March 4

This date in recent years

March 4 is the 63rd day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (64th in leap years). There are 302 days remaining.

The United States Constitution originally provided that the President of the United States was to be inaugurated on this date, starting in 1793 and then repeating every four years until 1933, when the 20th Amendment changed the presidential inauguration date to January 20.

March 4th is the only day of the year that is a statement, "March Forth". Many schools celebrate this special event with an annual march around the school to symbolize positive change in their communities.

1 Events
2 Births
3 Deaths
4 Holidays and observances
5 External links

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Events

303 or 304 - Martyrdom of Saint Adrian of Nicomedia.
1152 - Frederick I Barbarossa is elected King of the Germans.
1461 - Wars of the Roses in England: Lancastrian King Henry VI is deposed by his Yorkist cousin, who then becomes King Edward IV.
1570 - King Philip II bans foreign Dutch students.
1611 - George Abbot is appointed Archbishop of Canterbury.
1621 - Jakarta, Java renamed Batavia.
1634 - Samuel Cole opens the first tavern in Boston, Massachusetts.
1665 - English king Charles II declares war on The Netherlands which marked the start of the Second Anglo-Dutch War.
1675 - John Flamsteed appointed first Astronomer Royal of England.
1681 - Charles II of England grants a land charter to William Penn for the area that will later become Pennsylvania.
1699 - Jews are expelled from Lubeck, Germany.
1714 - English fleet under Admiral Ogle reaches Cartagena.
1774 - First sighting of Orion Nebula by William Herschel.
1789 - In New York City, the first U.S. Congress meets and declares the new Constitution of the United States is in effect.
1790 - France is divided into 83 départements, which cut across the former provinces in an attempt to dislodge regional loyalties based on noble ownership of land.
1791 - Vermont is admitted as the 14th U.S. state.
1793 - French troops conquer Geertruidenberg, Netherlands.
1801 - Thomas Jefferson, the 3rd President of the USA, becomes the first US president inaugurated in Washington, DC.
1804 - The Battle of Vinegar Hill, colony of New South Wales (Australia).
1804 - The British and Foreign Bible Society (BFBS) was founded at a large interdenominational meeting in London.
1824 - The 'National Institution for the Preservation of Life from Shipwreck' was founded in Britain, later to be renamed The Royal National Lifeboat Institution in 1858.
1829 - Unruly crowd mobs White House during the President Jackson inaugural ball.
1830 - Vincenzo Bellini's opera I Capuleti e i Montecchi, premieres in Venice.
1837 - Chicago is granted a city charter by Illinois.
1841 - Inauguration of William Henry Harrison as 9th President of the USA. Harrison died exactly one month into his term — the briefest presidency in the history of the office - and was the first president to die in office.
1848 - Carlo Alberto di Savoia signs the Statuto Albertino that will represent the first constitution of the Regno d'Italia
1849 - Zachary Taylor refuses to be sworn in office as 12th President of the USA on a Sabbath (Sunday). Consequently the office of President of the United States of America is vacant for a single day. Urban legend instead holds that David Rice Atchison, President pro tempore of the United States Senate was President de jure for a single day.
1853 - Pope Pius IX recovers Catholic hierarchy in Netherlands.
1861 - President Lincoln opens Government Printing Office.
1861 - Confederate States adopt "Stars & Bars" flag, on the same day that Abraham Lincoln is inaugurated.
1863 - Territory of Idaho established.
1863 - American Civil War: The Battle of Thompson's Station in Tennessee.
1876 - US Congress ends "impeachment" of Minister of War Belknap.
1877 - Emile Berliner invents the microphone.
1877 - Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky's ballet Swan Lake debuts.
1880 - New York Daily Graphic publishes the first half-tone engraving, by S H Horgan.
1881 - A Study in Scarlet, the first Sherlock Holmes story, begins.
1881 - South African President Kruger accepts ceasefire.
1885 - Gilbert & Sullivan's opera The Mikado premieres in London.
1887 - Test run of first Daimler car in Esslingen and Cannstatt, Germany.
1890 - The Prince of Wales, HRH Prince Albert Edward (later to become King Edward VII), eldest son of and heir apparent to Queen Victoria, opens the 1,710 foot Forth Bridge in Scotland.
1894 - Great fire in Shanghai. Over 1,000 buildings are destroyed.
1895 - Premiere of Gustav Mahler's Second Symphony in Berlin.
1902 - In Chicago, the American Automobile Association is established.
1905 - Gerhart Hauptmann's 'Elga' premieres in Berlin.
1908 - Collingwood Ohio Primary School catches fire; 180 die.
1911 - Victor Berger (Wisconsin) becomes the first socialist congressman in US.
1913 - The United States Department of Commerce and United States Department of Labor are established by splitting the duties of the 10-year-old Dept. of Commerce and Labor.
1913 - First US law regulating the shooting of migratory birds passed.
1917 - Jeannette Rankin of Montana becomes the first female member of the United States House of Representatives.
1921 - Hot Springs National Park created in Arkansas.
1923 - Lenin's last article about Red bureaucracy was published in Pravda.
1924 - The song 'Happy Birthday To You' is published by Claydon Sunny.
1926 - De Geer government in Netherlands takes office.
1929 - Charles Curtis (R-Kansas) becomes the first native American Vice President.
1933 - Frances Perkins becomes United States Secretary of Labor, first female member of the United States Cabinet.
1933 - President Franklin D. Roosevelt outlines his "New Deal" in his inauguration speech.
1933 - The Parliament of Austria is suspended because of a quibble over procedure - Chancellor Engelbert Dollfuss initiates authoritarian rule by decree (see Austrofascism)
1936 - First flight of airship Hindenburg, Germany.
1941 - Britain launches Operation Claymore on the Lofoten Islands, during World War II.
1944 - First US bombing of Berlin and Anti-Germany strikes in northern Italy.
1944 - In Ossining, New York, Louis Buchalter, the leader of 1930s crime syndicate Murder, Inc., is executed at Sing Sing.
1945 - In Britain, Princess Elizabeth, later to become Queen Elizabeth II, joins the British Army as a driver.
1945 - Finland declares war on nazi-Germany.
1946 - The Voice Of Frank Sinatra, the first Frank Sinatra album ever, is released by Columbia Records.
1949 - Andrei Vishinsky succeeds Molotov as Soviet Foreign minister.
1949 - Security Council of UN recommends membership for Israel.
1950 - US Premiere of Walt Disney's animated film Cinderella.
1952 - Ernest Hemingway completes his short novel The Old Man and the Sea.
1954 - Peter Bent Brigham Hospital in Boston announces the first successful kidney transplant.
1954 - US warns Latin America against international communism.
1955 - First radio facsimile transmission sent across the continent of America.
1959 - US Pioneer IV misses Moon and becomes the second (US first) artificial planet.
1960 - French freighter 'La Coubre' explodes in Havana, Cuba killing 100. Fidel Castro blames the U.S.
1960 - Lucille Ball files divorce from Desi Arnaz.
1961 - Paul-Henri Spaak resigns as Secretary General of NATO.
1962 - AEC announces that the first atomic power plant in Antarctica is in operation.
1963 - In Paris six people are sentenced to death for conspiring to assassinate President Charles de Gaulle.
1966 - North Sea Gas was first pumped ashore by BP (British Petroleum).
1966 - John Lennon says The Beatles are "more popular than Jesus" which sparks controversy in the United States.
1966 - Canadian Pacific airliner explodes on landing at Tokyo, killing 64 people.
1968 - Martin Luther King Jr announces plans for Poor People's Campaign.
1970 - French submarine Eurydice explodes.
1972 - Last train run between Penrith to Keswick, UK.
1972 - Libya and USSR sign co-operation treaty.
1973 - 15th Grammy Awards: 1st Time Ever I Saw Your Face, America.
1974 - Harold Wilson becomes British Prime Minister following the resignation of his predecessor Edward Heath.
1975 - Charlie Chaplin is knighted by Queen Elizabeth II of England.
1976 - The Maguire Seven were found guilty of the offence of possessing explosives and were subsequently jailed for 14 years.
1977 - The 1977 Bucharest Earthquake in southern and eastern Europe kills more than 1,500.
1977 - First CRAY 1 supercomputer shipped to Los Alamos Laboratories, New Mexico.
1979 - US Voyager I photo reveals Jupiter's rings.
1978 - Chicago Daily News, founded in 1875, publishes last issue.
1980 - Nationalist leader Robert Mugabe wins a sweeping election victory to become Zimbabwe's first black prime minister.
1982 - NASA launches Intelsat V.
1986 - First issue of Today newspaper in the UK.
1989 - Six people die and 80 are injured, some of them seriously, in a train crash at Purley in Surrey, England.
1989 - Time, Inc. and Warner Communications announce plans for a merger forming Time-Warner.
1990 - Space Shuttle Program: STS-36 (Atlantis 6) US 65th manned space mission returns from space.
1991 - Bank of Credit & Commerce Internationall divests itself of First American Bank.
1993 - Authorities announce the capture of suspected World Trade Center bombing conspirator Mohammad Salameh.
1994 - Four terrorists are convicted for their roles in the World Trade Center bombing which killed six and injured more than a thousand.
1995 - Michael Johnson runs world record 400m indoor (44.63 sec).
1995 - Blind teenage boy receives a 'Bionic Eye' at a Washington Hospital.
1995 - George Foreman loses WBA boxing title, refusing to fight Tony Tucker.
1996 - A train carrying propane and sodium hydroxide derails in Weyauwega, Wisconsin and catches fire. 2,200 near the accident site are evacuated for 16 days.
1997 - President Clinton bans federally funded human cloning research.
1997 - In London, the match-fixing trial of footballers Bruce Grobbelar, John Fashanu and Hans Segers ends in deadlock with the jury failing to reach verdicts.
1997 - Comet Hale-Bopp directly above the Sun (1.04 AU).
1997 - Zeya Start-1 launched (Russia)
1998 - Gay rights: The Supreme Court of the United States rules that federal laws banning on-the-job sexual harassment also apply when both parties are the same sex.
1998 - Government, naval and university computers running Windows NT across the United States crash as a result of a hacker. The crash affects computers running at MIT, Northwestern University, the University of Minnesota, and the University of California campuses at Berkeley, Irvine, Los Angeles, and San Diego.
1999 - In a military court, Captain Richard Ashby of the United States Marines is acquitted of the charge of reckless flying which resulted in the deaths of 20 skiers in the Italian Alps when his low-flying jet hit a gondola cable.
2001 - During the early hours a massive bomb located in a taxi explodes in front of BBC Television Centre in London, seriously injuring 11 people. The attack was attributed to dissident Irish republicans.
2001 - Swiss referendum overwhelmingly rejects a proposal for immediate membership talks with the European Union.
2004 - The guilty verdict for Moroccan al-Qaeda suspect Mounir el Motassadeq's involvement in the September 11, 2001 attacks is overturned by the German appeals court, which orders a retrial.
2004 - The files of Supreme Court Justice Harry Blackmun are released to the public five years after his death.
2004 - FIFA reveals its list of 100 Greatest Living Footballers (otherwise known as the "FIFA 100").
2005 - The car of released Italian hostage Giuliana Sgrena is fired on by US soldiers in Iraq, causing the death of one passenger and injuring two more.
2005 - Carly Kirkwood begins her role as the new presenter of TV3 New Zealand's highly successful, late-night news show: Nightline.
2005 - United Nations warns that about 90 million Africans could be infected by the HIV virus in the future without further action against the spread of the disease.

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Births

1394 - Prince Henry the Navigator, Portuguese patron of exploration (d. 1460)
1492 - Francesco de Layolle, Italian composer (d. c1540)
1651 - John Somers, 1st Baron Somers, Lord Chancellor of England (d. 1716)
1665 - Philip Christoph von Königsmarck, Swedish soldier (d. 1694)
1678 - Antonio Vivaldi, Italian composer (d. 1741)
1719 - George Pigot, Baron Pigot, British governor of Madras (d. 1777)
1745 - Charles Dibdin, England, composer/author, Sea Songs (d.1814)
1748 - Casimir Pulaski, Count/American Revolutionary War general (d. 1779)
1756 - Sir Henry Raeburn, Scottish painter (d. 1823)
1782 - Johann Rudolf Wyss, Swiss folklorist/writer, Swiss Family Robinson (d. 1830)
1793 - Karl Lachmann, German philologist (d. 1851)
1819 - Charles Oberthur, Munich-born harp virtuoso and composer (d. 1895)
1822 - Jules Antoine Lissajous, French mathematician, inventor of the harmonograph (d. 1880)
1826 - Theodore Judah, American railroad engineer (d. 1863)
1835 - Giovanni Schiaparelli, Italian astronomer, “discovered” canals of Mars (d. 1910)
1859 - Alexander Popov, Russian physicist (d. 1905)
1876 - Léon-Paul Fargue, French poet (d. 1947)
1877 - Garrett Morgan, American inventor (d. 1963)
1877 - Alexander Fyodorovich Gedike, composer (d. 1957)
1888 - Knute Rockne, American football player and coach (d. 1931)
1889 - Pearl White, [Victoria], U.S. actress/stunt woman, Perils of Pauline (d. 1938)
1897 - Lefty O'Doul, baseball player and restaurateur (d. 1969)
1901 - Charles Goren, bridge expert (d. 1991)
1903 - Luis Carrero Blanco, Spanish statesman (d. 1973)
1904 - George Gamow, Ukrainian-born physicist (d. 1968)
1906 - Meindert DeJong American author of children's books (d. 1991)
1909 - Harry Helmsley, American real estate entrepreneur(d. 1997)
1910 - Tancredo Neves, Civil rights activist (d. 1985)
1913 - John Garfield, American actor (d. 1952)
1914 - Ward Kimball, American cartoonist (d. 2002)
1915 - Carlos Surinach, Spanish composer, Monte Carlo (d. 1997)
1916 - Hans Eysenck, German-born psychologist (d. 1997)
1916 - Giorgio Bassani, Italian writer (d. 2000)
1921 - Joan Greenwood, English actress and director (d. 1987)
1923 - Sir Patrick Moore, British astronomer and broadcaster
1925 - Paul Mauriat, French musician
1927 - Thayer David, actor (d. 1978)
1927 - Robert Orben, US magician and comedy writer
1928 - Alan Sillitoe, English writer
1928 - Samuel Adler, composer
1929 - Bernard Haitink, Dutch conductor, conductor of London Philharmonic Orchestra 1969-78
1932 - Miriam Makeba, South African singer, Grammy 1965
1932 - Ed "Big Daddy" Roth, American custom car designer (d. 2001)
1934 - Janez Strnad, Slovenian physicist
1934 - Mario Davidovsky, Argentinian composer, Synchronisms
1934 - John Duffey, bluegrass musician (d. 1996)
1935 - Bent Larsen, Danish chess player
1936 - Jim Clark Scottish race car driver, Indianapolis 500 (d. 1968)
1936 - David Thompson, British food magnate and multi-millionaire
1936 - Aribert Reimann, German opera composer
1937 - Graham Dowling, New Zealand cricketer
1938 - Don Perkins, American football player
1939 - Paula Prentiss, American actress
1941 - Adrian Lyne, English film director
1942 - Charles C. Krulak, Commandant of the U.S. Marine Corps
1943 - Zoltan Jeney, composer
1944 - Bobby Womack, American R&B singer and songwriter and guitarist
1945 - Dieter Meier, Swiss singer and children book writer
1946 - Harvey Goldsmith, impresario
1946 - Michael Ashcroft, English entrepreneur/multi-millionaire
1947 - Jan Garbarek, Norwegian musician
1948 - Chris Squire, British musician (Yes)
1948 - Shakin' Stevens (Mike Barrett), Welsh rocker
1948 - James Ellroy, American writer
1950 - Rick Perry, Governor of Texas
1951 - Kenny Dalglish Scottish footballer and football manager
1951 - Chris Rea, British singer, rock guitarist and musician
1952 - Umberto Tozzi, Italian singer
1952 - Ronn Moss, actor
1953 - Emilio Estefan, Cuban percussianist
1953 - Kay Lenz, actress
1954 - Willie Thorne, English snooker player
1954 - Adrian Zmed, American actor and dancer
1954 - Catherine O'Hara, Canadian actress and comedienne
1954 - Irina Ratushinskaya, Russian writer
1958 - Patricia Heaton, American actress
1958 - Lennie Lee, British performance artist
1960 - Mykelti Williamson, American actor
1961 - Ray Mancini, American boxer
1961 - Steven Weber, American actor
1963 - Jason Newsted, American bassist (Metallica)
1965 - Gary Helms, American kickboxer
1966 - Kevin Johnson, American basketball player
1966 - Grand Puba (Brand Nubian), American rapper
1966 - Dav Pilkey, American author and illustrator
1966 - Patrick Hannan, English pop drummer (The Sundays)
1967 - Evan Dando, American musician (The Lemonheads)
1968 - Patsy Kensit, English actress
1969 - Chastity Bono, actress, daughter of Sonny and Cher
1971 - Fergal Lawler, Irish drummer (The Cranberries)
1982 - Landon Donovan, American soccer player
1986 - Margo Harshman, American actress
1990 - Andrea Bowen, American actress