March 4 - Events

Events

• 51 – Nero, later to become Roman Emperor, is given the title princeps iuventutis (head of the youth).
• 306 – Martyrdom of Saint Adrian of Nicomedia.
• 852 – Croatian Duke Trpimir I issues a statute, a document with the first known written mention of the Croats name in Croatian sources.
• 932 – Translation of the relics of martyr Wenceslaus I, Duke of Bohemia, Prince of the Czechs.
• 1152 – Frederick I Barbarossa is elected King of the Germans.
• 1238 – The Battle of the Sit River is fought in the northern part of the present-day Yaroslavl Oblast of Russia between the Mongol Hordes of Batu Khan and the Russians under Yuri II of Vladimir-Suzdal during the Mongol invasion of Russia.
• 1351 – Ramathibodi becomes King of Siam.
• 1386 – Władysław II Jagiełło (Jogaila) is crowned King of Poland.
• 1461 – Wars of the Roses in England: Lancastrian King Henry VI is deposed by his Yorkist cousin, who then becomes King Edward IV.
• 1493 – Explorer Christopher Columbus arrives back in Lisbon, Portugal, aboard his ship Niña from his voyage to what is now The Bahamas and other islands in the Caribbean.
• 1519 – Hernan Cortes arrives in Mexico in search of the Aztec civilization and their wealth.
• 1628 – The Massachusetts Bay Colony is granted a Royal charter.
• 1665 – English King Charles II declares war on the Netherlands marking the start of the Second Anglo-Dutch War.
• 1675 – John Flamsteed is appointed the first Astronomer Royal of England.
• 1681 – Charles II grants a land charter to William Penn for the area that will later become Pennsylvania.
• 1776 – American Revolutionary War: The Continental Army fortifies Dorchester Heights with cannon, leading the British troops to abandon the Siege of Boston.
• 1789 – In New York City, the first Congress of the United States meets, putting the United States Constitution into effect.
• 1790 – France is divided into 83 départements, cutting across the former provinces in an attempt to dislodge regional loyalties based on ownership of land by the nobility.
• 1791 – A Constitutional Act is introduced by the British House of Commons in London which envisages the separation of Canada into Lower Canada (Quebec) and Upper Canada (Ontario).
• 1791 – Vermont is admitted to the U.S. as the fourteenth state.
• 1794 – The 11th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution is passed by the U.S. Congress.
• 1797 – In the first ever peaceful transfer of power between elected leaders in modern times, John Adams is sworn in as President of the United States, succeeding George Washington.
• 1804 – Castle Hill Rebellion: Irish convicts rebel against British colonial authority in the Colony of New South Wales.
• 1814 – Americans defeat the British at the Battle of Longwoods between London, Ontario and Thamesville, near present-day Wardsville, Ontario.
• 1837 – The city of Chicago is incorporated.
• 1848 – Carlo Alberto di Savoia signs the Statuto Albertino that will later represent the first constitution of the Regno d'Italia
• 1861 – The first national flag of the Confederate States of America (the "Stars and Bars") is adopted.
• 1865 – The third and final national flag of the Confederate States of America is adopted by the Confederate Congress.
• 1882 – Britain's first electric trams run in east London.
• 1890 – The longest bridge in Great Britain, the Forth Rail Bridge in Scotland, measuring 1,710 feet (520 m) long, is opened by the Prince of Wales, who later becomes King Edward VII.
• 1899 – Cyclone Mahina sweeps in north of Cooktown, Queensland, with a 12 metres (39 ft) wave that reaches up to 5 kilometres (3.1 mi) inland, killing over 300.
• 1908 – The Collinwood School Fire, Collinwood near Cleveland, Ohio, kills 174 people.
• 1909 – U.S. President William Taft used what became known as a Saxbe fix, a mechanism to avoid the restriction of the U.S. Constitution's Ineligibility Clause, to appoint Philander C. Knox as U.S. Secretary of State
• 1913 – First Balkan War: The Greek army engages the Turks at Bizani, resulting in victory two days later.
• 1917 – Jeannette Rankin of Montana becomes the first female member of the United States House of Representatives.
• 1918 – The first case of Spanish flu occurs, the start of a devastating worldwide pandemic.
• 1918 – The USS Cyclops (AC-4) departs from Barbados and is never seen again, presumably lost with all hands in the Bermuda Triangle.
• 1933 – Frances Perkins becomes United States Secretary of Labor, the first female member of the United States Cabinet.
• 1933 – The Parliament of Austria is suspended because of a quibble over procedure – Chancellor Engelbert Dollfuss initiates an authoritarian rule by decree.
• 1941 – World War II: The United Kingdom launches Operation Claymore on the Lofoten Islands.
• 1943 – World War II: The Battle of the Bismarck Sea in the South West Pacific comes to an end.
• 1944 – World War II: After the success of Big Week, the USAAF begins a daylight bombing campaign of Berlin.
• 1945 – Lapland War: Finland declares war on Nazi Germany.
• 1957 – The S&P 500 stock market index is introduced, replacing the S&P 90.
• 1960 – The French freighter La Coubre explodes in Havana, Cuba killing 100.
• 1966 – A Canadian Pacific Air Lines DC-8-43 explodes on landing at Tokyo International Airport, killing 64 people.
• 1970 – French submarine Eurydice explodes underwater, resulting in the loss of the entire 57-man crew.
• 1974 – People magazine is published for the first time.
• 1976 – The Northern Ireland Constitutional Convention is formally dissolved in Northern Ireland resulting in direct rule of Northern Ireland from London by the British parliament.
• 1977 – The 1977 Vrancea Earthquake in southern and eastern Europe kills more than 1,500, mostly in the seriously damaged Bucharest in Romania.
• 1980 – Nationalist leader Robert Mugabe wins a sweeping election victory to become Zimbabwe's first black prime minister.
• 1983 – Bertha Wilson is appointed the first woman to sit on the Supreme Court of Canada.
• 1985 – The Food and Drug Administration approves a blood test for AIDS, used since then for screening all blood donations in the United States.
• 1986 – The Soviet Vega 1 begins returning images of Halley's Comet and the first images of its nucleus.
• 1991 – Sheikh Saad Al-Abdallah Al-Salim Al-Sabah, the Prime Minister of Kuwait, returns to his country for the first time since Iraq's invasion.
• 1996 – A derailed train in Weyauwega, Wisconsin, US, causes the emergency evacuation of 2,300 people for 16 days.
• 1998 – Gay rights: Oncale v. Sundowner Offshore Services: 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.
• 2001 – 4 March 2001 BBC bombing: a massive car bomb explodes in front of the BBC Television Centre in London, seriously injuring 1 person. The attack was attributed to the Real IRA.
• 2001 – Hintze Ribeiro disaster: A bridge collapses in northern Portugal, killing up to 70 people.
• 2002 – Afghanistan: Seven American Special Operations Forces soldiers are killed as they attempt to infiltrate the Shahi Kot Valley on a low-flying helicopter reconnaissance mission.
• 2007 – Estonian parliamentary election, 2007: Approximately 30,000 voters take advantage of electronic voting in Estonia, the world's first nationwide voting where part of the votecasting is allowed in the form of remote electronic voting via the Internet.
• 2007 – 14-year-old schoolgirl Charlotte Shaw drowned on Dartmoor, becoming the first person to die in connection with the annual Ten Tors challenge.
• 2009 – The International Criminal Court (ICC) issues an arrest warrant for Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir for war crimes and crimes against humanity in Darfur. Al-Bashir is the first sitting head of state to be indicted by the ICC since its establishment in 2002.
• 2012 – Russian presidential election, 2012: Voters in Russia go to the polls for a presidential election with Prime Minister Vladimir Putin claiming victory despite allegations of voter fraud.