• Friday, 04 October 2024

Today in history

Today in history

4 October 2024 (MIA)

– World Animal Day

– World Habitat Day

23 – Rebels capture and sack the Chinese capital Chang’an during a peasant rebellion. They kill and decapitate the emperor, Wang Mang, two days later.

610 – Heraclius arrives by ship from Africa at Constantinople, overthrows Byzantine Emperor Phocas and becomes Emperor.

1227 – Assassination of Caliph al-Adil.

1302 – A peace treaty between the Byzantine Empire and the Republic of Venice ends the Byzantine–Venetian War (1296–1302).

1363 – End of the Battle of Lake Poyang; the Chinese rebel forces of Zhu Yuanzhang defeat that of his rival, Chen Youliang, in one of the largest naval battles in history.

1511 – Formation of the Holy League of Ferdinand II of Aragon, the Papal States and the Republic of Venice against France.

1535 – The first complete English-language Bible (the Coverdale Bible) is printed, with translations by William Tyndale and Myles 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.

1597 – The first Guale uprising begins against the Spanish missions in Georgia.

1636 – The Swedish Army defeats the armies of Saxony and the Holy Roman Empire at the Battle of Wittstock.

1693 – Piedmontese troops are defeated by the French.

1725 – Foundation of Rosario in Argentina.

1777 – Battle of Germantown: Troops under George Washington are repelled by British troops under Sir William Howe.

1779 – The Fort Wilson Riot takes place.

1795 – Napoleon Bonaparte first rises to national prominence by suppressing armed counter-revolutionary rioters threatening the National Convention.

1824 – Mexico adopts a new constitution and becomes a federal republic.

1830 – The Provisional Government of Belgium secedes from the United Kingdom of the Netherlands.

1853 – The Ottoman Empire declares war on the Russian Empire.

1876 – Texas A&M University opens as the Agricultural and Mechanical College of Texas, becoming the first public institution of higher education in Texas.

1883 – First run of the Orient Express.

1883 – First meeting of the Boys’ Brigade in Glasgow, Scotland.

1895 – The first U.S. Open Men’s Golf Championship administered by the United States Golf Association is played at the Newport Country Club in Newport, Rhode Island.

1917 – World War I: The Battle of Broodseinde is fought between the British and German armies in Flanders.

1918 – An explosion kills more than 100 and destroys the T.A. Gillespie Company Shell Loading Plant in Sayreville, New Jersey.

1927 – Gutzon Borglum begins sculpting Mount Rushmore.

1936 – The British Union of Fascists and various anti-fascist organizations violently clash in the Battle of Cable Street.

1941 – First People’s Liberation Council of Macedonia was established in village Cucer near Skopje, chaired by Petar Krstev Urdarevski.

1941 – Norman Rockwell’s Willie Gillis character debuts on the cover of The Saturday Evening Post.

1957 – Space Race: Launch of Sputnik 1, the first artificial satellite to orbit the Earth.

1958 – The current constitution of France is adopted.

1960 – Eastern Air Lines Flight 375, a Lockheed L-188 Electra, crashes after a bird strike on takeoff from Boston’s Logan International Airport, killing 62 people (out of 72 onboard).

1963 – Hurricane Flora kills 6,000 in Cuba and Haiti.

1965 – Pope Paul VI arrives in New York City, the first Pope to visit the Americas.

1966 – Basutoland becomes independent from the United Kingdom and is renamed Lesotho.

1967 – Omar Ali Saifuddien III of Brunei abdicates in favour of his son, Hassanal Bolkiah.

1976 – Official launch of the InterCity 125 high speed train.

1983 – Richard Noble sets a new land speed record of 633.468 miles per hour (1,019.468 km/h), driving Thrust2 at the Black Rock Desert in Nevada.

1985 – The Free Software Foundation is founded in Massachusetts, United States.

1991 – The Protocol on Environmental Protection to the Antarctic Treaty is opened for signature.

1992 – The Rome General Peace Accords ends a 16-year civil war in Mozambique.

1992 – El Al Flight 1862: An El Al Boeing 747-258F crashes into two apartment buildings in Amsterdam, killing 43 including 39 on the ground.

1993 – Russian Constitutional Crisis: In Moscow, tanks bombard the White House, a government building that housed the Russian parliament, while demonstrators against President Boris Yeltsin rally outside.

1997 – The second largest cash robbery in U.S. history occurs at the Charlotte, North Carolina office of Loomis, Fargo and Company. A Federal Bureau of Investigation investigation eventually results in 24 convictions and the recovery of approximately 95% of the $17.3 million stolen cash.

2001 – Siberia Airlines Flight 1812: A Sibir Airlines Tupolev Tu-154 crashes into the Black Sea after being struck by an errant Ukrainian S-200 missile. Seventy-eight people are killed.

2003 – Maxim restaurant suicide bombing in Haifa, Israel: Twenty-one Israelis, Jews and Arabs, are killed, and 51 others wounded.

2004 – SpaceShipOne wins Ansari X Prize for private spaceflight, by being the first private craft to fly into space.

2006 – Wikileaks is launched by Julian Assange.

2010 – The Ajka plant accident in western Hungary releases about a million cubic metres (35 million cubic feet) of liquid alumina sludge. Nine people are killed and 122 injured, and the Marcal and Danube rivers are severely contaminated.