On this day: March 4

Events on March 4

• 306 Roman Herculian guard Adrian of Nicomedia, who had converted to Christianity after being impressed with the faith of Christians that he had been torturing, was martyred. Wikipedia
• 1493 Explorer Christopher Columbus arrives back in Lisbon, Portugal, aboard his ship Niña from his voyage to what are now The Bahamas and other islands in the Caribbean. Wikipedia
• 1681 Charles II grants a land charter to William Penn for the area that will later become Pennsylvania. Wikipedia
• 1686 After being unofficially established as a settlement in 1678, the Dominican mission of Ilagan is founded in the Philippines. Wikipedia
• 1773 Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart departed Italy after the last of his three journeys there. Wikipedia
• 1773 Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart departs Italy after the last of his three tours there. Wikipedia
• 1791 Vermont is admitted to the United States as the fourteenth state. Wikipedia
• 1837 Chicago was incorporated as a city. Wikipedia
• 1837 The city of Chicago is incorporated. Wikipedia
• 1848 Carlo Alberto di Savoia signs the Statuto Albertino that will later represent the first constitution of the Regno d'Italia. Wikipedia
• 1918 The United States Navy suffered its largest non-combat loss of life when the collier USS Cyclops set sail from Barbados to Baltimore and was never seen again, presumably disappearing in the Bermuda Triangle. Wikipedia
• 1918 A case of influenza is recorded at Camp Funston, Kansas, conventionally marking the beginning of the worldwide Spanish flu pandemic. Wikipedia
• 1933 Franklin D. Roosevelt is inaugurated as the 32nd President of the United States. Wikipedia
• 1941 Second World War: British Commandos successfully executed a raid on the Lofoten Islands in German-occupied Norway. Wikipedia
• 1941 World War II: The United Kingdom launches Operation Claymore on the Lofoten Islands, the first large-scale British Commando raid. Wikipedia
• 1944 World War II: After the success of Big Week, the USAAF begins a daylight bombing campaign of Berlin. Wikipedia
• 1962 A Caledonian Airways Douglas DC-7 crashes shortly after takeoff from Cameroon, killing 111 – the worst crash of a DC-7. Wikipedia
• 1966 During an interview, John Lennon of the Beatles argued that the band had become "more popular than Jesus". Wikipedia
• 1966 In an interview in the London Evening Standard, the Beatles' John Lennon declares that the band is "more popular than Jesus now". Wikipedia
• 1976 The Northern Ireland Constitutional Convention is formally dissolved in Northern Ireland, resulting in direct rule of Northern Ireland from London by the British parliament. Wikipedia
• 1977 The 1977 Vrancea earthquake in eastern and southern Europe kills more than 1,500, mostly in Bucharest, Romania. Wikipedia
• 1980 Nationalist leader Robert Mugabe wins a sweeping election victory to become Zimbabwe's first black prime minister. Wikipedia
• 1986 The Soviet Vega 1 begins returning images of Halley's Comet and the first images of its nucleus. Wikipedia
• 1987 U.S. president Ronald Reagan made a nationally televised address in which he accepted full responsibility for illegal actions in the Iran–Contra affair. Wikipedia
• 2012 A series of explosions is reported at a munitions dump in Brazzaville, the capital of the Republic of the Congo, killing at least 250 people. Wikipedia
• 2017 Construction began on a 69-metre (226 ft) statue of the Buddha at Wat Paknam Bhasicharoen in Bangkok. Wikipedia

Born on March 4

• 1394 Henry the Navigator, Portuguese explorer (died 1460) Wikipedia
• 1678 Antonio Vivaldi, Italian violinist and composer (died 1741) Wikipedia
• 1769 Muhammad Ali, Ottoman military leader and pasha (died 1849) Wikipedia
• 1815 Mykhailo Verbytsky, Ukrainian composer of religious hymns and the national anthem of Ukraine (died 1870) Wikipedia
• 1904 George Gamow, Ukrainian-American physicist and cosmologist (died 1968) Wikipedia
• 1904 Luis Carrero Blanco, Spanish admiral and politician, 69th President of the Government of Spain (died 1973) Wikipedia
• 1916 Hans Eysenck, German-English psychologist and theorist (died 1997) Wikipedia
• 1932 Miriam Makeba, South African singer-songwriter and actress (died 2008) Wikipedia
• 1932 Ryszard Kapuściński, Polish journalist, photographer, and poet (died 2007) Wikipedia
• 1936 Jim Clark, Scottish racing driver (died 1968) Wikipedia
• 1938 Alpha Condé, Guinean politician, President of Guinea Wikipedia
• 1949 Sergei Bagapsh, Abkhazian politician, 2nd President of Abkhazia (died 2011) Wikipedia
• 1951 Kenny Dalglish, Scottish footballer and manager Wikipedia
• 1951 Chris Rea, English singer-songwriter and guitarist (died 2025) Wikipedia
• 1954 François Fillon, French lawyer and politician, Prime Minister of France Wikipedia
• 1954 Catherine O'Hara, Canadian-American actress and comedian (died 2026) Wikipedia
• 1965 Khaled Hosseini, Afghan-American novelist Wikipedia
• 1968 Kyriakos Mitsotakis, Greek banker and politician, Prime Minister of Greece Wikipedia
• 1982 Landon Donovan, American soccer player and coach Wikipedia
• 1986 Mike Krieger, Brazilian-American computer programmer and businessman, co-founded Instagram Wikipedia
• 1992 Bernd Leno, German footballer Wikipedia
• 1992 Erik Lamela, Argentine footballer Wikipedia

Died on March 4

• 561 Pelagius I, pope of the Catholic Church Wikipedia
• 1193 Saladin, founder of the Ayyubid Sultanate (born 1137) Wikipedia
• 1832 Jean-François Champollion, French philologist and scholar (born 1790) Wikipedia
• 1852 Nikolai Gogol, Ukrainian-Russian short story writer, novelist, and playwright (born 1809) Wikipedia
• 1916 Franz Marc, German painter (born 1880) Wikipedia
• 1941 Ludwig Quidde, German activist and politician, Nobel Prize laureate (born 1858) Wikipedia
• 1948 Antonin Artaud, French actor and director (born 1896) Wikipedia
• 1952 Charles Scott Sherrington, English neurophysiologist and pathologist, Nobel Prize laureate (born 1857) Wikipedia
• 1963 William Carlos Williams, American poet, short story writer, and essayist (born 1883) Wikipedia
• 1986 Ding Ling, Chinese feminist and socialist realist author (born 1904) Wikipedia
• 2008 Gary Gygax, American game designer, co-created Dungeons & Dragons (born 1938) Wikipedia
• 2011 Simon van der Meer, Dutch-Swiss physicist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (born 1925) Wikipedia
• 2019 Keith Flint, English singer (The Prodigy) (born 1969) Wikipedia
• 2020 Javier Pérez de Cuéllar, Peruvian politician and diplomat (born 1920) Wikipedia

Holidays and observances

• Christian feast day: Adrian of Nicomedia Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Casimir Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Felix of Rhuys Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Giovanni Antonio Farina (Catholic Church) Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Blessed Humbert III, Count of Savoy (Roman Catholic Church) Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Paul Cuffee (Episcopal Church) Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Peter of Pappacarbone Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Blessed Placide Viel Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Blessed Zoltán Meszlényi Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: March 4 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics) Wikipedia
• St Casimir's Day (Poland and Lithuania) Wikipedia
• World Obesity Day Wikipedia
• World Engineering Day for Sustainable Development Wikipedia

The events, births, deaths and observances above are from the English Wikipedia article “March 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.