What Happened on November 4th in History
30 historical events on this date
The Saalschutz Abteilung (hall defense detachment) of the Nazi Party is renamed the Sturmabteilung (storm detachment) after a large riot in Munich.
The Nazi Party, officially the National Socialist German Workers' Party, was a far-right political party in Germany active between 1920 and 1945 that created and supported the ideology of Nazism....
In Egypt, British archaeologist Howard Carter and his men find the entrance to Tutankhamun's tomb in the Valley of the Kings.
Howard Carter was a British archaeologist and Egyptologist who became known for discovering the intact tomb of the 18th Dynasty Pharaoh Tutankhamun in November 1922, the best-preserved pharaonic...
Nellie Tayloe Ross of Wyoming becomes the first female elected as governor in the United States.
Nellie Davis Tayloe Ross was an American educator and politician who served as the 14th governor of Wyoming from 1925 to 1927, and as the 28th and first female director of the United States Mint...
Spanish Civil War: Largo Caballero reshuffles his war cabinet, persuading the anarcho-syndicalist CNT to join the government.
The Spanish Civil War was fought from 1936 to 1939 between the Republicans and the Nationalist rebels. Republicans loyal to the left-leaning Popular Front government of the Second Spanish Republic...
World War II: U.S. president Franklin D. Roosevelt orders the United States Customs Service to implement the Neutrality Act of 1939, allowing cash-and-carry purchases of weapons by belligerents.
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: Disobeying a direct order by Adolf Hitler, General Field Marshal Erwin Rommel begins a retreat of his forces after a costly defeat during the Second Battle of El Alamein. The retreat would ultimately last five months.
Adolf Hitler was an Austrian-born German politician who was the dictator of Germany during the Nazi era from 1933 until his suicide in 1945. He rose to power as the leader of the Nazi Party,...
World War II: The 7th Macedonian Liberation Brigade liberates Bitola for the Allies.
The Macedonian Partisans, officially the National Liberation Army and Partisan Detachments of Macedonia, was a communist and anti-fascist resistance movement formed in occupied Yugoslavia which was...
World War II: Operation Pheasant, an Allied offensive to liberate North Brabant in the Netherlands, ends successfully.
Operation Pheasant, also known as the Liberation of North Brabant, was a major operation to clear German troops from the province of North Brabant in the Netherlands during the fighting on the...
The United States government establishes the National Security Agency, or NSA.
The federal government of the United States is the national government of the United States.
Soviet troops enter Hungary to end the Hungarian revolution against the Soviet Union that started on October 23. Thousands are killed, more are wounded, and nearly a quarter million leave the country.
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...
At the Kasakela Chimpanzee Community in Tanzania, Jane Goodall observes chimpanzees creating tools, the first-ever observation in non-human animals.
The Kasekela chimpanzee community is a habituated community of wild eastern chimpanzees that lives in Gombe National Park near Lake Tanganyika in Tanzania. The community was the subject of Jane...
The United States concludes Operation Fishbowl, its final above-ground nuclear weapons testing series, in anticipation of the 1963 Partial Nuclear Test Ban Treaty.
Operation Fishbowl was a series of high-altitude nuclear tests in 1962 that were carried out by the United States as a part of the larger Operation Dominic nuclear test program.
The Arno River floods Florence, Italy, to a maximum depth of 6.7Â m (22Â ft), leaving thousands homeless and destroying millions of masterpieces of art and rare books. Venice is also submerged on the same day at its record all-time acqua alta of 194Â cm (76Â in).
The Arno is a river in the Tuscany region of Italy. It is the most important river of central Italy after the Tiber.
Iberia Flight 062 crashes in Blackdown, West Sussex, killing all 37 people on board including British actress June Thorburn.
Iberia Flight 062 was a twin-engined Sud Aviation Caravelle registered EC-BDD operating a scheduled flight from MĂĄlaga Airport, Spain, to London Heathrow Airport. While on approach to Heathrow on 4...
Vietnam War: The United States turns over control of the air base at BÏnh Thủy in the Mekong Delta to South Vietnam.
The Vietnam War was an armed conflict in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia fought between North Vietnam and South Vietnam and their allies. North Vietnam was supported by the Soviet Union and China, while...
Salvador Allende takes office as President of Chile, the first Marxist to become president of a Latin American country through open elections.
Salvador Guillermo Allende Gossens was a Chilean socialist politician who served as the 29th president of Chile from 1970 until his suicide in 1973. As a socialist committed to democracy, he has...
The Netherlands experiences the first car-free Sunday caused by the 1973 oil crisis. Highways are used only by cyclists and roller skaters.
In October 1973, the Organization of Arab Petroleum Exporting Countries (OAPEC) announced that it was implementing a total oil embargo against countries that had supported Israel at any point during...
Iran hostage crisis: A group of Iranian college students overruns the U.S. embassy in Tehran and takes 90 hostages.
The Iran hostage crisis began on November 4, 1979, when 66 Americans, including diplomats and other civilian personnel, were taken hostage at the Embassy of the United States in Tehran, with 52 of...
Ronald Reagan is elected as the 40th President of the United States, defeating incumbent Jimmy Carter.
Ronald Wilson Reagan was an American politician and actor who served as the 40th president of the United States from 1981 to 1989. A member of the Republican Party, he became an important figure in...
China Airlines Flight 605, a brand-new 747-400, overruns the runway at Hong Kong Kai Tak Airport.
China Airlines Flight 605 was a daily non-stop flight departing from Taipei, Taiwan to Hong Kong, then a British colony. On 4 November 1993, the Boeing 747-400 operating the flight went off the...
Israel-Palestinian conflict: Israeli prime minister Yitzhak Rabin is assassinated by an extremist Israeli.
Israel and the Palestinians are engaged in an ongoing military and political conflict about land and self-determination within the former territory of Mandatory Palestine. Key aspects of the...
Chinese authorities arrest cyber-dissident He Depu for signing a pro-democracy letter to the 16th Communist Party Congress.
He Depu is a dissident in the People's Republic of China.
Barack Obama becomes the first person of biracial or African-American descent to be elected as President of the United States.
Barack Hussein Obama II is an American former politician who served as the 44th president of the United States from 2009 to 2017. A member of the Democratic Party, he was the first African American...
Aero Caribbean Flight 883 crashes into Guasimal, Sancti SpĂritus; all 68 passengers and crew are killed.
Aero Caribbean Flight 883 was an international scheduled passenger service from Port-au-Prince, Haiti to Havana, Cuba with a stopover in Santiago de Cuba. On 4 November 2010, the ATR 72 operating...
Qantas Flight 32, an Airbus A380, suffers an uncontained engine failure over Indonesia shortly after taking off from Singapore, crippling the jet. The crew manage to safely return to Singapore, saving all 469 passengers and crew.
Qantas Flight 32 was a regularly scheduled passenger flight from London to Sydney via Singapore. On 4 November 2010, the Airbus A380 operating the route suffered an uncontained failure in one of its...
A cargo plane crashes shortly after takeoff from Juba International Airport in Juba, South Sudan, killing at least 37 people.
On 4 November 2015, an Antonov An-12 cargo aircraft crashed near the White Nile shortly after takeoff from Juba International Airport serving Juba, the capital city of South Sudan. At least 37...
A building collapses in the Pakistani city of Lahore resulting in at least 45 deaths and at least 100 injuries.
The 2015 Lahore factory disaster resulted when a shopping bag factory located at Sundar Industrial Estate near Lahore, Pakistan collapsed on 4 November 2015, killing at least 45 people and trapping...
The Tigray War begins with Tigrayan rebels launching attacks on Ethiopian command centers.
The Tigray war, also referred to in some academic and policy sources as the northern Ethiopia conflict, was an armed conflict that lasted from 3 November 2020 to 3 November 2022. It was a civil war...
The Khash massacre, which refers to the repression of protesters by Iranian security forces, resulting in 18 deaths and more than 20 injuries.
The Khash massacre, also known as Khash Bloody Friday refers to the clashes between the protesting people of Khash and the police forces of the Islamic Republic of Iran on 4 November 2022, which...
UPS Airlines Flight 2976, a McDonnell Douglas MD-11F crashes into multiple buildings during takeoff at Louisville Muhammad Ali International Airport in Louisville, Kentucky, killing 15 people, including the 3 crew members.
UPS Airlines Flight 2976 was a scheduled domestic cargo flight in the United States from Louisville Muhammad Ali International Airport in Louisville, Kentucky, to Honolulu, Hawaii. On November 4,...