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“I cannot but think that he who finds a certain proportion of pain and evil inseparably woven up in the life of the very worms, will bear his own share with more courage and submission.”
~ Thomas Henry Huxley
Wikiquote (Thomas Henry Huxley (May 4, 1825 – June 29, 1895) was an English biologist (comparative anatomist), known as "Darwin's Bulldog" for his advocacy of Charles Darwin's theory of evolution.)
May 4th, 1256
The Augustinian monastic order is constituted at the Lecceto Monastery when Pope Alexander IV issues a papal bull Licet ecclesiae catholicae.
Wikipedia.org Image: Papal bull: is a particular type of letters patent or charter issued by a Pope of the Catholic Church. (It is named after the lead seal (bulla) that was appended to the end in order to authenticate it.)
May 4th, 1415
John Wycliffe and Jan Hus are condemned as heretics at the Council of Constance.
Wikipedia Photo: Warsaw Poland Kkyline ● Tatra Mountains ● Polish Highlands ● Oravsky Hrad, former border watch between Hungary and Poland ● Malbork Castle: Medievla Gothic Castle - Poland.
May 4th, 1471
Wars of the Roses: 1471 - Battle of Tewkesbury; Edward IV defeats a Lancastrian Army and kills Edward, Prince of Wales.
Wikipedia Image: Wars of the Roses; a series of dynastic wars fought between supporters of two rival branches of the royal House of Plantagenet: the houses of Lancaster and York (whose heraldic symbols were the "red" and the "white" rose, respectively) for the throne of England.
May 4th, 1493
Line of Demarcation (Treaty of Tordesillas): Pope Alexander VI divides the New World between Spain and Portugal along the Line of Demarcation.
Wikipedia Image: Portuguese discoveries; The Cantino planisphere, made by an anonymous cartographer in 1502, shows the world as it was known after the great discoveries of the end of the fifteenth century ● In 1494, Spain and Portugal agreed to split the "rights" to lands outside of Europe, drawing a line in the Atlantic a short distance west of Africa, credit Toranosuke, Flickr.
May 4th, 1626
New Netherlands:
1626 - Dutch explorer Peter Minuit arrives in New Netherlands (present day Manhattan Island) aboard the See Meeuw.
Wikipedia Painting: The Royal Prince and other vessels at the Four Days Fight, 11–14 June 1666 (Abraham Storck) depicts a battle of the Second Anglo–Dutch War.
Photo:
Statue of Liberty; Manhattan, New York City, credit National Geographics;
The Manhattan Bridge (completed 1909), spanning the East River between Brooklyn and Manhattan Island, New York City, credit: Larry Brownstein / Getty Images;
Central Park, Manhattan, New York City, flanked by the apartment buildings of the Upper East Side, credit: © Bruce Stoddard—FPG International;
New York city, Manhattan through a fish eye view, credit Victor Barajas Photography.
May 4th, 1675
Royal Greenwich Observatory: King Charles II of England orders the construction of the Royal Greenwich Observatory.
Wikipedia Photo: Royal Greenwich Observatory
May 4th, 1776
American Revolutionary War:
1776 - Rhode Island becomes the first American colony to renounce allegiance to King George III.
Wikipedia Paintings: Washington Crossing the Delaware, by Emanuel Leutz; Battle of the Chesapeake, French (left) and British (right) lines; Battle of Bunker Hill, The Death of General Warren at the Battle of Bunker Hill by John Trumbull; The Defeat of the Floating Batteries at Gibraltar, September 13, 1782, by John Singleton Copley; Washington and the Comte de Rochambeau at Yorktown, 1781; "The surrender at Saratoga" shows General Daniel Morgan in front of a French de Vallière 4-pounder; Surrender of Cornwallis at Yorktown by (John Trumbull, 1797).
Painting: Battle of Cape Saint Vincent, by Thomas Buttersworth (1768-1842).
May 4th, 1814
French Revolutionary Wars / Napoleonic Wars:
1814 - Emperor Napoleon I of France arrives at Portoferraio on the island of Elba to begin his exile.
Wikipedia Painting: Battle of Trafalgar: The British HMS Sandwich fires to the French flagship Bucentaure (completely dismasted) in the battle of Trafalgar;
Napoleon in Berlin (Meynier). After defeating Prussian forces at Jena, the French Army entered Berlin on 27 October 1806;
Battle of the Bridge of Arcole Napoleon Bonaparte leading his troops over the bridge of Arcole, by Horace Vernet;
Napoleon as King of Italy (Appiani);
Napoleon Crossing the Alps (David). In 1800 Bonaparte took the French Army across the Alps, eventually defeating the Austrians at Marengo;
Charge of the Russian Imperial Guard cavalry against French cuirassiers at the Battle of Friedland, 14 June 1807;
Battle of Borodino as depicted by Louis Lejeune. The battle was the largest and bloodiest single-day action of the Napoleonic Wars;
Napoleon's withdrawal from Russia, a painting by Adolph Northen;
Wellington at Waterloo by Robert Alexander Hillingford;
Napoleon is often represented in his green colonel uniform of the Chasseur à Cheval, with a large bicorne and a hand-in-waistcoat gesture.
Battle of the Nile (Battle of Aboukir Bay).
May 4th, 1863
American Civil War:
1863 - Battle of Chancellorsville: ends with a Union retreat.
Wikipedia Image: ● Lincoln Memorial; an American national monument built to honor the 16th President of the United States, Abraham Lincoln - located on the National Mall in Washington, D.C. across from the Washington Monument.
● The northern army led by George McClellan and the southern army led by Robert E. Lee met at Antietam Creek, Maryland in September, 1862. It was a bloody battle where 13,000 Confederates and 12,000 Union troops died in just one day. McClellan had hesitated to attack before the battle thus letting the southern troops regroup. Also, he had saved reserves and refused to use them at the end of the battle thinking that Lee was holding reserves for a counterattack, even though those reserves didn't exist. The Union victory stopped Lee's northward advance and was a turning point in the war.
● Battle of Antietam / Stone Bridge at Antietam Battlefield - Sharpsburg, Maryland
● First Battle Between Ironclads: CSS Virginia/Merrimac (left) vs. USS Monitor, in 1862 at the Battle of Hampton Roads.
● Although photography was still in its infancy, war correspondents produced thousands of images, bringing the harsh realities of the frontlines to those on the home front in a new and visceral way. The Atlantic.
May 4th, 1886
1886 - Haymarket Square Riot: A bomb is thrown at policemen trying to break up a labor rally in Chicago, Illinois, killing eight and wounding 60. The police fire into the crowd.
Wikipedia Photo: Eight Hour Day Monument in Melbourne, Australia ● Haymarket Monument, Mary Brogger, 2004 /Image & Artwork: designslinger.
May 4th, 1904
Panama Canal: The United States begins construction of the Panama Canal.
Wikipedia Map of Panama
May 4th, 1904
Charles Stewart Rolls meets Frederick Henry Royce at the Midland Hotel in Manchester, England.
Wikipedia Photo: Rolls-Royce Silver Ghost (Rolls-Royce 40/50 Silver Ghost).
May 4th, 1919
May Fourth Movement: Student demonstrations take place in Tiananmen Square in Beijing, China, protesting the Treaty of Versailles, which transferred Chinese territory to Japan.
Wikipedia Photo: Tiananmen incident April 5th, 1976 (The incident occurred on the traditional day of mourning, and removal of the displays of mourning - The Gang of Four, ordered the Square to be cleared) ● Tiananmen Square protests of 1989; The “Unknown Rebel”, taken by Jeff Widener, 1989 ● A month before the crackdown, momentum was already gathering as thousands of students swarmed in the square on May 4, 1989 to call for greater freedom of speech and democracy, credit Peter Turley, Corbis.
May 4th, 1932
Mobster Al Capone begins serving an eleven-year prison sentence for tax evasion, in Atlanta, Georgia.
Wikipedia Photo: Al Capone Chicago Gangster; Historic courtroom at 2600 S. California Avenue, Chicago, IL; Al Capone (in white hat) emerged from a federal building in Chicago after his trial on Dec. 10, 1931. The gangster was convicted of five counts of tax evasion and failing to file a return. Associated Press.
May 4th, 1945
World War II: Holocaust;
1945 - Neuengamme concentration camp near Hamburg is liberated by the British Army.
Wikipedia Photo: World War II, The Holocaust. Sources: United States Holocaust Memorial Museum USHMM, History 1900s, Internet Masters of Education Technology IMET, Techno Friends, Veterans Today, Concern.
May 4th, 1945
World War II:
1945 - The North German Army surrenders to Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery.
Wikipedia Photo: Bombing of Dresden in World War II; August Schreitmüller's sculpture 'Goodness' surveys Dresden after a firestorm started by Allied bombers in 1945.
USS Bunker Hill was hit by kamikazes piloted by Ensign Kiyoshi Ogawa and another airman on 11 May 1945. 389 personnel were killed or missing from a crew of 2,600; Ensign Kiyoshi Ogawa, who flew his aircraft into the USS Bunker Hill during a Kamikaze mission on 11 May 1945; Kamikaze Missions - Lt Yoshinori Yamaguchi's Yokosuka D4Y3 (Type 33 Suisei) "Judy" in a suicide dive against USS Essex. The dive brakes are extended and the non-self-sealing port wing tank is trailing fuel vapor and/or smoke 25 November 1944.
German V1 flying-bomb and V2 Rockets - Preparations for a Salvo Launch of V-2 Rockets in the Heidelager near Blizna (Poland) (1944), credit German History in Documents and Images GHDI.
Eastern Front (World War II); Germans race towards Stalingrad. August 1942; Soviet children during a German air raid in the first days of the war, June 1941, by RIA Novosti archive; Soviet sniper Roza Shanina in 1944. About 400,000 Soviet women served in front-line duty units Caucasus Mountains, winter 1942/43; Finnish ski patrol: the invisible enemy of the Soviet Army with an unlimited supply of skis; Men of the German Engineers Corps cross a river which is swollen after the first autumn rains, to strengthen bridges linking the German positions on the central front in Russia. by Keystone / Getty Images. October 1942; Russian snipers fighting on the Leningrad front during a blizzard. Photo by Hulton Archive / Getty Images, 1943; German soldiers surrendering to the Russians in Stalingrad, the soldier holding the white flag of surrender is dressed in white so that there could be no doubt of his intentions, a Russian soldier is on the right of the photograph. by Keystone / Getty Images, January 1943.
May 4th, 1946
Alcatraz Island: Battle of Alcatraz; In San Francisco Bay, United States Marins from the nearby Treasure Island Naval Base stop a two-day riot at Alcatraz federal prison. Five people are killed in the riot.
Wikipedia Photo: Alcatraz Island: in San Francisco Bay.
May 4th, 1953
Ernest Hemingway wins the Pulitzer Prize for The Old Man and the Sea.
Wikipedia Image: Ernest Hemingway's The Old Man and the Sea, Photo: courtesy Getty Images.
May 4th, 1970
Vietnam War:
1970 - Kent State shootings The Ohio National Guard, sent to Kent State University after disturbances in the city of Kent the weekend before, opens fire killing four unarmed students and wounding nine others. The students were protesting the United States' invasion of Cambodia.
Wikipedia Photo: Vietnam_War; Side view of an HH-53 helicopter of the 40th Aerospace Rescue and Recovery Squadron as seen from the gunner's position on an A-1 of the 21st Specialist Operations Squadron. (USAF Photo by Ken Hackman), Boston Globe;
Kent State shootings The Ohio National Guard ● John Filo's iconic Pulitzer Prize-winning photograph of Mary Ann Vecchio, a fourteen-year-old runaway, kneeling in anguish over the body of Jeffrey Miller minutes after he was shot by the Ohio National Guard
Vietnam War: The Big Picture / Boston Globe.
May 4th, 1979
Margaret Thatcher becomes the first female Prime Minister of the United Kingdom.
Wikipedia Image: British Prime Minister (and the only woman to hold that position) for 11 years, Margaret Thatcher is the most divisive figure in recent British political history.
May 4th, 1982
Falklands War: Twenty sailors are killed when the British Type 42 destroyer HMS Sheffield is hit by an Argentine Exocet missile.
Wikipedia Image: Falkland Islands; Map Falkland Islands and Patagonia; Perito Moreno glacier and Lago Argentino, credit Wideview.it (Falkland Islands and Patagonia), New York Times.
May 4th, 1989
Iran-Contra Affair:
1989 - Former White House aide, Lieutenant Colonel Oliver North is convicted of three crimes and acquitted of nine other charges. The convictions, however, are later overturned on appeal.
Wikipedia Photo: Lieutenant Colonel Oliver North, December 22, 1986; Oliver North testifying at the Iran-Contra hearings in Washington, D.C., 1987. credit Associated Press.
May 4th, 1990
Dissolution of the Soviet Union:
1990 - Latvia proclaims the renewal of its independence after the Soviet occupation.
Wikipedia Image: Russia Satellite Map.
May 4th, 1994
Israeli-Palestinian conflict: Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin and PLO leader Yasser Arafat sign a peace accord regarding Palestinian autonomy granting self-rule in the Gaza Strip and Jericho.
Wikipedia Photo: Israel, Middle East satellite image.
May 4th, 1998
A federal judge in Sacramento, California, gives "Unabomber" Ted Kaczynski four life sentences plus 30 years after Kaczynski accepts a plea agreement sparing him from the death penalty.
Wikipedia Photo: Ted Kaczynski (also known as the 'Unabomber'), is an American murderer, mathematician, social critic and anarchist. Between 1978 and 1995, Kaczynski engaged in a nation-wide bombing campaign against modern technology, planting or mailing numerous home-made bombs, killing three people and injuring 23 others
May 4th, 2000
Ken Livingstone becomes the first Mayor of London.
Wikipedia Photo: London; Thames Sunset panorama ● City of London with Tower 42, Swiss Re Tower, Lloyds Building and Docklands in background ● Close-Up of the Clock Face of Big Ben Houses of Parliament Westminster London England; ● The Big Ben and the Houses of Parliament ● London Eye at Night.
May 4th, 2002
Aviation accidents and incidents:
2002 - EAS Airlines BAC 1-11-500 crashes in a suburb of Kano, Nigeria shortly after takeoff killing more than 148 people.
Wikipedia Photo: ● Pan AM 747 ● U.S. Airways flight 1549 also known as the "Miracle on the Hudson" navigates an exit ramp near Burlington, New Jersey, June 5, 2011 ● Passengers stand on the wings of a U.S. Airways plane as a ferry pulls up to it after it landed in the Hudson River in New York, Reuters ● US Airways plane crashes into New York Hudson River, Photo: AP
May 4th, 2007
Tornadoes:
2007 - Greensburg, Kansas; is almost completely destroyed by a 1.7 mi wide EF-5 tornado.
Wikipedia Photo: Weather Front System; Tornado near Anadarko, Oklahoma; North Dakota Tornado; F3 Category Tornado Swirls Across A South Dakota Prairie by Carsten Peter; A waterspout parallels a lightning strike over Lake Okeechobee in Florida, by Fred K. Smith, National Geographics, Extream Instability.
May 4th, 2014
Modern conflicts in the Middle East, social unrest and terrorist attacks:
2014 - Nairobi bus bombings; Three people are killed and 62 injured in a pair of bombings on buses in Nairobi, Kenya.
Wikipedia Photo: Middle East satellite image, NASA. ● Camels are seen early morning on a beach in the Marina area of Dubai October 16, 2008. (Steve Crisp, Reuters) ● A portrait of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad burns during clashes between rebels and Syrian troops in Selehattin, near Aleppo, on July 23, 2012. (Bulent Kilic, AFP / GettyImages) ● Egyptians gather in their thousands in Tahrir Square to mark the one year anniversary of the revolution on Jan. 25, 2012 in Cairo Egypt. Tens of thousands have gathered in the square on the first anniversary of the Arab uprising which toppled President Hosni Mubarak. (Jeff J Mitchell, Getty Images) ● Black smoke rises above the Tehran skyline as supporters of Mir Hossein Mousavi burn tires and other material in the streets as they fight running battles with police to protest the declared results of the Iranian presidential election in Tehran, Iran, Saturday, June 13, 2009. (Ben Curtis, AP) ● The Iron Dome defense system fires to interecpt incoming missiles from Gaza in the port town of Ashdod, Thursday, Nov. 15, 2012. (Tsafrir Abayov, AP)