April 4

What happened that day?

• 2013: More than 70 people are killed in a building collapse in Thane, India.
• 2002: The Angolan government and UNITA rebels sign a peace treaty ending the Angolan Civil War.
• 1996: Comet Hyakutake is imaged by the USA Asteroid Orbiter Near Earth Asteroid Rendezvous.
• 1994: Marc Andreessen and Jim Clark found Netscape Communications Corporation under the name Mosaic Communications Corporation.
• 1991: The current flag of Hong Kong is adopted for post-colonial Hong Kong during the Third Session of the Seventh National People's Congress.
• 1991: Senator John Heinz of Pennsylvania and six others are killed when a helicopter collides with their airplane over an elementary school in Merion, Pennsylvania.
• 1988: Governor Evan Mecham of Arizona is convicted in his impeachment trial and removed from office.
• 1984: President Ronald Reagan calls for an international ban on chemical weapons.
• 1983: Space Shuttle Challenger makes its maiden voyage into space.
• 1981: The Islamic Republic of Iran Air Force mounts an attack on H-3 Airbase and destroys about 50 Iraqi aircraft.
• 1979: Prime Minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto of Pakistan is executed.
• 1976: Prince Norodom Sihanouk resigns as leader of Cambodia and is placed under house arrest.
• 1975: A United States Air Force Lockheed C-5A Galaxy transporting orphans, crashes near Saigon, South Vietnam shortly after takeoff, killing 172 people.
• 1975: Microsoft is founded as a partnership between Bill Gates and Paul Allen in Albuquerque, New Mexico
• 1973: A Lockheed C-141 Starlifter, dubbed the Hanoi Taxi, makes the last flight of Operation Homecoming.
• 1973: The World Trade Center in New York is officially dedicated.
• 1969: Dr. Denton Cooley implants the first temporary artificial heart.
• 1968: A.E.K. Athens B.C. becomes the first Greek team to win the European Basketball Cup.
• 1968: Apollo program: NASA launches Apollo 6.
• 1968: Martin Luther King Jr. is assassinated by James Earl Ray at a motel in Memphis, Tennessee.
• 1967: Martin Luther King Jr. delivers his "Beyond Vietnam: A Time to Break Silence" speech in New York City's Riverside Church.
• 1965: The first model of the new Saab Viggen fighter aircraft is unveiled.
• 1964: The Beatles occupy the top five positions on the Billboard Hot 100 pop chart.
• 1960: France agrees to grant independence to the Mali Federation, a union of Senegal and French Sudan.
• 1958: The CND peace symbol is displayed in public for the first time in London.
• 1949: Twelve nations sign the North Atlantic Treaty creating the North Atlantic Treaty Organization.
• 1945: World War II: Soviet troops liberate Hungary from German occupation and occupy the country itself.
• 1945: World War II: American troops capture Kassel.
• 1945: World War II: American troops liberate Ohrdruf forced labor camp in Germany.
• 1944: World War II: First bombardment of oil refineries in Bucharest by Anglo-American forces kills 3000 civilians.
• 1939: Faisal II becomes King of Iraq.
• 1933: U.S. Navy airship, USS Akron, is wrecked off the New Jersey coast due to severe weather.
• 1925: The Schutzstaffel (SS) is founded in Germany.
• 1913: First Balkan War: Greek aviator Emmanouil Argyropoulos becomes the first pilot to die in the Hellenic Air Force when his plane crashes.
• 1905: In India, an earthquake hits the Kangra Valley, killing 20,000, and destroying most buildings in Kangra, McLeod Ganj and Dharamshala.
• 1887: Argonia, Kansas elects Susanna M. Salter as the first female mayor in the United States.
• 1873: The Kennel Club is founded, the oldest and first official registry of purebred dogs in the world.
• 1866: Alexander II of Russia narrowly escapes an assassination attempt by Dmitry Karakozov in the city of Saint Petersburg.
• 1865: American Civil War: A day after Union forces capture Richmond, Virginia, U.S. President Abraham Lincoln visits the Confederate capital.
• 1859: Bryant's Minstrels debut "Dixie" in New York City in the finale of a blackface minstrel show.
• 1850: Los Angeles is incorporated as a city.
• 1850: A large part of the English village of Cottenham burns to the ground in suspicious circumstances.
• 1841: William Henry Harrison dies of pneumonia, becoming the first President of the United States to die in office, and setting the record for the briefest administration. Vice President John Tyler succeeds Harrison as President.
• 1818: The United States Congress adopts the flag of the United States with 13 red and white stripes and one star for each state (then 20).
• 1814: Napoleon abdicates for the first time and names his son Napoleon II as Emperor of the French.
• 1812: United States President James Madison enacts a ninety-day embargo on trade with the United Kingdom.
• 1796: Georges Cuvier delivers the first paleontological lecture.
• 1768: In London, Philip Astley stages the first modern circus.
• 1721: Sir Robert Walpole becomes the first British prime minister.
• 1660: Declaration of Breda by King Charles II of Great Britain.
• 1581: Francis Drake is knighted for completing a circumnavigation of the world.
• 1460: Basel University is founded.
• 1287: King Wareru founds the Ramanya Kingdom, and proclaims independence from the Pagan Kingdom.
• 1147: First historical record of Moscow.
• 503 BC: Roman consul Agrippa Menenius Lanatus celebrated a triumph for a military victory over the Sabines.