April 4 is the 94th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (95th in leap years). There are 271 days remaining.

Events

• 1581 - Francis Drake completes a circumnavigation of the world and is knighted by Elizabeth I.
• 1721 - Sir Robert Walpole enters office as the first Prime Minister of the United Kingdom under King George I.
• 1812 - U.S. President James Madison enacted a ninety-day embargo on trade with the United Kingdom.
• 1814 - Napoleon abdicates for the first time.
• 1818 - The U.S. Congress adopts the flag of the United States as having 13 red and white stripes and one star for each state (20 stars) with additional stars to be added whenever a new state is added to the Union.
• 1841 - President William Henry Harrison dies of pneumonia becoming the first President of the United States to die in office and at one month, the elected president with the shortest term served.
• 1850 - Los Angeles, California is incorporated as a city.
• 1865 - American Civil War: A day after Union forces captured Richmond, Virginia, U.S. President Abraham Lincoln visits the Confederate capital.
• 1866 - Alexander II of Russia narrowly escapes an assassination attempt in the city of Kiev. A design for a city gate to commemorate his escape was the inspiration for Mussorgsky's The Great Gate of Kiev from Pictures at an Exhibition.
• 1887 - Argonia, Kansas elects Susanna M. Salter as the first female mayor in the United States.
• 1905 - In India, an earthquake near Kangra kills 370,000.
• 1918 - World War I: Second Battle of the Somme ends.
• 1939 - Faisal II becomes King of Iraq.
• 1945 - World War II: American troops liberate Ohrdruf death camp in Germany.
• 1945 - World War II: Soviet Army liberates Hungary.
• 1949 - Twelve nations sign The North Atlantic Treaty creating the North Atlantic Treaty Organization.
• 1964 - The Beatles occupy all of the top five positions on the Billboard singles chart in the United States.
• 1968 - Martin Luther King Jr. assassinated.
• 1968 - Apollo program: NASA launches Apollo 6.
• 1969 - Dr. Denton Cooley implants the first temporary artificial heart.
• 1969 - The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour is cancelled after the brothers failed to submit an episode before its broadcast date.
• 1973 - The World Trade Center in New York is officially dedicated.
• 1975 - Vietnam War: Operation Baby Lift - A United States Air Force C-5A Galaxy crashes near Saigon, South Vietnam shortly after takeoff, transporting orphans. 172 people are killed.
• 1976 - Prince Norodom Sihanouk resigns as leader of Cambodia and is placed under house arrest.
• 1979 - President Zulfikar Ali Bhutto of Pakistan is executed.
• 1981 - In Dublin, Ireland, Bucks Fizz win the twenty-sixth Eurovision Song Contest for the United Kingdom singing "Making Your Mind Up".
• 1983 - Space Shuttle Challenger makes its maiden voyage into space.
• 1984 - President Ronald Reagan calls for an international ban on chemical weapons.
• 1991 - Senator John Heinz of Pennsylvania and six others are killed when a helicopter collides with their plane over Merion, Pennsylvania.
• 1994 - Netscape Communications Corporation is founded (under the name "Mosaic Communications Corporation") by Marc Andreessen and Jim Clark.

Births

• 186 - Caracalla, Roman emperor (d. 217)
• 1648 - Grinling Gibbons master wood-worker (d. 1721)
• 1785 - Bettina von Arnim, German lyricist (d. 1859)
• 1802 - Dorothea Dix, American social activist (d. 1887)
• 1843 -
  • William Jackson , photographer
  • John Venn, mathematician
• 1846 - Comte de Lautréamont, French writer (d. 1870)
• 1870 - George Albert Smith, president of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (d. 1951)
• 1875 - Pierre Monteux, French conductor (d. 1964)
• 1876 - Maurice de Vlaminck, painter (d. 1958)
• 1884 - Isoroku Yamamoto, Japanese naval commander (d. 1943)
• 1885 - Arthur Murray, dancer (d. 1991)
• 1888 - Tris Speaker, Baseball Hall of Famer (d. 1958)
• 1895 - Arthur Murray, American dance teacher (d. 1991)
• 1898 - Agnes Ayres , silent film actress (d. 1940)
• 1902 - Louise Leveque de Vilmorin, actress (d. 1969)
• 1906 - Bea Benaderet, actress (d. 1968)
• 1906 - John Cameron Swayze , journalist, television host (d. 1995)
• 1910 - Juri Pawlowitsch German , writer (d. 1967)
• 1914 - Marguerite Duras, writer (d. 1996)
• 1914 - Frances Langford , American actress
• 1915 - Muddy Waters, blues musician (d. 1983)
• 1920 - Eric Rohmer, French film director
• 1922 - Elmer Bernstein, composer
• 1924 - Gil Hodges, American baseball player (d. 1972)
• 1928 - Maya Angelou, poet, novelist
• 1931 - Bobby Ray Inman, American Admiral, intelligence director
• 1932 - Anthony Perkins, actor (d. 1992)
• 1932 - Andrei Tarkovsky, film director (d. 1986)
• 1932 - Richard Lugar, American politician
• 1934 - Clive Davis, American record producer
• 1934 - Anne Haney , American actress (d. 2001)
• 1938 - A. Bartlett Giamatti, president of Yale Univ. and baseball commissioner
• 1939 - Hugh Masekela, musician
• 1940 - Sharon Sheeley, songwriter
• 1942 - Kitty Kelley, American writer, biographer
• 1944 - Craig T. Nelson, actor
• 1945 - Daniel Cohn-Bendit, political activist
• 1946 - Dave Hill, Slade, guitarist
• 1947 - Luke Halpin , American actor
• 1947 - Wiranto, Indonesian general
• 1948 - Dan Simmons, writer
• 1948 - Abdullah Öcalan, Kurdish leader
• 1950 - Christine Lahti, actress
• 1951 - Hun Sen, Prime Minister of Cambodia
• 1952 - Rosemarie Ackermann, German high jumper
• 1956 - David E. Kelley, writer, television producer
• 1957 - Aki Kaurismäki, Finnish film-director
• 1958 - Mary-Margaret Humes, American soap opera actress
• 1960 - Jane Eaglin, English soprano
• 1960 - Hugo Weaving, actor
• 1963 - Jack Del Rio, American football player and coach
• 1963 - Graham Norton, talk show host
• 1965 - Robert Downey Jr., actor
• 1970 - Barry Pepper, actor
• 1973 - David Blaine, illusionist
• 1974 - Dave Mirra, extreme sports champion
• 1975 - Scott Rolen, baseball player
• 1979 - Heath Ledger, actor
• 1979 - Natasha Lyonne, American actress
• 1980 - Björn Wirdheim, racing driver
• 1991 - Jamie Spears, television show host

Deaths

• 397 - St. Ambrose, bishop of Milan (b. c. 340)
• 1292 - Pope Nicholas IV (b. 1227)
• 1305 - Jeanne of Navarre, queen of Philip IV of France
• 1701 - Joseph Haines, entertainer and author
• 1774 - Oliver Goldsmith, playwright (b. 1728)
• 1807 - Joseph Jérôme Lefrançais de Lalande French astronomer
• 1817 - André Masséna, French soldier (b. 1758)
• 1841 - William Henry Harrison, 9th President of the United States (b. 1773)
• 1842 - Jean Moufot, French philosopher and mathematician (b. 1784)
• 1846 - Solomon Sibley, Senator, Michigan Territory, 1820-1823 (b. 1769)
• 1861 - John McLean, U.S. Supreme Court justice (b. 1785)
• 1884 - Marie Bashkirtseff, artist (b. 1860)
• 1919 - Sir William Crookes, chemist and physicist (b. 1832)
• 1951 - Al Christie, early Hollywood director/producer (b. 1881)
• 1951 - George Albert Smith, president of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (b. 1870)
• 1968 - Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., civil rights activist, minister (b. 1929)
• 1972 - Adam Clayton Powell Jr., American politician
• 1972 - Stefan Wolpe, composer (b. 1902)
• 1979 - Ali Bhutto, President and Prime Minister of Pakistan (b. 1928)
• 1979 - Edgar Buchanan, American actor
• 1980 - Red Sovine , country music entertainer
• 1983 - Gloria Swanson, actress (b. 1897)
• 1984 - Oleg Antonov, Soviet airplane engineer
• 1987 - C.L. Moore, science fiction writer (b. 1911)
• 1991 - H. John Heinz III, Member of the U.S. Senate in a plane crash (b. 1938)
• 1991 - Forrest Towns, American hurdler (b. 1914)
• 1995 - Priscilla Lane, American singer, actress
• 1996 - Barney Ewell, American athlete (b. 1918)
• 1996 - Larry LaPrise, songwriter (b. 1913)
• 1999 - Early Wynn, Baseball Hall of Famer (b. 1920)
• 2001 - Ed "Big Daddy" Roth, custom car designer
• 2002 - Harry L. O'Connor, film stuntman
• 2003 - Resortes, Mexican comedian

Holidays and observances

• Lesotho - Heroes' Day

External links

• BBC: On This Day

April 3 - April 5 - March 4 - May 4 -- listing of all days