Today in History - March 4th

51
Nero, later to become Roman Emperor, is given the title princeps iuventutis
303
Marthyrdom of Saint Adrian of Nicomedia
852
Croatian Duke Trpimir I issues a statute, a document with the first known written
mention of the Croats name in Croatian sources
932
Translation of the relics of martyr Wenceslaus I, Duke of Bohemia, Prince of Czechs
1152
Frederick I Barbarossa is elected King of the Germans
1215
King John of England makes an oath to the Pope as a crusader to gain the support of
Innocent III
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 Russian under Yuri
II of Vladimir-Suzdal during the Mongol invasion of Russia
1351
Ramathibodi becomes king of Siam
1386
Wladyslaw II Jagiello is crowned King of Poland
1461
Wars of the Roses in England: Lancastrian King Henry VI is deposed by his Yorkist
cousin, who then becomes King Edward IV

1492
King James IV of Scotland concludes an alliance with France against England
1493
Explorer Christopher Columbus arrives back in Lisbon, Portugal, aboard his shop NIna
from his voyage to what is now The Bahamas and other Islands in the Caribbean
1519
Hernan Cortes arrives in Mexico in search of the Aztec civilization and their wealth
1570
King Philip II of Spain bans foreign Dutch students
1611
George Abbot is appointed Archbishop of Canterbury
1621
Jakarta, Java is renamed Batavia
1629
Massachusetts Bay Colony is granted a Royal charter
1665
English King Charles II declares war on the Netherlands which marks the start of the
Second Anglo-Dutch War
1675
John Flamsteed is appointed the first Astronomer Royal of England
1681
Charles II of England grants a land charter to William Penn for the area that will later
become Pennsylvania
1789
In New York City, the first United Constitution meets, putting the Constitution of the
United States into effect

1790
France is divided into 83 departments which cuts across the former provinces in an
attempt to dislodge regional loyalty based on ownership of land by the nobility
1791
Vermont is admitted as the 14th U.S. state
1793
French troops conquer Geertruidenberg, Netherlands
1794
The 11th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution is passed by the U.S. Congress
1804
Castle Hill Rebellion: Irish convicts rebel against British colonial authority in the Colony
of New South Wales
1813
Russian troops fighting the army of Napoleon reach Berlin in Germany and the French
garrison evacuates the city without a fight
1814
Americans defeat the British at the Battle of Longwoods between London, Ontario and
Thamesville, near present-day Wardsville, Ontario
1824
The National Institution for the Preservation of Life from Shipwreck is founded in the
United Kingdom, later to be renamed The Royal National Lifeboat Institution in 1858
1837
Chicago is incorporated as a city
1845
James Knox Polk is inaugurated as the 11th President of the United States
1861
First National Flag of the Confederate States of America is adopted

Abraham Lincoln is inaugurated as the 16th President of the United States

1863
The Idaho Territory is created as a political division of the United States
1865
Third national flag of the Confederate States of America is adopted
1882
Britain's first electric trams run in East London
1887
Gottlieb Daimler unveils his first automobile which he test runs in Esslingen and
Cannstatt, Germany
1894
Great fire in Shanghai. Over 1000 buildings are destroyed
1902
In Chicago, the American Automobile Association is established
1911
Victor Berger becomes the first socialist congressman in U.S.
1918
The first case of Spanish flu occurs, the start of a devastating worldwide pandemic
1925
Calvin Coolidge becomes the first President of the United States to have his
inauguration broadcast on radio
1929
Charles Curtis becomes the first native-American Vice President of the United States
1941
World War II: The United Kingdom launches Operation Claymore on the Lofoten Islands

1944
World War II: After the success of Big Week, the USAAF begins a daylight bombing
campaign of Berlin
1945
Lapland War: Finland declares war of Nazi Germany
1954
Peter Bent Brigham Hospital in Boston, Massachusetts, announces the first successful
kidney transplant
1957
The S&P 500 stock market index is introduced, replacing the S&P 90
1960
French freighter "La Coubre" explodes in Havana, Cuba killing 100. Fidel Castro blames
the U.S.
1962
The United States Atomic Energy Commission announces that the first atomic power
plant at McMurdo Station in Antarctica is in operation
1966
Canadian Pacific Air Lines DC-8-43 explodes on landing at Tokyo International Airport,
killing 64 people
1970
French submarine Eurydice explodes
1972
Libya and the Soviet Union sign a cooperation treaty
1977
The 1977 Bucharest Earthquake in southern and eastern Europe kills more than 1500
1980

Nationalist leader Robert Mugabe wins a sweeping election victory to become

Zimbabwe's first black prime minister
1982
NASA launches the Intelsat V-508 satellite
1983
Bertha Wilson is appointed the first woman to sit on the Supreme Court of Canada
1985
The Food and Drug Administration approves a blood test for AIDS, used since then for
screening all blood donations in the Unites States
1986
The Soviet Vega 1 begins returning images of Comet Halley and the first images ever of
its nucleus
1994
Space shuttle STS-62 launches into orbit
1997
U.S. president Bill Clinton bans federally funded human cloning research
2001
Hintze Ribeiro disaster, a bridge collapses in northern Portugal killing up to 70 people
2002
Canada bans human embryo cloning but permits government funded scientist to use
embryos left over from fertility treatment or abortions
2006
Final contact attempts with Pioneer 10 by Deep Space Network. No response was
received
2009
The International Criminal Court issues an arrest warrant for Sudanese President Omar
Hassan al Bashir for war crimes and crimes against humanity in Darfur