Today In History May 4

HIGHLIGHTS IN HISTORY ON THIS DATE

1493 - Pope Alexander VI issues edict dividing New World between Spain and Portugal.

1540 - Treaty between Venice and Turkey is signed at Constantinople.

1598 - Treaty of Vervins between France's Henry IV and Spain's Philip II unites France under a single government.

1626 - Dutch Governor Peter Minuit buys Manhattan from a local Indian tribe, reputedly for tour hà giang trinkets worth $US24.

1706 - Britain, Holland and Holy Roman Empire declare war on France.

1780 - The first Derby horse race is run at Epsom in England over a distance of one and a half miles.

1799 - Tippoo of Mysore is killed at Seringapatam and his kingdom is divided between Britain and the Nizam of Hyderabad in India.

1814 - Napoleon Bonaparte goes into exile on the island of Elba. Bourbon reign is restored in France.

1877 - The Victorian Football Association is formed as the controlling body for Australian Rules Football.

1904 - Construction of the Panama Canal begins.

1912 - On Our Selection, considered to be the first real Australian play, opens in Sydney to rave reviews.

1915 - The Australian attack on Gaba Tepe, Gallipoli, ends in failure.

1926 - The first general strike in British history begins.

1927 - The US Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences is founded.

1932 - Mobster Al Capone is jailed for income tax evasion.

1939 - Japanese bombers inflict thousands of casualties in Chungking, China.

1942 - US and Japanese forces begin the Battle of the Coral Sea off New Guinea.

1945 - German forces in the Netherlands, northern Germany and Denmark surrender; the US 7th Army captures Hitler's country retreat of Berchtesgaden; Salzburg is also captured by the Allies.

1970 - Four students protesting against Vietnam War are killed by US National Guard at Kent State University, Ohio.

1979 - Margaret Thatcher becomes Britain's first woman prime minister with a majority of 43 seats in the House of Commons from the previous day's election.

1980 - Yugoslav strongman Josip Broz Tito dies.

1982 - British destroyer Sheffield is sunk by an Argentine plane off the Falklands.

1987 - Lebanon's veteran Prime Minister Rashid Karami announces his resignation, citing divided cabinet's failure to resolve worsening economic crisis.

1988 - Iraqi warplanes bomb an Iranian oil refinery and petrochemical plant, tour hà giang giá rẻ increasing pressure on Iran's economy.

1989 - Tens of thousands of Chinese students march to Tiananmen Square, calling for freedom and democracy.

1990 - First free elections are held in Croatia. The Democratic Union, led by historian and former communist Franjo Tudjman, wins.

1990 - Latvia's parliament declares independence from Soviet Union.

1994 - Palestinians sign self-rule agreement in Gaza and Jericho in the West Bank after 27 years of Israeli occupation.

1995 - Turkey announces it has pulled out the last of its troops from northern Iraq, six weeks after 35,000 soldiers crossed the border to wipe out Kurdish rebel bases.

1996 - Chechen rebels attack the Russian Interior Ministry building in Grozny, setting off a firefight in the ruined Chechen capital.

1997 - In Kisangani, Zaire, at least 100 Rwandan Hutus are trampled to death or suffocated when panic erupts on a train packed with thousands of refugees hoping to be airlifted home.

1998 - "Unabomber" Theodore Kaczynski is sentenced to four terms of life in prison without parole in the United States.

1998 - A major Swiss bank agrees to settle the claim of a 71-year-old Holocaust survivor, the first settlement in the dispute over Jewish-owned accounts missing since World War II.

1999 - The leader of Northern Ireland's major Protestant party meets Catholic protesters for the first time, hoping to prevent the violence that has accompanied a disputed parade in the predominantly Protestant town of Portadown.

2000 - Renegade left-winger Ken Livingstone sweeps to a resounding victory as London's first elected mayor.

2001 - The United States is voted off the UN Human Rights Commission for the first time in the world body's history.

2002 - A passenger plane belonging to Nigeria's private EAS Airlines crashes in a densely populated suburb of the northern city of Kano, killing 148 people.

2003 - A series of tornado-laden storms kills 48 people across the midwestern and southern United States and injures hundreds of others.

2005 - Constantin Brancusi's Bird in Space shatters the record for a sculpture at auction when it soars to an astonishing $US27,450,000 at a Christie's sale.

2006 - Ehud Olmert is formally sworn in as Israel's prime minister with his new coalition government, winning parliamentary approval to pursue his goal of drawing Israel's final borders by 2010.

2007 - A boat loaded with more than 160 migrants capsizes about a half-mile south of Providenciales Island in the Atlantic Ocean killing 61 and leaving dozens missing.

2008 - Two unmanned Georgian spy planes are shot down over the country's breakaway region of Abkhazia.

2010 - Three people die in a torched Athens bank during protests over the Greek government's planned spending cuts.

2011 - President Barack Obama says he won't release death photos of terrorist Osama bin Laden because their graphic nature could incite violence and create national security risks for the United States.

2014 - Sinn Fein party leader Gerry Adams is released without charge after five days of police questioning over his alleged involvement in a decades-old IRA killing of a Belfast mother of 10.

2016 - Donald Trump assumes the mantle of presumptive Republican presidential nominee.

2018 - After months of speculation, Kensington Palace confirms Meghan Markle's father will walk her down the aisle for her marriage to Prince Harry. In the end Thomas Markle doesn't attend, citing health reasons, and the bride is accompanied by Prince Charles.

2019 - A Boeing 737 commercial jet with 136 people on board ends up in a river at the end of a runway, though no critical injuries are reported.

TODAY'S BIRTHDAYS

Sir Thomas Lawrence, English artist (1769-1830); Hosni Mubarak, former Egyptian president (1928-2020); Audrey Hepburn, Belgian-born actress (1929-1993); Tyrone Davis, US singer (1938-2005); Steve Liebmann, Australian TV personality (1944-); Belinda Green, Australian model and Miss World (1952-); Randy Travis, US country singer (1959-); Andrew Denton, Australian media personality (1960-); Jane McGrath, Australian cancer campaigner (1966-2008); Lance Bass, US Singer 'N Sync (1979-); Jorge Lorenzo, kynghidongduong.vn Spanish motorcycle racer (1987-).

THOUGHT FOR TODAY

If everything was perfect, you would never learn and you would never grow - Beyonce