March 4th in History

51 - Nero, later to become Roman Emperor, is given the title princeps iuventutis (head of the youth).

1152 - Frederick I Barbarossa is elected King of the Germans.

1351 - Ramathibodi becomes King of Siam.


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 is now The Bahamas and other islands in the Caribbean.

1665 - English King Charles II declares war on the Netherlands marking the start of the Second Anglo-Dutch War.

1681 - Charles II grants a land charter to William Penn for the area that will later become Pennsylvania.

1791 - Vermont is admitted to the U.S. as the fourteenth state.

1837 - The city of Chicago is incorporated.

1913 - First Balkan War: The Greek army engages the Turks at Bizani, resulting in victory two days later.

1933 - Frances Perkins becomes United States Secretary of Labor, the first female member of the United States Cabinet.

1943 - World War II: The Battle of the Bismarck Sea in the South West Pacific comes to an end.

1945 - Lapland War: Finland declares war on Nazi Germany.

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.

1980 - Nationalist leader Robert Mugabe wins a sweeping election victory to become Zimbabwe's first black prime minister.

2002 - Afghanistan: Seven American Special Operations Forces soldiers are killed as they attempt to infiltrate the Shahi Kot Valley on a low-flying helicopter reconnaissance mission.

Famous Birthdays

1188 - Blanche of Castile, wife of Louis VIII of France

1756 -Sir Henry Raeburn, painter

1870 - Thomas Sturge Moore, poet

1902 - Fred Mallin, boxer

1913 - John Garfield, actor

1918 - Margaret Osborne duPont, tennis player

1923 - HRH Ameli, Duchess of Oldenburg

1926 - HSH Prince Dimitri Romanov

1940 - Tamara Wilcox, actress

1950 - Rick Perry, politician

1961 - Ray Mancini, boxer

1967 - Tim Vine, actor and comedian

1977 - Dan Wells, horror fiction author

1983 - Dante Senger, footballer

1992 - Jazmin Grace Grimaldi, daughter of HSH Albert II, Prince of Monaco