August 4

Events
Up to 1940
70 - Destruction of the Second Temple of Jerusalem by the Romans.
1265 - Second Barons' War: Battle of Evesham - an army led by Prince Edward, the future King Edward I of England, defeats the forces of rebellious barons led by Simon de Montfort, 6th Earl of Leicester, killing de Montfort and many of his allies.
1327 - First War of Scottish Independence: James Douglas, Lord of Douglas leads a raid into Weardale and almost killed Edward III of England.
1532 - The Duchy of Brittany is annexed to the Kingdom of France.
1578 - Battle of Al-Kasr al Kebir: The Moroccans defeat the Portuguese.
1627 - The Siege of La Rochelle under King Louis XIII of France begins.
1704 - War of Spanish Succession: Gibraltar is captured by an English and Dutch fleet, commanded by Admiral Sir George Rooke, and allied with Charles VI, Holy Roman Emperor.
1783 - Mount Asama erupts in Japan, killing about 1,400 people, and resulting in a famine that kills a further 20,000. There was a similarly destructive eruption in Iceland just two months earlier.
1789 - In France, members of the National Constituent Assembly take an oath to end feudalism and end their privileges.
1791 - The Treaty of Sistova is signed, ending the Ottoman-Habsburg Wars.
1796 - French Revolutionary Wars: Napoleon Bonaparte leads the French Army of Italy to victory in the Battle of Lonato.
1824 - The Battle of Kos is fought between Turkish and Greek forces.
1845 - The British emigrant ship Catargui runs aground off King Island, near Tasmania, killing 399 people. 9 survive.
1851 - David Livingstone reaches the upper course of the Zambezi River in Africa.
1854 - The Hinomaru is established as the official flag to be flown on Japanese ships.
1863 - Matika slovenska, Slovakia's public-law cultural and scientific institution, focusing on topics around the Slovak nation, is founded.
1873 - American Indian Wars: US 7th Cavalry, under George Armstrong Custer, clashes with the Sioux for the first time, near the Tongue River, Montana. One on each side is killed.
1892 - The father and stepmother of Lizzie Borden are found dead in their home in Massachusetts, leading to one of the most well-known murder cases. It is still unknown whether Borden committed the murders.
1902 - The Greenwich Foot Tunnel under the River Thames opens.
1903 - Giuseppe Melchiore Sarto is elected Pope. He becomes Pope Pius X.
1906 - Central Railway Station in Sydney, Australia opens.
1906 - Italian passenger steamboat Siriohits a reef at Cabo de Palos, southern Spain. 442 people drown.
1914 - World War I: Germany invades Belgium, and the UK declares war on Germany.
1915 - The German 12th Army occupies in Warsaw.
1917 - The Tigra Reservoir in India breaks, causing a flood, killing around 1,000 people.
1924 - Diplomatic relations between Mexico and the Soviet Union are established.
1936 - Greek Prime Minister Ioannis Metaxas suspends Parliament and the Constitution, establishing the 4th August regime.
From 1941
1944 - Anne Frank and her family are arrested by the Gestapo, after a secret informant had given information about the secret annex.
1946 - A magnitude 8 earthquake hits the Dominican Republic, killing 100 people and leaving 20,000 people homeless.
1947 - The Supreme Court of Japan is established.
1958 - The Billboard Hot 100 is first published.
1961 - US President Barack Obama is born in Honolulu, Hawaii.
1964 - American Civil rights activists Michael Schwerner, Andrew Gooding and James Chaney are found dead after disappearing on June 21.
1964 - Gulf of Tonkin incident: US destroyers USS Maddox and USS Turner Joy report coming under attack in the Gulf of Tonkin.
1965 - The Cook Islands achieve self-determination in 'Free Association' with New Zealand.
1974 - A bomb explodes in the Italicus Express train at San Benedetto Val di Sambro, Italy, killing 12 people.
1975 - The Japanese Red Army takes more than 50 hostages at the AIA Building housing several Embassies in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
1977 - Jimmy Carter signs the legislation creating the United States Department of Energy.
1979 - The Cook Islands introduce a new flag.
1983 - Thomas Sankara takes control in Upper Volta, through a military coup.
1984 - Exactly a year after coming to power, Thomas Sankara changes Upper Volta's name to Burkina Faso.
1991 - Greek cruise ship MTS Oceanus sinks off the Wild Coast of South Africa.
1995 - Operation Storm begins in Croatia.
1996 - The 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta, Georgia, US, come to an end.
1997 - The oldest human on record, Jeanne Calment of France, dies aged 122 years, 164 days.
2005 - Prime Minister of Canada Paul Martin announces that Michaelle Jean would become the 27th Governor-General of Canada.
2006 - A massacre is carried out by Sri Lankan government forces, killing 17 employees of the French INGO Action Against Hunger charity.
2007 - Slovenia bans smoking in public places.
2007 - NASA's Phoenix spacecraft is launched.
2009 - Former US President Bill Clinton travels to North Korea to secure the release of two journalists.
2013 - The United States closes several embassies in North Africa and the Middle East for up to a week. The UK, France and Germany also do so with their Embassy in Yemen.
2014 - Commemorations take place around the world to mark 100 years since the start of World War I.
2019 - 2019 Dayton shooting: A gunman kills 9 people, including his sister, in Dayton, Ohio, before killing himself. It occurs less than 24 hours after another mass shooting in El Paso, Texas.
2019 - 20 people are killed in an explosion in Cairo.
Births
Up to 1900
1222 - Richard de Clare, 6th Earl of Gloucester, English soldier (d. 1262)
1290 - Duke Leopold I of Austria (d. 1326)
1502 - Pieter Coecke van Aelst, Flemish painter (d. 1550)
1521 - Pope Urban VII, (d. 1590)
1647 - Giovanni II Cornaro, ruler of Venice (d. 1722)
1701 - Thomas Blackwell, Scottish classical scholar (d. 1757)
1704 - Louis d'Orleans, Duke of Orleans (d. 1752)
1719 - Johanna Gottlob Lehmann, German mineralogist and geologist (d. 1767)
1721 - Granville Leveson-Gower, 1st Marquess of Stafford, English politician (d. 1803)
1755 - Nicolas-Jacques Conte, French chemist, painter and inventor (d. 1805)
1792 - Edward Irving, Scottish clergyman (d. 1834)
1792 - Percy Bysshe Shelley, English poet (d. 1822)
1800 - Ramon Maria Narvaez, 1st Duke of Valencia, Spanish military and politician (d. 1868)
1804 - Karl Friedrich Hermann, German historian and classical scholar (d. 1855)
1805 - William Rowan Hamilton, Irish mathematician (d. 1865)
1813 - Alexander von Mensdorff-Pouilly, Prince Dietrich von Nicolsburg, Austrian statesman (d. 1871)
1816 - Richard Leach Maddox, English physician (d. 1902)
1817 - Frederick Theodore Frelinghuysen, United States Secretary of State (d. 1885)
1821 - Louis Vuitton, French designer (d. 1892)
1821 - James Springer White, American religious leader, founder of the Seventh-day Adventist Church (d. 1881)
1823 - Oliver P. Morton, 44th Governor of Indiana (d. 1877)
1824 - Domingo Santa Maria, President of Chile (d. 1889)
1834 - John Venn, British mathematician (d. 1923)
1848 - Vladimir Sukhomlinov, Russian general (d. 1926)
1853 - John Henry Twachtman, American painter (d. 1902)
1859 - Knut Hamsun, Norwegian writer, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Literature 1920 (d. 1952)
1861 - Daniel Edward Howard, President of Liberia (d. 1935)
1870 - Harry Lauder, Scottish comedian and singer (d. 1950)
1876 - Giovanni Giuriati, Italian politician (d. 1970)
1883 - Rene Schickele, German-French writer (d. 1940)
1884 - Henri Cornet, French cyclist (d. 1941)
1887 - Albert M. Greenfield, American businessman (d. 1967)
1888 - Taher Saifuddin, Indian religious leader (d. 1965)
1890 - Dolf Luque, Cuban baseball player (d. 1957)
1895 Jose Paulino Gomes, Brazilian supercentenarian (d. 2023)
1899 - Ezra Taft Benson, President of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (d. 1994)
1900 - Nabi Tajima, Japanese supercentenarian (d. 2018)
1900 - Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon, Queen Mother of the United Kingdom (d. 2002)
1900 - Arturo Umberto Illia, President of Argentina (d. 1983)
1901 1950
1901 - Louis Armstrong, American jazz musician (d. 1971)
1904 - Witold Gombrowicz, Polish novelist and dramatist (d. 1969)
1906 - Marie-Jose of Belgium, last Queen of Italy (d. 2001)
1906 - Eugen Schuhmacher, German zoologist (d. 1973)
1908 - Kurt Eichhorn, German conductor (d. 1994)
1909 - Glenn Cunningham, American athlete (d. 1988)
1909 - Saunders Mac Lane, American mathematician (d. 2005)
1909 - Roberto Burle Marx, Brazilian landscape architect, plant collector and painter (d. 1994)
1910 - Anita Page, American actress (d. 2008)
1910 - William Schuman, composer (d. 1992)
1912 - Aleksandr Danilovich Aleksandrov, mathematician, physicist, philosopher and a mountaineer (d. 1999)
1912 - Raoul Wallenberg, Swedish diplomat (d. 1947 presumed)
1913 - Robert Hayden, American poet, Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress (d. 1980)
1915 - Warren Avis, American businessman (d. 2007)
1915 - Loni Nest, German actress (d. 1990)
1917 - John Fitch, American racing driver (d. 2012)
1918 - Iceberg Slim, American writer (d. 1992)
1919 - Michel Deon, French writer (d. 2016)
1920 - Helen Thomas, American journalist (d. 2013)
1921 - Herb Ellis, American jazz guitarist (d. 2010)
1921 - Maurice Richard, Canadian ice hockey player (d. 2000)
1921 - Geoffrey Wellum, British fighter pilot (d. 2018)
1923 - Reg Grundy, Australian entrepreneur (d. 2016)
1926 - George Irving Bell, American physicist, biologist and mountaineer (d. 2000)
1926 - Perry Moss, American football coach (d. 2014)
1926 - Martha Vaughan, American biochemist and physiologist (d. 2018)
1927 - Jess Thomas, American tenor (d. 1993)
1927 - John Wilcock, British journalist (d. 2018)
1928 - Christian Goethals, Belgian racing driver (d. 2003)
1928 - Flora Kadar, Hungarian actress (d. 2003)
1929 - Victor Krasin, Ukrainian-born Russian human rights activist and economist (d. 2017)
1929 - Yasser Arafat, Chairman of the Palestine Liberation Organization (possibly born on August 24) (d. 2004)
1929 - Kishore Kumar, Indian singer and actor (d. 1987)
1930 - Gotz Friedrich, opera director (d. 2000)
1932 - Hans Jurgen Frohlich, writer
1932 - Guillermo Mordillo, graphic artist and cartoonist
1932 - Francis E. Allen, American computer scientist
1934 - Dallas Green, American baseball player and manager
1936 - Assia Djebar, member of the Academie francaise (d. 2015)
1937 - David Bedford, English musician and composer (d. 2011)
1939 - Frankie Ford, American singer (d. 2015)
1940 - Robin Harper, Scottish academic and politician
1941 - Ted Strickland, American politician, 68th Governor of Ohio
1942 - David Lange, 32nd Prime Minister of New Zealand (d. 2005)
1942 - Don S. Davis, American actor (d. 2008)
1943 - Bjorn Wirkola, Norwegian ski jumper
1943 - Vicente Alvarez Areces, Spanish politician
1944 - Richard Belzer, American actor and comedian
1944 - Orhan Gencebay, Turkish musician, composer, singer, producer, director and actor
1946 - Maureen Starkey Tigrett, wife of Ringo Starr (d. 1994)
1947 - Hubert Ingraham, former Prime Minister of the Bahamas
1947 - Klaus Schulze, German composer and performer
1950 - Caldwell Jones, American basketball player (d. 2014)
1950 - N. Rangasamy, Indian politician, Chief Minister of Puducherry
1951 1975
1952 - Gabor Demszky, Hungarian politician
1952 - Daniel Bautista, Mexican race walker
1953 - Antonio Tajani, Italian politician
1953 - Hiroyuki Usui, Japanese footballer
1954 - Anatoliy Kinakh, 11th Prime Minister of Ukraine
1955 - Dariusz Lipinski, Polish politician
1955 - Andrew M. Allen, American astronaut
1955 - Alberto Gonzales, former United States Attorney General
1955 - Billy Bob Thornton, American actor and writer
1955 - Steingrimur J. Sigfusson, Icelandic politician
1956 - Meg Whitman, American businesswoman
1957 - Valdis Valters, Latvian basketball player
1957 - John Wark, Scottish footballer
1958 - Liao Yiwu, Chinese writer, poet and musician
1958 - Mary Decker Slaney, American middle-distance runner
1958 - Pita, Brazilian footballer
1958 - Phillip Scott, American politician, 82nd Governor of Vermont
1958 - Siwan Shalom, Israeli politician
1959 - Kim Reynolds, American politician, 43rd Governor of Iowa
1960 - Dean Malenko, American professional wrestler
1960 - Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, former Prime Minister of Spain
1961 - Barack Obama, 44th President of the United States
1961 - Lauren Tom, American actress
1962 - Roger Clemens, American baseball player
1962 - Lori Lightfoot, American lawyer and politician, 56th Mayor of Chicago
1964 - Andrew Bartlett, Australian politician and activist
1964 - Sebastian Roche, French actor
1965 - Adam Afriyie, British politician
1965 - Terri Lyne Carrington, American musician and singer-songwriter
1965 - Fredrik Reinfeldt, former Prime Minister of Sweden
1965 - Michael Skibbe, German footballer and coach
1966 - Dennis Lehane, American author
1967 - Mike Marsh, American athlete
1968 - Daniel Dae Kim, American actor
1968 - Marcus Schenkenberg, model
1968 - Lee Mack, English comedian
1969 - Max Cavalera, Brazilian singer-songwriter and guitarist
1969 - Jojo Moyes, English author
1970 - Michael DeLuise, American actor
1970 - Kate Silverton, English journalist
1971 - Jeff Gordon, race car driver
1973 - Xavier Marchand, French swimmer
1975 - Nikos Liberopoulos, Greek footballer
1975 - Jutta Urpilainen, Finnish politician
1975 - Adnan Gulshair el Shukrijumah, Saudi militant (d. 2015)
From 1976
1977 - Luis Boa Morte, Portuguese footballer
1977 - Marek Heinz, Czech footballer
1978 - Kurt Busch, race car driver
1981 - Benjamin Boukpeti, Togolese slalom canoeist
1981 - Simone Del Nero, Italian footballer
1981 - Meghan, Duchess of Sussex
1981 - Abigail Spencer, American actress
1983 - Greta Gerwig, American actress, writer and director
1984 - Mardy Collins, American basketball player
1985 - Ha Seung-Jin, South Korean basketball player
1985 - Mark Milligan, Australian footballer
1985 - Luis Antonio Valencia, Ecuadorean footballer
1987 - Jang Keun-suk, South Korean actor and singer
1987 - Phil Younghusband, English-Filipino footballer
1987 - Marreese Speights, American basketball player
1988 - Tom Parker, British singer (The Wanted)
1989 - Wang Hao, Chinese chess player
1989 - Jessica Mauboy, Australian singer-songwriter and actress
1991 - Graeme Shinnie, Scottish footballer
1992 - Tiffany Evans, American singer
1992 - Dylan & Cole Sprouse, American actors
1992 - Yvonne Neuwirth, Austrian tennis player
1993 - Saido Berahino, Burundian-English footballer
1994 - Mayuko Fukuda, Japanese actress
1995 - Jessica Sanchez, American singer
1997 - Ekaterina Ryabova, Russian singer
2016 - Charlie Gard, British infant in life support and parental rights case (d. 2017)
Deaths
Up to 1800
966 - Berengar II of Italy (b. 900)
1060 - Henry I of France (b. 1008)
1113 - Gertrude of Saxony (b. 1030)
1265 - Killed in the Battle of Evesham:
Hugh le Despencer, 1st Baron le Despencer (b. 1223)
Henry de Montfort (b. 1238)
Peter de Montfort (b. 1215)
Simon de Montfort, 6th Earl of Leicester (b. 1208)
1306 - Wenceslaus III of Bohemia (b. 1289)
1338 - Thomas of Brotherton, 1st Earl of Norfolk, son of Edward I of England (b. 1300)
1430 - Philip I, Duke of Brabant (b. 1404)
1526 - Juan Sebastian Elcano, Spanish explorer (b. 1476)
1578 - Sebastian of Portugal (b. 1554)
1578 - Thomas Stucley, English adventurer (b. 1520)
1598 - William Cecil, 1st Baron Burghley, English statesman (b. 1520)
1612 - Hugh Broughton, English scholar (b. 1549)
1639 - Juan Ruiz de Alarcon, Mexican dramatist (b. 1581)
1699 - Maria Sofia of Neuburg, Queen of Portugal (b. 1666)
1718 - Rene Lepage de Ste-Claire, lord-founder of the town of Rimouski, in New France (b. 1656)
1727 - Victor-Maurice, comte de Broglie, French general (b. 1647)
1741 - Andrew Hamilton, American lawyer (b. 1676)
1778 - Pierre de Rigaud, French colonial governor in North America (b. 1698)
1784 - Giovanni Battista Martini, Italian musician (b. 1706)
1792 - John Burgoyne, British general (b. 1723)
1795 - Timothy Ruggles, American-born Tory politician (b. 1711)
1801 1900
1821 - William Floyd, American politician (b. 1734)
1822 - Kristjan Jaak Peterson, Estonian poet (b. 1801)
1834 - Dimitrios Panourgias, Greek military commander (b. 1754)
1844 - Jacob Aall, Norwegian journalist and statesman (b. 1773)
1849 - Anita Garibaldi, Brazilian wife of Giuseppe Garibaldi (b. 1821)
1859 - Jean Vianney, French priest (b. 1786)
1873 - Viktor Hartmann, Russian painter (b. 1834)
1875 - Hans Christian Andersen, Danish writer (b. 1805)
1877 - Gustav, Prince of Vasa, Prince of Sweden (b. 1799)
1886 - Samuel J. Tilden, United States Presidential candidate and Governor of New York (b. 1814)
1900 - Isaac Levitan, Russian painter (b. 1860)
1900 - Jacob Dolson Cox, American politician, Governor of Ohio (b. 1828)
1901 - 2000
1914 - Jules Lemaitre, French critic and dramatist (b. 1863)
1922 - Enver Pasha, Turkish politician (b. 1891)
1938 - Pearl White, American actress (b. 1889)
1942 - Alberto Franchetti, Italian composer (b. 1860)
1957 - Washington Luis Pereira de Sousa, President of Brazil (b. 1869)
1958 - Ethel Anderson, Australian poet (b. 1883)
1967 - Peter Smith, English cricketer (b. 1908)
1973 - Eddie Condon, American jazz guitarist (b. 1905)
1976 - Roy Herbert Thomson, Canadian publisher (b. 1894)
1977 - Ernst Bloch, German philosopher (b. 1885)
1977 - Edgar Adrian, 1st Baron Adrian, English physiologist (b. 1889)
1981 - Melvyn Douglas, American actor (b. 1901)
1982 - Bruce Goff, American architect (b. 1904)
1993 - Chinmayananda, Indian spiritual leader and teacher (b. 1916)
1994 - Giovanni Spadolini, Prime Minister of Italy (b. 1925)
1996 - Geoff Hamilton, British gardener and broadcaster (b. 1936)
1997 - Jeanne Calment, French supercentenarian; world's oldest ever-human (b. 1875)
1998 - Yuri Artyukhin, cosmonaut (b. 1930)
1999 - Victor Mature, American actor (b. 1915)
2000 - Leslie Glass, American adult movie actress (b. 1963)
From 2001
2001 - Lorenzo Music, American actor (b. 1937)
2002 - Holly Wells & Jessica Chapman, Soham murder victims (b. 1991, 1991)
2003 - Frederick Chapman Robbins, American Nobel Prize Laureate (b. 1916)
2005 - Anatoly Larkin, Russian-American physicist (b. 1932)
2007 - Lee Hazlewood, American singer (b. 1929)
2008 - Craig Jones, English motorcycle racer (b. 1985)
2011 - Naoki Matsuda, Japanese footballer (b. 1977)
2013 - Yitzhak Berman, Ukrainian-born Israeli politician (b. 1913)
2013 - Renato Ruggiero, Italian politician, former foreign minister (b. 1930)
2013 - Art Donovan, American football player (b. 1924)
2013 - Sandy Woodward, British admiral (b. 1932)
2014 - James Brady, American Press Secretary (b. 1940)
2014 - Walter Massey, Canadian actor (b. 1928)
2014 - George Hilton, American historian (b. 1925)
2015 - Les Munro, New Zealand pilot (b. 1919)
2015 - Theo van Els, Dutch linguist (b. 1936)
2015 - Achim Hill, German rower (b. 1935)
2016 - Patrice Munsel, American coloratura soprano (b. 1925)
2017 - Luiz Melodia, Brazilian actor and singer-songwriter (b. 1951)
2017 - Heinz F. Dressel, German theologian and writer (b. 1929)
2017 - Waldemar Schreckenberger, German lawyer, jurist and politician (b. 1929)
2017 - Laurie Brokenshire, English Royal Navy officer and magician (b. 1952)
2018 - Lorrie Collins, American singer and guitarist (b. 1942)
2018 - Masahiko Tsugawa, Japanese actor (b. 1940)
2018 - Arsene Tchakarian, Armenian-French resistance fighter (b. 1916)
2019 - Ernie Bowman, American baseball player (b. 1935)
2019 - Nuon Chea, Cambodian politician (b. 1926)
2019 - Andre Goosse, Belgian grammarian (b. 1926)
2019 - Willi Tokarev, Russian-American singer-songwriter (b. 1934)
2019 - Bob Wilber, American jazz musician (b. 1928)
Observances
Revolution Day (Burkina Faso)
Constitution Day (Cook Islands)
August 04