TODAY IN HISTORY: APRIL 4

 

April 4

 

503 BC – Roman consul Agrippa Menenius Lanatus celebrates a triumph for a military victory over the Sabines.

190 – Dong Zhuo has his troops evacuate the capital Luoyang and burn it to the ground.

611 – Maya king Uneh Chan of Calakmul sacks rival city-state Palenque in southern Mexico.

801 – King Louis the Pious captures Barcelona from the Moors after a siege of several months.

1268 – A five-year Byzantine–Venetian peace treaty is concluded between Venetian envoys and Emperor Michael VIII Palaiologos.

1423 – Death of the Venetian Doge Tommaso Mocenigo, under whose rule victories were achieved against the Kingdom of Hungary and against the Ottoman Empire at the Battle of Gallipoli (1416).

1581 – Francis Drake is knighted by Queen Elizabeth I for completing a circumnavigation of the world.

1609 – Moriscos are expelled from the Kingdom of Valencia.

1660 – Declaration of Breda by King Charles II of Great Britain promises, among other things, a general pardon to all royalists and opponents of the monarchy for crimes committed during the English Civil War and the Interregnum.

1796 – Georges Cuvier delivers the first paleontological lecture.

1814 – Napoleon abdicates (conditionally) for the first time and names his son Napoleon II as Emperor of the French, followed by unconditional abdication two days later.

1818 – The United States Congress, affirming the Second Continental Congress, adopts the flag of the United States with 13 red and white stripes and one star for each state (20 at that time).

1841 – William Henry Harrison dies of pneumonia, becoming the first President of the United States to die in office, and setting the record for the briefest administration. Vice President John Tyler succeeds Harrison as President.

1865 – American Civil War: A day after Union forces capture Richmond, Virginia, U.S. President Abraham Lincoln visits the Confederate capital.

1866 – Alexander II of Russia narrowly escapes an assassination attempt by Dmitry Karakozov in the city of Saint Petersburg.

1887 – Argonia, Kansas elects Susanna M. Salter as the first female mayor in the United States.

1905 – In India, an earthquake hits the Kangra Valley, killing 20,000, and destroying most buildings in Kangra, McLeod Ganj and Dharamshala.

1913 – First Balkan War: Greek aviator Emmanouil Argyropoulos becomes the first pilot to die in the Hellenic Air Force when his plane crashes.

1925 – The Schutzstaffel (SS) is founded under Adolf Hitler's Nazi Party in Germany.

1933 – U.S. Navy airship USS Akron is wrecked off the New Jersey coast due to severe weather.

1944 – World War II: First bombardment of oil refineries in Bucharest by Anglo-American forces kills 3000 civilians.

1945 – World War II: United States Army troops liberate Ohrdruf forced labor camp in Germany.

1945 – World War II: United States Army troops capture Kassel.

1945 – World War II: Soviet Red Army troops liberate Hungary from German occupation and occupy the country themselves.

1946 – Greek judge and archeologist Panagiotis Poulitsas is appointed Prime Minister of Greece in the midst of the Greek Civil War.

1949 – Cold War: Twelve nations sign the North Atlantic Treaty creating the North Atlantic Treaty Organization.

1958 – The CND peace symbol is displayed in public for the first time in London.

1960 – France agrees to grant independence to the Mali Federation, a union of Senegal and French Sudan.

1963 – Bye Bye Birdie, a musical romantic comedy film directed by George Sidney, was released.

1964 – The Beatles occupy the top five positions on the Billboard Hot 100 pop chart.

1967 – Martin Luther King Jr. delivers his "Beyond Vietnam: A Time to Break Silence" speech in New York City's Riverside Church.

1968 – Martin Luther King Jr. is assassinated by James Earl Ray at a motel in Memphis, Tennessee.

1968 – Apollo program: NASA launches Apollo 6.

1969 – Dr. Denton Cooley implants the first temporary artificial heart.

1973 – The Twin Towers of the World Trade Center in New York City are officially dedicated.

1973 – A Lockheed C-141 Starlifter, dubbed the Hanoi Taxi, makes the last flight of Operation Homecoming.

1975 – Microsoft is founded as a partnership between Bill Gates and Paul Allen in Albuquerque, New Mexico.

1975 – Vietnam War: A United States Air Force Lockheed C-5A Galaxy transporting orphans, crashes near Saigon, South Vietnam shortly after takeoff, killing 172 people.

1977 – Southern Airways Flight 242 crashes in New Hope, Paulding County, Georgia, killing 72.

1979 – Prime Minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto of Pakistan is executed.

1981 – Iran–Iraq War: The Islamic Republic of Iran Air Force mounts an attack on H-3 Airbase and destroys about 50 Iraqi aircraft.

1983 – Space Shuttle program: Space Shuttle Challenger makes its maiden voyage into space on STS-6.

1984 – President Ronald Reagan calls for an international ban on chemical weapons.

1988 – Governor Evan Mecham of Arizona is convicted in his impeachment trial and removed from office.

1990 – The current flag of Hong Kong is adopted for post-colonial Hong Kong during the Third Session of the Seventh National People's Congress.

1991 – Senator John Heinz of Pennsylvania and six others are killed when a helicopter collides with their airplane over an elementary school in Merion, Pennsylvania.

1991 – Forty-one people are taken hostage inside a Good Guys! Electronics store in Sacramento, California. 3 of the hostage takers and 3 hostages are killed

1994 – Three people are killed when KLM Cityhopper Flight 433 crashes at Amsterdam Airport Schiphol.

1996 – Comet Hyakutake is imaged by the USA Asteroid Orbiter Near Earth Asteroid Rendezvous.

2002 – The MPLA government of Angola and UNITA rebels sign a peace treaty ending the Angolan Civil War.

2009 – France announces its return to full participation of its military forces within NATO.

2010 – A magnitude 7.2 earthquake hits south of the Mexico-USA border, killing two and damaging buildings across the two countries.

2013 – More than 70 people are killed in a building collapse in Thane, India.

2017 – Syria conducts an air strike on Khan Shaykhun using chemical weapons, killing 89 civilians.

2020 – China holds a national day of mourning for martyrs who died in the fight against the novel coronavirus disease outbreak.