Anti-Bullying Day (The United Nations has recognized the epidemic of bullying that is gripping our schools and had dedicated May 4th as U.N. Anti-Bullying Day)
Dave Brubeck Day (David Warren Brubeck (December 6, 1920 – December 5, 2012) was an American jazz pianist and composer, considered to be one of the foremost exponents of cool jazz. In the United States, May 4 is informally observed as "Dave Brubeck Day". In the format most commonly used in the U.S., May 4 is written "5/4," recalling the time signature of "Take Five", Brubeck's best known recording)
Greenery Day in Japan (みどりの日 - Until 1988, April 29 was celebrated as the birthday of Emperor Showa. It was decided to keep this day a holiday even after his passing away in January 1989 and to name it Greenery Day because of the late Emperor's love of nature. In 2007, April 29 became Showa Day, and Greenery Day was moved to May 4)
Remembrance Day in the Netherlands (it was observed for the first time on May 4, 1946. Every year, people dedicate two minutes of silence at 8pm [local time] on May 4 to pay their respects to soldiers and civilians who died during World War II, as well as other military conflicts and peace-keeping missions)
World Give Day (is one day a year when people all over the world come together to support the causes they care about most. Whether you donate to your favorite non-profit, a person in your community, or give some of your time, World Give Day is a day to focus on giving back)
World Laughter Day (was created in 1998 by Dr. Madan Kataria, founder of th worldwide Laughter Yoga movemen)
2007 – Greensburg, Kansas is almost completely destroyed by a 1.7 mi wide EF5 tornado. It was the first-ever tornado to be rated as such with the new Enhanced Fujita scale.
2000 – Ken Livingstone becomes the first Mayor of London.
1979 – Margaret Thatcher becomes the first female Prime Minister of the United Kingdom.
1972 – The Don't Make A Wave Committee, a fledgling environmental organization founded in Canada in 1971, officially changes its name to "Greenpeace Foundation".
1970 – Vietnam War: Kent State shootings: The Ohio National Guard, sent to Kent State University after disturbances in the city of Kent the weekend before, opens fire killing four unarmed students and wounding nine others. The students were protesting the Cambodian Campaign of the United States and South Vietnam.
1961 – American civil rights movement: The "Freedom Riders" begin a bus trip through the South.
1942 – World War II: The Battle of the Coral Sea begins with an attack by aircraft from the United States aircraft carrier USS Yorktown on Japanese naval forces at Tulagi Island in the Solomon Islands. The Japanese forces had invaded Tulagi the day before.
1904 – The United States begins construction of the Panama Canal.
1886 – Haymarket affair: A bomb is thrown at policemen trying to break up a labor rally in Chicago, United States, killing eight and wounding 60. The police fire into the crowd.
1871 – The National Association, the first professional baseball league, opens its first season in Fort Wayne, Indiana.
1776 – Rhode Island becomes the first American colony to renounce allegiance to King George III.
1686 – The Municipality of Ilagan is founded in the Philippines.
Births
1992 – Victor Oladipo, American basketball player. Kehinde Babatunde Victor Oladipo (born May 4, 1992) is an American professional basketball player for the National Basketball Association (NBA)'s Indiana Pacers and singer.
1990 – Irina Falconi, American tennis player, was born in Portoviejo, Ecuador. She moved to Manhattan, New York, as a toddler.
1989 – James van Riemsdyk, American ice hockey player. James Frederick van Riemsdyk, (born May 4, 1989), also known by his initials JVR, is an American professional ice hockey left winger currently playing for the Philadelphia Flyers of the National Hockey League (NHL).
1985 – Anthony Fedorov, Ukrainian-born American singer and actor. He rose to fame as the fourth place finalist on the fourth season of American Idol.
1984 – Brad Maddox, American wrestler and referee. Tyler Kluttz (born May 4, 1984) is an American professional wrestler and former professional wrestling referee.
1984 – Kevin Slowey, American baseball player. He also played for the Miami Marlins.
1984 – Montell Owens, American football player. Owens was signed by the Jacksonville Jaguars as an undrafted free agent in 2006.
1981 – Dallon Weekes, American singer-songwriter and musician. He was also the lead vocalist and multi-instrumentalist for the power pop band and later solo musical project The Brobecks.
1979 – Kristin Harmel, American journalist and author. Petersburg Times, and Tampa Bay AllSports magazine while still attending Northeast High School in St.
1979 – Lance Bass, American singer, dancer, and producer. NSYNC's success led Bass to work in film and television.
1978 – Erin Andrews, American sportscaster and journalist. She hosts Dancing with the Stars for ABC and is a sideline reporter for Fox NFL.
1976 – Ben Grieve, American baseball player. In his nine-season career, he played with the Oakland Athletics (1997–2000), Tampa Bay Devil Rays (2001–2003), Milwaukee Brewers (2004), and Chicago Cubs (2004–2005).
1976 – Jason Michaels, American baseball player. Jason Drew Michaels (born May 4, 1976), nicknamed "J-Mike", is an American retired Major League Baseball outfielder.
1972 – Mike Dirnt, American bass player and songwriter. Michael Ryan Pritchard (born May 4, 1972), known professionally as Mike Dirnt, is an American musician, songwriter, and singer.
1970 – Dawn Staley, American basketball player. After playing point guard for the University of Virginia under Debbie Ryan, and winning the gold medal at the 1996 Summer Olympics, she went to play professionally in the American Basketball League and the WNBA.
1970 – Gregg Alexander, American singer-songwriter and producer. Gregg Alexander (born Gregory Aiuto; May 4, 1970) is an American singer-songwriter and producer, best known as the frontman of the New Radicals, who produced and co-wrote the international hit "You Get What You Give" in late 1998.
1967 – Ana Gasteyer, American actress and singer. Ana Kristina Gasteyer (born May 4, 1967) is an American comedian, actress and singer best known for her time as a cast member on Saturday Night Live from 1996 to 2002.
1966 – Jane McGrath, English-Australian activist, co-founded the McGrath Foundation (d. 2008), was an England-born Australian cancer support campaigner, and the wife of former Australian cricket fast bowler Glenn McGrath.
1959 – Bob Tway, American golfer. Robert Raymond Tway IV (born May 4, 1959) is an American professional golfer who has won numerous tournaments including eight PGA Tour victories.
1959 – Randy Travis, American singer-songwriter, guitarist, and actor. Randy Bruce Traywick (born May 4, 1959), known professionally as Randy Travis, is an American country music and gospel music singer, songwriter, guitarist, and actor.
1958 – Delbert Fowler, American football player. Delbert "Treetop" Fowler (born May 4, 1958) is a former American football player for the Winnipeg Blue Bombers of the Canadian Football League.
1958 – Keith Haring, American painter (d. 1990), was an American artist whose pop art and graffiti-like work grew out of the New York City street culture of the 1980s.
1956 – David Guterson, American novelist, short story writer, poet, and essayist. He is best known as the author of the Japanese American internment novel Snow Falling on Cedars.
1956 – Ken Oberkfell, American baseball player and coach. Kenneth Raymond Oberkfell (born May 4, 1956) is an American former Major League Baseball third baseman.
1956 – Michael L. Gernhardt, American astronaut and engineer. Michael Landon Gernhardt (Ph.D.) (born May 4, 1956, in Mansfield, Ohio) is a NASA astronaut and manager of Environmental Physiology Laboratory and principal investigator of the Prebreathe Reduction Program (PRP) at the Lyndon B.
1953 – Pia Zadora, American actress and singer. After working as a child actress on Broadway, in regional theater, and in the film Santa Claus Conquers the Martians (1964), she came to national attention in 1981 when, following her starring role in the highly criticized Butterfly, she won a Golden Globe Award as New Star of the Year while simultaneously winning the Golden Raspberry Award for Worst Actress and the Worst New Star for the same performance.
1951 – Colleen Hanabusa, American lawyer and politician. She is a member of the Democratic Party and ran for her party's nomination for governor of Hawaii in 2018, challenging and losing to incumbent Governor and fellow Democrat David Ige.
1951 – Jackie Jackson, American singer-songwriter and dancer. Jackie is the second child of the Jackson family and the oldest Jackson brother.
1946 – Gary Bauer, American political activist. In 2000, he participated in the Republican presidential contest and took part in five national debates.
1944 – Russi Taylor, American voice actress, was an American voice actress who was the long-time voice of Minnie Mouse.
1942 – Nickolas Ashford, American singer-songwriter, pianist, and producer (d. 2011), was an American R&B singer and songwriter who formed the musical partnership Ashford & Simpson with his wife, Valerie Simpson.
1941 – George Will, American journalist and author. In 1986, The Wall Street Journal called him "perhaps the most powerful journalist in America," in a league with Walter Lippmann (1889–1974).
1940 – Robin Cook, American physician and author, was a British Labour Party politician, who served as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Livingston from 1983 until his death, and served in the Cabinet as Foreign Secretary from 1997 until 2001, when he was replaced by Jack Straw.
1938 – Tyrone Davis, American blues and soul singer (d. 2005). Tyrone Davis (born Tyrone D.
1937 – Dick Dale, American surf-rock guitarist, singer, and songwriter, was an American rock guitarist. He was a pioneer of surf music, drawing on Middle Eastern music scales and experimenting with reverberation.
1937 – Ron Carter, American bassist and educator. His appearances on 2,221 recording sessions make him the most-recorded jazz bassist in history.
1933 – J. Fred Duckett, American journalist and educator (d. 2007). Fred Duckett (May 4, 1933 – June 25, 2007) was a sports journalist and writer.
1932 – Harlon Hill, American football player and coach (d. 2013), was an American football player and later coach and educator. Hill played nine seasons in the National Football League (NFL) with the Chicago Bears, Pittsburgh Steelers, and Detroit Lions.
1930 – Roberta Peters, American soprano (d. 2017), was an American coloratura soprano.
1928 – Betsy Rawls, American golfer. Elizabeth Earle "Betsy" Rawls (born May 4, 1928) is an American former LPGA Tour professional golfer.
1925 – Maurice R. Greenberg, American businessman and philanthropist, was the world's 18th largest public company and the largest insurance and financial services corporation in history.
1923 – Ed Cassidy, American jazz and rock drummer (d. 2012), was an American jazz and rock drummer who was one of the founders of the rock group Spirit in 1967.
1923 – John Toner, American football player and coach (d. 2014). He served as the head football coach at the University of Connecticut (UConn) from 1966 to 1970 and as the school's athletic director from 1969 to 1987.
1923 – Stanley Biber, American soldier and physician (d. 2006). Biber (May 4, 1923 – January 16, 2006) was an American physician who was a pioneer in sex reassignment surgery, performing thousands of procedures during his long career.
1922 – Eugenie Clark, American biologist and academic (d. 2015), was an American ichthyologist known for both her research on shark behavior and her study of fish in the order Tetraodontiformes. Clark was a pioneer in the field of scuba diving for research purposes.
1921 – John van Kesteren, Dutch-American tenor and actor (d. 2008), was a Dutch operatic tenor.
1921 – Patsy Garrett, American actress and singer (d. 2015). Beginning her career as a radio performer at the age of seven, Garrett is best known for her seven years on Fred Waring's Pleasure Time radio show during the 1940s, as well as for her recurring television and film roles; as nosy neighbor Mrs.
1919 – Dory Funk, American wrestler and trainer (d. 1973), was an American professional wrestler. He is the father of wrestlers Dory Funk Jr. and Terry Funk, and was a promoter of the Amarillo, Texas-based Western States Sports promotion.
1917 – Edward T. Cone, American pianist and composer (d. 2004), was an American composer, music theorist, pianist, and philanthropist.
1916 – Jane Jacobs, American-Canadian journalist, author, and activist (d. 2006), was an American-Canadian journalist, author, and activist who influenced urban studies, sociology, and economics. Her book The Death and Life of Great American Cities (1961) argued that urban renewal did not respect the needs of city-dwellers.
1916 – Richard Proenneke, American soldier, carpenter, and meteorologist (d. 2003), was an American self-educated naturalist who lived alone for nearly thirty years in the mountains of Alaska in a log cabin that he constructed by hand near the shore of Twin Lakes. Proenneke hunted, fished, raised and gathered his own food, and also had supplies flown in occasionally.
1907 – Lincoln Kirstein, American soldier and playwright, co-founded the New York City Ballet (d. 1996), was an American writer, impresario, art connoisseur, philanthropist, and cultural figure in New York City, noted especially as co-founder of the New York City Ballet. He developed and sustained the company with his organizing ability and fundraising for more than four decades, serving as the company's general director from 1946 to 1989.
1907 – Walter Walsh, American target shooter and FBI agent (d. 2014), was an FBI agent, USMC shooting instructor and Olympic shooter. Walsh joined the FBI in 1934, serving during the Public enemy era, and was involved in several high-profile FBI cases, including the capture of Arthur Barker and the killing of Al Brady.
1906 – Gustav Bergmann, Austrian-American philosopher from the Vienna Circle (d. 1987), was an Austrian-born American philosopher. He studied at the University of Vienna and was a member of the Vienna Circle.
1905 – Al Dexter, American country singer-songwriter and guitarist (d. 1984), was an American country musician and songwriter. He is best known for "Pistol Packin' Mama," a 1944 hit that was one of the most popular recordings of the World War II years and later became a hit again with a cover by Bing Crosby and The Andrews Sisters.
1903 – Luther Adler, American actor (d. 1984), was an American actor best known for his work in theatre, but who also worked in film and television. He also directed plays on Broadway.
1889 – Francis Spellman, American cardinal (d. 1967), was an American bishop and cardinal of the Catholic Church. From 1939 until his death in 1967, he served as the sixth Archbishop of New York; he had previously served as an auxiliary bishop of the Archdiocese of Boston from 1932 through 1939.
1887 – Andrew Dasburg, French-American painter (d. 1979), was an American modernist painter and "one of America's leading early exponents of cubism".
1851 – Thomas Dewing, American painter (d. 1938), was an American painter working at the turn of the 20th century. Schooled in Paris, Dewing was noted for his figure paintings of aristocratic women.
1826 – Frederic Edwin Church, American painter (d. 1900), was an American landscape painter born in Hartford, Connecticut. He was a central figure in the Hudson River School of American landscape painters, best known for painting large landscapes, often depicting mountains, waterfalls, and sunsets.
1825 – Augustus Le Plongeon, English-American historian, photographer, and academic (d. 1908), was a French-American photographer, archeologist, antiquarian and author who studied the pre-Columbian ruins of America, particularly those of the Maya civilization on the northern Yucatán Peninsula. While his writings contain many controversial notions that were not well received by his contemporaries and were later disproven, Le Plongeon left a lasting legacy in his photographs documenting the ancient ruins.
1820 – John Whiteaker, American soldier, judge, and politician, 1st Governor of Oregon (d. 1902), was an American politician, soldier, and judge primarily in Oregon. A native of Indiana, he joined the army during the Mexican–American War and then prospected during the California Gold Rush.
1796 – Horace Mann, American educator and politician (d. 1859), was an American educational reformer and Whig politician known for his commitment to promoting public education. A central theme of his life was that "it is the law of our nature to desire happiness.
1796 – William H. Prescott, American historian and scholar (d. 1859), was an American historian and Hispanist, who is widely recognized by historiographers to have been the first American scientific historian. Despite suffering from serious visual impairment, which at times prevented him from reading or writing for himself, Prescott became one of the most eminent historians of 19th century America.
1757 – Manuel Tolsá, Spanish sculptor and first director of the Academy of San Carlos in Mexico City (d. 1816), was a prolific Neoclassical architect and sculptor in Spain and Mexico. He served as the first director of the Academy of San Carlos.
1655 – Bartolomeo Cristofori, Italian instrument maker, invented the piano (d. 1731), was an Italian maker of musical instruments famous for inventing the piano.
Deaths
2015 – Ellen Albertini Dow, American actress (b. 1913)
2015 – Marv Hubbard, American football player (b. 1946)
2015 – William Bast, American screenwriter and author (b. 1931)
2014 – Dick Ayers, American author and illustrator (b. 1924)
2014 – Edgar Cortright, American scientist and engineer (b. 1923)
2014 – Ross Lonsberry, Canadian-American ice hockey player (b. 1947)
2013 – Mario Machado, Chinese-American journalist and actor (b. 1935)
2013 – Otis R. Bowen, American physician and politician, 44th Governor of Indiana (b. 1918)
2012 – Adam Yauch, American rapper and director (b. 1964)
2012 – Bob Stewart, American television producer, founded Stewart Tele Enterprises (b. 1920)
2012 – Mort Lindsey, American pianist, composer, and conductor (b. 1923)
2009 – Dom DeLuise, American actor, director, and producer (b. 1933)
2005 – David Hackworth, American colonel and journalist (b. 1930)
2001 – Bonnie Lee Bakley, American model, wife of Robert Blake, (b. 1956)
1995 – Connie Wisniewski, American baseball player (b. 1922)
1990 – Emily Remler, American guitarist (b. 1957)
1988 – Lillian Estelle Fisher, American historian of Spanish America (b. 1891)
1987 – Cathryn Damon, American actress (b. 1930)
1987 – Paul Butterfield, American singer and harmonica player (b. 1942)
1975 – Moe Howard, American actor, singer, and screenwriter (b. 1897)
1973 – Jane Bowles, American author and playwright (b. 1917)
1972 – Edward Calvin Kendall, American chemist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1886)
1923 – Ralph McKittrick, American golfer and tennis player (b. 1877)
1816 – Samuel Dexter, American lawyer and politician, 4th United States Secretary of War, 3rd United States Secretary of the Treasury (b. 1761)
1790 – Matthew Tilghman, American politician (b. 1718)
Remind me of this day
