What happened today in history
June
What happened on June 4
On June 4 history recorded 57 notable events. 160 people who left a mark were born on this day, and 91 died. Here is the full almanac.
- 57events
- 160births
- 91deaths
- 13observances
Highlights
Highlights
1411King Charles VI of France granted a monopoly to the people of Roquefort-sur-Soulzon for the ripening of Roquefort cheese (example pictured).
Charles VI, nicknamed the Beloved and in the 19th century, the Mad, was King of France from 1380 until his death in 1422. He is known for his mental illness and psychotic episodes that plagued him throughout his life, including glass delusion.
1561The spire of Old St Paul's Cathedral in London was destroyed by fire.
Old St Paul's Cathedral was the cathedral of the City of London that, until the Great Fire of 1666, stood on the site of the present St Paul's Cathedral. Built in 1087 and from 1255 to 1314, it was dedicated to Paul the Apostle. The building was perhaps the fo
1784
Élisabeth Thible became the first woman to fly in an untethered hot air balloon, covering a distance of 4 km (2.5 mi) and reaching an estimated altitude of 1,500 m (4,900 ft).
Élisabeth Thible, or Elizabeth Tible, was the first woman to make a flight in an untethered hot air balloon. She was born in Lyon, France, on 8 March 1757. On 4 June 1784, eight months after the first crewed balloon flight, Thible flew with a Monsieur Fleurant
June 4
On this day
VIII century
- 713
713The imperial official Artemius is chosen as Byzantine emperor the day after the blinding of previous emperor Philippicus. Artemisius chooses the name of Anastasius II and announces his adherence to Chalcedonian Christianity.
XV century
XVI century
- 1525
1525Bayham Abbey riot: Villagers from Kent and Sussex, England riot and occupy Bayham Old Abbey for a week in protest against Cardinal Thomas Wolsey's order to suppress the monastery in order to fund two colleges founded by him. - 1561
1561The steeple of St Paul's, the medieval cathedral of London, is destroyed in a fire caused by lightning, and is never rebuilt.
XVII century
XVIII century
- 1745
1745Battle of Hohenfriedberg: Frederick the Great's Prussian army decisively defeat an Austrian army under Prince Charles Alexander of Lorraine during the War of the Austrian Succession. - 1760
1760Great Upheaval: New England planters arrive to claim land in Nova Scotia, Canada, taken from the Acadians. - 1783
1783The Montgolfier brothers publicly demonstrate their montgolfière (hot air balloon). - 1784
1784Élisabeth Thible becomes the first woman to fly in an untethered hot air balloon. Her flight covers four kilometres (2.5 mi) in 45 minutes, and reaches an estimated 1,500 metres (4,900 ft) in altitude. - 1792
1792Captain George Vancouver claims Puget Sound for the Kingdom of Great Britain. - 1796
1796The siege of Mantua begins when Napoleon Bonaparte lays siege to the fortress of Mantua, the last Austrian stronghold in Northern Italy. It will become the main focus of Napoleon's army for eight months during the Italian campaign of 1796-1797.
XIX century
- 1802
1802King Charles Emmanuel IV of Sardinia abdicates his throne in favor of his brother, Victor Emmanuel. - 1812
1812Following Louisiana's admittance as a U.S. state, the Louisiana Territory is renamed the Missouri Territory. - 1825
1825General Lafayette, a French officer in the American Revolutionary War, speaks at what would become Lafayette Square in Buffalo, New York, during his visit to the United States. - 1855
1855Major Henry C. Wayne departs New York aboard the USS Supply to procure camels to establish the U.S. Camel Corps. - 1859
1859Italian Independence wars: In the Battle of Magenta, the French army, under Louis-Napoleon, defeat the Austrian army. - 1862
1862American Civil War: Confederate troops evacuate Fort Pillow on the Mississippi River, leaving the way clear for Union troops to take Memphis, Tennessee. - 1876
1876An express train called the Transcontinental Express arrives in San Francisco via the first transcontinental railroad, 83 hours and 39 minutes after leaving New York City. - 1878
1878Cyprus Convention: The Ottoman Empire cedes Cyprus to the United Kingdom but retains nominal title. - 1896
1896Henry Ford completes the Ford Quadricycle, his first gasoline-powered automobile, and also gives it a successful test run.
XX century
- 1912
1912Massachusetts becomes the first state of the United States to set a minimum wage. - 1913
1913Emily Davison, a suffragette, runs out in front of King George V's horse at The Derby. She is trampled, never regains consciousness, and dies four days later. - 1916
1916World War I: Russia opens the Brusilov Offensive with an artillery barrage of Austro-Hungarian lines in Galicia. - 1917
1917The first Pulitzer Prizes are awarded: Laura E. Richards, Maude H. Elliott, and Florence Hall receive the first Pulitzer for 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. - 1919
1919Women's rights: The U.S. Congress approves the Nineteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, which guarantees suffrage to women, and sends it to the U.S. states for ratification. - 1919
1919Leon Trotsky bans the planned Fourth Regional Congress of Peasants, Workers and Insurgents. - 1920
1920Hungary loses 71% of its territory and 63% of its population when the Treaty of Trianon is signed in Paris. - 1928
1928The President of the Republic of China, Zhang Zuolin, is assassinated by Japanese agents. - 1932
1932Marmaduke Grove and other Chilean military officers lead a coup d'état establishing the short-lived Socialist Republic of Chile. - 1939
1939The Holocaust: The MS St. Louis, a ship carrying 973 German Jewish refugees, is denied permission to land in Florida, in the United States, after already being turned away from Cuba. Forced to return to Europe, more than 200 of its passengers later die in Nazi concentration camps. - 1940
1940World War II: The Dunkirk evacuation ends: The British Armed Forces completes evacuation of 338,000 troops from Dunkirk in France. To rally the morale of the country, Winston Churchill delivers, only to the House of Commons, his famous "We shall fight on the beaches" speech. - 1942
1942World War II: The Battle of Midway begins. Japanese Admiral Chūichi Nagumo orders a strike on Midway Island by much of the Imperial Japanese Navy. - 1942
1942World War II: Gustaf Mannerheim, the Commander-in-Chief of the Finnish Army, is granted the title of Marshal of Finland by the government on his 75th birthday. On the same day, Adolf Hitler arrives in Finland for a surprise visit to meet Mannerheim. - 1943
1943A military coup in Argentina ousts Ramón Castillo. - 1944
1944World War II: A hunter-killer group of the United States Navy captures the German Kriegsmarine submarine U-505, the first time a U.S. Navy vessel had captured an enemy vessel at sea since the 19th century. - 1944
1944World War II: The United States Fifth Army captures Rome, although much of the German Fourteenth Army is able to withdraw to the north. - 1946
1946in Argentina assumes its first presidency Juan Domingo Perón. - 1961
1961Cold War: In the Vienna summit, the Soviet premier Nikita Khrushchev sparks the Berlin Crisis by threatening to sign a separate peace treaty with East Germany and ending American, British and French access to East Berlin. - 1967
1967Seventy-two people are killed when a Canadair C-4 Argonaut crashes at Stockport in England. - 1970
1970Tonga gains independence from the British Empire. - 1975
1975Governor of California Jerry Brown signs the California Agricultural Labor Relations Act into law, the first law in the United States giving farmworkers collective bargaining rights. - 1977
1977JVC introduces its VHS videotape at the Consumer Electronics Show in Chicago. It will eventually prevail against Sony's rival Betamax system in a format war to become the predominant home video medium. - 1979
1979Flight Lieutenant Jerry Rawlings takes power in Ghana after a military coup in which General Fred Akuffo is overthrown. - 1983
1983Gordon Kahl, who killed two US Marshals in Medina, North Dakota on February 13, is killed in a shootout in Smithville, Arkansas, along with a local sheriff, after a four-month manhunt. - 1986
1986Jonathan Pollard pleads guilty to espionage for selling top secret United States military intelligence to Israel. - 1988
1988Three cars on a train carrying hexogen to Kazakhstan explode in Arzamas, Gorky Oblast, USSR, killing 91 and injuring about 1,500. - 1989
1989In the 1989 Iranian supreme leader election, Ali Khamenei is elected as the new Supreme Leader of Iran after the death and funeral of Ruhollah Khomeini. - 1989
1989The 1989 Tiananmen Square protests are suppressed in Beijing by the People's Liberation Army, with between 241 and 10,000 dead (an unofficial estimate). - 1989
1989Solidarity's victory in the 1989 Polish legislative election occurs, the first election since the Communist Polish United Workers' Party abandoned its monopoly of power. It sparks off the Revolutions of 1989 in Eastern Europe. - 1989
1989Ufa train disaster: A natural gas explosion near Ufa, Russia, kills 575 as two trains passing each other throw sparks near a leaky pipeline. - 1996
1996The first flight of Ariane 5 explodes after roughly 37 seconds. It was a Cluster mission.
XXI century
- 2005
2005The Civic Forum of the Romanians of Covasna, Harghita and Mureș is founded. - 2010
2010Falcon 9 Flight 1 is the maiden flight of the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket, which launches from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station Space Launch Complex 40. - 2020
2020Death of Giovanni López: Protests over the death of Giovanni López Ramírez, who had died on 4 May while in custody, begin in Jalisco following the release of a video of his arrest going viral on social media, and inspired by the George Floyd protests. Later, these spread across Mexico. - 2023
2023Protests begin in Poland against the PiS government. - 2023
2023Four people are killed when a Cessna Citation V crashes into Mine Bank Mountain in Augusta County, Virginia. - 2025
2025Eleven people are killed and 56 people are injured during a crowd crush incident outside M. Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bengaluru, India for the celebration of Royal Challengers Bengaluru's Indian Premier League victory.
Best known
Born on June 4
1926Robert Earl Hughes
World's heaviest person without walking assistance
1927Geoffrey Palmer (actor)
British actor
1930Morgana King
American singer and actress
1930Viktor Tikhonov (ice hockey, born 1930)
Russian ice hockey player
1931Gustav Nossal
Australian research biologist (born 1931)
1932John Drew Barrymore
American actor
Best known
Died on June 4
756Emperor Shōmu
Emperor of Japan from 724 to 749
1039Conrad II, Holy Roman Emperor
Holy Roman Emperor from 1027 to 1039
1135Emperor Huizong of Song
Emperor of China from 1100 to 1126
1206Adela of Champagne
Queen of the Franks from 1160 to 1180
1246Isabella of Angoulême
Queen of England from 1200 to 1216
1257Przemysł I of Greater Poland
Duke of Greater Poland
Holidays and observances
- Christian feast day: Blessed Antoni Zawistowski
- Christian feast day: Filippo Smaldone
- Christian feast day: Francis Caracciolo
- Christian feast day: Optatus
- Christian feast day: Petroc of Cornwall
- Christian feast day: Quirinus of Sescia
- Christian feast day: Saturnina
- Christian feast day: June 4 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics)
- The Flag Day of the Finnish Defence Forces, also known as the birthday of C. G. E. Mannerheim, Marshal of Finland (Finland)
- Emancipation Day or Independence Day, commemorates the abolition of serfdom in Tonga by King George Tupou in 1862, and the independence of Tonga from the British protectorate in 1970. (Tonga)
- International Day of Innocent Children Victims of Aggression (International)
- Trianon Treaty Day (Romania)
- Memorials for the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests and massacre (International)
Frequently asked questions
What happened on June 4?
57 documented historical events happened on June 4, from antiquity to the present day. The best known is this: King Charles VI of France granted a monopoly to the people of Roquefort-sur-Soulzon for the ripening of Roquefort cheese (example pictured). On the same day, in another year: The spire of Old St Paul's Cathedral in London was destroyed by fire. On Almanaccolo every event is listed in chronological order, grouped by century, and links to the Wikipedia article it comes from, so you can always read further or check the source. Alongside the events you find who was born and who died on this date, and which observances are celebrated around the world.
Who was born on June 4?
160 people with a Wikipedia article were born on June 4, including Robert Earl Hughes, Geoffrey Palmer (actor), Morgana King. The list spans every era and every field — art, science, politics, sport, entertainment — ordered by year of birth, from the earliest to the most recent. The six featured people are those most has been written about: the ordering uses the length of their Wikipedia article as an indicator of prominence. For each one you find their occupation, year of birth and a link to the full biography.
Who died on June 4?
91 people with a Wikipedia article died on June 4, including Emperor Shōmu, Conrad II, Holy Roman Emperor, Emperor Huizong of Song. The list is in chronological order by year of death and spans all of documented history, from antiquity to the present day. For each person you find their occupation, the year and a link to the Wikipedia biography, where the full story and its sources can be read.
What is celebrated on June 4?
13 observances are celebrated on June 4 around the world: Christian feast day: Blessed Antoni Zawistowski, Christian feast day: Filippo Smaldone, Christian feast day: Francis Caracciolo, Christian feast day: Optatus, Christian feast day: Petroc of Cornwall, Christian feast day: Quirinus of Sescia. The list gathers national holidays, international days and religious or civil observances falling on this date in different countries, as recorded on Wikipedia. Some are fixed and recur on the same day every year; others depend on the local calendar. Each links to the article explaining its origin and meaning.
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Source: Wikipedia · Calendar