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1256 - Augustinian monastic order constituted at Lecceto Monastery when Pope Alexander IV issues a papal bull Licet ecclesiae catholicae

1415 - Religious reformers John Wycliffe and Jan Hus were condemned as heretics at the Council of Constance.

1471 - Wars of the Roses: The Battle of Tewkesbury – Edward IV defeats a Lancastrian Army and kills Edward, Prince of Wales.

1493 - Pope Alexander VI divides the New World between Spain and Portugal along the Demarcation Line.

1494 - Christopher Columbus lands in Jamaica.

1626 - Dutch explorer Peter Minuit arrives in New Netherland (present day Manhattan Island) aboard the See Meeuw.

1675 - King Charles II of England orders the construction of the Royal Greenwich Observatory.

1776 - Rhode Island becomes the first American colony to renounce allegiance to King George III.

1799 - Fourth Anglo-Mysore War: The Battle of Seringapatam – The siege of Seringapatam ends when the city is assaulted and the Tipu Sultan killed by the besieging British army, under the command of General George Harris.

1814 - Emperor Napoleon I of France arrives at Portoferraio on the island of Elba to begin his exile.

1855 - American adventurer William Walker departs from San Francisco with about 60 men to conquer Nicaragua.

1859 - Cornwall Railway opened across the Royal Albert Bridge linking the counties of Devon and Cornwall in England.

1863 - American Civil War: Battle of Chancellorsville – The battle ends with a Union retreat.

1865 - Abraham Lincoln buried in Springfield, Illinois, three weeks after his assassination.

1869 - The Naval Battle of Hakodate takes place in Japan.

1871 - The National Association, the first professional baseball league, opens its first season in Fort Wayne, Indiana.

1886 - Haymarket Square Riot: A bomb is thrown at policemen trying to break up a labor rally in Chicago, Illinois, United States, killing eight and wounding 60. The police fire into the crowd.

1904 - Construction begins by the United States on the Panama Canal.

1910 - The Royal Canadian Navy is created.

1912 - Italy occupies the island of Rhodes.

1919 - May Fourth Movement: Student demonstrations take place in Tiananmen Square in Beijing, China, protesting the Treaty of Versailles, which transferred Chinese territory to Japan.

1924 - The 1924 Summer Olympics open in Paris, France.

1930 - British police arrest Mahatma Gandhi and place him in Yeravda Central Prison.

1932 - In Atlanta, Georgia, mobster Al Capone begins serving an eleven-year prison sentence for tax evasion.

1942 - World War II: Battle of the Coral Sea – The battle begins with the launch of attack aircraft from American and Japanese aircraft carriers.

1945 - World War II: Liberation of the Neuengamme concentration camp near Hamburg by the British Army.

1945 - World War II: Surrender of the North Germany Army to Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery.

1946 - In San Francisco Bay, US Marines from the Treasure Island Marine Barracks stop a two-day riot at Alcatraz federal prison. Five people are killed in the riot.

1948 - Norman Mailer's first novel, The Naked and the Dead, is published.

1949 - The entire Torino football (soccer) team (except for one player who did not take the trip due to an injury) is killed in a plane crash at the Superga hill at the edge of Turin, Italy.

1953 - Ernest Hemingway is awarded the Pulitzer Prize for The Old Man and the Sea.

1961 - American civil rights movement: The "Freedom Riders" begin a bus trip through the South.

1964 - The long running soap opera Another World debuts on NBC which would ran until 1999.

1970 - Vietnam War: Kent State shootings – The Ohio National Guard, sent to Kent State University after the ROTC building was burnt down, opens fire on students protesting at the United States' invasion of Cambodia. Four students are killed, nine are wounded.

1972 - The Don't Make A Wave Committee, a fledgling environmental organization founded in Canada in 1971, officially changes its name to "Greenpeace Foundation".

1974 - An all-female Japanese team reaches the summit of Manaslu, becoming the first women to climb an 8,000-meter peak.

1979 - Margaret Thatcher becomes the first woman Prime Minister of the United Kingdom.

1980 - President Josip Broz Tito of Yugoslavia dies in Ljubljana at the age of 87.

1981 - Donald Eugene Webb is placed on the FBI's Ten Most Wanted List.

1989 - Iran-Contra Affair: Former White House aide Oliver North is convicted of three crimes and was acquitted of nine other charges. The convictions, however, are later overturned on appeal.

1990 - Latvia proclaims independence.

1994 - Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin and PLO leader Yasser Arafat sign a peace accord regarding Palestinian autonomy granting self-rule in the Gaza Strip and Jericho.

1996 - José María Aznar is appointed Prime Minister of Spain, thus ending 13 years of Socialist rule.

1998 - A federal judge in Sacramento, California, gives "Unabomber" Theodore Kaczynski four life sentences plus 30 years after Kaczynski accepted a plea agreement sparing him from the death penalty.

2002 - An EAS Airlines BAC 1-11-500 crashes in a suburb of Kano, Nigeria shortly after takeoff killing more than 148 people.

2003 - The Outbreak of 2003 begins. Ninety-four tornadoes begin the week-long outbreak.

2006 - Zacarias Moussaoui is sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole for involvement in the September 11, 2001 attacks. He is spared the death penalty.

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1008 - Khajeh Abdollah Ansari The Persian Sufi (d. 1088)

1008 - King Henry I of France (d. 1060)

1654 - Kangxi Emperor of China (d. 1722)

1655 - Bartolomeo Cristofori, Italian maker of musical instruments (d. 1731)

1715 - Richard Graves, English writer (d. 1804)

1733 - Jean-Charles de Borda, French mathematician, physicist, political scientist, and sailor (d. 1799)

1772 - Friedrich Arnold Brockhaus, German publisher (d. 1823)

1781 - Karl Christian Friedrich Krause, German philosopher (d. 1832)

1796 - Horace Mann, American educator (d. 1859)

1820 - Julia Tyler, First Lady of the United States (d. 1889)

1825 - Thomas Henry Huxley, English scientist (d. 1895)

1825 - Augustus Le Plongeon, French antiquitarian (d. 1908)

1826 - Frederic Edwin Church, American painter (d. 1900)

1827 - John Hanning Speke, British explorer (d. 1864)

1852 - Alice Pleasance Liddell, English schoolgirl model for Alice in Wonderland (d. 1934)

1864 - Marie Booth, the third daughter of William and Catherine Booth (d. 1937)

1870 - Alexandre Benois, Russian artist (d. 1960)

1873 - Joe De Grasse, Canadian film director (d. 1940)

1889 - Francis Cardinal Spellman, American religious leader (d. 1967)

1903 - Luther Adler, American stage actor (d. 1984)

1913 - Lady Katherine Brandram, née Princess of Greece and Denmark

1916 - Jane Jacobs, Canadian author and activist (d. 2006)

1918 - Tanaka Kakuei, Japanese political leader (d. 1993)

1918 - Thomas Mead, Australian politician and journalist (d. 2004)

1919 - Dory Funk, Professional wrestler (d. 1973)

1921 - Edo Murtić, Croatian painter (d. 2005)

1923 - Ed Cassidy, American musician (Spirit)

1923 - Eric Sykes, British actor and comedian

1923 - Godfrey Quigley, British actor (d. 1994)

1925 - Maurice R. Greenberg, American businessman

1928 - Maynard Ferguson, Canadian musician

1928 - Hosni Mubarak, President of Egypt

1928 - Wolfgang von Trips, German racing driver (d. 1961)

1929 - Audrey Hepburn, Belgian actress (d. 1993)

1929 - Sidney Lamb, American linguist

1930 - Roberta Peters, American soprano

1931 - Gennady Rozhdestvensky, Russian conductor

1936 - El Cordobes, Spanish bullfighter

1937 - Dick Dale, American guitarist

1939 - Amos Oz, Israeli writer, novelist, and journalist

1941 - George Will, American writer

1942 - Nickolas Ashford, American record producer, songwriter, musician (Ashford and Simpson)

1943 - Mikhail Chemiakin, Russian painter

1944 - Roger Rees, British-born actor

1945 - Narasimhan Ram, Indian journalist

1946 - John Watson, Northern Irish racecar driver

1949 - John Force, American race car driver

1951 - Colin Bass, British bassist (Camel)

1951 - Mick Mars, American guitarist (Mötley Crüe)

1954 - Pia Zadora, American actress

1956 - David Guterson, American author

1956 - Ulrike Meyfarth, German athlete

1956 - Ken Oberkfell, American baseball player

1958 - Delbert Fowler, American and Canadian professional football player

1958 - Keith Haring, American graphical artist (d. 1990)

1959 - Randy Travis, American musician

1959 - Scott Armstrong, American professional wrestling referee

1961 - Luis Herrera, Colombian cyclist

1962 - Oleta Adams, American singer

1967 - Ana Gasteyer, American actress

1968 - Julian Barratt, English comedian and musician, one half of The Mighty Boosh

1969 - Ryan Shamrock, Wrestling valet

1972 - Mike Dirnt, American musician (Green Day)

1972 - Manny Aybar, baseball player

1974 - Miguel Cairo, baseball player

1976 - Jason Michaels, baseball player

1976 - Ben Grieve, American baseball player

1979 - Lance Bass, American singer (*NSYNC)

1981 - Eric Djemba-Djemba, Cameroon footballer

1982 - Robert Hill, Australian athlete

1982 - Markus Rogan, Austrian swimmer

1983 - Trisha Krishnan, Indian actress

1985 - Anthony Fedorov, American singer

1987 - Anjeza Shahini, Albanian singer

1994 - Alexander Gould, American actor

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1471 - Edward of Westminster, Prince of Wales (killed in battle) (b. 1453)

1471 - Edmund Beaufort, 4th Duke of Somerset, English military commander (executed)

1506 - Husayn Bayqarah, ruler of Herat (b. 1438)

1519 - Lorenzo II de' Medici, Duke of Urbino (b. 1492)

1566 - Luca Ghini, Italian physician and botanist (b. 1490)

1615 - Adriaan van Roomen, Flemish mathematician (b. 1561)

1626 - Arthur Lake, Bishop of Bath and Wells, English bishop and Bible translator (b. 1569)

1677 - Isaac Barrow, English mathematician (b. 1630)

1684 - John Nevison, English highwayman (b. 1639)

1729 - Louis-Antoine, Cardinal de Noailles, French cardinal (b. 1651)

1734 - James Thornhill, English painter

1737 - Eustace Budgell, English writer (b. 1686)

1774 - Anthony Ulrich II, Duke of Brunswick-Lüneburg (b. 1714)

1776 - Jacques Saly, French sculptor (b. 1717)

1790 - Matthew Tilghman, American delegate to the Continental Congress (b. 1718)

1799 - Tipu Sultan, Indian military leader

1811 - Nikolay Kamensky, Russian general (b. 1776)

1824 - Joseph Joubert, French essayist and moralist (b. 1754)

1849 - Hokusai, Japanese artist (b. 1760)

1859 - Joseph Diaz Gergonne, French mathematician (b. 1771)

1880 - Edward Clark, Governor of Texas (b. 1815)

1903 - Goce Delchev, Bulgarian revolutionary (b. 1872)

1922 - Viktor Kingissepp, Estonian Bolshevik politician (b. 1888)

1938 - Carl von Ossietzky, German pacifist, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize (b. 1889)

1945 - Fedor von Bock, German field marshal (b. 1880)

1955 - Georges Enescu, Romanian composer (b. 1881)

1961 - Anita Stewart, American film actress (b. 1895)

1969 - Osbert Sitwell, English writer (b. 1892)

1970 - Kent State victims:

Allison Krause (b. 1951)

Jeffrey Miller (b. 1950)

Sandra Scheuer (b. 1949)

William Schroeder (b. 1950)

1972 - Edward Calvin Kendall, American chemist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (b. 1886)

1975 - Moe Howard, American actor and comedian (b. 1897)

1980 - Josip Broz Tito, President of Yugoslavia (b. 1892)

1984 - Bob Clampett, American cartoonist (b. 1913)

1984 - Diana Dors, British actress (b. 1931)

1985 - Clarence Wiseman, the 10th General of The Salvation Army (b. 1907)

1986 - Henri Toivonen, Finnish race car driver (b. 1956)

1987 - Paul Butterfield, American blues harmonica player (b. 1942)

1992 - Gregor Mackenzie, Labour Party (UK) politician (b. 1927)

2005 - David Hackworth, U.S. Army officer and military journalist (b. 1930)

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International Firefighters' Day.

The Netherlands - Remembrance of the Dead.

People's Republic of China - Youth Day (青年节, commemorating May Fourth Movement).

Republic of China - Literary Day (文藝節, commemorating May Fourth Movement).

Star Wars day, "May the 4th be with you" pun on "May the force be with you"

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Saint Judas Cyriacus

Saint Ladislaus of Gielnow

Saint Florian

Saint Godehard

Saint Malou

Saint Ethelred

Saint Silvianus

Saint Titianus

Saint Willerik

Saint John Houghton, Saint Robert Lawrence, Saint Augustine Webster, Saint Richard Reynolds, and Saint John Hale; all put to death in 1535.

Saint Monica of Hippo (d. 387)

Blessed Catherine of Park