Historical Events on December 4

Events 1 - 200 of 218

• 1110 Syrian harbor city Saida (Sidon) surrenders to Crusaders
• 1154 Adrian IV elected Pope. The only Englishman to become pontiff, Nicholas Breakspear was a member of the family which until recent years brewed beer in Henley-on-Thames, Oxfordshire.
• 1197 Crusaders wound Rabbi Elezar ben Judah

• 1259 Treaty of Paris: English King Henry III and French King Louis IX end 100 years of conflict between the Capetian and Plantagenet dynasties
• 1489 Battle of Baza - Spanish army captures Baza from Moors

• 1563 Council of Trent holds its last session, after 18 years. Last ecumenical council for more than 300 years.

• 1644 First European peace congress opens in Munster
• 1655 Middelburg, Netherlands forbids building of synagogue

• 1674 Father Marquette builds first dwelling in what is now Chicago
• 1676 Battle of Lund: A Danish army under the command of King Christian V of Denmark engages the Swedish army commanded by Field Marshal Simon Grundel-Helmfelt
• 1680 Hen in Rome lays a uniquely patterned egg, later believed to have predicted the arrival of the Kirch/Newton "Great Comet of 1680"
• 1682 First General Assembly in Pennsylvania (Chester)

• 1691 Emperor Leopold I takes control of Transsylvania
• 1691 Spanish king Carlos II names Maximilian II as Viceroy of Southern Netherlands
• 1745 Bonnie Prince Charles reaches Derby
• 1783 General Washington bids officers farewell at Fraunce's Tavern, NYC

• 1798 Rebellious Flemish farmers occupy Hasselt
• 1812 Peter Gaillard of Lancaster, Pennsylvania, patents a horse-drawn mower

• 1829 Britain outlaws "suttee" in India, a Hindu practice where a widow burns herself to death on her husband's funeral pyre
• 1832 French army begins bombing citadel of Antwerp
• 1833 American Anti-Slavery Society formed by Arthur Tappan in Philadelphia
• 1836 Whig party holds its first national convention, Harrisburg, Pennsylvania
• 1843 Manila paper (made from sails, canvas and rope) patented in Massachusetts

• 1851 President Louis Napoleon Boaparte's forces crush an attempted coup d'etat in France
• 1864 Battle of Waynesborough (Brier Creek), Georgia
• 1864 Romanian Jews are forbidden to practise law
• 1867 Former Minnesota farmer Oliver Hudson Kelley founds the Order of the Patrons of Husbandry (better known today as the Grange)

• 1881 The first edition of the Los Angeles Times newspaper is published
• 1889 Explorer Henery Morton Stanley's expedition reaches Bagamoyo in Indian Ocean
• 1899 56th Congress (1899-1901) convenes
• 1899 Webb Hayes, son of US President Rutherford Hayes, receives medal of honor
• 1901 Anne Russell's play "'Girl and the judge" premieres in New York

• 1906 Alpha Phi Alpha, first Black Greek Letter Fraternity, forms
• 1908 Haiti's president General Alexis Nord flees from military coup
• 1908 The world's ten leading maritime nations attend a Naval Conference in London; they agree on rules for blockade, convoys, and seizure of contraband
• 1909 Oldest still-operating NHL franchise is officially established as J. Ambrose O’Brien and Jack Laviolette create the “Club de Hockey Canadien,” known today as the Montreal Canadiens

• 1915 Frank Friday Fletcher is first US admiral to receive Congressional Medal of Honor

• 1915 Ku Klux Klan receives charter from Fulton County, Georgia
• 1915 Panama-Pacific International Exposition closes in San Francisco

• 1920 1st Pro football playoff game Buffalo-7, Canton-3 at Polo Grounds, NYC
• 1921 American Professional Football Association Championship, Cubs Park, Chicago: Chicago Staleys beat Buffalo All-Americans, 10-7 in de facto championship game after teams tied in standings
• 1921 The Virginia Rappe manslaughter trial against Roscoe 'Fatty' Arbuckle ends in a hung jury
• 1922 Lucille Atcherson, becomes first woman legation sect-US foreign service
• 1923 WEAF radio begins broadcasting Eveready Hour (variety show)

• 1927 Pittsburgh Pirates future Baseball Hall of Fame outfielder Paul Waner wins NL MVP
• 1928 Walter Donaldson & Gus Kahn's musical "Whoopee!", starring Eddie Cantor, premieres on Broadway at the New Amsterdam Theatre, NYC; runs for 407 performances
• 1930 Vatican approves rhythm method for birth control

• 1933 Jack Kirkland's play "Tobacco Road" premieres in NYC, became the longest-running play of its time
• 1935 1,200 at St Joseph's College (Philadelphia) enroll in anticommunism class
• 1941 Nazi ordinance places Jews of Poland outside protection of courts
• 1942 FDR orders dismantling of Works Progress Administration
• 1942 First US citizenship granted to an alien on foreign soil (James Hoey)
• 1942 Holocaust: In Warsaw, Zofia Kossak-Szczucka and Wanda Filipowicz set up the Żegota organization
• 1942 US bombers strike Italian mainland for first time in WW II

• 1943 Second Cairo Conference: FDR, Winston Churchill and Turkish President İsmet İnönü meet (till Dec 6)
• 1943 Yugoslavian resistance forms provisionary government under Dr Ribar
• 1944 Germans destroy Rhine dikes, Betuwe flooded
• 1945 11th Heisman Trophy Award: Doc Blanchard, Army (FB)
• 1945 Senate approves US participation in United Nations

• 1947 USSR joins International Amateur Athletic Union
• 1948 SS Kiangya hits mine in Whangpoo River, China, sinks killing 2,750
• 1949 Bob Gage ties NFL record of a 97 yard touchdown run
• 1949 Duncan Stewart, 2nd British Governor of Sarawak is fatally stabbed in the streets of Sibu by Malay student Rosli Dhoby with help from Morshidi Sidek with the goal of helping neighbouring Indonesia to take over British Sarawak

• 1951 Mir Waiz Maulvi Muhammad Yusouf is appointed President of Azad Kashmir Government
• 1951 Superheated gasses roll down Mount Catarman, Philippines, killing 500 people
• 1952 Walter P. Reuther chosen chairman of the Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO) in the US
• 1954 The first Burger King is opened in Miami, Florida, USA
• 1956 22nd Heisman Trophy Award: Paul Hornung, Notre Dame (QB)
• 1956 American diver Pat McCormick wins the 3m springboard gold medal at the Melbourne Olympics with 142.46 points; later wraps up the women's double when she takes the 10m platform gold

• 1956 Australian swimmer Murray Rose sets world record 4:27.3 to claim the 400m gold medal at the Melbourne Olympics; Rose later also wins 1,500m gold
• 1957 2 commuter trains collide in heavy fog killing 92 (St John's, England)
• 1957 First edition of "Chase's Annual Events" published
• 1958 American pilots Bob Timm and John Cook take off from Las Vegas, Nevada in "The Hacienda", their modified Cessna 172, in an attempt to break recently set airplane flight endurance record; effort succeeds almost 65 days later [1]
• 1958 Dahomey (Benin), Ivory Coast become autonomous within French Community
• 1958 Finnish government of Fagerholm resigns

• 1961 Smallest NY Knick, 49th St Madison Square Garden crowd-1,300 (snowstorm)
• 1961 Tanganyika becomes 104th member of UN

• 1961 WXGA TV channel 8 in Waycross, GA (PBS) begins broadcasting
• 1962 US performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site

• 1963 Boston Bruins' right wing Andy Hebenton sets a new NHL record by playing in his 581st consecutive game in 2-2 tie with Chicago Black Hawks; reaches 630 straight games
• 1963 Pope Paul VI closes second session of 2nd Vatican Council
• 1964 Baseball approves a free-agent draft
• 1964 Commissioner's office given full powers in baseball disputes
• 1964 Test Cricket debut of Ian Chappell, v Pakistan MCG, 11, 0-49, 0-31
• 1964 The Beatles release "Beatles For Sale", their fourth studio album in the UK
• 1965 2 passenger planes collide above Danbury, Connecticut, 4 die
• 1965 2nd NY Knicks game postponed (due to death of opponent 76ers' owner)

• 1966 KETS TV channel 2 in Little Rock, AR (PBS) begins broadcasting
• 1966 Military Working Dog "Nemo" saves the life of his handler Airman Robert A. Throneburg during the Vietnam War, surviving a gunshot wound to the nose
• 1968 Following a civil rights march in Dungannon, Northern Ireland, there is a violent clash between Loyalists and those who are taking part in the march
• 1970 Unemployment in US increases to 5.8%
• 1971 McGurk's Bar bombing: the UVF explode a bomb at a Catholic-owned pub in Belfast, killing fifteen Catholic civilians and wounding seventeen others; this was the highest death toll from a single incident in Belfast during 'the Troubles'

• 1971 The Indian Navy attacks the Pakistan Navy and Karachi
• 1971 The UN Security Council calls an emergency session to consider the deteriorating situation between India and Pakistan
• 1974 Dutch DC-8 charter crashes in Sri Lanka killing 191 Muslim pilgrims

• 1975 6 South Molukkans occupy Indonesian consulate in The Hague, 1 dead

• 1977 Neil Simon's play "Chapter Two" opens in NYC
• 1977 NFL's 5,000th game, Cincinnati beats KC 27-7
• 1978 Dianne Feinstein is named as San Francisco's 1st female and Jewish mayor after the assassination of George Moscone, then elected for two full terms

• 1978 Pioneer Venus 1 goes into orbit around Venus
• 1979 Cleveland Cavaliers retire jersey # 7, Bingo Smith
• 1980 Islanders end 15 game undefeated streak (13-0-2) (Col Rockies)

• 1981 "Falcon Crest" premieres on CBS-TV
• 1981 According to South Africa, Ciskei gains independence. Not recognized as an independent country outside South Africa.

• 1982 48th Heisman Trophy Award: Herschel Walker, Georgia (RB)
• 1982 China adopts its constitution
• 1982 Police and racist demonstrators clash in Antwerp
• 1983 NJ Devils 1st shut-out, beating Minnesota North Stars 6-0
• 1983 US jet fighters strike Syrian anti-aircraft positions in Lebanon
• 1984 Hezbollah militants hijack a Kuwait Airlines plane, killing four passengers.

• 1985 President Reagan appoints Vice Admiral John Poindexter as security adviser
• 1986 US launches its Fleet Satellite Communications System (Fltsatcom-7)

• 1987 Karlstad skates world record 10 km (13:48.51)
• 1988 Actor Gary Busey critically injured in motorcycle crash
• 1988 Edmonton center Jimmy Carson becomes just the third player to score 6 NHL hat tricks before the age of 21 in the Oilers 10-6 win over the New York Rangers

• 1988 USSR performs nuclear test at Novaya Zemlya USSR
• 1989 NBC's premiere of "Howard Beach: Making A Case for Murder", based on December 1986 murders of black youths by white youths in New York City
• 1990 An Iraqi official reports that Iraq will withdraw if it can retain control of the Rumailah field and keep Bubiyan and Werbah islands; also says that demands that the Palestinian issue be treated separately would not be surmountable
• 1990 Due to Persian Gulf crisis gas hits $1.60 per gallon price in NYC
• 1990 Iraq announces it will release all 3,300 Soviet hostages
• 1991 Country music mother and daughter act The Judds "farewell" concert at Murphy Center in Murfreesboro, Tennessee; later re-unions and "farewells" in 2000, 2010, 2015, and 2021
• 1991 Muslim Shi'ites release last US hostage Terry Anderson (held 6½ years)
• 1991 Pan American World Airways ceased operations
• 1991 Patricia Bowman testifies that William Kennedy Smith raped her

• 1993 A truce is concluded between the government of Angola and UNITA rebels.

• 1993 Johann Koss skates world record 5K (6:35.53)

• 1995 Atherton (185*) bats for 643 minutes to save Johannesburg Test
• 1996 NASA's 1st Mars rover launched from Cape Canaveral
• 1996 Orlando Magic tie NBA record of fewest points scored since inception of 24 second clock losing to Cleveland Cavalier, 84-57
• 1997 "Diary of Anne Frank" opens at Music Box Theater NYC
• 1997 NBA suspends former Golden State Warriors guard Latrell Sprewell for 1 year for attacking coach P.J. Carlesimo
• 1997 Nizar Hamdoon warns that Iraq will not allow oil to flow during a third six-month phase of the UN's oil-for-food sale until the UN approves an aid distribution plan
• 1998 The Unity Module, the second module of the International Space Station, is launched

• 2005 Tens of thousands of people in Hong Kong protest for democracy and call on the Government to allow universal and equal suffrage

• 2006 An adult giant squid is caught on video by Kubodera near the Ogasawara Islands, 1,000 km (620 miles) south of Tokyo

• 2009 Montreal Canadiens retire Hall of Fame center Elmer Lach's jersey (No. 16), as part of team's centennial celebration

• 2012 29 people are killed by a mortar attack in Bteeha, Syria
• 2012 Typhoon Bopha makes landfall in the Philippines, killing at least 81 people
• 2013 Mosconi Cup nine-ball pool, Las Vegas, Nevada: 4 consecutive titles for Europe after an 11-2 thrashing of US; MVP: Niels Feijen (Netherlands)
• 2013 Xavier Bettel becomes Luxenberg's first openly gay Prime Minister
• 2014 Mosconi Cup nine-ball pool, Blackpool, England: Team Europe beats US, 11-5 for 5th straight title; MVP: Niels Feijen (Netherlands)

• 2014 The United Nations warns that the world is on course for the warmest year since records began
• 2014 Ukraine and Pro-Russian rebels agree to cease fire in the eastern war zone, beginning December 9
• 2014 US authorities promise a "fair" investigation into the death of African American Eric Garner, after a white New York City police officer held him in a choke-hold faces no charges
• 2015 Floods in Chennai and Tamil Nadu state, India start receding after a month of heavy rainfall, leaving more 260 dead and thousands stranded
• 2016 Austria elects liberal independent Alexander Van der Bellen as President, after original vote in May annulled

• 2016 Tens of thousands march throughout Brazil against a vote to undermine anti-corruption investigations
• 2016 Venezuela issues new higher-value notes after currency falls 60% in 1 months against the US dollar
• 2017 New York Giants fire head coach Ben McAdoo and manager Jerry Reese after a 2–10 start
• 2017 New York's Metropolitan Opera suspends conductor James Levine after allegations of sexual misconduct
• 2017 Thomas fire begins and spreads to city of Ventura, California

• 2017 US Supreme Court allows President Trump's travel ban to come into effect for 6 mostly Muslim countries
• 2018 Attempts to establish mob council in Sicily thwarted when 46 members of the mafia arrested including Settimio Mineo

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