October 4

October 4 in recent years

2024 (Friday)

2023 (Wednesday)

2022 (Tuesday)

2021 (Monday)

2020 (Sunday)

2019 (Friday)

2018 (Thursday)

2017 (Wednesday)

2016 (Tuesday)

2015 (Sunday)

October 4 is the 277th day of the year (278th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar; 88 days remain until the end of the year.

Events

• 610 – Heraclius arrives by ship from Africa at Constantinople, overthrows Byzantine Emperor Phocas and becomes Emperor.
• 663 – The battle of Baekgang begins. (Traditional Chinese date: August 28, 663).
• 1209 – Otto IV is crowned emperor of the Holy Roman Empire by Pope Innocent III.
• 1227 – Assassination of Caliph al-Adil.
• 1363 – End of the Battle of Lake Poyang; the Chinese rebel forces of Zhu Yuanzhang defeat that of his rival, Chen Youliang, in one of the largest naval battles in history.
• 1511 – Formation of the Holy League of Ferdinand II of Aragon, the Papal States and the Republic of Venice against France.
• 1535 – The first complete English-language Bible (the Coverdale Bible) is printed, with translations by William Tyndale and Miles Coverdale.
• 1582 – Pope Gregory XIII implements the Gregorian Calendar. In Italy, Poland, Portugal, and Spain, October 4 of this year is followed directly by October 15.
• 1636 – The Swedish Army defeats the armies of Saxony and the Holy Roman Empire at the Battle of Wittstock.
• 1693 – Battle of Marsaglia: Piedmontese troops are defeated by the French.
• 1725 – Foundation of Rosario in Argentina.
• 1777 – Battle of Germantown: Troops under George Washington are repelled by British troops under Sir William Howe.
• 1779 – The Fort Wilson Riot takes place.
• 1795 – Napoleon Bonaparte first rises to national prominence with a "Whiff of Grapeshot", using cannon to suppress armed counter-revolutionary rioters threatening the French Legislature (National Convention).
• 1824 – Mexico adopts a new constitution and becomes a federal republic.
• 1830 – Creation of the state of Belgium after separation from The Netherlands.
• 1853 – Crimean War: The Ottoman Empire declares war on Russia.
• 1876 – Texas A&M University opens as the Agricultural and Mechanical College of Texas, becoming the first public institution of higher education in Texas.
• 1883 – First run of the Orient Express.
• 1883 – First meeting of the Boys' Brigade in Glasgow, Scotland.
• 1895 – The first U.S. Open Men's Golf Championship administered by the United States Golf Association is played at the Newport Country Club in Newport, Rhode Island.
• 1918 – An explosion kills more than 100 and destroys the T.A. Gillespie Company Shell Loading Plant in Sayreville, New Jersey. Fires and explosions continue for three days forcing massive evacuations and spreading ordnance over a wide area, pieces of which were still being found in 2007.
• 1927 – Gutzon Borglum begins sculpting Mount Rushmore.
• 1940 – Meeting between Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini at the Brenner Pass.
• 1941 – Norman Rockwell's Willie Gillis character debuts on the cover of the Saturday Evening Post.
• 1943 – World War II: U.S. captures Solomon Islands.
• 1957 – Space Race: Launch of Sputnik I, the first artificial satellite to orbit the Earth.
• 1957 – Avro Arrow roll-out ceremony at Avro Canada plant in Malton, Ontario.
• 1958 – Fifth Republic of France is established.
• 1960 – Eastern Air Lines Flight 375, a Lockheed L-188 Electra, crashes after a bird strike on takeoff from Boston's Logan International Airport, killing 62 of 72 on board.
• 1965 – Becoming the first Pope to ever visit the United States of America and the Western hemisphere, Pope Paul VI arrives in New York.
• 1966 – Basutoland becomes independent from the United Kingdom and is renamed Lesotho.
• 1967 – Omar Ali Saifuddin III of Brunei abdicates in favour of his son, His Majesty Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah.
• 1976 – Official launch of the Intercity 125 High Speed Train (HST).
• 1983 – Richard Noble sets a new land speed record of 633.468 mph (1,019 km/h), driving Thrust 2 at the Black Rock Desert of Nevada.
• 1985 – Free Software Foundation is founded in Massachusetts, United States.
• 1988 – U.S. televangelist Jim Bakker is indicted for fraud.
• 1991 – The Protocol on Environmental Protection to the Antarctic Treaty is opened for signature.
• 1992 – The Rome General Peace Accords ends a 16 year civil war in Mozambique.
• 1992 – El Al Flight 1862: an El Al Boeing 747-258F crashes into two apartment buildings in Amsterdam, killing 43 including 39 on the ground.
• 1993 – Russian Constitutional Crisis: In Moscow, tanks bombard the White House, a government building that housed the Russian parliament, while demonstrators against President Boris Yeltsin rally outside.
• 1997 – The second largest cash robbery in U.S. history occurs at the Charlotte, North Carolina office of Loomis, Fargo and Company. An FBI investigation eventually results in 24 convictions and the recovery of approximately 95% of the $17.3 million in cash which had been taken.
• 2001 – NATO confirms invocation of Article 5 of the North Atlantic Treaty.
• 2001 – Siberia Airlines Flight 1812: a Sibir Airlines Tupolev TU-154 crashes into the Black Sea after being struck by an errant Ukrainian S-200 missile. 78 people are killed.
• 2003 – Maxim restaurant suicide bombing in Haifa, Israel: 21 Israelis, Jews and Arabs, are killed, and 51 others wounded.
• 2004 – SpaceShipOne wins Ansari X Prize for private spaceflight, by being the first private craft to fly into space.

Births

• 1989 – Irakli Bichiashvili, First chocoholic of the planet (never)
• 1160 – Alys, Countess of the Vexin, daughter of Louis VII of France (d. 1220)
• 1276 – Margaret of Brabant, Queen of Germany (d. 1311)
• 1289 – King Louis X of France (d. 1316)
• 1331 – James Butler, 2nd Earl of Ormonde (d. 1382)
• 1379 – King Henry III of Castile (d. 1406)
• 1515 – Lucas Cranach the Younger, German painter (d. 1586)
• 1542 – Robert Bellarmine, Italian saint (d. 1621)
• 1550 – King Charles IX of Sweden (d. 1611)
• 1562 – Christian Sørensen Longomontanus, Danish astronomer (d. 1647)
• 1570 – Péter Pázmány, Hungarian cardinal (d. 1637)
• 1585 – Anna of Tyrol, Empress consort of the Holy Roman Empire (d. 1618)
• 1625 – Jacqueline Pascal, French child prodigy (d. 1661)
• 1626 – Richard Cromwell, Lord Protector of England, Scotland, and Ireland (d. 1712)
• 1657 – Francesco Solimena, Italian painter (d. 1747)
• 1720 – Giovanni Battista Piranesi, Italian artist (d. 1778)
• 1723 – Nikolaus Poda von Neuhaus, German entomologist (d. 1798)
• 1759 – Antoine Arbogast, French mathematician (d. 1803)
• 1787 – François Guizot, French statesman (d. 1874)
• 1807 – Louis-Hippolyte Lafontaine, French Canadian politician (d. 1864)
• 1814 – Jean-François Millet, French painter (d. 1875)
• 1822 – Rutherford B. Hayes, 19th President of the United States (d. 1893)
• 1836 – Juliette Adam, French writer (d. 1936)
• 1841 – Prudente José de Morais Barros, President of Brazil (d. 1912)
• 1841 – Maria Sophie of Bavaria, queen of the Two Sicilies (d. 1925)
• 1858 – Michael I. Pupin, Serbian-born telephone pioneer (d. 1935)
• 1861 – Walter Rauschenbusch, Christian Theologian and Baptist Minister (d. 1918)
• 1861 – Frederic Remington, American painter (d. 1909)
• 1862 – Edward Stratemeyer, American author (d. 1930)
• 1868 – Marcelo T. de Alvear, Argentine politician
• 1876 – Hugh McCrae, Australian writer (d. 1958)
• 1877 – Razor Smith, English cricketer (d. 1946)
• 1880 – Damon Runyon, American writer (d. 1946)
• 1881 – Walther von Brauchitsch, German statesman (d. 1948)
• 1884 – Subramaniya Siva, Indian revolutionary figure (d. 1925)
• 1886 – Luis Alberni, Spanish actor (d. 1962)
• 1888 – Oscar Mathisen, Norwegian speed skater (d. 1954)
• 1890 – Dr. Alan L. Hart, American transsexual, radiologist, and novelist (d. 1962)
• 1892 – Engelbert Dollfuss, Austrian politician (d. 1934)
• 1892 – Hermann Glauert, British aerodynamicist (d. 1934)
• 1895 – Buster Keaton, American comedian (d. 1966)
• 1903 – Bona Arsenault, French Canadian politician, historian and genealogist (d. 1993)
• 1903 – John Vincent Atanasoff, American computer pioneer (d. 1995)
• 1903 – Pierre Garbay, French army general and military governor of Paris (d. 1980)
• 1903 – Ernst Kaltenbrunner, German military officer and senior Nazi (d. 1946)
• 1907 – Run Run Shaw, Hong Kong media mogul
• 1910 – Frankie Crosetti, American baseball player (d. 2002)
• 1911 – Sir Michael Hordern, British actor (d. 1995)
• 1914 – Jim Cairns, Australian politician (d. 2003)
• 1914 – Brendan Gill, American writer (d. 1997)
• 1916 – Vitaly Ginzburg, Russian physicist, Nobel laureate (d. 2009)
• 1916 – Jan Murray, American comedian (d. 2006)
• 1916 – George Sidney, American film director (d. 2002)
• 1917 – Violeta Parra, Chilean folklorist and visual artist (d. 1967)
• 1918 – Kenichi Fukui, Japanese chemist, Nobel laureate (d. 1998)
• 1922 – Malcolm Baldrige, 26th United States Secretary of Commerce (d. 1987)
• 1922 – Shin Kyuk-Ho, Japanese businessman
• 1923 – Charlton Heston, American actor (d. 2008)
• 1928 – Alvin Toffler, American writer
• 1928 – Torben Ulrich, Danish musician and filmmaker
• 1929 – Scotty Beckett, American child actor (d. 1968)
• 1929 – Leroy Van Dyke, American singer
• 1931 – Sir Terence Conran, English designer, restaurateur, retailer and writer
• 1931 – Basil D'Oliveira CBE, South African born cricketer
• 1931 – Richard Rorty, American academic (d. 2007)
• 1932 – Milan Chvostek, Canadian television director
• 1934 – Sam Huff, American football player
• 1934 – Dimosthenis Sofianos, Greek journalist
• 1937 – Jackie Collins, British author
• 1937 – Jim Sillars, Scottish politician
• 1938 – Kurt Wüthrich, Swiss chemist, Nobel laureate
• 1940 – Vic Hadfield, Canadian ice hockey player
• 1940 – Silvio Marzolini, Argentine footballer
• 1940 – Alberto Vilar, Cuban-American investor and philanthropist
• 1941 – Roy Blount, Jr., American writer
• 1941 – Karl Oppitzhauser, Austrian racing driver
• 1941 – Anne Rice, American writer
• 1941 – Robert Wilson, American theatre director
• 1942 – Bernice Johnson Reagon, American musician (Sweet Honey in the Rock)
• 1942 – Karl W. Richter, American aviator (d. 1967)
• 1942 – Johanna Sigurdardottir, Prime Minister of Iceland
• 1942 – Christopher Stone, American actor (d. 1995)
• 1943 – H. Rap Brown, American civil rights activist
• 1943 – Dietmar Mürdter, German footballer
• 1943 – Florian Pittis, Romanian artist (d. 2007)
• 1943 – Jimy Williams, American baseball manager
• 1944 – Tony La Russa, American baseball manager
• 1944 – Rocío Dúrcal, Spanish singer and actress (d. 2006)
• 1945 – Clifton Davis, American actor
• 1946 – Chuck Hagel, American politician
• 1946 – Michael Mullen, American Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff
• 1946 – Susan Sarandon, American actress and activist
• 1946 – Bridget St John, English singer/songwriter and guitarist
• 1947 – Julien Clerc, French singer
• 1947 – Jim Fielder, American bassist (Blood, Sweat & Tears)
• 1947 – Ann Widdecombe, British politician
• 1948 – Linda McMahon, CEO of WWE
• 1949 – Armand Assante, American actor
• 1949 – Stephen Gyllenhaal, American director
• 1949 – Marion Pruett, American spree killer (d. 1999)
• 1950 – Meg Bennett, American writer and actress
• 1951 – Bakhytzhan Kanapyanov, Kazakh poet
• 1953 – Tchéky Karyo, Turkish-French actor
• 1955 – Jorge Valdano, Argentine footballer
• 1956 – Christoph Waltz, Austrian actor
• 1957 – Bill Fagerbakke, American actor
• 1957 – Russell Simmons, American entrepreneur
• 1957 – Kyra Schon, American actress
• 1957 – Alexander Tkachyov, Soviet gymnast
• 1959 – Chris Lowe, British musician (Pet Shop Boys)
• 1959 – Tony Meo, English snooker player
• 1960 – Joe Boever, American baseball player
• 1961 – Philippe Russo, French singer
• 1961 – Kazuki Takahashi, Japanese author
• 1962 – Carlos Carsolio, Mexican alpinist
• 1962 – Jon Secada, Cuban singer and songwriter
• 1963 – A. C. Green, American basketball player
• 1963 – Koji Ishikawa, Japanese children's author
• 1965 – Olaf Backasch, German footballer
• 1965 – Skip Heller, American musician
• 1967 – Marcus Bentley, British voice actor
• 1967 – Ekin Cheng Yee-Kin, Hong Kong actor and Cantopop singer
• 1967 – Liev Schreiber, American actor
• 1968 – Richard Hancox, English footballer
• 1968 – Tim Wise, American writer and activist
• 1971 – Friderika Bayer, Hungarian singer
• 1971 – Darren Middleton, Australian guitarist
• 1972 – Kurt Thomas, American basketball player
• 1973 – Chris Parks, American wrestler
• 1974 – Paco León, Spanish actor
• 1975 – Daniella Deutscher, American actress
• 1975 – Cristiano Lucarelli, Italian football player
• 1976 – Mauro Camoranesi, Argentine-Italian footballer
• 1976 – Santiago, Brazilian footballer
• 1976 – Alicia Silverstone, American actress
• 1977 – Cabral Ibacka, Romanian actor and television presenter
• 1977 – Richard Parry, Canadian musician and composer (Arcade Fire)
• 1978 – Phillip Glasser, American actor and producer
• 1978 – Kyle Lohse, American baseball player
• 1978 – Ko Soo, South Korean television and movie actor
• 1979 – Rachael Leigh Cook, American actress
• 1979 – Adam Voges, Australian cricketer
• 1979 – Stefan Booth, British actor
• 1979 – Bjorn Phau, German tennis player
• 1980 – Me'Lisa Barber, American athlete
• 1980 – Sarah Fisher, American race car driver
• 1980 – Mellisa Hollingsworth, Canadian skeleton racer
• 1980 – James Jones, American basketball player
• 1980 – Kristina Lenko, Canadian ice skater
• 1980 – Tim Peper, American actor
• 1980 – Tomáš Rosický, Czech footballer
• 1981 – Scott Hammond, American photographer
• 1981 – Juka, Japanese singer
• 1981 – Justin Williams, Canadian ice hockey player
• 1982 – Tony Gwynn Jr., American baseball player
• 1982 – Jered Weaver, American baseball player
• 1983 – Dan Clarke, British racing driver
• 1983 – Risa Kudo, Japanese gravure idol
• 1983 – Chansi Stuckey, American football player
• 1983 – Kurt Suzuki, American baseball player
• 1983 – Ueda Tatsuya, Japanese boy band singer (KAT-TUN)
• 1984 – Lena Katina, Russian singer (t.A.T.u.)
• 1984 – Álvaro Parente, Portuguese racing driver
• 1985 – Shontelle Layne, Barbados born singer
• 1985 – Thorsten Wiedemann, German rugby player
• 1986 – Yuridia, Mexican singer
• 1987 – Rawez Lawan, Swedish footballer
• 1988 – Derrick Rose, American basketball player
• 1989 – Dakota Johnson, American actress
• 1989 – Lil Mama, American rapper
• 1989 – Kimmie Meissner, American figure skater
• 1989 – Stacey Solomon, English singer
• 2005 – Prince Emmanuel of Belgium

Deaths

• 1052 – Vladimir of Novgorod (b. 1020)
• 1221 – William III Talvas, Count of Ponthieu (b. 1179)
• 1250 – Herman VI, Margrave of Baden (b. 1226)
• 1305 – Emperor Kameyama of Japan (b. 1249)
• 1582 – Teresa of Avila, Spanish saint (b. 1515)
• 1597 – Sarsa Dengel, Emperor of Ethiopia (b. 1550)
• 1646 – Thomas Howard, 21st Earl of Arundel, English statesman (b. 1586)
• 1660 – Francesco Albani, Italian painter (b. 1578)
• 1661 – Jacqueline Pascal, French child prodigy (b. 1625)
• 1669 – Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn, Dutch painter (b. 1606)
• 1680 – Pierre-Paul Riquet, French engineer
• 1743 – John Campbell, 2nd Duke of Argyll, Scottish soldier (b. 1678)
• 1749 – Franz Freiherr von der Trenck, Austrian soldier (b. 1711)
• 1754 – Tanacharison, Catawba Indian chief
• 1785 – David Brearly, American statesman (b. 1703)
• 1821 – John Rennie, Scottish engineer (b. 1761)
• 1851 – Manuel de Godoy, Spanish statesman (b. 1767)
• 1852 – James Whitcomb, American politician (b. 1795)
• 1859 – Karl Baedeker, German publisher (b. 1801)
• 1864 – Joseph Montferrand, French Canadian logger and strong man (b. 1802)
• 1867 – Francis Xavier Seelos German-American Roman Catholic priest (b. 1819)
• 1871 – Sarel Cilliers Voortrekker leader and preacher (b. 1801)
• 1890 – Catherine Booth, the Mother of The Salvation Army (b. 1829)
• 1903 – Otto Weininger, Austrian philosopher (b. 1880)
• 1904 – Frédéric Bartholdi, French sculptor (b. 1834)
• 1904 – Karl Bayer, Austrian chemist (b. 1847)
• 1910 – Sergey Muromtsev, Russian lawyer and politician, and President of the First Imperial Duma (b. 1850)
• 1935 – Jean Béraud, French painter (b. 1849)
• 1935 – Marie Gutheil-Schoder, German soprano (b. 1874)
• 1943 – Irena Iłłakowicz, Polish intelligence agent (b. 1906)
• 1944 – Al Smith, American politician (b. 1873)
• 1946 – Barney Oldfield, American automobile pioneer (b. 1878)
• 1947 – Max Planck, German physicist, Nobel laureate (b. 1858)
• 1951 – Willie Moretti, American gangster (b. 1894)
• 1951 – Henrietta Lacks, HeLa cells derived from her cervical cancer (b. 1920)
• 1955 – Alexander Papagos, Greek general and political leader (b. 1883)
• 1958 – Ida Wüst, German actress, (b. 1884)
• 1961 – Metropolitan Benjamin (Fedchenkov), Orthodox missionary and writer, Exarch of Russian Church in North America (b. 1880)
• 1969 – Natalino Otto, Italian singer (b. 1912)
• 1970 – Janis Joplin, American singer (b. 1943)
• 1974 – Anne Sexton, American poet (b. 1928)
• 1975 – Joan Whitney Payson, American heiress (b. 1903)
• 1977 – José Ber Gelbard, activist and politician, dies in Washington DC of a heart attack (b. 1917).
• 1981 – Freddie Lindstrom, Major League Baseball Hall of famer (b. 1905)
• 1982 – Glenn Gould, Canadian pianist (b. 1932)
• 1989 – Graham Chapman, British comedian (b. 1941)
• 1989 – Secretariat, American race horse (b. 1970)
• 1990 – Alyn Ainsworth, British bandleader (b. 1924)
• 1990 – Avis Bunnage, English actress (b. 1923)
• 1991 – J. Frank Wilson, American singer (J. Frank Wilson and the Cavaliers) (b. 1941)
• 1992 – Denny Hulme, New Zealand race car driver and 1967 Formula One world champion (b. 1936)
• 1994 – Danny Gatton, American guitar virtuoso (b. 1945)
• 1996 – Larry Gene Bell, American child murderer (executed by electric chair) (b. 1949)
• 1997 – Gunpei Yokoi, Japanese game developer (b. 1941)
• 1999 – Erik Brødreskift (aka Grim), Norwegian black metal musician (b. 1969)
• 1999 – Art Farmer, American jazz trumpet player (b. 1928)
• 1999 – Bernard Buffet, French painter (b. 1928)
• 2000 – Michael Smith, biochemist, Nobel laureate (b. 1932)
• 2000 – Yu Kuo-hwa, former Premier of Taiwan (b. 1914)
• 2001 – Blaise Alexander, American race car driver (b. 1976)
• 2001 – Ahron Soloveichik, Orthodox Jewish rabbi (b. 1917)
• 2002 – Alphonse Chapanis, founder of ergonomics (b. 1917)
• 2002 – André Delvaux, Belgian film director and screenwriter (b. 1926)
• 2003 – Sid McMath, American politician (b. 1912)
• 2004 – Gordon Cooper, American astronaut (b. 1927)
• 2004 – Rio Diaz, Filipino actress & TV hosts (b. 1959)
• 2005 – Stanley K. Hathaway, American politician (b. 1924)
• 2006 – Tom Bell, English actor on stage, television and film (b. 1933)
• 2007 – Qassem Al-Nasser, Jordanian General (b. 1925)
• 2009 – Mercedes Sosa, Argentine singer (b. 1935)
• 2009 – Günther Rall, German fighter ace (b. 1918)
• 2010 – Sir Norman Wisdom, English comedian, singer-songwriter and actor (b. 1915)

Holidays and observances

• Christian Feast Day
  • Amun
  • Francis of Assisi
  • Petronius of Bologna.
  • October 4 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics)
• Cinnamon Roll Day or kanelbullens dag (Sweden)
• Independence Day, celebrates the independence of Lesotho from Great Britain in 1966.
• The beginning of World Space Week (International)
• World Animal Day (International)

External links

• BBC: On This Day
• The New York Times: On This Day
• On This Day in Canada

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