On this day: October 4

Events on October 4

• 1209 Otto IV is crowned Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire by Pope Innocent III. Wikipedia
• 1363 Red Turban Rebellions: The rebel leader Zhu Yuanzhang won the Battle of Lake Poyang by deploying ships intentionally set aflame when the emperor tried to escape. Wikipedia
• 1448 Skanderbeg and Gjergj Arianiti signed a peace treaty to end the Albanian–Venetian War. Wikipedia
• 1582 The Gregorian Calendar is introduced by Pope Gregory XIII. Wikipedia
• 1633 Smolensk War: Forces from the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth broke the Russian siege of Smolensk. Wikipedia
• 1795 Napoleon first rises to prominence by suppressing counter-revolutionary rioters threatening the National Convention. Wikipedia
• 1830 The Belgian Revolution takes legal form when the provisional government secedes from the Netherlands. Wikipedia
• 1853 The Crimean War begins when the Ottoman Empire declares war on the Russian Empire. Wikipedia
• 1862 American Civil War: After a naval battle in Galveston Harbor, Texas, Confederate commanders negotiated the surrender of the city to Union forces. Wikipedia
• 1876 Texas A&M University opened as the first public institution of higher education in the U.S. state. Wikipedia
• 1917 First World War: The Allies devastated the German defence at the Battle of Broodseinde, prompting a crisis among German commanders and causing a severe loss of morale in the 4th Army. Wikipedia
• 1918 First World War: The Japanese merhant ship Hirano Maru was sunk by a German submarine in the Celtic Sea with the loss of 291 lives. Wikipedia
• 1925 Great Syrian Revolt: Rebels led by Fawzi al-Qawuqji captured the city of Hama from the French Mandate of Syria. Wikipedia
• 1927 Gutzon Borglum and approximately 400 workers began sculpting Mount Rushmore. Wikipedia
• 1936 The Metropolitan Police and various anti-fascist organizations violently clash in the Battle of Cable Street. Wikipedia
• 1941 Willie Gillis, one of Norman Rockwell's trademark characters, debuted on the cover of The Saturday Evening Post. Wikipedia
• 1943 World War II: Allied forces executed Operation Leader, an air raid against German shipping near Bodø, Norway. Wikipedia
• 1957 Sputnik 1 becomes the first artificial satellite to orbit the Earth. Wikipedia
• 1958 The current constitution of France is adopted. Wikipedia
• 1965 Pope Paul VI begins the first papal visit to the Americas. Wikipedia
• 1985 The Free Software Foundation is founded. Wikipedia
• 1992 El Al Flight 1862 crashes into two apartment buildings in Amsterdam, killing 43 including 39 on the ground. Wikipedia
• 1993 Tanks bombard the Russian parliament, while demonstrators against President Yeltsin rally outside. Wikipedia
• 1993 Battle of Mogadishu occurs killing 18 U.S. Special Forces, two UN Peacekeepers and at least 600 Somalian militia men and civilians. Wikipedia
• 2001 Siberia Airlines Flight 1812 crashes after being struck by an errant Ukrainian missile. Seventy-eight people are killed. Wikipedia
• 2006 WikiLeaks is launched. Wikipedia
• 2010 The Ajka plant accident in Hungary releases a million cubic metres of liquid alumina sludge, killing nine, injuring 122, and severely contaminating two major rivers. Wikipedia

Born on October 4

• 1289 Louis X of France (died 1316) Wikipedia
• 1542 Robert Bellarmine, Italian cardinal and saint (died 1621) Wikipedia
• 1550 Charles IX of Sweden (died 1611) Wikipedia
• 1787 François Guizot, French historian and politician, 22nd Prime Minister of France (died 1874) Wikipedia
• 1814 Jean-François Millet, French painter and educator (died 1875) Wikipedia
• 1822 Rutherford B. Hayes, American general, lawyer, and politician, 19th President of the United States (died 1893) Wikipedia
• 1892 Engelbert Dollfuss, Austrian soldier and politician, 14th Federal Chancellor of Austria (died 1934) Wikipedia
• 1895 Buster Keaton, American film actor, director, and producer (died 1966) Wikipedia
• 1903 Ernst Kaltenbrunner, Austrian-German lawyer and general, convicted Nuremberg war criminal (died 1946) Wikipedia
• 1916 Vitaly Ginzburg, Russian physicist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (died 2009) Wikipedia
• 1918 Kenichi Fukui, Japanese chemist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (died 1998) Wikipedia
• 1923 Charlton Heston, American actor, director and gun rights activist (died 2008) Wikipedia
• 1928 Alvin Toffler, German-American journalist and author (died 2016) Wikipedia
• 1938 Kurt Wüthrich, Swiss chemist and biophysicist, Nobel Prize laureate Wikipedia
• 1941 Anne Rice, American author (died 2021) Wikipedia
• 1942 Jóhanna Sigurðardóttir, Icelandic politician, 24th Prime Minister of Iceland Wikipedia
• 1946 Susan Sarandon, American actress and activist Wikipedia
• 1956 Christoph Waltz, Austrian-German actor Wikipedia
• 1967 Liev Schreiber, American actor and director Wikipedia
• 1976 Alicia Silverstone, American actress, producer, and author Wikipedia
• 1980 Tomáš Rosický, Czech footballer Wikipedia
• 1989 Dakota Johnson, American actress Wikipedia

Died on October 4

• 1582 Teresa of Ávila, Spanish nun and saint (born 1515) Wikipedia
• 1669 Rembrandt, Dutch painter and illustrator (born 1606) Wikipedia
• 1903 Otto Weininger, Austrian philosopher and author (born 1880) Wikipedia
• 1904 Frédéric Auguste Bartholdi, French sculptor, designed the Statue of Liberty (born 1834) Wikipedia
• 1947 Max Planck, German physicist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (born 1858) Wikipedia
• 1970 Janis Joplin, American singer-songwriter (born 1943) Wikipedia
• 1974 Anne Sexton, American poet and author (born 1928) Wikipedia
• 1982 Glenn Gould, Canadian pianist and conductor (born 1932) Wikipedia
• 1989 Graham Chapman, English actor and screenwriter, member of Monty Python (born 1941) Wikipedia
• 1992 Denny Hulme, New Zealand race car driver (born 1936) Wikipedia
• 2000 Michael Smith, English-Canadian biochemist and geneticist, Nobel Prize laureate (born 1932) Wikipedia
• 2013 Võ Nguyên Giáp, Vietnamese general and politician, 3rd Minister of Defence for Vietnam (born 1911) Wikipedia
• 2014 Jean-Claude Duvalier, Haitian politician, 41st President of Haiti (born 1951) Wikipedia
• 2022 Loretta Lynn, American singer-songwriter and musician (born 1932) Wikipedia

Holidays and observances

• Christian feast day: Amun Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Aurea of Paris Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Francis of Assisi Conclusion of Creationtide Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Blessed Francis Xavier Seelos Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Petronius of Bologna Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: October 4 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics) Wikipedia
• Feast of St Francis of Assisi patron saints of Italy. Wikipedia
• Cinnamon Roll Day (Sweden and Finland) Wikipedia
• Day of Peace and Reconciliation (Mozambique) Wikipedia
• Independence Day, celebrates the independence of Lesotho from the United Kingdom in 1966. Wikipedia
• The beginning of World Space Week (International) Wikipedia
• World Animal Day Wikipedia

Sources

• Wikipedia — “October 4” — events, births, deaths and observances (text under CC BY-SA 4.0) (checked 2026-10-15)
• Wikipedia — “Selected anniversaries/October 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 “October 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 October 4 stays on the list; the remaining places, up to 27 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. The 1957 entry stays as well, and comes first in the one-line summary: we keep a short list, checked by hand, of widely known events that Wikipedia's editors leave out of their selection, usually because the article carries a maintenance notice. Each list runs by year, and the wording is unchanged apart from removing references to pictures, audio and video.