December 4

2024 Calendar

December 4 is the 338th day of the year (339th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. There are 27 days remaining until the end of the year.

Events

Up to 1900

749 - John of Damascus, Syrian monk, priest and saint (b. 676)
771 – Carloman, Frankish ruler
1075 - Anno II, Archbishop of Cologne (b. 1010)
1123 – Omar Khayyam, Persian poet, philosopher, astronomer and mathematician (b. 1048)
1214 – William the Lion, King of Scotland (b. 1143)
1334 – Pope John XXII (b. 1249)
1576 - George Joachim Rheticus, Austrian-Slovakian mathematician (b. 1544)
1609 - Alexander Hume, Scottish poet (b. 1560)
1642 – Cardinal Richelieu (b. 1885)
1679 – Thomas Hobbes, English philosopher (b. 1588)
1680 - Thomas Bartholin, Danish physician, mathematician and theologian (b. 1616)
1696 – Empress Meisho of Japan (b. 1624)
1798 – Luigi Galvani, Italian physicist (b. 1737)
1828 – Robert Jenkinson, 2nd Earl of Liverpool, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (b. 1770)
1850 – William Sturgeon, British physicist and inventor (b. 1783)
1891 - Frederick Whitaker, Prime Minister of New Zealand (b. 1812)
1893 – John Tyndall, Irish physicist (b. 1820)
1894 - Leon Ribbett, Governor of New Jersey (b. 1836)
1897 - Griffith Rhys Jones, Welsh conductor (b. 1834)

1901 – 1950

1908 – Alfred Hershey, American bacteriologist (d. 1997)
1909 - Archduke Karl Pius of Austria, Prince of Tuscany (d. 1953)
1910 – R. Venkataraman, 8th President of India (d. 2009)
1913 - Robert Adler, American physicist and inventor (d. 2007)
1913 - Mark Robson, Canadian-American movie director, producer and editor (d. 1978)
1914 – Claude Renoir, French cinematographer (d. 1993)
1917 - Movita Castaneda, American actress and singer (d. 2016)
1918 – Robert Ettinger, American academic and pioneer of Cryonics (d. 2011)
1919 - I. K. Gujral, Prime Minister of India (d. 2012)
1920 - Nadir Afonso, Portuguese painter (d. 2013)
1921 – Deanna Durbin, Canadian actress (d. 2013)
1921 – Carlos Franqui, Cuban writer and journalist (d. 2010)
1923 - Charles Keating, American lawyer, financier and real estate developer (d. 2014)
1923 - Demmus Hentze, Faroese politician (d. 2016)
1923 - John Krish, British screenwriter and director (d. 2016)
1925 – Lino Lacedelli, Italian mountain climber (d. 2009)
1926 - Shigeo Sugimoto, Japanese footballer (d. 2002)
1926 - Monty M. Wyche, American judge (d. 2014)
1927 - Gae Aulenti, Italian architect and designer (d. 2012)
1927 - Rafael Sánchez Ferlosio, Spanish writer (d. 2019)
1930 – Ronnie Corbett, Scottish actor and comedian (d. 2016)
1930 - Jim Hall, American jazz guitarist, composer and arranger (d. 2013)
1931 - Alex Delvecchio, Canadian ice hockey player
1932 - Roh Tae-woo, former President of South Korea
1933 – Horst Buchholz, German actor (d. 2003)
1935 - Paul Henry O'Neill, 72nd United States Secretary of the Treasury
1939 – Freddy Cannon, American rock musician
1939 - Stephen W. Bosworth, American diplomat (d. 2016)
1939 - Etienne Mourrut, French politician (d. 2014)
1940 – Gary Gilmore, American murderer (d. 1977)
1942 - Gemma Jones, English actress
1944 – Anna McGarrigle, Canadian folk musician, singer and songwriter
1944 – Dennis Wilson, American musician (d. 1983)
1944 - Chris Hillman, American singer-songwriter and guitarist
1945 - Roberta Bondar, Canadian astronaut
1949 – Jeff Bridges, American actor
1949 - Pamela Stephenson, New Zealand-born actress and psychologist

1951 – 2000

1951 – Mir Waiz Maulvi Muhammad Yusouf appointed President of Azad Kashmir Government.
1952 – Great Smog of 1952: A cold fog descends upon London, combining with air pollution and killing up to 12,000 in the weeks and months that follow.
1954 - The first Burger King opens in Miami, Florida.
1958 – Dahomey (present-day Benin) becomes a self-governing country within the French Community.
1967 – Vietnam War: US and South Vietnamese forces engage NLF troops in the Mekong Delta.
1969 – Black Panther members Fred Hampton and Mark Clark are shot and killed in their sleep during a raid by 14 Chicago, Illinois police officers.
1969 – Surfer Greg Noll rides a 65-foot wave on the North Shore of Oahu, still the highest ever recorded.
1971 – UN Security Council calls emergency session to consider deteriorating situation between India and Pakistan.
1971 – The Montreux Casino in Switzerland is set ablaze by someone wielding a flare gun during a Frank Zappa concert.
1974 - A Dutch Douglas DC-8 airliner, carrying Indonesian pilgrims to Mecca, crashes in Colombo, Sri Lanka, killing all 191 people on board.
1975 – Suriname joins the UN.
1977 – Jean-Bédel Bokassa, president of the Central African Republic, crowns himself Emperor Bokassa I of the Central African Empire.
1977 – Malaysia Airlines Flight 653 is hijacked and crashes in Tanjong Kupang, Johor, killing 100.
1978 – Following the murder of Mayor George Moscone, Dianne Feinstein becomes San Francisco, California's first woman mayor (she served until January 8, 1988).
1979 – The Hastie fire in Hull, kills three schoolboys and eventually leads police to arrest Bruce George Peter Lee.
1980 – The rock group Led Zeppelin formally announce their breakup.
1981 – South Africa grants "homeland" Ciskei independence (not recognized outside South Africa).
1982 – The People's Republic of China adopts its current constitution.
1984 - Sri Lankan Civil War: Sri Lankan army soldiers kill between 107 and 150 civilians.
1984 - Hezbollah militants hijack a Kuwaiti Airlines plane, killing 4 passengers.
1991 – Journalist Terry Anderson is released after 7 years in captivity as a hostage in Beirut (he was the last and longest-held American hostage in Lebanon).
1991 – United States airline Pan Am ends operations.
1992 – Somali Civil War: President George H. W. Bush orders 28,000 US troops to Somalia.
1993 – A truce is concluded between the government of Angola and UNITA rebels.
1994 – Pakistan wins World Hockey Championship after 12 years, beating the Netherlands by four goals to three, in Sydney.
1998 – Unity, the second module of the International Space Station, is launched.

From 2001

2004 - Elizabeth Azcona Cranwell, Argentine poet and translator (b. 1933)
2007 – Pimp C, American rapper (b. 1973)
2008 - Forrest J Ackerman, American science fiction publisher (b. 1916)
2009 – Eddie Fatu, professional wrestler better known as Umaga (b. 1973)
2011 – Dev Anand, Indian actor, director and producer (b. 1923)
2011 – Socrates, Brazilian footballer (b. 1954)
2011 - Hubert Sumlin, American blues guitarist (b. 1931)
2011 – Matti Yrjana Joensuu, Finnish crime fiction writer (b. 1948)
2012 - Miguel Calero, Colombian footballer (b. 1971)
2012 – Besse Cooper, American supercentenarian, oldest person in the world from June 21, 2011 (b. 1896)
2013 - Joana Raspall i Juanola, Catalan writer (b. 1913)
2014 - Claudia Emerson, American poet (b. 1957)
2014 - V. R. Krishna Iyer, Indian judge (b. 1914)
2014 - Lynne Kosky, Australian politician (b. 1958)
2014 - Jeremy Thorpe, English politician (b. 1929)
2015 - Bill Bennett, Canadian politician, Premier of British Columbia (b. 1932)
2015 - Robert Loggia, American actor (b. 1930)
2015 - Yossi Sarid, Israeli politician (b. 1940)
2015 - Dag Skogheim, Norwegian writer (b. 1928)
2015 - Erik De Vlaeminck, Belgian cyclist (b. 1945)
2016 - Gotlib, French comics artist (b. 1934)
2017 - Jimmy Hood, Scottish politician (b. 1948)
2017 - Shashi Kapoor, Indian actor (b. 1938)
2017 - Christine Keeler, English model (b. 1942)
2017 - Manuel Marín, Spanish politician (b. 1949)
2017 - Ali Abdullah Saleh, President of Yemen (b. 1942)
2017 - Carles Santos, Spanish pianist (b. 1940)
2017 - Rudolph G. Wilson, American professor, storyteller, writer and public speaker (b. 1935)
2018 - Kadyrzhan Batyrov, Kyrgyz businessman and political activist (b. 1956)
2018 - Selma Engel-Wijnberg, Dutch Holocaust survivor (b. 1922)
2018 - Nika Rurua, Georgian politician (b. 1968)
2019 - Thomas Elsaesser, German film historian and critic (b. 1943)
2019 - Leonard Goldberg, American film and television producer (b. 1934)
2019 - Rosa Morena, Spanish flamenco pop singer and actress (b. 1941)
2019 - Margaret Morgan Lawrence, American psychiatrist and psychoanalyst (b. 1914)
2019 - Bob Willis, English cricketer (b. 1949)

Births

1951 – 1975

1951 – Gary Rossington, American musician (Lynyrd Skynyrd)
1951 - Patricia Wettig, American actress and playwright
1953 - Jean-Marie Pfaff, Belgian footballer
1954 - Tony Todd, American actor and movie producer
1955 – Philip Hammond, British politician
1955 - Cassandra Wilson, American singer
1956 - Bernard King, American basketball player
1956 - Nia Griffith, Welsh politician
1957 - Eric S. Raymond, American computer programmer and author
1959 - Christa Luding-Rothenburger, German speed skater
1960 – Glynis Nunn, Australian athlete
1962 - Nixon Kiprotich, Kenyan middle-distance runner
1963 – Sergey Bubka, Ukrainian pole vaulter
1964 – Sertab Erener, Turkish singer
1964 - Marisa Tomei, American actress
1965 - Carlos Carvalhal, Portuguese footballer and manager
1965 - Alex de la Iglesia, Spanish movie director, screenwriter and producer
1965 – Ulf Kirsten, German footballer
1966 - Fred Armisen, American actor, writer, producer, director, musician and comedian
1969 – Jay-Z, American rapper
1970 - Kevin Sussman, American actor
1972 – Jassen Cullimore, Canadian ice hockey player
1973 – Tyra Banks, American model
1974 - Tadahito Iguchi, Japanese baseball player

From 1976

1976 – Mbo Mpenza, Belgian footballer
1979 – Jay DeMerit, American footballer
1982 – Waldo Ponce, Chilean footballer
1984 – Lindsay Felton, American actress
1984 - Lauren London, American actress
1984 - Brooke Adams, American wrestler and model
1985 - Krista Siegfrids, Finnish singer
1986 - Kaija Udras, Estonian skier
1987 – Orlando Brown, American actor
1988 - Andriy Pylyavskyi, Ukrainian footballer
1988 - Mario Maurer, Thai actor and singer
1990 - Igor Sjunin, Estonian triple jumper
1990 - Lukman Haruna, Nigerian footballer
1992 - Jean-Claude Iranzi, Rwandan footballer
1992 - Guan Xueting, Chinese ice dancer
1995 - Dina Asher-Smith, English track-and-field athlete
1996 - Diogo Jota, Portuguese footballer

Deaths

1901 – 2000

1902 - Charles Dow, American journalist (b. 1851)
1916 - Preston Lea, Governor of New Jersey (b. 1841)
1926 - Ivana Kobilca, Slovenian poet (b. 1861)
1935 – Charles Robert Richet, French physiologist, won the 1913 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (b. 1850)
1935 - Johan Halvorsen, Norwegian violinist, composer and conductor (b. 1864)
1937 - Wilbur L. Adams, Governor of Delaware (b. 1884)
1938 - Tamanishiki San'emon, Japanese sumo wrestler (b. 1903)
1942 - Juhan Kukk, Estonian politician (b. 1885)
1945 – Thomas Hunt Morgan, American geneticist and embryologist (b. 1866)
1967 - Bert Lahr, American actor and singer (b. 1895)
1971 - Shunryu Suzuki, Japanese-American spiritual teacher (b. 1904)
1975 – Hannah Arendt, German philosopher (b. 1906)
1976 – Benjamin Britten, English composer (b. 1913)
1976 - Tommy Bolin, American guitarist (b. 1951)
1980 – Francisco Sá Carneiro, Prime Minister of Portugal (b. 1934)
1980 – Stanislawa Walasiewicz, Polish athlete (b. 1911)
1984 - Jack Mercer, American animator, screenwriter, voice actor and singer (b. 1910)
1987 – Rouben Mamoulian, Armenian-American movie director (b. 1897)
1993 – Frank Zappa, American musician (b. 1940)
2000 - Henck Arron, 1st Prime Minister of Suriname (b. 1936)

Observances

Navy Day (India and Italy)
Miners' Day (Poland)
Thai Environment Day
Tupou I Day (Tonga)
St. Barbara - Christian Saint