| YEAR | DAY | EVENT |
| 1604 | May 4 | Claudio Merulo (71), Italian organist, composer, died. |
| 1715 | May 4 | A French manufacturer debuted the first folding umbrella. |
| 1728 | May 4 | George F. Handel’s opera “Tolomeo, re di Egitto,” premiered in London. |
| 1752 | May 4 | Pieter Snyers (71), Flemish painter, engraver, died. |
| 1795 | May 4 | Thousands of rioters entered jails in Lyons, France, and massacred 99 Jacobin prisoners. |
| 1814 | May 4 | Bourbon reign was restored in France. Louis XVIII was crowned as successor to his guillotined brother. |
| 1855 | May 4 | Camille Pleyel (66), Austrian piano builder, composer, died. |
| 1858 | May 4 | In the Mexican War of Reform liberals established their capital at Vera Cruz. |
| 1862 | May 4 | Battle at Williamsburg, Virginia. |
| 1863 | May 4 | Battle of Chancellorsville ended when the Union Army retreated. |
| 1865 | May 4 | Battle of Mobile, AL. |
| 1904 | May 4 | The United States took over construction of the Panama Canal. |
| 1910 | May 4 | Tel Aviv was founded. |
| 1923 | May 4 | In Vienna, Austria, bloody street battles took place between Nazis, socialists and police. |
| 1924 | May 4 | Fascists and communists gained power in the German Republic elections. |
| 1933 | May 4 | Pulitzer prize was awarded to Archibald Macleish (Conquistador). |
| 1938 | May 4 | Douglas Hyde, a protestant, became the 1st president of Eire. |
| 1942 | May 4 | The U.S. began food rationing. |
| 1946 | May 4 | A two-day riot at Alcatraz prison in San Francisco Bay ended after five people were killed. |
| 1948 | May 4 | The Hague Court of Justice convicted Hans Rauter (SS) of war crimes. |
| 1953 | May 4 | Pulitzer prize was awarded to E. Hemingway (Old Man & The Sea). |
| 1955 | May 4 | Georges Enescu (73), Romanian-French violist, composer (Oedipe), died. |
| 1957 | May 4 | The Anne Frank Foundation formed in Amsterdam. |
| 1959 | May 4 | Randy Travis, country singer (Diggin’ Up Bones), was born in Marshville, NC. |
| 1965 | May 4 | Willie Mays hit his 512th HR and broke Mel Ott’s 511 NL record. |
| 1968 | May 4 | Ismael Valenzuela (1935-2009) rode Forward Pass to victory in the Kentucky Derby. |
| 1976 | May 4 | Australian PM Malcolm Fraser announced that “Waltzing Matilda” would serve as his country’s national anthem at the upcoming Olympic Games. |
| 1977 | May 4 | A large tornado swept through Pleasant Hill, Mo., hitting the city’s high school and grade school. Only minor injuries occurred due to superb tornado warnings and drills |
| 1979 | May 4 | Margaret Thatcher (b.1925), leader of the Conservative Party, was sworn in as Britain’s first female prime minister. She continued in office for 3 terms until 1990. |
| 1987 | May 4 | Pope John Paul II ended his five-day visit to West Germany with a call for religious freedom in the Soviet bloc and praise for those who had opposed the “mass hysteria and propaganda” of the Nazi era. |
| 1988 | May 4 | As a year-long amnesty program for certain illegal aliens in the United States came to a close, thousands of applicants lined up nationwide on the last day. |
| 1989 | May 4 | The US launched its Magellan spacecraft to Venus. |
| 1990 | May 4 | Latvia’s parliament voted 138-0 (1 abstention) for Independence. The Russophone Ravnopraviye (Equal Rights Movement) boycotted this resolution by walking out of parliament. |
| 1991 | May 4 | Morris K. Udall (d.1998), (Rep-D-Ariz), resigned due to Parkinson’s disease. |
| 1992 | May 4 | Democratic presidential candidate Bill Clinton toured riot-ravaged Los Angeles streets, blaming the destruction on what he called 12 years of Republican neglect. |
| 1993 | May 4 | The United States handed over control of the relief effort in Somalia to the United Nations. |
| 1996 | May 4 | Grindstone won the Kentucky Derby, giving trainer D. Wayne Lukas a sixth straight victory in a Triple Crown race. Grindstone was injured ahead of the Preakness and retired. |
| 1998 | May 4 | The FDA approved the first commercial surgical glue, Tisseel, made by Baxter Labs. |
| 1999 | May 4 | Pres. Clinton authorized a Congressional Gold Medal for Rosa Parks. |
| 2000 | May 4 | Congo agreed to cooperate with UN plans for a 5,500 member observer force to monitor the cease-fire. |
| 2001 | May 4 | US experts, following 3 days of inspections, said the US spy plane on China’s Hainan Island could be repaired and flown home. |
| 2002 | May 4 | War Emblem, a 20-1 shot, scored a down-to-the-wire, four-length victory over Proud Citizen in the Kentucky Derby. |
| 2003 | May 4 | Idaho Gem, the 1st cloned mule, was born at the Univ. of Idaho. |
| 2004 | May 4 | The US Army disclosed that the deaths of 10 prisoners and abuse of 10 more in Iraq and Afghanistan were under criminal investigation, as US commanders in Baghdad announced interrogation changes. |
| 2004 | May 4 | Oil prices for June delivery rose to $38.98 a barrel. |
| 2005 | May 4 | Israeli Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz said he is freezing the handover of West Bank towns to Palestinian security control because the Palestinians have failed to honor their promise to disarm militants. |
| 2006 | May 4 | Just before dawn hundreds of law enforcement officials fired tear gas and crashed through human barricades to take control of San Salvador Atenco, a rebellious town outside Mexico City, hours after protesters released six badly beaten police hostages. |
| 2007 | May 4 | In Somalia Mohamed Dheere, a former warlord, was sworn in as mayor of Mogadishu and immediately ordered residents to get rid of their weapons. Aid groups said 1,670 people were killed between March 12 and April 26 and more than 340,000 of the city’s 2 million residents fled for safety as the government, backed by Ethiopian troops, pressed to wipe out an Islamic insurgency. |
| 2008 | May 4 | In Japan thousands of activists, artists and scholars gathered for an international peace conference outside Tokyo, vowing to promote the Japanese Constitution’s war-renouncing Article 9 as a global standard and prevent the clause from being weakened. |
| 2009 | May 4 | Australia’s government put back its much-vaunted carbon-emissions trading scheme by a year, bowing to industry demands for more relief amid a recession while opening the door to an even deeper long-term reduction. |
| 2010 | May 4 | In Mexico two Colombians were arrested at Mexico City’s international airport as they allegedly prepared to board a flight to Panama trying to smuggle out more than $350,000 in cash in various currencies. |
| 2011 | May 4 | In Egypt hundreds of diehard supporters of ousted president Hosni Mubarak clashed with his foes in central Cairo leaving dozens injured. |
| 2012 | May 4 | In India a Reliance company executive said the government has asked the energy giant to pay a $1.25 billion penalty for a fall in gas production from its main oil fields. |
| 2013 | May 4 | In the SF Bay Area a stretch limo caught fire on the San Mateo Bridge. The driver and 4 women in a bridal party escaped, but 5 others, including the bride, died in the fire. |
| 2014 | May 4 | Chinese Premier Li Keqiang set off for a four-country tour of Africa (Ethiopia, Nigeria, Angola and Kenya), acknowledging “growing pains” in China-Africa relations amid labor conflicts and other problems stemming from Chinese investment. |
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