• 1961 – Lauren Tom, American actress
• 1962 – Roger Clemens, American baseball player
• 1962 – Paul Reynolds, British guitarist (A Flock of Seagulls)
• 1964 – Andrew Bartlett, Australian politician and activist
• 1964 – Gary King, British radio presenter
• 1964 – Anna Sui, American fashion designer
• 1965 – Crystal Chappell, American actress
• 1965 – Dennis Lehane, American crime writer
• 1965 – Wayne Pacelle, President and CEO of the Humane Society of the United States
• 1965 – Fredrik Reinfeldt, 42nd Prime Minister of Sweden
• 1965 – Michael Skibbe, German football manager
• 1965 – James Tupper, Canadian actor
• 1965 – Terri Lyne Carrington, American jazz drummer and composer
• 1966 – Kensuke Sasaki, Japanese professional wrestler
• 1967 – Timothy Adams, American actor
• 1967 – Michael Marsh, American sprinter
• 1968 – Daniel Dae Kim, American actor
• 1968 – Lee Mack, British comedian
• 1968 – Marcus Schenkenberg, Swedish model
• 1969 – Max Cavalera, Brazilian vocalist and guitarist (Sepultura, Soulfly)
• 1969 – Michael DeLuise, American actor
• 1969 – Troy O'Leary, American baseball player
• 1969 – Mark Bickley, Australian AFL football player
• 1970 – John August, American screenwriter
• 1970 – Bret Baier, FOX News Channel anchor
• 1970 – Steve House, American mountaineer
• 1970 – Steven Jack, South African cricketer
• 1971 – Jeff Gordon, American race car driver
• 1972 – Stefan Brogren, Canadian actor
• 1973 – Eva Amaral, Spanish singer and songwriter
• 1973 – Xavier Marchand, French swimmer
• 1973 – Marek Penksa, Slovak footballer
• 1973 – Marcos Roberto Silveira Reis, Brazilian footballer
• 1974 – Kily González, Argentine footballer
• 1974 – Keenan Milton, American professional skater (d. 2001)
• 1975 – Andy Hallett, American actor (d. 2009)
• 1975 – Nikos Liberopoulos, Greek footballer
• 1975 – Daniella van Graas, Dutch model and actress
• 1975 – Jutta Urpilainen, Finnish politician
• 1976 – Andrew McLeod, Australian rules footballer
• 1977 – Luís Boa Morte, Portuguese footballer
• 1977 – Frankie Kazarian, American professional wrestler
• 1978 – Kurt Busch, American race car driver
• 1979 – Robin Peterson, South African cricketer
• 1980 – Richard Dawson, English cricketer
• 1981 – Marques Houston, American singer (IMx) and actor
• 1981 – Ben Scott, English cricketer
• 1981 – Meghan Markle, American fashion model, spokesmodel, and actress
• 1981 – Abigail Spencer, American actress
• 1983 – Greta Gerwig, American actress and filmmaker
• 1984 – Mardy Collins, American basketball player
• 1985 – Crystal Bowersox, American singer
• 1985 – Kina Grannis, American musician
• 1985 – Mark Milligan, Australian footballer
• 1985 – Ha Seung-Jin, Korean basketball player
• 1985 – Luis Antonio Valencia, Ecuadorean footballer
• 1986 – Nick Augusto, Italian-American drummer (Trivium)
• 1987 – Jang Keun-suk, Korean actor
• 1987 – Phil Younghusband, English–Filipino footballer
• 1988 – Carly Foulkes, Canadian model and actress
• 1988 – Tom Parker, British Singer (The Wanted)
• 1989 – Michael Allen Martinez, American drummer (Allstar Weekend)
• 1989 – Jessica Mauboy, Australian singer (Young Divas)
• 1991 – Thiago Cardoso, Brazilian footballer
• 1991 – River Viiperi, Spanish model
• 1991 – Lucinda Dryzek, British actress
• 1992 – Tiffany Evans, American singer
• 1992 – Cole Sprouse, American actor
• 1992 – Dylan Sprouse, American actor
• 1994 – Mayuko Fukuda, Japanese actress
• 1995 – Jessica Sanchez, American singer
• 2001 – Seishiro Kato, Japanese actor

Deaths

• 1060 – King Henry I of France (b. 1008)
• 1113 – Gertrude of Saxony, daughter of Bernard II, Duke of Saxony and wife of Floris I, Count of Holland (b. 1030)
• 1265 – Killed in the Battle of Evesham:
  
  • Hugh le Despencer, 1st Baron le Despencer (b. 1223)
  • Henry de Montfort (b. 1238)
  • Peter de Montfort (b. 1215)
  • Simon de Montfort, 6th Earl of Leicester (b. 1208)
• 1306 – King Wenceslaus III of Bohemia, Hungary and Poland (b. 1289)
• 1338 – Thomas of Brotherton, 1st Earl of Norfolk, son of Edward I of England (b. 1300)
• 1526 – Juan Sebastián Elcano, Spanish explorer (b. 1476)
• 1578 – King Sebastian of Portugal (b. 1554)
• 1578 – Thomas Stukley, English adventurer (b. c. 1520)
• 1598 – William Cecil, 1st Baron Burghley, English statesman (b. 1520)
• 1612 – Hugh Broughton, English scholar (b. 1549)
• 1639 – Juan Ruiz de Alarcón, Mexican dramatist
• 1718 – René Lepage de Sainte-Claire, French lord-founder of the town of Rimouski in New France (b. 1656)
• 1727 – Victor-Maurice, comte de Broglie, French general (b. 1647)
• 1741 – Andrew Hamilton, American lawyer
• 1778 – Pierre de Rigaud, French colonial governor in North America (b. 1698)
• 1792 – John Burgoyne, British general (b. 1723)
• 1795 – Timothy Ruggles, American politician (b. 1711)
• 1804 – Adam Duncan, 1st Viscount Duncan Royal Navy Admiral (b. 1731)
• 1834 – Dimitrios Panourgias Greek military commander during the Greek War of Independence (b. 1754)
• 1844 – Jacob Aall, Norwegian journalist and statesman (b. 1773)
• 1859 – Jean Vianney, French priest (b. 1786)
• 1873 – Viktor Hartmann, Russian painter (b. 1834)
• 1875 – Hans Christian Andersen, Danish writer (b. 1805)
• 1886 – Samuel J. Tilden, Governor of New York and Democratic candidate for President of the United States in the 1876 presidential election (b. 1814)
• 1900 – Isaac Levitan, Russian painter (b. 1860)
• 1914 – Jules Lemaître, French critic and dramatist (b. 1853)
• 1919 – Dave Gregory, Australian cricketer (b. 1845)
• 1938 – Pearl White, American actress (b. 1889)
• 1941 – Mihály Babits, Hungarian writer and poet (b. 1883)
• 1942 – Alberto Franchetti, Italian opera composer (b. 1860)
• 1957 – Washington Luís Pereira de Sousa, 13th President of Brazil (b. 1869)
• 1958 – Ethel Anderson, Australian poet (b. 1883)
• 1959 – József Révai, Hungarian politician (b. 1898)
• 1967 – Peter Smith, English cricketer (b. 1908)
• 1976 – Roy Thomson, 1st Baron Thomson of Fleet, Canadian publisher (b. 1894)
• 1976 – Enrique Angelelli, Argentine bishop (b. 1923)
• 1981 – Melvyn Douglas, American actor (b. 1901)
• 1982 – Bruce Goff, American architect (b. 1904)
• 1985 – Don Whillans, British mountaineer (b. 1933)
• 1991 – Nikiforos Vrettakos, Greek writer and poet (b. 1912)
• 1992 – Seichō Matsumoto, Japanese writer and journalist (b. 1909)
• 1993 – Chinmayananda, Indian spiritual leader and teacher (b. 1916)
• 1993 – Bernard Barrow, American actor (b. 1927)
• 1996 – Geoff Hamilton, British gardener and broadcaster (b. 1936)
• 1997 – Jeanne Calment, French supercentenarian, the world's oldest human on record and the only person ever to live past the age of 122 (b. 1875)
• 1998 – Yury Artyukhin, Russian cosmonaut (b. 1930)
• 1999 – Rodney Ansell, Australian who was the inspiration for Crocodile Dundee (b. 1953)
• 1999 – Victor Mature, American actor (b. 1913)
• 2000 – Leslie Glass, American adult film actress (b. 1963)
• 2001 – Lorenzo Music, American actor (b. 1937)
• 2003 – Frederick Chapman Robbins, American pediatrician and virologist, Nobel Laureate (b. 1916)
• 2005 – Anatoly Larkin, Russian-born American physicist (b. 1932)
• 2005 – Iván Szabó, Hungarian politician (b. 1934)
• 2007 – Lee Hazlewood, American country singer, songwriter and producer (b. 1929)
• 2007 – Raul Hilberg, Austrian-born American political scientist and historian of the Holocaust (b. 1926)
• 2008 – Craig Jones, English motorcycle racer (b. 1985)
• 2009 – Blake Snyder, American screenwriter (b. 1957)
• 2011 – Naoki Matsuda, Japanese Soccer player (b. 1977)