Today October 4th 2009 this day in history Read more below to view events, deaths, births, Holidays observances and video clips. Last database updated: Jan 17th, 2009
Events
610 – Heraclius arrives by ship from Africa at Constantinople, overthrows Byzantine Emperor Phocas and becomes Emperor.
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.
1537 – The first complete English-language Bible (the Matthew 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 becomes Texas s first public institution of higher education in that state.
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.
1910 – Declaration of the Portuguese Republic. King Manuel II flees to the United Kingdom.
1910 – Adoption of the Flag of Bermuda.
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 are still being found in 2007.
1921 – Riccardo Zanella becomes first elected president of Free State of Fiume.
1927 – Gutzon Borglum begins sculpting Mount Rushmore.
1940 – Meeting between Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini at the Brenner Pass.
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 Wesern 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
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, prime minister of the Province of Canada (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 – Frederic Remington, American painter (d. 1909)
1861 – Walter Rauschenbusch, Christian Theologian and Baptist Minister (d. 1918)
1862 – Edward Stratemeyer, American author (d. 1930)
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 Commander-in-Chief (d. 1948)
1884 – Subramaniya Siva, Indian freedom fighter (d. 1925)
1886 – Luis Alberni, Spanish actor (d. 1962)
1888 – Oscar Mathisen, Norwegian speed skater (d. 1954)
1890 – Dr. Alan L. Hart (Born Lucille Hart), First known American female to male transsexual (SRS in 1917), radiologist, tuberculosis researcher, writer 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 – 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)
1903 – Bona Arsenault, French Canadian politician, historian and genealogist (d. 1993)
1907 – Run Run Shaw, Hong Kong media mogul
1910 – Frankie Crosetti, American baseball player (d. 2002)
1914 – Jim Cairns, Australian politician (d. 2003)
1914 – Brendan Gill, American writer (d. 1997)
1916 – Vitaly Ginzburg, Russian physicist, Nobel laureate
1916 – Jan Murray, American comedian (d. 2006)
1916 – George Sidney, American film director (d. 2002)
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 and former president of the NRA (d. 2008)
1928 – Torben Ulrich, Danish musician, writer, filmmaker and tennis player
1929 – Scotty Beckett, American child actor, Our Gang comedies (d. 1968)
1929 – Leroy Van Dyke, American singer
1931 – Richard Rorty, Professor Emeritus of Philosophy, Stanford University (d. 2007)
1932 – Milan Chvostek, Canadian television director
1934 – Sam Huff, American football player
1937 – Jackie Collins, British author
1937 – Jim Sillars, Scottish politician
1938 – Kurt Wüthrich, Swiss chemist, Nobel laureate
1940 – Silvio Marzolini, Argentine footballer
1940 – Alberto Vilar, Cuban-American investor and philanthropist
1941 – Roy Blount, Jr., American writer
1941 – Anne Rice, American writer
1941 – Robert Wilson, American theatre director
1941 – Karl Oppitzhauser, Austrian racing driver
1942 – Karl W. Richter, American aviator (d. 1967)
1943 – H. Rap Brown, American civil rights activist
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 – Bridget St John, English singer/songwriter and guitarist
1946 – Susan Sarandon, American actress
1947 – Ann Widdecombe, British politician
1947 – Julien Clerc, French singer
1947 – Jim Fielder, American bassist (Blood, Sweat & Tears)
1948 – Linda McMahon, CEO of World Wrestling Entertainment
1949 – Armand Assante, American actor
1949 – Stephen Gyllenhaal, American director
1950 – Meg Bennett, American writer and actress
1951 – Bakhytzhan Kanapyanov, Kazakh poet
1953 – Tchéky Karyo, Turkish-French actor
1955 – Jorge Valdano, Argentine footballer
1957 – Alexander Tkachyov, Soviet gymnast
1957 – Bill Fagerbakke, American actor
1957 – Kyra Schon, American actress
1959 – Chris Lowe, British musician (Pet Shop Boys)
1959 – Tony Meo, English snooker player
1960 – Joe Boever, American baseball player
1961 – Kazuki Takahashi, Japanese author
1961 – Philippe Russo, French singer
1962 – Jon Secada, Cuban singer and songwriter
1962 – Carlos Carsolio, Mexican alpinist. Fourth person to summit all 14 of the eight-thousanders.
1963 – A.C. Green, American basketball player
1963 – Koji Ishikawa, Japanese children s author
1964 – Sarah Lancashire, British actress
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
1970 – Richard Hancox, English footballer
1971 – Friderika Bayer, Hungarian singer
1972 – Kurt Thomas, American basketball player
1973 – Chris Parks, American wrestler
1974 – Paco León, Spanish actor
1975 – Cristiano Lucarelli, Italian football player
1976 – Alicia Silverstone, American actress
1976 – Mauro Camoranesi, Argentine-Italian footballer
1976 – Cabral Ibacka, Romanian actor and television presenter
1978 – Ko Soo, South Korean television and movie actor
1978 – Kyle Lohse, American baseball player
1978 – Phillip Glasser, American actor and producer
1979 – Rachael Leigh Cook, American actress
1979 – Stefan Booth, British actor
1979 – Bjorn Phau, German tennis player
1980 – Kristina Lenko, Canadian ice skater
1980 – Me Lisa Barber, American athlete
1980 – Sarah Fisher, American race car driver
1980 – Tim Peper, American actor
1980 – Tomáš Rosický, Czech footballer
1981 – Justin Williams, Canadian ice hockey player
1981 – Scott Hammond, American photographer
1981 – Juka, Japanese singer
1982 – Jered Weaver, American baseball player
1982 – Tony Gwynn Jr., American baseball player
1983 – Risa Kudo, Japanese gravure idol
1983 – Ueda Tatsuya, Japanese idol (member of KAT-TUN)
1983 – Dan Clarke, British racing driver
1983 – Kurt Suzuki, American baseball player
1984 – Lena Katina, Russian singer (t.A.T.u.)
1984 – Álvaro Parente, Portuguese racing driver
1986 – Yuridia, Mexican singer
1987 – Rawez Lawan, Swedish footballer
1989 – Dakota Johnson, American actress
1989 – Lil Mama, American rapper
1989 – Kimmie Meissner, American figure skater
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
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)
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 Illakowicz, 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)
1955 – Alexander Papagos, Greek general and political leader (b. 1883)
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)
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 – 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)
1993 – Jim Holton, Scottish footballer (b. 1951)
1994 – Danny Gatton, American guitar virtuoso (b. 1945)
1996 – Larry Gene Bell, American child murderer (executed by electric chair)
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)
Holidays and observances
RC Saints – Feast day of Saint Francis of Assisi; also of Saint Amun, Saint Petronius of Bologna.
Also see October 4 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics)
Lesotho – Independence Day (from Britain, 1966).
World Animal Day
The beginning of World Space Week
