4th August

Events

• 1578 - Battle of Al Kasr al Kebir - Moroccans defeat Portuguese. King Sebastian of Portugal is defeated and killed in North Africa, leaving his elderly uncle, Cardinal Henry, as his heir. This initiates a succession crisis in Portugal.
• 1735 - Freedom of the press: New York Weekly Journal writer John Peter Zenger is acquitted of seditious libel against the royal governor of New York, on the basis that what he published was true.
• 1789 - The feudal system is abolished in France.
• 1790 - A newly passed tariff act creates the Revenue Cutter Service (the forerunner of the United States Coast Guard).
• 1821 - Atkinson & Alexander publish the Saturday Evening Post for the first time as a weekly newspaper.
• 1873 - Indian Wars: While protecting a railroad survey party in Montana, the United States 7th Cavalry, under Lieutenant Colonel George Armstrong Custer, clash for the first time with the Sioux (near the Tongue River; only one man on each side is killed).
• 1892 - The family of Lizzie Borden is found murdered in their Fall River, Massachusetts home.
• 1902 - Greenwich foot tunnel under the River Thames opens.
• 1914 - World War I: The United Kingdom declares war on Germany and the United States proclaims neutrality.
• 1944 - Holocaust: A tip from a Dutch informer leads the Gestapo to a sealed-off area in an Amsterdam warehouse where they find Jewish diarist Anne Frank and her family.
• 1964 - American civil rights movement: Civil rights workers Michael Schwerner, Andrew Goodman and James Chaney found dead in Mississippi after disappearing on June 21.
• 1964 - Vietnam War: United States destroyers USS Maddox and USS C. Turner Joy are attacked in the Gulf of Tonkin. Air support from the carrier USS Ticonderoga sinks two, possibly three North Vietnamese gunboats.
• 1969 - Vietnam War: At the apartment of French intermediary Jean Sainteny in Paris, US representative Henry Kissinger and North Vietnamese representative Xuan Thuy begin secret peace negotiations. The negotiations will eventually fail.
• 1977 - US President Jimmy Carter signs legislation creating the United States Department of Energy.
• 1983 - Thomas Sankara become President in Upper Volta.
• 1984 - The African republic 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 "fairly" present controversial issues.
• 1993 - A federal judge sentences LAPD officers Stacey Koon and Laurence Powell to 30 months in prison for violating motorist Rodney King's civil rights.
• 1997 - 185,000 Teamsters union United Parcel Service drivers walk off the job.

Births

• 1792 - Percy Bysshe Shelley, poet (+ 1822)
• 1840 - Richard von Krafft-Ebing, sexologist
• 1859 - Knut Hamsun, writer, recipient of the Nobel Prize in literature 1920 (+ 1952)
• 1900 - Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon, The Queen Mother of the United Kingdom (+ 2002)
• 1901 - Louis Armstrong, jazz musician (+ 1971)
• 1906 - Marie-José Van Sachsen Coburg-Gotha, last Queen of Italy (+ 2001)
• 1906 - Eugen Schuhmacher, zoologist (+ 1973)
• 1908 - Kurt Eichhorn, conductor
• 1909 - Glenn Cunnimgham, track and field star
• 1909 - Otto Steiger, writer
• 1910 - William Schuman, composer (+ 1992)
• 1912 - Raoul Wallenberg, Swedish diplomat (+ 1947 presumed)
• 1921 - Maurice Richard, professional ice hockey player (+ 2000)
• 1929 - Yasser Arafat, Chairman of the Palestine Liberation Organization
• 1930 - Götz Friedrich, opera director (+ 2000)
• 1932 - Hans Jürgen Fröhlich, writer
• 1932 - Guillermo Mordillo, graphic artist and cartoonist
• 1937 - David Bedford, musician
• 1944 - Richard Belzer, actor, comedian
• 1955 - Billy Bob Thornton, actor, writer
• 1958 - Mary Decker Slaney, track star
• 1962 - Roger Clemens, baseball player
• 1968 - Marcus Schenkenberg, male model
• 1971 - Jeff Gordon, NASCAR driver

Deaths

• 1060 - King Henry I of France
• 1265 - Simon de Montfort, English baron
• 1526 - Juan Sebastian Cano, Spanish explorer
• 1873 - General George Armstrong Custer
• 1875 - Hans Christian Andersen, Writer
• 1938 - Pearl White, actress
• 1976 - Roy Herbert Thomson, Lord Thomson of Fleet, publisher
• 1981 - Melvyn Douglas, actor
• 1998 - Yuri Artyukhin, cosmonaut
• 1999 - Victor Mature, actor
• 2001 - Lorenzo Music, actor, writer, producer
• 2002 - Murder of Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman

Holidays and observances

• Burkina Faso - Anniversary of the Revolution
• Cook Islands - Constitution Day (celebrations begin on the last Friday in July and last up to 2 weeks.)
• El Salvador - Transfiguration Bank Holiday

August 3 - August 5 - July 4 - September 4 -- listing of all days

January, February, March, April, May, June, July, August, September, October, November, December