August 4 in History

Historical Events on August 4

1704 War of the Spanish Succession: Gibraltar is captured by an English and Dutch fleet, commanded by Admiral Sir George Rooke and allied with Archduke Charles.

1789 France: members of the National Constituent Assembly take an oath to end feudalism and abandon their privileges.

1873 American Indian Wars: While protecting a railroad survey party in Montana, the United States 7th Cavalry, under Lieutenant Colonel George Armstrong Custer clashes for the first time with the Cheyenne and Lakota people near the Tongue River; only one man on each side is killed.

1915 World War I: The German 12th Army occupies Warsaw during the Gorlice-Tarnów Offensive and the Great Retreat of 1915.

1924 Diplomatic relations between Mexico and the Soviet Union are established.

1944 The Holocaust: A tip from a Dutch informer leads the Gestapo to a sealed-off area in an Amsterdam warehouse, where they find and arrest Jewish diarist Anne Frank, her family, and four others.

1964 Civil Rights Movement: Civil rights workers Michael Schwerner, Andrew Goodman and James Chaney are found dead in Mississippi after disappearing on June 21.

1977 U.S. President Jimmy Carter signs legislation creating the United States Department of Energy.

2007 NASA's Phoenix spacecraft is launched.

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Famous Birthdays on August 4

1955 Alberto Gonzales

1961 Barack Obama

1971 Jeff Gordon

1978 Kurt Busch

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Famous Deaths on August 4

1875 Hans Christian Andersen

1886 Samuel J. Tilden

1922 Enver Pasha

1940 Ze'ev Jabotinsky

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