On this day: August 4

Events on August 4

• 70 BC The trial against Gaius Verres for corruption is opened, with Marcus Tullius Cicero as prosecutor and renowned orator Quintus Hortensius as defending lawyer. Wikipedia
• 1704 War of the Spanish Succession: Gibraltar is captured by an English and Dutch fleet, commanded by Admiral Sir George Rooke and allied with Archduke Charles. Wikipedia
• 1781 Fourth Anglo-Dutch War, a fleet of six East India Company ships sets sail from Fort Marlborough to raid the Dutch VOC factories on the West coast of Sumatra including the major port of Padang. Wikipedia
• 1789 France: abolition of feudalism by the National Constituent Assembly. Wikipedia
• 1796 French Revolutionary Wars: Commanded by Napoleon Bonaparte, the French Army of Italy decisively defeated Austrian forces led by Peter Vitus von Quosdanovich at the Battle of Lonato. Wikipedia
• 1796 French Revolutionary Wars: Napoleon leads the French Army of Italy to victory in the Battle of Lonato. Wikipedia
• 1873 American Indian Wars: While protecting a railroad survey party in Montana, the United States 7th Cavalry, under Lieutenant Colonel George Armstrong Custer clashes for the first time with the Cheyenne and Lakota people near the Tongue River; only one man on each side is killed. Wikipedia
• 1887 Granny, a sea anemone, died in Edinburgh after nearly 60 years in captivity. Her death was reported in The Scotsman and The New York Times. Wikipedia
• 1914 World War I: Adhering to the terms of the Treaty of London, the United Kingdom declared war on Germany in response to the latter's invasion of Belgium. Wikipedia
• 1914 World War I: In response to the German invasion of Belgium, Belgium and the British Empire declare war on Germany. The United States declares its neutrality. Wikipedia
• 1915 World War I: The German 12th Army occupies Warsaw during the Gorlice–Tarnów Offensive and the Great Retreat of 1915. Wikipedia
• 1944 The Holocaust: A tip from a Dutch informer leads the Gestapo to a sealed-off area in an Amsterdam warehouse, where they find and arrest Jewish diarist Anne Frank, her family, and four others. Wikipedia
• 1946 An earthquake of magnitude 8.0 hits northern Dominican Republic. One hundred are killed and 20,000 are left homeless. Wikipedia
• 1964 Civil rights movement: Civil rights workers Michael Schwerner, Andrew Goodman and James Chaney are found dead in Mississippi after disappearing on June 21. Wikipedia
• 1964 Vietnam War: The National Security Agency falsely claimed that a U.S. Navy destroyer was attacked a second time by North Vietnamese vessels in the Gulf of Tonkin, leading Congress to authorize the use of military force. Wikipedia
• 1965 The Constitution of the Cook Islands comes into force, giving the Cook Islands self-governing status within New Zealand. Wikipedia
• 1969 Vietnam War: At the apartment of French intermediary Jean Sainteny in Paris, American representative Henry Kissinger and North Vietnamese representative Xuân Thuỷ begin secret peace negotiations. The negotiations will eventually fail. Wikipedia
• 1972 Ugandan President Idi Amin announces that Uganda is no longer responsible for the care of British subjects of Asian origin, beginning the expulsions of Ugandan Asians. Wikipedia
• 1975 The Japanese Red Army takes more than 50 hostages at the AIA Building housing several embassies in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. The hostages include the U.S. consul and the Swedish Chargé d'affaires. The gunmen win the release of five imprisoned comrades and fly with them to Libya. Wikipedia
• 1977 U.S. President Jimmy Carter signs legislation creating the United States Department of Energy. Wikipedia
• 1984 The Republic of Upper Volta changes its name to Burkina Faso. Wikipedia
• 2006 A massacre is carried out by Sri Lankan government forces, killing 17 employees of the French INGO Action Against Hunger (known internationally as Action Contre la Faim, or ACF). Wikipedia
• 2007 NASA's Phoenix Mars lander is launched. Wikipedia
• 2018 Syrian civil war: The Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) expel the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) from the Iraq–Syria border, concluding the second phase of the Deir ez-Zor campaign. Wikipedia
• 2018 Crisis in Venezuela: Seven people are injured when two drones detonate explosives on Avenida Bolívar, Caracas while president Nicolás Maduro is giving a speech to the Venezuelan National Guard. Wikipedia
• 2019 Nine people are killed and 26 injured in a shooting in Dayton, Ohio. This comes only 13 hours after another mass shooting in El Paso, Texas, where 23 people were killed. Wikipedia

Born on August 4

• 1521 Pope Urban VII (died 1590) Wikipedia
• 1725 John Newton, slaver turned Christian evangelist and author of “Amazing Grace” Wikipedia
• 1792 Percy Bysshe Shelley, English poet and playwright (died 1822) Wikipedia
• 1805 William Rowan Hamilton, Irish physicist, astronomer, and mathematician (died 1865) Wikipedia
• 1821 James Springer White, American religious leader, co-founded the Seventh-day Adventist Church (died 1881) Wikipedia
• 1821 Louis Vuitton, French fashion designer, founded Louis Vuitton (died 1892) Wikipedia
• 1834 John Venn, English mathematician and philosopher (died 1923) Wikipedia
• 1859 Knut Hamsun, Norwegian novelist, poet, and playwright, Nobel Prize laureate (died 1952) Wikipedia
• 1900 Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother, Queen Consort of King George VI of the United Kingdom, Empress Consort of India (died 2002) Wikipedia
• 1901 Louis Armstrong, American trumpet player and singer (died 1971) Wikipedia
• 1904 Witold Gombrowicz, Polish author and playwright (died 1969) Wikipedia
• 1912 Raoul Wallenberg, Swedish architect and diplomat, savior of thousands of Jews from The Holocaust (died ~1947) Wikipedia
• 1955 Billy Bob Thornton, American actor, director, and screenwriter Wikipedia
• 1955 Alberto Gonzales, American soldier, lawyer, and politician, 80th United States Attorney General Wikipedia
• 1960 José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, Spanish academic and politician, 5th Prime Minister of Spain Wikipedia
• 1961 Barack Obama, American lawyer and politician, 44th President of the United States, Nobel Prize laureate Wikipedia
• 1965 Fredrik Reinfeldt, Swedish soldier and politician, 42nd Prime Minister of Sweden Wikipedia
• 1971 Jeff Gordon, American race car driver and actor Wikipedia
• 1981 Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, American member of British royal family, media personality and actress Wikipedia
• 1983 Greta Gerwig, American actress, producer, and screenwriter Wikipedia
• 1985 Antonio Valencia, Ecuadorean footballer Wikipedia
• 1985 Mark Milligan, Australian footballer Wikipedia

Died on August 4

• 1060 Henry I of France (born 1008) Wikipedia
• 1526 Juan Sebastián Elcano, Spanish explorer and navigator (born 1476) Wikipedia
• 1578 Sebastian of Portugal (born 1554) Wikipedia
• 1859 John Vianney, French priest and saint (born 1786) Wikipedia
• 1875 Hans Christian Andersen, Danish novelist, short story writer, and poet (born 1805) Wikipedia
• 1922 Enver Pasha, Ottoman general and politician (born 1881) Wikipedia
• 1957 Washington Luís, Brazilian lawyer and politician, 13th President of Brazil (born 1869) Wikipedia
• 1962 Marilyn Monroe, American model and actress (born 1926) Wikipedia
• 1977 Edgar Adrian, 1st Baron Adrian, English physiologist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (born 1889) Wikipedia
• 1997 Jeanne Calment, French super-centenarian; holds records for the world's substantiated longest-lived person (born 1875) Wikipedia
• 2003 Frederick Chapman Robbins, American pediatrician and virologist, Nobel Prize laureate (born 1916) Wikipedia
• 2011 Naoki Matsuda, Japanese footballer (born 1977) Wikipedia
• 2019 Nuon Chea, Cambodian politician and theorist for the Khmer Rouge (born 1926) Wikipedia
• 2024 Tsung-Dao Lee, Chinese-American physicist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (born 1926) Wikipedia

Holidays and observances

• Christian feast day: Aristarchus Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Blessed Cecilia Cesarini Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Euphronius Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Blessed Frédéric Janssoone Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: John Vianney Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Molua (or Lua) Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Raynerius of Split Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Sithney, patron saint of mad dogs Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: August 4 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics) Wikipedia
• Coast Guard Day (United States) Wikipedia
• Constitution Day (Cook Islands); first Monday in August Wikipedia
• Matica slovenská Day (Slovakia) Wikipedia
• Barack Obama Day in Illinois in the United States Wikipedia
• 2020 Beirut explosion commemoration day in Lebanon Wikipedia

The events, births, deaths and observances above are from the English Wikipedia article “August 4” and the articles it links to (authors and history), retrieved 2026-10-09 through the Wikimedia “On this day” feed. They are licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0; this selection is shared under the same licence. We picked the 26 events, 22 births and 14 deaths with the widest coverage across Wikipedia's language editions (counted from Wikidata) and sorted them by year; the wording is unchanged apart from removing references to pictures.