May 4

1415 The Council of Constance convened by John XXIII declared the late English religious reformer John Wycliffe a heretic on May 4, 1415. They banned his writings, effectively both excommunicating him retroactively and making him an early forerunner of Protestantism. The Council also decreed that Wycliffe's bones be dug up and burnt. This order, confirmed by Pope Martin V, was carried out in 1428.

1471 The Battle of Tewkesbury was fought on May 4, 1471, during the War of Roses. Edward IV defeated a Lancastrian Army and killed Edward of Westminster, Prince of Wales. The Lancastrian king Henry VI of England was imprisoned in the Tower of London, where he died two weeks later. Tewkesbury ushered in years of Yorkist supremacy and the reign of King Edward IV.

The battle depicted in a Ghent manuscript

1497 In 1494 Dominican friar Girolamo Savonarola became leader of Florence, heading up a puritan moral dictatorship. By the spring of 1497, the citizens of Florence had become tired of Savonarola and his banning of pleasurable activities. During his Ascension Day sermon on May 4, 1497, groups of young men rioted in the streets, people began singing and dancing, and the taverns reopened. The riot became a revolution.

1536 The at-sign symbol, @, wasn't originally used the way we use it today. In a mercantile document sent by Florentine Francesco Lapi from Seville to Rome on May 4, 1536, @ was used to denote a unit of measure – an amphora (clay jar) of wine, which is equivalent to about 1/13th of a barrel.

1607 The Susan Constant, the Godspeed, and the Discovery departed England in 1606 carrying settlers heading for territory named the Virginia colony, granted to the London Company. On May 4, 1607 the settlers selected a piece of land on a large peninsula some 40 miles (64 km) inland from the Atlantic Ocean as a prime location for a fortified settlement. They founded there the Jamestown Settlement on the James River.

1655 Florentine harpsichord maker Bartolomeo Cristofori was born on May 4, 1655. In 1709 the Cristofori came up with an instrument, which merged the clavichord's ability to vary notes dynamically with the harpsichord's crisp sound. He called it a un cimbalo di cipresso di piano e forte ("a keyboard of cypress with soft and loud"). The name was abbreviated over time as pianoforte, fortepiano, and later, simply, piano.

1720 Cristofori piano in the Metropolitan Museum New York. By Shriram Rajagopalan 

1776 Leading figures in the Rhode Island colony were involved in the 1776 launch of the American Revolutionary War. On May 4, 1776, Rhode Island became the first of the 13 colonies to renounce its allegiance to the British Crown. Rhode Island was a hotbed of revolutionary activity during the war, and its residents played important roles in both the military and political spheres.

1780 The Derby or Derby Stakes is run over one and a half miles at Epsom Downs and is open to 3-year-old colts and fillies. It was named after the 12th Earl of Derby: He was dining with his chum Sir Charles Bunbury when they hatched a plan to race three-year-old fillies at Epsom. The name of the race was to be decided with the toss of the coin and the duke won. The first race took place on May 4, 1780, and Bunbury had his revenge as his horse, Diomed, came first.

Diomed "the Marvel"

1840 Italian opera composer Giuseppe Verdi married his former student Margherita on May 4, 1836 in the Church of the Holy Trinity in Busseto. Within a three-year period between 1838 and 1840 both of their children died then Margherita passed away at the age of 26 from encephalitis.

1852 Alice Liddell, the model for Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, was born on May 4, 1852
Alice's Adventures in Wonderland grew out of a story told by Charles Dodgson to amuse three little girls, Alice Liddell, the daughter of the Dean of Christchurch (see below) and her two sisters during a rowing trip. Afterwards he wrote down the story for the ten-year-old Alice. Alice Hargreaves (Liddell) died in 1934 and is buried at St Michael's Church, Lyndhurst, Hants.

Alice Liddell, aged 7, photographed by Charles Dodgson (Lewis Carroll) in 1860

1886 A bomb went off at a labor demonstration on May 4, 1886, at Haymarket Square in Chicago. At least 11 people died.  Eight anarchists were convicted of conspiracy and four were hanged. The Haymarket affair is generally considered significant as the origin of international Labor Day observances for workers. Socialists, communists and other like-minded people celebrate it as International Workers' Day.

1891 Sir Arthur Conan Doyle decided to kill off his Sherlock Holmes character in a short story, The Final Problem, so he could get on with more serious writing. He'd decided the Reichenbach Falls was the exit he wanted for his fictional detective after seeing them during a holiday with his wife in Switzerland. Sherlock Holmes and his nemesis Professor Moriarty supposedly fell to their deaths from the Reichenbach Falls in Switzerland on May 4, 1891. Pressure from fans eventually persuaded Doyle to bring Holmes back.

Holmes and Moriarty struggle at the Reichenbach Falls; drawing by Sidney Paget

1904 When Panama achieved full independence from Colombia in November 1903 with US support, the USA also bought the rights to build the Panama Canal. The U.S. formally took control of the canal property on May 4, 1904, inheriting from the French (who had made a previous unsuccessful attempt to build a canal) a vast jumble of buildings, infrastructure and equipment, much of it in poor condition. They began construction of the canal the same day and completed it in 1914.

1904 The rich aristocratic Honorable Charles Stewart Rolls was an early car seller and repairer. He first met the self-taught electrical engineer and automobile builder Frederick Henry Royce on May 4, 1904 at the Midland Hotel in Manchester, England. They had agreed to get together and talk about their respective interests and during their meeting the pair signed a deal. The first Rolls-Royce car, the two-cylinder Rolls-Royce 10 hp, was unveiled at the Paris Salon in December 1904.

A 1905 model Rolls Royce 10 hp. By Terry Whalebone - Flickr. 

1912 Massachusetts became the first state of the United States to set a minimum wage on May 4, 1912. The Massachusetts law was quite weak, as it only covered women and children and called for light penalties for violators. It wasn't until the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 that a federal minimum wage was established in the United States. 

1929 Audrey Hepburn was born Audrey Kathleen Ruston at 48 Rue Keyenveld in Ixelles, a municipality in Brussels, Belgium on May 4, 1929. She didn't start calling herself Audrey Hepburn until 1948. During the Battle of Arnheim, 16-year-old Audrey Hepburn was a volunteer nurse in a Dutch hospital. She helped a young British paratrooper, Terence Young, who later directed her in Wait until Dark in 1967.

1941 Adolf Hitler addressed his Reichstag on May 4, 1941 in a 72-minute speech in which he referred to night bombing. "Churchill," he said, "is determined to continue this kind of warfare. We, also, are resolved to continue, and are prepared to drop 100 bombs for each British bomb until Britain gets rid of this criminal and his methods."

1942 American civilians first received ration books—War Ration Book Number One, or the "Sugar Book"—on May 4, 1942. World War II United States rationing meant the government limited each American to 28 ounces of meat per week plus restricting the amounts of butter, cheese, eggs and sugar each household was permitted. The food rationing actually increased life expectancy and decreased infant mortality. This was because all people were required to consume a varied diet.

1945 Field Marshal Sir Bernard Law Montgomery accepted the unconditional surrender of the German forces in the Netherlands, northwest Germany including all islands and Denmark on May 4, 1945 at Lüneburg Heath, east of Hamburg. The surrender preceded the end of World War II in Europe and was signed in a carpeted tent at Montgomery's headquarters on the Timeloberg hill at Wendisch Evern.

1952 Ernest Hemingway's The Old Man and the Sea was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction on May 4, 1953. The story centers upon Santiago, an ageing fisherman who struggles with a giant marlin far out in the Gulf Stream. It was inspired by Hemingway's beloved fishing boat The Pilar,

1958 Princess Anne had her tonsils and adenoids out at the Hospital for Sick Children, Great Ormond Street on May 4, 1958. The 7-year-old Princess was the first member of the Royal Family to have an operation in a hospital.

1959 Originally called the Gramophone awards, the first Grammys were handed out on May 4, 1959, to honor the musical accomplishments by performers for the year 1958. The ceremony was hosted by comedian Mort Sahl and held at the Beverly Hilton Hotel in Beverly Hills, California. Ella Fitzgerald along with Count Basie became the first African American singers to win Grammy Awards at the first annual ceremony.

1960 Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz began the television sitcom I Love Lucy in 1951 in the hopes of saving their crumbling marriage. However, on May 4, 1960 they divorced. She said: "Desi was the great love of my life. I will miss him until the day I die. But I don't regret divorcing him. I just couldn't take it anymore."

1974 An all-female Japanese mountaineering team, led by Junko Tabei, reached the summit of Manaslu on May 4, 1974. Manaslu, located in the Nepalese Himalayas, standing at 8,163 meters (26,781 feet) above sea level, is the eighth highest mountain in the world. They were the first women to climb a peak higher than 8,000 meters above sea level.

1979 Margaret Thatcher became UK Prime Minister on May 4, 1979 following the defeat of the Labour government in the previous day's general election. Margaret Thatcher was the United Kingdom's first female prime minister and served longer than any other British prime minister in the 20th century. While in office, she initiated what became known as the "Thatcher Revolution," a series of social and economic changes that dismantled many aspects of Britain's postwar welfare state.

1994 Jericho is located five miles west of River Jordan on the West Bank. It is believed to be one of the oldest inhabited cities in the world. Jericho was occupied by Jordan from 1949 to 1967, when it was occupied by Israel during the Six-Day War along with the rest of the West Bank. It was the first city handed over to Palestinian Authority control in accordance with the Oslo accords on May 4, 1994.

1999 International Firefighters’ Day is observed each year on May 4th. The day was was instituted after a proposal was emailed out across the world on January 4, 1999 by Lt JJ Edmondson due to the deaths of five firefighters in tragic circumstances in a large bushfire at Linton in Victoria, Australia. The date was chosen as May 4 is the feast day of St Florian, the patron saint of firefighters.

2000 The phrase "Unity in Diversity" has been associated with the European Union (EU) for quite some time, It was first adopted as the European Union's motto on May 4, 2000. However, it's important to note that the adoption process wasn't entirely official. It emerged from a contest involving students from the member countries at the time. The motto was then officially enshrined in the draft European Constitution in October 2004.

2011 The world's first organized Star Wars Day was celebrated at a cinema in Toronto, Canada on May 4, 2011. The reason for choosing that particular date was the pun: "May the 4th be with you", in reference to the popular phrase in Star Wars: "May the Force be with you." May 4th has since been embraced by Lucasfilm as an annual celebration of Star Wars.

2017 In an effort to “preserve decorum and traditions” in Venice, local authorities banned new kebab shops and other fast-food outlets from opening. The law passed on May 4, 2017 also limits shops selling pizza by the slice.