4 March

Events

Pre-1600

*AD 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 Knez Trpimir I issues a statute, a document with the first known written mention of the Croats name in Croatian sources.
* 938 – Translation of the relics of martyr Wenceslaus I, Duke of Bohemia, Prince of the Czechs.
*1152 – Frederick I Barbarossa is elected King of Germany.
*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 Rus'.
*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 House of York 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 are now The Bahamas and other islands in the Caribbean.
*1519 – Hernán Cortés arrives in Mexico in search of the Aztec civilization and its wealth.

1601–1900

*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.
* 1769 – Mozart departed Italy after the last of his three tours there.
*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 – The Constitutional Act of 1791 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 United States as the fourteenth state.
*1794 – The 11th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution is passed by the U.S. Congress.
*1797 – John Adams is inaugurated as the 2nd President of the United States of America, becoming the first President to begin his presidency on March 4.
*1804 – Castle Hill Rebellion: Irish convicts rebel against British colonial authority in the Colony of New South Wales.
*1813 – Cyril VI of Constantinople is elected Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople.
*1814 – Americans defeat British forces 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''.
*1849 – President-elect of the United States Zachary Taylor and Vice President-elect Millard Fillmore did not take their respective oaths of office ( they did so the following day), leading to the erroneous theory that outgoing President pro tempore of the United States Senate David Rice Atchison had assumed the role of acting president for one day.
*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.
*1878 – Pope Leo XIII reestablishes the Catholic Church in Scotland, recreating sees and naming bishops for the first time since 1603.
*1882 – Britain's first electric trams run in east London.
*1890 – The longest bridge in Great Britain, the Forth Bridge in Scotland, measuring long, is opened by the Duke of Rothesay, later King Edward VII.
*1899 – Cyclone Mahina sweeps in north of Cooktown, Queensland, with a wave that reaches up to inland, killing over 300.

1901–present

*1901 – McKinley inaugurated president for second time; Theodore Roosevelt is vice president.
*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.
* 1913 – The United States Department of Labor is formed.
*1917 – Jeannette Rankin of Montana becomes the first female member of the United States House of Representatives.
*1933 – Franklin D. Roosevelt becomes the 32nd President of the United States. He was the last president to be inaugurated on March 4.
* 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; the first large scale British Commando raid.
*1943 – World War II: The Battle of the Bismarck Sea in the south-west Pacific comes to an end.
* 1943 – World War II: The Battle of Fardykambos, one of the first major battles between the Greek Resistance and the occupying Royal Italian Army, begins. It ends on 6 March with the surrender of an entire Italian battalion and the liberation of the town of Grevena.
*1944 – World War II: After the success of Big Week, the USAAF begins a daylight bombing campaign of Berlin.
*1955 – An order to protect the endangered Saimaa ringed seal (''Pusa hispida saimensis'') was legalized.
*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.
*1962 – A Caledonian Airways Douglas DC-7 crashes shortly after takeoff from Cameroon, killing 111 – the worst crash of a DC-7.
*1966 – A Canadian Pacific Air Lines DC-8-43 explodes on landing at Tokyo International Airport, killing 64 people.
* 1966 – In an interview in the ''London Evening Standard'', The Beatles' John Lennon declares that the band is "more popular than Jesus now".
*1970 – French submarine ''Eurydice'' explodes underwater, resulting in the loss of the entire 57-man crew.
*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 eastern and southern Europe kills more than 1,500, mostly in Bucharest, Romania.
*1980 – Nationalist leader Robert Mugabe wins a sweeping election victory to become Zimbabwe's first black prime minister.
*1985 – The Food and Drug Administration approves a blood test for HIV infection, 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.
*1990 – American basketball player Hank Gathers dies after collapsing during the semifinals of a West Coast Conference tournament game.
*1994 – Space Shuttle program: the Space Shuttle ''Columbia'' is launched on STS-62.
*1996 – A derailed train in Weyauwega, Wisconsin (USA) causes the emergency evacuation of 2,300 people for 16 days.
*1998 – Gay rights: ''Oncale v. Sundowner Offshore Services, Inc.'': 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 – BBC bombing: A massive car bomb explodes in front of the BBC Television Centre in London, seriously injuring one person; the attack was attributed to the Real IRA.
*2002 – Afghanistan: Seven American Special Operations Forces soldiers and 200 Al-Qaeda Fighters are killed as American forces attempt to infiltrate the Shah-i-Kot Valley on a low-flying helicopter reconnaissance mission.
*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 – A series of explosions is reported at a munitions dump in Brazzaville, the capital of the Republic of the Congo, killing at least 250 people.
*2015 – At least 34 miners die in a suspected gas explosion at the Zasyadko coal mine in the rebel-held Donetsk region of Ukraine.
*2018 – Former MI6 spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter are poisoned with a Novichok nerve agent in Salisbury, England, causing a diplomatic uproar that results in mass-expulsions of diplomats from all countries involved.
*2020 – Nik Wallenda becomes the first person to walk on the Masaya Volcano in Nicaragua.

Births

Pre-1600

* 895 – Liu Zhiyuan, founder of the Later Han Dynasty (d. 948)
* 977 – Al-Musabbihi, Fatimid historian and official (d. 1030)
*1188 – Blanche of Castile, French queen consort (d. 1252)
* 1394 – Henry the Navigator, Portuguese explorer (d. 1460)
* 1484 – George, margrave of Brandenburg-Ansbach (d. 1543)
*1492 – Francesco de Layolle, Italian organist and composer (d. 1540)
*1502 – Elisabeth of Hesse, princess of Saxony (d. 1557)
*1519 – Hindal Mirza, Mughal emperor (d. 1551)
*1526 – Henry Carey, 1st Baron Hunsdon (d. 1596)

1601–1900

*1602 – Kanō Tan'yū, Japanese painter (d. 1674)
*1634 – Kazimierz Łyszczyński, Polish philosopher (d. 1689)
*1651 – John Somers, 1st Baron Somers, English lawyer, jurist, and politician, Lord High Chancellor of Great Britain (d. 1716)
*1655 – Fra Galgario, Italian painter (d. 1743)
*1665 – Philip Christoph von Königsmarck, Swedish soldier (d. 1694)
*1678 – Antonio Vivaldi, Italian violinist and composer (d. 1741)
*1702 – Jack Sheppard, English criminal (d. 1724)
*1706 – Lauritz de Thurah, Danish architect, designed the Hermitage Hunting Lodge and Gammel Holtegård (d. 1759)
*1715 – James Waldegrave, 2nd Earl Waldegrave, English historian and politician (d. 1763)
*1719 – George Pigot, 1st Baron Pigot, English politician (d. 1777)
*1729 – Anne d'Arpajon, French wife of Philippe de Noailles (d. 1794)
*1745 – Charles Dibdin, English actor, playwright, and composer (d. 1814)
* 1745 – Casimir Pulaski, Polish-American general (d. 1779)
*1756 – Henry Raeburn, Scottish portrait painter (d. 1823)
*1760 – William Payne, English painter (d. 1830)
* 1760 – Hugh Ronalds, British nurseryman who cultivated and documented 300 varieties of apples (d. 1833)
*1769 – Muhammad Ali, Ottoman military leader and pasha (d. 1849)
*1770 – Joseph Jacotot, French philosopher and academic (d. 1840)
*1778 – Robert Emmet, Irish republican (d. 1803)
*1781 – Rebecca Gratz, American educator and philanthropist (d. 1869)
*1782 – Johann Rudolf Wyss, Swiss philosopher, author, and academic (d. 1830)
*1792 – Isaac Lea, American conchologist, geologist, and publisher (d. 1886)
*1793 – Karl Lachmann, German philologist and critic (d. 1851)
*1800 – William Price, Welsh physician, Chartist, and neo-Druid (d. 1893)
*1814 – Napoleon Collins, Rear Admiral of the United States Navy during the Mexican–American War and the American Civil War (d. 1875)
*1815 – Mykhailo Verbytsky, Ukrainian composer of religious hymns and the national anthem of Ukraine (d. 1870)
*1817 – Edwards Pierrepont, American lawyer and politician, 34th United States Attorney General (d. 1892)
*1820 – Francesco Bentivegna, Italian rebel leader (d. 1856)
*1822 – Jules Antoine Lissajous, French mathematician and academic (d. 1880)
*1823 – George Caron, Canadian businessman and politician (d. 1902)
*1826 – August Johann Gottfried Bielenstein, German linguist, ethnographer, and theologian (d. 1907)
* 1826 – John Buford, American general (d. 1863)
* 1826 – Elme Marie Caro, French philosopher and academic (d. 1887)
* 1826 – Theodore Judah, American engineer, founded the Central Pacific Railroad (d. 1863)
*1828 – Owen Wynne Jones, Welsh clergyman and poet (d. 1870)
*1838 – Paul Lacôme, French pianist, cellist, and composer (d. 1920)
*1847 – Carl Josef Bayer, Austrian chemist and academic (d. 1904)
*1851 – Alexandros Papadiamantis, Greek author and poet (d. 1911)
*1854 – Napier Shaw, English meteorologist and academic (d. 1945)
*1856 – Alfred William Rich, English painter, author, and educator (d. 1921)
*1861 – Arthur Cushman McGiffert, American theologian and author (d. 1933)
*1862 – Jacob Robert Emden, Swiss astrophysicist and meteorologist (d. 1940)
*1863 – R. I. Pocock, English zoologist and archaeologist (d. 1947)
* 1863 – John Henry Wigmore, American academic and jurist (d. 1943)
*1864 – David W. Taylor, American admiral, architect, and engineer (d. 1940)
*1866 – Eugène Cosserat, French mathematician and astronomer (d. 1931)
*1867 – Jacob L. Beilhart, American activist, founded the Spirit Fruit Society (d. 1908)
* 1867 – Charles Pelot Summerall, American Army officer (d. 1955)
*1870 – Thomas Sturge Moore, English author and poet (d. 1944)
*1871 – Boris Galerkin, Russian mathematician and engineer (d. 1945)
*1873 – Guy Wetmore Carryl, American journalist and poet (d. 1904)
* 1873 – John H. Trumbull, American colonel and politician, 70th Governor of Connecticut (d. 1961)
*1875 – Mihály Károlyi, Hungarian politician, President of Hungary (d. 1955)
* 1875 – Enrique Larreta, Argentinian historian and author (d. 1961)
*1876 – Léon-Paul Fargue, French poet and author (d. 1947)
* 1876 – Theodore Hardeen, Hungarian-American magician (d. 1945)
*1877 – Alexander Goedicke, Russian pianist and composer (d. 1957)
* 1877 – Fritz Graebner, German geographer and ethnologist (d. 1934)
* 1877 – Garrett Morgan, African-American inventor (d. 1963)
*1878 – Takeo Arishima, Japanese author and critic (d. 1923)
* 1878 – Egbert Van Alstyne, American pianist and songwriter (d. 1951)
*1879 – Bernhard Kellermann, German author and poet (d. 1951)
*1880 – Channing Pollock, American playwright and critic (d. 1946)
*1881 – Todor Aleksandrov, Bulgarian educator and activist (d. 1924)
* 1881 – Thomas Sigismund Stribling, American lawyer and author (d. 1965)
* 1881 – Richard C. Tolman, American physicist and chemist (d. 1948)
*1882 – Nicolae Titulescu, Romanian academic and politician, 61st Romanian Minister of Foreign Affairs (d. 1941)
*1883 – Maude Fealy, American actress and screenwriter (d. 1971)
* 1883 – Robert Emmett Keane, American actor (d. 1981)
* 1883 – Sam Langford, Canadian-American boxer (d. 1956)
*1884 – Red Murray, American baseball player (d. 1958)
* 1884 – Lee Shumway, American actor (d. 1959)
*1886 – Paul Bazelaire, French cellist and composer (d. 1958)
*1888 – Rafaela Ottiano, Italian-American actress (d. 1942)
* 1888 – Jeff Pfeffer, American baseball player (d. 1972)
* 1888 – Emma Richter, German paleontologist (d. 1956)
* 1888 – Knute Rockne, American football player and coach (d. 1931)
*1889 – Oscar Chisini