November 4

2024 Calendar

November 4 is the 308th day of the year (309th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. There are 57 days remaining until the end of the year.

Events

Up to 1900

1493 - Christopher Columbus lands on Guadeloupe.
1501 - Catherine of Aragon meets Arthur Tudor, the brother of Henry VIII of England.
1576 - Eighty Years' War: Spain captures Antwerp, Flanders.
1677 – Future queen Mary II of England marries future king William III of England.
1783 - Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's Symphony No. 36 is performed for the first time in Linz, Austria.
1786 - Jean-François de Galaup, comte de Lapérouse lands on an island in the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands, which he names after Jacques Necker.
1798 - Beginning of the Russo-Ottoman Siege of Corfu.
1828 - Andrew Jackson is elected President of the United States.
1847 - Scottish doctor James Young Simpson discovers the anaesthetic properties of chloroform.
1852 - Count Camillo Benso di Cavour becomes Prime Minister of Piedmont-Sardinia, which later expands to become Italy.
1856 - James Buchanan is elected President of the United States.
1861 - The University of Washington is founded.
1864 - American Civil War: Battle of Johnson - Confederate troops bombard a Union supply base and destroy millions of dollars of material.
1875 - Paddle steamer Pacific collides with Orpheus sailing boat off Cape Flattery, Washington, killing 273 people.
1884 - Grover Cleveland is elected to his first term as President of the United States.
1890 - London's deep-level railway opens between King William Street and Stockwell.

1901 – 2000

1918 – World War I: Austria-Hungary surrenders to Italy.
1921 – Prime Minister of Japan Hara Takashi is murdered.
1921 - Italy's unknown soldier is buried in the Fatherland Altar in Rome.
1922 – A team of archaeologists led by Howard Carter finds the tomb of Tutankhamun in Egypt.
1924 - Calvin Coolidge is elected to continue as President of the United States, after he had served out Warren G. Harding's term.
1924 - Nellie Tayloe Ross of Wyoming becomes the first woman elected governor in a US State.
1942 - World War II: Second Battle of El Alamein - Disobeying a direct order from Adolf Hitler, General Field Marshal Erwin Rommel leads his forces to a five-month retreat.
1950 - European Convention on Human Rights is adopted.
1952 - The United States Government creates the National Security Agency.
1952 – Dwight D. Eisenhower is elected President of the United States.
1955 – The rebuilt Vienna State Opera is re-opened.
1956 – Soviet troops crush the Hungarian Revolution. Thousands are killed.
1960 - In Tanzania, Jane Goodall observes chimpanzees making tools, the first-ever such observation in non-humans.
1966 - The Arno River in Florence, Italy floods at record levels, making thousands homeless and destroying millions of masterpieces of art and rare books.
1970 - Genie, aged 13, is found in Los Angeles, having been locked in her bedroom for most of her life until that point.
1977 - The UN ends its weapons embargo on Apartheid-era South Africa.
1979 - The Iran hostage crisis begins - A group of Iranians, mostly students, invades United States Embassy in Tehran, Iran, and takes 90 people hostage, including 53 Americans.
1980 – Ronald Reagan is elected President of the United States, defeating Jimmy Carter.
1984 - French Pay-TV channel Canal+ starts transmission.
1991 - Imelda Marcos, former First Lady of the Philippines, is given a Presidential pardon by Corazon Aquino.
1993 - A China Airlines Boeing 747 overruns Runway 13 at Hong Kong's Kai Tak International Airport while landing during a typhoon, injuring 22 people.
1993 - Jean Chrétien becomes Prime Minister of Canada.
1994 - The first conference focusing exclusively on the subject of the commercial potential of the World Wide Web is held in San Francisco, California.
1995 – Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin is murdered, being shot dead by Yigal Amir.
1999 - Ilir Meta becomes Prime Minister of Albania.

From 2001

2001 - Northern Ireland: The Police Service of Northern Ireland is created, replacing the Royal Ulster Constabulary.
2005 – Nintendo's Game Boy Micro is released in Europe.
2006 - A widespread power failure affects parts of Western Europe.
2008 – Barack Obama wins the vote to become President of the United States, over Senator John McCain. Obama becomes the US' first African American President.
2010 - Aero Caribbean Flight 883 crashes in central Cuba, killing all 68 people on board.
2014 - US Mid-term elections are held, with the Republican Party reclaiming the majority it lost in the Senate in 2006.
2015 - Justin Trudeau becomes Prime Minister of Canada.
2015 - A cargo plane crashes near Juba International Airport in South Sudan, killing 37 people.
2015 - A building collapses in Lahore, Pakistan, killing 45 people.
2016 - The Paris climate change agreement enters into force.
2018 - New Caledonia holds an independence referendum, where a smaller-than expected majority (56%) votes to remain an overseas territory of France.
2019 - Sir Lindsay Hoyle is chosen to succeed John Bercow as Speaker of the House of Commons of the United Kingdom.

Births

Deaths

Up to 1950

1411 - Khalil Sultan, Timurid ruler (b. 1384)
1652 - Jean-Claude de la Faille, Flemish mathematician (b. 1597)
1669 - Johannes Cocceius, Dutch theologian (b. 1603)
1698 - Rasmus Bartholin, Danish physician and mathematician (b. 1625)
1801 - William Shippen, American physician and Continental Congressman (b. 1712)
1847 - Thieu Tri, Emperor of Vietnam (b. 1807)
1847 – Felix Mendelssohn, German composer (b. 1809)
1893 - Pierre Tirard, Prime Minister of France (b. 1827)
1906 - John H. Ketcham, American general and politician (b. 1832)
1918 – Wilfred Owen, English poet (b. 1893)
1921 – Hara Takashi, Prime Minister of Japan (b. 1865)
1924 - Gabriel Fauré, French composer (b. 1845)
1931 - Luigi Galleani, Italian activist (b. 1861)
1932 - Belle Bennett, American actress (b. 1891)
1950 - Grover Cleveland Alexander, American baseball player and coach (b. 1887)

1951 – 2000

1951 - Ernesto Ambrosini, Italian athlete (b. 1894)
1955 – Cy Young, American baseball player (b. 1867)
1968 - Michel Kikoine, Belarusian painter (b. 1892)
1969 - Carlos Marighella, Brazilian revolutionary (b. 1911)
1969 - Frank G. Clement, Governor of Tennessee (b. 1920)
1969 - Ernest W. Gibson, Governor of Vermont (b. 1901)
1974 – Bert Patenaude, American footballer (b. 1909)
1982 - Jacques Tati, French actor and director (b. 1907)
1986 - Kurt Hirsch, German mathematician (b. 1906)
1988 - Kleanthis Vikelidis, Greek footballer (b. 1916)
1990 - David Stirling, British founder of the SAS (b. 1915)
1992 - George Klein, Canadian inventor (b. 1904)
1994 – Sam Francis, American painter (b. 1923)
1995 – Gilles Deleuze, French philosopher (b. 1925)
1995 – Yitzhak Rabin, 5th Prime Minister of Israel (b. 1922)
1997 - Richard Hooker, American writer (b. 1924)
1998 - Marion Donovan, American architect and inventor (b. 1917)

From 2001

2008 – Michael Crichton, American writer (b. 1942)
2009 - Hubertus Brandenburg, German-born Swedish Roman Catholic bishop (b. 1923)
2010 – Eugenie Blanchard, French-Caribbean supercentenarian (b. 1896)
2010 - Sparky Anderson, American baseball manager (b. 1934)
2011 - Alfonso Cano, Colombian FARC leader (b. 1948)
2011 - Andy Rooney, American journalist (b. 1919)
2011 - Norman Foster Ramsey, Jr., American physicist (b. 1915)
2012 - Ted Curson, American trumpeter (b. 1935)
2013 - Hans von Borsody, Austrian-German actor (b. 1929)
2014 - Jeremy Dale, American comic book artist (b. 1979)
2014 - Enrique Olivera, Argentine politician (b. 1940)
2014 - Richard Schaal, American actor (b. 1928)
2014 - Eddie Stuart, South African footballer (b. 1931)
2015 - René Girard, French-American historian, literary critic and philosopher of social science (b. 1923)
2015 - Melissa Mathison, American screenwriter (b. 1950)
2015 - Piotr Domaradzki, Polish-American journalist (b. 1946)
2015 - Ole Knapp, Norwegian politician (b. 1931)
2016 - Jean-Jacques Perrey, French electronic music producer (b. 1929)
2016 - Mansour Pourheidari, Iranian footballer (b. 1946)
2017 - Michael Augustine, Indian Roman Catholic prelate (b. 1933)
2017 - Anna Diggs Taylor, American judge (b. 1932)
2017 - Dudley Simpson, Australian composer and conductor (b. 1922)
2017 - Tamara Natalie Madden, Jamaican-American artist (b. 1975)
2018 - Karl-Heinz Adler, German artist (b. 1927)
2018 - Manohar Prahlad Awati, Indian vice-admiral (b. 1927)
2018 - Donna Axum, American model (b. 1942)
2018 - Marco Dezzi Bardeschi, Italian architect (b. 1934)
2018 - Tetsugen Bernard Glassman, American Zen Buddhist monk (b. 1939)
2018 - Jeremy Heywood, British economist and civil servant (b. 1961)
2018 - Harris Hines, American judge (b. 1943)
2018 - Vince Manuwai, American football player (b. 1980)
2018 - Grant R. Osborne, American theologian (b. 1942)
2018 - Wolfgang Zuckermann, German-American harpsichord maker and activist (b. 1922)
2019 - Gay Byrne, Irish broadcaster (b. 1934)
2019 - Jacques Dupont, French racing cyclist (b. 1928)
2019 - Sadeque Hossain Khoka, Bangladeshi politician (b. 1952)
2019 - Virginia Leith, American actress (b. 1925)

Observances

Flag Day (Panama)
National Unity and Armed Forces Day (Italy)
Unity Day (Russia)

November 4

Events

Up to 1900

1901 – 2000

From 2001

Births

Up to 1900

1901 – 1950

1951 – 1975

From 1976

Deaths

Up to 1950

1951 – 2000

From 2001

Observances