On this day: July 4

Events on July 4

• 414 Byzantine emperor Theodosius II proclaimed his elder sister Aelia Pulcheria as Augusta. Wikipedia
• 1054 Chinese astronomers recorded the sudden appearance of a "guest star", later identified as the supernova that created the Crab Nebula. Wikipedia
• 1187 The Crusades: Battle of Hattin: Saladin defeats Guy of Lusignan, King of Jerusalem. Wikipedia
• 1643 First English Civil War: Royalist forces defeated the Parliamentarians at the Battle of Burton Bridge, securing a crossing of the River Trent for a convoy of supplies travelling with Queen Henrietta Maria. Wikipedia
• 1776 In Philadelphia, the Continental Congress adopted the Declaration of Independence, announcing that the thirteen American colonies were no longer a part of the British Empire. Wikipedia
• 1803 The Louisiana Purchase is announced to the public. Wikipedia
• 1837 The Grand Junction Railway, the world's first long-distance railway with steam traction, opened between Birmingham and Newton Junction. Wikipedia
• 1862 In a boat on the River Thames from Oxford to Godstow, author Lewis Carroll told Alice Liddell and her sisters a story that later formed the basis for his book Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. Wikipedia
• 1863 American Civil War: Confederate forces failed in an attempt to recapture the Union-occupied Helena, Arkansas. Wikipedia
• 1863 American Civil War: Retreat from Gettysburg: The Confederate Army of Northern Virginia under Robert E. Lee withdraws from the battlefield after losing the Battle of Gettysburg, signaling an end to his last invasion of the North. Wikipedia
• 1901 William Howard Taft becomes American governor of the Philippines. Wikipedia
• 1918 World War I: Allied forces led by the Australian general John Monash won the Battle of Hamel, demonstrating the effectiveness of combined-arms techniques in trench warfare. Wikipedia
• 1941 The Holocaust: During the German occupation of Latvia, a number of synagogues in Riga were set on fire, killing many Jews who were confined within. Wikipedia
• 1941 German AB-Aktion in Poland: After capturing Lwów, the Nazis executed professors of the University of Lwów along with their families. Wikipedia
• 1943 The aircraft carrying Władysław Sikorski, prime minister of the Polish government-in-exile, crashed off Gibraltar, killing him and fifteen others and leading to several conspiracy theories. Wikipedia
• 1943 World War II: The Battle of Kursk, the largest full-scale battle in history and the world's largest tank battle, begins in the village of Prokhorovka. Wikipedia
• 1945 The Brazilian cruiser Bahia was accidentally sunk by one of its own crewmen, killing more than 300 people. Wikipedia
• 1951 William Shockley announced the invention of the junction transistor, for which he, John Bardeen, and Walter Houser Brattain later won the Nobel Prize in Physics. Wikipedia
• 1954 In what is known as "The Miracle of Bern", West Germany defeated Hungary 3–2 to win the FIFA World Cup. Wikipedia
• 1976 Israeli forces raided Uganda's Entebbe International Airport to free hostages taken by hijackers on Air France Flight 139. Wikipedia
• 1982 Four Iranian diplomats were kidnapped after they were stopped at a checkpoint in northern Lebanon by Lebanese Phalange forces; their fates remain unknown. Wikipedia
• 1988 Kylie Minogue's first album, Kylie, was released, and went on to top the charts in the UK and New Zealand. Wikipedia
• 1997 NASA's Pathfinder space probe lands on the surface of Mars. Wikipedia
• 1998 The monster movie Pulgasari, the most-widely-seen North Korean film ever made, premiered in Tokyo, Japan. Wikipedia
• 2009 The Statue of Liberty's crown reopens to the public after eight years of closure due to security concerns following the September 11 attacks. Wikipedia
• 2024 Keir Starmer led the Labour Party to a landslide victory in the United Kingdom general election, ending fourteen years of Conservative rule. Wikipedia

Born on July 4

• 1546 Murad III, Ottoman sultan (died 1595) Wikipedia
• 1790 George Everest, Welsh geographer and surveyor (died 1866) Wikipedia
• 1799 Oscar I of Sweden (died 1859) Wikipedia
• 1804 Nathaniel Hawthorne, American novelist and short story writer (died 1864) Wikipedia
• 1807 Giuseppe Garibaldi, Italian general and politician (died 1882) Wikipedia
• 1868 Henrietta Swan Leavitt, American astronomer and academic (died 1921) Wikipedia
• 1872 Calvin Coolidge, American lawyer and politician, 30th President of the United States (died 1933) Wikipedia
• 1898 Gulzarilal Nanda, Indian politician (died 1998) Wikipedia
• 1910 Gloria Stuart, American actress (died 2010) Wikipedia
• 1910 Robert K. Merton, American sociologist and scholar (died 2003) Wikipedia
• 1921 Gérard Debreu, French economist and mathematician, Nobel Prize laureate (died 2004) Wikipedia
• 1924 Eva Marie Saint, American actress (died 2026) Wikipedia
• 1926 Alfredo Di Stéfano, Argentinian-Spanish footballer and coach (died 2014) Wikipedia
• 1927 Gina Lollobrigida, Italian actress and photographer (died 2023) Wikipedia
• 1928 Giampiero Boniperti, Italian footballer and politician (died 2021) Wikipedia
• 1937 Queen Sonja of Norway Wikipedia
• 1952 Álvaro Uribe, Colombian lawyer and politician, 39th President of Colombia Wikipedia
• 1959 Victoria Abril, Spanish actress and singer Wikipedia
• 1964 Edi Rama, Albanian politician Wikipedia
• 1973 Tony Popovic, Australian footballer and manager Wikipedia
• 1990 Naoki Yamada, Japanese footballer Wikipedia
• 1995 Post Malone, American rapper, singer, songwriter and record producer Wikipedia

Died on July 4

• 965 Benedict V, pope of the Catholic Church Wikipedia
• 1546 Hayreddin Barbarossa, Ottoman admiral (born 1478) Wikipedia
• 1761 Samuel Richardson, English author and painter (born 1689) Wikipedia
• 1826 Thomas Jefferson, American architect, lawyer, and politician, 3rd President of the United States (born 1743) Wikipedia
• 1826 John Adams, American lawyer and politician, 2nd President of the United States (born 1735) Wikipedia
• 1831 James Monroe, American soldier, lawyer, and politician, 5th President of the United States (born 1758) Wikipedia
• 1848 François-René de Chateaubriand, French historian and politician (born 1768) Wikipedia
• 1891 Hannibal Hamlin, American lawyer and politician, 15th Vice President of the United States (born 1809) Wikipedia
• 1902 Swami Vivekananda, Indian monk and saint (born 1863) Wikipedia
• 1910 Giovanni Schiaparelli, Italian astronomer and historian (born 1835) Wikipedia
• 1934 Marie Curie, French-Polish physicist and chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (born 1867) Wikipedia
• 1938 Suzanne Lenglen, French tennis player (born 1899) Wikipedia
• 1992 Astor Piazzolla, Argentinian bandoneon player and composer (born 1921) Wikipedia
• 2016 Abbas Kiarostami, Iranian film director, screenwriter, poet, and photographer (born 1940) Wikipedia

Holidays and observances

• Christian feast day: Antoine Daniel Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Andrew of Crete Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Bertha of Artois Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Blessed Catherine Jarrige Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Blessed Józef Kowalski Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Pier Giorgio Frassati Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Elizabeth of Aragon (or of Portugal) Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Oda of Canterbury Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Ulrich of Augsburg Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: July 4 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics) Wikipedia
• CARICOM Day Wikipedia
• The first evening of Dree Festival, celebrated until July 7 (Apatani people, Arunachal Pradesh, India) Wikipedia
• Independence Day (United States) Wikipedia
• Liberation Day (Northern Mariana Islands) Wikipedia
• Liberation Day (Rwanda) Wikipedia
• Republic Day (Philippines) Wikipedia

Sources

• Wikipedia — “July 4” — events, births, deaths and observances (text under CC BY-SA 4.0) (checked 2026-10-15)
• Wikipedia — “Selected anniversaries/July 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 “July 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 July 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.