Friday, 4th July 2025

4th July in the Stars – Star Sign Cancer

Today, the zodiac sign Cancer celebrates its birthday.

Personality Profile

Personality People born on July 4th blend profound emotional intelligence with rare spiritual depth. The Master Number 11 grants them intuitive gifts extending beyond ordinary perception. They are sensitive, creative, and drawn to relationships with meaningful purpose and authenticity.

Strengths & Weaknesses Their strength lies in empathy and the capacity to comfort and guide others. However, they can become emotionally overwhelmed and tend to lose themselves in feeling. Boundlessness requires conscious self-reflection and intentional boundaries.

Love These individuals seek deep, spiritually resonant partnerships over surface connections. They give love and care generously, yet expect emotional depth in return. Home becomes sacred—a sanctuary of intimacy and belonging where they truly flourish.

Caree & Finance Careers in healing, counseling, or creative arts naturally appeal to them. Their intuitive nature makes them sensitive leaders and innovative problem-solvers. Financially, they should avoid emotional decisions and build practical stability thoughtfully.

Health Emotional well-being directly influences their physical health and vitality. Meditation, nature contact, and creative expression are essential nourishment. They benefit from learning to release emotions and protect their sensitive nature through healthy boundaries.

That night, the moon was in its last quarter phase.

Chinese year of the Snake (Wood).

Fun Facts About 4th July

Name Days in Your Language: America, Calvert, Calverta, Calvin, Calvina, Kalvin

Someone born on this day would be just 333 days old today — roughly 8,007 hours, 480,442 minutes, or 28,826,539 seconds spent on Earth so far.

It's the 185. day of the year. In 2025, 4th July falls on a Friday.

There are 180 days still to come.

We’re currently in Week 27 — the year marches on.

Famous Birthdays on 4th July

On this day, 234 notable people were born on 4th July — spanning from 68 to 2003. From world leaders to artists and scientists, discover who shares this birthday.

04/07/2003

Polina Bogusevich, Russian singer

Polina Sergeyevna Bogusevich, also known as Nanamé, is a Russian singer. She represented Russia in the Junior Eurovision Song Contest 2017 with the song "Wings", and went on to win the competition. She is the second Russian entrant to win the Junior Eurovision Song Contest.

04/07/1999

Moa Kikuchi, Japanese musician

Moa Kikuchi , better known by her stage name Moametal, is a Japanese singer and dancer. She is best known as a member of the kawaii metal band Babymetal, and was formerly a member of the idol group Sakura Gakuin. She is represented by the talent agency Amuse Inc.

04/07/1995

Post Malone, American rapper, singer, songwriter and record producer

Austin Richard Post, known professionally as Post Malone, is an American singer, rapper, songwriter, record producer, and actor. His music blends various genres including pop, hip-hop, trap, country, R&B, and rock.

04/07/1993

Tom Barkhuizen, English footballer

Thomas John Barkhuizen is an English professional footballer who plays as a forward for National League club Barrow.

04/07/1992

Ángel Romero, Paraguayan footballer

Ángel Rodrigo Romero Villamayor is a Paraguayan professional footballer who plays as a winger for Argentine Primera División club Boca Juniors and the Paraguay national team. He is the twin brother of Óscar Romero.

Óscar Romero, Paraguayan footballer

Óscar David Romero Villamayor is a Paraguayan professional footballer who plays as an attacking midfielder for Primera División club Huracán and the Paraguay national team. He is the twin brother of Ángel Romero.

04/07/1990

Jake Gardiner, American ice hockey player

Jake William Gardiner is an American former professional ice hockey defenseman. He played for the Toronto Maple Leafs and Carolina Hurricanes of the National Hockey League (NHL). He was drafted 17th overall by the Anaheim Ducks in the 2008 NHL entry draft.

Richard Mpong, Ghanaian footballer

Richard Mpong is a Ghanaian professional footballer who currently plays as a winger, for Elmina Sharks and the Ghana national football team.

Naoki Yamada, Japanese footballer

Naoki Yamada is a Japanese footballer who plays for J3 League club FC Gifu.

Ihar Yasinski, Belarusian footballer

Ihar Syarheyevich Yasinski is a Belarusian professional footballer who plays for Bumprom Gomel.

04/07/1989

Benjamin Büchel, Liechtensteiner footballer

Benjamin Büchel is a Liechtensteiner professional footballer who plays as a goalkeeper for Swiss Challenge League club Vaduz, which he captains, and the Liechtenstein national team.

04/07/1988

Angelique Boyer, French-Mexican actress

Angelique Monique-Paulette Boyer Rousseau, simply known as Angelique Boyer, is a Mexican actress. Among her most notable works is her participation in soap operas such as Rebelde, and Teresa.

04/07/1987

Wude Ayalew, Ethiopian runner

Wude Ayalew Yimer is an Ethiopian professional long-distance runner. She was the bronze medallist over 10,000 metres at the 2009 World Championships in Athletics and took the silver in that event at the 2011 All-Africa Games. Her sister Hiwot Ayalew is also a top level runner.

Guram Kashia, Georgian footballer

Guram Kashia is a Georgian professional footballer who plays as a centre-back for Niké Liga club Slovan Bratislava and the Georgia national team.

04/07/1986

Ömer Aşık, Turkish basketball player

Ömer Faruk Aşık is a Turkish former professional basketball player who played in the National Basketball Association (NBA) and other leagues. Aşık, standing at 7 ft 0 in (2.13 m), was sought after by many of the top Euroleague basketball teams at the age of 19. Aşık got his first chance playing professionally with the Turkish Basketball League team Fenerbahçe in 2005–06. After one season with Alpella, Aşık moved back to Fenerbahçe and eventually ended his Turkish club career with them in 2009–10. He gained recognition playing for the Turkey national team at the 2010 FIBA World Championship, and as the starting center, he helped Turkey win the silver medal. In July 2010, Aşık signed with the Chicago Bulls. He was nicknamed "The Turkish Hammer" and "Asik the Destroyer" by Bulls commentator Stacey King.

Nguyen Ngoc Duy, Vietnamese footballer

Nguyễn Ngọc Duy is a Vietnamese retired professional footballer who played as a midfielder.

Rafael Arévalo, Salvadoran tennis player

Rafael Arévalo González is a retired professional tennis player from El Salvador. The majority of Arévalo's professional career has been restricted to playing on the Futures (ITF) circuit, with a further 22 appearances for the El Salvador Davis Cup team; he also had modest success in the juniors, reaching a peak of No. 10 in 2004. However, in 2008, aided by the Salvadoran Tennis Federation, he was awarded an invitation to the 2008 Beijing Olympics tennis tournament. The Tripartite Commission, which issued the invitation, is composed of representatives from International Olympic Committee (IOC), National Olympic Committees (NOCs), and the International Tennis Federation (ITF). It is standard practice to award such invitations to countries with small Olympic teams. Arévalo was the first player from El Salvador to represent the country in a tennis competition at the Olympics. Arévalo defeated South Korea's Lee Hyung-taik in three sets in the first round, before being beaten by Swiss World No. 1 Roger Federer in the second. Later that year, Arévalo won his only ATP Challenger Tour match, beating Borja Malo in Quito, before losing to Julio Cesar Campozano.

Willem Janssen, Dutch footballer

Willem Janssen is a Dutch professional football official and a former player who played as a central defender. He is the technical director of VVV-Venlo.

Terrance Knighton, American football player

Terrance O'Neil Knighton is an American football coach and former defensive tackle. He was selected by the Jacksonville Jaguars in the third round of the 2009 NFL draft after playing college football for the Temple Owls. Knighton was nicknamed "Pot Roast" and "Mutton Chop" by his teammates. He also played for the Denver Broncos, Washington Redskins and spent time with the New England Patriots prior to the 2016 NFL season.

Marte Elden, Norwegian skier

Marte Elden is a Norwegian cross-country skier who competed between 2005 and 2011.

04/07/1985

Kane Tenace, Australian footballer

Kane Tenace is an Australian rules footballer who played for the Geelong Football Club in the Australian Football League (AFL).

Dimitrios Mavroeidis, Greek basketball player

Dimitrios Mavroeidis is a Greek former professional basketball player and currently the team manager for AEK Athens of the Greek Basket League and the Basketball Champions League. During his career as a player, he stood at 2.12 m tall and covered the center position.

Wason Rentería, Colombian footballer

Wason Libardo Rentería Cuesta is a Colombian retired professional footballer who played as a forward.

04/07/1984

Jin Akanishi, Japanese singer-songwriter

Jin Akanishi is a Japanese singer-songwriter and actor. He has been active since 1998 as one of the two lead vocalists of the J-pop boy-band KAT-TUN before starting a solo career in 2009. Akanishi has also acted in several films and dramas.

04/07/1983

Melanie Fiona, Canadian singer-songwriter

Melanie Fiona Hallim is a Canadian R&B singer. Born and raised in Toronto, she began her career in 2002 as part of a Canadian R&B trio X-Quisite, who was nominated for a Juno Award for R&B/Soul Recording of the Year for their self-titled album (2004). She went on to form the duo the Renaissance with hometown native Drake, although they released no albums.

Amantle Montsho, Botswanan sprinter

Amantle Montsho is a Botswana former sprinter who specialized in the 400 metres. She represented her country at the 2004 and 2008 Summer Olympics, reaching the final at the latter edition. She was the first woman to represent Botswana at the Olympics. She also competed at the World Championships in Athletics and the IAAF World Indoor Championships, and was the former World Champion over the 400 m, winning in a personal best time of 49.56 in Daegu.

Miguel Pinto, Chilean footballer

Miguel Ángel Pinto Jerez is a Chilean former football goalkeeper. He is the current assistant coach of Esteban González in Querétaro.

Amol Rajan, Indian-English journalist

Amol Rajan is an Indian–British journalist, broadcaster and writer working in the United Kingdom. Formerly the media editor of BBC News, he has been a presenter on the Today programme on BBC Radio 4 since 2021 and University Challenge on BBC Two since 2023. Before joining the BBC, Rajan was the editor of the newspaper The Independent from 2013 to 2016.

Mattia Serafini, Italian footballer

Mattia Serafini is an Italian footballer.

04/07/1982

Vladimir Boisa, Georgian basketball player

Vladimir Boisa or Vladimer Boisa is a Georgian former professional basketball player. Since 2013 he is the vice-president of Georgian Basketball Federation.

Vladimir Gusev, Russian cyclist

Vladimir Nikolayevich Gusev is a Russian former professional road racing cyclist, who rode professionally between 2004 and 2015 for the Team CSC, Discovery Channel, Astana, Team Katusha and Skydive Dubai–Al Ahli teams.

Jeff Lima, New Zealand rugby league player

Jeff Lima is a former professional rugby league footballer who last played for the Canberra Raiders in the NRL. A New Zealand international representative prop, he previously played for the Wests Tigers, Melbourne Storm, South Sydney Rabbitohs, Wigan Warriors and the Catalans Dragons in the Super League, as well as France's Elite One Championship for the Saint-Gaudens Bears.

Michael "The Situation" Sorrentino, American model, author and television personality

Michael Paul Sorrentino, also known as The Situation, is an American television personality. He appeared on all six seasons of the MTV reality show Jersey Shore from 2009 through 2012, and has since returned to the franchise with Jersey Shore: Family Vacation.

04/07/1981

Dedé, Angolan footballer

Adérito Waldemar Alves Carvalho, commonly known as Dedé, is an Angolan former professional footballer who played as a midfielder.

Brock Berlin, American football player

Brock Sterling Berlin is an American former professional football player who was a quarterback in the National Football League (NFL). He played college football for the Florida Gators and Miami Hurricanes. Berlin was signed by the Miami Dolphins of the NFL as an undrafted free agent in 2005, and was also a member of the Hamburg Sea Devils, Dallas Cowboys, St. Louis Rams, and Detroit Lions.

Christoph Preuß, German footballer

Christoph Preuß is a German former professional footballer who played as a defender or defensive midfielder.

Francisco Cruceta, Dominican baseball player

Francisco Alberto Cruceta is a former professional baseball pitcher. He has played in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the Cleveland Indians, Seattle Mariners and Detroit Tigers, in the Korea Baseball Organization (KBO) for the Samsung Lions and in the Mexican Baseball League for the Saraperos de Saltillo.

Will Smith, American football player (died 2016)

William Raymond Smith III was an American professional football defensive end who played in the National Football League (NFL). He played college football for the Ohio State Buckeyes and was selected by the New Orleans Saints in the first round of the 2004 NFL draft, where he played for the entirety of his career. On April 9, 2016, Smith was murdered by firearm during an altercation after a traffic crash.

04/07/1980

Kwame Steede, Bermudan footballer

Kwame Steede is a Bermudian football coach and former player. He was appointed head coach of the Devonshire Cougars in 2015.

04/07/1979

Siim Kabrits, Estonian politician

Siim Kabrits is an Estonian entrepreneur and former politician. He was a member of Riigikogu from April 6, 2011, to March 26, 2014.

Josh McCown, American football player

Joshua Treadwell McCown is an American professional football coach and former quarterback. He is the offensive passing game coordinator and quarterbacks coach for the Minnesota Vikings of the National Football League (NFL). McCown played three seasons of college football for the SMU Mustangs, throwing for 27 touchdowns and 34 interceptions. He then transferred to play his final season of college football for the Sam Houston State Bearkats. In his only season with the Bearkats, he threw for 3,481 yards, 32 touchdowns and 12 interceptions, earning Southland Football League Player of the Year and third-team Division I-AA All-American honors. McCown was selected by the Arizona Cardinals in the third round of the 2002 NFL draft. A journeyman quarterback, McCown was in the NFL for eighteen seasons and was a member of twelve different franchises. He also played one year in the United Football League (UFL).

Renny Vega, Venezuelan footballer

Renny Vicente Vega Hernández is a Venezuelan former professional footballer who played as a goalkeeper.

04/07/1978

Marcos Daniel, Brazilian tennis player

Marcos Diniz Daniel is a retired professional tennis player from Brazil who turned professional in 1997. The right-hander reached his highest ATP singles ranking of World No. 56 in September 2009. He is coached by his brother, Márcio.

Émile Mpenza, Belgian footballer

Eka Basunga Lokonda "Émile" Mpenza is a Belgian former footballer who played as a striker. He has been capped at international level by Belgium. His older brother, Mbo, also represented Belgium.

04/07/1976

Daijiro Kato, Japanese motorcycle racer (died 2003)

Daijiro Kato was a Japanese Grand Prix motorcycle road racer, the 2001 250cc world champion, and the 2000 and 2002 Suzuka 8 Hours winner. He died as a result of injuries sustained after a crash during the 2003 Japanese motorcycle Grand Prix at Suzuka Circuit, Japan.

Yevgeniya Medvedeva, Russian skier

Yevgeniya Vladimirovna Medvedeva is a Russian cross-country skier who has competed since 1996. Competing in two Winter Olympics, she won two medals at Turin in 2006 with a gold in the 4 × 5 km relay and a bronze in the 7.5 km + 7.5 km double pursuit.

04/07/1974

Jill Craybas, American tennis player

Jill N. Craybas is an American former professional tennis player.

La'Roi Glover, American football player and sportscaster

La'Roi Damon Glover is an American professional football coach and former player who is the defensive line coach for the Orlando Storm of the United Football League (UFL). He played as a defensive tackle in the National Football League (NFL). Glover played college football for the San Diego State Aztecs. He enjoyed a 13-year career in which he made six-consecutive Pro Bowls and was a four-time All-Pro selection. He spent five seasons with the New Orleans Saints (1997–2001), four seasons with the Dallas Cowboys (2002–2005) and finished his playing career with the St. Louis Rams (2006–2008).

Adrian Griffin, American basketball player and coach

Adrian Darnell Griffin Sr. is an American professional basketball coach and former player who most recently served as the head coach for the Milwaukee Bucks of the National Basketball Association (NBA). He played in the NBA as a shooting guard and small forward from 1999 to 2008. Griffin grew up in Wichita, Kansas, and played college basketball for the Seton Hall Pirates.

04/07/1973

Keiko Ihara, Japanese race car driver

Keiko Ihara is a Japanese race car driver and businesswoman. She was a former race queen, a model who appears in a swimsuit or other fashionable apparel at race circuits, before deciding to become a racing driver. She is one of the few Japanese women nationals to race internationally at a high level. Her best finishes in the British Formula Three Championship are two eighth places finishes in 2005, which helped her to a final championship standing position of 16th with 12 points. In the 2006 series, she finished in 17th and last position in the Championship Class, with four points.

Gackt, Japanese musician, singer, songwriter, record producer and actor

Gakuto Oshiro , better known as Gackt, is a Japanese singer-songwriter, musician, record producer and actor.

Michael Johnson, English-Jamaican footballer and manager

Michael Owen Johnson is a former footballer who played as a defender, primarily at centre back, although he also played left-back when called upon. He is a current England U18s coach and club ambassador of Derby County. He made more than 550 appearances in the Football League and Premier League, including more than 250 games for Birmingham City and more than 100 each for Notts County, the club where he began his professional career, and for Derby County. Johnson was born in Nottingham, England, and played 13 times for the Jamaica national team, for which he qualified by descent. He retired as a player at the end of the 2008–09 season, and took up the post of youth team manager with Notts County. Michael can also be found coaching with the Campioni Soccer Academy at family holiday resorts during the summer months, coaching and mentoring children whilst they holiday with their parents.

Anjelika Krylova, Russian ice dancer and coach

Anjelika Alexeyevna Krylova is a Russian retired ice dancer. With partner Oleg Ovsyannikov, she is the 1998 Olympic silver medalist and two-time World champion. She currently works as a coach and choreographer in Moscow, Russia.

Jan Magnussen, Danish race car driver

Jan Ellegaard Magnussen is a Danish professional racing driver and was a factory driver for General Motors until the end of the 2020 season. He has competed in Championship Auto Racing Teams (CART), NASCAR, the FIA Formula One World Championship and the 24 Hours of Le Mans. With the Corvette Racing team, Magnussen won the 24 Hours of Le Mans in class on four occasions, in 2004, 2005, 2006 and 2009, as well as the IMSA Sportscar Championship twice in 2017 and 2018. He also won the 2015 24 Hours of Daytona in the GTLM class.

Tony Popovic, Australian footballer and manager

Tony Popovic is an Australian soccer manager and former player who serves as head coach of the Australia national team.

04/07/1972

Stephen Giles, Canadian canoe racer and engineer

Stephen Giles is a Canadian sprint canoeist who competed from the early 1990s to the mid 2000s. Competing in four Summer Olympics, he won the bronze in the C-1 1000 m event at Sydney in 2000.

Mike Knuble, Canadian-American ice hockey player and coach

Michael Rudolf Knuble is a Canadian-born American former professional ice hockey right winger who played in the National Hockey League (NHL). During his 16 NHL seasons, he played for the Detroit Red Wings, New York Rangers, Boston Bruins, Philadelphia Flyers and Washington Capitals.

04/07/1969

Al Golden, American football player and coach

Alfred James Golden Jr. is an American professional football coach and former tight end who is the defensive coordinator for the Cincinnati Bengals of the National Football League (NFL). He served as the head football coach for the Temple Owls from 2006 to 2010 and the Miami Hurricanes from 2011 to 2015.

Todd Marinovich, American football player and coach

Todd Marvin Marinovich is an American former professional football player who was a quarterback in the National Football League (NFL), Canadian Football League (CFL), and Arena Football League (AFL). He played college football for the USC Trojans. Marinovich is known for the well-documented, intense focus of his training as a young athlete and his brief career as a professional, cut short primarily because of his addiction to drugs.

Wilfred Mugeyi, Zimbabwean footballer and coach

Wilfred Mugeyi is a Zimbabwean former footballer whose last job was coach at South African Premier Soccer League club AmaZulu FC.

04/07/1967

Vinny Castilla, Mexican baseball player and manager

Vinicio "Vinny" Castilla Soria is a Mexican former Major League Baseball third baseman who played his best years with the Colorado Rockies. During his career, he played with the Atlanta Braves, Colorado Rockies, Tampa Bay Devil Rays (2000–2001), Houston Astros (2001), Washington Nationals (2005), and San Diego Padres (2006). He currently serves as a special assistant to the Rockies GM Bill Schmidt.

Sébastien Deleigne, French athlete

Sébastien Deleigne is a French modern pentathlete. He competed in four Olympic Games between 1992 and 2004.

04/07/1966

Ronni Ancona, Scottish actress and screenwriter

Veronica Jane Ancona is a British actress, comedian, impressionist and writer. She co-wrote and starred in The Big Impression, which was, for four years, one of BBC One's top-rated comedy programmes, winning a BAFTA in 2003. She also starred in the first series of the ITV series The Sketch Show, and has appeared in Last Tango in Halifax since its creation in 2012. She is a co-director, alongside Sally Phillips and Nick Hamson, of the production company Captain Dolly. Since 2026, she has played Bea Pollard in the BBC soap opera EastEnders.

Minas Hantzidis, German-Greek footballer

Minas Hantzidis is a Greek former footballer. He played for Bayer Leverkusen, VfL Bochum, Olympiacos, Iraklis, Veria, Wuppertaler SV, SV Elversberg, Union Solingen, 1. FC Kleve, TSV 05 Ronsdorf and SpVgg Radevormwald, as well as for the national side. He competed at the 1994 FIFA World Cup.

Lee Reherman, American actor (died 2016)

Lee Reherman was an American actor, appearing in television and film and hosting television reality shows.

04/07/1965

Harvey Grant, American basketball player and coach

Harvey Grant is an American former professional National Basketball Association (NBA) basketball player. He is the identical twin brother of Horace Grant, also a former NBA player.

Horace Grant, American basketball player and coach

Horace Junior Grant Sr. is an American former professional basketball player who is a special advisor to Michael Reinsdorf, the president and chief operating officer of the Chicago Bulls. He played college basketball for the Clemson Tigers before playing professionally in the National Basketball Association (NBA), where he became a four-time champion, winning three championships with the Chicago Bulls and one championship with the Los Angeles Lakers. Horace is the twin brother of former NBA player Harvey Grant. Horace made an NBA All-Star Game in 1994.

Kiriakos Karataidis, Greek footballer and manager

Kyriakos Karataidis is a former Greek football player. He played for Olympiacos, as well as for the national side.

Gérard Watkins, English actor and playwright

Gérard Watkins is a British and French actor, playwright, director, and songwriter.

04/07/1964

Cle Kooiman, American soccer player and manager

Christopher Clemence "Cle" Kooiman is an American former soccer defender. He played professionally in both Mexico and the United States including the first Major Indoor Soccer League, Western Soccer Alliance, American Professional Soccer League and Major League Soccer. He earned twelve caps, scoring one goal, with the U.S. national soccer team in 1993 and 1994. He was a member of the U.S. team at the 1994 FIFA World Cup.

Elie Saab, Lebanese fashion designer

Elie Saab is a fashion designer based in Lebanon. He started his business in the early 1980s, and specialized in bridal couture. His work includes the use of materials such as lace, gemstones, crystals, pearls, and embroidery.

Edi Rama, Albanian politician

Edi Rama is an Albanian politician, artist, and writer who has served as prime minister of Albania since 2013 and as chairman of the Socialist Party of Albania since 2005. He was the Minister of Culture, Youth and Sports from 1998 to 2000 and the mayor of Tirana from 2000 to 2011.

Mark Slaughter, American singer-songwriter and producer

Mark Allen Slaughter is an American singer and guitarist and one of the founders of the glam metal band Slaughter.

Mark Whiting, American actor, director, and screenwriter

Mark Randolph Whiting is an American writer, director, designer and actor.

04/07/1963

Henri Leconte, French tennis player and sportscaster

Henri Leconte is a French former professional tennis player. He reached the men's singles final at the French Open in 1988, won the French Open men's doubles title in 1984, and helped France win the Davis Cup in 1991. During his career, he won singles titles on all four major court surfaces: hard, clay, grass and carpet. Leconte's career-high singles ranking was world No. 5.

Laureano Márquez, Spanish-Venezuelan political scientist and journalist

Laureano Olegario Márquez Pérez is a Spanish-born Venezuelan humorist and political scientist.

José Oquendo, Puerto Rican-American baseball player and coach

José Manuel Oquendo Contreras, nicknamed "the Secret Weapon", is a Puerto Rican professional baseball coach and former utility player who is the fundamentals coordinator of the St. Louis Cardinals of Major League Baseball (MLB). He played 12 seasons in MLB for the New York Mets and Cardinals, and has coached in various roles within the Cardinals' organization since his retirement, most notably as third base coach for 18 seasons. Oquendo also managed the Puerto Rico national team in the 2006 and 2009 World Baseball Classics.

Sonia Pierre, Haitian-Dominican human rights activist (died 2011)

Solange Pierre, known as Sonia Pierre, was a human rights advocate in the Dominican Republic who worked to end antihaitianismo, which is discrimination against individuals of Haitian origin either born in Haiti or in the Dominican Republic. For this work, she won the 2006 Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights Award.

04/07/1962

Pam Shriver, American tennis player and sportscaster

Pamela Howard Shriver is an American former professional tennis player and current tennis broadcaster, pundit, and coach. She was ranked as high as world No. 3 in singles by the Women's Tennis Association (WTA), and world No. 1 in doubles. During the 1980s and 1990s, Shriver won 133 WTA Tour-level titles: 21 in singles and 112 in doubles. This includes 22 major titles, 21 in women's doubles and one in mixed doubles, as well as an Olympic gold medal in women's doubles at the 1988 Seoul Olympics, partnering Zina Garrison. Shriver and regular doubles partner Martina Navratilova are the only women's pair to complete the Grand Slam in a calendar year, winning all four majors in 1984.

04/07/1961

Richard Garriott, English-American video game designer, created the Ultima series

Richard Allen Garriott de Cayeux is a British-born American video game developer, entrepreneur and private astronaut.

04/07/1960

Roland Ratzenberger, Austrian race car driver (died 1994)

Roland Walter Ratzenberger was an Austrian racing driver, who competed in Formula One at three Grands Prix in 1994.

04/07/1959

Victoria Abril, Spanish actress and singer

Victoria Mérida Rojas, better known as Victoria Abril, is a Spanish film actress and singer based in France. She is possibly best known to international audiences for her performance in the film Tie Me Up! Tie Me Down! by director Pedro Almodóvar.

04/07/1958

Vera Leth, Greenlandic Ombudsman

Vera Leth is a Greenlandic civil servant who was the County Council Ombudsman for the Parliament of Greenland between 1997 and 2023.

Kirk Pengilly, Australian guitarist, saxophonist, and songwriter

Kirk Pengilly is an Australian musician and member of the Australian rock group INXS. Kirk plays saxophone and guitar, and also performs as a backing vocalist.

Carl Valentine, Canadian soccer player, coach, and manager

Carl Howard Valentine is a former professional soccer player and coach who has had a long association with soccer in the Vancouver area.

04/07/1957

Rein Lang, Estonian politician and diplomat, 25th Estonian Minister of Foreign Affairs

Rein Lang is an Estonian politician, a member of the Estonian Reform Party since 1995, and a diplomat. He was the Minister of Culture in Andrus Ansip's third cabinet until his resignation.

04/07/1956

Robert Sinclair MacKay, British academic and educator

Robert Sinclair MacKay is a British mathematician and professor at the University of Warwick. He researches dynamical systems, the calculus of variations, Hamiltonian dynamics and applications to complex systems in physics, engineering, chemistry, biology and economics.

04/07/1955

Eero Heinäluoma, Finnish politician

Eero Olavi Heinäluoma is a Finnish politician who has been serving as Member of the European Parliament since 2019. A former chairman of the Social Democratic Party of Finland, he was replaced in the party's leadership by Jutta Urpilainen in June 2008. He was Speaker of the Parliament of Finland from 2011 to 2015.

Kevin Nichols, Australian cyclist

Kevin John Nichols is a former track cyclist and Olympic gold medallist.

04/07/1954

Jim Beattie, American baseball player, coach, and manager

James Louis Beattie is an American former professional baseball pitcher who played for the New York Yankees and Seattle Mariners from 1978 to 1986. He also served as the Montreal Expos' general manager from 1995 to 2001, and was the Baltimore Orioles' general manager with Mike Flanagan from 2003 to 2005. As of 2010, Beattie served as a professional scout in the Toronto Blue Jays organization through the 2018 season. Beattie retired from his decades-long career in MLB at the end of the 2018 season. Beattie starred in baseball and basketball at South Portland High School in South Portland, Maine.

Morganna, American model, actress, and dancer

Morganna Roberts is an American entertainer who became known as Morganna or Morganna, the Kissing Bandit in baseball and other sports from 1969 through 1999. She was also billed as "Morganna the Wild One" when appearing as a dancer in the 1980s.

Devendra Kumar Joshi, 21st Chief of Naval Staff of the Indian Navy

Admiral Devendra Kumar Joshi, PVSM, AVSM, YSM, NM, VSM is the 14th Lieutenant Governor of Andaman and Nicobar Islands since 2017 and the Vice Chairman of Islands Development Agency (IDA). He was an Admiral in the Indian Navy and served as the 21st Chief of Naval Staff of the Indian Navy, having assumed office on 31 August 2012. He is a specialist in anti-submarine warfare. He resigned on 26 February 2014, taking responsibility for a series of accidents, thus becoming the first Indian Navy Chief to resign.

04/07/1953

Francis Maude, English lawyer and politician, Minister for the Cabinet Office

Francis Anthony Aylmer Maude, Baron Maude of Horsham, is a British Conservative Party politician who served as Minister for the Cabinet Office and Paymaster General from 2010 to 2015. He also served in several posts while the Conservatives were in opposition, notably as Shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer, Shadow Foreign Secretary and Chairman of the Conservative Party. Maude was Member of Parliament (MP) for North Warwickshire from 1983 to 1992 and then for Horsham from 1997 to 2015.

04/07/1952

Álvaro Uribe, Colombian lawyer and politician, 39th President of Colombia

Álvaro Uribe Vélez is a Colombian politician who served as the 32nd President of Colombia from 7 August 2002 to 7 August 2010. He is a member and leader of the right-wing political party Democratic Center.

Carol MacReady, English actress

Carol MacReady is an English actress. She has been working in the profession since 1961. She is known for the role of Mrs Dribelle in the series Bodger and Badger.

John Waite, English singer-songwriter and guitarist

John Charles Waite is an English rock musician. As a solo artist, he has released ten studio albums and is best known for the 1984 hit single "Missing You", which reached No. 1 on the US Billboard Hot 100 and the top ten on the UK singles chart. He was also the lead vocalist for the rock bands the Babys and Bad English.

Paul Rogat Loeb, American author and activist

Paul Rogat Loeb is an American writer whose work has focused on activism, civic engagement, and social change.

04/07/1951

John Alexander, Australian tennis player and politician

John Gilbert Alexander, nicknamed JA, is an Australian former professional tennis player, sports broadcaster, and federal politician.

Ralph Johnson, American R&B drummer and percussionist

Ralph Randolph Johnson is an American singer, songwriter, musician and producer. Johnson is a member and percussionist of the funk/soul/disco band Earth, Wind & Fire.

Vladimir Tismăneanu, Romanian-American political scientist, sociologist, and academic

Vladimir Tismăneanu is a Romanian American political scientist, political analyst, sociologist, and professor at the University of Maryland, College Park. A specialist in political systems and comparative politics, he is director of the University of Maryland's Center for the Study of Post-Communist Societies, having served as chairman of the editorial committee (2004–2008) and editor (1998–2004) of the East European Politics and Societies academic review. Over the years, Tismăneanu has been a contributor to several periodicals, including Studia Politica, Journal of Democracy, Sfera Politicii, Revista 22, Evenimentul Zilei, Idei în Dialog and Cotidianul. He has also worked with the international radio stations Radio Free Europe and Deutsche Welle, and authored programs for the Romanian Television Company. As of 2009, he is Academic Council Chairman of the Institute for People's Studies, a think tank of the Romanian Democratic Liberal Party. Between February 2010 and May 2012, he was also President of the Scientific Council of the Institute for the Investigation of Communist Crimes in Romania.

Kathleen Kennedy Townsend, American lawyer and politician, 6th Lieutenant Governor of Maryland

Kathleen Hartington Kennedy Townsend is an American politician and attorney who served as the sixth lieutenant governor of Maryland from 1995 to 2003. She was the first woman to serve in that role. A member of the Democratic Party, she ran unsuccessfully for governor of Maryland in 2002.

04/07/1950

Philip Craven, English basketball player and swimmer

Sir Philip Lee Craven is an English sports administrator, former Paralympic wheelchair basketball player, swimmer and track and field athlete. Between 2001 and 2017 he was the second president of the International Paralympic Committee (IPC).

David Jensen, Canadian-English radio and television host

David Allan Jensen is a Canadian-born British radio DJ and television presenter. Born in Victoria, British Columbia, Jensen began as a radio DJ on Radio Luxembourg. Jensen was later a broadcaster for the BBC from 1976 to 1984, as a host on BBC Radio 1 and presenter on the TV music programme Top of the Pops from 1976 to 1984. Jensen has also hosted and presented for Capital FM and ITV among other stations.

04/07/1948

René Arnoux, French race car driver

René Alexandre Arnoux is a French former racing driver, who competed in Formula One from 1978 to 1989. Arnoux won seven Formula One Grands Prix across 12 seasons.

Tommy Körberg, Swedish singer and actor

Bert Gustav Tommy Körberg is a Swedish singer, actor and musician. English-speaking audiences know him best for his role as Anatoly/"The Russian" in the musical Chess. He played the role on the 1984 concept album, and on stage in the 1986 world premiere West End production in London, as well as several times since. Körberg has represented Sweden in the Eurovision Song Contest twice: 1969 and 1988.

Jeremy Spencer, English singer-songwriter and guitarist

Jeremy Cedric Spencer is a British musician, best known for playing slide guitar and piano in the original line-up of the rock band Fleetwood Mac. A member since Fleetwood Mac's inception in July 1967, he remained with the band until his abrupt departure in February 1971, when he joined the "Children of God", a religious organisation now known as "The Family International", with which he is still affiliated. After a pair of solo albums in the 1970s, he continued to tour as a musician, but did not release another album until 2006. He released further solo albums from 2012 onwards and has also recorded as part of the folk trio Steetley. As a member of Fleetwood Mac, he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1998.

04/07/1947

Lembit Ulfsak, Estonian actor and director (died 2017)

Lembit Ulfsak was an Estonian stage and film actor. Ulfsak starred in the 2014 film Tangerines which was nominated for the Best Foreign Language Film at the 87th Academy Awards. It was also among the five nominated films at the 72nd Golden Globe Awards for Best Foreign Language Film. Ulfsak died on 22 March 2017, at the age of 69.

04/07/1946

Ron Kovic, American author and activist

Ronald Lawrence Kovic is an American anti-war activist, author, and United States Marine Corps sergeant who was wounded and paralyzed in the Vietnam War. His best selling 1976 memoir Born on the Fourth of July was made into the 1989 film of the same name which starred Tom Cruise as Kovic and was co-written by Kovic and directed by Oliver Stone.

Michael Milken, American businessman and philanthropist

Michael Robert Milken is an American financier. He is known for his role in the development of the market for high-yield bonds, which led to his reputation as the "Junk Bond King", and his conviction and sentence following a guilty plea on felony charges for violating U.S. securities laws. Milken's compensation while head of the high-yield bond department at Drexel Burnham Lambert in the late 1980s exceeded $1 billion over a four-year period, a record for U.S. income at that time. With a net worth of $6 billion as of 2022, he is among the richest people in the world.

04/07/1945

Andre Spitzer, Romanian-Israeli fencer and coach (died 1972)

Andre Spitzer was an Israeli fencing master and coach of Israel's 1972 Summer Olympics team. He was one of 11 athletes and coaches taken hostage and subsequently killed by terrorists in the Munich massacre.

04/07/1943

Conny Bauer, German trombonist

Konrad "Conny" Bauer is a German free jazz trombonist. He is the brother of the trombonist Johannes Bauer.

Emerson Boozer, American football player and sportscaster

Emerson Boozer is an American former professional football player who spent his entire career as a running back for the New York Jets in the American Football League (AFL) and National Football League (NFL). In the last year of separate drafts by the AFL and the NFL, Boozer signed with the AFL's Jets, rather than with an NFL team. He was a member of the Jets team that defeated the NFL's champion Baltimore Colts, 16–7, in Super Bowl III. Before joining the AFL, Boozer played college football at Maryland State College, which is now the University of Maryland Eastern Shore (UMES).

Adam Hart-Davis, English historian, author, and photographer

Adam John Hart-Davis is an English scientist, author, photographer, historian and broadcaster. He presented the BBC television series Local Heroes and What the Romans Did for Us, the latter spawning several spin-off series involving the Victorians, the Tudors, the Stuarts and the Ancients. He was also a co-presenter of Tomorrow's World, and presented Science Shack.

Geraldo Rivera, American lawyer, journalist, and author

Geraldo Michael Rivera is an American journalist, attorney, author, and political commentator who worked at the Fox News Channel from 2001 to 2023. He hosted the tabloid talk show Geraldo from 1987 to 1998. He gained publicity with the live 1986 TV special The Mystery of Al Capone's Vaults. Rivera hosted the news magazine program Geraldo at Large, hosts the occasional broadcast of Geraldo Rivera Reports. He served as a rotating co-host of The Five from 2022 to 2023. As of February 2024, Rivera retains the spot of correspondent-at-large with NewsNation.

Fred Wesley, American jazz and funk trombonist

Fred Wesley is an American trombonist who worked with James Brown in the 1960s and 1970s, and Parliament-Funkadelic in the second half of the 1970s.

Alan Wilson, American singer-songwriter and guitarist (died 1970)

Alan Christie Wilson, nicknamed "Blind Owl", was an American musician, best known as the co-founder, leader, co-lead singer, and primary composer of the blues rock band Canned Heat. He sang and played harmonica and guitar with the group, live and on recordings. Wilson was the lead singer for the group's two biggest U.S. hit singles: "On the Road Again" and "Going Up the Country".

04/07/1942

Hal Lanier, American baseball player, coach, and manager

Harold Clifton Lanier is an American former infielder, coach and manager in Major League Baseball (MLB). Known as a brainy, defense-first player, he won National League Manager of the Year as a rookie manager for leading the Astros to the National League West division championship in 1986. From November 2014 through the end of his 2018 contract, Lanier served as the first manager of the Ottawa Champions of the independent Can-Am League. From 1964 through 1973, Lanier played for the San Francisco Giants (1964–71) and New York Yankees (1972–73). He is the son of Max Lanier, a former MLB All-Star pitcher.

Floyd Little, American football player and coach (died 2021)

Floyd Douglas Little was an American professional football player who was a halfback for the Denver Broncos, initially in the American Football League (AFL) and later the National Football League (NFL). He played college football for the Syracuse Orangemen, twice earning All-American honors. Little was the sixth overall selection of the 1967 NFL/AFL draft, the first common draft. He was the first first-round draft pick to sign with the AFL's Broncos, where he was known as "the Franchise". Little was elected to the College Football Hall of Fame in 1983 and the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 2010.

Stefan Meller, French-Polish academic and politician, Polish Minister of Foreign Affairs (died 2008)

Stefan Meller was a Polish diplomat and academician. He served as foreign minister of Poland from 31 October 2005, to 9 May 2006, in the cabinet of Kazimierz Marcinkiewicz.

Prince Michael of Kent

Prince Michael of Kent is a member of the British royal family who is 53rd in line to the British throne as of 2026. The younger son of Prince George, Duke of Kent, and Princess Marina of Greece and Denmark, he is a grandson of George V, nephew of Edward VIII and George VI, and first cousin of Queen Elizabeth II. Michael's mother was also a first cousin of Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, consort of Queen Elizabeth II, making him both a second cousin and first cousin once removed to Charles III.

Peter Rowan, American singer-songwriter and guitarist

Peter Rowan is an American bluegrass musician and composer. He plays guitar, fiddle, dobro, banjo, bass, piano and mandolin. He has a wide vocal range and yodels. He was inducted into the International Bluegrass Music Hall of Fame in 2022.

04/07/1941

Sam Farr, American politician

Samuel Sharon Farr is an American politician who was the U.S. representative for California's 17th (1993–2013) and 20th congressional districts (2013–17). He is a member of the Democratic Party. He was elected to Congress in a 1993 special election when longtime Democratic Rep. Leon Panetta resigned to become Director of the Office of Management and Budget. He retired from Congress following the 2016 elections.

Tomaž Šalamun, Croatian-Slovenian poet and academic (died 2014)

Tomaž Šalamun was a Slovenian poet who was a leading figure of postwar neo-avant-garde poetry in Central Europe and an internationally acclaimed absurdist. His more than 50 books of Slovene poetry have been translated into more than twenty-five languages. His work has been called a poetic bridge between old European roots and America. Šalamun was a member of the Slovenian Academy of Sciences and Arts. He lived in Ljubljana, Slovenia, and was married to the painter Metka Krašovec.

Pavel Sedláček, Czech singer-songwriter and guitarist

Pavel Sedláček is a Czech rock and roll singer, songwriter and guitarist. When he was 15 played "Rock Around the Clock" on the show for amateur musicians. From 1962 he collaborated with theatre Semafor. At the same time he recorded the song "Život je pes" which became his first hit. In 1968 he attended Czech Technical University in Prague.

Brian Willson, American soldier, lawyer, and activist

S. Brian Willson is a U.S. American Vietnam veteran, peace activist, and trained attorney.

04/07/1940

Pat Stapleton, Canadian ice hockey player (died 2020)

Patrick James "Whitey" Stapleton was a Canadian ice hockey player. A defenceman, Stapleton played 15 seasons in the National Hockey League (NHL) and the World Hockey Association (WHA), most notably for the Chicago Black Hawks. He was the father of Mike Stapleton, who had a lengthy career in the NHL.

04/07/1938

Steven Rose, English biologist and academic

Steven Peter Russell Rose was an English neuroscientist, author and social commentator. He was an emeritus professor of biology and neurobiology at the Open University and Gresham College, London.

Bill Withers, American singer-songwriter and producer (died 2020)

William Harrison Withers Jr. was an American soul and R&B singer and songwriter. Born in Slab Fork, West Virginia, and raised in Beckley, West Virginia, he is known for having several hits over a career spanning 18 years, including "Ain't No Sunshine" (1971), "Grandma's Hands" (1971), "Use Me" (1972), "Lean on Me" (1972), "Lovely Day" (1977) and "Just the Two of Us" (1980). Withers won three Grammy Awards out of nine total nominations. He largely stopped performing and recording in the mid-1980s, citing burnout and conflicts with record company executives.

04/07/1937

Thomas Nagel, American philosopher and academic

Thomas Nagel is an American philosopher. He is University Professor of Philosophy and Law Emeritus at New York University, where he taught from 1980 until his retirement in 2016. His main areas of philosophical interest are political philosophy, ethics and philosophy of mind.

Queen Sonja of Norway

Sonja is Queen of Norway as the wife of King Harald V. She is Norway's first queen consort since Queen Maud, the wife of King Haakon VII, who died in 1938.

Richard Rhodes, American journalist and historian

Richard Lee Rhodes is an American historian, journalist, and author of both fiction and nonfiction, including the Pulitzer Prize-winning The Making of the Atomic Bomb (1986), and most recently, Energy: A Human History (2018).

Eric Walters, Australian journalist (died 2010)

Eric Walters was an Australian journalist, media trainer and former television presenter. He was best known for his long-running stint as early morning anchor for the Nine Network, both on the Today and National Nine Early Morning News.

04/07/1936

Zdzisława Donat, Polish soprano and actress

Zdzisława Donat-Pajda is a Polish coloratura soprano. She studied in Warsaw and Siena, where she was a pupil of Gino Bechi.

04/07/1935

Paul Scoon, Grenadian politician, 2nd Governor-General of Grenada (died 2013)

Sir Paul Godwin Scoon was a Grenadian politician who served as governor-general of Grenada from 1978 to 1992. His tenure is notable for the hectic events related to the rise and fall of the People's Revolutionary Government, as well as his personal involvement in and support of the invasion of Grenada.

04/07/1934

Yvonne B. Miller, American academic and politician (died 2012)

Yvonne Bond Miller was a Virginia educator and American politician who became the first African-American woman to serve in both houses of the Virginia General Assembly. A Democrat, in 1983 Miller became the first African-American woman elected to the state house, where she served for four years before winning election to the state Senate, where she consistently won re-election until her death in office. Miller taught in the Norfolk Public schools, and later taught early and childhood education at one of her alma maters, which had become Norfolk State University during her lifetime.

Colin Welland, English actor and screenwriter (died 2015)

Colin Welland was an English actor and screenwriter. He won the BAFTA Award for Best Actor in a Supporting Role for his performance as Mr Farthing in Kes (1969) and the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay for writing Chariots of Fire (1981).

04/07/1932

Aurèle Vandendriessche, Belgian runner (died 2023)

Aurèle Vandendriessche was a Belgian marathon runner, who won silver medals at the 1962 and 1966 European Championships. He competed at the 1956, 1960, and 1964 Summer Olympics with the best result of seventh place in 1964. Twice winner of the Boston Marathon, he recorded his best time there, 2:17:44 in 1965, while finishing fourth.

04/07/1931

Stephen Boyd, Northern Ireland-born American actor (died 1977)

William Millar, better known by his stage name Stephen Boyd, was an actor from Northern Ireland. He emerged as a leading man during the late 1950s with his role as the villainous Messala in Ben-Hur (1959), a role that earned him the Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actor – Motion Picture. He received his second Golden Globe nomination for the musical Billy Rose's Jumbo (1962).

Rick Casares, American football player and soldier (died 2013)

Richard Jose Casares was an American professional football player who was a fullback in the National Football League (NFL) and American Football League (AFL) for twelve seasons during the 1950s and 1960s. Casares played college football for the University of Florida, where he was standout fullback and kicker. Casares played professionally for the Chicago Bears and Washington Redskins of the NFL, and was a member of the expansion Miami Dolphins of the AFL.

Sébastien Japrisot, French author, director, and screenwriter (died 2003)

Sébastien Japrisot was a French author, screenwriter and film director. His pseudonym was an anagram of Jean-Baptiste Rossi, his real name. Renowned for subverting the rules of the crime genre, Japrisot broke down the established formulas "into their component pieces to re-combine them in original and paradoxical ways." Some critics argue that though Japrisot's work may lack the explicit experimental element present in the novels of some of his contemporaries, it shows influences of structuralist theories and the unorthodox techniques of the New Novelists.

Peter Richardson, English cricketer (died 2017)

Peter Edward Richardson was an English cricketer, who played for Worcestershire and Kent County Cricket Clubs and in 34 Test matches for the England cricket team.

04/07/1930

George Steinbrenner, American businessman (died 2010)

George Michael Steinbrenner III, nicknamed "the Boss", was an American businessman who was the principal owner and managing partner of Major League Baseball's New York Yankees from 1973 until his death in 2010. He was the longest-serving owner in club history, and the Yankees won seven World Series championships and 11 American League pennants under his ownership. His outspokenness and role in driving up player salaries made him one of the sport's most controversial figures. Steinbrenner was also involved in the Great Lakes and Gulf Coast shipping industry.

04/07/1929

Al Davis, American football player, coach, and manager (died 2011)

Allen R. Davis was an American professional football executive and coach. He was the managing general partner, principal owner and de facto general manager for the Oakland Raiders of the National Football League (NFL) for 39 years, from 1972 until his death in 2011. Prior to becoming principal owner of the Raiders, he served as the team's head coach from 1963 to 1965 and as a part-owner from 1966 to 1971, assuming both positions while the Raiders were members of the American Football League (AFL). He served as the AFL commissioner in 1966.

Bill Tuttle, American baseball player (died 1998)

William Robert Tuttle was an American professional baseball player. Primarily a center fielder, he appeared in 1,270 games played in Major League Baseball over 11 seasons for the Detroit Tigers, Kansas City Athletics (1958–1961) and Minnesota Twins (1961–1963). Tuttle also played 85 games as a third baseman during 1961 for the Twins; they were the only MLB games he ever played at the "hot corner." He threw and batted right-handed, stood 6 feet (1.8 m) tall and weighed 190 pounds (86 kg).

04/07/1928

Giampiero Boniperti, Italian footballer and politician (died 2021)

Giampiero Boniperti was an Italian footballer who played his entire 15-season career at Juventus between 1946 and 1961, winning five Serie A titles and two Coppa Italia titles. He also played for the Italy national team at international level and took part in the 1950 and 1954 FIFA World Cup finals, as well as the 1952 Summer Olympics with Italy. After retirement from professional football, Boniperti was the CEO and chairman of Juventus and, later, a deputy to the European Parliament.

Teofisto Guingona Jr., Filipino politician; 11th Vice President of the Philippines

Teofisto "Tito" Tayko Guingona Jr. is a Filipino statesman and diplomat who served as the 11th vice president of the Philippines from 2001 to 2004, during the first term of President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo. Born in San Juan, he is a graduate of Ateneo de Manila University, where he was a working student.

Jassem Alwan, Syrian Army Officer (died 2018)

Jassem Alwan was a Syrian military officer and prominent military figure in Syria in the early 1960s. He rose to prominence during the period of the United Arab Republic (UAR) when he served as the Commander of the Qatana Base near Damascus. Alwan, a staunch supporter of UAR President Gamal Abdel Nasser, opposed Syria's secession from the union in 1961, leading two failed coup attempts to overthrow the secessionist government in 1962.

Shan Ratnam, Sri Lankan physician and academic (died 2001)

Emeritus Professor Sittampalam Shanmugaratnam, also known as Shan Ratnam, was a Singaporean obstetrician and gynaecologist.

Chuck Tanner, American baseball player and manager (died 2011)

Charles William Tanner was an American professional baseball player and manager. A left fielder and pinch hitter who appeared in 396 games in Major League Baseball (MLB) between 1955 and 1962, he was known for his unwavering confidence and infectious optimism. As a manager for all or parts of 19 seasons, he led the Pittsburgh Pirates to a World Series championship in 1979. In his last baseball job, he served as a senior advisor to Pirates general manager Neal Huntington.

04/07/1927

Gina Lollobrigida, Italian actress and photographer (died 2023)

Luigia "Gina" Lollobrigida OMRI was an Italian actress, model, photojournalist, and sculptor. She was one of the highest-profile European actresses of the 1950s and 1960s, a period in which she was an international sex symbol. Dubbed "the most beautiful woman in the world", at the time of her death she was among the last surviving high-profile international actors from the Golden Age of Hollywood cinema.

Neil Simon, American playwright and screenwriter (died 2018)

Marvin Neil Simon was an American playwright, screenwriter and author. He wrote more than 30 plays and nearly the same number of movie screenplays, mostly film adaptations of his plays. He received three Tony Awards and a Golden Globe Award, as well as nominations for four Academy Awards and four Primetime Emmy Awards. He was awarded a Special Tony Award in 1975, the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 1991, the Kennedy Center Honors in 1995 and the Mark Twain Prize for American Humor in 2006.

04/07/1926

Alfredo Di Stéfano, Argentinian-Spanish footballer and coach (died 2014)

Alfredo Stéfano Di Stéfano Laulhé was an Argentine and naturalised Spanish professional footballer and manager who played as a forward, widely regarded as one of the greatest players of all time and the greatest Real Madrid player ever. Nicknamed "Saeta Rubia", he is best known for his achievements with the club, where he was instrumental in the club's domination of the European Cup and La Liga during the 1950s and 1960s. Along with Francisco Gento and José María Zárraga, he was one of only three players to play a part in all five European Cup victories, scoring goals in each of the five finals. Di Stéfano played international football mostly for Spain after moving to Madrid and becoming a naturalised citizen, but he also played for Argentina.

Lake Underwood, American race car driver and businessman (died 2008)

Lake Carl Underwood was an American entrepreneur who competed as a champion in the racing of prototype automobiles and motorcycles. He was a master mechanic who, although high performance fuel delivery and carburetor design and mechanics were his specialties, also invented automobile improvements, especially in electronics for German automobiles.

04/07/1925

Ciril Zlobec, Slovene poet, writer, translator, journalist and politician (died 2018)

Ciril Zlobec was a Slovene poet, writer, translator, journalist and former politician. He is best remembered for his poems, publishing several volumes of poetry in his lifetime. In 1990 he became a member of the Presidency of Slovenia at a critical time for Slovene independence.

Dorothy Head Knode, American tennis player (died 2015)

Alice Dorothy Head Knode, also known as Dottie Head Knode, was an American tennis player who reached the women's singles final of the French International Championships in 1955, losing to Angela Mortimer in three sets, and 1957, losing to Shirley Bloomer in straight sets. She reached the semifinals of six other Grand Slam singles tournaments from 1952 through 1957.

04/07/1924

Eva Marie Saint, American actress

Eva Marie Saint is an American retired actress. In a career spanning more than seven decades, she received an Academy Award and a Primetime Emmy Award and was nominated for a Golden Globe Award. As of July 2024, Saint was the oldest living Academy Award winner and one of the last living stars from the Golden Age of Hollywood.

Delia Fiallo, Cuban author and screenwriter (died 2021)

Delia Fiallo was a Cuban author and screenwriter who lived in Miami, Florida. She was born in Havana, Cuba and raised in Pinar Del Rio, Cuba. She was one of the most distinguished representatives of the contemporary romance novel, dabbling in various genres which appeared in her literary output.

Harry Stewart Jr., American military officer and fighter pilot (died 2025)

Harry Thaddeus Stewart Jr. was an American fighter pilot. He was an officer in the United States Army Air Forces, and a Distinguished Flying Cross recipient who served in the 332nd Fighter Group, best known as the all–African American Tuskegee Airmen.

04/07/1923

Rudolf Friedrich, Swiss lawyer and politician (died 2013)

Rudolf Heinrich Friedrich was a Swiss attorney and politician. He served as a member of the Federal Council (Switzerland) for the Free Democratic Party from 1982 to 1984, where he held the position as Head of the Federal Department of Justice and Police. He resigned from this position for health reasons. Previously, Friedrich served as a member of the National Council from 1975 to 1982.

04/07/1922

R. James Harvey, American politician (died 2019)

Russell James Harvey usually known as James Harvey, was a United States representative from Michigan and an inactive senior United States district judge of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan.

04/07/1921

Gérard Debreu, French economist and mathematician, Nobel Prize laureate (died 2004)

Gérard Debreu was a French-born economist and mathematician. Best known as a professor of economics at the University of California, Berkeley, where he began work in 1962, he won the 1983 Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences.

Nasser Sharifi, Iranian sports shooter

Nasser Sharifi is an Iranian former sports shooter. He competed in the 50 metre rifle, three positions event at the 1964 Summer Olympics.

Metropolitan Mikhail of Asyut (died 2014)

Mikhail of Asyut, was the elder metropolitan of the Holy Metropolis of Asyut (Lycopolis), (Hieracon, and of the Coptic Orthodox Church of Alexandria and was the abbot of the Monastery of Saint Macarius the Great, in Scetes, Lower Egypt until early 2009, when he decided to resign this responsibility due to his failing health and also due to the demise of Matta El-Meskeen, the Chief Hegumen in-charge of the Monastery of Saint Macarius the Great in 2008.

Philip Rose, American actor, playwright, and producer (died 2011)

Philip Rose was a Broadway theatrical producer of such productions as A Raisin in the Sun, The Owl and the Pussycat, Does a Tiger Wear a Necktie?, Purlie, and Shenandoah. His work was particularly notable for its social insight and distinctive social conscience.

Tibor Varga, Hungarian violinist and conductor (died 2003)

Tibor Varga was a Hungarian violinist, conductor, and music teacher who developed pedagogic methods for teaching string music. He was a founding member of the string department in the Musikhochschule Detmold.

04/07/1920

Norm Drucker, American basketball player and referee (died 2015)

Norm Drucker was a major influence in professional basketball officiating for over 35 years. His NBA and ABA officiating career as both a referee and Supervisor of Officials spanned the careers of all-time pro basketball greats, from George Mikan, Bob Cousy, Dolph Schayes and Bob Pettit in the 1950s, to Wilt Chamberlain, Jerry West, Elgin Baylor and Bill Russell in the 1960s, to Julius Erving, Rick Barry, Bill Bradley and Walt Frazier in the 1970s and to Larry Bird and Magic Johnson in the 1980s.

Leona Helmsley, American businesswoman (died 2007)

Leona Roberts Helmsley was an American businesswoman. After allegations of non-payment were made by contractors hired to improve Helmsley's Connecticut home, she was investigated and convicted of federal income tax evasion and other crimes in 1989. Although having initially received a sentence of 4 years, she was required to serve only 19 months in prison and two months under house arrest. During the trial, a former housekeeper testified that she had heard Helmsley say: "We don't pay taxes; only the little people pay taxes." This quote was identified with her for the rest of her life. Helmsley's flamboyant personality and reputation for tyrannical behavior, especially towards her employees, earned her the nickname Queen of Mean.

Fritz Wilde, German footballer and manager (died 1977)

Fritz Wilde was a German football player and manager, who played as a forward.

Paul Bannai, American politician (died 2019)

Paul Takeo Bannai was an American politician who was the first Japanese American to ever serve in the California State Legislature. He served in the State Assembly as a Republican legislator from 1973 until 1980, when he was defeated for reelection by Democrat Richard Floyd.

04/07/1918

Eppie Lederer, American journalist and radio host (died 2002)

Esther Pauline "Eppie" Lederer, better known by the pen name Ann Landers, was an American advice columnist and eventually a nationwide media celebrity. She began writing the "Ask Ann Landers" column in 1955 and continued for 47 years, by which time its readership was 90 million people. A 1978 World Almanac survey named her the most influential woman in the United States. She was the identical twin sister of Pauline Phillips, who wrote the similarly popular "Dear Abby" advice column as Abigail Van Buren.

Johnnie Parsons, American race car driver (died 1984)

John Woodrow Parsons was an American racing driver in the AAA and USAC Championship Car series. He was the 1949 AAA national champion, and won the 1950 Indianapolis 500.

King Taufa'ahau Tupou IV of Tonga, (died 2006)

Tāufaʻāhau Tupou IV was King of Tonga from 1965 until his death in 2006. He was the tallest and heaviest Tongan monarch, weighing 209.5 kg (462 lb) and measuring 196 cm.

Alec Bedser, English cricketer (died 2010)

Sir Alec Victor Bedser was an English professional cricketer, primarily a medium-fast bowler. He is widely regarded as one of the best English cricketers of the 20th century.

Eric Bedser, English cricketer (died 2006)

Eric Arthur Bedser was a cricketer who played for Surrey County Cricket Club. He was the elder identical twin brother of Alec Bedser (1918–2010), widely regarded as one of England's top bowlers of the 20th century. Eric was an all-rounder, a useful right-handed batsman and right-arm off-spin bowler.

Pauline Phillips, American journalist and radio host, created Dear Abby (died 2013)

Pauline Esther Phillips, also known as Abigail Van Buren, was an American advice columnist and radio show host who began the well-known Dear Abby newspaper column in 1956. It became the most widely syndicated newspaper column in the world, syndicated in 1,400 newspapers with 110 million readers.

04/07/1916

Iva Toguri D'Aquino, American typist and broadcaster (died 2006)

Iva Ikuko Toguri D'Aquino was an American citizen visiting Japan when World War II began. Unable to return to the United States, she risked her life smuggling food to American service men held in prisoner of war camps.

04/07/1915

Timmie Rogers, American actor and singer-songwriter (died 2006)

Timmie Rogers was an American comedian, singer-songwriter, bandleader and actor who appeared on many national TV shows in the 1960s and 1970s. Rogers was one of the first Black comedians allowed to directly address a white audience when he worked. Before Rogers, African-American funny men had to either work in pairs or groups, only conversing with each other, and they had to play a character, while popular white comedians, such as Bob Hope and Jack Benny got to play themselves. Rogers worked by himself, always dressed well, often wearing a tuxedo, and never wore blackface.

04/07/1914

Nuccio Bertone, Italian automobile designer (died 1997)

Giuseppe Bertone, also called "Nuccio", was an automobile designer and constructor. He took over Carrozzeria Bertone from his father, Giovanni after World War II, growing the small business to a car building and designing powerhouse. After racing Fiat, O.S.C.A., Maserati, and Ferrari, Bertone moved to construction, agreeing to build his first car, a series of 200 MGs, at the 1952 Turin Motor Show. He drew attention at the Paris Motor Show that year with an Abarth concept, and was chosen to design the replacement for the Alfa Romeo Disco Volante. These so-called BAT cars used the Alfa Romeo 1900 Sprint chassis. Bertone is also responsible for designing the famous Lambretta GP/DL range of scooters and the Luna line of scooters.

04/07/1911

Bruce Hamilton, Australian public servant (died 1989)

Leslie Bruce Hamilton was an Australian senior public servant and head of the Department of Social Services between 1966 and 1973.

Mitch Miller, American singer and producer (died 2010)

Mitchell William Miller was an American choral conductor, record producer, record-industry executive, and professional oboist. He was involved in almost all aspects of the industry, particularly as a conductor and artists and repertoire (A&R) man. Miller was one of the most influential people in American popular music during the 1950s and early 1960s, both as the head of A&R at Columbia Records and as a best-selling recording artist with an NBC television series, Sing Along with Mitch. A graduate of the Eastman School of Music of the University of Rochester in the early 1930s, Miller began his musical career as a player of the oboe and English horn, making numerous highly regarded classical and popular recordings.

Elizabeth Peratrovich, Alaskan-American civil rights activist (died 1958)

Elizabeth Peratrovich was an American civil rights activist, Grand President of the Alaska Native Sisterhood, and a Tlingit who worked for equality on behalf of Alaska Natives. In the 1940s, her advocacy was credited as being instrumental in the passing of Alaska's Anti-Discrimination Act of 1945, the first state or territorial anti-discrimination law enacted in the United States.

04/07/1910

Robert K. Merton, American sociologist and scholar (died 2003)

Robert King Merton was an American sociologist who is considered a founding father of modern sociology, and a major contributor to the subfield of criminology. He served as the 47th president of the American Sociological Association. He spent most of his career teaching at Columbia University, where he attained the rank of University Professor. In 1994 he was awarded the National Medal of Science for his contributions to the field and for having founded the sociology of science.

Gloria Stuart, American actress (died 2010)

Gloria Frances Stuart was an American actress, visual artist and activist. She was known for her roles in pre-code films, and garnered renewed fame late in life for her portrayal of Rose Dawson Calvert in James Cameron's epic romance Titanic (1997), one of the highest-grossing films of all time. Her performance in the film won her a Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Supporting Role and earned her nominations for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress and the Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress – Motion Picture.

04/07/1909

Alec Templeton, Welsh composer, pianist and satirist (died 1963)

Alec Andrew Templeton was a Welsh composer, pianist, and satirist.

04/07/1907

John Anderson, American discus thrower (died 1948)

John Franklin Anderson was an American athlete who competed mainly in the discus throw. He won the gold medal in this event at the 1932 Summer Olympics held in Los Angeles.

Howard Taubman, American author and critic (died 1996)

Hyman Howard Taubman was an American music critic, theater critic, and author.

04/07/1906

Vincent Schaefer, American chemist and meteorologist (died 1993)

Vincent Joseph Schaefer was an American chemist and meteorologist who developed cloud seeding. On November 13, 1946, while a researcher at the General Electric Research Laboratory, Schaefer modified clouds in the Berkshire Mountains by seeding them with dry ice. While he was self-taught and never completed high school, he was issued 14 patents.

04/07/1905

Irving Johnson, American sailor and author (died 1991)

Irving McClure Johnson was an American sail training pioneer, adventurer, lecturer and writer.

Robert Hankey, 2nd Baron Hankey, British diplomat and public servant (died 1996)

Robert Maurice Alers Hankey, 2nd Baron Hankey, was a British diplomat and public servant.

Lionel Trilling, American critic, essayist, short story writer, and educator (died 1975)

Lionel Mordecai Trilling was an American literary critic, short story writer, essayist, and teacher. One of the leading U.S. critics of the 20th century, he analyzed the contemporary cultural, social, and political implications of literature. He and his wife, Diana Trilling, were members of the New York Intellectuals and contributors to the Partisan Review.

04/07/1904

Angela Baddeley, English actress (died 1976)

Madeleine Angela Clinton-Baddeley was an English stage and television actress, widely remembered for her role as household cook Mrs. Bridges in the period drama Upstairs, Downstairs. Her stage career spanned seven decades.

04/07/1903

Flor Peeters, Belgian organist, composer, and educator (died 1986)

Franciscus Florentinus Peeters, Baron Peeters was a Belgian composer, organist and academic teacher. He was director of the Conservatorium in Antwerp, Belgium, and organist at Mechelen Cathedral from 1923 to his death in 1986.

04/07/1902

Meyer Lansky, American gangster (died 1983)

Meyer Lansky was an American organized crime figure associated with gambling operations and illicit finance in the United States, Cuba, and the Caribbean during the mid-20th century. He was closely linked to Charles "Lucky" Luciano and is frequently described by historians and law-enforcement sources as a key figure in the formation of interethnic criminal cooperation in the United States, including the network later referred to as the National Crime Syndicate.

George Murphy, American actor and politician (died 1992)

George Lloyd Murphy was an American actor and politician. Murphy was a song-and-dance leading man in many big-budget Hollywood musicals from 1930 to 1952. He was the president of the Screen Actors Guild from 1944 to 1946, and was awarded an honorary Oscar in 1951. Murphy served from 1965 to 1971 as U.S. Senator from California, the first notable American actor to be elected to statewide office in California, predating Ronald Reagan and Arnold Schwarzenegger, who each served two terms as governor. He is the only United States senator represented by a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

04/07/1900

Belinda Dann, Indigenous Australian who was one of the Stolen Generation, reunited with family aged 107 (died 2007)

Belinda Dann was an Indigenous Australian born as Quinlyn Wardagoo to an Irish cattle station manager and a Nyikina mother in the Lunlungai community in Derby, Western Australia. At the age of 6, 7, or 8 she was taken away and sent to Beagle Bay Mission with other members of the stolen generation. Her name was changed to Belinda Boyd to integrate with White society.

Nellie Mae Rowe, American folk artist (died 1982)

Nellie Mae Rowe was an African-American artist from Fayette County, Georgia. Although she is best known today for her colorful works on paper, Rowe worked across mediums, creating drawings, collages, altered photographs, hand-sewn dolls, home installations and sculptural environments. She was said to have an "instinctive understanding of the relation between color and form." Her work focuses on race, gender, domesticity, African-American folklore, and spiritual traditions.

04/07/1898

Pilar Barbosa, Puerto Rican-American historian and activist (died 1997)

Pilar Barbosa de Rosario was an educator, historian and political activist. She was the first female Official Historian of Puerto Rico.

Gertrude Lawrence, British actress, singer, and dancer (died 1952)

Gertrude Lawrence was an English actress, singer, dancer and musical comedy performer known for her stage appearances in the West End of London and on Broadway in New York.

Gulzarilal Nanda, Indian politician (died 1998)

Gulzarilal Nanda was an Indian politician and economist who specialised in labour issues. He served as the acting Prime Minister of India for two 13-day tenures following the deaths of Jawaharlal Nehru in 1964 and Lal Bahadur Shastri in 1966 respectively. Both his terms ended after the ruling Indian National Congress's parliamentary party elected a new prime minister. He was awarded the Bharat Ratna, India's highest civilian award, in 1997.

Gertrude Weaver, American supercentenarian (died 2015)

American supercentenarians are citizens or residents of the United States who have attained or surpassed 110 years of age. By January 2015, the Gerontology Research Group (GRG) had validated the longevity claims of 782 American supercentenarians. The oldest living American is Naomi Whitehead, aged 115 years, 246 days. The longest-lived American ever was Sarah Knauss, of Hollywood, Luzerne County, Pennsylvania, who died on December 30, 1999, aged 119 years and 97 days.

04/07/1897

Alluri Sitarama Raju, Indian activist (died 1924)

Alluri Sitarama Raju was an Indian revolutionary who waged an armed rebellion against the British colonial rule in India. He engaged in guerilla campaigns against the British forces across the border regions of present-day Indian states of Andhra Pradesh and Odisha, and led the Rampa rebellion in 1922. He was known by the title "Manyam Veerudu" to the local people.

04/07/1896

Mao Dun, Chinese journalist, author, and critic (died 1981)

Shen Dehong, best known by the pen name of Mao Dun, was a Chinese novelist, essayist, journalist, playwright, literary and cultural critic. He was highly celebrated for his realist novels, including Midnight, which depicts life in cosmopolitan Shanghai. Mao was one of the founders of the Chinese Communist Party and participated in a number of left-wing cultural movements during the 1920s and 1930s. He was the editor-in-chief of Fiction Monthly and helped lead the League of Left-Wing Writers. He formed a strong friendship with fellow left-wing Chinese author Lu Xun. From 1949 to 1965, Mao served as the first Minister of Culture in the People's Republic of China.

04/07/1895

Irving Caesar, American songwriter and composer (died 1996)

Irving Caesar was an American lyricist and composer primarily for theater who wrote lyrics for numerous song standards, including "Swanee", "Sometimes I'm Happy", "Crazy Rhythm", and "Tea for Two", one of the most frequently recorded tunes ever written. In 1972, he was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame.

04/07/1888

Henry Armetta, Italian-American actor and singer (died 1945)

Henry Armetta was an American character actor who appeared in at least 150 American films, beginning in silent movies. His last film was released posthumously in 1946, the year after his death.

04/07/1887

Pio Pion, Italian engineer and businessman (died 1965)

Pio Pion was an Italian entrepreneur, known for founding the first Italian company producing movie projectors, the Fumagalli, Pion & C.

04/07/1886

Tom Longboat, Canadian runner and soldier (died 1949)

Thomas Charles Longboat was an Onondaga distance runner from the Six Nations Reserve near Brantford, Ontario and, for much of his career, the dominant long-distance runner. He was known as the "bulldog of Britannia" and was a soldier in the Canadian Expeditionary Force (CEF) during the First World War.

04/07/1883

Rube Goldberg, American sculptor, cartoonist, and engineer (died 1970)

Reuben Garrett Lucius Goldberg was an American cartoonist, sculptor, author, engineer, and inventor.

04/07/1881

Ulysses S. Grant III, American general (died 1968)

Ulysses Simpson Grant III was a United States Army officer and planner. He was the son of Frederick Dent Grant, and the grandson of General of the Armies and American President Ulysses S. Grant.

04/07/1880

Victor Kraft, Austrian philosopher from the Vienna Circle (died 1975)

Victor Kraft was an Austrian philosopher. He is best known for being a member of the Vienna Circle.

04/07/1874

John McPhee, Australian journalist and politician, 27th Premier of Tasmania (died 1952)

Sir John Cameron McPhee, KCMG was an Australian politician and member of the Tasmanian House of Assembly. He was Premier of Tasmania from 15 June 1928 to 15 March 1934.

04/07/1872

Calvin Coolidge, American lawyer and politician, 30th President of the United States (died 1933)

Calvin Coolidge was the 30th president of the United States, serving from 1923 to 1929. A Republican lawyer from Massachusetts, he had served as the 29th vice president from 1921 to 1923, under President Warren G. Harding, and as the 48th governor of Massachusetts from 1919 to 1921. Coolidge gained a reputation as a small-government conservative, with a taciturn personality and dry sense of humor that earned him the nickname "Silent Cal".

04/07/1871

Hubert Cecil Booth, English engineer (died 1955)

Hubert Cecil Booth was an English engineer, best known for having invented one of the first powered vacuum cleaners.

04/07/1868

Henrietta Swan Leavitt, American astronomer and academic (died 1921)

Henrietta Swan Leavitt was an American astronomer. Her discovery of how to effectively measure vast astronomical distances led to a shift in the understanding of the scale and nature of the universe.

04/07/1854

Victor Babeș, Romanian physician and biologist (died 1926)

Victor Babeș was a Romanian physician, bacteriologist, academician and professor. One of the founders of modern microbiology, Victor Babeș is the author of one of the first treatises of bacteriology in the world – Bacteria and their role in pathological anatomy and histology of infectious diseases, written in collaboration with French scientist Victor André Cornil in 1885. In 1888, Babeș underlined the principle of passive immunity, and a few years later he enunciated the principle of antibiosis. He made early and significant contributions to the study of rabies, leprosy, diphtheria, tuberculosis and other infectious diseases. He also discovered more than 50 unknown germs and foresaw new methods of staining bacteria and fungi. Victor Babeș introduced rabies vaccination and founded serotherapy in Romania.

04/07/1847

James Anthony Bailey, American circus ringmaster, co-founded Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus (died 1906)

James Anthony Bailey was an American owner and manager of several 19th-century circuses, including the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus.

04/07/1845

Thomas John Barnardo, Irish philanthropist and humanitarian (died 1905)

Thomas John Barnardo was an Irish, Christian philanthropist and founder and director of homes for poor and deprived children. From the foundation of the first Barnardo's home in 1867 to the date of Barnardo's death, nearly 60,000 children had been taken in.

04/07/1842

Hermann Cohen, German philosopher (died 1918)

Hermann Cohen was a German philosopher, one of the founders of the Marburg school of neo-Kantianism, and he is often held to be "probably the most important Jewish philosopher of the nineteenth century".

04/07/1826

Stephen Foster, American songwriter and composer (died 1864)

Stephen Collins Foster, known as "the father of American music", was an American composer known primarily for his parlour and folk music during the Romantic period. Foster wrote more than 200 songs, including "Oh! Susanna", "Hard Times Come Again No More", "Camptown Races", "Old Folks at Home", "My Old Kentucky Home", "Jeanie with the Light Brown Hair", "Old Black Joe", and "Beautiful Dreamer". Many of his compositions remain popular today.

04/07/1816

Hiram Walker, American businessman, founded Canadian Club whisky (died 1899)

Hiram Walker was an American entrepreneur and founder of the Hiram Walker and Sons Ltd. distillery in Windsor, Ontario, Canada. He was born in East Douglas, Massachusetts, and moved to Detroit in 1838. He purchased land across the Detroit River, just east of what is Windsor, Ontario, and established a distillery in 1858 in what would become Walkerville, Ontario. He began selling his whisky as Hiram Walker's Club Whisky, in containers that were "clearly marked". He used a process to make his whisky that was vastly different from all other distillers.

04/07/1807

Giuseppe Garibaldi, Italian general and politician (died 1882)

Giuseppe Maria Garibaldi was an Italian general, revolutionary and republican. He contributed to the Unification of Italy (Risorgimento) and the creation of the Kingdom of Italy. He is considered to be one of Italy's "fathers of the fatherland", along with Camillo Benso di Cavour, King Victor Emmanuel II and Giuseppe Mazzini. Garibaldi is also known as the "Hero of the Two Worlds" because of his military enterprises in South America and Europe.

04/07/1804

Nathaniel Hawthorne, American novelist and short story writer (died 1864)

Nathaniel Hawthorne was an American novelist and short story writer. His works often focus on history, morality, and religion.

04/07/1799

Oscar I of Sweden (died 1859)

Oscar I was King of Sweden and Norway from 8 March 1844 until his death. He was the second monarch of the House of Bernadotte.

04/07/1790

George Everest, Welsh geographer and surveyor (died 1866)

Sir George Everest was a British surveyor and geographer who served as Surveyor General of India from 1830 to 1843.

04/07/1753

Jean-Pierre Blanchard, French inventor, best known as a pioneer in balloon flight (died 1809)

Jean-Pierre François Blanchard was a French inventor, best known as a pioneer of gas balloon flight, who distinguished himself in the conquest of the air in a balloon. Notable for his successful hydrogen balloon flight in Paris on 2 March 1784, Blanchard later moved to London and undertook flights with varying propulsion mechanisms. His historic achievement came on 7 January 1785, crossing the English Channel from Dover Castle to Guînes in about 2½ hours, receiving acclaim from Louis XVI and earning a substantial pension.

04/07/1729

George Leonard, American lawyer, jurist and politician (died 1819)

George Leonard was an American lawyer, jurist, and politician from Norton, Massachusetts. Besides service on state court benches and in both houses of the state legislature, he represented Massachusetts in the U.S. House of Representatives.

04/07/1719

Michel-Jean Sedaine, French playwright (died 1797)

Michel-Jean Sedaine was a French dramatist and librettist, especially noted for his librettos for opéras comiques, in which he took an important and influential role in the advancement of the genre from the period of Charles-Simon Favart to the beginning of the Revolution.

04/07/1715

Christian Fürchtegott Gellert, German poet and academic (died 1769)

Christian Fürchtegott Gellert was a German poet, novelist, and popular moralistic writer, one of the forerunners of the golden age of German literature that was ushered in by Lessing.

04/07/1694

Louis-Claude Daquin, French organist and composer (died 1772)

Louis-Claude Daquin was a French composer, writing in the Baroque and Galant styles. He was a virtuoso organist and harpsichordist.

04/07/1656

John Leake, Royal Navy admiral (died 1720)

Admiral of the Fleet Sir John Leake was a Royal Navy officer and politician who represented Rochester in the House of Commons of Great Britain from 1708 to 1715. He served in the Third Anglo-Dutch War as a junior officer, participating in the Battle of Texel. During the Williamite War in Ireland, Leake distinguished himself by leading a convoy which broke the barricading boom at Culmore Fort and lifted the siege of Derry. As a captain he fought in the Battles of Barfleur and La Hougue of the Nine Years' War.

04/07/1546

Murad III, Ottoman sultan (died 1595)

Murad III was the sultan of the Ottoman Empire from 1574 until his death in 1595.

04/07/1477

Johannes Aventinus, Bavarian historian and philologist (died 1534)

Johann Georg Turmair, known by the pen name Johannes Aventinus or Aventin, was a Bavarian Renaissance humanist historian and philologist. He authored the 1523 Annals of Bavaria, a valuable record of the early history of Germany.

04/07/1330

Ashikaga Yoshiakira, Japanese shōgun (died 1367)

Ashikaga Yoshiakira was the second shōgun of the Ashikaga shogunate who reigned from 1358 to 1367 during the Muromachi period of Japan. Yoshiakira was the son of the founder and first shōgun of the Muromachi shogunate, Ashikaga Takauji. His mother was Akahashi Tōshi (赤橋登子), also known as Hōjō Nariko.

04/07/1095

Usama ibn Munqidh, Muslim poet, author and faris (Knight) (died 1188)

Majd ad-Dīn Usāma ibn Murshid ibn ʿAlī ibn Munqidh al-Kināni al-Kalbī or Ibn Munqidh was a medieval Arab Muslim poet, author, faris (knight), and diplomat from the Banu Munqidh dynasty of Shaizar in northern Syria. His life coincided with the rise of several medieval Muslim dynasties, the arrival of the First Crusade, and the establishment of the crusader states.

04/07/0068

Salonia Matidia, Roman daughter of Ulpia Marciana (died 119)

AD 68 (LXVIII) was a leap year starting on Friday of the Julian calendar. At the time, it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Silius Italicus and Trachalus, or the start of the Year of the Four Emperors. The denomination AD 68 for this year has been used since the early medieval period, when the Anno Domini calendar era became the prevalent method in Europe for naming years. These are now used throughout the world.

Lives Remembered on 4th July

On 4th July, 141 remarkable people passed away — from 673 to 2025. Remember the lives and legacies of those we lost on this day.

04/07/2025

Lyndon Byers, Canadian ice hockey player and radio host (born 1964)

Lyndon Svi Byers was a Canadian professional ice hockey player and radio personality. Byers played in the National Hockey League (NHL) for parts of ten seasons with the Boston Bruins and San Jose Sharks, earning a reputation as one of the league's toughest enforcers. He was the cousin of former NHL forward Dane Byers.

Richard Greenberg, American playwright and television writer (born 1958)

Richard Greenberg was an American playwright and television writer known for his subversively humorous depictions of middle-class American life. He had more than 25 plays premiere on Broadway, off-Broadway, and off-off-Broadway in New York City and eight at the South Coast Repertory Theatre in Costa Mesa, California, including The Violet Hour, Everett Beekin, and Hurrah at Last. Greenberg is perhaps best known for his 2002 play Take Me Out.

Bobby Jenks, American baseball player (born 1981)

Robert Scott Jenks was an American professional baseball pitcher. He played in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the Chicago White Sox and Boston Red Sox from 2005 through 2011, and was a two-time All-Star. A relief pitcher, Jenks served as a closer for most of his career, and he ranks second in career saves among White Sox pitchers.

Peter Russell-Clarke, Australian chef, author and illustrator (born 1935)

Peter Russell-Clarke was an Australian chef, restaurateur, cookbook author and illustrator, artist, cartoonist, television presenter and media personality.

Mark Snow, American composer for film and television (born 1946)

Mark Snow was an American composer for film and television. He was perhaps best known for composing the theme for The X-Files, and would compose for the show's initial nine-season run from 1993 to 2001. He would return for the show's revival from 2015 to 2018. Additionally, he composed the score for the two feature films and the short-lived spinoff series The Lone Gunmen.

04/07/2022

Cláudio Hummes, Brazilian prelate of the Catholic Church (born 1934)

Cláudio Hummes was a Brazilian prelate of the Catholic Church. He was prefect of the Congregation for the Clergy from 2006 to 2010, having served as Archbishop of Fortaleza from 1996 to 1998 and Archbishop of São Paulo from 1998 to 2006. A member of the Order of Friars Minor and an outspoken proponent of social justice, he was made a cardinal in 2001.

Kazuki Takahashi, Japanese manga artist (born 1961)

Kazuo Takahashi , known professionally as Kazuki Takahashi , was a Japanese manga artist. He is best known as the author of Yu-Gi-Oh!, published in Weekly Shōnen Jump from 1996 to 2004. The manga spawned a trading card game of the same name, which holds the Guinness World Record for the best-selling trading card game of all time.

04/07/2021

Harmoko, Indonesian politician, former parliament speaker and government minister (born 1939)

Harmoko, colloquially referred to as Bung Harmoko, was an Indonesian politician and journalist who was active during the New Order era. He served as the Speaker of the People's Representative Council from 1997 until 1999, and was a factor in president Suharto's resignation during the widespread student demonstrations which occurred at the end of the New Order.

Matīss Kivlenieks, Latvian ice hockey goaltender (born 1996)

Matīss Edmunds Kivlenieks was a Latvian professional ice hockey goaltender who played for Prizma Riga of the Latvian Hockey Higher League (LHL), the Cleveland Monsters of the American Hockey League (AHL), and the Columbus Blue Jackets of the National Hockey League (NHL) between 2012 and 2021. Kivlenieks died on 4 July 2021 after being struck by fireworks.

04/07/2018

Henri Dirickx, Belgian footballer (born 1927)

Henri Dirickx was a Belgian international footballer, who played as a defender. Dirickx was the last surviving member of Belgium's 1954 World Cup squad.

Robby Müller, Dutch cinematographer (born 1940)

Robby Müller, NSC, BVK, was a Dutch cinematographer. Known for his use of natural light and minimalist imagery, Müller first gained recognition for his contributions to West German cinema through his acclaimed collaborations with Wim Wenders.

04/07/2017

John Blackwell, American R&B, funk, and jazz drummer (born 1973)

John Blackwell Jr. was an American contemporary R&B, funk, jazz, fusion, and pop drummer, best known for his work with Prince. Later, he was a member of D'Angelo's backing band, The Vanguard.

Daniil Granin, Soviet and Russian author (born 1919)

Daniil Aleksandrovich Granin, original family name Gherman, was a Soviet and Russian author.

Gene Conley, American MLB player and NBA player (born 1930)

Donald Eugene Conley was an American professional baseball and basketball player. He pitched for four teams in Major League Baseball (MLB) from 1952 to 1963. Conley also played as a forward in the 1952–53 season and from 1958 to 1964 for two teams in the National Basketball Association (NBA). He is the second person, after Otto Graham, to win championships in two of the four major American sports: one with the Milwaukee Braves in the 1957 World Series and three with the Boston Celtics from 1959 to 1961.

04/07/2016

Abbas Kiarostami, Iranian film director, screenwriter, poet, and photographer (born 1940)

Abbas Kiarostami was an Iranian film director, screenwriter, poet, photographer, and film producer. An active filmmaker from 1970, Kiarostami had been involved in the production of over forty films, including shorts and documentaries. Kiarostami attained critical acclaim for directing the Koker trilogy (1987–1994), Close-Up (1990), The Wind Will Carry Us (1999), and Taste of Cherry (1997), which was awarded the Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival that year. In later works, Certified Copy (2010) and Like Someone in Love (2012), he filmed for the first time outside Iran: in Italy and Japan, respectively. His films Where Is the Friend's House? (1987), Close-Up, and The Wind Will Carry Us were ranked among the 100 best foreign films in a 2018 critics' poll by BBC Culture. Close-Up was also ranked one of the 50 greatest movies of all time in the famous decennial Sight & Sound poll conducted in 2012. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest and most influential filmmakers of Iran, and of all time.

04/07/2015

Nedelcho Beronov, Bulgarian judge and politician (born 1928)

Nedelcho Krumov Beronov was a Bulgarian jurist, right-wing politician and Constitutional Court chairman, as well as a presidential candidate in the 2006 presidential elections.

William Conrad Gibbons, American historian, author, and academic (born 1926)

William Conrad Gibbons was an American historian and foreign policy expert.

04/07/2014

Giorgio Faletti, Italian author, screenwriter, and actor (born 1950)

Giorgio Faletti was an Italian writer, musician, actor and comedian. Born in Asti, Piedmont, he lived on Elba Island. His books have been translated into 25 languages and published with great success in Europe, South America, China, Japan, Russia and the United States.

C. J. Henderson, American author and critic (born 1951)

Chris "C. J." Henderson was an American writer of horror, hardboiled crime fiction and comic books, known for such works as the Piers Knight and Teddy London series. His comics work includes books for Marvel Comics and Valiant Comics.

Earl Robinson, American baseball player (born 1936)

Earl John Robinson was an American professional baseball outfielder and third baseman who played in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the Los Angeles Dodgers and Baltimore Orioles. He attended the University of California, Berkeley, where he played both baseball and basketball, helping Cal to three straight conference titles in basketball from 1956 to 1958. Born in New Orleans, Robinson attended Berkeley High School in the San Francisco Bay Area before matriculating at Cal.

Richard Mellon Scaife, American businessman (born 1932)

Richard Mellon Scaife was an American billionaire, a principal heir to the Mellon banking, oil, and aluminum fortune, and the owner and publisher of the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review. In 2005, Scaife was number 238 on the Forbes 400, with a personal fortune of $1.2 billion. By 2013, Scaife had dropped to number 371 on the listing, with a personal fortune of $1.4 billion.

04/07/2013

Onllwyn Brace, Welsh rugby player and sportscaster (born 1932)

David Onllwyn Brace was a Welsh international scrum-half who played club rugby for Newport and Aberavon. He won nine caps for Wales and would captain the team twice in the early 1960s. Brace was an exciting, unorthodox scrum-half, who epitomised the Welsh flair scrum-half, though his uneven international appearances point towards unhappiness in his match play from the Welsh selectors.

Jack Crompton, English footballer and manager (born 1921)

John Crompton was an English professional footballer. Born in Hulme, Manchester, Lancashire, he was a goalkeeper for Manchester United between 1944 and 1956. He was part of the team that won the FA Cup in 1948 and the league title in 1952. During the Second World War, he played as a guest for Stockport County.

James Fulton, American dermatologist and academic (born 1940)

Dr. James E. Fulton Jr., M.D., was an American dermatologist and medical researcher who co-invented Retin-A, a popular acne medication, in 1969.

Charles A. Hines, American general (born 1935)

Charles Alfonso Hines was an American Army major general, university administrator, and sociology professor.

Bernie Nolan, Irish singer (born 1960)

Bernadette Therese Doneathy was an Irish actress, singer and television personality. She was a member of the girl group the Nolans, which she formed with her sisters. From the age of two, Bernie was brought up in Blackpool, Lancashire, England.

04/07/2012

Hiren Bhattacharyya, Indian poet and author (born 1932)

Hiren Bhattacharyya, popularly known as Hiruda, was an Indian poet and lyricist best known for his works in the Assamese literature. He had innumerable works published in Assamese and achieved many prizes and accolades for his poetry including Sahitya Akademi Award in 1992 for his anthology of poems 'Saichar Pathar Manuh'. He has been also known as 'Sugandi Pakhilaar Kobi'.

Jimmy Bivins, American boxer (born 1919)

James Louis Bivins, was an American boxer whose professional career ran from 1940 to 1955. He was born in Dry Branch, Georgia. Although he was never given the opportunity to fight for a world title, despite at one point being the number one contender in both the light heavyweight and heavyweight divisions, Bivins fought and defeated many of the great fighters of his era and won the "Duration" Light Heavyweight and Heavyweight titles. In recognition of his achievements in the ring - among other things, he defeated eight of the eleven world champions he faced - Bivins was inducted into the International Boxing Hall of Fame in 1999. He was also the one-time husband of Dollree Mapp, the subject of prominent Supreme Court case regarding the rights of search and seizures.

Jeong Min-hyeong, South Korean footballer (born 1987)

Jeong Min-Hyeong was a South Korean footballer who played as a midfielder for Busan IPark in the K-League.

Eric Sykes, English actor, director, and screenwriter (born 1923)

Eric Sykes was an English radio, stage, television and film writer, comedian, actor and director whose performing career spanned more than 50 years. He frequently wrote for and performed with many other leading comedy performers and writers of the period, including Tony Hancock, Spike Milligan, Tommy Cooper, Peter Sellers, John Antrobus and Johnny Speight. Sykes first came to prominence through his many radio credits as a writer and actor in the 1950s, which include collaboration on some scripts for The Goon Show. He became a television star in his own right in the early 1960s when he appeared with Hattie Jacques in several popular BBC comedy television series.

04/07/2010

Robert Neil Butler, American physician and author (born 1927)

Robert Neil Butler was an American physician, gerontologist, psychiatrist, and author, who was the first director of the National Institute on Aging. Butler is known for his work on the social needs and the rights of the elderly and for his research on healthy aging and the dementias.

04/07/2009

Brenda Joyce, American actress (born 1917)

Brenda Joyce was an American film actress. She was best known for playing Jane Porter in RKO's Tarzan films from 1945 to 1949.

Allen Klein, American businessman and talent agent, founded ABKCO Records (born 1931)

Allen Klein was an American businessman whose aggressive negotiation tactics affected industry standards for compensating recording artists. He founded ABKCO Music & Records Incorporated. Klein increased profits for his musician clients by negotiating new record company contracts. He first scored monetary and contractual gains for Buddy Knox and Jimmy Bowen, one-hit rockabillies of the late 1950s, then parlayed his early successes into a position managing Sam Cooke, and eventually managed the Beatles and the Rolling Stones simultaneously, along with many other artists, becoming one of the most powerful individuals in the music industry during his era.

Drake Levin, American guitarist (born 1946)

Drake Maxwell Levin was an American musician best known as the guitarist for the pop-rock band Paul Revere & the Raiders.

Steve McNair, American football player (born 1973)

Stephen LaTreal McNair, nicknamed "Air McNair", was an American professional football quarterback who played in the National Football League (NFL) for 14 seasons. He started his first two seasons with the Houston Oilers before the team relocated to Nashville, Tennessee, becoming the first franchise quarterback of the Tennessee Titans. McNair also played for two seasons with the Baltimore Ravens.

Lasse Strömstedt, Swedish author and actor (born 1935)

Folke Lars-Olov Strömstedt, better known as Lasse Strömstedt, was a Swedish writer who wrote of and about his own life in prison and drug abuse. Strömstedt was born in Gävle in 1935. He was a casual laborer whose working life was frequently disrupted by imprisonment. After 1971 he changed his life and became a writer, debater and actor. In 1974, Strömsted published his first novel, Grundbulten, written together with reporter Christer Dahl under the pseudonym Kennet Ahl. Strömstedt was married to Swedish singer and writer Ann-Christine Bärnsten. He died aged 74 of natural causes in Gränna on 4 July 2009.

Jean-Baptiste Tati Loutard, Congolese poet and politician (born 1938)

Jean-Baptiste Tati Loutard was a Congolese politician and poet. Having previously served as Minister of Higher Education and Minister of Arts and Culture, he was Minister of Hydrocarbons in the government of Congo-Brazzaville from 1997 to 2009; he was also the founder and President of the Action Movement for Renewal (MAR), a political party. Aside from politics, Tati Loutard published numerous books of his own poetry and literature in general.

04/07/2008

Thomas M. Disch, American author and poet (born 1940)

Thomas Michael Disch was an American science fiction writer and poet. He won the Hugo Award for Best Related Book—previously called "Best Non-Fiction Book"—in 1999. He had two other Hugo nominations and nine Nebula Award nominations to his credit, plus one win of the John W. Campbell Memorial Award, a Rhysling Award, and two Seiun Awards, among others.

Jesse Helms, American politician (born 1921)

Jesse Alexander Helms Jr. was an American politician, a journalist, and Navy veteran. A leader in the conservative and nationalist movement, he represented North Carolina in the United States Senate from 1973 to 2003. As chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee from 1995 to 2001, he had a major voice in foreign policy. Helms helped organize and fund the conservative resurgence in the 1970s, focusing on Ronald Reagan's quest for the White House as well as helping many local and regional candidates.

Evelyn Keyes, American actress (born 1916)

Evelyn Louise Keyes was an American film actress. She is best known for her role as Suellen O'Hara in the 1939 film Gone with the Wind.

Terrence Kiel, American football player (born 1980)

Terrence Dewayne Kiel was an American professional football player who spent his entire career as a safety for the San Diego Chargers of the National Football League (NFL) from 2003 to 2006. He played college football for the Texas A&M Aggies and was selected by the Chargers in the second round of the 2003 NFL draft.

Charles Wheeler, German-English soldier and journalist (born 1923)

Sir Selwyn Charles Cornelius-Wheeler was a German-born British journalist and broadcaster. Having joined the BBC in 1947, he became the corporation's longest-serving foreign correspondent, remaining in the role until his death. Wheeler also had spells as presenter of several BBC current affairs television programmes, including Newsnight and Panorama.

04/07/2007

Bill Pinkney, American singer (born 1925)

Willie "Bill" Pinkney was an American performer and singer. Pinkney was the last surviving original member of The Drifters, who achieved international fame with numerous hit records. He was chiefly responsible for its early sounds. The Drifters have had a strong influence on soul, rhythm and blues, and rock and roll music. As an original group member, Bill Pinkney was a 1988 inductee into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame with The Drifters.

04/07/2005

Cliff Goupille, Canadian ice hockey player (born 1915)

Joseph Emilien Clifford "Red" Goupille was a Canadian ice hockey player who played 224 games in the National Hockey League with the Montreal Canadiens between 1936 and 1942.

Hank Stram, American football player and coach (born 1923)

Henry Louis Stram was an American football coach. He is best known for his 15-year tenure with the Dallas Texans / Kansas City Chiefs of the American Football League (AFL) and National Football League (NFL).

04/07/2004

Jean-Marie Auberson, Swiss violinist and conductor (born 1920)

Jean-Marie Auberson was a Swiss conductor and violinist.

04/07/2003

Larry Burkett, American author and radio host (born 1939)

Larry Burkett was an American radio personality whose work focused on financial counseling from a Christian point of view.

André Claveau, French singer (born 1915)

André Claveau was a French singer, popular in France from the 1940s to the 1960s. He won the Eurovision Song Contest in 1958 singing "Dors, mon amour", with music composed by Pierre Delanoë and lyrics by Hubert Giraud. Winning at the age of 46 years and 76 days, Claveau was the oldest winner of the contest until 1990, being the first and only winner prior to 1990 to triumph in their forties.

Barry White, American singer-songwriter, pianist, and producer (born 1944)

Barry Eugene White was an American R&B, soul and disco singer, songwriter, actor, and record producer. A two-time Grammy Award winner known for his bass voice and romantic image, his greatest success came in the 1970s as a solo singer and with the Love Unlimited Orchestra, who made the #1 hit "Love's Theme" written by White. White's music contains elements of multiple different genres such as R&B, soul, and disco, this is shown as such on his two biggest hits: "Can't Get Enough of Your Love, Babe" and "You're the First, the Last, My Everything".

04/07/2002

Gerald Bales, Canadian organist and composer (born 1919)

Gerald Albert Bales, was a Canadian organist and composer.

Benjamin O. Davis, Jr., American general (born 1912)

Benjamin Oliver Davis Jr. was a United States Air Force (USAF) general and commander of the World War II Tuskegee Airmen.

04/07/2000

Gustaw Herling-Grudziński, Polish journalist and author (born 1919)

Gustaw Herling-Grudziński was a Polish writer, journalist, essayist, World War II underground fighter, and political dissident abroad during the period of Soviet and communist rule. He is best known for writing a personal account of life in the Soviet Gulag entitled A World Apart, first published in 1951 in London.

04/07/1999

Leo Garel, American illustrator and educator (born 1917)

Leo Garel was an American artist. He illustrated cartoons for such notable magazines as The New Yorker, The Saturday Evening Post and Playboy.

04/07/1997

Charles Kuralt, American journalist (born 1934)

Charles Bishop Kuralt was an American television, newspaper and radio journalist and author. He is most widely known for his long career with CBS, first for his "On the Road" segments on The CBS Evening News with Walter Cronkite, and later as the first anchor of CBS News Sunday Morning, a position he held for fifteen years. In 1996, Kuralt was inducted into Television Hall of Fame of the National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences.

John Zachary Young, English zoologist and neurophysiologist (born 1907)

John Zachary Young, generally known as "JZ" or "JZY", was an English zoologist and neurophysiologist, described as "one of the most influential biologists of the 20th century".

04/07/1995

Eva Gabor, Hungarian-American actress and singer (born 1919)

Eva Gabor was a Hungarian born American actress and socialite. She gained fame for her role on the 1965–1971 television sitcom Green Acres as Lisa Douglas, the wife of Eddie Albert's character Oliver Wendell Douglas, and also was known for her voice roles for animated Disney films in the 1970s, including Duchess in The Aristocats (1970) and Miss Bianca in The Rescuers (1977) and its sequel The Rescuers Down Under (1990). In addition to acting, she was also a businesswoman who marketed wigs, clothing, and beauty products. Her elder sisters, Zsa Zsa and Magda Gabor, were also actresses and socialites.

Bob Ross, American painter and television host (born 1942)

Robert Norman Ross was an American painter and art instructor who created and hosted The Joy of Painting, an instructional television program that aired from 1983 to 1994 on PBS in the United States and CBC in Canada.

04/07/1994

Joey Marella, American wrestling referee (born 1964)

Joseph Anthony Marella was an American professional wrestling referee for the World Wrestling Federation and son of former wrestler and then WWF announcer Gorilla Monsoon from Willingboro Township, New Jersey.

04/07/1993

Bona Arsenault, Canadian historian, genealogist, and politician (born 1903)

Bona Arsenault, was a Canadian historian, genealogist and a federal and provincial politician.

04/07/1992

Astor Piazzolla, Argentinian bandoneon player and composer (born 1921)

Astor Pantaleón Piazzolla was an Argentine tango composer, bandoneon player, and arranger. His works revolutionized the traditional tango into a new style termed nuevo tango, incorporating elements from jazz and classical music. A virtuoso bandoneonist, he regularly performed his own compositions with a variety of ensembles. In 1992, American music critic Stephen Holden described Piazzolla as "the world's foremost composer of Tango music".

04/07/1991

Victor Chang, Chinese-Australian surgeon and physician (born 1936)

Victor Peter Chang was a Chinese-born Australian cardiac surgeon and a pioneer of modern heart transplantation in Australia.

Art Sansom, American cartoonist (born 1920)

Arthur Baldwin Sansom Jr., better known as Art Sansom, was an American comic strip cartoonist who created the long-running comic strip The Born Loser.

04/07/1990

Olive Ann Burns, American journalist and author (born 1924)

Olive Ann Burns was an American writer from Georgia best known for her single completed novel, Cold Sassy Tree, published in 1984.

04/07/1988

Adrian Adonis, American wrestler (born 1954)

Keith Adonis Franke was an American professional wrestler, better known by his ring name, "Adorable" Adrian Adonis. He was best known for his appearances with the American Wrestling Association and World Wrestling Federation throughout the 1980s.

04/07/1986

Paul-Gilbert Langevin, French musicologist, critique musical and physicist (born 1933)

Paul-Gilbert Langevin was a French musicologist, who was a specialist on Anton Bruckner, Franz Schubert and 19th-century classical music.

Flor Peeters, Belgian organist and composer (born 1903)

Franciscus Florentinus Peeters, Baron Peeters was a Belgian composer, organist and academic teacher. He was director of the Conservatorium in Antwerp, Belgium, and organist at Mechelen Cathedral from 1923 to his death in 1986.

Oscar Zariski, Belarusian-American mathematician and academic (born 1899)

Oscar Zariski was an American mathematician. The Russian-born scientist was one of the most influential algebraic geometers of the 20th century.

04/07/1984

Jimmie Spheeris, American singer-songwriter (born 1949)

Jimmie Andrew Spheeris was an American singer-songwriter who released four albums in the 1970s on the Columbia Records and Epic Records labels. Spheeris died in 1984, at the age of 34, after a motorcycle accident.

04/07/1980

Maurice Grevisse, Belgian linguist and author (born 1895)

Maurice Grevisse was a Belgian grammarian.

04/07/1979

Lee Wai Tong, Chinese footballer and manager (born 1905)

Lee Wai Tong was a Hong Kong and Chinese international association football player, head coach, and former Vice President of FIFA. He is often regarded as the greatest Chinese footballer, due to his accomplishments in winning several Far Eastern Games titles with the national team of the Republic of China as well as captaining the national football squad on a 13-year unbeaten run in competitive games from 1923 to 1936, a streak that ended at their first ever Olympic tournament.

04/07/1977

Gersh Budker, Ukrainian physicist and academic (born 1918)

Gersh Itskovich Budker, also named Andrey Mikhailovich Budker, was a Soviet physicist born in Murafa in Ukrainian People's Republic, specialized in nuclear physics and accelerator physics.

04/07/1976

Yonatan Netanyahu, Israeli colonel (born 1946)

Yonatan "Yoni" Netanyahu was an Israeli military officer who commanded Sayeret Matkal during the Entebbe raid. The raid was launched in response to the 1976 hijacking of an international civilian passenger flight from Israel to France by Palestinian and German militants, who took control of the aircraft during a stopover in Greece and diverted it to Libya and then to Uganda, where they received support from Ugandan dictator Idi Amin. Though Israel's counter-terrorist operation was a success, with 102 of the 106 hostages being rescued, Netanyahu was killed in action – the only Israeli soldier killed during the crisis.

Antoni Słonimski, Polish poet and playwright (born 1895)

Antoni Słonimski was a Polish poet, artist, journalist, playwright and prose writer, president of the Union of Polish Writers in 1956–1959 during the Polish October, known for his devotion to social justice.

04/07/1974

Georgette Heyer, English author (born 1902)

Georgette Heyer was an English novelist and short-story writer, in both the Regency romance and detective fiction genres. Her writing career began in 1921, when she turned a story conceived for her ailing younger brother into the novel The Black Moth. In 1925 Heyer married George Ronald Rougier, a mining engineer. The couple spent several years living in Tanganyika Territory and Macedonia before returning to England in 1929. After her novel These Old Shades became popular despite its release during the General Strike, Heyer determined that publicity was not necessary for good sales. For the rest of her life she refused to grant interviews, telling a friend: "My private life concerns no one but myself and my family."

André Randall, French actor (born 1892)

André Randall was a French screen actor. He was born André Ayaïs in Bordeaux and died at Sainte-Foy-la-Grande.

04/07/1971

August Derleth, American anthologist and author (born 1909)

August William Derleth was an American writer and anthologist. He was the first book publisher of the writings of H. P. Lovecraft. He made contributions to the Cthulhu Mythos and the cosmic horror genre and helped found Arkham House, a publishing company which did much to introduce hardcover prints of United Kingdom supernatural fiction works to the United States. Derleth was also a leading American regional writer of his day, as well as prolific in several other genres, including historical fiction, poetry, detective fiction, science fiction, and biography. Notably, he created the fictional detective Solar Pons, a pastiche of Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes.

Thomas C. Hart, American admiral and politician (born 1877)

Thomas Charles Hart was a four-star admiral in the United States Navy, whose service extended from the Spanish–American War through World War II. Following his retirement from the Navy, he served briefly as a United States Senator from Connecticut, becoming the highest-ranking military official ever to serve in Congress.

04/07/1970

Barnett Newman, American painter and illustrator (born 1905)

Barnett Newman was an American painter. He has been critically regarded as one of the major figures of abstract expressionism, and one of the foremost color field painters. His paintings explore the sense of place that viewers experience with art and incorporate the simplest forms to emphasize this feeling.

Harold Stirling Vanderbilt, American sailor and businessman (born 1884)

Harold Stirling Vanderbilt CBE was an American railroad executive, a champion yachtsman, an innovator and champion player of contract bridge, and a member of the Vanderbilt family.

04/07/1969

Henri Decoin, French director and screenwriter (born 1890)

Henri Decoin was a French film director and screenwriter, who directed more than 50 films between 1933 and 1964. He was also a swimmer who won the national title in 1911 and held the national record in the 500 m freestyle. He competed in the 400 m freestyle at the 1908 Summer Olympics and in the water polo tournament at the 1912 Summer Olympics.

04/07/1964

Gaby Morlay, French actress and singer (born 1893)

Gaby Morlay was a film actress from France.

04/07/1963

Bernard Freyberg, 1st Baron Freyberg, New Zealand general and politician, 7th Governor-General of New Zealand (born 1889)

Lieutenant-General Bernard Cyril Freyberg, 1st Baron Freyberg, was a British-born New Zealand soldier and Victoria Cross recipient, who served as the 7th governor-general of New Zealand from 1946 to 1952 - the first to have been raised and educated in New Zealand.

Clyde Kennard, American activist and martyr (born 1927)

Clyde Kennard was an American Korean War veteran and civil rights leader from Hattiesburg, Mississippi. In the 1950s, he attempted several times to enroll at the all-white Mississippi Southern College to complete his undergraduate degree started at the University of Chicago. Although the United States Supreme Court had ruled in 1954 that segregation of public schools was unconstitutional, the college rejected Kennard. He was among the thousands of local activists in the 1940s and 1950s who pressed for their rights.

Pingali Venkayya, Indian activist, designed the Flag of India (born 1876)

Pingali Venkayya was an Indian freedom fighter, known for designing the initial version of the Indian National Flag. Apart from his role in the independence movement, Venkayya was a lecturer, author, geologist, educationalist, agriculturist, and a polyglot.

04/07/1949

François Brandt, Dutch rower and engineer (born 1874)

François Antoine Brandt was a Dutch rower who competed at the 1900 Summer Olympics in Paris. Brandt was part of the Dutch eight team that won a bronze medal with Hermanus Brockmann as the coxswain. Brockmann also steered the boat of Brandt and Roelof Klein in the coxed pairs semifinal, which they lost to France. The pair realized that the 60 kg weight of Brockmann puts them in disadvantage; they replaced him with a local boy of 33 kg and won the final narrowly beating the French team.

04/07/1948

Monteiro Lobato, Brazilian journalist and author (born 1882)

José Bento Renato Monteiro Lobato was one of Brazil's most influential writers, mostly for his children's books set in the fictional Sítio do Picapau Amarelo but he had been previously a prolific writer of fiction, a translator and an art critic. He also founded one of Brazil's first publishing houses and was a supporter of nationalism.

04/07/1946

Taffy O'Callaghan, Welsh footballer and coach (born 1906)

Eugene "Taffy" O'Callaghan was a Welsh professional footballer who played as a forward for Tottenham Hotspur, Leicester City, Fulham and Wales during the 1920s and 1930s.

04/07/1943

Władysław Sikorski, Polish general and politician, 9th Prime Minister of the Second Republic of Poland (born 1881)

Władysław Eugeniusz Sikorski was a Polish military and political leader. Before World War I, Sikorski established and participated in several underground organizations that promoted the cause of Polish independence. He fought with distinction in the Polish Legions during World War I, and later in the newly created Polish Army during the Polish–Soviet War of 1919–1921. In the latter war, he played a prominent role in the decisive 1920 Battle of Warsaw.

04/07/1941

Antoni Łomnicki, Polish mathematician and academic (born 1881)

Antoni Marian Łomnicki was a Polish mathematician. He contributed to applied mathematics and cartography. He was the author of several textbooks of mathematics and was an influential mathematics teacher at the University of Lwów.

04/07/1938

Otto Bauer, Austrian philosopher and politician, Austrian Minister of Foreign Affairs (born 1881)

Otto Bauer was an Austrian politician who was one of the founders and leading thinkers of the Austromarxists who sought a middle ground between social democracy and revolutionary socialism. He was a member of the Austrian Parliament from 1907 to 1934, deputy party leader of the Social Democratic Workers' Party (SDAP) from 1918 to 1934, and Foreign Minister of the Republic of German-Austria in 1918 and 1919. In the latter position, he worked unsuccessfully to bring about the unification of Austria and the Weimar Republic. His opposition to the SDAP joining coalition governments after it lost its leading position in Parliament in 1920 and his practice of advising the party to wait for the proper historical circumstances before taking action were criticized by some for facilitating Austria's move from democracy to fascism in the 1930s. When the SDAP was outlawed by Chancellor Kurt Schuschnigg in 1934, Bauer went into exile, where he continued to work for Austrian socialism until his death.

Suzanne Lenglen, French tennis player (born 1899)

Suzanne Rachel Flore Lenglen was a French tennis player. She was the inaugural world No. 1 from 1921 to 1926, winning eight Grand Slam titles in singles and twenty-one in total. She was also a four-time World Hard Court Champion in singles, and ten times in total. Lenglen won six Wimbledon singles titles, including five in a row from 1919 to 1923, and was the champion in singles, doubles, and mixed doubles at the first two open French Championships in 1925 and 1926. In doubles, she was undefeated with her usual partner, Elizabeth Ryan, highlighted by another six titles at Wimbledon. Lenglen was the first leading amateur to turn professional. She ranked as the greatest women's tennis player from the amateur era in the 100 Greatest of All Time series on the Tennis Channel in 2012.

04/07/1935

Anna Paaske, Norwegian opera singer and music teacher (born 1856)

Anna Paaske was a Norwegian opera singer and music teacher. She often performed in Wagner roles in concerts in Scandinavia and Northern Europe.

04/07/1934

Marie Curie, French-Polish physicist and chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (born 1867)

Maria Salomea Skłodowska Curie, better known as Marie Curie, was a Polish and naturalised-French physicist and chemist. She shared the 1903 Nobel Prize in Physics with her husband Pierre Curie "for their joint researches on the radioactivity phenomena discovered by Professor Henri Becquerel". She won the 1911 Nobel Prize in Chemistry "[for] the discovery of the elements radium and polonium, by the isolation of radium and the study of the nature and compounds of this remarkable element".

04/07/1926

Pier Giorgio Frassati, Italian activist and saint (born 1901)

Pier Giorgio Frassati was an Italian Catholic activist and a member of the Third Order of Saint Dominic. He was dedicated to social justice issues and joined several charitable organizations, including Catholic Action and the Society of Saint Vincent de Paul, to better aid the poor and less fortunate living in his hometown of Turin.

04/07/1922

Lothar von Richthofen, German lieutenant and pilot (born 1894)

Lothar Siegfried Freiherr von Richthofen was a German First World War fighter ace credited with 40 victories. He was a younger brother of top-scoring ace Manfred von Richthofen and a distant cousin of Luftwaffe Field Marshal Wolfram von Richthofen, who also became a flying ace.

04/07/1916

Alan Seeger, American soldier and poet (born 1888)

Alan Seeger was an American war poet who fought and died in World War I during the Battle of the Somme, serving in the French Foreign Legion. Seeger was the brother of Elizabeth Seeger, a children's author and educator, and Charles Seeger, a noted American pacifist and musicologist; he was also the uncle of folk musicians Pete Seeger, Peggy Seeger, and Mike Seeger. He is lauded for the poem "I Have a Rendezvous with Death", a favorite of President John F. Kennedy. A statue representing him is on the monument in the Place des États-Unis, Paris, honoring those American citizens who volunteered to fight for the Third French Republic while their country was still neutral and lost their lives during the war. Seeger is sometimes called the "American Rupert Brooke".

04/07/1910

Melville Fuller, American lawyer and jurist, Chief Justice of the United States (born 1833)

Melville Weston Fuller was an American politician, attorney, and jurist who served as the eighth chief justice of the United States from 1888 until his death in 1910. Staunch conservatism marked his tenure on the Supreme Court, exhibited by his tendency to support unfettered free enterprise and to oppose broad federal power. He wrote major opinions on the federal income tax, the Commerce Clause, and citizenship law, and he took part in important decisions about racial segregation and the liberty of contract. Those rulings often faced criticism in the decades during and after Fuller's tenure, and many were later overruled or abrogated. The legal academy has generally viewed Fuller negatively, although a revisionist minority has taken a more favorable view of his jurisprudence.

Kabua the Great, Marshallese iroijlaplap (born c. 1820)

Kabua the Great, also Kabua Laplap, was a Marshallese iroij whom the German Empire recognized as the king of the Marshall Islands. From 1863 until his death in 1910, he claimed to be the paramount chief, or iroijlaplap, of the Ralik Chain, though his cousin Loiak also claimed the title. Kabua worked with western missionaries and copra traders to expand his wealth and political power. He was also one of the several Marshallese iroij to sign treaties with the German Empire, first granting Germans exclusive trading rights in the Marshalls in 1878 and then legitimizing German annexation of the islands as a protectorate in 1885. The German treaties recognized Kabua as King of the Marshall Islands, though the German anthropologist Augustin Krämer noted that "Kabua is king only by the grace of the Germans."

Giovanni Schiaparelli, Italian astronomer and historian (born 1835)

Giovanni Virginio Schiaparelli was an Italian astronomer and science historian. Schiaparelli established the Martian system of nomenclature still in use today; before him, features of the planet bore the names of contemporary astronomers, similar to the lunar map of van Langren that preceded that of Hevelius.

04/07/1905

Élisée Reclus, French geographer and author (born 1830)

Jacques Élisée Reclus was a French geographer, writer, and anarchist. He produced his 19-volume masterwork, La Nouvelle Géographie universelle, la terre et les hommes , over a period of nearly 20 years (1875–1894). In 1892 he was awarded the Gold Medal of the Paris Geographical Society for this work, despite having been banished from France because of his political activism.

04/07/1902

Swami Vivekananda, Indian monk and saint (born 1863)

Swami Vivekananda, born Narendranath Datta, was an Indian Hindu monk, philosopher, author, religious teacher, and the chief disciple of the Indian mystic Ramakrishna. Vivekananda was a major figure in the introduction of Vedanta and Yoga to the Western world, and is credited with raising interfaith awareness and elevating Hinduism to the status of a major world religion.

04/07/1901

Johannes Schmidt, German linguist and academic (born 1843)

Johannes Friedrich Heinrich Schmidt was a German linguist. He developed the Wellentheorie of language development.

04/07/1891

Hannibal Hamlin, American lawyer and politician, 15th Vice President of the United States (born 1809)

Hannibal Hamlin was an American politician and diplomat who was the 15th vice president of the United States, serving from 1861 to 1865, during President Abraham Lincoln's first term. He was the first Republican vice president.

04/07/1886

Poundmaker, Canadian tribal chief (born 1797)

Poundmaker, also known as pîhtokahânapiwiyin, was a Plains Cree chief known as a peacemaker and defender of his people, the Poundmaker Cree Nation. His name denotes his special craft at leading buffalo into buffalo pounds (enclosures) for harvest.

04/07/1882

Joseph Brackett, American composer and author (born 1797)

Joseph Brackett Jr. was an American songwriter, author, and elder of The United Society of Believers in Christ's Second Appearing, better known as the Shakers. The most famous song attributed to Brackett, "Simple Gifts", is still widely performed and adapted.

04/07/1881

Johan Vilhelm Snellman, Finnish philosopher and politician (born 1806)

Johan Vilhelm Snellman was a Finland-Swedish philosopher, journalist and statesman, and one of the leading figures of Fennoman nationalism in 19th-century Finland. A central exponent of Hegelian philosophy in the Nordic countries, he is regarded as one of the most important 'awakeners' of Finnish national identity, alongside Elias Lönnrot and J. L. Runeberg.

04/07/1857

William L. Marcy, American lawyer, judge, and politician, 21st United States Secretary of State (born 1786)

William Learned Marcy was an American lawyer, politician, and judge who served as U.S. Senator, the eleventh Governor of New York, U.S. Secretary of War and the twenty-first U.S. Secretary of State. In the latter office, he negotiated the Gadsden Purchase, the last major acquisition of land in the contiguous United States.

04/07/1854

Karl Friedrich Eichhorn, German academic and jurist (born 1781)

Karl Friedrich Eichhorn was a German jurist.

04/07/1850

William Kirby, English entomologist and author (born 1759)

William Kirby was an English entomologist, an original member of the Linnean Society and a Fellow of the Royal Society, as well as a country rector, so that he was an eminent example of the "parson-naturalist". The four-volume Introduction to Entomology, co-written with William Spence, was widely influential.

04/07/1848

François-René de Chateaubriand, French historian and politician (born 1768)

François-René, vicomte de Chateaubriand was a French writer, politician, diplomat and historian who influenced French literature of the 19th century. Descended from an old aristocratic family from Brittany, Chateaubriand was a royalist by political disposition. He served as Minister of Foreign Affairs from 1822 to 1824 and as the French ambassador to Sweden, Prussia, the United Kingdom, and the Papal States.

04/07/1831

James Monroe, American soldier, lawyer, and politician, 5th President of the United States (born 1758)

James Monroe was an American Founding Father who served as the fifth president of the United States from 1817 to 1825. He was the last Founding Father to serve as president as well as the last president of the Virginia dynasty. Monroe was a member of the Democratic-Republican Party, and his presidency coincided with the Era of Good Feelings, concluding the First Party System era of American politics. He issued the Monroe Doctrine, a policy of limiting European colonialism in the Americas. Monroe had previously served as Governor of Virginia, a member of the United States Senate, U.S. ambassador to France and Britain, the seventh secretary of state, and the eighth secretary of war.

04/07/1826

John Adams, American lawyer and politician, 2nd President of the United States (born 1735)

John Adams was a Founding Father and the second president of the United States from 1797 to 1801. Before his presidency, he was a leader of the American Revolution that achieved independence from Great Britain. During the latter part of the Revolutionary War and in the early years of the new nation, he served the Continental Congress of the United States as a senior diplomat in Europe. Adams was the first vice president of the United States, serving from 1789 to 1797. He was a dedicated diarist and regularly corresponded with contemporaries, including his wife and advisor Abigail Adams and his friend and rival Thomas Jefferson.

Thomas Jefferson, American architect, lawyer, and politician, 3rd President of the United States (born 1743)

Thomas Jefferson was a Founding Father and the third president of the United States from 1801 to 1809. He was the second vice president under John Adams. Jefferson was the primary author of the Declaration of Independence, and a leading proponent of democracy, republicanism and natural rights.

04/07/1821

Richard Cosway, English painter and academic (born 1742)

Richard Cosway was a leading English portrait painter of the Georgian and Regency era, noted for his miniatures. He was a contemporary of John Smart, George Engleheart, William Wood, and Richard Crosse. He befriended fellow Freemason and Swedenborgians William Blake and Chevalier d'Éon. His wife was the Italian-born painter Maria Cosway, a close friend of Thomas Jefferson.

04/07/1787

Charles, Prince of Soubise, Marshal of France (born 1715)

Charles de Rohan, Prince of Soubise was a French Royal Army officer and courtier who served during the reigns of Louis XV and Louis XVI. He was the last male of his branch of the House of Rohan, and was great-grandfather to the Duke of Enghien, executed by Napoleon in 1804. Styled Prince d'Epinoy at birth, he became the Prince of Soubise after 1749.

04/07/1780

Prince Charles Alexander of Lorraine (born 1712)

Prince Charles Alexander Emanuel of Lorraine was a Lorraine-born Austrian general and soldier, field marshal of the Imperial Army, and governor of the Austrian Netherlands.

04/07/1761

Samuel Richardson, English author and painter (born 1689)

Samuel Richardson was an English writer and printer known for three epistolary novels: Pamela; or, Virtue Rewarded (1740), Clarissa; or, The History of a Young Lady (1748) and The History of Sir Charles Grandison (1753). He printed almost 500 works, including journals and magazines, working periodically with the London bookseller Andrew Millar.

04/07/1754

Philippe Néricault Destouches, French playwright and author (born 1680)

Philippe Néricault Destouches was a French playwright who wrote 22 plays.

04/07/1742

Luigi Guido Grandi, Italian monk, mathematician, and engineer (born 1671)

Dom Guido Grandi, was an Italian monk, priest, philosopher, theologian, mathematician, and engineer.

04/07/1648

Antoine Daniel, French missionary and saint, one of the eight Canadian Martyrs (born 1601)

Antoine Daniel was a French Jesuit missionary in North America, at Sainte-Marie among the Hurons, and one of the eight Canadian Martyrs.

04/07/1644

Brian Twyne, English academic, antiquarian and archivist (born 1581)

Brian Twyne was an English antiquary and an academic at the University of Oxford. After being educated at Corpus Christi College, Oxford, and becoming a Fellow of the college in 1606, he published his one main work, a history of the university, in 1608. This was designed to prove that Oxford was older than Cambridge University, and has been described by a modern writer as a "remarkable achievement for a young scholar of twenty-eight."

04/07/1623

William Byrd, English composer (born c. 1540)

William Byrd was an English Renaissance composer. Considered among the greatest composers of the Renaissance, he had a profound influence on composers both from his native country and on the Continent. He is often considered along with John Dunstaple and Henry Purcell as one of England's most important composers of early music.

04/07/1603

Philippe de Monte, Flemish composer and educator (born 1521)

Philippe de Monte, sometimes known as Philippus de Monte, was a Flemish composer of the late Renaissance active all over Europe. He was a member of the 3rd generation madrigalists and wrote more madrigals than any other composer of the time. Sources cite him as being "the best composer in the entire country, particularly in the new manner and musica reservata." Others compare his collections of music with that of other influential composers, such as Orlande de Lassus.

04/07/1551

Gregory Cromwell, 1st Baron Cromwell, English politician (born 1514)

Gregory Cromwell, 1st Baron Cromwell was an English nobleman. He was the only son of the Tudor statesman Thomas Cromwell and Elizabeth Wyckes.

04/07/1546

Hayreddin Barbarossa, Ottoman admiral (born 1478)

Hayreddin Barbarossa, also known as Hayreddin Pasha, Hızır Hayrettin Pasha, and simply Hızır Reis, was an Ottoman corsair and later admiral of the Ottoman Navy. Barbarossa's naval victories secured Ottoman dominance over the Mediterranean during the mid-16th century.

04/07/1541

Pedro de Alvarado, Spanish general and explorer (born 1495)

Pedro de Alvarado was a Spanish conquistador, adelantado, governor and captain general of Guatemala. He participated in the conquest of Cuba, in Juan de Grijalva's exploration of the coasts of the Yucatán Peninsula and the Gulf of Mexico, and in the conquest of the Aztec Empire led by Hernán Cortés. He is considered the conquistador of much of Central America, including Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador, and parts of Nicaragua.

04/07/1533

John Frith, English priest, writer, and martyr (born 1503)

John Frith was an English Protestant priest, writer, and martyr.

04/07/1429

Carlo I Tocco, ruler of Epirus (born 1372)

Carlo I Tocco was the hereditary Count Palatine of Cephalonia and Zakynthos from 1376, and ruled as the Despot of Epirus from 1411 until his death on July 4, 1429.

04/07/1336

Saint Elizabeth of Portugal (born 1271)

Elizabeth of Portugal, also known as Elizabeth of Aragon, was Queen of Portugal from 1282 to 1325 as the wife of King Denis. She is venerated as a saint in the Catholic Church, under the name Saint Elizabeth of Portugal or Queen Saint Elizabeth.

04/07/1307

Rudolf I of Bohemia (born 1281)

Rudolf I, also known as Rudolf of Habsburg, was a member of the House of Habsburg, the King of Bohemia and titular King of Poland from 1306 until his death. He was also Duke of Austria and Styria from 1298.

04/07/1187

Raynald of Châtillon, French knight (born 1125)

Raynald of Châtillon, also known as Reynald, Reginald, or Renaud, was Prince of Antioch—a crusader state in the Middle East—from 1153 to 1160 or 1161, and Lord of Transjordan—a large fiefdom in the crusader Kingdom of Jerusalem—from 1175 until his death, ruling both territories iure uxoris. The second son of a French noble family, he joined the Second Crusade in 1147, and settled in Jerusalem as a mercenary. Six years later, he married Princess Constance of Antioch, although her subjects regarded the marriage as a mesalliance.

04/07/0975

Gwangjong of Goryeo, Korean king (born 925)

Gwangjong, personal name Wang So, was the fourth monarch of the Goryeo dynasty of Korea.

04/07/0973

Ulrich of Augsburg, German bishop and saint (born 890)

Ulrich of Augsburg, sometimes spelled Uodalric or Odalrici, was Prince-Bishop of Augsburg in the Holy Roman Empire. He was the first saint to be canonised not by a local authority but by a pope.

04/07/0965

Benedict V, pope of the Catholic Church

Pope Benedict V was the pope and ruler of the Papal States from 22 May to 23 June 964, in opposition to Leo VIII. He was overthrown by Emperor Otto I. His brief pontificate occurred at the end of a period known as the Saeculum obscurum.

04/07/0945

Zhuo Yanming, Chinese Buddhist monk and emperor

Zhuo Yanming (卓巖明), né Zhuo Yansi (卓偃巳), dharma name Timing (體明), was a Buddhist monk in the late years of the Chinese Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms Period Min state. After the Min army officer Li Renda rebelled against Min's last emperor Wang Yanzheng and took over control of Fu Prefecture, he proclaimed Zhuo Yanming, who was respected by the people, emperor, but shortly after assassinated Zhuo and directly took control.

04/07/0943

Taejo of Goryeo, Korean king (born 877)

Taejo, personal name Wang Kŏn, also known as Taejo Wang Kŏn, was the founder of the Goryeo Dynasty of Korea. He ruled from 918 to 943, achieving unification of the Later Three Kingdoms in 936.

04/07/0940

Wang Jianli, Chinese general (born 871)

Wang Jianli (王建立), formally the Prince of Han (韓王), was a general of the Chinese Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms Period state Later Tang and Later Jin, who also briefly served as a chancellor during the reign of Later Tang's second emperor Li Siyuan.

04/07/0910

Luo Shaowei, Chinese warlord (born 877)

Luo Shaowei, courtesy name Duanji (端己), formally Prince Zhenzhuang of Ye (鄴貞莊王), was a warlord who ruled Weibo Circuit, also known as Tianxiong Circuit (天雄), as its military governor (Jiedushi), late in the Chinese Tang dynasty and early in Tang's successor state Later Liang. His rule over Weibo was originally largely independent, but toward the end of his life increasingly integrated with the Later Liang state, in large part due to his massacre of his unruly headquarters guard corps, which lessened the danger of an overthrow but also decreased the strength of the Weibo army and forced its reliance on the Later Liang state.

04/07/0907

Luitpold, margrave of Bavaria

Luitpold, perhaps of the Huosi family or related to the Carolingian dynasty by Liutswind, mother of Emperor Arnulf of Carinthia, was the ancestor of the Luitpolding dynasty which ruled Bavaria and Carinthia until the mid-tenth century.

Dietmar I, archbishop of Salzburg

Dietmar I or Thietmar I, commonly spelled Theotmar, was the archbishop of Salzburg from 873 to 907.

04/07/0673

Ecgberht, king of Kent

Ecgberht I was a king of Kent (664–673), succeeding his father Eorcenberht.

Celebrations & Special Days Worldwide on 4th July

Christian feast day: Andrew of Crete

Andrew of Crete, also known as Andrew of Jerusalem, was an 8th-century bishop, theologian, homilist, and hymnographer. He is venerated as a saint in both the Eastern Orthodox Church and the Catholic Church.

Christian feast day: Bertha of Artois

Bertha of Artois or Bertha of Blangy was a Frankish and Anglo-Saxon Abbess of noble blood.

Christian feast day: Blessed Catherine Jarrige

Catherine Jarrige – known as Catinon Menette in her local dialect – was a French Roman Catholic and Dominican tertiary who was beatified in 1996.

Christian feast day: Saint Pier Giorgio Frassati

Pier Giorgio Frassati was an Italian Catholic activist and a member of the Third Order of Saint Dominic. He was dedicated to social justice issues and joined several charitable organizations, including Catholic Action and the Society of Saint Vincent de Paul, to better aid the poor and less fortunate living in his hometown of Turin.

Christian feast day: Elizabeth of Aragon (or of Portugal)

Elizabeth of Portugal, also known as Elizabeth of Aragon, was Queen of Portugal from 1282 to 1325 as the wife of King Denis. She is venerated as a saint in the Catholic Church, under the name Saint Elizabeth of Portugal or Queen Saint Elizabeth.

Christian feast day: Oda of Canterbury

Oda the Good was a 10th-century Archbishop of Canterbury in England. The son of a Danish invader, Oda became Bishop of Ramsbury before 928. A number of stories were told about his actions both prior to becoming and while a bishop, but few of these incidents are recorded in contemporary accounts. After being named to Canterbury in 941, Oda was instrumental in crafting royal legislation as well as involved in providing rules for his clergy. Oda was also involved in the efforts to reform religious life in England. He died in 958 and legendary tales afterwards were ascribed to him. Later he came to be regarded as a saint, and a hagiography was written in the late 11th or early 12th century.

Christian feast day: Ulrich of Augsburg

Ulrich of Augsburg, sometimes spelled Uodalric or Odalrici, was Prince-Bishop of Augsburg in the Holy Roman Empire. He was the first saint to be canonised not by a local authority but by a pope.

Christian feast day: July 4 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics)

July 3 - Eastern Orthodox Church calendar - July 5

CARICOM Day

The Treaty of Chaguaramas established the Caribbean Community and Common Market, popularly known as CARICOM. It was signed on 4 July 1973 in Chaguaramas, Trinidad and Tobago. It was signed by Barbados, Guyana, Jamaica, and Trinidad and Tobago. It came into effect on 1 August 1973. The treaty established the regional institution while replacing the Caribbean Free Trade Association which ceased to exist on 1 May 1974. The revised treaty, signed in 2001, created the Caribbean Single Market and Economy.

The first evening of Dree Festival, celebrated until July 7 (Apatani people, Arunachal Pradesh, India)

The Apatanis who inhabit a tranquil pine clad valley called Ziro at the core of Lower Subansiri District of Arunachal Pradesh, are famous for their unique practice of wet rice cultivation. They are also known for their sustainable agricultural practices and the agricultural cycles govern their everyday lives. The agricultural festival of Dree is the highlight in this cycle.

Independence Day (United States)

Independence Day, known colloquially as the Fourth of July, is a federal holiday in the United States which commemorates the adoption of the Declaration of Independence on July 4, 1776, establishing the United States of America.

Liberation Day (Northern Mariana Islands)

Liberation Day is a day, often a public holiday, that marks the liberation of a place, similar to an independence day, but differing from it because it does not involve the original creation of statehood. It commemorates the end of an occupation or the fall of a regime or the liberation from both a foreign occupation and a collaborationist regime.

Liberation Day (Rwanda)

Liberation Day is a public holiday in Rwanda which is celebrated on 4 July. It commemorates the defeat and downfall of the Hutu-led regime in Rwanda by the Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF) in the Rwandan Civil War, thus ending the Rwandan genocide. On 4 July 1994, the RPF secured the capital of Kigali while the end of the war only became official on 18 July with the liberation of northwestern Rwanda. Liberation Day takes place a week after Independence Day, although it is more of a celebration rather than the national mourning period for the Rwandan Revolution on Independence Day.

Republic Day (Philippines)

Philippine Republic Day, also known as Philippine–American Friendship Day, is a commemoration in the Philippines held annually on July 4. It was formerly an official holiday designated as Independence Day, celebrating the signing of the Treaty of Manila, which granted Philippine independence from the United States of America in 1946.

What Happened on 4th July?

89 significant events took place on Tuesday, 4th July — stretching from -362 to 2025. Explore the moments that shaped history on this day.

04/07/2025

A devastating flood strikes the Texas Hill Country, killing at least 108 people.

On July 4, 2025, destructive and deadly flooding took place in the Hill Country region of the U.S. state of Texas. During the flooding, water levels along the Guadalupe River rose rapidly. As a result, at least 139 people were killed, at least 117 of them in Kerr County. The flooding was caused by a mesoscale convective vortex with enhanced tropical moisture.

The Oasis Live '25 tour began in Principality Stadium, Cardiff, ending a 16 year hiatus.

The Oasis Live '25 Tour was a concert tour by the English rock band Oasis. It began on 4 July 2025 at the Principality Stadium in Cardiff, Wales, and concluded on 23 November at Estádio do Morumbi in São Paulo, Brazil. The tour marked Oasis's first live appearances since they split in 2009. Their reunion and the tour were announced on 27 August 2024, two days before the 30th anniversary of their debut album, Definitely Maybe. Initially, seventeen dates across five cities in the United Kingdom and Ireland were announced, including five dates each at Wembley Stadium in London and Heaton Park in Manchester. Three extra dates were announced on 29 August 2024. Further dates were added and the band eventually performed 41 concerts in 14 countries. The announcement of the tour prompted six of Oasis's releases to re-enter the UK charts, including "Live Forever", which reached a new peak position of #8.

04/07/2024

The Labour Party, led by Keir Starmer, wins a landslide majority in the 2024 United Kingdom general election, ending 14 years of Conservative government.

The Labour Party, commonly Labour, is a political party in the United Kingdom. It sits on the centre-left of the left–right political spectrum, and has been described as an alliance of democratic socialists, social democrats and trade unionists. It has been the governing party since the 2024 general election. Keir Starmer has been Leader of the Labour Party since 2020 and Prime Minister of the United Kingdom since 2024. There have been twelve Labour governments and seven Labour prime ministers. The party meets annually during Autumn for the Labour Party Conference, during which delegates from local parties and trade unions vote on party policy, and senior figures address the audience from the Conference platform.

04/07/2015

Chile claims its first title in international football by defeating Argentina in the 2015 Copa América Final.

Association football, more commonly known as just football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 players who almost exclusively use their feet to propel a ball around a pitch.

04/07/2012

The discovery of particles consistent with the Higgs boson at the Large Hadron Collider is announced at CERN.

The Higgs boson, sometimes called the Higgs particle, is an elementary particle in the Standard Model of particle physics produced by the quantum excitation of the Higgs field, one of the fields in particle physics theory. In the Standard Model, the Higgs particle is a massive scalar boson that couples to particles whose mass arises from their interactions with the Higgs field, has zero spin, even (positive) parity, no electric charge, and no color charge. It is also very unstable, decaying into other particles almost immediately upon generation.

04/07/2009

The Statue of Liberty's crown reopens to the public after eight years of closure due to security concerns following the September 11 attacks.

The Statue of Liberty is a colossal neoclassical sculpture of a robed and crowned woman on Liberty Island, part of New York City, in New York Harbor. The copper-clad statue, a gift to the United States from the people of France, was designed by French sculptor Frédéric Auguste Bartholdi, and its metal framework built by Gustave Eiffel. The statue was dedicated on October 28, 1886.

The first of four days of bombings begins on the southern Philippine island group of Mindanao.

The Mindanao bombings was a series of seemingly unrelated bomb attacks that took place on July 4, 5, and 7, 2009 in the towns of Datu Piang and Jolo, and the cities of Cotabato and Iligan in Mindanao, Philippines. The bombings killed 8 people and injured at least 66. The Armed Forces of the Philippines has blamed several militant organizations active in Mindanao, such as the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), the Abu Sayyaf, and Jemaah Islamiyah.

04/07/2008

A bomb explodes at a concert in Minsk's Independence Square, injuring 50 people.

The 2008 Minsk bombing took place just after midnight on 4 July 2008, in Minsk, Belarus and wounded 54 people. The explosion happened near the Hero City monument at a concert to celebrate Belarus' independence. The concert had been attended by Belarus' President, Alexander Lukashenko, who was not hurt and who officials said was not the target.

04/07/2006

Space Shuttle program: Discovery launches STS-121 to the International Space Station. The event gained wide media attention as it was the only shuttle launch in the program's history to occur on the United States' Independence Day.

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 Earth-to-orbit crew and cargo from 1981 to 2011. Its official program name was carried over from the 1969 plan for the Space Transportation System (STS) of reusable spacecraft. Only the shuttle and supporting rockets were funded for development; a proposed nuclear lunar shuttle in the plan was canceled in 1972. It flew 135 missions and carried 355 astronauts from 16 countries, many on multiple trips.

04/07/2005

The Deep Impact collider hits the comet Tempel 1.

Deep Impact was a NASA space probe launched from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station on January 12, 2005. It was designed to study the interior composition of the comet Tempel 1 (9P/Tempel), by releasing an impactor into the comet. At 05:52 UTC on July 4, 2005, the Impactor successfully collided with the comet's nucleus. The impact excavated debris from the interior of the nucleus, forming an impact crater. Photographs taken by the spacecraft showed the comet to be more dusty and less icy than had been expected. The impact generated an unexpectedly large and bright dust cloud, obscuring the view of the impact crater.

04/07/2004

The cornerstone of the Freedom Tower is laid on the World Trade Center site in New York City.

One World Trade Center, also known as One WTC and the Freedom Tower, is the main building of the rebuilt World Trade Center complex in Lower Manhattan, New York City. Designed by David Childs of Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, One World Trade Center is the tallest building in the United States, the tallest building in the Western Hemisphere, and the seventh-tallest in the world. The supertall structure has the same name as the North Tower of the original World Trade Center, which was destroyed in the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. The skyscraper stands on the northwest corner of the 16-acre (6.5 ha) World Trade Center site, on the site of the original 6 World Trade Center. It is bounded by West Street to the west, Vesey Street to the north, Fulton Street to the south, and Washington Street to the east.

Greece beats Portugal in the UEFA Euro 2004 Final and becomes European Champion for first time in its history.

The Greece national football team represents Greece in men's international football matches, and is controlled by the Hellenic Football Federation, the governing body for football in Greece. Greece is one of only ten national teams to have been crowned UEFA European Champions.

04/07/2002

A Boeing 707 crashes near Bangui M'Poko International Airport in Bangui, Central African Republic, killing 28.

The Boeing 707 is an early American long-range narrow-body airliner, the first jetliner developed and produced by Boeing Commercial Airplanes. Developed from the Boeing 367-80 prototype, the initial 707-120 first flew on December 20, 1957. Pan Am began regular 707 service on October 26, 1958. With versions produced until 1979, the 707 is a swept wing quadjet with podded engines. Its larger fuselage cross-section allowed six-abreast economy seating, retained in the later 720, 727, 737, and 757 models.

04/07/2001

Vladivostok Air Flight 352 crashes on approach to Irkutsk Airport killing all 145 people on board.

Vladivostok Air Flight 352 was a scheduled passenger flight from Yekaterinburg, Russia to Vladivostok via Irkutsk. On 4 July 2001, the aircraft operating the flight, a Tupolev Tu-154M with tail number RA-85845, lost control, stalled, and crashed while approaching Irkutsk Airport. All 136 passengers and 9 flight crew members aboard perished, making it the third deadliest aircraft crash over Russian territory to date after Aeroflot Flight 3352 and Aeroflot Flight 217.

04/07/1998

Japan launches the Nozomi probe to Mars, joining the United States and Russia as a space exploring nation.

Nozomi was a Japanese Mars orbiter that failed to reach Mars due to electrical failure. It was constructed by the Institute of Space and Astronautical Science, University of Tokyo and launched on July 4, 1998, at 03:12 JST with an on-orbit dry mass of 258 kg and 282 kg of propellant. The Nozomi mission was terminated on December 31, 2003.

04/07/1997

NASA's Pathfinder space probe lands on the surface of Mars.

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration is an independent agency of the U.S. federal government responsible for the United States' civil space program and for research in aeronautics and space. Headquartered in Washington, D.C., NASA operates ten field centers across the U.S. and is organized into three mission directorates: Human Spaceflight, Research and Technology, and Science. Established in 1958, NASA succeeded the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA) to give the U.S. space program a distinct civilian orientation focused on peaceful applications. Since then, it has led most American spaceflight programs, including Project Mercury, Project Gemini, the Apollo program, Skylab, the Space Shuttle, the International Space Station (ISS) and the ongoing multi-national Artemis program.

04/07/1994

Rwandan genocide: Kigali, the Rwandan capital, is captured by the Rwandan Patriotic Front, ending the genocide in the city.

The Rwandan genocide, also known as the Tutsi genocide, occurred from 7 April to 19 July 1994 during the Rwandan Civil War. Over a span of around 100 days, members of the Tutsi ethnic group, as well as some moderate Hutu and Twa, were systematically killed by Hutu militias. While the Rwandan Constitution states that over 1 million people were killed, most scholarly estimates suggest between 500,000 and 662,000 Tutsi died, mostly men. The genocide was marked by extreme violence, with victims often murdered by neighbours, and widespread sexual violence, with between 250,000 and 500,000 women raped.

04/07/1982

Three Iranian diplomats and a journalist are kidnapped in Lebanon by Phalange forces, and their fate remains unknown.

Three Iranian diplomats as well as a reporter for Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA) were abducted in Lebanon on 4 July 1982. None of them have been seen since. The missing individuals are Ahmad Motevaselian, military attaché for Iran's embassy in Beirut; Seyed Mohsen Mousavi, chargé d'affaires at the embassy; Taghi Rastegar Moghadam, an embassy employee; and Kazem Akhavan, IRNA photojournalist. Motevaselian was also an Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) member in command of an Iranian expeditionary force in Lebanon.

Space Shuttle program: Columbia lands at Edwards Air Force Base at the end of the program's final test flight, STS-4. President Ronald Reagan declares the Space Shuttle to be operational.

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 Earth-to-orbit crew and cargo from 1981 to 2011. Its official program name was carried over from the 1969 plan for the Space Transportation System (STS) of reusable spacecraft. Only the shuttle and supporting rockets were funded for development; a proposed nuclear lunar shuttle in the plan was canceled in 1972. It flew 135 missions and carried 355 astronauts from 16 countries, many on multiple trips.

04/07/1977

The George Jackson Brigade plants a bomb at the main power substation for the Washington state capitol in Olympia, in solidarity with a prison strike at the Walla Walla State Penitentiary Intensive Security Unit.

The George Jackson Brigade, or GJB, was a militant group founded in the mid-1970s, based in Seattle, Washington, and named after George Jackson, a dissident prisoner and Black Panther member shot and killed during an escape attempt at San Quentin Prison in 1971. The group combined veterans of the women's liberation movement, LGBTQ activists, and Black prisoners.

04/07/1976

Israeli commandos raid Entebbe airport in Uganda, rescuing all but four of the passengers and crew of an Air France jetliner seized by Palestinian terrorists.

The Israel Defense Forces, alternatively referred to by the Hebrew-language acronym Tzahal (צה״ל), is the national military of the State of Israel. It consists of three service branches: the Israeli Ground Forces, the Israeli Air Force, and the Israeli Navy. It is the sole military wing of the Israeli security apparatus. The IDF is headed by the chief of the general staff, who is subordinate to the defense minister.

04/07/1973

Barbados, Guyana, Jamaica, and Trinidad and Tobago sign the Treaty of Chaguaramas in Chaguaramas, Trinidad and Tobago establishing the Caribbean Community (CARICOM). It replaces the Caribbean Free Trade Association as another step towards Caribbean regional integration.

Barbados is an island nation in the Caribbean located in the Atlantic Ocean. It is part of the Lesser Antilles of the West Indies and is the easternmost island of the Caribbean region. It lies on the boundary of the South American and Caribbean plates. Its capital and largest city is Bridgetown.

04/07/1966

U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson signs the Freedom of Information Act into United States law. The act went into effect the next year.

Lyndon Baines Johnson, also known as LBJ, was the 36th president of the United States from 1963 to 1969. Johnson was vice president under John F. Kennedy from 1961 until Kennedy's assassination in 1963, when he assumed the presidency. Before becoming vice president, he served in both houses of the U.S. Congress, representing Texas as a member of the Democratic Party.

04/07/1961

On its maiden voyage, the Soviet nuclear-powered submarine K-19 suffers a complete loss of coolant to its reactor. The crew are able to effect repairs, but 22 of them die of radiation poisoning over the following two years.

K-19 was the first submarine of the Project 658 class, the first generation of Soviet nuclear submarines equipped with nuclear ballistic missiles, specifically the R-13 SLBM. The boat was hastily built by the Soviets in response to United States' developments in nuclear submarines as part of the arms race. Before it was launched, 10 civilian workers and a sailor died due to accidents and fires. After K-19 was commissioned, the boat had multiple breakdowns and accidents, several of which threatened to sink the submarine.

04/07/1960

Due to the post-Independence Day admission of Hawaii as the 50th U.S. state on August 21, 1959, the 50-star flag of the United States debuts in Philadelphia, almost ten and a half months later (see Flag Acts (United States)).

In the United States, a state is a constituent political entity, of which there are 50. Bound together in a political union, each state holds governmental jurisdiction over a separate and defined geographic territory where it shares its sovereignty with the federal government. Due to this shared sovereignty, Americans are citizens both of the federal republic and of the state in which they reside. State citizenship and residency are flexible, and no government approval is required to move between states, except for persons restricted by certain types of court orders, such as paroled convicts and children of divorced spouses who share child custody.

04/07/1954

Food rationing in Great Britain ends, with the lifting of restrictions on sale and purchase of meat, 14 years after it began early in World War II, and nearly a decade after the war's end.

Rationing was introduced temporarily by the British government several times during the 20th century, during and immediately after a war.

04/07/1951

Cold War: A court in Czechoslovakia sentences American journalist William N. Oatis to ten years in prison on charges of espionage.

The Czechoslovak Socialist Republic, known from 1948 to 1960 as the Czechoslovak Republic, Fourth Czechoslovak Republic, or simply Czechoslovakia, was the Czechoslovak state from 1948 until 1989, when the country was under communist rule, and was regarded as a satellite state in the Soviet sphere of interest.

William Shockley announces the invention of the junction transistor.

William Bradford Shockley was an American physicist. He was the manager of a research group at Bell Labs that included John Bardeen and Walter Brattain. The three scientists were jointly awarded the 1956 Nobel Prize in Physics "for their researches on semiconductors and their discovery of the transistor effect."

04/07/1950

Cold War: Radio Free Europe first broadcasts.

The Cold War was a period of international geopolitical rivalry between the United States (US) and the Soviet Union (USSR) and their respective allies, the capitalist Western Bloc and communist Eastern Bloc. It began in the aftermath of the Second World War and ended with the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991. The term cold war is used because there was no direct fighting between the two superpowers, though each supported opposing sides in regional conflicts known as proxy wars. In addition to the struggle for ideological and economic influence and an arms race in both conventional and nuclear weapons, the Cold War was expressed through technological rivalries such as the Space Race, espionage, propaganda campaigns, embargoes, and sports diplomacy.

04/07/1947

The "Indian Independence Bill" is presented before the British House of Commons, proposing the independence of the Provinces of British India into two sovereign countries: India and Pakistan.

The House of Commons is the lower house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Like the upper house, the House of Lords, it meets in the Palace of Westminster in London, England. The House of Commons is an elected body consisting of 650 members known as members of Parliament (MPs), who are elected to represent constituencies by the first-past-the-post system and hold their seats until Parliament is dissolved.

04/07/1946

The Kielce pogrom against Jewish Holocaust survivors in Poland.

The Kielce pogrom was an outbreak of anti-Jewish violence that took place on 4 July 1946 in the city of Kielce, Poland. Polish soldiers, police officers, and civilians attacked a building at 7 Planty Street that housed around 150–160 Jewish Holocaust survivors, killing 42 Jews and wounding more than 40. The violence was sparked by a false accusation of child kidnapping, a revival of the antisemitic blood libel myth. Despite the rapid collapse of the kidnapping claim, rumors were circulated by state forces, prompting the gathering of a hostile crowd and the subsequent assault on the building and its inhabitants. Several Jews not residing at Planty Street were also killed elsewhere in the city that day, and at least two Jews were later murdered in transit through Kielce's train station.

After 381 years of near-continuous colonial rule by various powers, the Philippines attains full independence from the United States.

The Philippines, officially the Republic of the Philippines, is an archipelagic country in Southeast Asia. Located in the western Pacific Ocean, it consists of about 7,641 islands, with a total area of about 300,000 square kilometers, which are broadly categorized in three main geographical divisions from north to south: Luzon, Visayas, and Mindanao. With a population of over 114 million, it is the world's twelfth-most-populous country.

04/07/1943

World War II: The Battle of Kursk, the largest full-scale battle in history and the world's largest tank battle, begins in the village of Prokhorovka.

The Battle of Kursk, also called the Battle of the Kursk Salient, was a major World War II Eastern Front battle between the forces of Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union near Kursk in southwestern Russia during the summer of 1943, resulting in a Soviet victory. The Battle of Kursk is the single largest battle in the history of warfare. It ranks only behind the Battle of Stalingrad several months earlier as the most often-cited turning point in the European theatre of the war. It was one of the costliest battles of the Second World War, the single deadliest armoured battle in history, and the largest tank battle in history. The opening day of the battle, 5 July, was the single costliest day in the history of aerial warfare in terms of aircraft shot down. The battle was further marked by fierce house-to-house fighting and hand-to-hand combat.

World War II: In Gibraltar, a Royal Air Force B-24 Liberator bomber crashes into the sea in an apparent accident moments after takeoff, killing sixteen passengers on board, including general Władysław Sikorski, the commander-in-chief of the Polish Army and the Prime Minister of the Polish government-in-exile; only the pilot survives.

Gibraltar is a British Overseas Territory and city located at the southern tip of the Iberian Peninsula, on the Bay of Gibraltar, near the exit of the Mediterranean Sea into the Atlantic Ocean. It has an area of 6.8 km2 (2.6 sq mi) and is bordered to the north by Spain. The landscape is dominated by the Rock of Gibraltar, at the foot of which is a densely populated town area. Gibraltar is home to around 34,000 people, primarily Gibraltarians.

04/07/1942

World War II: The 250-day Siege of Sevastopol in the Crimea ends when the city falls to Axis forces.

The siege of Sevastopol, also known as the defence of Sevastopol or the Battle for Sevastopol, was a military engagement that took place on the Eastern Front of the Second World War. The campaign was fought by the Axis powers of Germany and Romania against the Soviet Union for control of Sevastopol, a port in Crimea on the Black Sea. On 22 June 1941, the Axis invaded the Soviet Union during Operation Barbarossa, with Axis land forces reaching the Crimean peninsula in the autumn of 1941 and overrunning most of the area. The only objective not in Axis hands was Sevastopol. Several attempts were made to secure the city in October and November 1941. A major attack was planned for late November, but heavy rains delayed it until 17 December 1941. Under the command of Erich von Manstein, Axis forces were unable to capture Sevastopol during this first operation. Soviet forces launched an amphibious landing on the Crimean peninsula at Kerch in December 1941 to relieve the siege and force the Axis to divert forces to defend their gains. The operation saved Sevastopol for the time being, but the bridgehead in eastern Crimea was eliminated in May 1942.

04/07/1941

Nazi crimes against the Polish nation: Nazi troops massacre Polish scientists and writers in the captured Ukrainian city of Lviv.

Crimes against the Polish nation committed by Nazi Germany and Axis collaborationist forces during the invasion of Poland, along with auxiliary battalions during the subsequent occupation of Poland in World War II, included the genocide of millions of Polish people, especially the systematic extermination of Jewish Poles. These mass killings were enacted by the Nazis with further plans that were justified by their racial theories, which regarded Poles and other Slavs, and especially Jews, as racially inferior Untermenschen.

World War II: The Burning of the Riga synagogues: The Great Choral Synagogue in German-occupied Riga is burnt with 300 Jews locked in the basement.

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 roles, the latter enabling the strategic bombing of cities and delivery of the only nuclear weapons used in war. World War II was the deadliest conflict in history, causing the death of 60 to 75 million people. Millions died as a result of massacres, starvation, disease, and genocides, including the Holocaust. After the Allied victory, Germany, Austria, Japan, and Korea were occupied, and German and Japanese leaders were tried for war crimes.

04/07/1939

Lou Gehrig, recently diagnosed with Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, informs a crowd at Yankee Stadium that he considers himself "The luckiest man on the face of the earth", then announces his retirement from major league baseball.

Henry Louis Gehrig was an American professional baseball first baseman who played 17 seasons in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the New York Yankees. Gehrig was renowned for his prowess as a hitter and for his durability, which earned him the nickname "the Iron Horse", and he is regarded as one of the greatest baseball players of all time. Gehrig was an All-Star seven consecutive times, a Triple Crown winner once, an American League (AL) Most Valuable Player twice and a member of six World Series champion teams. He had a career .340 batting average, .632 slugging average, and a .447 on-base average. He hit 493 home runs and had 1,995 runs batted in (RBIs). He is also one of 21 players to hit four home runs in a single game. In 1939, Gehrig was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame and was the first MLB player to have his uniform number retired by a team when his number 4 was retired by the Yankees.

04/07/1927

First flight of the Lockheed Vega.

The Lockheed Vega is an American five- to seven-seat high-wing monoplane airliner built by the Lockheed Corporation starting in 1927. It became famous for its use by a number of record-breaking pilots who were attracted to its high speed and long range. Amelia Earhart became the first woman to fly solo across the Atlantic Ocean in one, and Wiley Post used his to prove the existence of the jet stream after flying around the world twice.

04/07/1918

Mehmed V died at the age of 73 and Ottoman sultan Mehmed VI ascends to the throne.

Mehmed V Reşâd was the penultimate sultan of the Ottoman Empire from 1909 to 1918. Mehmed V reigned as a constitutional monarch. He had little influence over government affairs and his ministries showed little regard for the Ottoman constitution. The first half of his reign was marked by increasingly polarizing politics, and the second half by war and domination of the Committee of Union and Progress (CUP) and the Three Pashas.

World War I: The Battle of Hamel, a successful attack by the Australian Corps against German positions near the town of Le Hamel on the Western Front.

World War I, or the First World War, also known as the Great War, was a global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies and the Central Powers. Major areas of conflict included Europe and the Middle East, as well as parts of Africa and the Asia-Pacific. The war saw important developments in weaponry including tanks, aircraft, artillery, machine guns, and chemical weapons. One of the deadliest conflicts in history, it resulted in an estimated 15 to 22 million military and civilian casualties and genocide. The movement of large numbers of people was a major factor in the deadly Spanish flu pandemic.

04/07/1914

The funeral of Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his wife Sophie takes place in Vienna, six days after their assassinations in Sarajevo.

Archduke Franz Ferdinand Carl Ludwig Joseph Maria of Austria was the heir presumptive to the throne of Austria-Hungary. His assassination in Sarajevo was the most immediate cause of World War I.

04/07/1913

President Woodrow Wilson addresses American Civil War veterans at the Great Reunion of 1913.

The president of the United States (POTUS) is the head of state and head of government of the United States. The president directs the executive branch of the federal government and is the commander-in-chief of the United States Armed Forces.

04/07/1911

A massive heat wave strikes the northeastern United States, killing 380 people in eleven days and breaking temperature records in several cities.

The 1911 Eastern North America heat wave was an 11-day severe heat wave that killed at least 380 people, though estimates have put the death toll as high as 2,000 people. The heat wave began on July 4 and did not cease until July 15. In Nashua, New Hampshire, the temperature peaked at 106 °F (41 °C). In New York City, 158 people and 600 horses died.

04/07/1910

The Johnson–Jeffries riots occur after African-American boxer Jack Johnson knocks out white boxer Jim Jeffries in the 15th round. Between 11 and 26 people are killed and hundreds more injured.

The Johnson–Jeffries riots were a series of race riots that occurred throughout the United States after African-American boxer Jack Johnson defeated white boxer James J. Jeffries in a boxing match termed the "Fight of the Century". Johnson became the first black World Heavyweight champion in 1908. This success made him unpopular with the predominantly white American boxing audiences. Jeffries, a former heavyweight champion, came out of retirement to fight Johnson and was nicknamed the "Great White Hope". After Johnson defeated Jeffries on July 4, 1910, many white people became enraged and began attacking black people who were celebrating Johnson's victory.

04/07/1903

The Philippine–American War is officially concluded.

The Philippine–American War, known alternatively as the Filipino–American War, Philippine Insurrection, or Tagalog Insurgency, emerged in early 1899 following the United States' annexation of the former Spanish colony of the Philippine Islands under the terms of the December 1898 Treaty of Paris following the Spanish–American War. Philippine nationalists had proclaimed independence in June 1898 and constituted the First Philippine Republic in January 1899. The United States did not recognize either event as legitimate, and tensions escalated until fighting commenced on February 4, 1899, in the Battle of Manila.

04/07/1901

William Howard Taft becomes American governor of the Philippines.

William Howard Taft was the 27th president of the United States from 1909 to 1913 and the tenth chief justice of the United States from 1921 to 1930. He is the only person to have held both offices.

04/07/1898

En route from New York to Le Havre, the SS La Bourgogne collides with another ship and sinks with the loss of 549 lives, one of the worst maritime disasters in history.

Le Havre is a major port city in the Seine-Maritime department in the Normandy region of northern France. It is situated on the right bank of the estuary of the river Seine on the English Channel southwest of the Pays de Caux, very close to the Prime Meridian. Le Havre is the busiest port on the northern French Coast and largest container port in France. it is the second largest city in the Normandy region of France with total population of the greater Le Havre conurbation being smaller than that of Rouen.It is also the second largest subprefecture in France, after only Reims. The name Le Havre means 'the harbour' or 'the port'. Its inhabitants are known as havrais or havraises.

04/07/1894

The short-lived Republic of Hawaii is proclaimed by Sanford B. Dole.

The Republic of Hawaii was a short-lived one-party state in Hawaiʻi between July 4, 1894, when the Provisional Government of Hawaii had ended, and August 12, 1898, when it became annexed by the United States as an unincorporated and unorganized territory. In 1893, the Committee of Public Safety overthrew Queen Liliʻuokalani, the monarch of the Kingdom of Hawaiʻi, after she rejected the 1887 Bayonet Constitution. The Committee of Public Safety intended for Hawaii to be annexed by the United States; however, President Grover Cleveland, a Democrat opposed to imperialism, refused. A new constitution was subsequently written while Hawaii was being prepared for annexation.

04/07/1892

Western Samoa changes the International Date Line, causing Monday (July 4) to occur twice, resulting in a leap year with 367 days.

Samoa, officially the Independent State of Samoa, is an island country in Polynesia, part of Oceania, in the South Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main islands, two smaller, inhabited islands, and several smaller, uninhabited islands, including the Aleipata Islands. Samoa is located 64 km west of American Samoa, 889 km northeast of Tonga, 1,152 km northeast of Fiji, 483 km east of Wallis and Futuna, 1,151 km southeast of Tuvalu, 519 km south of Tokelau, 4,190 km southwest of Hawaii, and 610 km northwest of Niue. The capital and largest city is Apia.

04/07/1887

The founder of Pakistan, Quaid-i-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah, joins Sindh-Madrasa-tul-Islam, Karachi.

Pakistan, officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, is a country in South Asia. It is the fifth-most populous country, with a population of over 241.5 million, having the second-largest Muslim population as of 2023. Islamabad is the nation's capital, while Karachi is its largest city and financial centre. Pakistan is the 33rd-largest country by area. Bounded by the Arabian Sea on the south, the Gulf of Oman on the southwest, and the Sir Creek on the southeast, it shares land borders with India to the east; Afghanistan to the west; Iran to the southwest; and China to the northeast. It shares a maritime border with Oman in the Gulf of Oman, and is separated from Tajikistan in the northwest by Afghanistan's narrow Wakhan Corridor.

04/07/1886

The Canadian Pacific Railway's first scheduled train from Montreal arrives in Port Moody on the Pacific coast, after six days of travel.

The Canadian Pacific Railway, also known simply as CPR or Canadian Pacific and formerly as CP Rail (1968–1996), is a Canadian Class I railway incorporated in 1881. The railway is owned by Canadian Pacific Kansas City Limited, known until 2023 as Canadian Pacific Railway Limited, which began operations as legal owner in a corporate restructuring in 2001.

04/07/1881

In Alabama, the Tuskegee Institute opens.

Alabama is a state in the Southeastern and Deep Southern regions of the United States. It borders Tennessee to the north, Georgia to the east, Florida and the Gulf of Mexico to the south, and Mississippi to the west. Alabama is the 30th largest by area, and the 24th-most populous of the 50 U.S. states.

04/07/1879

Anglo-Zulu War: The Zululand capital of Ulundi is captured by British troops and burned to the ground, ending the war and forcing King Cetshwayo to flee.

The Anglo-Zulu War, or simply the Zulu War, was fought in present-day South Africa from January to early July 1879 between forces of the British Empire and the Zulu Kingdom. Two famous battles of the war were the Zulu victory at Isandlwana and the British defence at Rorke's Drift.

04/07/1863

American Civil War: Siege of Vicksburg: The Confederate army in Vicksburg, Mississippi surrenders to Union forces under Ulysses S. Grant after 47 days of siege, contributing to the Union capture of the Mississippi River.

The American Civil War was a civil war in the United States between the Union and the Confederacy, which was formed in 1861 by states that had seceded from the Union to preserve slavery in the United States, which they saw as threatened because of the election of Abraham Lincoln and the growing abolitionist movement in the North. The war ended with Union victory, the dissolution of the Confederacy and the abolition of slavery, freeing four million African Americans.

American Civil War: Union forces repulse a Confederate army at the Battle of Helena in Arkansas. The battle thwarts a Rebel attempt to relieve pressure on the besieged city of Vicksburg, and paves the way for the Union capture of Little Rock.

The Battle of Helena was fought on July 4, 1863, near Helena, Arkansas, during the American Civil War. Union troops captured the city in July 1862, and had been using it as a base of operations. Over 7,500 Confederate troops led by Lieutenant General Theophilus Holmes attempted to capture Helena in hopes of relieving some of the pressure on the Confederate army besieged in Vicksburg, Mississippi. Helena was defended by about 4,100 Union troops led by Major General Benjamin Prentiss, manning one fort and four batteries of artillery.

American Civil War: Retreat from Gettysburg: The Confederate Army of Northern Virginia under Robert E. Lee withdraws from the battlefield after losing the Battle of Gettysburg, signaling an end to his last invasion of the North.

The Confederate Army of Northern Virginia began its Retreat from Gettysburg on July 4, 1863. Following General Robert E. Lee's failure to defeat the Union Army at the Battle of Gettysburg, he ordered a retreat through Maryland and over the Potomac River to relative safety in Virginia.

04/07/1862

Lewis Carroll tells Alice Liddell a story that would grow into Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and its sequels.

Charles Lutwidge Dodgson, better known by his pen name Lewis Carroll, was an English author, poet, mathematician, photographer and reluctant Anglican deacon. His most notable works are Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (1865) and its sequel Through the Looking-Glass (1871), some of the most important examples of Victorian literature. He was noted for his facility with word play, logic, and fantasy. His poems Jabberwocky (1871) and The Hunting of the Snark (1876) are classified in the genre of literary nonsense. Some of Alice's nonsensical wonderland logic reflects his published work on mathematical logic.

04/07/1855

The first edition of Walt Whitman's book of poems, Leaves of Grass, is published in Brooklyn.

Walter Whitman Jr. was an American poet, essayist, and journalist; he also wrote two novels. He is considered one of the most influential poets in American literature and world literature. Whitman incorporated both transcendentalism and realism in his writings and is often called the father of free verse. His work was controversial in his time, particularly his 1855 poetry collection Leaves of Grass, which was described by some as obscene for its overt sensuality.

04/07/1845

Henry David Thoreau moves into a small cabin on Walden Pond in Concord, Massachusetts. Thoreau's account of his two years there, Walden, will become a touchstone of the environmental movement.

Henry David Thoreau was an American naturalist, essayist, poet, and philosopher. A leading transcendentalist, he is best known for his book Walden, a reflection upon simple living in natural surroundings, and his essay "Civil Disobedience", an argument in favor of citizen disobedience against an unjust state.

04/07/1838

The Iowa Territory is organized.

Iowa Territory was an organized incorporated territory of the United States that existed from July 3, 1838, until December 28, 1846, when the southeastern portion of the territory was admitted to the Union as the state of Iowa. The remainder of the territory would have no organized territorial government until the Minnesota Territory was organized on March 3, 1849.

04/07/1837

Grand Junction Railway, the world's first long-distance railway, opens between Birmingham and Liverpool.

The Grand Junction Railway (GJR) was an early railway company in the United Kingdom, which existed between 1833 and 1846. The line built by the company, which opened in 1837, linked the Liverpool and Manchester Railway to Birmingham via Warrington, Crewe, Stafford and Wolverhampton. This was the first trunk railway to be completed in England, and arguably the world's first long-distance railway with steam traction. It terminated at Curzon Street Station in Birmingham, which it shared with the London and Birmingham Railway (L&BR), whose adjacent platforms gave an interchange with full connectivity between Liverpool, Manchester and London.

04/07/1832

John Neal delivers the first public lecture in the US to advocate the rights of women.

John Neal was an American writer, critic, editor, lecturer, and activist. Considered both eccentric and influential, he delivered speeches and published essays, novels, poems, and short stories between the 1810s and 1870s in the United States and Great Britain, championing American literary nationalism and regionalism in their earliest stages. Neal advanced the development of American art, fought for women's rights, advocated the end of slavery and racial prejudice, and helped establish the American gymnastics movement.

Durham University established by Act of Parliament; the first recognized university to be founded in England since Cambridge over 600 years earlier.

The University of Durham, which operates under the trading name of Durham University, is a collegiate public research university in Durham, England, founded by an Act of Parliament in 1832 and incorporated by royal charter in 1837. It was the first recognised university to open in England for more than 600 years, after Oxford and Cambridge, and is thus identified by historians as the third-oldest university in England. As a collegiate university, its main functions are divided between the academic departments of the university and its 17 colleges. In general, the departments perform research and provide teaching to students, while the colleges are responsible for their domestic arrangements and welfare.

04/07/1831

Samuel Francis Smith writes "My Country, 'Tis of Thee" for the Boston, Massachusetts July 4 festivities.

Samuel Francis Smith was an American Baptist minister, journalist, and author. He is best known for having written the lyrics to "My Country, 'Tis of Thee", which he entitled "America".

04/07/1827

Slavery is abolished in the State of New York.

The legal institution of human chattel slavery, comprising the enslavement primarily of Africans and African Americans, was prevalent in the United States of America from its founding in 1776 until 1865, predominantly in the South. Slavery was found throughout European colonization in the Americas. From 1526, during the early colonial period, it was practiced in what became Britain's colonies, including the Thirteen Colonies that formed the United States. Under the law, children were born into slavery, and an enslaved person was treated as property that could be bought, sold, or given away. Slavery persisted in about half of U.S. states until abolition in 1865, and issues involving slavery seeped into every aspect of national politics, economics, and social customs. In the decades after Reconstruction ended in 1877, many of slavery's economic and social functions continued through segregation, sharecropping, and convict leasing. Involuntary servitude as a punishment for crime remains legal.

04/07/1818

US Flag Act of 1818 goes into effect creating a 13 stripe flag with a star for each state. New stars would be added on July 4 after a new state had been admitted.

The Flag Acts are three laws that sought to define the design of the flag of the United States. All the submitted suggestions were remarkably short, the shortest being a sentence of 31 words, and the longest being a title and two sentences of 117 words.

04/07/1817

In Rome, New York, construction on the Erie Canal begins.

Rome is a city in Oneida County, New York, United States, located in the central part of the state. The population was 32,127 at the 2020 census. Rome is one of two principal cities in the Utica–Rome Metropolitan Statistical Area, which lies in the "Leatherstocking Country" made famous by James Fenimore Cooper's Leatherstocking Tales, set in frontier days before the American Revolutionary War. Rome is in New York's 21st congressional district.

04/07/1803

The Louisiana Purchase is announced to the US people.

The Louisiana Purchase was the acquisition of the territory of Louisiana by the United States from the French First Republic in 1803. This consisted of most of the land in the Mississippi River's drainage basin west of the river. In return for fifteen million dollars, or approximately eighteen dollars per square mile ($7/km2), the United States nominally acquired a total of 828,000 sq mi of land now in the Central United States. However, France only controlled a small fraction of this area, most of which was inhabited by Native Americans; effectively, for the majority of the area, the United States bought the preemptive right to obtain Indian lands by treaty or by conquest, to the exclusion of other colonial powers.

04/07/1802

The United States Military Academy opens at West Point, New York.

The United States Military Academy (USMA), commonly known as West Point, is a United States service academy in West Point, New York, that educates cadets for service as commissioned officers in the United States Army. The academy was founded in 1802, and it is the oldest of the five American service academies. The Army has occupied the site since establishing a fort there in 1780 during the American Revolutionary War, as it sits on strategic high ground overlooking the Hudson River 50 miles (80 km) north of New York City.

04/07/1778

American Revolutionary War: US forces under George Clark capture Kaskaskia during the Illinois campaign.

The American Revolutionary War, also known as the Revolutionary War or American War of Independence or simply the American Revolution, was the armed conflict that comprised the final eight years of the broader American Revolution, in which American Patriot forces organized as the Continental Army and commanded by George Washington defeated the British Army. The conflict was fought in North America, the Caribbean, and the Atlantic Ocean. The war's outcome seemed uncertain for most of the war, but Washington and the Continental Army's decisive victory in the Siege of Yorktown in 1781 led King George III and the Kingdom of Great Britain to negotiate an end to the war. In 1783, in the Treaty of Paris, the British monarchy acknowledged the independence of the Thirteen Colonies, leading to the establishment of the United States as an independent and sovereign nation.

04/07/1776

American Revolution: The United States Declaration of Independence is adopted by the Second Continental Congress.

The American Revolution (1765–1789) was a political movement in the Thirteen Colonies of Great Britain. The movement began as a rebellion and evolved into a revolution resulting in the sovereign United States. These changes were the outcome of the associated American Revolutionary War. The Second Continental Congress, as the provisional government, established the Continental Army and appointed George Washington as its commander-in-chief in 1775. The following year, the Congress passed the Lee Resolution on July 2nd, then unanimously adopted the Declaration of Independence on the Fourth of July. Throughout most of the war, the outcome appeared uncertain. However, in 1781, a decisive victory by Washington and the Continental Army in the Siege of Yorktown led King George III and the Fox–North coalition in government to negotiate the cessation of colonial rule and the acknowledgment of American sovereignty, formalized in the Treaty of Paris in 1783. The Constitution took effect in 1789 and the Bill of Rights was ratified in 1791.

04/07/1774

Orangetown Resolutions are adopted in the Province of New York, one of many protests against the British Parliament's Coercive Acts.

The Orangetown Resolutions were adopted on July 4, 1774, exactly two years prior to the adoption of the United States Declaration of Independence. The resolutions were part of a widespread movement of town and county protests of the Intolerable Acts passed by the British Parliament in 1774.

04/07/1744

The Treaty of Lancaster, in which the Iroquois cede lands between the Allegheny Mountains and the Ohio River to the British colonies, was signed in Lancaster, Pennsylvania.

The Six Nations land cessions were a series of land cessions by the Haudenosaunee and Lenape to Europeans during the late 17th and 18th centuries. They ceded large amounts of land, including both recently conquered territories acquired from other indigenous peoples in the Beaver Wars, and their own ancestral lands to the Thirteen Colonies and the United States. The land ceded covered, partially or in the entire, the U.S. states of New York, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Virginia, West Virginia, Kentucky, Ohio, Tennessee and North Carolina.

04/07/1634

The city of Trois-Rivières is founded in New France (now Quebec, Canada).

Trois-Rivières is a city in the Mauricie administrative region of Quebec, Canada. It is located at the confluence of the Saint-Maurice and Saint Lawrence rivers, on the north shore of the Saint Lawrence River across from the city of Bécancour. It is part of the densely populated Quebec City–Windsor Corridor and is approximately halfway between Montreal and Quebec City. Trois-Rivières is the economic and cultural hub of the Mauricie region. The settlement was founded by French colonists on July 4, 1634, as the second permanent settlement in New France, after Quebec City in 1608.

04/07/1610

The Battle of Klushino is fought between forces of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth and Russia during the Polish–Russian War, after which Polish troops entered Moscow.

The Battle of Klushino, or the Battle of Kłuszyn, was fought on 4 July 1610, between forces of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth and the Tsardom of Russia during the Polish–Russian War, part of Russia's Time of Troubles. The battle occurred near the village of Klushino near Smolensk. In the battle the outnumbered Polish-Lithuanian force secured a decisive victory over Russia, due to the tactical competence of hetman Stanisław Żółkiewski and the military prowess of Polish hussars, the elite of the army of the Crown of the Kingdom of Poland. The battle is remembered as one of the greatest triumphs of the Polish cavalry and an example of excellence and supremacy of the Polish military at the time.

04/07/1584

Philip Amadas and Arthur Barlowe arrive at Roanoke Island.

Philip Amadas (1550–1618) was a naval commander and explorer in Elizabethan England. Little is known from his early life, but he grew up within a wealthy merchant family in southwestern England. Amadas was instrumental in the early years of the English colonisation of North America. He served alongside Arthur Barlowe in the 1584 exploratory voyage to the Outer Banks of North Carolina. Leaving on 27 April 1584, he captained the Bark Ralegh with Simon Fernandes as his master and pilot on the voyage. Fernandes is best known for his controversial decision to maroon the colonists of the infamous "Lost Colony" on Roanoke Island in 1587. The voyage of 1584 determined Roanoke Island as the location for the future colonies under the leadership of Sir Walter Raleigh. For his role in the Roanoke voyages of 1584 and 1585, Amadas was nominated Admiral of Virginia by Raleigh in 1585. When he returned to England to report their findings, the Queen named the country after herself, Virginia.

04/07/1534

Christian III is elected King of Denmark and Norway in the town of Rye.

The election of Christian III as king of Denmark on 4 July 1534 was a landmark event for all of Denmark, and also had an effect on Norway's future relation with Denmark. It took place in St. Søren's Church in the town of Rye in eastern Jutland, where the Jutlandic nobility elected Prince Christian, son of King Frederick I and Duke of Schleswig and Holstein, as king. This brought about the Count's Feud and later also led to the implementation of the Protestant Reformation in Denmark in 1536 and Norway in 1537.

04/07/1456

Ottoman–Hungarian wars: The Siege of Nándorfehérvár (Belgrade) begins.

The Hungarian–Ottoman wars were a series of battles between the Ottoman Empire and the medieval Kingdom of Hungary. Following the Byzantine Civil War, the Ottoman capture of Gallipoli, and the inconclusive Battle of Kosovo in 1389, the Ottoman Empire was poised to conquer the entirety of the Balkans, and eventually came to encompass almost the entirety of present-day Hungary.

04/07/1359

Francesco II Ordelaffi of Forlì surrenders to the Papal commander Gil de Albornoz.

Francesco II Ordelaffi, also known as Cecco II, was a lord of Forlì, the son of Sinibaldo Ordelaffi and Orestina Calboli, and the grandson of Teobaldo I Ordelaffi.

04/07/1333

Genkō War: Forces loyal to Emperor Go-Daigo seize Tōshō-ji during the Siege of Kamakura. Hōjō Takatoki and other members of the Hōjō clan commit suicide, ending the rule of the Kamakura shogunate.

The Genkō War , also known as the Genkō Incident , was a civil war fought in Japan between the Emperor Go-Daigo and the Kamakura Shogunate from 1331 to 1333. The Genkō War was named after Genkō, the Japanese era corresponding to the period of 1331 to 1334 when the war occurred.

04/07/1253

Battle of West-Capelle: John I of Avesnes defeats Guy of Dampierre.

John of Avesnes was the count of Hainaut from 1246 to his death.

04/07/1187

The Crusades: Battle of Hattin: Saladin defeats Guy of Lusignan, King of Jerusalem.

The Crusades were a series of military campaigns launched by the papacy between 1095 and 1291 against Muslim rulers for the recovery and defence of the Holy Land, as part of a wider crusading movement. The First Crusade was proclaimed by Pope Urban II at the Council of Clermont in November 1095—a call to arms for Christians to reconquer Jerusalem from the Muslims, with promises of spiritual reward. By this time, the papacy's position as head of the Catholic Church had strengthened, and earlier conflicts with secular rulers and wars on the frontiers of Western Christendom had prepared it for the direction of armed force in religious causes. The successes of the First Crusade led to the establishment of four Crusader states in the Levant, where their defence required further expeditions from Catholic Europe. The organisation of such large-scale campaigns demanded complex religious, social, and economic institutions, including crusade indulgences, military orders, and the taxation of clerical income. Over time, the crusading movement expanded to include campaigns against pagans, Christian dissidents, and other enemies of the papacy, promoted with similar spiritual rewards and continuing into the 18th century.

04/07/1120

Jordan II of Capua is anointed as prince after his infant nephew's death.

Jordan II was the third son of Prince Jordan I of Capua and Princess Gaitelgrima, a daughter of Prince Guaimar IV of Salerno. He was, from at least May 1109, the lord of Nocera, and, after June 1120, Prince of Capua. The date and place of his birth are unknown, but it must have been later than 1080. He was married, before 1113, to Gaitelgrima, daughter of Sergius, Prince of Sorrento, a union which allowed him to extend his influence down the Amalfi coast from his castle at Nocera.

04/07/1054

A supernova, called SN 1054, is seen by Chinese Song dynasty, Arab, and possibly Amerindian observers near the star Zeta Tauri. For several months it remains bright enough to be seen during the day. Its remnants form the Crab Nebula.

SN 1054, the Crab Supernova, is a supernova that was first observed on c. 10 July [O.S. c. 4 July] 1054, and remained visible until c. 12 April [O.S. c. 6 April] 1056.α

04/07/0993

Ulrich of Augsburg is canonized as a saint.

Ulrich of Augsburg, sometimes spelled Uodalric or Odalrici, was Prince-Bishop of Augsburg in the Holy Roman Empire. He was the first saint to be canonised not by a local authority but by a pope.

04/07/0836

Pactum Sicardi, a peace treaty between the Principality of Benevento and the Duchy of Naples, is signed.

The Pactum Sicardi was a treaty signed on 4 July 836 between the Greek Duchy of Naples, including its satellite city-states of Sorrento and Amalfi, represented by Bishop John IV and Duke Andrew II, and the Lombard Prince of Benevento, Sicard. The treaty was an armistice ending a war between the Greek states and Benevento, during which the Byzantine Empire had not intervened on behalf of its subjects. It was supposed to last five years between the Lombard prince and the Neapolitans. It was a temporary armistice and was distinguished from other treaties such as Pactum Warmundi, which established temporary alliances.

04/07/0414

Emperor Theodosius II, age 13, yields power to his older sister Aelia Pulcheria, who reigned as regent and proclaimed herself empress (Augusta) of the Eastern Roman Empire.

Theodosius II, called "the Calligrapher", was Roman emperor from 402 to 450. He was proclaimed Augustus as an infant and ruled as the Eastern Empire's sole emperor after the death of his father Arcadius in 408. His reign was marked by the promulgation of the Theodosian law code and the construction of the Theodosian walls of Constantinople. He also presided over the outbreak of two great Christological controversies, Nestorianism and Eutychianism.

05/07/2002

Battle of Mantinea: The Thebans, led by Epaminondas, defeated the Spartans.

The Battle of Mantinea was fought on 4 July 362 BC between the Thebans, led by Epaminondas and supported by the Arcadians, Argives, Messenians, Thessalians, Euboeans and the Boeotian league against the Spartans, Eleans, Athenians, and Mantineans. The battle was to determine which of the two alliances would dominate Greece. However, the death of Epaminondas and his intended successors would cost Thebes the military leadership and initiative to maintain Theban supremacy in the region. Similarly, the Spartans were weakened by yet another defeat and loss of troops. Epaminondas's death coupled with the impact on the Spartans of yet another defeat weakened both alliances, and paved the way for Macedonian conquest led by Philip II of Macedon.