What Happened on March 4th in History
30 historical events on this date
Franklin D. Roosevelt is inaugurated as the 32nd President of the United States.
Franklin Delano Roosevelt, also known as FDR, was the 32nd president of the United States, serving from 1933 until his death in 1945. He is the longest-serving US president and the only one to have...
World War II: The United Kingdom launches Operation Claymore on the Lofoten Islands, the first large-scale British Commando raid.
World War II, or the Second World War, was a global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies and the Axis powers. Nearly all of the world's countries participated. Tanks and aircraft played major...
World War II: The Battle of the Bismarck Sea in the south-west Pacific comes to an end.
The Battle of the Bismarck Sea took place in the South West Pacific Area (SWPA) during World War II when aircraft of the U.S. Fifth Air Force and the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) attacked a...
World War II: The Battle of Fardykambos, one of the first major battles between the Greek Resistance and the occupying Royal Italian Army, begins. It ends on 6 March with the surrender of an entire Italian battalion and the liberation of the town of Grevena.
The Battle of Fardykambos, also known as the Battle of Bougazi, was fought between the National Liberation Front (EAM-ELAS) of the Greek Resistance against the Italian troops during the Axis...
World War II: After the success of Big Week, the USAAF begins a daylight bombing campaign of Berlin.
Operation Argument, after the war dubbed Big Week, was a sequence of raids by the United States Army Air Forces and RAF Bomber Command from 20 to 25 February 1944, as part of the Combined Bomber...
The sixth President of Finland, Gustaf Mannerheim, submits his resignation for health reasons.
The president of the Republic of Finland is the head of state of Finland. The incumbent president is Alexander Stubb, since 1 March 2024. He was elected president for the first time in 2024.
An order to protect the endangered Saimaa ringed seal (Pusa hispida saimensis) is legalized.
The Saimaa ringed seal is a species of seal. It is among the most endangered seals in the world, having a total population of only about 500 individuals. The only existing population of these seals...
The S&P 500 stock market index is introduced, replacing the S&P 90.
S&P 500 is a stock market index tracking the stock performance of 500 leading companies listed on stock exchanges in the United States. It is one of the most commonly followed equity indices and...
The French freighter La Coubre explodes in Havana, Cuba, killing 100.
The French freighter La Coubre exploded in the harbour of Havana, Cuba, on 4 March 1960 while it was unloading 76 tons of grenades and munitions. Seventy-five to 100 people were killed, and many...
A Caledonian Airways Douglas DC-7 crashes shortly after takeoff from Cameroon, killing 111 â the worst crash of a DC-7.
Caledonian Airways was a wholly private, independent charter airline in the United Kingdom formed in April 1961. It began with a single 104-seat Douglas DC-7C leased from the Belgian flag carrier...
A Canadian Pacific Air Lines DC-8-43 explodes on landing at Tokyo International Airport, killing 64 people.
Canadian Pacific Air Lines was a Canadian airline that operated from 1942 to 1987. It operated under the name CP Air from 1968 to 1986. Headquartered at Vancouver International Airport in Richmond,...
In an interview in the London Evening Standard, The Beatles' John Lennon declares that the band is "more popular than Jesus now".
The London Standard, branded online as The Standard and formerly known as the Evening Standard, is a long-established regional newspaper published weekly on Thursdays and distributed free of charge...
French submarine Eurydice explodes underwater, resulting in the loss of the entire 57-man crew.
Eurydice was a French submarine, one of eleven of the Daphné class.
The Northern Ireland Constitutional Convention is formally dissolved in Northern Ireland, resulting in direct rule of Northern Ireland from London by the British parliament.
The Northern Ireland Constitutional Convention (NICC) was an elected body set up in 1975 by the United Kingdom Labour government of Harold Wilson as an attempt to deal with constitutional issues...
The 1977 Vrancea earthquake in eastern and southern Europe kills more than 1,500, mostly in Bucharest, Romania.
The 1977 Vrancea earthquake occurred on 4 March 1977, at 21:22 local time, and was felt throughout the Balkans. It had a magnitude of 7.5, making it the second most powerful earthquake recorded in...
Nationalist leader Robert Mugabe wins a sweeping election victory to become Zimbabwe's first black prime minister.
Robert Gabriel Mugabe was a Zimbabwean revolutionary and politician who led Zimbabwe from 1980 until he was deposed in a coup in 2017. He served as the first Prime Minister of Zimbabwe from...
The Food and Drug Administration approves a blood test for HIV infection, used since then for screening all blood donations in the United States.
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is a federal agency of the United States Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). The FDA is responsible for protecting and promoting public health...
The Soviet Vega 1 begins returning images of Halley's Comet and the first images of its nucleus.
The Soviet Union, officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR), was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until its dissolution in 1991. It was the world's...
American basketball player Hank Gathers dies after collapsing during the semifinals of a West Coast Conference tournament game.
Basketball is a team sport in which two teams of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular court, compete with the primary objective of shooting a basketball through a hoop at each...
Lennox Sebe, President for life of the South African Bantustan of Ciskei, is ousted from power in a bloodless military coup led by Brigadier Oupa Gqozo.
Lennox Leslie Wongama Ngweyesizwe Sebe was the chief minister of the Xhosa bantustan of Ciskei after its self-rule in 1972, and the nominally independent country's first president from 1983. He was...
Space Shuttle program: The Space Shuttle Columbia is launched on STS-62.
The Space Shuttle program was the fourth human spaceflight program carried out by the U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), which accomplished routine transportation for...
A derailed train in Weyauwega, Wisconsin (USA) causes the emergency evacuation of 2,300 people for 16 days.
The Weyauwega derailment was a railroad accident that occurred in Weyauwega, Wisconsin, United States, in the early morning hours of March 4, 1996. The derailed train was carrying a large quantity...
Gay rights: Oncale v. Sundowner Offshore Services, Inc.: The Supreme Court of the United States rules that federal laws banning on-the-job sexual harassment also apply when both parties are the same sex.
Lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) rights in the United States have developed over time, with public opinion and jurisprudence changing significantly since the late 1980s....
BBC bombing: A massive car bomb explodes in front of the BBC Television Centre in London, seriously injuring one person; the attack was attributed to the Real IRA.
The 2001 BBC bombing was a bomb attack on the BBC's main news centre within BBC Television Centre, on Wood Lane in the White City area of West London.
Afghanistan: Seven American Special Operations Forces soldiers and 200 Al-Qaeda Fighters are killed as American forces attempt to infiltrate the Shah-i-Kot Valley on a low-flying helicopter reconnaissance mission.
The war in Afghanistan was a prolonged armed conflict lasting from 2001 to 2021. It began with an invasion by a United Statesâled coalition under the name Operation Enduring Freedom in response to...
The International Criminal Court (ICC) issues an arrest warrant for Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir for war crimes and crimes against humanity in Darfur. Al-Bashir is the first sitting head of state to be indicted by the ICC since its establishment in 2002.
The International Criminal Court (ICC) is an intergovernmental organisation and international tribunal seated in The Hague, Netherlands. Established in 2002 under the multilateral Rome Statute, the...
A series of explosions is reported at a munitions dump in Brazzaville, the capital of the Republic of the Congo, killing at least 250 people.
On 4 March 2012, a series of blasts occurred at an army arms dump in Brazzaville, the capital of the Republic of the Congo. At least 300 people were killed by the explosions. Additional bodies were...
At least 34 miners die in a suspected gas explosion at the Zasyadko coal mine in the rebel-held Donetsk region of Ukraine.
On 4 March 2015, at around 05:20 local time, there was a mining accident at the Zasyadko coal mine in rebel-held Eastern Ukraine. It is suspected to have been caused by a gas explosion.
Former MI6 spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter are poisoned with a Novichok nerve agent in Salisbury, England, causing a diplomatic uproar that results in mass-expulsions of diplomats from all countries involved.
The Secret Intelligence Service (SIS), commonly known as MI6, is the foreign intelligence service of the United Kingdom, tasked mainly with the covert overseas collection and analysis of human...
Nik Wallenda becomes the first person to walk over the Masaya Volcano in Nicaragua.
Nikolas Wallenda is an American acrobat, aerialist, daredevil, high wire artist, and author. He is known for his high-wire performances without a safety net. He holds 11 Guinness World Records for...