From 1793 – 1933, March 4 was Inauguration Day for the President of the United States. Since 1937, Inauguration Day has been January 20.

Events

Up to 1900 
 51 - Nero is given the title of Princeps Iuventutis (Head of the Youth).
 1152 – Frederick I Barbarossa is elected King of the Germans.
 1226 - The city of Hamm, in North Rhine-Westphalia, present-day Germany, is founded.
 1275 - Chinese astronomers observe a solar eclipse.
 1351 – Ramathibodi becomes King of Siam.
 1386 – Wladyslaw II Jagiello (Jogaila) is crowned King of Poland.
 1461 – The Lancastrian King Henry VI of England is deposed by his Yorkist cousin, King Edward IV of England.
 1493 – Christopher Columbus arrives in Portugal after the voyage that took him to the Caribbean.
 1519 – Hernan Cortes arrives in Mexico.
 1628 – The Massachusetts Bay Colony is granted a royal charter.
 1665 – England's King Charles II declares war on the Netherlands.
 1675 – In England, John Flamsteed is appointed as the first Astronomer Royal.
 1681 – Charles II grants a land charter to William Penn, to colonise what is now Pennsylvania.
 1769 - The Orion Nebula is first observed by Charles Messier.
 1776 - American Revolutionary War: The Continental Army fortifies Dorchester Heights with cannon, leading the British troops to abandon the Siege of Boston.
 1789 – In New York City, the first United States Congress meets, putting the United States Constitution into effect.
 1790 – France is divided into 83 Departements.
 1791 – Vermont becomes the 14th State of the US.
 1793 – John Adams becomes the first US President to be inaugurated on March 4.
 1794 - The 11th Amendment to the United States Constitution is passed by the United States Congress.
 1837 - The city of Chicago is incorporated.
 1848 - Carlo Alberto di Savoia signs the Statuto Albertino that will later represent the Constitution of the Kingdom of Italy.
 1861 – Abraham Lincoln becomes President of the United States. During his time in office, he will be faced with the American Civil War.
 1861 – The Stars and Bars Flag of the Confederate States of America is introduced.
 1865 – The third national flag of the Confederate States of America is introduced.
 1882 – The United Kingdom's first electric trams run in London.
 1877 – The ballet Swan Lake by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky has its premiere at the Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow.
 1890 – The Forth Rail Bridge is opened in Scotland.
 1899 – Cyclone Mahina passes to the north of Cooktown, Queensland, Australia, with 12-metre waves travelling inland by as much as five kilometres, killing 300 people.

1901  2000 
 1902 - The American Automobile Club is founded in Cleveland, Ohio.
 1908 - The Collinwood School Fire near Cleveland, Ohio kills 174 people.
 1913 - The United States Department of Labor is created.
 1917 – Jeannette Rankin of Montana becomes the first woman in the House of Representatives.
 1918 – The first case of the Spanish flu pandemic occurs.
 1918 - The ship USS Cyclops leaves Barbados, never to be seen again. It is one of several disappearances in the so-called Bermuda Triangle.
 1929 – Herbert Hoover becomes President of the United States. At the same time, Charles Curtis becomes the first Vice President of the United States of Native American ancestry.
 1933 – Chancellor of Austria Engelbert Dolfuss begins authoritarian rule by decree.
 1933 – Franklin D. Roosevelt becomes the last President of the United States to be inaugurated on March 4.
 1933 – Frances Perkins becomes the first woman in the United States Cabinet, as she becomes Secretary for Labor.
 1936 - The Hindenburg airship makes its first test-flight over Lake Constance.
 1941 – World War II: The United Kingdom launches Operation Claymore on the Lofoten Islands.
 1943 – World War II: The Battle of the Bismarck Sea ends.
 1943 - British passenger steamer City of Pretoria is sunk by a German U-boat in the North Atlantic Ocean. No-one on board survives.
 1945 – Lapland War: Finland declares war on Germany.
 1960 – The French freighter La Coubre explodes in Havanna, Cuba.
 1962 - A Caledonia Airways Douglas DC-7 crashes shortly after take-off in Cameroon, killing 111 people.
 1966 – A Canadian Pacific Airlines DC-8-43 explodes on landing at Tokyo International Airport, killing 64 people.
 1966 - John Lennon of The Beatles says that the band is probably "Bigger than Jesus".
 1970 - French submarine Erydice explodes underwater, killing the entire 57-man crew.
 1974 - People magazine is first published in the United States, under the name "People Weekly".
 1976 - Northern Ireland is directly ruled from London from this date.
 1977 – An earthquake strikes southeastern Europe. Bucharest, Romania, is among the places that suffer damage, as around 1,500 people are killed.
 1980 – Robert Mugabe is elected Prime Minister of Zimbabwe.
 1983 - Bertha Wilson becomes the first woman to sit on the Supreme Court of Canada.
 1985 – The US Food and Drug Administration approves a blood test for AIDS.
 1986 – The Soviet Vega 1 space probe starts to return images of Halley's Comet, including its nucleus.
 1987 - President Ronald Reagan apologizes to the American people on a live televised address about the Iran-Contra affair.
 1991 - For the first time since Iraq's invasion, Prime Minister of Kuwait Sheikh Saad Al-Abdallah Al-Salim Al-Sabah returns to his country.
 1996 - A train that has crashed off the tracks in Weyauwega, Wisconsin. causes an emergency evacuation of 2,300 people for 16 days.
 2000 – Play Station 2 is released for the first time, in Japan.

From 2001 
 2001 – A car bomb explodes outside the BBC television centre, seriously injuring one person.
 2001 – A Bridge collapse in northern Portugal kills up to 70 people.
 2001 - A majority of voters in Switzerland rejects membership of the European Union.
 2007 – In Estonia, approximately 30,000 voters make uses of electronic voting, which had previously never been used in an election, for the Estonian Parliamentary Election.
 2009 – The International Criminal Court issues an arrest warrant for a sitting head of state for the first time, for Omar Hassan Ahmad al-Bashir, President of Sudan, on war crimes charges in relation to the crisis in Darfur.
 2012 – More than 100 people are killed in a munitions dump fire in Brazzaville, Republic of the Congo.
 2012 – Vladimir Putin declares victory in the Russian Presidential Election, allowing him to become President of Russia for a second time.
 2014 - Prime Minister of Estonia Andrus Ansip resigns from office after nine years, being succeeded by Taavi Roivas.
 2015 - A mine explosion in Rebel-controlled Eastern Ukraine kills 34 miners.
 2018 - The German Social Democrats vote in favour of a new governing coalition under Angela Merkel's CDU/CSU, ending a period of political uncertainty after the Bundestag election over five months earlier.
 2018 - Italian general election, 2018: Italy holds its general election, with no party gaining an overall majority and populist and right-wing parties gaining seats.
 2018 - Russian former spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia are poisoned with a nerve agent in Salisbury, England.

Births

Up to 1800 
 895 - Liu Zhiyuan, Chinese Emperor (d. 948)
 1188 – Blanche of Castile, Queen of Louis VIII of France (d. 1252)
 1394 – Henry the Navigator (d. 1460)
 1484 - George, Margrave of Brandenburg-Ansbach, follower of Martin Luther (d. 1543)
 1492 - Francesco de Loyolle, Italian composer (d. 1540)
 1525 – Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina, Italian composer of Renaissance music (d. 1594)
 1610 – William Dobson, English portraitist and painter (d. 1646)
 1645 - Johann Ambrosius Bach, German musician (d. 1695)
 1665 - Philip Christoph von Konigsmarck, Swedish soldier (d. 1694)
 1678 – Antonio Vivaldi, Italian composer (d. 1741)
 1702 - Jack Sheppard, English burglar and escapee (d. 1724)
 1706 - Lauritz de Thurah, Danish architect (d. 1759)
 1715 - James Waldegrave, 2nd Earl Waldegrave, British statesman (d. 1763)
 1745 - Kazimierz Pulaski, Polish-American general (d. 1779)
 1756 – Henry Raeburn, Scottish painter (d. 1823)
 1770 - Joseph Jacotot, French teacher and educational philosopher (d. 1840)
 1782 - Johann Rudolf Wyss, Swiss folklorist (d. 1830)
 1792 - Samuel Slocum, American inventor (d. 1861)
 1793 – Karl Lachmann, German philologist (d. 1851)

1801  1900 
 1808 - Frederik Stang, Norwegian politician (d. 1884)
 1811 - John Lawrence, Irish nobleman and British Viceroy of India (d. 1879)
 1817 - Edwards Pierrepoint, 34th United States Attorney General (d. 1892)
 1820 - Francesco Bentivegna, Italian revolutionary (d. 1856)
 1826 - Elme Marie Caro, French philosopher (d. 1887)
 1838 - Paul Lacome, French composer (d. 1920)
 1847 – Karl Bayer, Austrian chemist (d. 1904)
 1851 - Alexandros Papadiamantis, Greek writer (d. 1911)
 1852 – Kristjan Jonsson, 3rd Prime Minister of Iceland (d. 1926)
 1856 - Alfred William Rich, English painter (d. 1921)
 1862 - Jacob Robert Emden, Swiss astrophysicist and meteorologist (d. 1940)
 1870 - Thomas Sturge Moore, English poet (d. 1944)
 1871 - Boris Galerkin, Russian mathematician (d. 1945)
 1873 – John H. Trumbull, 70th Governor of Connecticut (d. 1961)
 1875 – Mihaly Karolyi, Prime Minister and President of Hungary (d. 1955)
 1875 - Enrique Larreta, Argentine writer, academic, writer and art collector (d. 1961)
 1878 – P. D. Ouspensky, Russian esoterist and writer (d. 1947)
 1879 – Bernhard Kellermann, German writer and poet (d. 1951)
 1879 – Josip Murn, Slovenian poet (d. 1901)
 1881 - Todor Aleksandrov, Bulgarian revolutionary (d. 1924)
 1882 - Nicolae Titulescu, Romanian diplomat and politician (d. 1941)
 1883 - Maude Fealy, American actress (d. 1971)
 1888 – Knute Rockne, Norwegian-born American football coach (d. 1931)
 1889 – Oren E. Long, Territorial Governor of Hawaii and US Senator (d. 1965)
 1889 - Oscar Chisini, Italian mathematician (d. 1957)
 1891 - Lois W., American co-founder of Alcoholics Anonymous (d. 1988)
 1899 - Liana Del Balzo, Argentine-Italian actress (d. 1982)

1901  1950 
 1901 - Jean-Joseph Rabearivelo, Malagasy-French poet (d. 1937)
 1904 – Luis Carrero Blanco, Spanish politician (d. 1973)
 1908 - Thomas Shaw, American blues musician (d. 1977)
 1910 - Tancredo Neves, Brazilian politician (d. 1985)
 1913 - John Garfield, American actor (d. 1952)
 1914 – Gino Colaussi, Italian footballer (d. 1991)
 1914 – Ward Kimball, American cartoonist (d. 2002)
 1915 - Carlos Surinach, Catalan composer and conductor (d. 1997)
 1915 - Laszlo Csatary, Hungarian war criminal (d. 2013)
 1916 - Giorgio Bassani, Italian writer and poet (d. 2000)
 1918 - Margaret Osborne duPont, American tennis player (d. 2012)
 1921 - Olev Olesk, Estonian politician
 1921 - Kaljo Raid, Estonian cellist, composer and clergyman (d. 2005)
 1922 - Iring Fetscher, German political scientist (d. 2014)
 1922 - Xenia Stad-de Jong, Dutch athlete (d. 2012)
 1923 – Patrick Moore, British astronomer, writer and television presenter (d. 2012)
 1923 - Piero D'Inzeo, Italian equestrian show jumper (d. 2014)
 1925 - Inezita Barroso, Brazilian folk singer (d. 2015)
 1926 - Pascual Pérez, Argentine boxer (d. 1977)
 1926 - Fran Warren, American singer and actress (d. 2013)
 1927 - Phil Batt, former Governor of Idaho
 1928 - Samuel Adler, German-American composer
 1928 – Alan Sillitoe, British writer (d. 2010)
 1929 - Bernard Haitink, Dutch conductor and violinist
 1930 - John Toohey, Australian judge (d. 2015)
 1931 - William H. Keeler, American cardinal (d. 2017)
 1932 - Brunella Bovo, Italian actress (d. 2017)
 1932 – Miriam Makeba, South African singer (d. 2008)
 1932 – Ryszard Kapuściński, Polish journalist (d. 2007)
 1932 – Frank Wells, American businessman, president of the Walt Disney Company (d. 1994)
 1934 - Mario Davidovsky, Argentine-American composer
 1934 - Gleb Yakunin, Russian priest and dissident (d. 2014)
 1935 – Bent Larsen, Danish chess player (d. 2010)
 1935 - Prabha Rau, Indian politician (d. 2010)
 1936 – Jim Clark, Scottish racing driver (d. 1968)
 1936 – Aribert Reimann, German composer
 1938 – Paula Prentiss, American actress
 1938 - Alpha Condé, Guinean politician
 1938 - Angus MacLise, American drummer (The Velvet Underground) (d. 1979)
 1943 – Lucio Dalla, Italian singer-songwriter and musician (d. 2012)
 1944 - Bobby Womack, American singer-songwriter (d. 2014)
 1945 – Tommy Svensson, Swedish football manager
 1945 - Dieter Meier, Swiss musician, singer and artist
 1945 - Femi Benussi, Italian actress
 1946 - Michael Ashcroft, British politician
 1947 - Jan Garbarek, Norwegian jazz saxophonist
 1947 - Gunnar Hansen, Icelandic-American actor (d. 2015)
 1948 – Shakin' Stevens, Welsh singer
 1948 - Chris Squire, English bass guitarist (Yes) (d. 2015)
 1948 - Brian Cummings, American voice actor
 1948 – James Elroy, American writer
 1949 – Sergei Bagapsh, Abkhazian politician (d. 2011)
 1950 – Rick Perry, American politician, former Governor of Texas

1951  1975 
 1951 – Kenny Dalglish, Scottish footballer and manager
 1951 - Zoran Zizic, Montenegrin politician (d. 2013)
 1952 – Umberto Tozzi, Italian singer
 1952 – Svend Robinson, Canadian politician
 1953 – Pawel Janas, Polish football manager
 1953 - Rose Laurens, French singer-songwriter
 1954 – François Fillon, former Prime Minister of France
 1954 - Boris Moiseev, Russian singer, choreographer, dancer, writer and actor
 1954 - Catherine O'Hara, Canadian actress
 1954 - Irina Ratushinskaya, Russian writer and dissident
 1954 – Willie Thorne, English snooker player
 1955 - Joey Jones, Welsh footballer
 1955 - Dominique Pinon, French actor
 1958 - Massimo Mascioletti, Italian rugby player and coach
 1958 - Patricia Heaton, American actress
 1960 – John Mugabi, Ugandan boxer
 1961 - Ray Mancini, American boxer
 1962 – Lolo Ferrari, French actress (d. 2000)
 1963 - Jason Newsted, American musician (Metallica)
 1963 - Daniel Roebuck, American actor
 1964 - Dave Colclough, Welsh computer programmer and poker player
 1965 – Khaled Hosseini, Afghan writer and physician
 1965 - Yury Loncharov, Russian cosmonaut
 1966 - Kevin Johnson, American basketball player and politician
 1967 - Sam Taylor-Wood, English conceptual artist
 1967 – Kubilay Türkyilmaz, Turkish-Swiss footballer
 1967 – Tim Vine, British actor and comedian
 1968 – Patsy Kensit, British actress
 1968 - Kyriakos Mitsotakis, Greek politician
 1968 - Christina McKelvie, Scottish politician
 1969 - Chaz Bono, American actor and LGBT activist
 1969 – Pierluigi Casiraghi, Italian footballer and manager
 1971 - Fergal Lawler, Irish musician (The Cranberries)
 1971 - Claire Baker, Scottish politician
 1972 - Jos Verstappen, Dutch racing driver
 1972 – Alison Wheeler, British singer (The Beautiful South)
 1972 – Ivy Queen, Puerto Rican musician
 1973 - Massimo Brambilla, Italian footballer
 1973 – Len Wiseman, American movie director and screenwriter
 1973 - Penny Mordaunt, English politician
 1974 – Ariel Ortega, Argentine footballer
 1974 - Joaquim Alberto Silva, Angolan footballer (d. 2019)
 1975 – Antti Aalto, Finnish ice hockey player

From 1976 
 1976 - Gary Shortland, English figure skater
 1977 - Christian Jessen, English doctor and television host
 1977 - Tonga Lea'aetoa, Tongan-New Zealand rugby player
 1977 - Jason Marsalis, American drummer
 1978 - Jean-Marc Pelletier, American ice hockey player
 1979 - Vyacheslav Malafeev, Russian footballer
 1979 – Jon Fratelli, Scottish singer
 1980 – Omar Bravo, Mexican footballer
 1980 – Phil McGuire, Scottish footballer
 1981 - Laura Michelle Kelly, English actress and singer
 1982 - Elia Rigotto, Italian cyclist
 1982 - Ludmila Ezhova, Russian gymnast
 1982 – Landon Donovan, American soccer player
 1983 - Adam Deacon, English actor, rapper and director
 1984 – Tamir Cohen, Israeli footballer
 1984 - Phillip Inzerillo, American trombone player
 1985 - Park Min-young, South Korean actress
 1985 - Mathieu Montcourt, French tennis player (d. 2009)
 1986 - Manu Vatuvei, New Zealand rugby player
 1986 – Tom De Mul, Belgian footballer
 1988 - Cody Longo, American actor and singer
 1989 - Erin Heatherton, American model
 1990 – Andrea Bowen, American actress
 1992 – Jazmin Grace Grimaldi, daughter of Prince Albert II, Prince of Monaco
 1992 - Erik Lamela, Argentine footballer
 1992 - Jared Sullinger, American basketball player
 1993 - Jenna Boyd, American actress
 1993 - Bobbi Kristina Brown, American media personality and singer (b. 2015)
 1995 - Bill Milner, English actor

Deaths

Up to 1900 
 251 – Pope Lucius I
 561 - Pope Pelagius I
 1172 – King Stephen III of Hungary (b. 1147)
 1193 – Saladin, Turkish sultan (b. 1137)
 1238 – Joan of England, Queen Consort of Scotland (b. 1210)
 1238 - Yuri II of Vladimir (b. 1189)
 1303 - Daniel of Moscow, Russian prince and Grand Duke of Muscovy (b. 1261)
 1484 – Saint Casimir, Prince of Poland (b. 1458)
 1496 – Sigismund of Austria (b. 1427)
 1615 - Hans von Aachen, German painter (b. 1552)
 1619 - Anne of Denmark, Queen of James VI of Scotland/James I of England (b. 1574)
 1710 - Louis, Prince of Condé (b. 1668) 
 1762 – Johannes Zick, German fresco painter (b. 1702)
 1793 - Louis de Bourbon, French admiral (b. 1725)
 1795 - John Collins, 3rd Governor of Rhode Island (b. 1717)
 1805 - Jean-Baptiste Greuze, French painter (b. 1725)
 1807 - Abraham Baldwin, American politician (b. 1754)
 1832 – Jean-François Champollion, French scholar and Egyptologist (b. 1790)
 1852 – Nikolai Gogol, Russian writer (b. 1809)
 1858 – Matthew C. Perry, American naval officer (b. 1794)
 1883 – Alexander Hamilton Stephens, Vice President of the Confederate States of America (b. 1812)
 1888 – Amos Bronson Alcott, American philosopher and writer (b. 1799)

1901  2000 
 1903 - Joseph Henry Shorthouse, English novelist (b. 1854)
 1906 - John Schofield, American general and politician (b. 1831)
 1915 - William Willett, founder of British Summer Time (b. 1856)
 1925 - John Montgomery Ward, American baseball player (b. 1860)
 1941 – Ludwig Quidde, German pacifist (b. 1858)
 1944 – Rene Lefebvre, martyr of the French Resistance (b. 1879)
 1944 - Louis Capone, Italian-American gangster (b. 1896)
 1945 - Mark Sandrich, American movie director, writer and producer (b. 1900)
 1946 – Bror von Blixen-Finecke, Danish big-game hunter (b. 1886)
 1948 – Antonin Artaud, French actor and director (b. 1896)
 1950 - Adam Rainer, Austrian dwarf and giant (b. 1899)
 1952 – Charles Scott Sherrington, English doctor, won the 1932 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (b. 1857)
 1960 - Herbert O'Conor, Governor of Maryland (b. 1896)
 1973 - Samuel Tolansky, British scientist (b. 1907)
 1976 – Walter H. Schottky, German physicist (b. 1886)
 1977 - Lutz Graf Schwerin von Krosigk, German politician (b. 1897)
 1978 - William Bolin, 15th Governor of Arizona (b. 1909)
 1980 - Luis Piazzini, Argentine chess player (b. 1905)
 1981 - Karl-Jesco von Puttkamer, German admiral (b. 1900)
 1986 – Howard Greenfield, American songwriter (b. 1936)
 1993 - Richard Sale, American screenwriter and director (b. 1911)
 1994 – John Candy, Canadian comedian and actor (b. 1950)
 1999 - Fritz Honegger, Swiss politician (b. 1917)

From 2001 
 2001 – Glenn Hughes, American singer (b. 1950)
 2001 - Jim Rhodes, 61st Governor of Ohio (b. 1909)
 2001 - Harold Stassen, 25th Governor of Minnesota (b. 1907)
 2004 - John McGeoch, Scottish guitarist (b. 1955)
 2006 - Roman Ogaza, Polish footballer (b. 1952)
 2008 - George Walter, former Prime Minister of Antigua and Barbuda (b. 1928)
 2008 – Gary Gygax, American games designer who made Dungeons & Dragons (b. 1938).
 2010 – Vladislav Ardzinba, Abkhazian politician (b. 1945)
 2011 – Simon van der Meer, Dutch physicist (b. 1925)
 2011 – Johnny Preston, American singer (b. 1939)
 2011 – Krishna Prasad Bhattarai, Prime Minister of Nepal (b. 1924)
 2013 - Seki Matsunaga, Japanese footballer (b. 1928)
 2013 - Fran Warren, American singer and actress (b. 1926)
 2014 - Wu Tianming, Chinese movie director (b. 1939)
 2014 - Mark Freidkin, Russian writer (b. 1953)
 2015 - Ninan Koshy, Indian thinker, theologian and social analyst (b. 1934)
 2016 - Bud Collins, American sports journalist (b. 1929)
 2016 - Pat Conroy, American author (b. 1945)
 2016 - P. A. Sangma, Indian politician (b. 1947)
 2016 - Abbas Vaez-Tabasi, Iranian cleric (b. 1935)
 2016 - Morgan F. Murphy, American politician (b. 1932)
 2017 - Edi Fitzroy, Jamaican singer-songwriter (b. 1955)
 2017 - Helen M. Marshall, American politician (b. 1929)
 2017 - Clayton Keith Yeutter, American politician (b. 1930)
 2018 - Davide Astori, Italian footballer (b. 1987)
 2018 - Sir William McAlpine, 6th Baronet, British engineering businessman (b. 1936)
 2018 - Farhang Mehr, Iranian-American scholar and writer (b. 1923)
 2018 - H. Wayne Norman, Jr., American politician (b. 1955)
 2018 - James Luna, American performance artist (b. 1950)
 2019 - King Kong Bundy, American professional wrestler (b. 1957)
 2019 - Eric Caldow, Scottish footballer (b. 1934)
 2019 - Juan Corona, Mexican-American serial killer (b. 1934)
 2019 - Keith Flint, English singer (The Prodigy) (b. 1969)
 2019 - Ted Lindsay, Canadian ice hockey player (b. 1925)
 2019 - Klaus Kinkel, German politician (b. 1936)
 2019 - Luke Perry, American actor (b. 1966)
 2019 - Johnny Romano, American baseball player (b. 1934)
 2019 - Jean Starobinski, Swiss literary critic (b. 1920)

Observances 
 Saint Casimir's Day (Poland and Lithuania)

Historical Significance 
 Inauguration Day of Presidents of the United States from 1793 to 1933. From 1937, the inaugurations take place on January 20.

March 04