October 4

October 4 is the 277th day of the year (278th in Leap years). There are 88 days remaining.

Events

• 610 – Heraclius arrives by ship from Africa at Constantinople, otherthrows Byzantine Emperor Phocas and becomes Emperor.
• 1535 – The first complete English language Bible is printed, with translations by William Tyndale and Miles Coverdale.
• 1582 – Pope Gregory XIII implements the Gregorian Calendar. In Italy, Poland, Portugal, and Spain October 4 of this year is followed directly by October 15, skipping over 10 days.
• 1777 – Battle of Germantown – Troops under George Washington are repelled by British troops under Sir William Howe
• 1824 – Mexico becomes a republic
• 1830 – Creation of the state of Belgium after separation from The Netherlands
• 1883 – First run of the Orient Express
• 1883 – First meeting of the Boys' Brigade in Glasgow, Scotland.
• 1895 – The first U.S. Open Mens' Golf Championship run by the United States Golf Association was played on a nine-hole course in Newport, Rhode Island.
• 1910 – Portugal becomes a republic. King Manuel II flees to Britain.
• 1957 – Launch of Sputnik I, the first artificial satellite to orbit the Earth.
• 1958 – Fifth Republic of France established.
• 1983 – Richard Noble sets a new land speed record of 633.468 mph, driving Thrust 2 at the Black Rock Desert, Nevada.
• 1966 – Basutoland becomes independent from the United Kingdom and is renamed Lesotho.
• 1988 – Jim Bakker indicted for fraud.
• 1991 – The Protocol on Environmental Protection to the Antarctic Treaty was opened for signature.
• 1992 – An El Al Boeing 747-200F crashes into 2 apartment buildings in Amsterdam, killing 43 including 38 on the ground. See Bijlmerramp
• 1993 – Doom press-release version is made available to journalists for review.
• 1993 – At the climax of the Russian constitutional crisis of 1993, Russian President Boris Yeltsin orders army tanks to begin the storming of the Russian parliament building.
• 1998 – Leafie Mason of Hughes Springs, Texas is murdered by Angel Maturino Resendiz. She is Angel's second victim in his second incident.
• 2001 – A Sibir Airlines Tupolev TU-154 crashes into the Black Sea after being struck by an errant Ukrainian S-200 missile. 78 people are killed.
• 2003 – Maxim restaurant suicide bombing: A female Palestinian suicide bomber, Hanadi Jaradat, exploded inside the Maxim restaurant in Haifa. 21 Israelis, Jews and Arabs, were killed, and 51 others were wounded.
• 2004 – SpaceShipOne wins Ansari X Prize for private spaceflight

Births

• 1289 – King Louis X of France (d. 1316)
• 1379 – King Henry III of Castile (d. 1406)
• 1550 – King Charles IX of Sweden (d. 1611)
• 1687 – Robert Simson, Scottish mathematician (d. 1768)
• 1814 – Jean-Francois Millet, French painter (d. 1875)
• 1822 – Rutherford B. Hayes, 19th President of the United States (d. 1893)
• 1858 – Michael Pupin, telephone pioneer, Pulitzer Prize winning author
• 1861 – Frederic Remington, painter (d. 1909)
• 1862 – Edward Stratemeyer, American author (d. 1930)
• 1877 – Razor Smith, English cricketer (d. 1946)
• 1880 – Damon Runyon, writer (d. 1946)
• 1881 – Walther von Brauchitsch, German Commander-in-Chief (d. 1948)
• 1892 – Engelbert Dollfuss, Austrian politician (d. 1934)
• 1895 – Buster Keaton, American comedian, actor (d. 1966)
• 1903 – John Vincent Atanasoff, American computer pioneer (d. 1995)
• 1903 – Ernst Kaltenbrunner, German military officer (d. 1946)
• 1917 – Jan Murray, comedian
• 1924 – Charlton Heston, American actor
• 1928 – Alvin Toffler, futurist, author
• 1938 – Kurt Wüthrich, Swiss chemist, Nobel Prize laureate
• 1939 – Jackie Collins, author
• 1941 – Anne Rice, American writer
• 1943 – H. Rap Brown (Jamil Al-Amin), civil rights activist
• 1946 – Susan Sarandon, American actress
• 1947 – Ann Widdecombe, British Member of Parliament
• 1949 – Armand Assante, actor
• 1953 – Tchéky Karyo, actor
• 1959 – Tony Meo, English snooker player
• 1960 – Afrika Bambaataa, musician
• 1961 – Jon Secada, singer
• 1961 – Kazuki Takahashi, author and artist
• 1963 – A.C. Green, basketball star
• 1967 – Liev Schreiber, actor
• 1967 – Marcus Bentley, British voice actor
• 1976 – Alicia Silverstone, American actress
• 1984 – Lena, Russian musician (t.A.T.u.)

Deaths

• 1226 – Saint Francis of Assisi
• 1250 – Herman VI, Margrave of Baden
• 1305 – Emperor Kameyama of Japan (b. 1249)
• 1582 – Saint Teresa of Avila (b. 1515)
• 1597 – Sarsa Dengel, Emperor of Ethiopia
• 1669 – Rembrandt Dutch painter (b. 1606)
• 1821 – John Rennie, engineer (b. 1761)
• 1859 – Karl Baedeker, German author and publisher (b. 1801)
• 1880 – Jacques Offenbach, composer (b. 1819)
• 1904 – Frédéric Bartholdi, sculptor of the Statue of Liberty (b. 1834)
• 1935 – Jean Béraud, French impressionist painter (b. 1849)
• 1944 – Al Smith, candidate for President of the United States, Governor of New York (b. 1873)
• 1946 – Barney Oldfield, automobile pioneer (b. 1878)
• 1947 – Max Planck, German physicist (b. 1858)
• 1951 – Willie Moretti, Mafiosi (b. 1894)
• 1969 – Natalino Otto, Italian singer
• 1970 – Janis Joplin, American singer (b. 1943)
• 1982 – Glenn Gould, Canadian pianist (b. 1932)
• 1989 – Graham Chapman, British comedian (b. 1941)
• 1989  – Secretariat, Triple Crown-winning race horse (b. 1970)
• 1997 – Gunpei Yokoi, Japanese game developer (b. 1941)
• 2002 – Alphonse Chapanis, a founder of ergonomics
• 2003 – Sid McMath, former governor of Arkansas
• 2003 – Fred Tuttle, subject of 1996 indie film Man With A Plan (b. 1919)
• 2004 – Gordon Cooper, astronaut (b. 1927)

Holidays

• Australian Labour Day (ACT, NSW, & SA).
• Lesotho's Independence Day
• Feast day of Saint Francis of Assisi in the Roman Catholic Church.
• Feast day of Saint Amun in the Roman Catholic Church.

External links

• BBC: On This Day

October 3 – October 5 – September 4 – November 4 – more historical anniversaries