4th June is the 155th day of the year (156th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. 210 days remain until the end of the year. Today also marks the International Day of Innocent Children Victims of Aggression. Find out some important events that occurred on this day in history.

 

Historical events

781 BC — Oldest Chinese recording of a solar eclipse.

1039 — Henry III becomes Holy Roman Emperor.

1070 — Roquefort cheese created in a cave near Roquefort, France.

1391 — Mob led by Ferrand Martinez surrounds and sets fire to the Jewish quarter of Seville Spain, surviving Jews sold into slavery.

1647 — English Parliamentary army under Cornet George Joyce takes King Charles I as a prisoner during the Second Civil War.

1769 — A transit of Venus is followed five hours later by a total solar eclipse, the shortest such interval in history.

1783 — Joseph and Jacques Montgolfier make first public hot-air balloon flight (unmanned), covering 2km and lasting 10 minutes with an estimated altitude of 1,600-2,000m.

1784 — Madame Elizabeth Thible becomes the first female balloonist.

1850 — Self-deodorising fertilizer patented in England.

1873 — The first contract workers of British-Indies Co arrive in Suriname.

1875 — Pacific Stock Exchange opens.

1876 — An express train called the Transcontinental Express arrives in San Francisco, California, via the First Transcontinental Railroad only 83 hours and 39 minutes after having left New York City.

1896 — Henry Ford takes his first Ford through the streets of Detroit.

 

4th June in the 20th Century

1912 — Cone of Mount Katmai (Alaska) collapses.

1912 — Massachusetts passes the first US minimum wage law.

1917 — First Pulitzer prize awarded to Richards and Elliott (Julia Ward Howe).

1927 — Johnny Weissmuller set swim records in 100-yard and 200-yard freestyle.

1934 — Dr Frederick Banting, co-discoverer of insulin, is knighted.

1940 — British complete the “Miracle of Dunkirk” by evacuating 338,226 allied troops from France via a flotilla of over 800 vessels including Royal Navy destroyers, merchant marine boats, fishing boats, pleasure craft and even lifeboats.

1940 — Winston Churchill’s speech “We shall fight on the seas and oceans”.

1941 — Nazis forbid Jews the access to beaches and swimming pools.

1941 — Republic of Croatia orders all Jews to wear a star with the letter Z.

1944 — General Eisenhower cancels planned D-Day invasion on June 5th after receiving unfavourable weather reports.

1946 — Largest solar prominence (300,000 mi/500,000 km) observed.

1954 — Arthur Murray flies X-1A rocket plane to record 27,000m.

1954 — France grants Vietnam independence inside the French Union.

 

More 4th June dates

1955 — French Championships Women’s Tennis: Angela Mortimer of England beats American Dorothy Knode 2-6, 7-5, 10-8 for her first Grand Slam singles title.

1956 — Soviet First Secretary Nikita Speech by Khrushchev criticising Stalin made public.

1957 — The first commercial coal pipeline placed in operation.

1963 — The first transmission of “Pop Go the Beatles” on BBC radio.

1964 — The Maldives adopts a constitution.

1967 — 19th Emmy Awards: “Mission Impossible”, “The Monkees”, Don Knotts and Lucy Ball win.

1969 — A 22-year-old man sneaks into wheel pod of a jet parked in Havana and survives the 9-hour flight to Spain despite thin oxygen levels at 29,000 ft.

1970 — Tonga (formerly Friendly Islands) declares independence from the UK.

1973 — A patent for the ATM is granted to Don Wetzel, Tom Barnes and George Chastain.

1975 — Oldest animal fossils in the US discovered in North Carolina.

1977 — Violence during Puerto Rican Day in Chicago kills 2.

1982 — “Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan,” released in the USA.

1984 — DNA is successfully cloned from an extinct animal.

1989 — The largest parade in Bronx history honours its 350th anniversary.

1990 — Dr Jack Kevorkian assisted an Oregon woman to commit suicide, beginning a national debate over the right to die.

1991 — Pope John Paul II compares abortion with Nazi murders.

1994 — Haile Gebre Selassie runs world record 5 km (12:56.96).

1997 — UN Security renews its “oilforfood” initiative whereby Iraq may sell $2 billion worth of oil to buy food, medicine and other necessities to alleviate civilian suffering under the sanctions imposed when it invaded Kuwait in 1990.

 

4th June in the 21st Century

2001 — Gyanendra, the last King of Nepal, ascends to the throne after the massacre in the Royal Palace.

2008 — British TV presenter Michael Parkinson is knighted by Queen Elizabeth at Buckingham Palace.

2017 — Ariana Grande headlines benefit concert for victims of her Manchester concert bombing, also featuring Coldplay, Miley Cyrus, Justin Bieber, and Katy Perry.

2018 — Former US President Bill Clinton and James Patterson publish a thriller novel “The President is Missing” together.

2018 — Former US President Bill Clinton, in an interview with NBC, says he hasn’t and doesn’t need to apologiwe to Monica Lewinsky.