Sputnik I Satellite

1957

Sputnik launched

Born on This Day

Charlton Heston as Judah Ben-Hur

Charlton Heston

1923 - 2008

Actor whose chiseled looks and booming voice shone in "The Ten Commandments" and "Ben-Hur."

Saint Laurent Presents "Belle De Jour" 50th Anniversary Screening

Susan Sarandon

1946 -

Oscar-winning actress and activist who played strong-willed women in films like "Thelma & Louise" and "Dead Man Walking."

Actor Buster Keaton

Buster Keaton

1895 - 1966

Legendary silent film star and director acclaimed for his deadpan expressions and elaborately staged physical comedy.

1582

OCT

4

After being in use since 45 BCE, the Julian calendar gets the official heave-ho. To correct for its miscalculation of the solar year’s length—and align Easter with the spring equinox—Pope Gregory XIII decreed that 10 days in October would vanish.

Timeline

Also on This Day in History

Discover more of the major events, famous births, notable deaths and everything else history-making that happened on October 4th

1777

Both sides battered at Germantown

On October 4, 1777, 11,000 Patriots under General George Washington attempt an early morning attack on British General William Howe’s 9,000 British troops at Germantown, Pennsylvania, five miles north of the British-occupied capital city of Philadelphia. Washington’s Continental forces were poorly trained, poorly fed and poorly clothed. Nonetheless, Washington thought them ready to fight and […]

1861

President Lincoln watches a balloon ascension

President Abraham Lincoln observes a balloon demonstration near Washington, D.C. Both Confederate and Union armies experimented with using balloons to gather military intelligence in the early stages of the war, but the balloons proved to be dangerous and impractical for most situations. Though balloons were not new, many felt that their military applications had yet […]

1895

Englishman wins the first U.S. Open golf tournament

On October 4, 1895, 21-year-old Englishman Horace Rawlins wins the first U.S. Open golf tournament, edging Willie Dunn and others with a 36-hole total of 173 at the Newport (Rhode Island) Golf Club, an oceanside course. Rawlins worked at the Newport Golf Club as an assistant to his instructor, William Davis. As the Chicago Chronicle […]

1918

Germany telegraphs President Wilson seeking armistice

In the early hours of October 4, 1918, German Chancellor Max von Baden, appointed by Kaiser Wilhelm II just three days earlier, sends a telegraph message to the administration of President Woodrow Wilson in Washington, D.C., requesting an armistice between Germany and the Allied powers in World War I. By the end of September 1918, […]

1927

Work begins on Mount Rushmore

On October 4, 1927, sculpting begins on the face of Mount Rushmore in the Black Hills National Forest of South Dakota. It would take another 12 years for the granite images of four of America’s most revered presidents—George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln and Theodore Roosevelt—to be completed. The monument was the brainchild of a […]

1937

Blues singer Bessie Smith, killed in Mississippi car wreck, is buried

Legendary blues singer Bessie Smith is buried near Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, on October 4, 1937. Some 7,000 mourners attended her funeral. Smith had been killed a few days before when the old Packard she was driving hit a parked truck near Coahoma, Mississippi, between Clarksdale and Memphis. There is no record of Smith’s exact birth date, […]

1955

Brooklyn Dodgers win their first World Series

On October 4, 1955, the Brooklyn Dodgers win the World Series at last, beating the New York Yankees 2-0. They’d lost the championship seven times already, and they’d lost five times just to the Yanks—in 1941, 1947, 1949, 1952 and 1953. But in 1955, thanks to nine brilliant innings in the seventh game from 23-year-old […]

1966

Pope calls for end to the Vietnam War

Pope Paul VI addresses 150,000 people in St. Peter’s Square in Rome and calls for an end to the war in Vietnam through negotiations. Although the Pope’s address had no impact on the Johnson administration and its policies in Southeast Asia, his comments were indicative of the mounting antiwar sentiment that was growing both at […]

1970

Janis Joplin dies of a heroin overdose

On October 4, 1970, singer Janis Joplin dies of an accidental heroin overdose and was discovered in her Los Angeles hotel room after failing to show for a scheduled recording session. She was 27 years old. In the summer of 1966, Janis Joplin was a drifter; four years later, she was a rock-and-roll legend. She’d […]

On This Day In History: Janis Joplin dies of an overdose

1988

Televangelist Jim Bakker is indicted on federal charges

Televangelist Jim Bakker is indicted on federal charges of mail and wire fraud and of conspiring to defraud the public. The case against the founder of Praise the Lord (PTL) Ministries and three of his aides exploded in the press when it was revealed that Bakker had sex with former church secretary Jessica Hahn. On […]

1990

“Beverly Hills, 90210” debuts

On October 4, 1990, Beverly Hills, 90210, a TV drama about a group of teenagers living in upscale Beverly Hills, California, debuts on Fox; it will eventually become one of the top-rated shows on the new “fourth network,” which launched in 1986. Created by Darren Star and produced by Aaron Spelling, the show turned its […]

1992

Plane crashes into apartment building

A cargo plane crashes into an apartment building near an airport in Amsterdam, Holland, on October 4, 1992. Four people aboard the plane and approximately 100 more in the apartment building lost their lives in the disaster. An El-Al Boeing 747 cargo jet was scheduled to bring 114 tons of computers, machinery, textiles and various […]

2011

Man who served 25 years for murder exonerated by DNA

On October 4, 2011, Michael Morton, who spent 25 years in prison for his wife’s murder, is released after DNA evidence implicates another man in the crime. The prosecutor in the case later was accused of withholding evidence indicating that Morton was innocent. On the afternoon of August 13, 1986, a neighbor found 31-year-old Christine […]

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