History of 4 August
1914 – Britain declared war on Germany. The U.S. proclaimed its neutrality.
1921 – The first radio broadcast of a tennis match occurred. It was in Pittsburgh, PA.
1922 – The death of Alexander Graham Bell, two days earlier, was recognized by AT&T and the Bell Systems by shutting down all of its switchboards and switching stations. The shutdown affected 13 million phones.
1934 – Mel Ott became the first major league baseball player to score six runs in a single game.
1944 – Nazi police raided a house in Amsterdam and arrested eight people. Anne Frank, a teenager at the time, was one of the people arrested. Her diary would be published after her death.
1954 – The uranium rush began in Saskatchewan, Canada.
1956 – William Herz became the first person to race a motorcycle over 200 miles per hour. He was clocked at 210 mph.
1957 – Florence Chadwick set a world record by swimming the English Channel in 6 hours and 7 minutes.
1957 – Juan Fangio won his final auto race and captured the world auto-driving championship. It was his fifth consecutive year to win.
1958 – The first potato flake plant was completed in Grand Forks, ND.
1958 – Billboard Magazine introduced its “Hot 100” chart, which was part popularity and a barometer of the movement of potential hits. The first number-one song was Ricky Nelson’s “Poor Little Fool.”
1972 – Arthur Bremer was found guilty of shooting George Wallace, the governor of Alabama. Bremer was sentenced to 63 years in prison.
1977 – U.S. President Carter signed the measure that established the Department of Energy.
1983 – New York Yankee outfielder Dave Winfield threw a baseball during warm-ups and accidentally killed a seagull. After the game, Toronto police arrested him for “causing unnecessary suffering to an animal.”
1984 – Carl Lewis won a gold medal in the Los Angeles Olympics.
1984 – Upper Volta, an African republic, changed its name to Burkina Faso.
1985 – Tom Seaver of the Chicago White Sox achieved his 300th victory.
1985 – Rod Carew of the California Angels got his 3,000th major league hit.
1986 – The United States Football League called off its 1986 season. This was after winning only token damages in its antitrust lawsuit against the National Football League.
1987 – The Fairness Doctrine was rescinded by the Federal Communications Commission. The doctrine had required that radio and TV stations present controversial issues in a balanced fashion.
1987 – A new 22-cent U.S. stamp honoring noted author William Faulkner, went on sale in Oxford, MS. Faulkner had been fired as postmaster of that same post office in 1924.
1989 – Iranian President Hashemi Rafsanjani offered to assist end the hostage crisis in Lebanon.
1990 – The European Community imposed an embargo on oil from Iraq and Kuwait. This was done to protest the Iraqi invasion of the oil-rich Kuwait.
1991 – The Oceanos, a Greek luxury liner, sank off of South Africa’s southeast coast. All of the 402 passengers and 179 crewmembers survived.
1994 – Yugoslavia withdrew its support for Bosnian Serbs. The border between Yugoslavia and Serb-held Bosnia was sealed.
1996 – Josia Thugwane won a gold medal after finishing first in the marathon. He became the first black South African to win a gold medal.
1997 – Teamsters began a 15-day strike against UPS (United Parcel Service). The strikers eventually won an increase in full-time positions and defeated a proposed reorganization of the company’s pension plan.
2007 – NASA’s Phoenix spacecraft was launched on a space exploration mission of Mars. The Phoenix lander descended on Mars on May 25, 2008.
2009 – North Korean leader Kim Jong-il pardoned two American journalists, who had been arrested and imprisoned for illegal entry earlier in the year.
Celebrating Birthday Today
- 1981 – Erica Carlson, Swedish actress
- 1981 – Marques Houston, American singer-songwriter, producer, and actor
- 1981 – Benjamin Lauth, German footballer
- 1981 – Abigail Spencer, American actress
- 1981 – Meghan Markle, American actress and humanitarian, and member of British Royal Family
- 1983 – Greta Gerwig, American actress, producer, and screenwriter
- 1984 – Terry Campese, Australian rugby league player
- 1984 – Mardy Collins, American basketball player
- 1985 – Crystal Bowersox, American singer-songwriter and guitarist
- 1985 – Robbie Findley, American soccer player
- 1985 – Mark Milligan, Australian footballer
- 1985 – Ha Seung-jin, South Korean basketball player
- 1985 – Antonio Valencia, Ecuadorean footballer
- 1986 – Nick Augusto, American drummer
- 1986 – Leon Camier, English motorcycle racer
- 1986 – Cicinho, Brazilian footballer
- 1986 – Iosia Soliola, New Zealand-Samoan rugby league player
- 1986 – David Williams, Australian rugby league player
- 1987 – Jang Keun-suk, South Korean actor and singer
- 1987 – Marreese Speights American basketball player
- 1987 – Tomoya Warabino, Japanese actor
- 1988 – Carly Foulkes, Canadian model, and actress
- 1989 – Wang Hao, Chinese chess player
- 1989 – Jessica Mauboy, Australian singer-songwriter and actress
- 1990 – Hikmet Balioğlu, Turkish footballer
- 1990 – Siim Tenno, Estonian footballer
- 1991 – Thiago Cardoso, Brazilian footballer
- 1991 – Izzet Hajrović, Bosnian footballer
- 1992 – Daniele Garozzo, Italian fencer
- 1992 – Dylan Sprouse, American actor
- 1992 – Cole Sprouse, American actor
- 1994 – Pauli Pauli, Australian rugby league player
- 1995 – Bruna Marquezine, Brazilian actress