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'Orléans, Duke of Orléans (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 Conté, 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 María, 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 – René 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 – José 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-José 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 Déon, 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 – Flóra Kádár, 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 – Götz Friedrich, opera director (d. 2000)
1932 – Hans Jürgen Fröhlich, 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 Académie française (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 – Bjørn 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 – Gábor 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 – Steingrímur J. Sigfússon, 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 – José Luis Rodríguez 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 Roché, 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 – Luís 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 Sebastián 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 Alarcón, Mexican dramatist (b. 1581)
1699 – Maria Sofia of Neuburg, Queen of Portugal (b. 1666)
1718 – René 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 Luís 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 – Arsène Tchakarian, Armenian–French resistance fighter (b. 1916)
2019 – Ernie Bowman, American baseball player (b. 1935)
2019 – Nuon Chea, Cambodian politician (b. 1926)
2019 – André 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