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
• 852 Trpimir I, the founder of the Trpimirović dynasty of Croatia, issued a document that contains the first known use of the name Croats. Wikipedia
• 1386 Jogaila, Grand Duke of Lithuania, was crowned King of Poland as Władysław II Jagiełło, beginning the Jagiellonian dynasty. Wikipedia
• 1461 Wars of the Roses: Henry VI, the Lancastrian king of England, was deposed by his Yorkist cousin, who succeeded him as Edward IV. Wikipedia
• 1675 John Flamsteed was appointed the first Astronomer Royal by King Charles II of England. Wikipedia
• 1681 King Charles II of England granted Quaker William Penn a charter for the Pennsylvania Colony. Wikipedia
• 1773 Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart departed Italy after the last of his three journeys there. Wikipedia
• 1776 American Revolutionary War: Using artillery transported from Ticonderoga, the Continental Army occupied Dorchester Heights, forcing the British to abandon Boston two weeks later. Wikipedia
• 1804 Irish convicts formerly involved at the Battle of Vinegar Hill during the Irish Rebellion of 1798 began an uprising against British colonial authorities in New South Wales, Australia. Wikipedia
• 1824 The Royal National Lifeboat Institution, a charity that saves lives at sea around the coasts of the British Isles, was founded as the National Institution for the Preservation of Life from Shipwreck by author and philanthropist William Hillary. Wikipedia
• 1837 Chicago was incorporated as a city. Wikipedia
• 1848 King Charles Albert of Sardinia signs the Statuto Albertino, which would later serve as the constitution for the Kingdom of Italy. Wikipedia
• 1890 The Forth Bridge, a railway bridge connecting Edinburgh to Fife over the Firth of Forth, opened, eventually becoming an internationally recognised Scottish landmark. Wikipedia
• 1899 Cyclone Mahina struck Bathurst Bay, Queensland, killing more than 300 people in one of the deadliest natural disasters in Australian history. 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 was recorded at Camp Funston, Kansas, United States, conventionally marking the beginning of the Spanish flu pandemic. Wikipedia
• 1933 Frances Perkins was appointed United States Secretary of Labor, making her the first female member of the Cabinet. Wikipedia
• 1941 Second World War: British Commandos successfully executed a raid on the Lofoten Islands in German-occupied Norway. Wikipedia
• 1943 The Holocaust: Almost all Jews in Bulgarian-occupied Western Thrace were deported to Treblinka extermination camp to be killed. Wikipedia
• 1944 Murder, Inc. leader Lepke Buchalter was executed, becoming the only American mob boss to receive the death penalty after being convicted of murder. Wikipedia
• 1966 During an interview, John Lennon of the Beatles argued that the band had become "more popular than Jesus". Wikipedia
• 1979 The space probe Voyager 1 discovered the rings of Jupiter, the third ring system to be discovered in the Solar System, after those of Saturn and Uranus. 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
• 1990 College basketball player Hank Gathers died after collapsing during a West Coast Conference tournament semifinal game in Los Angeles. Wikipedia
• 2000 Playstation 2 was released in Japan. Wikipedia
• 2007 Fourteen-year-old English schoolgirl Charlotte Shaw drowned on Dartmoor, becoming the first person to die in connection with the annual Ten Tors challenge. Wikipedia
• 2009 President Omar al-Bashir of Sudan was indicted by the International Criminal Court on charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity committed during the War in Darfur. Wikipedia
• 2012 A series of blasts occurred at an arms dump in Brazzaville, Republic of the Congo, killing at least 300 people and injuring 2,500 others. 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

• 1188 Blanche of Castile, French queen consort (died 1252) Wikipedia
• 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
• 1904 George Gamow, Ukrainian-American physicist and cosmologist (died 1968) Wikipedia
• 1910 Tancredo Neves, Brazilian lawyer and politician, Prime Minister of Brazil (died 1985) 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
• 1950 Rick Perry, American captain and politician, 47th Governor of Texas 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
• 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
• 1977 Lutz Graf Schwerin von Krosigk, German jurist and politician, German Minister for Foreign Affairs (born 1887) Wikipedia
• 2011 Simon van der Meer, Dutch-Swiss physicist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (born 1925) Wikipedia
• 2018 Davide Astori, Italian soccer player (born 1987) Wikipedia
• 2019 Luke Perry, American actor (born 1966) 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

Sources

• Wikipedia — “March 4” — events, births, deaths and observances (text under CC BY-SA 4.0) (checked 2026-10-15)
• Wikipedia — “Selected anniversaries/March 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 “March 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 March 4 stays on the list; the remaining places, up to 29 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.