May 4 facts for kids

May 4 is the 124th day of the year (125th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar; 241 days remain until the end of the year.

This page tells you about important events, famous people born, and notable people who passed away on this day in history. You'll also find out about special holidays and observances.

Exciting Events in History

Events Before 1600

• 1256 – The Augustinian religious group was officially started when Pope Alexander IV issued a special document called a papal bull.
• 1415 – Religious thinkers John Wycliffe and Jan Hus were declared to have ideas that went against the main church teachings at the Council of Constance.
• 1436 – Engelbrekt Engelbrektsson, a Swedish rebel leader who later became a national hero, was sadly killed.
• 1471 – During the Wars of the Roses, King Edward IV won the Battle of Tewkesbury against the Lancastrian army. In this battle, Edward of Westminster, Prince of Wales, the son of King Henry VI, was killed.
• 1493 – Pope Alexander VI drew a line on a map to divide the newly explored lands of the New World between Spain and Portugal. This was part of what would become the Treaty of Tordesillas.

Events from 1601 to 1900

• 1626 – Dutch explorer Peter Minuit arrived in New Netherland, which is now Manhattan Island in New York City. He sailed there on a ship called the See Meeuw.
• 1686 – The town of Ilagan was founded in the Philippines.
• 1738 – The Imperial Theatrical School, which is now known as the Vaganova Academy of Russian Ballet, was started by Empress Anna. It was the first ballet school in Russia and only the second in the world!
• 1776 – Rhode Island became the first American colony to declare that it was no longer loyal to King George III of Great Britain.
• 1799 – The Fourth Anglo-Mysore War ended with the Battle of Seringapatam. The city of Seringapatam was taken over, and Tipu Sultan, its ruler, was killed by the British army led by General George Harris.
• 1814 – Emperor Napoleon arrived on the island of Elba to begin his exile, meaning he had to live away from his home country.
• 1814 – King Ferdinand VII removed the Spanish Constitution of 1812, bringing back a system where the king had all the power.
• 1859 – The Cornwall Railway opened in England, connecting Devon and Cornwall across the amazing Royal Albert Bridge.
• 1869 – The Naval Battle of Hakodate took place in Japan.
• 1871 – The National Association, the very first professional baseball league, started its first season in Fort Wayne, Indiana.

Events from 1901 to Today

• 1904 – The United States began building the famous Panama Canal, a waterway that connects the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans.
• 1910 – The Royal Canadian Navy was officially created.
• 1912 – Italy took control of the Ottoman island of Rhodes.
• 1919 – The May Fourth Movement began in China. Students held large protests in Tiananmen Square in Beijing against the Treaty of Versailles, which gave Chinese land to Japan.
• 1926 – A major general strike began in the United Kingdom, where many workers stopped working to protest.
• 1927 – The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, which gives out the Oscars, was officially formed.
• 1932 – In Atlanta, famous gangster Al Capone began serving an eleven-year prison sentence for not paying his taxes.
• 1942 – During World War II, the Battle of the Coral Sea started. Aircraft from the United States aircraft carrier USS Yorktown attacked Japanese naval forces near Tulagi Island in the Solomon Islands.
• 1945 – In World War II, the Neuengamme concentration camp near Hamburg was freed by the British Army.
• 1945 – Also in World War II, the German surrender at Lüneburg Heath was signed. This meant all German military units in the Netherlands, Denmark, and northwest Germany would stop fighting the next day.
• 1946 – In San Francisco Bay, U.S. Marines from the nearby Treasure Island Naval Base stopped a two-day riot at Alcatraz Federal Penitentiary.
• 1949 – Almost the entire Torino football (soccer) team was killed in a plane crash. Only two players who didn't travel were spared.
• 1953 – Ernest Hemingway won the famous Pulitzer Prize for his book The Old Man and the Sea.
• 1959 – The very first 1st Annual Grammy Awards ceremony was held to celebrate achievements in music.
• 1961 – During the American civil rights movement, a group called the "Freedom Riders" began a bus trip through the Southern U.S. to protest segregation.
• 1961 – Malcolm Ross and Victor Prather set a new altitude record for manned balloon flight, going up to 113,740 feet (about 34.6 kilometers) in an open gondola.
• 1972 – The "Don't Make A Wave Committee," an environmental group started in Canada, officially changed its name to "Greenpeace Foundation."
• 1973 – The 108-story Sears Tower in Chicago was completed at 1,451 feet (about 442 meters), making it the world's tallest building at the time.
• 1979 – Margaret Thatcher became the first female Prime Minister of the United Kingdom.
• 1988 – The PEPCON disaster happened in Henderson, Nevada, when tons of Space Shuttle fuel exploded during a fire.
• 1990 – Latvia declared its independence from the Soviet Union.
• 1994 – Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin and PLO leader Yasser Arafat signed a peace agreement, giving self-rule to parts of the Gaza Strip and Jericho.
• 1998 – A judge in Sacramento, California, gave "Unabomber" Theodore Kaczynski four life sentences plus 30 years after he agreed to a deal that saved him from the death penalty.
• 2000 – Ken Livingstone became the first Mayor of London.
• 2007 – Greensburg, Kansas was almost completely destroyed by a very powerful 1.7-mile wide EF5 tornado. It was the first tornado ever rated this high on the new Enhanced Fujita scale.
• 2019 – The first-ever all-female motorsport series, W Series, had its first race at Hockenheimring. Jamie Chadwick won the race and later became the first champion of the series.

Famous Births on This Day

Born Before 1600

• 1006 – Khwaja Abdullah Ansari, a Persian mystic and poet.
• 1559 – Alice Spencer, an English noblewoman.

Born from 1601 to 1900

• 1634 – Katherine Ferrers, an English aristocrat.
• 1649 – Chhatrasal, an Indian ruler.
• 1655 – Bartolomeo Cristofori, an Italian instrument maker who invented the piano.
• 1677 – Françoise-Marie de Bourbon, a French noblewoman.
• 1733 – Jean-Charles de Borda, a French mathematician, physicist, and sailor.
• 1752 – John Brooks, an American soldier and politician who became the 11th Governor of Massachusetts.
• 1757 – Manuel Tolsá, a Spanish sculptor and the first director of the Academy of San Carlos in Mexico City.
• 1767 – Tyagaraja, an Indian composer.
• 1770 – François Gérard, a French painter.
• 1796 – Horace Mann, an American educator and politician.
• 1796 – William Pennington, an American lawyer and politician, who was the 13th Governor of New Jersey.
• 1820 – Julia Gardiner Tyler, the wife of John Tyler and the 11th First Lady of the United States.
• 1825 – Thomas Henry Huxley, an English biologist and academic.
• 1826 – Frederic Edwin Church, an American painter.
• 1827 – John Hanning Speke, an English soldier and explorer.
• 1852 – Alice Liddell, an English model who inspired the character Alice in Wonderland.
• 1883 – Wang Jingwei, a Chinese politician.
• 1890 – Franklin Carmichael, a Canadian painter.

Born from 1901 to Today

• 1902 – Ronnie Aird, an English cricketer.
• 1903 – Luther Adler, an American actor.
• 1905 – Al Dexter, an American country singer-songwriter.
• 1907 – Lincoln Kirstein, an American playwright who helped start the New York City Ballet.
• 1916 – Jane Jacobs, an American-Canadian journalist and activist.
• 1918 – Kakuei Tanaka, a Japanese soldier and politician, who became the 64th Prime Minister of Japan.
• 1921 – Patsy Garrett, an American actress and singer.
• 1922 – Eugenie Clark, an American biologist known as "the Shark Lady."
• 1923 – Eric Sykes, a British actor and comedian.
• 1928 – Maynard Ferguson, a Canadian trumpet player and bandleader.
• 1928 – Hosni Mubarak, an Egyptian air marshal and politician, who was the 4th President of Egypt.
• 1929 – Audrey Hepburn, a Belgian-British actress and humanitarian.
• 1930 – Katherine Jackson, the matriarch of the famous Jackson family.
• 1937 – Ron Carter, an American bassist and educator.
• 1937 – Dick Dale, an American surf-rock guitarist.
• 1939 – Amos Oz, an Israeli journalist and author.
• 1940 – Robin Cook, an American physician and author.
• 1944 – Russi Taylor, an American voice actress, known for voicing Minnie Mouse.
• 1948 – King George Tupou V of Tonga.
• 1951 – Jackie Jackson, an American singer and dancer, member of The Jackson 5.
• 1953 – Pia Zadora, an American actress and singer.
• 1958 – Keith Haring, an American painter known for his pop art.
• 1959 – Randy Travis, an American country singer-songwriter.
• 1960 – Werner Faymann, an Austrian politician, who was the 28th Chancellor of Austria.
• 1967 – Ana Gasteyer, an American actress and singer.
• 1970 – Will Arnett, a Canadian actor and producer.
• 1972 – Mike Dirnt, an American bass player and songwriter, member of the band Green Day.
• 1973 – John Madden, a Canadian ice hockey player and coach.
• 1978 – Erin Andrews, an American sportscaster and journalist.
• 1979 – Lance Bass, an American singer and dancer, member of NSYNC.
• 1981 – Ruth Negga, an Ethiopian-Irish actress.
• 1985 – Fernandinho, a Brazilian footballer.
• 1987 – Cesc Fàbregas, a Spanish footballer.
• 1987 – Jorge Lorenzo, a Spanish motorcycle racer.
• 1989 – Rory McIlroy, a Northern Irish golfer.
• 1992 – Victor Oladipo, an American basketball player.

Notable Deaths on This Day

Passed Away Before 1600

• 408 – Venerius, an archbishop of Milan.
• 1038 – Gotthard of Hildesheim, a German bishop.
• 1436 – Engelbrekt Engelbrektsson, a Swedish rebel leader.
• 1471 – Edward of Westminster, Prince of Wales, the son and heir of Henry VI of England.
• 1519 – Lorenzo de' Medici, a duke of Urbino.

Passed Away from 1601 to 1900

• 1604 – Claudio Merulo, an Italian organist and composer.
• 1605 – Ulisse Aldrovandi, an Italian naturalist.
• 1677 – Isaac Barrow, an English mathematician and theologian.
• 1734 – James Thornhill, an English painter.
• 1799 – Tipu, the ruler of Mysore.
• 1816 – Samuel Dexter, an American lawyer and politician, who was the 4th United States Secretary of War.
• 1824 – Joseph Joubert, a French author.
• 1880 – Edward Clark, an American lawyer and politician, who was the 8th Governor of Texas.

Passed Away from 1901 to Today

• 1903 – Gotse Delchev, a Macedonian Bulgarian revolutionary.
• 1912 – Nettie Stevens, an American geneticist who discovered sex chromosomes.
• 1916 – Ned Daly, an Irish rebel commander during the Easter Rising.
• 1919 – Milan Rastislav Štefánik, a Slovak general and politician.
• 1924 – E. Nesbit, an English author and poet, known for children's books.
• 1938 – Kanō Jigorō, the Japanese founder of judo.
• 1938 – Carl von Ossietzky, a German journalist and activist, who won the Nobel Peace Prize.
• 1945 – Fedor von Bock, a German field marshal.
• 1955 – George Enescu, a Romanian pianist, composer, and conductor.
• 1972 – Edward Calvin Kendall, an American chemist who won a Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine.
• 1975 – Moe Howard, an American actor and singer, known from The Three Stooges.
• 1980 – Josip Broz Tito, a Yugoslav field marshal and politician, who was the 1st President of Yugoslavia.
• 1984 – Diana Dors, an English actress.
• 1987 – Paul Butterfield, an American singer and harmonica player.
• 1990 – Emily Remler, an American guitarist.
• 1991 – Mohammed Abdel Wahab, an Egyptian singer-songwriter.
• 2009 – Dom DeLuise, an American actor, director, and producer.
• 2012 – Adam Yauch, an American rapper and director, known as MCA from the Beastie Boys.
• 2013 – Christian de Duve, an English-Belgian scientist who won a Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine.
• 2014 – Elena Baltacha, a Ukrainian-Scottish tennis player.
• 2015 – Ellen Albertini Dow, an American actress.
• 2020 – Don Shula, an American football player and coach.
• 2021 – Nick Kamen, an English model and songwriter.

Special Days and Celebrations

• Anti-Bullying Day (United Nations)
• Bird Day (United States)
• Cassinga Day (Namibia)
• International Firefighters' Day
• May Fourth Movement commemorations:
  • Literary Day (Republic of China)
  • Youth Day (China)
• Remembrance of the Dead (Netherlands)
• Restoration of Independence Day (Latvia)
• Star Wars Day (International observance)
• Youth Day (Fiji)

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