On this day: May 4

Events on May 4

• 1436 Assassination of the Swedish rebel (later national hero) Engelbrekt Engelbrektsson (27 April O.S.). Wikipedia
• 1471 Wars of the Roses: The Battle of Tewkesbury: Edward IV defeats a Lancastrian Army and kills Edward of Westminster, Prince of Wales. Wikipedia
• 1493 Pope Alexander VI issued the papal bull Inter caetera, establishing a line of demarcation dividing the New World between Spain and Portugal. Wikipedia
• 1626 Having been appointed the director-general of New Netherland, Peter Minuit arrived in Manhattan. Wikipedia
• 1677 Trunajaya rebellion: Dutch East India Company forces under Cornelis Speelman began an attack on Surabaya, on the island of Java. Wikipedia
• 1776 American Revolution: The Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations became the first of the Thirteen Colonies to renounce its allegiance to the British Crown. Wikipedia
• 1789 The Boydell Shakespeare Gallery, part of a cultural project initiated by engraver John Boydell, opened in London. Wikipedia
• 1814 Emperor Napoleon arrives at Portoferraio on the island of Elba to begin his exile. Wikipedia
• 1869 The four-day Naval Battle of Hakodate begins. The newly formed Imperial Japanese Navy defeats the remnants of the Tokugawa shogunate navy in the Sea of Japan off the city of Hakodate, leading to the surrender of the Ezo Republic on May 17. Wikipedia
• 1886 During a labor rally in Chicago, a bomb explosion and gunfire led to the deaths of eight police officers and four members of the public. Wikipedia
• 1904 The United States begins construction of the Panama Canal. Wikipedia
• 1919 The May Fourth Movement began in China with large-scale student demonstrations in Tiananmen Square, Beijing. Wikipedia
• 1927 The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences is incorporated. Wikipedia
• 1942 World War II: Aircraft from Imperial Japanese Navy vessels attacked Allied naval forces, beginning the Battle of the Coral Sea, the first naval action in which the participating ships never sighted or fired directly at each other. Wikipedia
• 1949 The entire Torino football team (except for two players who did not take the trip: Sauro Tomà, due to an injury and Renato Gandolfi, because of coach request) is killed in a plane crash. Wikipedia
• 1953 Ernest Hemingway wins the Pulitzer Prize for The Old Man and the Sea. Wikipedia
• 1970 Vietnam War: Kent State shootings: The Ohio National Guard, sent to Kent State University after disturbances in the city of Kent the weekend before, opens fire killing four unarmed students and wounding nine others. The students were protesting the Cambodian Campaign of the United States and South Vietnam. Wikipedia
• 1973 The 108-story Sears Tower in Chicago is topped out at 1,451 feet (442 m) as the world's tallest building. Wikipedia
• 1974 An all-female Japanese team reached the summit of Manaslu in the Himalayas, becoming the first women to climb a peak higher than 8,000 metres (26,247 ft) above sea level. Wikipedia
• 1979 Margaret Thatcher became the first female prime minister of the United Kingdom. Wikipedia
• 1982 Falklands War: HMS Sheffield was struck by an Exocet missile, killing 20 sailors and leading to its sinking six days later—the first Royal Navy ship sunk in action since World War II. Wikipedia
• 1989 Space Shuttle Atlantis launches on mission STS-30 to deploy the Venus-bound Magellan space probe. Wikipedia
• 1998 A federal judge in Sacramento, California, gives "Unabomber" Theodore Kaczynski four life sentences plus 30 years after Kaczynski accepts a plea agreement sparing him from the death penalty. Wikipedia
• 2000 Ken Livingstone took office as the first mayor of London. Wikipedia
• 2015 The Parliament of Malta moved from the Grandmaster's Palace to the purpose-built Parliament House. Wikipedia
• 2019 The inaugural race of the W Series took place at Hockenheimring, Germany, and was won by Jamie Chadwick, who later became the season's champion. Wikipedia

Born on May 4

• 1655 Bartolomeo Cristofori, Italian instrument maker, invented the piano (died 1731) Wikipedia
• 1796 Horace Mann, American educator and politician (died 1859) Wikipedia
• 1820 Julia Gardiner Tyler, American wife of John Tyler, 11th First Lady of the United States (died 1889) Wikipedia
• 1825 Thomas Henry Huxley, English biologist, anatomist, and academic (died 1895) Wikipedia
• 1826 Frederic Edwin Church, American painter (died 1900) Wikipedia
• 1827 John Hanning Speke, English soldier and explorer (died 1864) Wikipedia
• 1883 Wang Jingwei, Chinese politician (died 1944) Wikipedia
• 1898 Umm Kulthum, Egyptian singer-songwriter and actress, known as Kawkab al-Sharq, Star of the East (died 1975) Wikipedia
• 1918 Kakuei Tanaka, Japanese soldier and politician, 64th Prime Minister of Japan (died 1993) Wikipedia
• 1928 Hosni Mubarak, Egyptian air marshal and politician, 4th President of Egypt (died 2020) Wikipedia
• 1929 Audrey Hepburn, Belgian-British actress and humanitarian (died 1993) Wikipedia
• 1939 Amos Oz, Israeli journalist and author (died 2018) Wikipedia
• 1948 King George Tupou V of Tonga (died 2012) Wikipedia
• 1958 Keith Haring, American painter (died 1990) Wikipedia
• 1960 Werner Faymann, Austrian politician, 28th Chancellor of Austria Wikipedia
• 1972 Mike Dirnt, American bass player and songwriter Wikipedia
• 1981 Ruth Negga, Ethiopian-Irish actress Wikipedia
• 1985 Fernandinho, Brazilian footballer Wikipedia
• 1987 Cesc Fàbregas, Spanish footballer and manager Wikipedia
• 1987 Jorge Lorenzo, Spanish motorcycle racer Wikipedia
• 1988 Radja Nainggolan, Belgian footballer Wikipedia
• 2001 Joan García, Spanish footballer Wikipedia

Died on May 4

• 1519 Lorenzo de' Medici, duke of Urbino (born 1492) Wikipedia
• 1605 Ulisse Aldrovandi, Italian naturalist (born 1522) Wikipedia
• 1677 Isaac Barrow, English mathematician and theologian (born 1630) Wikipedia
• 1799 Tipu, ruler of Mysore (born 1750) Wikipedia
• 1824 Joseph Joubert, French author (born 1754) Wikipedia
• 1919 Milan Rastislav Štefánik, Slovak general and politician (born 1880) Wikipedia
• 1924 E. Nesbit, English author and poet (born 1858) Wikipedia
• 1938 Carl von Ossietzky, German journalist and activist, Nobel Prize laureate (born 1889) Wikipedia
• 1938 Kanō Jigorō, Japanese founder of judo (born 1860) Wikipedia
• 1945 Fedor von Bock, German field marshal (born 1880) Wikipedia
• 1955 George Enescu, Romanian pianist, composer, and conductor (born 1881) Wikipedia
• 1972 Edward Calvin Kendall, American chemist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (born 1886) Wikipedia
• 1980 Josip Broz Tito, Yugoslav field marshal and politician, 1st President of Yugoslavia (born 1892) Wikipedia
• 2013 Christian de Duve, English-Belgian cytologist and biochemist, Nobel Prize laureate (born 1917) Wikipedia

Holidays and observances

• Anti-Bullying Day (United Nations) Wikipedia
• Bird Day (United States) Wikipedia
• Cassinga Day (Namibia) Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Blessed Ceferino Giménez Malla Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Blessed Michał Giedroyć Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: English Saints and Martyrs of the Reformation Era (Church of England) Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: F. C. D. Wyneken (Lutheran Church–Missouri Synod) Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Florian Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Jean-Martin Moye Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: John Houghton, Robert Lawrence and Augustine Webster Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Judas Cyriacus Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Monica of Hippo (1960 Roman Catholic Calendar) Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Silvanus of Gaza Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: May 4 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics) Wikipedia
• Coal Miners Day (India) Wikipedia
• Dave Brubeck Day (United States) Wikipedia
• Death of Milan Rastislav Štefánik Day (Slovakia) Wikipedia
• Greenery Day (Japan) Wikipedia
• International Firefighters' Day Wikipedia
• May Fourth Movement commemorations: Literary Day (Republic of China) Wikipedia
• May Fourth Movement commemorations: Youth Day (China) Wikipedia
• Remembrance Day for Martyrs and Disabled (Afghanistan) Wikipedia
• Remembrance of the Dead (Netherlands) Wikipedia
• Restoration of Independence Day (Latvia) Wikipedia

Sources

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