Today in History - Historical Events - May 4th

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Notable Historical Events on May 4th

1728George Frederick Handel's opera "Tolomeo, re di Egitto" premieres in London

2002Barry Bonds hits his 400th home run as a Giant, leading his team to a 3-0 win over Cincinnati. Bonds is the first player to hit 400 homers for one team and 100 with another

2008Seth MacFarlane reaches an agreement worth $100 million with Fox to keep "Family Guy" and "American Dad" on television until 2012, making MacFarlane the world's highest paid television writer

1965Willie Mays 512th HR breaks Mel Ott's 511th NL record

19591st Grammy Awards: Perry Como & Ella Fitzgerald win

1994Singer Courtney Love cleared of drug charges

1957Anne Frank Foundation forms in Amsterdam

1979Margaret Thatcher 1st woman to be elected Prime Minister of the United Kingdom

2010Julia Louis-Dreyfus receives the 2,407th star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, although on the original star her name is spelled incorrectly

1991President Bush is hospitalized for erratic heartbeat

1834Charles Darwin's expedition reaches 200 km from Atlantic Ocean

1910Wilfrid Laurier passes the Naval Service Act, which creates the Royal Canadian Navy

1932Al Capone enters Atlanta Penitentiary convicted of income tax evasion

1929Lou Gehrig hits 3 consecutive HRs, Yankees 11, Tigers 9

1862Yorktown, VA - Mcclellan halted his troop before town as it is full of armed torpedoes left by CS Brigadier General Gabrial Rains

1864General Ulysses S. Grant's Union Army at Potomac attacks Robert E. Lee's Confederates at Rappahannock River

1998A federal judge in Sacramento, California, gives "Unabomber" Ted Kaczynski four life sentences plus 30 years after Kaczynski accepts a plea agreement sparing him from the death penalty.

1953Pulitzer prize awarded to Ernest Hemingway for The Old Man & The Sea

2013Harper Lee files a lawsuit against a literary agent over the copyright of To Kill a Mockingbird

1944"Gaslight", starring an 18-year-old Angela Lansbury in her film debut, is released

May 4th Historical Events
Date Event
1256
The Augustinian monastic order is constituted at the Lecceto Monastery when Pope Alexander IV issues a papal bull Licet ecclesiae catholicae. 
1303
Flemings conquers Middelburg 
1415
Religious reformers John Wycliffe and Jan Hus are condemned as heretics at the Council of Constance. 
1471
Battle of Tewkesbury - King Edward IV vs Ex-queen Margaretha 
1493
Spanish Pope Alexander VI divides America between Spain & Portugal 
1540
Venice & Turkey sign Treaty of Constantinople 
1572
Veere sides with Geuzen 
1626
Peter Minuit becomes director-general of New Netherlands 
1634
Johan van Walbeecks fleet departs to West Indies 
1652
Battle at Etampes: French army under Turenne beats Fronde rebels 
1686
Municipality of Ilagan is founded in the Philippines. 
1715
French manufacturer debuts 1st folding umbrella (Paris) 
1728
George Frederick Handel's opera "Tolomeo, re di Egitto" premieres in London 
1747
Willem IV appointed viceroy of Overijssel 
1776
Rhode Island declares independence from Britain 
1780
American Academy of Arts & Science founded 
1780
Charles Bunbury on Diomed wins 1st Epsom Derby 
1780
The Derby horse race is held for the first time. 
1783
Herschel reports seeing a red glow near lunar crater Aristarchus 
1799
Fourth Anglo-Mysore War: The Battle of Seringapatam: The siege of Seringapatam ends when the city is assaulted and the Tipu Sultan killed by the besieging British army, under the command of General George Harris. 
1805
Henry C Overing buys 80 acres of Throggs Neck in Bronx 
1814
Bourbon reign restored in France 
1814
King Ferdinand VII of Spain signs the Decree of the 4th of May, returning Spain to absolutism. 
1818
Netherlands & Britain sign treaty against illegal slave handling 
1834
Charles Darwin's expedition reaches 200 km from Atlantic Ocean 
1839
The Cunard Steamship Company Ltd forms San Bonifacio 
1843
Great Britain annexes Natal 
1846
US state Michigan ends death penalty 
1847
NY State creates a Board of Commissioners of Emigration 
1851
1st major SF fire 
1858
War of Reform (Mexico); Liberals establish capital at Vera Cruz 
1859
The Cornwall Railway opens across the Royal Albert Bridge linking the counties of Devon and Cornwall in England. 
1861
At Gretna LA, one of 1st guns of Rebel navy is cast 
1862
-5] Battle at Williamsburg, Virginia 
1862
Yorktown, VA - Mcclellan halted his troop before town as it is full of armed torpedoes left by CS Brigadier General Gabrial Rains 
1863
Battle of Chancellorsville-action at Salem Church 
1863
End of Chancellorsville - Beaten Union army withdraws 
1864
-16] actions at Drewry's Bluff, Virginia 
1864
General Ulysses S. Grant's Union Army at Potomac attacks Robert E. Lee's Confederates at Rappahannock River 
1865
Battle of Citronville, AL; Richard Taylor surrenders 
1865
Battle of Mobile, AL 
1866
Woodward's Gardens opens to public 
1869
The Naval Battle of Hakodate takes place in Japan. 
1871
1st baseball league game (National Association of Baseball Players), (Ft Wayne 2, Cleveland 0) Deacon Jim White gets 1st hit, a double 
1878
Phonograph shown for 1st time at Grand Opera House 
1883
John Gordon Cashmans begins "Vicksburg Evening Post" (Miss) 
1886
Haymarket riot in Chicago; bomb kills 7 policemen 
1888
Italy & Spain sign military covenant 
1893
Cowboy Bob Pickett invents bulldogging 
1896
1st edition of London Daily Mail (halfpenny) 
1896
Grease fire ignites half ton of dynamite at Cripple Creek Colorado 
1897
23rd Kentucky Derby: Buttons Garner aboard Typhoon II wins in 2:12.5 
1897
Fire in Paris bazaar at Rue Jean Goujon kills 200 
1898
24th Kentucky Derby: Willie Simms aboard Plaudit wins in 2:09 
1899
25th Kentucky Derby: Fred Taral aboard Manuel wins in 2:12 
1904
Construction begins by the United States on the Panama Canal. 
1904
Charles Stewart Rolls meets Frederick Henry Royce at the Midland Hotel in Manchester, England. Go on to form Roll-Royce 
1910
Canadian Currency Act, 1910, receives Royal Assent 
1910
Canadian parliament accept creation of Royal Canadian Navy 
1910
Tel Aviv founded 
1910
Wilfrid Laurier passes the Naval Service Act, which creates the Royal Canadian Navy 
1912
Italian mariners occupy Turkish Island of Rhodes 
1915
Italy drops Triple Alliance with Austria-Hungary & Germany 
1916
At request of US, Germany curtails its submarine warfare 
1916
Ned Daly, Willie Pearse, Michael O'Hanrahan and Joseph Plunkett are executed by British authorities following the Easter Rising, at Kilmainham Gaol, Dublin 
1917
Arabs sack Tel Aviv 
1918
Yankees set record with 8 sacrifices, beat Red Sox's Babe Ruth 5-4 
1919
1st legal Sunday baseball game in NYC (Phillies beat Giants 4-3) 
1919
FVC soccer team forms 
1919
Giants play their 1st legal Sunday home game, 35,000 see Phils win 4-3 
1922
KNX-AM in Los Angeles CA begins radio transmissions 
1923
Bloody street battles between nazis, socialist & police in Vienna 
1923
NY state revokes Prohibition law 
1924
8th Olympic games open at Paris, France 
1924
German Republic election fascists & communists win 
1925
League of Nations conference on arms control & poison gas usage 
1927
1st balloon flight over 40,000 feet (Scott Field, Ill) 
1927
Nicaragua agrees to a US supervised presidential election in 1928 
1929
Lou Gehrig hits 3 consecutive HRs, Yankees 11, Tigers 9 
1931
Mustafa Kemal Pasja becomes Turkish president 
1932
Al Capone enters Atlanta Penitentiary convicted of income tax evasion 
1933
Pulitzer prize awarded to Archibald Macleish (Conquistador) 
1935
61st Kentucky Derby: Willie Saunders aboard Omaha wins in 2:05 
1936
Pulitzer prize awarded to Harold L Davis (Honey in the Horn) 
1938
Douglas Hyde (a protestant) becomes 1st president of Eire 
1940
21 "not neutral" nazis & communists arrested in Netherlands 
1940
66th Kentucky Derby: Carroll Bierman aboard Gallahadion wins in 2:05 
1942
Battle of Coral Sea begins in the Pacific (1st sea battle fought solely in air) between Japanese, US and Australian navies and air forces 
1942
Food 1st rationed in US 
1942
German occupiers imprison 450 prominent Dutch as hostages 
1942
Pulitzer prize awarded to Ellen Glasgow (In this our Life) 
1943
NL Ford Frick demonstrates revised balata ball to reporters by bouncing it on his office carpet ball proves to be 50% livelier 
1944
"Gaslight", starring an 18-year-old Angela Lansbury in her film debut, is released 
1945
German troops in Netherlands, Denmark & Norway surrender 
1946
5 die in a 2 day riot at Alcatraz prison in SF bay 
1946
72nd Kentucky Derby: Warren Mehrtens aboard Assault wins in 2:06.6 
1946
Wash's Cecil Travis gets 6 straight hits before being stopped 
1948
The Hague Court of Justice convicts Nazi SS officer in the Netherlands Hans Rauter of Crimes against Humanity (executed 24 March 1949) 
1949
Air crash at Turin (whole Torino soccer team survives) 
1952
Babe Didrikson-Zaharias wins LPGA Fresno Golf Open 
1953
Pulitzer prize awarded to Ernest Hemingway for The Old Man & The Sea 
1954
US performs atmospheric nuclear test at Bikini Island 
1956
Queen Juliana unveils National Monument to Dams in Amsterdam 
1956
US performs atmospheric nuclear test at Enwetak 
1957
83rd Kentucky Derby: Bill Hartack aboard Iron Liege wins in 2:02.2 
1957
Alan Freed hosts "Rock n' Roll Show" 1st prime-time network rock show 
1957
Anne Frank Foundation forms in Amsterdam 
1958
Alberto Lleras Camargo chosen president of Colombia 
1959
1st Grammy Awards: Perry Como & Ella Fitzgerald win 
1959
Pulitzer prize awarded to Archibald Macleish (JB) 
1960
1st great Delta dam closes, North-South Beveland 
1961
1st on-the-road Spacemobile lecture given. 
1961
CORE begins freedom rides from Washington, DC 
1961
Malcolm Ross & Victor Prather reach 34,668 m (record) in balloon 
1961
South-Africa ANC-leader John Nkadimeng arrested 
1962
US performs atmospheric nuclear test at Christmas Island 
1963
89th Kentucky Derby: Braulio Baeza aboard Chateaugay wins in 2:01.8 
1963
Pitcher Bob Shaw sets record of 5 balks in a game 
1964
"Another World" premieres on TV in the US 
1964
70 GATT-countries confer in Geneva 
1964
KIII TV channel 3 in Corpus Christi, TX (ABC) begins broadcasting 
1964
Pulitzer prize awarded to Richard Hofstadter (Anti-intellectualism) 
1965
Willie Mays 512th HR breaks Mel Ott's 511th NL record 
1966
Soviet government signs accord about building Fiat factory in USSR 
1967
Lunar Orbiter 4 launched by US; begins orbiting Moon May 7 
1968
1st ABA championship: Pitts Pipers beat NO Buccaneers, 4 games to 3 
1968
94th Kentucky Derby: Ismael Valenzuela aboard Forward Pass wins 
1968
Dancer Image DQ due to drugs after winning 94th Kent Derby in 2:02½ 
1969
Charles Gordone's "No Place to be Somebody" premieres in NYC 
1969
Sandra Haynie wins LPGA Shreveport Kiwanis Club Golf Invitational 
1969
Stanley Cup: Montreal Canadiens sweep St Louis Blues in 4 games 
1970
National Guard kills 4 at Kent State in Ohio 
1970
Premier Kosygin affirms existence Russian military advisors in Egypt 
1970
Pulitzer prize awarded to Erik H Erikson (Gandhi's Truth) 
1972
Vietcong forms revolutionary government in Quang Tri South Vietnam 
1972
The Don't Make A Wave Committee, a fledgling environmental organization founded in Canada in 1971, officially changes its name to "Greenpeace Foundation". 
1973
1st TV network female nudity-Steambath (PBS)-Valerie Perrine 
1973
BPAA US Women's Bowling Open won by Millie Martorella 
1973
Longest baseball game in Veterans' Stadium, Phillies beat Braves 5-4 in 20 innings 
1973
Patriarch Shenuda II of Kopitisch church visits the pope 
1973
Wings release "Red Rose Speedway" in UK 
1974
100th Kentucky Derby: Angel Cordero Jr. aboard Cannonade wins in 2:04 
1975
Ed Bullins' "Taking of Miss Jane" premieres in NYC 
1975
Flyers 1-Isles 0-Semis-Flyers hold 3-0 lead-Isles held to 14 shots 
1975
Houston's Bob Watson scores baseball's one-millionth run of all time 
1975
Maria Astrologes wins LPGA Birmingham Golf Classic 
1976
"1600 Pennsylvania Avenue" opens at Mark Hellinger NYC for 7 perfs 
1978
Russian president Brezhnev visits West-Germany 
1979
Jackie Mercer wins her 4th golf title 31 years after her 1st 
1979
Margaret Thatcher 1st woman to be elected Prime Minister of the United Kingdom 
1979
NASA launches Fltsatcom-2 
1980
Dodgers bat out of order against Phillies in 1st inning 
1980
Hollis Stacy wins LPGA CPC Women's Internationalional Golf Tournament 
1980
White Sox 1st baseman Mike Squires catches final inning of 11-1 loss to Brewers, becoming 1st lefty to catch since Dale Long in 1958 
1981
Rockline premieres on KLOS FM in Los Angeles 
1981
Silvana Cruciata runs 15k female world record (49:44.0) 
1981
Yankee Ron Davis strikes out 8 consecutive Angels, ran record of 13 strikeouts of last 14 faced, also saved Gene Nelsons 1st win, 4-2 
1981
After 66 days on hunger strike, 26 year old Bobby Sands MP died in the Maze; 9 further hunger strikers die over the next 3 months 
1982
British destroyer HMS Sheffield hit by Exocet rocket off Falkland Islands 
1982
Nordiques 2-Isles 4-Semifinals-Isles win series 4-0 
1982
Twins rookie outfielder Jim Eisenreich, who suffers from Tourette's Syndrome, removes himself, due to taunts from Red Sox bleacher fans 
1983
China performs nuclear test at Lop Nor, PRC 
1984
Dave Kingman's fly ball never comes down (stuck in Metrodome ceiling) 
1985
111th Kentucky Derby: Angel Cordero Jr on Spend A Buck wins 2:00.2 
1986
President Babrak Karmal resigns as party leader of Afghanistan 
1988
USSR performs nuclear test at Eastern Kazakh/Semipalitinsk USSR 
1989
Junior Felix of Toronto becomes 53rd to hit HR on 1st at bat 
1989
US launches Magellan to Venus 
1989
US space shuttle STS-30 launched 
1990
Angela Bowie reveals that ex husband David slept with Mick Jagger 
1990
Latvia's parliament votes 138-0 (1 abstention) for Independence 
1990
Oriole Gregg Olson sets relief pitcher rec of 41 cons scoreless inns 
1990
Pakistan beat Aust by 36 runs to win Austral-Asia Cup, Sharjah 
1991
117th Kentucky Derby: Chris Antley aboard Strike the Gold wins in 2:03 
1991
ABC Masters Bowling Tournament won by Doug Kent 
1991
Actress Sharon Gless & producer Barney Rosenzeig wed 
1991
Indians' Chris James sets club record for most RBIs in a game (9) 
1991
Morris K Udall, (Rep-D-Ariz), resigns due to Parkinson disease 
1991
NY Mets M Sasser & Mark Carreon are 8th to hit consecutive pinch HRs 
1991
President Bush is hospitalized for erratic heartbeat 
1993
"Angels in America-Millennium Approaches" opens at Kerr for 367 perfs 
1994
Arsenal wins 34th Europe Cup II 
1994
Singer Courtney Love cleared of drug charges 
1996
122nd Kentucky Derby: Jerry Bailey aboard Grindstone wins in 2:01 
1996
ABC Bud Light Masters Bowling Tournament won by Ernie Schlegel 
1996
Greg Pavlik one-hits Tigers making the Rangers 1st AL team to pitch back-to-back one-hitters since the Washington Senators in 1917 
1997
Bruno's Memorial Senior Golf Classic 
1997
Phil Blackmar wins 50th Houston golf Open 
1997
Tammie Green wins LPGA Sprint Titlehoders Championship 
1998
A federal judge in Sacramento, California, gives "Unabomber" Ted Kaczynski four life sentences plus 30 years after Kaczynski accepts a plea agreement sparing him from the death penalty. 
2000
Ken Livingstone becomes the first Mayor of London. 
2001
The Milwaukee Art Museum addition, the first Santiago Calatrava-designed structure in the United States, opens to the public. 
2002
Barry Bonds hits his 400th home run as a Giant, leading his team to a 3-0 win over Cincinnati. Bonds is the first player to hit 400 homers for one team and 100 with another 
2002
128th Kentucky Derby: Victor Espinoza aboard War Emblem wins in 2:01.13 
2007
Greensburg, Kansas is almost completely destroyed by a 1.7m wide EF-5 tornado. 
2007
The Scottish National Party wins the Scottish general election and becomes the largest party in the Scottish Parliament for the first time ever. 
2008
Seth MacFarlane reaches an agreement worth $100 million with Fox to keep "Family Guy" and "American Dad" on television until 2012, making MacFarlane the world's highest paid television writer 
2010
Julia Louis-Dreyfus receives the 2,407th star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, although on the original star her name is spelled incorrectly 
2012
14 decapitated bodies and 9 hung from a bridge are found in Nuevo Laredo, Mexico 
2013
5 US soldiers are killed by a bomb in Kandahar, Afghanistan 
2013
77 people are killed by the Syrian Army in Baniyas 
2013
Harper Lee files a lawsuit against a literary agent over the copyright of To Kill a Mockingbird 
2013
39 people are killed at a funeral in Wukari, Nigeria 
2013
Floyd Mayweather defeats Robert Guerrero to retain his WBC Welterweight title 
2013
Juventus F.C. win their 29th Serie A football title 
2013
139th Kentucky Derby: Joel Rosario aboard Orb wins in 2:02.89 
2014
Juan Carlos Varela is elected President of Panama 
2015
The Riviera Hotel & Casino closes, ending a colorful 60-year run on the Las Vegas Strip 
2016
Ted Cruz Ends His Campaign for President 
2016
Kerry says confident Syria ceasefire can be reached, warns Assad 
2016
Obama briefed on death of US service member in Iraq: White House 
2016
Obama to meet with Flint, Michigan residents on water crisis 
2016
Trump links Cruz's father to Kennedy assassination 
2017
US House passes bill to fund government through September 
2017
FBI's Comey defends Clinton email decision, but feels 'nauseous' 
2017
Red Sox permanently ban fan for racial slur at another fan 
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