June 4 - Definition and Overview

June 4 is the 155th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (156th in leap years), with 210 days remaining.

Events

• 780 BC - The first historic solar eclipse is recorded in China.
• 1039 - Henry II becomes King of Germany.
• 1615 - Forces under the shogun Tokugawa Ieyasu take Osaka Castle in Japan.
• 1760 - Great Upheaval: New England planters arrive to claim land in Nova Scotia Canada taken from the Acadians.
• 1769 - A transit of Venus is followed within 5 hours by a total solar eclipse, the shortest such interval in the historical past.
• 1792 - Captain George Vancouver claims Puget Sound for Great Britain.
• 1794 - British troops capture Port-au-Prince in Haiti.
• 1812 - Following Louisiana's admittance as a U.S. state, the territory by that name was renamed to Missouri Territory.
• 1862 - American Civil War: Confederate troops evacuate Fort Pillow on the Mississippi River, leaving the way clear for Union troops to take Memphis, Tennessee.
• 1876 - An express train called the Transcontinental Express arrives in San Francisco, California via the First Transcontinental Railroad only 83 hours and 39 minutes after having left New York City.
• 1878 - Cyprus Convention: The Ottoman Empire cedes Cyprus to the United Kingdom but retains nominal title.
• 1896 - Henry Ford test-drives the first automobile he designed - the Quadricycle (it was also the first automobile he ever drove).
• 1913 - Emily Davison, a suffragette, runs out in front of the king's horse, Anmer, at the Epsom Derby. She is trampled and dies a few days later, never having regained consciousness.
• 1917 - The very first Pulitzer Prizes are awarded: Laura E. Richards, Maude H. Elliott, and Florence Hall receive the first Pulitzer for a biography (for Julia Ward Howe). Jean Jules Jusserand receives the first Pulitzer for history for his work With Americans of Past and Present Days. Herbert B. Swope receives the first Pulitzer for journalism for his work for the New York World.
• 1917 - Order of the British Empire introduced
• 1919 - Women's rights: The U.S. Congress approved the 19th Amendment to the United States Constitution, which would guarantee suffrage to women, and sends it to the U.S. states for ratification.
• 1920 - Hungary loses 71% of its territory and 63% of its population when the Treaty of Trianon is signed in Paris.
• 1926 - Robert Earl Hughes sets current record for worlds heaviest human.
• 1936 - Léon Blum becomes Prime Minister of France.
• 1939 - Holocaust: The SS St. Louis, a ship carrying a cargo of 963 Jewish refugees, is denied permission to land in Florida after already having been turned away from Cuba. Forced to return to Europe, most of its passengers later die in Nazi concentration camps.
• 1940 - The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter by Carson McCullers is published.
• 1940 - World War II: Dunkirk evacuation ends - British forces complete evacuating 300,000 troops from Dunkirk in France.
• 1942 - World War II: Battle of Midway begins - Japanese Admiral Chuichi Nagumo orders a strike on Midway Island with much of the Imperial Japanese navy.
• 1944 - World War II: A hunter-killer group of the United States Navy capture the German submarine U-505, marking the first time a U.S. Navy vessel had captured an enemy vessel at sea since the 19th century.
• 1944 - World War II: Rome falls to the Allies. It is the first capital of an Axis nation to fall.
• 1960 - Lake Bodom Murderers
• 1970 - Tonga gains independence from the United Kingdom.
• 1973 - patent for the ATM granted to Don Wetzel, Tom Barnes and George Chastain.
• 1974 - The Cleveland Indians host "Ten Cent Beer Night", but have to forfeit the game to the Texas Rangers due to drunken and unruly fans.
• 1986 - Jonathan Pollard pleads guilty to espionage for selling top secret United States military intelligence to Israel.
• 1989 - The Tiananmen Square protests are suppressed in Beijing and are covered live on television.
• 1989 - Solidarity's victory in the first partly free parliamentary elections in post-war Poland spark off a succession of peaceful anti-communist revolutions in Eastern Europe.
• 1989 - Train disaster: Ufa train disaster - A natural gas explosion near Ufa, Russia kills 645 as two trains passing each other throw sparks near a leaky pipeline.
• 1998 - Terry Nichols is sentenced to life in prison for his role in the Oklahoma City bombing.
• 2003 - Martha Stewart and her broker are indicted for using privileged investment information and then obstructing a federal investigation. Stewart also resigned as chairperson and chief executive officer of Martha Stewart Living.
• 2004 - Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban is released in theaters.

Births

• 470 BC - Socrates, Greek philosopher (d. 399 BC)
• 1489 - Anthony II of Lorraine, 'Il Buono', Duke of Lorraine (d. 1544)
• 1738 - King George III of Great Britain (d. 1820)
• 1754 - Franz Xaver, Baron Von Zach, Austrian scientific editor, astronomer (d. 1832)
• 1801 - Sir James Pennethorne, English architect (d. 1871)
• 1867 - C.G.E. Mannerheim, Commander-in-Chief of Finland during the Civil War in Finland (1918) and World War II, later President of Finland (d. 1951)
• 1867 - Alfred Vierkandt, sociologist (d. 1953)
• 1877 - Heinrich Wieland, German biochemist (d. 1957)
• 1882 - Karl Valentin, comedian and author (d. 1948)
• 1887 - Tom Longboat, marathon runner and World War I despatch runner (d. 1949)
• 1907 (or 1908 or 1912) - Rosalind Russell, American actress (d. 1976)
• 1910 - Robert Anderson, economic advisor to President Dwight D. Eisenhower
• 1915 - Heinrich Tenhumberg, theologian, bishop of Münster (d. 1979)
• 1919 - Robert Merrill, American baritone (d. 2004)
• 1924 - Dennis Weaver, American actor
• 1926 - Alfredo Di Stéfano, Argentine-Spanish footballer
• 1928 - Dr. Ruth Westheimer, German-American sex therapist, author
• 1929 - Günter Strack, actor (d. 1999)
• 1932 - John Drew Barrymore, American actor (d. 2004)
• 1932 - Maurice Shadbolt, New Zealand writer
• 1936 - Bruce Dern, American actor
• 1937 - Freddy Fender, American country musician
• 1944 - Michelle Phillips, American actress, singer
• 1945 - Gordon Waller, musician ("Peter and Gordon")
• 1947 - Viktor Klima, Austrian Chancellor
• 1952 - Parker Stevenson, American actor, director
• 1956 - Keith David, American actor
• 1956 - John Hockenberry, journalist
• 1962 - Lindsay Frost, actress
• 1965 - Mick Doohan, Australian motorcycle racer
• 1966 - Cecilia Bartoli, Italian opera singer
• 1966 - Vladimir Voevodsky, mathematician
• 1971 - Noah Wyle, American actor
• 1972 - Derian Hatcher, American hockey player
• 1975 - Angelina Jolie, American actress
• 1975 - Robert Shaw, publisher
• 1977 - Quinten Hann, Australian snooker player

Deaths

• 1039 - Conrad II, Holy Roman Emperor (b. c. 990)
• 1798 - Giacomo Casanova, Italian lover (b. 1725)
• 1801 - Frederick Muhlenberg, first speaker of the United States House of Representatives (b. 1750)
• 1872 - Johan Rudolf Thorbecke, Dutch politician (d. 1798)
• 1928 - Chang Tso-lin, Chinese warlord (b. 1873)
• 1939 - Tommy Ladnier, American jazz musician (b. 1900)
• 1941 - Kaiser Wilhelm II, last German emperor (b. 1859)
• 1942 - Reinhard Heydrich, Nazi official (b. 1904)
• 1951 - Serge Koussevitsky, Russian conductor (b. 1874)
• 1968 - Dorothy Gish, American actress (b. 1898)
• 1973 - Maurice René Fréchet, French mathematician (b. 1878)
• 1983 - Ivan Tors, producer, writer, animal trainer
• 1990 - Stiv Bators, American musician ("The Dead Boys") (b. 1949)
• 1999 - Noemi Dominguez, schoolteacher
• 2001 - King Dipendra of Nepal (b. 1971)
• 2001 - John Hartford, American musician, composer (b. 1937)
• 2002 - Fernando Belaunde Terry, Peruvian politician, president of Peru (b. 1912)
• 2004 - Steve Lacy, American saxophonist (b. 1934)

Holidays and observances

• Feast day of St Francis Caracciolo
• Feast day of Saint Petrock of Cornwall
• International Innocent Child Abuse Victim Day
• Tonga - National Day

June 3 - June 5 - May 4 - July 4 -- listing of all days