What are the important events that happened on August 4? Here are historical events, facts, and some myths about this day.
August 4: Facts & Myths About This Day
August 4 is the 217th day of the year 2024 in the Gregorian calendar. There are 149 days remaining until the end of this year. The day of the week is Sunday.
Under the Julian calendar, this day is July 22, 2024 – a Sunday. Both day of the week are the same but did you notice the difference with the Gregorian calendar?
When this day started, 28,712,160 minutes has elapsed since midnight of January 1, 1970 – the Unix epoch.
Strange as it may, if we name this day after a polygon then it will be called ‘dihectadecaheptagon’ day.
Leo is the zodiac sign of a person born on this day. Peridot is the modern birthstone for this month. Diamond is the mystical birthstone from Tibetan origin that dates back over a thousand years.
According to the lunisolar Chinese calendar, there are 178 days remaining before the start of the next Chinese New Year.
The ancient Maya civilization believes that the end of the world will happen on December 21, 2012. There are now 4,244 days since this fabled cataclysmic event.
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August 4 Historical Events
- 1704 –War of the Spanish Succession: Gibraltar is captured by an English and Dutch fleet, commanded by Admiral Sir George Rooke and allied with Archduke Charles.
- 1791 –The Treaty of Sistova is signed, ending the Ottoman-Habsburg wars.
- 1821 –Atkinson & Alexander publish the Saturday Evening Post for the first time as a weekly newspaper.
- 1936 –Prime Minister of Greece Ioannis Metaxas suspends parliament and the Constitution and establishes the 4th of August Regime.
- 1946 –An earthquake of magnitude 8.0 hits northern Dominican Republic. 100 are killed and 20,000 are left homeless.
- 1958 –The Billboard Hot 100 is published for the first time.
- 1977 –US President Jimmy Carter signs legislation creating the United States Department of Energy.
- 1989 –Licence to Kill goes on general cinema release in the United Kingdom.
- 2006 –A massacre, is carried out by Sri Lankan government forces, killing 17 employees of the French INGO Action Against Hunger (known internationally as Action Contre la Faim, or ACF).
- 2010 –California’s Proposition 8, the ballot initiative prohibiting same-sex marriage passed by the state’s voters in 2008, is overturned by Judge Vaughn Walker in the case Perry v. Schwarzenegger.
Who were born on August 4?
- 1870 –Sir Harry Lauder, Scottish entertainer (d. 1950)
- 1904 –Helen Kane, American singer, dancer, and actress (d. 1966)
- 1942 –Don S. Davis, American actor and painter (d. 2008)
- 1949 –John Riggins, American football player
- 1960 –Bernard Rose, English director
- 1965 –James Tupper, Canadian actor
- 1967 –Timothy Adams, American actor
- 1973 –Marcos Roberto Silveira Reis, Brazilian footballer
- 1973 –Xavier Marchand, French swimmer
- 1987 –Jang Geun-suk, Korean actor
Who died on August 4?
- 1265 –Killed in the Battle of Evesham: Peter de Montfort (b. c. 1215)
- 1578 –King Sebastian of Portugal (b. 1554)
- 1727 –Victor-Maurice, comte de Broglie, French general (b. 1647)
- 1795 –Timothy Ruggles, American politician (b. 1711)
- 1844 –Jakob Aall, Norwegian journalist and statesman (b. 1773)
- 1976 –Enrique Angelelli, Argentine bishop (b. 1923)
- 1992 –Seicho Matsumoto, Japanese writer and journalist (b. 1909)
- 1999 –Rodney Ansell, Australian who was the inspiration for Crocodile Dundee (b. 1953)
- 2005 –Anatoly Larkin, Russian-born American physicist (b. 1932)
- 2007 –Raul Hilberg, Austrian-born American political scientist and historian of the Holocaust (b. 1926)
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