November 4

November 4 is the 308th day of the year (309th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. There are 57 days remaining until the end of the year.

Events

Up to 1900

1493 – Christopher Columbus lands on Guadeloupe.
1501 – Catherine of Aragon meets Arthur Tudor, the brother of Henry VIII of England.
1576 – Eighty Years' War: Spain captures Antwerp, Flanders.
1677 – Future queen Mary II of England marries future king William III of England.
1783 – Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's Symphony No. 36 is performed for the first time in Linz, Austria.
1786 – Jean-François de Galaup, comte de Lapérouse lands on an island in the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands, which he names after Jacques Necker.
1798 – Beginning of the Russo–Ottoman Siege of Corfu.
1828 – Andrew Jackson is elected President of the United States.
1847 – Scottish doctor James Young Simpson discovers the anaesthetic properties of chloroform.
1852 – Count Camillo Benso di Cavour becomes Prime Minister of Piedmont–Sardinia, which later expands to become Italy.
1856 – James Buchanan is elected President of the United States.
1861 – The University of Washington is founded.
1864 – American Civil War: Battle of Johnson – Confederate troops bombard a Union supply base and destroy millions of dollars of material.
1875 – Paddle steamer Pacific collides with Orpheus sailing boat off Cape Flattery, Washington, killing 273 people.
1884 – Grover Cleveland is elected to his first term as President of the United States.
1890 – London's deep–level railway opens between King William Street and Stockwell.

1901 – 2000

1918 – World War I: Austria-Hungary surrenders to Italy.
1921 – Prime Minister of Japan Hara Takashi is murdered.
1921 – Italy's unknown soldier is buried in the Fatherland Altar in Rome.
1922 – A team of archaeologists led by Howard Carter finds the tomb of Tutankhamun in Egypt.
1924 – Calvin Coolidge is elected to continue as President of the United States, after he had served out Warren G. Harding's term.
1924 – Nellie Tayloe Ross of Wyoming becomes the first woman elected governor in a US State.
1942 – World War II: Second Battle of El Alamein – Disobeying a direct order from Adolf Hitler, General Field Marshal Erwin Rommel leads his forces to a five–month retreat.
1950 – European Convention on Human Rights is adopted.
1952 – The United States Government creates the National Security Agency.
1952 – Dwight D. Eisenhower is elected President of the United States.
1955 – The rebuilt Vienna State Opera is re–opened.
1956 – Soviet troops crush the Hungarian Revolution. Thousands are killed.
1960 – In Tanzania, Jane Goodall observes chimpanzees making tools, the first–ever such observation in non–humans.
1966 – The Arno River in Florence, Italy floods at record levels, making thousands homeless and destroying millions of masterpieces of art and rare books.
1970 – Genie, aged 13, is found in Los Angeles, having been locked in her bedroom for most of her life until that point.
1977 – The UN ends its weapons embargo on Apartheid–era South Africa.
1979 – The Iran hostage crisis begins – A group of Iranians, mostly students, invades United States Embassy in Tehran, Iran, and takes 90 people hostage, including 53 Americans.
1980 – Ronald Reagan is elected President of the United States, defeating Jimmy Carter.
1984 – French Pay–TV channel Canal+ starts transmission.
1991 – Imelda Marcos, former First Lady of the Philippines, is given a Presidential pardon by Corazon Aquino.
1993 – A China Airlines Boeing 747 overruns Runway 13 at Hong Kong's Kai Tak International Airport while landing during a typhoon, injuring 22 people.
1993 – Jean Chrétien becomes Prime Minister of Canada.
1994 – The first conference focusing exclusively on the subject of the commercial potential of the World Wide Web is held in San Francisco, California.
1995 – Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin is murdered, being shot dead by Yigal Amir.
1999 – Ilir Meta becomes Prime Minister of Albania.

From 2001

2001 – Northern Ireland: The Police Service of Northern Ireland is created, replacing the Royal Ulster Constabulary.
2005 – Nintendo's Game Boy Micro is released in Europe.
2006 – A widespread power failure affects parts of Western Europe.
2008 – Barack Obama wins the vote to become President of the United States, over Senator John McCain. Obama becomes the US' first African American President.
2010 – Aero Caribbean Flight 883 crashes in central Cuba, killing all 68 people on board.
2014 – US Mid–term elections are held, with the Republican Party reclaiming the majority it lost in the Senate in 2006.
2015 – Justin Trudeau becomes Prime Minister of Canada.
2015 – A cargo plane crashes near Juba International Airport in South Sudan, killing 37 people.
2015 – A building collapses in Lahore, Pakistan, killing 45 people.
2016 – The Paris climate change agreement enters into force.
2018 – New Caledonia holds an independence referendum, where a smaller–than expected majority (56%) votes to remain an overseas territory of France.
2019 – Sir Lindsay Hoyle is chosen to succeed John Bercow as Speaker of the House of Commons of the United Kingdom.

Births

From 1976

1976 – Daniel Bahr, German politician
1976 – Mario Melchiot, Dutch footballer
1976 – Alexander Popp, German tennis player
1979 – Trishelle Cannatella, American model and actress
1980 – Jerry Collins, New Zealand rugby player (d. 2015)
1981 – Guy Martin, English motorcycle racer
1982 – Kamila Skolimowska, Polish hammer thrower (d. 2009)
1983 – Anton Buslov, Russian astrophysicist and blogger (d. 2014)
1984 – Dustin Brown, American ice hockey player
1985 – Marcell Jansen, German footballer
1986 – Alexz Johnson, Canadian singer-songwriter, producer and actress
1986 – Szymon Pawlowski, Polish footballer
1986 – Adrian Zaugg, South African racing driver
1987 – T.O.P, South Korean singer–songwriter and actor
1989 – Enner Valencia, Ecuadorean footballer
1991 – Lesley Kerkhove, Dutch tennis player
1998 – Darcy Rose Byrnes, American actress and singer

Deaths

Up to 1950

1411 – Khalil Sultan, Timurid ruler (b. 1384)
1652 – Jean-Claude de la Faille, Flemish mathematician (b. 1597)
1669 – Johannes Cocceius, Dutch theologian (b. 1603)
1698 – Rasmus Bartholin, Danish physician and mathematician (b. 1625)
1801 – William Shippen, American physician and Continental Congressman (b. 1712)
1847 – Thieu Tri, Emperor of Vietnam (b. 1807)
1847 – Felix Mendelssohn, German composer (b. 1809)
1893 – Pierre Tirard, Prime Minister of France (b. 1827)
1906 – John H. Ketcham, American general and politician (b. 1832)
1918 – Wilfred Owen, English poet (b. 1893)
1921 – Hara Takashi, Prime Minister of Japan (b. 1865)
1924 – Gabriel Fauré, French composer (b. 1845)
1931 – Luigi Galleani, Italian activist (b. 1861)
1932 – Belle Bennett, American actress (b. 1891)
1950 – Grover Cleveland Alexander, American baseball player and coach (b. 1887)

1951 – 2000

1951 – Ernesto Ambrosini, Italian athlete (b. 1894)
1955 – Cy Young, American baseball player (b. 1867)
1968 – Michel Kikoine, Belarusian painter (b. 1892)
1969 – Carlos Marighella, Brazilian revolutionary (b. 1911)
1969 – Frank G. Clement, Governor of Tennessee (b. 1920)
1969 – Ernest W. Gibson, Governor of Vermont (b. 1901)
1974 – Bert Patenaude, American footballer (b. 1909)
1982 – Jacques Tati, French actor and director (b. 1907)
1986 – Kurt Hirsch, German mathematician (b. 1906)
1988 – Kleanthis Vikelidis, Greek footballer (b. 1916)
1990 – David Stirling, British founder of the SAS (b. 1915)
1992 – George Klein, Canadian inventor (b. 1904)
1994 – Sam Francis, American painter (b. 1923)
1995 – Gilles Deleuze, French philosopher (b. 1925)
1995 – Yitzhak Rabin, 5th Prime Minister of Israel (b. 1922)
1997 – Richard Hooker, American writer (b. 1924)
1998 – Marion Donovan, American architect and inventor (b. 1917)

From 2001

2008 – Michael Crichton, American writer (b. 1942)
2009 – Hubertus Brandenburg, German–born Swedish Roman Catholic bishop (b. 1923)
2010 – Eugenie Blanchard, French–Caribbean supercentenarian (b. 1896)
2010 – Sparky Anderson, American baseball manager (b. 1934)
2011 – Alfonso Cano, Colombian FARC leader (b. 1948)
2011 – Andy Rooney, American journalist (b. 1919)
2011 – Norman Foster Ramsey, Jr., American physicist (b. 1915)
2012 – Ted Curson, American trumpeter (b. 1935)
2013 – Hans von Borsody, Austrian–German actor (b. 1929)
2014 – Jeremy Dale, American comic book artist (b. 1979)
2014 – Enrique Olivera, Argentine politician (b. 1940)
2014 – Richard Schaal, American actor (b. 1928)
2014 – Eddie Stuart, South African footballer (b. 1931)
2015 – René Girard, French–American historian, literary critic and philosopher of social science (b. 1923)
2015 – Melissa Mathison, American screenwriter (b. 1950)
2015 – Piotr Domaradzki, Polish–American journalist (b. 1946)
2015 – Ole Knapp, Norwegian politician (b. 1931)
2016 – Jean-Jacques Perrey, French electronic music producer (b. 1929)
2016 – Mansour Pourheidari, Iranian footballer (b. 1946)
2017 – Michael Augustine, Indian Roman Catholic prelate (b. 1933)
2017 – Anna Diggs Taylor, American judge (b. 1932)
2017 – Dudley Simpson, Australian composer and conductor (b. 1922)
2017 – Tamara Natalie Madden, Jamaican–American artist (b. 1975)
2018 – Karl-Heinz Adler, German artist (b. 1927)
2018 – Manohar Prahlad Awati, Indian vice–admiral (b. 1927)
2018 – Donna Axum, American model (b. 1942)
2018 – Marco Dezzi Bardeschi, Italian architect (b. 1934)
2018 – Tetsugen Bernard Glassman, American Zen Buddhist monk (b. 1939)
2018 – Jeremy Heywood, British economist and civil servant (b. 1961)
2018 – Harris Hines, American judge (b. 1943)
2018 – Vince Manuwai, American football player (b. 1980)
2018 – Grant R. Osborne, American theologian (b. 1942)
2018 – Wolfgang Zuckermann, German–American harpsichord maker and activist (b. 1922)
2019 – Gay Byrne, Irish broadcaster (b. 1934)
2019 – Jacques Dupont, French racing cyclist (b. 1928)
2019 – Sadeque Hossain Khoka, Bangladeshi politician (b. 1952)
2019 – Virginia Leith, American actress (b. 1925)

Observances

Saint Charles Borromeo Feast Day
Flag Day (Panama)
National Unity and Armed Forces Day (Italy)
Unity Day (Russia)

Events

Up to 1900

1901 – 2000

From 2001

Births

Up to 1900

1901 – 1950

1951 – 1975

From 1976

Deaths

Up to 1950

1951 – 2000

From 2001

Observances