October 4: Day of the year

October 4 is the 277th day of the year (278th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. There are 88 days remaining until the end of the year.

Up to 1900

• 23 – Rebels capture the then-Chinese capital city Chang'an during a peasant rebellion. They kill and behead the Emperor, Wang Mang, two days later.
• 610 – Heraclius arrives by ship from Africa at Constantinople, otherthrows Byzantine Emperor Phocas and becomes Emperor.
• 1511 – Formation of a Holy League of Ferdinand II of Aragon, the Papal States, and the Republic of Venice against France.
• 1535 – The first complete English language Bible is printed, with translations by William Tyndale and Miles Coverdale.
• 1582 – Pope Gregory XIII implements the Gregorian calendar. In Italy, Poland, Portugal, and Spain October 4 of this year is followed directly by October 15, skipping over 10 days.
• 1636 – Thirty Years' War: The Swedish Army defeats the armies of Saxony and the Holy Roman Empire at the Battle of Wittstock.
• 1693 – Battle of Marsaglia: Piedmontese troops are defeated by the French.
• 1725 – The city of Rosario, Argentina is founded.
• 1744 – British sailing ship Victory is last seen, near the Channel Islands in the English Channel. During the night, it sinks, killing 1,150 people.
• 1777 – American Revolutionary War: At the Battle of Germantown, troops under George Washington are repelled by British troops under Sir William Howe.
• 1824 – Mexico becomes a republic.
• 1830 – Creation of the state of Belgium after separation from The Netherlands.
• 1853 – Crimean War: The Ottoman Empire declares war on Russia.
• 1883 – First run of the Orient Express
• 1883 – First meeting of the Boys' Brigade in Glasgow, Scotland.
• 1895 – The first U.S. Open Men's Golf Championship run by the United States Golf Association was played on a nine-hole course in Newport, Rhode Island.

1901 – 2000

• 1910 – Portugal becomes a republic. King Manuel II flees to Britain.
• 1917 – World War I: The Battle of Broadseinde is fought between British and German armies in Flanders.
• 1918 – An explosion kills more than 100 people and destroys the T. A. Gillespie Company Shell Loading Plant in Sayreville, New Jersey.
• 1927 – Gutzon Borglum begins sculpting Mount Rushmore.
• 1943 – World War II: US forces re-capture the Solomon Islands.
• 1957 – Launch of Sputnik I, the first artificial satellite to orbit the Earth.
• 1958 – The Fifth Republic of France established.
• 1959 – The Soviet Union sends the Lunik 3 probe to the Moon.
• 1960 – An Eastern Airlines Lockheed L-188 Electra flying from Boston crashes killing 62 people after a bird strike.
• 1963 – Richard Noble sets a new land speed record of 633.468 mph, driving Thrust 2 at the Black Rock Desert, Nevada.
• 1965 – Pope Paul VI becomes the first Pope to visit the United States, as he arrives in New York City.
• 1966 – Basutoland becomes independent from the United Kingdom and is renamed Lesotho.
• 1967 – Omar Ali Saifuddin III of Brunei abdicates in favour of his son, Hassanal Bolkiah.
• 1974 – Founding of the New Democracy political party in Greece.
• 1983 – Richard Noble sets a new land-speed record of 633.468 miles per hour (1,019 kilometres per hour), driving Thrust 2 at the Black Rock Desert in Nevada.
• 1985 – The Free Software Foundation is founded in Massachusetts.
• 1988 – Jim Bakker is indicted for fraud.
• 1991 – The Protocol on Environmental Protection to the Antarctic Treaty was opened for signature.
• 1992 – An El Al Boeing 747-200F crashes into 2 apartment buildings in Amsterdam, killing 43 including 38 on the ground. See Bijlmerramp.
• 1992 – The Rome General Peace Accords end the 16-year civil war in Mozambique.
• 1993 – At the climax of the Russian constitutional crisis of 1993, Russian President Boris Yeltsin orders army tanks to begin the storming of the Russian parliament building.
• 1997 – The second-largest cash robbery in United States history takes place in Charlotte, North Carolina.
• 1998 – Leafie Mason of Hughes Springs, Texas is murdered by Angel Maturino Resendiz. She is Angel's second victim in his second incident.

From 2001

• 2001 – A Sibir Airlines Tupolev TU-154 crashes into the Black Sea after being struck by an errant Ukrainian S-200 missile. 78 people are killed.
• 2003 – Maxim restaurant suicide bombing: A female Palestinian suicide bomber, Hanadi Jaradat, exploded inside the Maxim restaurant in Haifa. 21 Israelis, Jews and Arabs, were killed, and 51 others were wounded.
• 2004 – SpaceShipOne wins Ansari X Prize for private spaceflight.
• 2006 – WikiLeaks is launched by Julian Assange.
• 2006 – Lesotho changes its flag.
• 2010 – Toxic red sludge escapes from the Ajka alumina plant in western Hungary, causing an environmental disaster and killing at least nine people.
• 2016 – Hurricane Matthew hits Haiti and the Dominican Republic, causing flooding, destroying homes and killing seven people.

Up to 1850

• 1160 – Alys, Countess of Vexin (died 1220)
• 1268 – King Eric II of Norway (died 1299)
• 1274 – Rudolf I, Duke of Bavaria (died 1319)
• 1276 – Margaret of Brabant, Queen of Germany (died 1311)
• 1289 – King Louis X of France (died 1316)
• 1379 – King Henry III of Castile (died 1406)
• 1515 – Lucas Cranach the Younger, German painter (died 1586)
• 1542 – Robert Bellarmine, Italian saint (died 1621)
• 1550 – King Charles IX of Sweden (died 1611)
• 1562 – Christian Sorensen Longomontanus, Danish astronomer (died 1647)
• 1585 – Anna of Tyrol, Empress Consort of the Holy Roman Empire (died 1618)
• 1625 – Jacqueline Pascal, French child prodigy and nun (died 1661)
• 1626 – Richard Cromwell, English politician (died 1712)
• 1633 – Anthony Ulrich, Duke of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel (died 1714)
• 1657 – Francesco Solimena, Italian painter (died 1747)
• 1687 – Robert Simson, Scottish mathematician (died 1768)
• 1720 – Giovanni Battista Piranesi, Italian painter (died 1778)
• 1759 – Antoine Arbogast, French mathematician (died 1803)
• 1787 – François Guizot, French statesman (died 1874)
• 1797 – Jeremias Gotthelf, Swiss writer (died 1854)
• 1808 – Giovanni Battista Pioda, Swiss politician and diplomat (died 1882)
• 1814 – Jean-François Millet, French painter (died 1875)
• 1819 – Francesco Crispi, Italian politician (died 1901)
• 1822 – Rutherford B. Hayes, 19th President of the United States (died 1893)
• 1833 – John Anderson, Scottish zoologist (died 1900)
• 1835 – Grigory Potanin, Russian explorer (died 1920)
• 1836 – Juliette Adam, French writer and activist (died 1936)
• 1837 – Mary Elizabeth Braddon, English writer (died 1915)
• 1841 – Prudente José de Morais Barros, President of Brazil (died 1912)
• 1841 – Maria Sophie of Bavaria, Queen of the Two Sicilies (died 1925)
• 1843 – Marie Alphonsine Danil Ghattas, Palestinian nun and saint (died 1927)

1851 – 1900

• 1858 – Michael Pupin, telephone pioneer, Pulitzer Prize winning writer (died 1935)
• 1861 – Frederic Remington, American painter (died 1909)
• 1862 – Edward Stratemeyer, American writer (died 1930)
• 1863 – Samuel Prescott Bush, American industrialist (died 1948)
• 1868 – Marcelo T. de Alvear, Argentine politician (died 1942)
• 1876 – Hugh McCrae, Australian writer (died 1958)
• 1877 – Razor Smith, English cricketer (died 1946)
• 1880 – Damon Runyon, writer (died 1946)
• 1881 – Walther von Brauchitsch, German Commander-in-Chief (died 1948)
• 1886 – Erich Fellgiebel, German military officer and Resistance activist (died 1944)
• 1888 – Friedrich Olbricht, German general and Resistance activist (died 1944)
• 1892 – Engelbert Dollfuss, Austrian politician (died 1934)
• 1895 – Buster Keaton, American comedian, producer and actor (died 1966)
• 1895 – Richard Sorge, German-Soviet spy (died 1944)
• 1899 – Franz Jonas, President of Austria (died 1974)

1901 – 1950

• 1903 – John Vincent Atanasoff, American computer pioneer (died 1995)
• 1903 – Ernst Kaltenbrunner, German military officer (died 1946)
• 1913 – Martial Celestin, Prime Minister of Haiti (died 2011)
• 1914 – Jim Cairns, Australian politician (died 2003)
• 1916 – Vitaly Ginzburg, Russian physicist (died 2009)
• 1916 – Jan Murray, American comedian, actor and game show host (died 2006)
• 1916 – George Sidney, American director (died 2002)
• 1917 – Luis Carniglia, Argentine footballer (died 2001)
• 1917 – Jan Murray, American comedienne (died 2006)
• 1918 – Kenichi Fukui, Japanese chemist (died 1998)
• 1918 – Giovanni Cheli, Italian cardinal (died 2013)
• 1921 – Francisco Morales-Bermúdez, former President of Peru (died 2022)
• 1922 – Malcolm Baldridge, American politician (died 1987)
• 1922 – Don Lenhardt, American baseball player (died 2014)
• 1923 – Charlton Heston, American actor (died 2008)
• 1927 – Virginia Luque, Argentine actress and singer (died 2014)
• 1928 – Alvin Toffler, American writer and futurist (died 2016)
• 1930 – Svava Jakobsdóttir, Icelandic writer and politician (died 2004)
• 1931 – Richard Rorty, American philosopher and academic (died 2007)
• 1931 – Basil D'Oliveira, South African-born cricketer (died 2011)
• 1931 – Terence Conran, English designer, restaurateur, retailer and writer
• 1931 – Thane Baker, American athlete
• 1933 – German Moreno, Filipino television host, actor and comedian (died 2016)
• 1934 – Sam Huff, American football player
• 1936 – Cynthia McLeod, Surinamese writer, daughter of Johan Ferrier
• 1937 – Franz Vranitzky, former Chancellor of Austria
• 1937 – Jackie Collins, English writer (died 2015)
• 1937 – Jim Sillars, Scottish politician
• 1938 – Kurt Wüthrich, Swiss chemist, Nobel Prize laureate
• 1939 – Ivan Mauger, New Zealand speedway rider (died 2018)
• 1940 – Silvio Marzolini, Argentine footballer
• 1941 – Anne Rice, American writer
• 1942 – Johanna Sigurdardottir, former Prime Minister of Iceland
• 1942 – Karl W. Richter, American lieutenant and pilot (died 1967)
• 1943 – H. Rap Brown (Jamil Al-Amin), American civil rights activist
• 1943 – Buddy Roemer, former Governor of Louisiana (d. 2021)
• 1943 – Owen Davidson, Australian tennis player
• 1946 – Susan Sarandon, American actress
• 1946 – Chuck Hagel, American politician
• 1946 – Bridget St. John, English singer-songwriter and guitarist
• 1947 – Jim Fielder, American bass player
• 1947 – Julien Clerc, French singer
• 1947 – Ann Widdecombe, British politician
• 1949 – Antonello Cuccureddu, Italian footballer and coach
• 1949 – Armand Assante, actor
• 1949 – Ally Hunter, Scottish footballer

1951 – 1975

• 1953 – Tchéky Karyo, actor
• 1955 – John Rutherford, Scottish rugby player
• 1955 – Andy Pichler, Austrian footballer
• 1955 – Jorge Valdano, Argentine footballer
• 1956 – Christoph Waltz, Austrian actor
• 1958 – Yevgeny Bushmin, Russian politician (died 2019)
• 1958 – Anneka Rice, Welsh television and radio presenter
• 1959 – Chris Lowe, English musician (Pet Shop Boys)
• 1959 – Tony Meo, English snooker player
• 1960 – Henry Worsley, English explorer (died 2016)
• 1961 – Kazuki Takahashi, Japanese writer and artist
• 1961 – Philippe Russo, French singer-songwriter
• 1962 – Jon Secada, Cuban-American singer
• 1962 – Marc Minkowski, French conductor
• 1963 – A.C. Green, American basketball player
• 1963 – Mark Powley, English actor
• 1964 – Francis Magalona, Filipino entertainer (died 2009)
• 1964 – Sarah Lancashire, English actress
• 1964 – Yvonne Murray, Scottish athlete
• 1967 – Liev Schreiber, actor
• 1967 – Marcus Bentley, British voice actor
• 1968 – Beverley Allitt, British nurse and serial killer
• 1975 – Cristiano Lucarelli, Italian footballer

From 1976

• 1976 – Alicia Silverstone, American actress
• 1976 – Mauro Camoranesi, Argentine-Italian footballer
• 1976 – Ueli Steck, Swiss climber (died 2017)
• 1977 – Richard Parry, Canadian musician and songwriter
• 1978 – Kei Horie, Japanese actor, director, producer and screenwriter
• 1979 – Björn Phau, German tennis player
• 1979 – Rachael Leigh Cook, American actress and model
• 1980 – Tomas Rosicky, Czech footballer
• 1982 – Kasia Madera, British television journalist
• 1982 – Ilhan Omar, Somali-born American politician
• 1984 – Elena Sergeyevna Katina, Russian musician (t.A.T.u.)
• 1985 – Shontelle, Barbadian singer-songwriter
• 1985 – Thorsten Wiedemann, German rugby player
• 1986 – Sara Forestier, French actress
• 1986 – Yuridia, Mexican singer
• 1987 – Juan Pablo García, Mexican racing driver
• 1987 – Marina Weisband, German politician
• 1988 – Evgeni Krasnopolski, Israeli figure skater
• 1988 – Melissa Benoist, American actress and singer
• 1988 – Derrick Rose, American basketball player
• 1988 – Magdaléna Rybáriková, Slovakian tennis player
• 1989 – Kimmie Meissner, American figure skater
• 1989 – Lil Mama, American singer and rapper
• 1989 – Stacey Solomon, English singer
• 1989 – Dakota Johnson, American model and actress
• 1991 – Leigh-Anne Pinnock, English singer (Little Mix)
• 1994 – Ignazio Boschetto, Italian singer (Il Volo)
• 1995 – Mikolas Josef, Czech singer, musician and model
• 1997 – Yuju, South Korean singer
• 2005 – Prince Emmanuel of Belgium

Up to 1900

• 1052 – Vladimir of Novgorod (born 1020)
• 1250 – Herman VI, Margrave of Baden (born 1226)
• 1305 – Emperor Kameyama of Japan (born 1249)
• 1582 – Teresa of Avila, Spanish saint (born 1515)
• 1597 – Sarsa Dengel, Emperor of Ethiopia (born 1550)
• 1661 – Jacqueline Pascal, French child prodigy and nun (born 1625)
• 1669 – Rembrandt van Rijn, Dutch painter (born 1606)
• 1680 – Pierre-Paul Riquet, French engineer (born 1609)
• 1747 – Amaro Pargo, Spanish pirate (born 1678)
• 1785 – David Brearly, American statesman (born 1703)
• 1821 – John Rennie the Elder, Scottish engineer (born 1761)
• 1851 – Manuel de Godoy, Prince of Peace, Spanish politician (born 1767)
• 1852 – James Whitcomb, 8th Governor of Indiana (born 1795)
• 1859 – Karl Baedeker, German publisher (born 1801)
• 1890 – Catherine Booth, co-founder of the Salvation Army (born 1829)

1901 – 2000

• 1903 – Otto Weininger, Austrian philosopher (born 1880)
• 1904 – Karl Bayer, Austrian chemist (born 1847)
• 1904 – Frederic Auguste Bartholdi, French sculptor (born 1834)
• 1910 – Sergey Muromtsev, Russian lawyer and politician (born 1850)
• 1915 – Karl Staaff, 11th Prime Minister of Sweden (born 1860)
• 1943 – Irena Illakowicz, Polish lieutenant and intelligence agent (born 1906)
• 1944 – Al Smith, American politician (born 1873)
• 1946 – Barney Oldfield, American automobile pioneer (born 1878)
• 1947 – Max Planck, German physicist (born 1858)
• 1951 – Henrietta Lacks, American medical patient (born 1920)
• 1955 – Alexander Papagos, Greek general and political leader (born 1883)
• 1970 – Janis Joplin, American singer-songwriter (born 1943)
• 1974 – Anne Sexton, American poet (born 1928)
• 1981 – Freddie Lindstrom, American baseball player (born 1905)
• 1982 – Stefanos Stefanopoulos, Greek politician (born 1898)
• 1982 – Glenn Gould, Canadian pianist (born 1932)
• 1989 – Graham Chapman, British comedian, writer, doctor (born 1941)
• 1989 – Secretariat, Triple Crown-winning race horse (born 1970)
• 1991 – J. Frank Wilson, American singer (born 1941)
• 1992 – Denny Hulme, New Zealand racing driver (born 1936)
• 1996 – Silvio Piola, Italian footballer (born 1913)
• 1997 – Gunpei Yokoi, Japanese game developer (born 1941)
• 2000 – Michael Smith, biochemist (born 1932)
• 2000 – Yu Kwo-hwa, Taiwanese Premier (born 1914)

From 2001

• 2001 – John Collins, American jazz guitarist (born 1913)
• 2003 – Sid McMath, 34th Governor of Arkansas (born 1912)
• 2004 – Gordon Cooper, American astronaut (born 1927)
• 2005 – Stanley K. Hathaway, Governor of Wyoming (born 1924)
• 2009 – Shoichi Nakagawa, Japanese politician (born 1953)
• 2009 – Mercedes Sosa, Argentine singer (born 1935)
• 2009 – Günther Rall, German fighter ace (born 1918)
• 2010 – Norman Wisdom, British actor and comedian (born 1915)
• 2011 – Yelena Chernykh, Russian theatre actress (born 1979)
• 2013 – Vo Nguyen Giap, Vietnamese general and politician (born 1911)
• 2013 – Nicholas Oresko, American sergeant (born 1917)
• 2014 – Jean-Claude Duvalier (Baby Doc), President of Haiti (born 1951)
• 2014 – Paul Revere, American musician (Paul Revere and the Raiders) (b. 1938)
• 2014 – Hugo Carvana, Brazilian actor (born 1937)
• 2014 – Fyodor Cherenkov, Russian footballer (born 1959)
• 2015 – José Eduardo Dutra, Brazilian businessman and politician (born 1957)
• 2015 – J. Whyatt Mondesire, American journalist and activist (born 1949)
• 2016 – Mario Almada, Mexican actor (born 1922)
• 2016 – Brigitte Hamann, German-Austrian historian and writer (born 1940)
• 2017 – Davoud Ahmadinejad, Iranian politician (born 1950)
• 2017 – Liam Cosgrave, Irish politician, Taoiseach of the Republic of Ireland (born 1920)
• 2017 – John R. Miller, American politician and activist (born 1938)
• 2017 – Jesús Mosterín, Spanish anthropologist and philosopher (born 1941)
• 2018 – Dave Anderson, American sports writer (born 1929)
• 2018 – Jeanne Ashworth, American speed skater (born 1938)
• 2018 – Hamiet Bluiett, American jazz saxophonist (born 1940)
• 2018 – Kurt Malangré, German politician (born 1934)
• 2018 – José Sacal, Mexican sculptor (born 1944)
• 2018 – Will Vinton, American animator (born 1947)
• 2019 – Mikhail Biryukov, Russian tennis player (born 1992)
• 2019 – Diahann Carroll, American actress and singer (born 1935)
• 2019 – Bill McKnight, Canadian politician (born 1940)

• Independence Day (Lesotho)
• Day of Peace and Reconciliation (Mozambique)
• World Animal Day
• Saint Francis of Assisi (Roman Catholicism)
• BB Founder’s Day (The Boys’ Brigade)