On this day: December 4

Events on December 4

• 1370 Hundred Years' War: In two separate engagements in the Battle of Pontvallain, French forces wiped out an English army which had split up because of a dispute between the commanders. Wikipedia
• 1563 The final session of the Council of Trent is held nearly 18 years after the body held its first session on December 13, 1545. Wikipedia
• 1623 50 Christians are executed in Edo, Japan, during the Great Martyrdom of Edo. Wikipedia
• 1639 Jeremiah Horrocks and William Crabtree made the first successful observation of a transit of Venus from Earth. Wikipedia
• 1829 Sati, the Hindu funeral custom of a widow's self-immolation on her husband's pyre, was prohibited by Lord William Bentinck in parts of British India after years of campaigning by Ram Mohan Roy. Wikipedia
• 1865 North Carolina ratifies 13th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, followed two days later by Georgia, and U.S. slaves were legally free within two weeks. Wikipedia
• 1872 The American brigantine Mary Celeste was found apparently abandoned under circumstances that remain unknown. Wikipedia
• 1881 The first edition of the Los Angeles Times is published. Wikipedia
• 1893 First Matabele War: A patrol of 34 British South Africa Company soldiers was ambushed and annihilated by more than 3,000 Matabele warriors. Wikipedia
• 1905 The Great Seimas of Vilnius met to discuss national concerns within Lithuania: they decided to demand wide political autonomy within the Russian Empire. Wikipedia
• 1909 The Montreal Canadiens, the oldest professional ice hockey club in the world, were founded as a charter member of the National Hockey Association. Wikipedia
• 1909 The first Grey Cup, the championship game of the Canadian Football League, was held in Toronto. Wikipedia
• 1915 World War I: Senior British and French figures, including prime ministers H. H. Asquith and Aristide Briand, met at Calais to discuss the future of the Salonika Front. Wikipedia
• 1918 U.S. President Woodrow Wilson sails for the World War I peace talks in Versailles, becoming the first US president to travel to Europe while in office. Wikipedia
• 1928 Cosmo Gordon Lang was enthroned as the Archbishop of Canterbury, the first bachelor to be appointed in 150 years. Wikipedia
• 1969 Fred Hampton, the leader of the Illinois chapter of the Black Panther Party, and Mark Clark were killed in a raid by Chicago police officers in what many scholars consider an illegal assassination. Wikipedia
• 1971 The Troubles: The Ulster Volunteer Force, an Ulster-loyalist paramilitary group, detonated a bomb at a Catholic-owned pub in Belfast, Northern Ireland, killing 15 people. Wikipedia
• 1971 Indo-Pakistani War: The Indian Navy launched a successful attack against the Pakistan Navy at Karachi, sinking three ships with no Indian casualties. Wikipedia
• 1977 Jean-Bédel Bokassa, president of the Central African Republic, crowns himself Emperor Bokassa I of the Central African Empire. Wikipedia
• 1978 Following the murder of Mayor George Moscone, Dianne Feinstein became San Francisco's first female mayor. Wikipedia
• 1980 The English rock group Led Zeppelin officially disbanded. Wikipedia
• 1982 The China adopts its current constitution. Wikipedia
• 1986 The MV Amazon Venture oil tanker starts leaking while at the port of Savannah, resulting in an oil spill of approximately 500,000 US gallons (1,900,000 L). Wikipedia
• 1992 U.S. president George H. W. Bush ordered American troops into Somalia to help provide humanitarian aid and restore order during the ongoing Somali Civil War. Wikipedia
• 2006 Six black teenagers assaulted a white student in Jena, Louisiana; the subsequent court cases became a cause célèbre for perceived racial injustice in the United States. Wikipedia
• 2012 "Il Canto degli Italiani" officially became the national anthem of Italy, 66 years after it was provisionally chosen following the birth of the Italian Republic. Wikipedia

Born on December 4

• 34 Persius, Roman poet (died 62) Wikipedia
• 1795 Thomas Carlyle, Scottish-English historian, philosopher, and academic (died 1881) Wikipedia
• 1835 Samuel Butler, English author and critic (died 1902) Wikipedia
• 1865 Edith Cavell, English nurse, humanitarian, and saint (Anglicanism) (died 1915) Wikipedia
• 1875 Rainer Maria Rilke, Austrian-Swiss poet and author (died 1926) Wikipedia
• 1892 Francisco Franco, Spanish general and dictator, Prime Minister of Spain (died 1975) Wikipedia
• 1908 Alfred Hershey, American bacteriologist and geneticist, Nobel Prize laureate (died 1997) Wikipedia
• 1910 R. Venkataraman, Indian lawyer and politician, 6th President of India (died 2009) Wikipedia
• 1919 I. K. Gujral, Indian poet and politician, 12th Prime Minister of India (died 2012) Wikipedia
• 1925 Albert Bandura, Canadian-American psychologist and academic (died 2021) Wikipedia
• 1932 Roh Tae-woo, South Korean general and politician, 6th President of South Korea (died 2021) Wikipedia
• 1949 Jeff Bridges, American actor Wikipedia
• 1954 Tony Todd, American actor (died 2024) Wikipedia
• 1955 Philip Hammond, English businessman and politician, former Chancellor of the Exchequer Wikipedia
• 1957 Eric S. Raymond, American computer programmer and author Wikipedia
• 1963 Sergey Bubka, Ukrainian pole vaulter Wikipedia
• 1964 Marisa Tomei, American actress Wikipedia
• 1969 Jay-Z, American rapper, producer, actor, and co-founder of Roc-A-Fella Records Wikipedia
• 1973 Tyra Banks, American model, actress, and producer Wikipedia
• 1982 Nick Vujicic, Australian evangelist Wikipedia
• 1992 Jin, South Korean singer, songwriter and actor Wikipedia
• 1996 Diogo Jota, Portuguese footballer (died 2025) Wikipedia

Died on December 4

• 749 John of Damascus, Syrian priest and saint (born 676) Wikipedia
• 771 Carloman I, Frankish king (born 751) Wikipedia
• 1131 Omar Khayyám, Persian poet, astronomer, mathematician, and philosopher (born 1048) Wikipedia
• 1334 Pope John XXII (born 1249) Wikipedia
• 1642 Cardinal Richelieu, French cardinal and politician, Chief Minister to the French Monarch (born 1585) Wikipedia
• 1679 Thomas Hobbes, English philosopher and theorist (born 1588) Wikipedia
• 1798 Luigi Galvani, Italian physician, physicist, and philosopher (born 1737) Wikipedia
• 1933 Stefan George, German-Swiss poet and translator (born 1868) Wikipedia
• 1935 Charles Richet, French physiologist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (born 1850) Wikipedia
• 1945 Thomas Hunt Morgan, American geneticist and biologist, Nobel Prize laureate (born 1866) Wikipedia
• 1975 Hannah Arendt, German-American historian, theorist, and academic (born 1906) Wikipedia
• 1976 Benjamin Britten, English pianist, composer, and conductor (born 1913) Wikipedia
• 1993 Frank Zappa, American singer-songwriter, guitarist, and producer (born 1940) Wikipedia
• 2011 Sócrates, Brazilian footballer and manager (born 1954) Wikipedia

Holidays and observances

• Christian feast day: Ada Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Anno II Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Barbara, and its related observances: Barbórka, Miners' Day in Poland Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Barbara, and its related observances: Eid il-Burbara, a holiday similar to Halloween in honor of Saint Barbara. (Russia, Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, Palestine, Syria, Turkey) Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Bernardo degli Uberti Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Clement of Alexandria (Anglicanism, Eastern Catholicism) Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Giovanni Calabria Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: John of Damascus Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Maruthas Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Nicholas Ferrar (Anglicanism) Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Osmund Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Sigiramnus Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: December 4 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics) Wikipedia
• Navy Day (India) Wikipedia
• Thai Environment Day (Thailand) Wikipedia
• Tupou I Day (Tonga) Wikipedia

Sources

• Wikipedia — “December 4” — events, births, deaths and observances (text under CC BY-SA 4.0) (checked 2026-10-15)
• Wikipedia — “Selected anniversaries/December 4” — the anniversaries editors chose for the date and the article each one is about (checked 2026-10-15)
• Wikidata — in how many language editions each entry's own article exists, used to fill the lists (CC0) (checked 2026-10-15)
• vacanza/holidays (open-source holiday rules, MIT licence) — holiday rules used to build the lists (checked 2026-10-15)

The events, births, deaths and observances above are from the English Wikipedia article “December 4” and the articles it links to (authors and history), retrieved 2026-10-15 through the Wikimedia “On this day” feed. They are licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0; this selection is shared under the same licence. Every anniversary that Wikipedia's editors selected for December 4 stays on the list; the remaining places, up to 26 events, 22 births and 14 deaths, go to the entries whose own article — about the event itself, or else the person or thing it is about — appears in the most language editions (counted from Wikidata); an article about a person or thing, which covers far more than one day, counts half. An entry with no article of its own counts, also at half, by the least covered article it links, and one that links only places counts for nothing. Each list runs by year, and the wording is unchanged apart from removing references to pictures, audio and video.