Wikipedia:Selected anniversaries/March 4
This is a list of selected March 4 anniversaries that appear in the "On this day" section of the Main Page. To suggest a new item, in most cases, you can be bold and edit this page. Please read the selected anniversaries guidelines before making your edit. However, if your addition might be controversial or on a day that is or will soon be on the Main Page, please post your suggestion on the talk page instead.
Please note that the events listed on the Main Page are chosen based more on relative article quality and to maintain a mix of topics, not based solely on how important or significant their subjects are. Only four to five events are posted at a time and thus not everything that is "most important and significant" can be listed. In addition, an event is generally not posted this year if it is also the subject of the scheduled featured article or picture of the day.
To report an error when this appears on the Main Page, see Main Page errors. Please remember that this list defers to the supporting articles, so it is best to achieve consensus and make any necessary changes there first.
Images
Use only ONE image at a time
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King Edward IV of England -
King Henry VI of England -
William Penn -
Robert Mugabe -
Władysław II Jagiełło, King of Poland -
Orion Nebula
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Ineligible
| Blurb | Reason |
|---|---|
| 1461 – Wars of the Roses in England: Lancastrian King Henry VI was deposed by his Yorkist cousin, who then became King Edward IV. | Henry VI: refimprove section; Edward IV: refimprove section |
| 1804 – Irish convicts who were involved at the Battle of Vinegar Hill during the 1798 Irish Rebellion began an uprising against British colonial authorities in New South Wales, Australia. | Tagged with {{refimprove}} |
| 1824 – The Royal National Lifeboat Institution, a charity that saves lives at sea around the coasts of the British Isles, was founded as the National Institution for the Preservation of Life from Shipwreck by author and philanthropist William Hillary. | refimprove |
| 1837 – After its population increased more than tenfold in seven years to over 4,000, Chicago was granted a city charter by the U.S. state of Illinois. | refimprove section |
| 1849 – According to urban legend, President pro tempore of the U.S. Senate David Rice Atchison became the de jure U.S. President for one day after Zachary Taylor refused to be sworn into office on a Sunday when his predecessor James Polk's term expired. | original research |
| 1877 – Emile Berliner invented the microphone. | Date needs to be verified |
| 1944 – Murder, Inc. leader Louis Buchalter was executed. | Tagged with {{refimprove}} |
| 1982 – Bertha Wilson became the first female Puisne Justice of the Supreme Court of Canada. | refimprove |
Eligible
- 306 – Roman Herculian guard Adrian of Nicomedia, who had converted to Christianity after being impressed with the faith of Christians that he had been torturing, was martyred.
- 1386 – Grand Duke of Lithuania Jogaila was crowned Władysław II Jagiełło, King of Poland, beginning the Jagiellon dynasty.
- 1681 – King Charles II of England granted Quaker William Penn a charter for the Pennsylvania Colony.
- 1769 – French astronomer Charles Messier first noted the Orion Nebula, a bright nebula visible to the naked eye in the night sky situated south of Orion's Belt, later cataloguing it as Messier 42 in his list of Messier objects.
- 1776 – American Revolutionary War: Using artillery transported from Ticonderoga, the Continental Army occupied Dorchester Heights, forcing the British to abandon Boston two weeks later.
- 1814 – War of 1812: An American raiding party defeated an attempt by British regulars, volunteers from the Canadian militia and Native Americans to intercept them near present-day Wardville, Ontario.
- 1877 – Russian composer Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky's ballet Swan Lake debuted at the Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow.
- 1890 – The Forth Bridge, a railway bridge connecting Edinburgh to Fife over the Firth of Forth, opened, becoming an internationally recognised Scottish landmark.
- 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.
- 1918 – The first known case of the so-called Spanish flu was first observed at Fort Riley, Kansas.
- 1918 – The United States Navy suffered its largest non-combat loss of life when the collier USS Cyclops set sail from Barbados to Baltimore and was never seen again, presumably disappearing in the Bermuda Triangle.
- 1941 – Second World War: British Commandos successfully executed Operation Claymore on the Lofoten Islands of Norway.
- 1987 – U.S. President Ronald Reagan made a nationally televised address in which he accepted full responsibility for illegal actions in the Iran–Contra affair.
- 2009 – The International Criminal Court issued an arrest warrant for President of Sudan Omar al-Bashir on charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity regarding his actions during the War in Darfur.
March 4: Saint Casimir's Day; Casimir Pulaski Day in Illinois (2013)
- 1789 – As per the U.S. Constitution, the bicameral U.S. Congress officially replaced the unicameral Congress of the Confederation as the legislative body of the federal government.
- 1899 – Cyclone Mahina struck Bathurst Bay, Queensland, killing over 400 people, the deadliest natural disaster in Australian history.
- 1933 – Frances Perkins (pictured) was appointed United States Secretary of Labor, making her the first female member of the Cabinet.
- 1980 – Robert Mugabe of the Zimbabwe African National Union was elected to head the first government in Zimbabwe.
- 2007 – Fourteen-year-old English schoolgirl Charlotte Shaw drowned on Dartmoor, becoming the first person to die in connection with the annual Ten Tors challenge.