History of Today 04 August: Important Events, Births and Deaths

Welcome to History of Today 04 August. On this page, you can read important historical events, famous births, notable deaths and general knowledge facts related to 04 August. This information is useful for UPSC, SSC, Banking, Railway, State PSC and other competitive exams.

Last updated on 04 August 2026, 01:02 AM

Important Events on 04 August in History

• 04 Aug 2020: Beirut Port explosion: At least 220 people are killed and over 5,000 are wounded when 2,700 tons of ammonium nitrate explodes in Beirut, Lebanon. Read more
• 04 Aug 2019: Nine people are killed and 26 injured in a shooting in Dayton, Ohio. This comes only 13 hours after another mass shooting in El Paso, Texas, where 23 people were killed. Read more
• 04 Aug 2018: Syrian civil war: The Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) expel the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) from the Iraq–Syria border, concluding the second phase of the Deir ez-Zor campaign. Read more
• 04 Aug 2018: Crisis in Venezuela: Seven people are injured when two drones detonate explosives on Avenida Bolívar, Caracas while president Nicolás Maduro is giving a speech to the Venezuelan National Guard. Read more
• 04 Aug 2007: NASA's Phoenix Mars lander is launched. Read more
• 04 Aug 2006: A massacre is carried out by Sri Lankan government forces, killing 17 employees of the French INGO Action Against Hunger (known internationally as Action Contre la Faim, or ACF). Read more
• 04 Aug 1995: Operation Storm, the last major battle of the Croatian War of Independence begins. Read more
• 04 Aug 1987: The Federal Communications Commission rescinds the Fairness Doctrine which had required radio and television stations to give equal time to opposing views. Read more
• 04 Aug 1984: The Republic of Upper Volta changes its name to Burkina Faso. Read more
• 04 Aug 1984: The Ariane 3 rocket is launched for the first time, carrying the Eutelsat I F-2 and Télécom 1A satellites into geosynchronous transfer orbit. Read more
• 04 Aug 1983: Jean-Baptiste Ouédraogo, president of the military government of Upper Volta, is ousted from power in a coup d'état led by Captain Thomas Sankara. Read more
• 04 Aug 1977: U.S. President Jimmy Carter signs legislation creating the United States Department of Energy. Read more
• 04 Aug 1975: The Japanese Red Army takes more than 50 hostages at the AIA Building housing several embassies in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. The hostages include the U.S. consul and the Swedish Chargé d'affaires. The gunmen win the release of five imprisoned comrades and fly with them to Libya. Read more
• 04 Aug 1974: A bomb explodes in the Italicus Express train at San Benedetto Val di Sambro, Italy, killing 12 people and wounding 22. Read more
• 04 Aug 1972: Ugandan President Idi Amin announces that Uganda is no longer responsible for the care of British subjects of Asian origin, beginning the expulsions of Ugandan Asians. Read more
• 04 Aug 1969: Vietnam War: At the apartment of French intermediary Jean Sainteny in Paris, American representative Henry Kissinger and North Vietnamese representative Xuân Thuỷ begin secret peace negotiations. The negotiations will eventually fail. Read more
• 04 Aug 1965: The Constitution of the Cook Islands comes into force, giving the Cook Islands self-governing status within New Zealand. Read more
• 04 Aug 1964: Civil rights movement: Civil rights workers Michael Schwerner, Andrew Goodman and James Chaney are found dead in Mississippi after disappearing on June 21. Read more
• 04 Aug 1964: Second Gulf of Tonkin Incident: U.S. destroyers USS Maddox and USS Turner Joy mistakenly report coming under attack in the Gulf of Tonkin. Read more
• 04 Aug 1947: The Supreme Court of Japan is established. Read more
• 04 Aug 1946: An earthquake of magnitude 8.0 hits northern Dominican Republic. One hundred are killed and 20,000 are left homeless. Read more
• 04 Aug 1944: The Holocaust: A tip from a Dutch informer leads the Gestapo to a sealed-off area in an Amsterdam warehouse, where they find and arrest Jewish diarist Anne Frank, her family, and four others. Read more
• 04 Aug 1944: Under the state of emergency law, the Finnish Parliament elects Marshal C. G. E. Mannerheim as the President of Finland to replace the resigned Risto Ryti. Read more
• 04 Aug 1936: Prime Minister of Greece Ioannis Metaxas suspends parliament and the Constitution and establishes the 4th of August Regime. Read more
• 04 Aug 1924: Diplomatic relations between Mexico and the Soviet Union are established. Read more
• 04 Aug 1922: Enver Pasha dies in a skirmish between the Bolshevik Red Army and Basmachi troops, to whom he had defected earlier. Read more
• 04 Aug 1921: Bolshevik–Makhnovist conflict: Mikhail Frunze declares victory over the Makhnovshchina. Read more
• 04 Aug 1915: World War I: The German 12th Army occupies Warsaw during the Gorlice–Tarnów Offensive and the Great Retreat of 1915. Read more
• 04 Aug 1914: World War I: In response to the German invasion of Belgium, Belgium and the British Empire declare war on Germany. The United States declares its neutrality. Read more
• 04 Aug 1892: The father and stepmother of Lizzie Borden are found murdered in their Fall River, Massachusetts home. She will be tried and acquitted for the crimes a year later. Read more
• 04 Aug 1889: The Great Fire of Spokane, Washington destroys some 32 blocks of the city, prompting a mass rebuilding project. Read more
• 04 Aug 1887: Granny, a sea anemone, died in Edinburgh after nearly 60 years in captivity. Her death was reported in The Scotsman and The New York Times. Read more
• 04 Aug 1873: American Indian Wars: While protecting a railroad survey party in Montana, the United States 7th Cavalry, under Lieutenant Colonel George Armstrong Custer clashes for the first time with the Cheyenne and Lakota people near the Tongue River; only one man on each side is killed. Read more
• 04 Aug 1863: Matica slovenská, Slovakia's public-law cultural and scientific institution focusing on topics around the Slovak nation, is established in Martin. Read more
• 04 Aug 1854: The Hinomaru is established as the official flag to be flown from Japanese ships. Read more
• 04 Aug 1821: The Saturday Evening Post is published for the first time as a weekly newspaper. Read more
• 04 Aug 1814: War of 1812: The ultimately unsuccessful Siege of Fort Erie begins as British forces attempt to recapture the fort and drive American forces out of Canada. Read more

Famous Births on 04 August

• 04 Aug 1998: Lil Skies, American rapper Kimetrius Christopher Foose, known by his stage name Lil Skies, is an American rapper and singer from Waynesboro, Pennsylvania. He signed with Atlantic Records in 2017 to release the singles "I", "Nowadays", and "Red Roses." The songs peaked at numbers 39, 55, and 69 on the Billboard Hot 100, respectively. His eighth mixtape and major label debut, Life of a Dark Rose (2018), peaked at number ten on the Billboard 200 and received platinum certification by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA). His debut studio album, Shelby (2019), and its follow-up Unbothered (2021), peaked at numbers five and 50 on the chart, respectively. He has since released the mixtape “Out Ur Body Music” in March 2024, and the album “Evolution of the Rose” in June 2025, and his new album “LS4*” will be released in 2026. Read more
• 04 Aug 1995: Bruna Marquezine, Brazilian actress Bruna Reis Maia, known professionally as Bruna Marquezine, is a Brazilian actress and filmmaker. She debuted on television in 2000 as one of the children interviewers for the children's program Gente Inocente. She has been part of the cast of several telenovelas. Throughout her career, she has been awarded the Troféu Imprensa, Contigo Award! 2004, and Young Brazilian Award, among others. She plays Jenny Kord, a love interest for Jaime Reyes in the DC Universe film Blue Beetle (2023). Read more
• 04 Aug 1994: Bobby Shmurda, American rapper Ackquille Jean Pollard, known professionally as Bobby Shmurda, is an American rapper and songwriter. Along with Rowdy Rebel, Shmurda is considered a pioneer of Brooklyn drill music. He rose to international fame in 2014 when his single "Hot Nigga" peaked at number six on the Billboard Hot 100. Its success led him to sign with Epic Records to release his debut extended play (EP), Shmurda She Wrote (2014). Read more
• 04 Aug 1992: Daniele Garozzo, Italian fencer Daniele Garozzo is an Italian right-handed foil fencer. Read more
• 04 Aug 1992: Domingo Germán, Dominican baseball player Domingo Germán Polanco is a Dominican professional baseball pitcher for the Toros de Tijuana of the Mexican League. He has previously played in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the New York Yankees and Pittsburgh Pirates. Read more
• 04 Aug 1992: Cole Sprouse, American actor Cole Mitchell Sprouse is an American actor. He is known for his role as Cody Martin on the Disney Channel series The Suite Life of Zack & Cody (2005–2008), and its spin-off series The Suite Life on Deck (2008–2011), and his role as Jughead Jones on The CW television series Riverdale (2017–2023). In his early career, Sprouse appeared in various projects with his twin brother Dylan Sprouse, including The Suite Life and Big Daddy (1999). Read more
• 04 Aug 1992: Dylan Sprouse, American actor Dylan Thomas Sprouse is an American actor. He is known for his role as Zack Martin on the Disney Channel series The Suite Life of Zack & Cody and its spin-off, The Suite Life on Deck, where he starred alongside his twin brother Cole Sprouse. He is an owner of the All-Wise Meadery in Brooklyn, New York. Read more
• 04 Aug 1989: Jessica Mauboy, Australian singer-songwriter and actress Jessica Hilda Mauboy is an Australian singer and actress. Born and raised in Darwin, Northern Territory, she rose to fame in 2006 on the fourth season of Australian Idol, where she was runner-up and subsequently signed a recording contract with Sony Music Australia. After releasing a live album of her Idol performances and briefly being a member of the girl group Young Divas in 2007, Mauboy released her debut studio album, Been Waiting, the following year. It included her first number-one single, "Burn", and became the second highest-selling Australian album of 2009, certified double platinum by the Australian Recording Industry Association (ARIA). Read more
• 04 Aug 1989: Wang Hao, Chinese chess grandmaster Wang Hao is a Chinese chess grandmaster. In November 2009, Wang became the fourth Chinese player to break through the 2700 Elo rating mark. Read more
• 04 Aug 1988: Kelley O'Hara, American soccer player Kelley Maureen O'Hara is an American former professional soccer player. She represented the United States national team on 160 occasions, winning two FIFA Women's World Cups and an Olympic gold medal. She spent most of her club career with National Women's Soccer League club NJ/NY Gotham FC. Known for her intensity, she played primarily as a wingback but played as a forward in college and occasionally played an attacking role in her professional career. Read more
• 04 Aug 1987: Marreese Speights American basketball player Marreese Akeem "Mo" Speights is an American former professional basketball player in the National Basketball Association (NBA). He played college basketball for the Florida Gators, where he was a freshman member of their NCAA national championship team in 2007. The Philadelphia 76ers selected Speights in the first round of the 2008 NBA draft with the 16th overall pick. With the Golden State Warriors, he won an NBA championship in 2015. Read more
• 04 Aug 1986: Nick Augusto, American drummer Nick Augusto is an American musician, best known as the former drummer of heavy metal band Trivium, in which he played from 2009 until 2014. He was the former touring drummer for Devil You Know/Light the Torch from 2016 to 2017. Read more
• 04 Aug 1986: Leon Camier, English motorcycle racer Leon Stuart Camier is an English former solo motorcycle racer. Read more
• 04 Aug 1986: Cicinho, Brazilian footballer Alex Sandro Mendonça dos Santos, commonly known as Cicinho, is a Brazilian footballer who plays as a right back. Read more
• 04 Aug 1986: Iosia Soliola, New Zealand-Samoan rugby league player Iosia Soliola is a former professional rugby league footballer who last played for the Canberra Raiders in the National Rugby League (NRL). He played for New Zealand and Samoa at international level. Read more
• 04 Aug 1986: David Williams, Australian rugby league player David Williams is an Australian former professional rugby league footballer who played on the wing in the 2000s and 2010s. A New South Wales State of Origin and Australia international representative, he played his entire professional career with the Manly-Warringah Sea Eagles in the NRL, winning the 2008 NRL Premiership with them. Read more
• 04 Aug 1985: Crystal Bowersox, American singer-songwriter and guitarist Crystal Lynn Bowersox is an American singer, songwriter and actress who was the runner-up on the ninth season of American Idol. She was the first female finalist in three years. Read more
• 04 Aug 1985: Robbie Findley, American soccer player Robert Findley is an American former professional soccer player who played as a forward. He was capped 11 times by the United States national team, having made his international debut in 2007. Read more
• 04 Aug 1985: Mark Milligan, Australian footballer Mark Daniel Milligan is an Australian former professional soccer player and the current head coach of Newcastle Jets. Read more
• 04 Aug 1985: Ha Seung-jin, South Korean basketball player Ha Seung-jin is a South Korean former professional basketball player who has played in the NBA and the NBA D-League. He was a second round draft pick of the Portland Trail Blazers in the 2004 NBA draft. At 7 ft 3 in, 305 lb, he was among the tallest players in the NBA. He is also the first and only South Korean to have played in the NBA. Read more
• 04 Aug 1985: Antonio Valencia, Ecuadorean footballer Luis Antonio Valencia Mosquera is an Ecuadorian former professional footballer who played primarily as a right-sided player throughout his career, initially as a right winger, before developing into a right-back. He is regarded as one of the best Ecuadorian footballers of all time. Read more
• 04 Aug 1984: Terry Campese, Australian rugby league player Terry Campese is a former professional rugby league footballer. A former Australia, Italy and New South Wales State of Origin representative five-eighth, he is also the nephew of rugby union player David Campese. He previously played for the Canberra Raiders in the National Rugby League and Hull Kingston Rovers in the Super League. Read more
• 04 Aug 1984: Mardy Collins, American basketball player Maurice Rodney "Mardy" Collins is an American former professional basketball player. He played college basketball career for the Temple Owls, and was drafted by the New York Knicks with the 29th pick of the first round of the 2006 NBA draft. Collins played for the Knicks for two seasons and then played for the Los Angeles Clippers from 2008 to 2010. Since 2011, Collins has played in various international leagues. Read more
• 04 Aug 1983: Greta Gerwig, American actress, producer, and screenwriter Greta Celeste Gerwig is an American actress, screenwriter, and film director. She was initially known for working on various mumblecore films, such as Baghead (2008) and Yeast (2008), in which she became an important figure in the movement. Since then she has expanded from acting in and co-writing independent films to directing major studio films. Gerwig was included in the annual Time 100 list of the most influential people in the world in 2018. Read more
• 04 Aug 1981: Marques Houston, American singer-songwriter, producer, and actor Marques Barrett Houston is an American R&B singer, songwriter, dancer, and actor. Houston began his singing career in 1990, performing with IMx, and found popularity as an actor for his portrayal of Roger Evans in the teen sitcom Sister, Sister from 1994 to 1999. Read more
• 04 Aug 1981: Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, American member of British royal family, media personality and actress Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, is an American member of the British royal family, media personality, entrepreneur, and actress. She is married to Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex, the younger son of King Charles III. Read more
• 04 Aug 1980: Richard Dawson, English cricketer and coach Richard Kevin James Dawson is an English cricket coach and former player, who is currently the head coach of Glamorgan County Cricket Club. As a player, he was primarily a bowler who bowled off-spin. He earned seven caps for England between 2001 and 2003, taking a total of 11 wickets. Read more
• 04 Aug 1979: Robin Peterson, South African cricketer Robin John Peterson is a former South African cricketer who bowls left-arm spin and is a capable batsman. He has played 15 Tests and over 70 ODIs for South Africa. He announced his retirement from all forms of cricket on 9 November 2016. Read more
• 04 Aug 1978: Jeremy Adduono, Canadian ice hockey player and coach Jeremy Adduono is a Canadian former professional ice hockey winger. He was drafted in the seventh round, 184th overall, by the Buffalo Sabres in the 1997 NHL entry draft from the Ontario Hockey League's Sudbury Wolves. Read more
• 04 Aug 1978: Luke Allen, American baseball player (died 2022) Lucas Gale Allen, was an American professional baseball outfielder, who played in Major League Baseball with the Los Angeles Dodgers and the Colorado Rockies from 2002–2003. Read more
• 04 Aug 1978: Kurt Busch, American race car driver Kurt Thomas Busch is an American retired professional stock car racing driver. He is best known for competing in the NASCAR Cup Series from 2000 to 2022, last driving the number 45 Toyota Camry TRD for 23XI Racing. Busch is the 2004 NASCAR NEXTEL Cup Series champion and the 2017 Daytona 500 winner. He is the brother of the late Kyle Busch, a two-time Cup Series champion. Read more
• 04 Aug 1978: Agnė Eggerth, Lithuanian sprinter Agnė Visockaitė-Eggerth is a track and field sprint athlete who competes internationally for Lithuania. Read more
• 04 Aug 1978: Ricardo Serrano, Spanish cyclist Ricardo Serrano Gonzalez is a Spanish retired racing cyclist. Read more
• 04 Aug 1978: Per-Åge Skrøder, Norwegian ice hockey player Per-Åge Skrøder is a Norwegian former ice hockey player, who last played for Modo in the HockeyAllsvenskan (Allsv). Read more
• 04 Aug 1978: Satoshi Hino, Japanese voice actor Satoshi Hino is a Japanese voice actor. He is known for his roles in various anime series, such as Shakugan no Shana, The Familiar of Zero, Gintama, Nabari no Ou, Naruto Shippuuden, Overlord, and Yowamushi Pedal. Read more
• 04 Aug 1977: Frankie Kazarian, American wrestler Frank Benedict Gerdelman is an American professional wrestler. He is signed to Total Nonstop Action Wrestling (TNA), where he performs under the ring name Frankie Kazarian. He is a former one-time TNA World Champion. He is also known for his work in Ring of Honor (ROH) and All Elite Wrestling (AEW), as well as several independent promotions, most notably Pro Wrestling Guerrilla (PWG), where he has won multiple tag-team and singles championships. Read more
• 04 Aug 1977: Luís Boa Morte, Portuguese footballer and manager Luís Boa Morte Pereira is a Portuguese football coach and a former professional football player who played as an attacking winger, forward and centre midfielder. He is currently assistant coach of Thomas Reis at Samsunspor. Read more
• 04 Aug 1976: Paul Goldstein, American tennis player Paul Herbert Goldstein is an American tennis coach and former professional player who is the head coach of the Stanford Cardinal men's tennis team. Read more
• 04 Aug 1976: Andrew McLeod, Australian footballer Andrew Luke McLeod is a former professional Australian rules footballer who played for the Adelaide Football Club in the Australian Football League (AFL). He is the games record holder for Adelaide, having played 340 games. Read more
• 04 Aug 1976: Trevor Woodman, English rugby player and coach Trevor James Woodman MBE is a former English rugby union footballer. He was born in Plymouth, but went to Liskeard School in Cornwall and won representative honours with Cornwall Under 16s. Read more
• 04 Aug 1975: Andy Hallett, American actor and singer (died 2009) Andrew Alcott Hallett was an American actor and singer who became best known for playing the part of Lorne in the television series Angel (2000–2004). He used his singing talents often on the show, and performed two songs on the series' 2005 soundtrack album, Angel: Live Fast, Die Never. Read more
• 04 Aug 1975: Nikos Liberopoulos, Greek footballer Nikos Liberopoulos is a retired Greek former international footballer who played as a forward. He is famous for his aim-to-goal shot, his innate in-play instincts, and his technical attacking skills. Liberopoulos is a unique player in Greek domestic football, as he is equally adored by fans of both AEK Athens and Panathinaikos. He is the only player to be recorded in the top ten scorers of all time for both these teams. Indeed, after seven seasons at Panathinaikos Liberopoulos scored 103 goals. On 10 May 2012, he reached a milestone 100 goals for AEK Athens after a brace against Atromitos, making him the only player in history to score a hundred goals for both Athens clubs. On 8 September 2017, he became the Technical Director of AEK. Read more
• 04 Aug 1975: Jutta Urpilainen, Finnish politician, Deputy Prime Minister of Finland Jutta Pauliina Urpilainen is a Finnish politician. She was the first female chair of the Social Democratic Party of Finland, which she led from 2008 to 2014. She was the Minister of Finance as well as the Deputy Prime Minister of Finland from 2011 to 2014. Between 2019 and 2024, she served as the European Commissioner for International Partnerships in the first von der Leyen Commission. Urpilainen was a candidate in the 2024 election for President of Finland, receiving 4.3% of the vote. Read more
• 04 Aug 1975: Daniella van Graas, Dutch model and actress Daniella van Graas is a Dutch fashion model, cover girl, and actress. She has appeared in movies, on television, and between 1997 and 2003, on the cover of several magazines. In 2012, she was featured in the Dutch television show The Prettiest Girl in Class. Read more
• 04 Aug 1974: Kily González, Argentine footballer Cristian Alberto 'Kily' González Peret is an Argentine football manager and former professional player who played mainly as a left winger. Read more
• 04 Aug 1973: Eva Amaral, Spanish singer-songwriter and guitarist Eva María Amaral Lallana is a Spanish singer-songwriter, and a member of the group Amaral with Juan Aguirre. Read more
• 04 Aug 1973: Xavier Marchand, French swimmer Xavier Marchand is a former French medley swimmer, who competed in the 1996 and 2000 Summer Olympics. He won the silver medal in the men's 200 metres individual medley event at the 1998 World Aquatics Championships in Perth, Australia. Read more
• 04 Aug 1973: Marek Penksa, Slovak footballer Marek Penksa is a Slovak former professional footballer who played as a midfielder. He played for the Slovak national team. Read more
• 04 Aug 1973: Marcos Roberto Silveira Reis, Brazilian footballer Marcos Roberto Silveira dos Reis, known as Marcos, is a Brazilian former professional footballer who played as a goalkeeper. He was the starting goalkeeper of the 2002 FIFA World Cup-winning Brazilian squad and is regarded by pundits as one of the greatest Brazilian goalkeepers of all time. Read more
• 04 Aug 1972: Stefan Brogren, Canadian actor, director, producer, and screenwriter Stefan Brogren is a Canadian actor, director, and producer who is best known for his mainstay role as Archie "Snake" Simpson in the Degrassi television franchise. First appearing as a student in the second series Degrassi Junior High (1987–1989) and continuing into Degrassi High (1989–1991), Brogren played the role of Snake throughout every subsequent entry in the franchise, reprising his role in the revival Degrassi: The Next Generation (2001–2015) as a teacher and later principal, and again in Degrassi: Next Class (2016–17). Read more
• 04 Aug 1971: Jeff Gordon, American race car driver and actor Jeffery Michael Gordon is an American stock car racing executive and former professional stock car racing driver who currently serves as the vice chairman of Hendrick Motorsports. He raced full-time from 1993 to 2015, driving the No. 24 Chevrolet for Hendrick Motorsports in the former NASCAR Winston Cup Series and Sprint Cup Series, and also served as a substitute driver for Dale Earnhardt Jr. in the No. 88 Chevrolet for Hendrick Motorsports in select races during the 2016 season. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest and most influential drivers in NASCAR history, helping the sport reach mainstream popularity in the 1990s and 2000s. Read more
• 04 Aug 1970: John August, American director and screenwriter John August is an American screenwriter, director, producer, and novelist. He is known for writing the films Go (1999), Charlie's Angels (2000), Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle (2003), Big Fish (2003), Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (2005), Corpse Bride (2005), Frankenweenie (2012), the Disney live-action adaptation of Aladdin (2019), the novels Arlo Finch in the Valley of Fire (2018), Arlo Finch in the Lake of the Moon (2019) and Arlo Finch in the Kingdom of Shadows (2020). Read more
• 04 Aug 1970: Bret Baier, American journalist William Bret Baier is an American journalist and the host of Special Report with Bret Baier on Fox News and the chief political anchor for Fox. He previously worked as the network's Chief White House Correspondent and Pentagon correspondent. Read more
• 04 Aug 1970: Kate Silverton, English journalist Kate Silverton is an English child therapist. She formerly worked as a broadcaster and newsreader for the BBC. Silverton was a regular presenter of BBC News at One and BBC Weekend News, as well as making occasional appearances on the BBC News Channel and BBC World News. In 2018 she participated in series 16 of BBC's Strictly Come Dancing, where she was paired with professional dancer Aljaž Škorjanec and finished in 8th place. Read more
• 04 Aug 1969: Max Cavalera, Brazilian singer-songwriter and guitarist Massimiliano Antonio "Max" Cavalera is a Brazilian musician. He co-founded the heavy metal band Sepultura in 1984 with his brother Igor Cavalera, and was the band's lead singer and rhythm guitarist until his departure in 1997. He currently plays in the heavy metal bands Soulfly, Cavalera Conspiracy, Nailbomb, Killer Be Killed and Go Ahead and Die. Read more
• 04 Aug 1968: Daniel Dae Kim, South Korean-American actor Daniel Dae Kim is an American actor. He is known for his many roles in network television and theater. In 2025, Time magazine listed him as one of the world's 100 most influential people. Read more
• 04 Aug 1968: Lee Mack, English comedian, actor, producer, and screenwriter Lee Gordon McKillop, known by his stage name Lee Mack, is an English comedian and actor. Mack created, co-writes and stars in the sitcom Not Going Out, and is a regular team captain on the panel show Would I Lie to You?. In 2022 he began hosting the game show The 1% Club. Read more
• 04 Aug 1967: Michael Marsh, American sprinter Michael Lawrence Marsh is a retired American sprinter, the 1992 Olympic champion in the 200 m. Read more
• 04 Aug 1965: Vishal Bhardwaj, Indian film director, screenwriter, producer, music composer and playback singer Vishal Bhardwaj is an Indian filmmaker, music composer, and playback singer. He is known for his work in Hindi cinema, and is the recipient of nine National Film Awards and a Filmfare Award. Read more
• 04 Aug 1965: Adam Afriyie, English businessman and politician Adam Mensah Osei Afriyie is a British politician who served as the member of parliament (MP) for Windsor from 2005 to 2024. He is a member of the Conservative Party. Read more
• 04 Aug 1965: Dennis Lehane, American author, screenwriter, and producer Dennis Lehane is an American author and screenwriter. He has published more than a dozen novels; the first several were a series of mysteries featuring recurring characters, including A Drink Before the War (1994). Four of his novels have been adapted into films of the same name: Clint Eastwood's Mystic River (2003), Martin Scorsese's Shutter Island (2010), and Gone Baby Gone (2007) and Live by Night (2016), both directed by Ben Affleck. His short story "Animal Rescue" was also adapted into the 2014 film The Drop, noted for being the final film role for actor James Gandolfini. Read more
• 04 Aug 1965: Fredrik Reinfeldt, Swedish soldier and politician, 42nd Prime Minister of Sweden John Fredrik Reinfeldt is a Swedish economist and former politician who served as Prime Minister of Sweden from 2006 to 2014 and as Leader of the Moderate Party from 2003 to 2015. He was the last rotating President of the European Council in 2009. He was also chairman of the Swedish Football Association from 2023 to 2025. Read more
• 04 Aug 1965: Michael Skibbe, German footballer and manager Michael Heinz Skibbe is a German former football player and current manager of J1 League club Vissel Kobe. Read more
• 04 Aug 1964: Andrew Bartlett, Australian social worker and politician Andrew John Julian Bartlett is an Australian politician, social worker, academic, and social campaigner who served as a Senator for Queensland from 1997 to 2008 and from 2017 to 2018. He represented the Australian Democrats in his first stint in the Senate, including as party leader from 2002 to 2004 and deputy leader from 2004 to 2008. In November 2017, he returned to the Senate as a member of the Australian Greens, replacing Larissa Waters after her disqualification during the parliamentary eligibility crisis. He resigned from the Senate in August 2018 in an unsuccessful attempt to win the House of Representatives seat of Brisbane, allowing Waters to fill his seat in advance of the 2019 election. Read more
• 04 Aug 1963: Keith Maurice Ellison, 30th Attorney General of Minnesota Keith Maurice Ellison is an American politician and lawyer serving as the 30th attorney general of Minnesota since 2019. From 2007 to 2019, Ellison was the U.S. representative for Minnesota's 5th congressional district, representing the Minneapolis region. He also served as Deputy Chair of the Democratic National Committee from 2017 to 2018 and was a member of the Minnesota House of Representatives from 2003 to 2007. He is a member of the Democratic–Farmer–Labor Party (DFL). Read more
• 04 Aug 1962: Roger Clemens, American baseball player and actor William Roger Clemens, nicknamed "Rocket", is an American former professional baseball pitcher who played 24 seasons in Major League Baseball (MLB), most notably with the Boston Red Sox and New York Yankees. He was a member of the Red Sox for 13 seasons, the Yankees for six, the Toronto Blue Jays for two, and Houston Astros for three. Clemens was one of the most dominant pitchers in major league history, tallying 354 wins, a 3.12 earned run average (ERA), and 4,672 strikeouts, the third-most all time. An 11-time MLB All-Star and two-time World Series champion, Clemens won seven Cy Young Awards, more than any other pitcher in history. Clemens was known for his fierce competitive nature and hard-throwing pitching style, which he used to intimidate batters. Read more
• 04 Aug 1962: Paul Reynolds, English singer-songwriter and guitarist Paul Reynolds is an English singer, songwriter and musician who gained fame as the lead guitarist of the new wave band A Flock of Seagulls. AllMusic writer Tom Demalon praised Reynolds for his unique guitar style, which set his band apart from other synth-heavy acts of the time. Read more
• 04 Aug 1961: Barack Obama, American lawyer and politician, 44th President of the United States, Nobel Prize laureate Barack Hussein Obama II is an American former politician who served as the 44th president of the United States from 2009 to 2017. A member of the Democratic Party, he was the first African American to serve as president. Obama represented Illinois in the United States Senate from 2005 to 2008 and served as an Illinois state senator from 1997 to 2004. Read more
• 04 Aug 1960: Chuck C. Lopez, American jockey Charles C. Lopez is an American jockey in Thoroughbred horse racing. Recorded as "Charles," he is the son of jockey Carlos Lopez, Sr. His own sons, Erick and David Lopez, are also jockeys. Read more
• 04 Aug 1960: Dean Malenko, American wrestler Dean Shelly Simon, better known by the ring name Dean Malenko, is an American retired professional wrestler. He is signed with All Elite Wrestling (AEW) as a senior producer. He is best known for his time in World Championship Wrestling as a wrestler and World Wrestling Federation as a wrestler and a road agent and New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW). Read more
• 04 Aug 1960: José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, Spanish academic and politician, 5th Prime Minister of Spain José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero is a Spanish politician and member of the Spanish Socialist Workers' Party (PSOE). He was the Prime Minister of Spain being elected for two terms, in the 2004 and 2008 general elections. On 2 April 2011 he announced he would not stand for re-election in the 2011 general election and left office on 21 December 2011. Read more
• 04 Aug 1960: Bernard Rose, English director, screenwriter, and cinematographer Bernard Rose is an English filmmaker, considered a pioneer of digital filmmaking. He is best known for directing the horror films Paperhouse (1988) and Candyman (1992), the historical romances Immortal Beloved (1994) and Anna Karenina (1997), and the independent drama Ivans xtc (2000), for which he was nominated for the Independent Spirit Award for Best Director and the John Cassavetes Award. He has also been nominated for the Grand Prix des Amériques and the Venice Horizons Prize. He has frequently cast actors Danny Huston and Tony Todd in his films. In the 1980s, he directed music videos for UB40, Frankie Goes to Hollywood and Bronski Beat. Read more
• 04 Aug 1960: Tim Winton, Australian author and playwright Timothy John Winton is an Australian writer and environmental activist. He has written novels, children's books, non-fiction books, and short stories. Read more
• 04 Aug 1959: Robbin Crosby, American guitarist and songwriter (died 2002) Robbinson Lantz Crosby was an American guitarist who was a member of glam metal band Ratt, earning several platinum albums in the US in the 1980s. Crosby died in 2002 from complications from AIDS subsequent to a heroin overdose. Read more
• 04 Aug 1959: John Gormley, Irish politician, Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government John Gormley is an Irish former Green Party politician who served as Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government from June 2007 to January 2011, Leader of the Green Party from June 2007 to May 2011 and Lord Mayor of Dublin from 1994 to 1995. He served as a Teachta Dála (TD) for Dublin South-East from 1997 to 2011. Read more
• 04 Aug 1958: Allison Hedge Coke, American-Canadian poet and academic Allison Adelle Hedge Coke is an American poet and editor. Her debut book, Dog Road Woman, won the American Book Award and was the first finalist of the Paterson Poetry Prize and Diane DeCora Award. Since then, she has written five more books and edited eight anthologies. She is known for addressing issues of culture, prejudice, rights, the environment, peace, violence, abuse, and labor in her poetry and other creative works. Read more
• 04 Aug 1958: Mary Decker, American runner Mary Teresa Decker, is an American retired middle-distance and long-distance runner. During her career, she won gold medals in the 1500 meters and 3000 meters at the 1983 World Championships and was the world-record holder in the mile, 5000 meters and 10,000 meters. In total, she set 17 official and unofficial world records, and she was the first woman to break 4:20 for the mile. She also set 36 U.S. national records at distances ranging from 800 meters to 10,000 meters, and has held the U.S. record in the 2000 meters and 3000 meters since the early 1980s, while her 1500 meters record stood for 32 years and her mile record stood for 38 years. In 2003, she was inducted into the National Track and Field Hall of Fame. She was retroactively banned for two years from June 1996 for a doping violation for a high testosterone to epitestosterone ratio. Read more
• 04 Aug 1958: Silvan Shalom, Tunisian-Israeli sergeant and politician, 30th Deputy Prime Minister of Israel Zion Silvan Shalom is an Israeli politician who served as a member of the Knesset for Likud between 1992 and 2015. He held several prominent ministerial positions, including Vice Prime Minister and Minister of the Interior. He resigned on 24 December 2015 following allegations of sexual harassment. Later on, the Attorney-General closed this investigation and said these claims were unsubstantiated. Read more
• 04 Aug 1958: Brian Voss, American bowler Brian Voss in Cornelius, North Carolina, is a professional ten-pin bowler and member of the Professional Bowlers Association since 1982 at aged 24. The right-hander owns 25 PBA Tour titles, including one major championship, plus two titles on the PBA50 Tour and one PBA60 event title. He was inducted into the PBA Hall of Fame in 1994 and the USBC Hall of Fame in 2007. Read more
• 04 Aug 1957: Rupert Farley, British actor and voice actor Rupert Charles Farley is an English actor and voice over artist. He has had various roles in movies such as From Hell, The Young Poisoner's Handbook, Shakespeare in Love and Mrs Brown. He is probably best known for his voice acting work, which includes voice over work for television advertisements and animation. He is well known through voice work of Tube Mice, some of Bernard Cornwall's Sharpe Novels, The Animals of Farthing Wood television series; he voiced several characters, including Fox, Plucky, Trey, Brat and Mr. Pheasant. Read more
• 04 Aug 1957: Brooks D. Simpson, American historian and author Brooks Donohue Simpson is an American historian and an ASU Foundation Professor of History at Arizona State University, specializing in American political and military history, especially the American Civil War and Reconstruction eras and the American presidency. Read more
• 04 Aug 1957: Valdis Valters, Latvian basketball player and coach Valdis Valters is a retired Latvian professional basketball player. He played at the point guard position for the senior USSR national team. He is regarded as one of the greatest players to have played the game in Europe in the 1980s. Considering his lengthy work and deep connection to the sport, Valters has been one of the most influential people in Latvian basketball history. He became a FIBA Hall of Fame player in 2017. Read more
• 04 Aug 1957: John Wark, Scottish footballer and sportscaster John Wark is a Scottish former footballer who spent most of his playing time with Ipswich Town. He won a record four Player of the Year awards before becoming one of the four inaugural members of the club's Hall of Fame. Wark had long spells at the club, which bookended his career, and a third, brief interlude dividing his briefer periods at Liverpool and Middlesbrough. A versatile player, Wark played most of his professional games as a midfielder, although he sometimes played as a central defender and on occasion as a striker. Read more
• 04 Aug 1955: Alberto Gonzales, American soldier, lawyer, and politician, 80th United States Attorney General Alberto Reynaldo Gonzales is an American lawyer who served as the 80th United States attorney general from 2005 to 2007. He was the highest-ranking Hispanic American in the executive government in American history until the appointment of Marco Rubio as Secretary of State in 2025. He previously served as Secretary of State of Texas, as a Texas Supreme Court Justice, and as White House Counsel, becoming the first Hispanic to hold that office. Read more
• 04 Aug 1955: Billy Bob Thornton, American actor, director, and screenwriter Billy Bob Thornton is an American actor, filmmaker, screenwriter, and singer-songwriter. He received international attention after writing, directing and starring in the independent drama film Sling Blade (1996), for which he won an Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay and was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actor. For his role in A Simple Plan (1998), he was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor. Read more
• 04 Aug 1954: Anatoliy Kinakh, Ukrainian engineer and politician, 11th Prime Minister of Ukraine Anatoliy Kyrylovych Kinakh is a Ukrainian politician and honorary professor at the Mykolaiv Government Humanitarian University. Kinakh is a former People's Deputy of Ukraine. Kinakh currently serves as the leader of Party of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs of Ukraine. Read more
• 04 Aug 1954: Steve Phillips, English footballer Steven Edward Phillips is an English former professional footballer who had a long career as a forward for a number of teams in the Football League in the 1970s and 1980s. He scored 200 goals from 562 league appearances. Read more
• 04 Aug 1954: François Valéry, Algerian-French singer-songwriter François Valéry is a French singer-songwriter and composer. He is married to Nicole Calfan and Michael Calfan is his son. Read more
• 04 Aug 1953: Hiroyuki Usui, Japanese footballer and manager Hiroyuki Usui is a former Japanese football player and manager. He played for Japan national team. His son Kempei Usui is also a footballer. Read more
• 04 Aug 1952: James Arbuthnot, English lawyer and politician, Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills James Norwich Arbuthnot, Baron Arbuthnot of Edrom,, is a British Conservative Party politician. He was Member of Parliament (MP) for Wanstead and Woodford from 1987 to 1997, and then MP for North East Hampshire from 1997 to 2015. Read more
• 04 Aug 1952: Moya Brennan, Irish singer-songwriter and harp player (died 2026) Moya Brennan, also known as Máire Brennan, was an Irish folk singer, songwriter, harpist, and philanthropist. She began performing professionally in 1970 when her family formed the band Clannad. Brennan released her first solo album in 1992 called Máire, a successful venture. In 1999, she collaborated with Chicane on the single "Saltwater", which reached the top ten in multiple countries and was certified Gold by the British Phonographic Industry (BPI). Read more
• 04 Aug 1952: Gábor Demszky, Hungarian sociologist, lawyer, and politician Gábor Demszky is a Hungarian politician, lawyer and sociologist by qualification. Demszky was the Mayor of Budapest from 1990 to 2010. He was a founding member of the Alliance of Free Democrats (SZDSZ) between 1988 and 2010. Read more
• 04 Aug 1951: Peter Goodfellow, English geneticist and academic Peter Neville Goodfellow is a British geneticist best known for his work on sex determination and the SRY gene that encodes testis determining factor. He was Arthur Balfour Professor of Genetics at the University of Cambridge from 1992 to 1996. Read more
• 04 Aug 1950: Caldwell Jones, American basketball player and coach (died 2014) Caldwell "Pops" Jones Jr. was an American professional basketball player. Read more
• 04 Aug 1950: N. Rangaswamy, Indian lawyer and politician, 9th Chief Minister of Puducherry Natesan Rangaswamy is an Indian politician who is serving as the Chief Minister of Puducherry since May 2021. He has previously served as the chief minister from 2001 to 2008 and from 2011 to 2016. He is the founding president of the political party All India N. R. Congress (AINRC), which was formed after a breakaway from the Indian National Congress in 2011. Read more
• 04 Aug 1949: John Riggins, American football player, sportscaster, and actor Robert John Riggins, nicknamed "Riggo" and "Diesel", is an American former professional football running back who played in the National Football League (NFL) for the New York Jets and Washington Redskins. He played college football for the Kansas Jayhawks. Riggins was known for his "bell cow" running style and productivity well into the later years of his career. Read more
• 04 Aug 1948: Johnny Grubb, American baseball player and coach John Maywood Grubb, Jr. is an American former Major League Baseball outfielder and designated hitter, who also occasionally played at first base. He played with the San Diego Padres (1972–1976), Cleveland Indians (1977–1978), Texas Rangers (1978–1982), and the Detroit Tigers (1983–1987). Read more
• 04 Aug 1947: Klaus Schulze, German keyboard player and songwriter (died 2022) Klaus Schulze was a German electronic music pioneer, composer and musician. He also used the alias Richard Wahnfried and was a member of the Krautrock bands Tangerine Dream, Ash Ra Tempel, and the Cosmic Jokers before launching a solo career consisting of more than 60 albums released across six decades. Read more
• 04 Aug 1946: Aleksei Turovski, Estonian zoologist and ethologist Aleksei Turovski is an Estonian zoologist and ethologist, specialising in parasitology and zoosemiotics. In 1973, he graduated from Tartu University with a degree in zoology; since 1972 he's been working in the Tallinn Zoo. In 1976–2001, Turovski worked in the Estonian Marine Institute. Read more
• 04 Aug 1945: Paul McCarthy, American painter and sculptor Paul McCarthy is an American artist who lives and works in Los Angeles, California. Read more
• 04 Aug 1945: Alan Mulally, American engineer and businessman Alan Roger Mulally is an American aerospace engineer and manufacturing executive. He was the CEO of Boeing Commercial Airplanes from 1998 to 2006, and later as president and chief executive officer of the Ford Motor Company from 2006 to 2014. Read more
• 04 Aug 1944: Richard Belzer, American actor (died 2023) Richard Jay Belzer was an American actor, comedian, and author. He was best known for his role as BPD Detective, NYPD Detective/sergeant and investigator John Munch, whom he portrayed for 23 years in the NBC police drama series Homicide: Life on the Street, Law & Order: Special Victims Unit and in several guest appearances on other series. Read more
• 04 Aug 1944: Doudou Ndoye, Senegalese lawyer and politician Doudou Ndoye is a Senegalese lawyer and politician who served in the government of Senegal as Minister of Justice from 1983 to 1986. He is the Secretary-General of the Union for the Republic (UPR), a political party he founded in 2000, and was a candidate in the 2007 presidential election. Read more
• 04 Aug 1943: Vicente Álvarez Areces, Spanish politician, 6th President of the Principality of Asturias (died 2019) Vicente Alberto Álvarez Areces, also known as Tini Areces, was a Spanish politician. He served as the sixth President of the Principality of Asturias in Spain, and he was a member of the Spanish Socialist Workers' Party political party. He was also a member of the Committee of the Regions, working as a vice-president of the Party of European Socialists Group. Read more
• 04 Aug 1943: Barbara Saß-Viehweger, German politician, lawyer and civil law notary Barbara Saß-Viehweger is a German civil law notary, lawyer, and politician. She is member of the Christian Democratic Union of Germany. Read more
• 04 Aug 1943: Bjørn Wirkola, Norwegian ski jumper and footballer Bjørn Tore Wirkola is a Norwegian former ski jumper. Read more
• 04 Aug 1942: Don S. Davis, American actor (died 2008) Donald Sinclair Davis was an American actor best known for playing General George Hammond in the television series Stargate SG-1 (1997–2007), and earlier for playing Major Garland Briggs on the television series Twin Peaks (1990–1991) and Captain William Scully in The X-Files. In animation, he was also known as Wild Bill in the 2003 direct-to-video animated movie G.I. Joe: Spy Troops and its 2004 sequel, G.I. Joe: Valor vs. Venom. He was also a theater professor, painter, and United States Army captain. Read more
• 04 Aug 1942: Cleon Jones, American baseball player Cleon Joseph Jones is an American former professional baseball outfielder. He played in Major League Baseball as a left fielder. Jones played most of his career for the New York Mets and in 1969 caught the final out of the "Miracle Mets" World Series Championship over the Baltimore Orioles. Read more
• 04 Aug 1942: David Lange, New Zealand lawyer and politician, 32nd Prime Minister of New Zealand (died 2005) David Russell Lange was a New Zealand politician who served as the 32nd prime minister of New Zealand from 1984 to 1989. A member of the New Zealand Labour Party, Lange was also the minister of Education and the minister of Foreign Affairs alongside his term as prime minister. He was also the attorney-general of New Zealand from 1989 to 1990. Read more
• 04 Aug 1941: Martin Jarvis, English actor Martin Jarvis OBE is an English actor. Described by the BBC as "one of Britain's most distinguished and versatile actors", he has had a varied career in theatre, film and television, and is particularly noted for radio acting and voicing audiobooks. Read more
• 04 Aug 1941: Andy Smillie, English footballer Andrew Thomas Smillie is an English former professional footballer who played as an inside forward. Read more
• 04 Aug 1941: Cliff Nobles, American musician (died 2008) Clifford James Nobles was an American soul singer, who is best known for his instrumental hit, "The Horse" — a track on which he does not actually perform. Read more
• 04 Aug 1941: Ted Strickland, American psychologist and politician, 68th Governor of Ohio Theodore Strickland is an American politician who served as the 68th governor of Ohio from 2007 to 2011. A member of the Democratic Party, he previously represented Ohio's 6th congressional district in the United States House of Representatives from 1993 to 1995, and again from 1997 to 2007. As of 2026, he is the most recent Democrat to serve as governor of Ohio. Read more
• 04 Aug 1941: Régis Barroso, Brazilian politician (died 2026) Francisco Régis Monte Barroso was a Brazilian politician. A member of the National Renewal Alliance, he served in the Chamber of Deputies from 1967 to 1971. Read more
• 04 Aug 1940: Coriún Aharonián, Uruguayan composer and musicologist (died 2017) Coriún Aharonián was an Uruguayan composer and musicologist of Armenian ethnicity. Read more
• 04 Aug 1940: Robin Harper, Scottish academic and politician Robin Charles Moreton Harper, is a Scottish politician, who was a Member of the Scottish Parliament (MSP) for the Lothians region (1999–2011). Read more
• 04 Aug 1940: Larry Knechtel, American bass player and pianist (died 2009) Lawrence William Knechtel was an American keyboard player and bassist who was a member of the Wrecking Crew, a collection of Los Angeles–based session musicians who worked with such renowned artists as Simon & Garfunkel, Duane Eddy, the Beach Boys, the Mamas & the Papas, the Monkees, the Partridge Family, Billy Joel, the Doors, the Byrds, the Grass Roots, Jerry Garcia, and Elvis Presley. He also was a member of the 1970s band Bread. Read more
• 04 Aug 1940: Frances Stewart, English economist and academic Frances Julia Stewart is professor emeritus of development economics and director of the Centre for Research on Inequality, Human Security and Ethnicity (CRISE), University of Oxford. A pre-eminent development economist, she was named one of fifty outstanding technological leaders for 2003 by Scientific American. She was president of the Human Development and Capability Association from 2008 to 2010. Read more
• 04 Aug 1940: Timi Yuro, American singer-songwriter (died 2004) Rosemary Victoria Yuro, known professionally as Timi Yuro, was an American singer. Sometimes called "the little girl with the big voice", she is considered to be one of the first blue-eyed soul stylists of the rock era. Yuro possessed a contralto vocal range. According to one critic, "her deep, strident, almost masculine voice, staggered delivery and the occasional sob created a compelling musical presence". Read more
• 04 Aug 1939: Jack Cunningham, Baron Cunningham of Felling, English politician, Minister for the Cabinet Office John Anderson Cunningham, Baron Cunningham of Felling, is a British politician who was a Labour Member of Parliament for over 30 years, serving for Whitehaven from 1970 to 1983 and then Copeland until the 2005 general election, and had served in the Cabinet of Tony Blair. Read more
• 04 Aug 1939: Frankie Ford, American R&B/rock and roll singer (died 2015) Frankie Ford was an American rock and roll and rhythm and blues singer, best known for his 1959 hit "Sea Cruise". Read more
• 04 Aug 1938: Ellen Schrecker, American historian and academic Ellen Wolf Schrecker is an American professor emerita of American history at Yeshiva University. She has received the Frederick Ewen Academic Freedom Fellowship at the Tamiment Library at New York University. She is known primarily for her work in the history of McCarthyism. Historian Ronald Radosh has described her as "the dean of the anti-anti-Communist historians." Read more
• 04 Aug 1937: David Bedford, English keyboard player, composer, and conductor (died 2011) David Vickerman Bedford was an English composer and musician. He wrote and played both popular and classical music. He was the brother of the conductor Steuart Bedford, the grandson of the composer, painter and author Herbert Bedford and the composer Liza Lehmann, and the son of Leslie Bedford, an inventor, and Lesley Duff, a soprano opera singer. Read more
• 04 Aug 1936: Giorgos Zographos, Greek singer and actor (died 2005) Giorgos Zographos was a Greek musician and actor. Read more
• 04 Aug 1935: Carol Arthur, American actress and producer (died 2020) Carol Arthur DeLuise, known professionally as Carol Arthur, was an American actress, mainly recognizable in supporting roles in films directed by Mel Brooks. Read more
• 04 Aug 1935: Hans-Walter Eigenbrodt, German footballer and coach (died 1997) Hans-Walter Eigenbrodt was a German football player. The defender won with Eintracht Frankfurt the German championship in 1959 and reached with the club the legendary 1960 European Cup Final against Real Madrid. Read more
• 04 Aug 1935: Michael J. Noonan, Irish farmer and politician, 25th Minister of Defence for Ireland (died 2013) Michael Joseph Noonan was an Irish Fianna Fáil politician. He served as Minister for Defence from 1987 until 1989. Read more
• 04 Aug 1934: Dallas Green, American baseball player and manager (died 2017) George Dallas Green was an American professional baseball pitcher, manager, scout and executive in Major League Baseball (MLB). He played big league baseball for the Philadelphia Phillies, Washington Senators and New York Mets, from 1960 through 1967. A man of towering stature, at 6 feet 5 inches (1.96 m) tall and 210 pounds (95 kg), Green achieved notoriety for his blunt manner. He possessed a booming voice and achieved many successes over a baseball career that lasted over 60 years. Read more
• 04 Aug 1932: Frances E. Allen, American computer scientist and academic (died 2020) Frances Elizabeth Allen was an American computer scientist and pioneer in the field of optimizing compilers. Allen was the first woman to become an IBM Fellow, and in 2006 became the first woman to win the Turing Award. Her achievements include seminal work in compilers, program optimization, and parallelization. She worked for IBM from 1957 to 2002 and subsequently was a Fellow Emerita. Read more
• 04 Aug 1932: Liang Congjie, Chinese environmentalist, founded Friends of Nature (died 2010) Liang Congjie was a Chinese historian best known for his work as an environmental activist who established the Friends of Nature in 1994 as the first environmental non-governmental organization to be officially recognized by the government of the People's Republic of China. Read more
• 04 Aug 1931: Naren Tamhane, Indian cricketer (died 2002) Narendra Shankar Tamhane was an Indian cricketer who played in 21 Test matches from 1955 to 1960. He was a wicket-keeper-batsman. Read more
• 04 Aug 1930: Ali al-Sistani, Iranian-Iraqi cleric and scholar Ali Husayni Sistani is an Islamic scholar and the dean of the Hawza in Najaf, Iraq. A Grand Ayatollah, Sistani is considered one of the leading religious leaders of Twelver Shia Muslims. After the invasion of Iraq and the subsequent overthrow of the authoritarian Baathist regime, Sistani advocated for democratization instead of the system of Wilayat al-Faqih. He has likewise endorsed rule of law, Iraqi nationalism, non-sectarianism and popular sovereignty. He has been a vocal critic of foreign interference in Iraqi affairs and has warned foreign actors against imposing their will on the Iraqi people. Read more
• 04 Aug 1929: Kishore Kumar, Indian singer-songwriter and actor (died 1987) Kishore Kumar was an Indian playback singer, musician and actor. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest, most influential and dynamic singers in the history of Indian music. Kumar was one of the most popular singers in the Indian subcontinent, notable for his yodelling and ability to sing songs in different voices. He used to sing in different genres but some of his rare compositions, considered classics, were lost in time. In 2013, Kumar was voted "The Most Popular Male Playback Singer" in a poll conducted by the Filmfare magazine. Read more
• 04 Aug 1929: Vellore G. Ramabhadran, Mridangam artiste from Tamil Nadu, India (died 2012) Vellore G. Ramabhadran was a Mridangam artiste from Tamil Nadu, India. He was awarded the Madras Music Academy's Sangeetha Kalanidhi in 2004. Read more
• 04 Aug 1928: Gerard Damiano, American director, producer, and screenwriter (died 2008) Gerardo Rocco "Gerard" Damiano was an American director of adult films. Read more
• 04 Aug 1928: Nadežka Mosusova, Serbian composer Nadežda Mosusova (Nadezda) is a Serbian composer and musicologist. She was born in Subotica, Serbia, and studied composition with Predrag Milosevic at the Belgrade Academy of Music. She continued her studies at the Salzburg Seminar on Contemporary American Music and received her doctorate in musicology in Ljubljana. After completing her studies, she took a position as professor at the Stanković Musical School in Belgrade. Read more
• 04 Aug 1928: Clarke Reed, American businessman and politician (died 2024) Clarke Thomas Reed Sr. was an American businessman and politician. He served as Chairman of the Mississippi Republican Party from 1966 to 1976. Prior to his political career, Reed was an agricultural businessman and a graduate in economics. Read more
• 04 Aug 1926: George Irving Bell, American physicist, biologist, and mountaineer (died 2000) George Irving Bell was an American physicist, biologist, and mountaineer, and a grandson of John Joseph Seerley. He died in 2000 from complications of leukemia after surgery. Read more
• 04 Aug 1926: Perry Moss, American football player and coach (died 2014) Perry Lee Moss was an American professional football player, coach, and executive. Moss played tailback at the University of Tulsa and quarterback at Illinois during the 1940s. As a Tulsa tailback, he was on the Orange Bowl team that beat Georgia Tech, 26–12, in the 1945 Orange Bowl and later as an Illinois T-quarterback, he directed a Rose Bowl team which routed UCLA, 45–14, in 1947. Moss served two years in the United States Air Force between his playing time at Tulsa and Illinois. At Illinois, he was named to All-Big Ten Conference and All-American teams. He was drafted in 1948 by the Green Bay Packers in the 13th round and played at the professional level for one year before returning to Illinois as an assistant. He started one game at quarterback for the Packers. Read more
• 04 Aug 1922: Mayme Agnew Clayton, American librarian (died 2006) Mayme Agnew Clayton was a librarian, and the founder, president, and leader of the Western States Black Research and Education Center (WSBREC), the largest privately held collection of African-American historical materials in the world. The collection represents the core holdings of the Mayme A. Clayton Library and Museum (MCLM), formerly located in Culver City, California. This collection was curated and managed by her son, Avery Clayton. The museum is the largest and most academically substantial independently held collection of objects, documents, and memorabilia on African American history and culture. On July 31, 2019, the Mayme A. Clayton Library and Museum closed permanently. The bulk of its collections went to the West Los Angeles College in unincorporated Los Angeles County on a temporary basis. Read more
• 04 Aug 1922: Luis Aponte Martínez, Puerto Rican cardinal (died 2012) Luis Aponte Martínez was a Puerto Rican Catholic prelate who served as Archbishop of San Juan from 1965 to 1999. He is the only Puerto Rican to have been named a cardinal of the Catholic Church. He participated as an elector in the two conclaves of 1978, which elected Popes John Paul I and John Paul II. Read more
• 04 Aug 1921: Herb Ellis, American guitarist (died 2010) Mitchell Herbert Ellis was an American jazz guitarist. During the 1950s, he was in a trio with pianist Oscar Peterson. Read more
• 04 Aug 1921: Maurice Richard, Canadian ice hockey player and coach (died 2000) Joseph Henri Maurice Richard was a Canadian professional ice hockey player who played 18 seasons in the National Hockey League (NHL) for the Montreal Canadiens. He was the first player in NHL history to score 50 goals in one season, accomplishing the feat in 50 games in 1944–45, and the first to reach 500 career goals. Read more
• 04 Aug 1920: Helen Thomas, American journalist and author (died 2013) Helen Amelia Thomas was an American reporter and author, and a long-serving member of the White House press corps. She covered the White House during the administrations of ten U.S. presidents—from the beginning of the Kennedy administration to the second year of the Obama administration. Read more
• 04 Aug 1919: Michel Déon, French novelist, playwright, and critic (died 2016) Michel Déon was a French novelist and literary columnist. He published over 50 works and was the recipient of numerous awards, including the Prix Interallié for his 1970 novel, Les Poneys sauvages. Déon's 1973 novel Un taxi mauve received the Grand Prix du roman de l'Académie française. His novels have been translated into numerous languages. Read more
• 04 Aug 1918: Brian Crozier, Australian-English historian and journalist (died 2012) Brian Rossiter Crozier was a British historian, propagandist and journalist. He was also one of the central staff members of a secret propaganda department belonging to the UK Foreign Office, known as the Information Research Department (IRD) which republished and supported much of his work. Read more
• 04 Aug 1917: John Fitch, American race car driver and engineer (died 2012) John Cooper Fitch was an American racing driver and inventor. He was the first American to race automobiles successfully in Europe in the post-war era. Read more
• 04 Aug 1915: Warren Avis, American businessman, founded Avis Rent a Car System (died 2007) Warren Edward Avis was an American entrepreneur who founded Avis Car Rentals in 1946. Read more
• 04 Aug 1913: Wesley Addy, American actor (died 1996) Robert Wesley Addy was an American actor of stage, television, and film. Read more
• 04 Aug 1913: Robert Hayden, American poet and educator (died 1980) Robert Hayden was an American poet, essayist, and educator. He served as Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress from 1976 to 1978, a role today known as U.S. Poet Laureate. He was the first African-American writer to hold the office. Read more
• 04 Aug 1912: Aleksandr Danilovich Aleksandrov, Russian mathematician, physicist, and mountaineer (died 1999) Aleksandr Danilovich Aleksandrov was a Soviet and Russian mathematician, physicist, philosopher and mountaineer. Read more
• 04 Aug 1912: David Raksin, American composer and educator (died 2004) David Raksin was an American composer noted for his work in film and television. Raksin had more than 100 film scores and 300 television scores to his credit. Some sources called him the "Grandfather of Film Music". Read more
• 04 Aug 1912: Raoul Wallenberg, Swedish architect and diplomat, savior of thousands of Jews from The Holocaust (died ~1947) Raoul Wallenberg was a Swedish architect, businessman, diplomat, and humanitarian. He saved thousands of Jews in German-occupied Hungary during the Holocaust from German Nazis and Hungarian fascists during the later stages of World War II. While serving as Sweden's special envoy in Budapest between July and December 1944, Wallenberg issued protective passports and sheltered Jews in buildings which he declared as Swedish territory. Read more
• 04 Aug 1910: Anita Page, American actress (died 2008) Anita Page was an American film actress who reached stardom in the final years of the silent film era. Read more
• 04 Aug 1910: William Schuman, American composer and educator (died 1992) William Howard Schuman was an American composer and arts administrator. Read more
• 04 Aug 1910: Hedda Sterne, Romanian-American painter and photographer (died 2011) Hedda Sterne was a Romanian-born American artist who was an active member of the New York School of painters. Her work is often associated with Abstract Expressionism and Surrealism. She was also the only woman to appear in a notable photograph of abstract expressionist artists dubbed The Irascibles, although the group included other women, and Sterne herself later said she had actually not been an Irascible. Read more
• 04 Aug 1909: Glenn Cunningham, American runner and academic (died 1988) Glenn Vernice Cunningham was an American middle-distance runner, and was considered the greatest American miler of all time. He received the James E. Sullivan Award as the top amateur athlete in the United States in 1933. Read more
• 04 Aug 1908: Kurt Eichhorn, German conductor (died 1994) Kurt Peter Eichhorn, was a German conductor. Read more
• 04 Aug 1906: Eugen Schuhmacher, German zoologist, director, and producer (died 1973) Eugen Schuhmacher was a German zoologist and pioneer of animal documentaries. Besides Bernhard Grzimek and Heinz Sielmann he belonged to the German wildlife documentary filmmakers with an international reputation. Read more
• 04 Aug 1905: Abeid Karume, 1st President of Zanzibar (died 1972) Abeid Amani Karume was a Tanzanian politician and statesman who served as the first president of Zanzibar and vice-president of Tanzania from 1964 until his assassination in 1972. Read more
• 04 Aug 1904: Witold Gombrowicz, Polish author and playwright (died 1969) Witold Marian Gombrowicz was a Polish writer and playwright. His works are characterised by deep psychological analysis, a certain sense of paradox and absurd, anti-nationalist flavor. In 1937, he published his first novel, Ferdydurke, which presented many of his usual themes: problems of immaturity and youth, creation of identity in interactions with others, and an ironic, critical examination of class roles in Polish society and culture. Read more
• 04 Aug 1902: Bill Hallahan, American baseball player (died 1981) William Anthony Hallahan was an American left-handed pitcher in Major League Baseball during the 1920s and 1930s. Nicknamed "Wild Bill" because of his lack of control on the mound—he twice led the National League in bases on balls—Hallahan nevertheless was one of the pitching stars of the 1931 World Series and pitched his finest in postseason competition. Read more
• 04 Aug 1901: Louis Armstrong, American trumpet player and singer (died 1971.) Louis Daniel Armstrong, nicknamed "Satchmo", "Satch", and "Pops", was an American jazz and blues trumpeter and vocalist. Among the most influential figures in jazz, his career spanned five decades and several eras in the history of the genre. Armstrong received numerous accolades, including the Grammy Award for Best Male Vocal Performance for "Hello, Dolly!" in 1965, as well as a posthumous win for the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 1972. His influence crossed musical genres, with inductions into the DownBeat Jazz Hall of Fame, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, and the National Rhythm & Blues Hall of Fame, among others. Read more
• 04 Aug 1900: Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother, Queen Consort of King George VI of the United Kingdom, Empress Consort of India (died 2002) Elizabeth Angela Marguerite Bowes-Lyon was Queen of the United Kingdom and the Dominions of the British Commonwealth from 11 December 1936 to 6 February 1952 as the wife of King George VI. She was also the last Empress of India from 1936 until the British Raj was dissolved on 15 August 1947. After her husband died, she was officially known as Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother to avoid confusion with her daughter Queen Elizabeth II. Read more
• 04 Aug 1899: Ezra Taft Benson, American religious leader, 13th President of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (died 1994) Ezra Taft Benson was an American farmer, federal government official, and religious leader. He served as the 15th United States Secretary of Agriculture during the entirety of both presidential terms of Dwight D. Eisenhower; he was the 13th president of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints from 1985 until his death in 1994. Read more
• 04 Aug 1898: Ernesto Maserati, Italian race car driver and engineer (died 1975) Ernesto Maserati was an Italian automotive engineer and racer, with Maserati of Modena since its inception in Bologna on 14 December 1914, together with his brothers Alfieri Maserati (leader), Ettore Maserati, Bindo Maserati and others. Read more
• 04 Aug 1893: Fritz Gause, German historian and curator (died 1973) Fritz Gause was a German historian, archivist, and curator described as the last great historian of his native city, Königsberg, East Prussia. Gause's most important work was his three-volume history of Königsberg, Die Geschichte der Stadt Königsberg in Preußen. He was connected to nationalist historic movement called Ostforschung Read more
• 04 Aug 1890: Dolf Luque, Cuban baseball player and manager (died 1957) Adolfo Domingo De Guzmán Luque was a Cuban starting pitcher in Major League Baseball (MLB) from 1914 to 1935. He spent 12 seasons of his career (1918–1929) with the Cincinnati Reds. Luque was not only the first Latin American pitcher in MLB, but also the first to earn a World Series win, and the first to lead the majors in wins, shutouts and earned run average (ERA). Read more
• 04 Aug 1888: Taher Saifuddin, Indian religious leader, 51st Da'i al-Mutlaq (died 1965) Syedna Taher Saifuddin, also known as Taher Saifuddin, was the 51st and longest serving Da'i al-Mutlaq of the Dawoodi Bohras. Saifuddin adapted the modernisation in Western and European ideas, and established its benefits for the Bohras, whilst still steeped in the traditions and the culture of the community's Fatimid heritage. Saifuddin laid substantial groundwork in terms of philanthropy, education, entrepreneurship, social outreach, political outreach, and community upliftment upon which his successors continued to build, resulting in an unprecedented era of prosperity among the Dawoodi Bohras. Read more
• 04 Aug 1887: Albert M. Greenfield, Ukrainian-American businessman and philanthropist (died 1967) Albert Monroe Greenfield was a real estate broker and developer who built his company into a vast East Coast network of department stores, banks, finance companies, hotels, newspapers, transportation companies, and the Loft Candy Corporation. His high-rise office buildings and hotels were instrumental in changing the face of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States, his base of operations. He formed business relationships across religious, ethnic and social lines and played a major role in reforming politics in Philadelphia as well as at the national level. Read more
• 04 Aug 1884: Béla Balázs, Hungarian poet and critic (died 1949) Béla Balázs, born Herbert Béla Bauer, was a Hungarian film critic, aesthetician, writer and poet of Jewish heritage. He was a proponent of formalist film theory. Read more
• 04 Aug 1884: Henri Cornet, French cyclist (died 1941) Henri Cornet was a French cyclist who won the 1904 Tour de France. He is its youngest winner, just short of his 20th birthday. Read more
• 04 Aug 1877: Dame Laura Knight, English artist (died 1970) Dame Laura Knight was an English artist who worked in oils, watercolours, etching, engraving and drypoint. Knight was a painter in the figurative, realist tradition, who embraced English Impressionism. In her long career, Knight was among the most successful and popular painters in Britain. Her success in the male-dominated British art establishment paved the way for greater status and recognition for female artists. Read more
• 04 Aug 1876: Giovanni Giuriati, Italian lawyer and politician (died 1970) Giovanni Giuriati was an Italian fascist politician. Read more
• 04 Aug 1876: John Scaddan, Australian politician, 10th Premier of Western Australia (died 1934) John Scaddan, CMG, popularly known as "Happy Jack", was Premier of Western Australia from 7 October 1911 until 27 July 1916. Read more
• 04 Aug 1871: William Holman, English-Australian politician, 19th Premier of New South Wales (died 1934) William Arthur Holman was an Australian politician who served as Premier of New South Wales from 1913 to 1920. He came to office as the leader of the Labor Party, but was expelled from the party in the split of 1916. He subsequently became the inaugural leader of the NSW branch of the Nationalist Party. Read more
• 04 Aug 1870: Harry Lauder, Scottish actor and singer (died 1950) Sir Harry Lauder was a Scottish singer, comedian and actor. Popular in both music hall and vaudeville theatre traditions; he achieved international success. Read more
• 04 Aug 1868: Master C. V. V., Indian philosopher, yogi and guru (died 1922) Canchupati Venkatarao Venkaswami Rao(4 August 1868 – 12 May 1922), referred as Master C.V.V. in his own handwritten original writings, was an Indian philosopher, yogi, and guru. Master C.V.V. served as the Chairman of Kumbakonam Municipal Council for some time and later carried out successful spiritual experimentations on changes in human format design. He wrote of such experiments in Tamil and thousands of pages of such hand written notes provide the details of the complexities involved in this process. Read more
• 04 Aug 1867: Jake Beckley, American baseball player and coach (died 1918) Jacob Peter Beckley, nicknamed "Eagle Eye", was an American professional baseball first baseman. He played in Major League Baseball for the Pittsburgh Alleghenys, Pittsburgh Burghers, Pittsburgh Pirates, New York Giants, Cincinnati Reds and St. Louis Cardinals from 1888 to 1907. Read more
• 04 Aug 1861: Daniel Edward Howard, 16th president of Liberia (died 1935) Daniel Edward Howard was the 16th president of Liberia, serving from 1912 to 1920. Read more
• 04 Aug 1859: Knut Hamsun, Norwegian novelist, poet, and playwright, Nobel Prize laureate (died 1952) Knut Hamsun was a Norwegian writer who was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1920. Hamsun's work spans more than 70 years and shows variation with regard to consciousness, subject, perspective and environment. He published more than 23 novels, a collection of poetry, some short stories and plays, a travelogue, works of non-fiction and some essays. Read more
• 04 Aug 1853: John Henry Twachtman, American painter, etcher, and academic (died 1902) John Henry Twachtman was an American painter best known for his impressionist landscapes, though his painting style varied widely through his career. Art historians consider Twachtman's style of American Impressionism to be among the more personal and experimental of his generation. He was a member of "The Ten," a loosely-allied group of American artists dissatisfied with professional art organizations, who banded together in 1898 to exhibit their works as a stylistically unified group. Read more
• 04 Aug 1844: Henri Berger, German composer and bandleader (died 1929) Henry Berger was a Prussian-born Kapellmeister, composer, and royal bandmaster of the Kingdom of Hawaiʻi from 1872 to 1915. Read more
• 04 Aug 1839: Walter Pater, English author, critic, and academic (died 1894) Walter Horatio Pater was an English essayist, art and literary critic, and fiction writer, regarded as one of the great stylists. His first and most often reprinted book, Studies in the History of the Renaissance (1873), revised as The Renaissance: Studies in Art and Poetry (1877), in which he outlined his approach to art and advocated an ideal of the intense inner life, was taken by many as a manifesto of Aestheticism. Read more
• 04 Aug 1836: Jens Vilhelm Dahlerup, Danish architect (died 1907) Jens Vilhelm Dahlerup was a Danish architect who specialized in the Historicist style. One of the most productive and noted Danish architects of the 19th century, he is behind many of the most known buildings and landmarks of his time and has more than any other single architect contributed to the way Copenhagen appears today. Read more
• 04 Aug 1834: John Venn, English mathematician and philosopher (died 1923) John Venn, FRS, FSA was an English mathematician, logician and philosopher noted for introducing Venn diagrams, which are used in logic, set theory, probability, statistics, and computer science. In 1866, Venn published The Logic of Chance, a groundbreaking book which espoused the frequency theory of probability, arguing that probability should be determined by how often something is forecast to occur as opposed to "educated" assumptions. Venn then further developed George Boole's theories in the 1881 work Symbolic Logic, where he highlighted what would become known as Venn diagrams. Read more
• 04 Aug 1821: Louis Vuitton, French fashion designer, founded Louis Vuitton (died 1892) Louis Vuitton was a French malletier and businessman. He was the founder of the Louis Vuitton brand of leather goods now owned by LVMH. Prior to this, he had been appointed as trunk-maker to Eugénie de Montijo, wife of Napoleon III. Read more
• 04 Aug 1821: James Springer White, American religious leader, co-founded the Seventh-day Adventist Church (died 1881) James Springer White, also known as Elder White, was a co-founder of the Seventh-day Adventist Church and the husband of Ellen G. White. In 1849, he started the first Sabbatarian Adventist periodical entitled The Present Truth, in 1855 he relocated the fledgling center of the movement to Battle Creek, Michigan, and in 1863 played a pivotal role in the formal organization of the denomination. He later played a major role in the development of the Adventist educational structure beginning in 1874 with the formation of Battle Creek College. Read more
• 04 Aug 1805: William Rowan Hamilton, Irish physicist, astronomer, and mathematician (died 1865) Sir William Rowan Hamilton was an Irish mathematician, physicist, and astronomer who made numerous major contributions to algebra, classical mechanics, and optics. His theoretical works and mathematical equations are considered fundamental to modern theoretical physics, particularly his reformulation of Lagrangian mechanics. His research included the analysis of geometrical optics, Fourier analysis, and quaternions, the last of which made him one of the founders of modern linear algebra. Read more

Notable Deaths on 04 August

• 04 Aug 2024: Charles Cyphers, American actor (born 1939) Charles George Cyphers was an American actor who is known in the horror movie community for his work in the films of John Carpenter, especially his role as Sheriff Leigh Brackett in Carpenter's 1978 movie Halloween. He reprised this role in the 1981 sequel Halloween II and the 2021 sequel Halloween Kills. Read more
• 04 Aug 2024: Tsung-Dao Lee, Chinese-American physicist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (born 1926) Tsung-Dao Lee was a Chinese-American physicist known for his work on parity violation, the Lee–Yang theorem, particle physics, relativistic heavy ion (RHIC) physics, nontopological solitons, and soliton stars. He was a university professor emeritus at Columbia University in New York City, where he taught from 1953 until his retirement in 2012. Read more
• 04 Aug 2024: Duane Thomas, American football player (born 1947) Duane Julius Thomas was an American professional football player who was a running back in the National Football League (NFL) for the Dallas Cowboys and the Washington Redskins. He played college football for the West Texas State Buffaloes. Read more
• 04 Aug 2023: Dalia Fadila, Israeli educator (born 1971/1972) Dalia Fadila was an Israeli educator. She developed a new curriculum, textbooks, and schools in Israel and Jordan, which are designed to teach English to Arab schoolchildren. She was the first Arab woman to found and manage an education chain in Israel. Read more
• 04 Aug 2019: Nuon Chea, Cambodian politician and theorist for the Khmer Rouge (born 1926) Nuon Chea, also known as Long Bunruot or Rungloet Laodi, was a Cambodian politician and revolutionary who was the chief ideologist of the Khmer Rouge. He also briefly served as acting Prime Minister of Democratic Kampuchea. He was commonly known as "Brother Number Two" (បងធំទី២), as he was second-in-command to Khmer Rouge leader Pol Pot, General Secretary of the Party, during the Cambodian genocide of 1975–1979. In 2014, Nuon Chea received a life sentence for crimes against humanity, alongside another top-tier Khmer Rouge leader, Khieu Samphan, and a further trial convicted him of genocide in 2018. These life sentences were merged into a single life sentence by the Trial Chamber on 16 November 2018. He died while serving his sentence in 2019. Nuon Chea was a proponent of what he called "Dialectical Materialist Buddhism". Read more
• 04 Aug 2015: Elsie Hillman, American philanthropist and politician (born 1925) Elsie Hilliard Hillman was a Pittsburgh based philanthropist and a former Republican National Committeewoman. She was the wife of billionaire industrialist Henry Hillman. During her life, Hillman helped to advance the careers of a number of moderate Republican politicians to state and national offices. Among the politicians whose careers she fostered are President George H. W. Bush, Senator John Heinz, and Pennsylvania governors Dick Thornburgh and Tom Ridge. Read more
• 04 Aug 2015: Les Munro, New Zealand soldier and pilot (born 1919) Squadron Leader John Leslie Munro, was a Royal New Zealand Air Force pilot during World War II and the last surviving pilot of the Dambusters Raid of May 1943. Read more
• 04 Aug 2015: John Rudometkin, American basketball player (born 1940) John Rudometkin was an American professional basketball player for the New York Knicks and San Francisco Warriors in the National Basketball Association (NBA). He was selected in the second round as the 11th pick in the 1962 NBA draft by the Knicks and spent three seasons playing in the league. Rudometkin was nicknamed "the Reckless Russian" by Chick Hearn, the Los Angeles Lakers broadcaster who used to broadcast USC men's basketball games before transitioning to the NBA. Read more
• 04 Aug 2015: Billy Sherrill, American songwriter and producer (born 1936) Billy Norris Sherrill was an American record producer, songwriter, and arranger associated with country artists, notably Tammy Wynette and George Jones. Sherrill and business partner Glenn Sutton are regarded as the defining influences of the countrypolitan sound, a smooth amalgamation of pop and country music that was popular during the late 1960s and throughout the 1970s. Sherrill also co-wrote many hit songs, including "Stand by Your Man" and "The Most Beautiful Girl". Read more
• 04 Aug 2014: James Brady, American activist and politician, 15th White House Press Secretary (born 1940) James Scott Brady was an American journalist, politician, activist and American public official who served as assistant to the U.S. president and the 17th White House press secretary, serving under President Ronald Reagan. On March 30, 1981, John Hinckley Jr. shot and wounded Brady during Hinckley’s attempted assassination of Ronald Reagan, which occurred two months and 10 days after Reagan's inauguration. Read more
• 04 Aug 2014: Chester Crandell, American lawyer and politician (born 1946) Chester J. Crandell was an American politician and a Republican member of the Arizona Senate representing District 6 since January 14, 2013. Crandell served consecutively in the Arizona State Legislature from January 10, 2011, until January 14, 2013, in the Arizona House of Representatives District 5 seat. Read more
• 04 Aug 2014: Jake Hooker, Israeli-American guitarist and songwriter (born 1953) Jerry Mamberg, often known as Jake Hooker, Jake Richards, or Jake Falsworth, was a musician, best known as the guitarist for the rock/pop band Arrows. Read more
• 04 Aug 2013: Keith H. Basso, American anthropologist and academic (born 1940) Keith Hamilton Basso was an American cultural and linguistic anthropologist noted for his study of the Western Apaches, specifically those from the community of Cibecue, Arizona. Basso was professor emeritus of anthropology at the University of New Mexico and earlier taught at the University of Arizona and Yale University. Read more
• 04 Aug 2013: Art Donovan, American football player and radio host (born 1925) Arthur James "Fatso" Donovan Jr., was an American professional football player who was a defensive tackle for three National Football League (NFL) teams, primarily the Baltimore Colts. He played college football for the Boston College Eagles. He was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1968. Read more
• 04 Aug 2013: Olavi J. Mattila, Finnish engineer and politician, Finnish Minister of Foreign Affairs (born 1918) Olavi Johannes Mattila was a Finnish politician who served twice as the Finnish Minister for Foreign Affairs, and also held several other ministerial positions in a number of cabinets in the 1960s and 1970s. He was also the CEO of state owned Valmet. He was considered as a close associate of Urho Kekkonen. Read more
• 04 Aug 2013: Renato Ruggiero, Italian lawyer and politician, Italian Minister of Foreign Affairs (born 1930) Renato Ruggiero was an Italian diplomat and politician. He was Director-General of the World Trade Organization from 1995 to 1999 and briefly served as Italy's Foreign Minister in 2001. Read more
• 04 Aug 2013: Tony Snell, English lieutenant and pilot (born 1922) Flight Lieutenant Anthony Noel Snell, was a British RAF pilot during the Second World War. He flew in the North African campaign in 1942 and was shot down during the Allied invasion of Sicily in 1943. Initially captured by the Germans, he escaped from a firing squad but was later recaptured. He escaped captivity again while in Italy and became one of the very few men awarded the DSO solely for escaping from the enemy. Read more
• 04 Aug 2013: Sandy Woodward, English admiral (born 1932) Admiral Sir John Forster "Sandy" Woodward was a senior Royal Navy officer who commanded the Task Force of the Falklands War. Read more
• 04 Aug 2012: Johnnie Bassett, American singer-songwriter and guitarist (born 1935) Johnnie Alexander Bassett was a Detroit-based American electric blues guitarist, singer, and songwriter. Working for decades primarily as a session musician, by the 1990s Bassett had his own backing band. He released seven albums in his lifetime. He cited Billy Butler, Tiny Grimes, Albert King, B.B. King and especially T-Bone Walker as major influences. Read more
• 04 Aug 2012: Brian Crozier, Australian-English journalist and historian (born 1918) Brian Rossiter Crozier was a British historian, propagandist and journalist. He was also one of the central staff members of a secret propaganda department belonging to the UK Foreign Office, known as the Information Research Department (IRD) which republished and supported much of his work. Read more
• 04 Aug 2012: Bud Riley, American football player and coach (born 1925) Edward Jones "Bud" Riley Jr. was an American college football coach who served as an assistant coach at the University of Idaho and Oregon State University. Read more
• 04 Aug 2011: Naoki Matsuda, Japanese footballer (born 1977) Naoki Matsuda was a Japanese professional footballer who played as a central defender for the Japan national team. Read more
• 04 Aug 2009: Blake Snyder, American screenwriter and producer (born 1957) Blake Snyder was an American screenwriter, consultant, author and educator based in Los Angeles. His screenplays include the comedies Stop! Or My Mom Will Shoot (1992) and Blank Check (1994). Read more
• 04 Aug 2008: Craig Jones, English motorcycle racer (born 1985) Craig Jones was an English motorcycle racer. He grew up in the town of Northwich in Cheshire and attended Charles Darwin Primary School, and later Hartford High School. He died in 2008, shortly after a racing accident when he fell and was struck by another motorcycle. Read more
• 04 Aug 2007: Lee Hazlewood, American singer-songwriter and producer (born 1929) Barton Lee Hazlewood was an American country and pop singer, songwriter, and record producer, most widely known for his work with guitarist Duane Eddy during the late 1950s and singer Nancy Sinatra in the 1960s and 1970s.
  His collaborations with Sinatra as well as his solo output in the late 1960s and early 1970s have been praised as an essential contribution to a sound often described as "cowboy psychedelia" or "saccharine underground". Rolling Stone ranked Lee Hazlewood & Nancy Sinatra No. 9 on its list of the 20 Greatest Duos of All Time. Read more
• 04 Aug 2007: Raul Hilberg, Austrian-American political scientist and historian (born 1926) Raul Hilberg was a Jewish Austrian-born American political scientist, historian, and Holocaust researcher. He was widely considered to be the preeminent scholar on the Holocaust. Read more
• 04 Aug 2005: Anatoly Larkin, Russian-American physicist and theorist (born 1932) Anatoly Ivanovich Larkin was a Russian theoretical physicist. Read more
• 04 Aug 2005: Iván Szabó, Hungarian economist and politician, Minister of Finance of Hungary (born 1934) Iván Szabó was a Hungarian politician, who served as Minister of Finance between 1993 and 1994. He joined to the Hungarian Democratic Forum in 1988. He was chosen to the party's presidency in 1990. After the death of József Antall (1993) he served as manager president. Szabó was member of the National Assembly of Hungary since 1990. Between June 1990 and December 1991 he served as the Chairman of the Assembly's Economical Committee. He was appointed Minister of Industry, Trade and Tourism in 1991. He became faction leader in 1994. Read more
• 04 Aug 2004: Mary Sherman Morgan, American chemist and engineer (born 1921) Mary Sherman Morgan was an American rocket fuel scientist credited with the invention of the liquid fuel Hydyne in 1957, which powered the Jupiter-C rocket that boosted the United States' first satellite, Explorer 1. Read more
• 04 Aug 2004: Hossein Panahi (Persian: حسین پناهی), Iranian actor and poet (born 1956) Hossein Panahi Dezhkooh was an Iranian actor and poet.
  After graduating from high school, due to his father's recommendation, he found his way to Ayatollah Golpaygaani's religious class. Hossein then returned to his hometown as a religious figure, but this lasted only for a few months. He then moved to Tehran and started studying in Anahita art school for four years and graduated as an actor and a screenwriter. Read more
• 04 Aug 2003: Frederick Chapman Robbins, American pediatrician and virologist, Nobel Prize laureate (born 1916) Frederick Chapman Robbins was an American pediatrician and virologist. He was born in Auburn, Alabama, and grew up in Columbia, Missouri, attending David H. Hickman High School. Read more
• 04 Aug 1999: Victor Mature, American actor (born 1913) Victor John Mature was an American stage, film, and television actor who was a leading man in Hollywood during the 1940s and 1950s. His best known film roles include One Million B.C. (1940), My Darling Clementine (1946), Kiss of Death (1947), Samson and Delilah (1949), and The Robe (1953). He also appeared in many musicals opposite such stars as Rita Hayworth and Betty Grable. Read more
• 04 Aug 1998: Yury Artyukhin, Russian colonel, engineer, and astronaut (born 1930) Yuri Petrovich Artyukhin was a Soviet Russian cosmonaut and engineer who made a single flight into space. Read more
• 04 Aug 1997: Jeanne Calment, French super-centenarian; holds records for the world's substantiated longest-lived person (born 1875) Jeanne Louise Calment was a French supercentenarian who is the oldest person in recorded history whose age has been verified, with a documented lifespan of 122 years and 164 days. Her longevity attracted media attention and medical studies of her health and lifestyle. Calment is the only person in history who has been verified to have reached the age of 120 years. Read more
• 04 Aug 1996: Geoff Hamilton, English gardener, author, and television host (born 1936) Geoffrey Stephen Hamilton was an English gardener, broadcaster and author, best known as presenter of BBC television's Gardeners' World in the 1980s and 1990s. Read more
• 04 Aug 1992: Seichō Matsumoto, Japanese author (born 1909) Seichō Matsumoto was a Japanese writer, credited with popularizing detective fiction in Japan. Read more
• 04 Aug 1990: Ettore Maserati, Italian engineer and businessman (born 1894) Ettore Maserati was an Italian automotive engineer, one of five brothers who founded the Maserati firm in Bologna 1914. He was born in Voghera. Read more
• 04 Aug 1985: Don Whillans, English rock climber and mountaineer (born 1933) Donald Desbrow Whillans was an English rock climber and mountaineer. He climbed with Joe Brown and Chris Bonington. Read more
• 04 Aug 1982: Bruce Goff, American architect, designed the Boston Avenue Methodist Church (born 1904) Bruce Alonzo Goff was an American architect, distinguished by his organic, eclectic, and often flamboyant designs for houses and other buildings in Oklahoma and elsewhere. Read more
• 04 Aug 1981: Melvyn Douglas, American actor (born 1901) Melvyn Douglas was an American actor, whose stage and screen careers spanned from the late 1920s until the early 1980s. He was one of 24 performers to win the Triple Crown of Acting – winning two Academy Awards, a Primetime Emmy Award, and a Tony Award. Read more
• 04 Aug 1977: Edgar Adrian, 1st Baron Adrian, English physiologist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (born 1889) Edgar Douglas Adrian, 1st Baron Adrian was an English electrophysiologist and recipient of the 1932 Nobel Prize for Physiology, won jointly with Sir Charles Sherrington for work on the function of neurons. He provided experimental evidence for the all-or-none law of nerves. Read more
• 04 Aug 1976: Enrique Angelelli, Argentinian bishop and martyr (born 1923) Enrique Ángel Angelelli Carletti was a bishop of the Catholic Church in Argentina who was assassinated during the Dirty War for his involvement with social issues. Angelelli commitment to the "Church of the Poor" offered a model for the future Pope Francis. Read more
• 04 Aug 1976: Roy Thomson, 1st Baron Thomson of Fleet, Canadian-English publisher (born 1894) Roy Herbert Thomson, 1st Baron Thomson of Fleet, was a Canadian-born British newspaper proprietor who became one of the moguls of Fleet Street in London. Read more
• 04 Aug 1967: Peter Smith, English cricketer (born 1908) Thomas Peter Bromley Smith was an English cricketer, who played for Essex and England. Smith was one of the five Wisden Cricketers of the Year in 1947. An all-rounder, Smith played for Essex from 1929 to 1951. Read more
• 04 Aug 1964: Nätti-Jussi, Finnish lumberjack and forest laborer (born 1890) Juho Vihtori Nätti, known as "Nätti-Jussi" was a Finnish forest laborer. The stories told by Nätti made him a legendary figure, particularly in Lapland. Nätti was born to a six-member family in Karstula, Central Finland, in August 1890. His parents were log driver Juho Nätti and hostess Maija Nätti. He had three sisters. Nätti migrated with other members of his family to the Northern logging sites, and worked there for most of his life. He was a well-known lumberjack who was known in Tervola, Pisa, Muurola and Rovaniemi. Read more
• 04 Aug 1962: Marilyn Monroe, American model and actress (born 1926) Marilyn Monroe was an American actress and model. Known for playing comic "Blonde bombshell" characters, she became one of the most popular sex symbols of the 1950s and early 1960s, as well as an emblem of the era's sexual revolution. She was a top-billed actress for a decade, and her films grossed $200 million by her death in 1962. Read more
• 04 Aug 1961: Margarito Bautista, Nahua-Mexican evangelizer, theologian, and religious founder (born 1878) Margarito Bautista was a Mexican evangelist and religious founder who wrote and preached for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. After converting in 1901, Bautista preached for the church through word and writing for three decades and spent time in Mexico and Utah. During this time, Bautista developed a theology that fused Book of Mormon doctrine with Mexican nationalism, and he claimed Mexicans held a birthright to lead the church and someday the world. The church's Anglo-American leaders often considered Bautista's interpretations out of line with official doctrine, but they became very popular with Mexican Latter-day Saints. Read more
• 04 Aug 1959: József Révai, Hungarian politician, Hungarian Minister of Education (born 1898) József Révai was a Hungarian communist politician, statesman and cultural ideologue. Read more
• 04 Aug 1958: Ethel Anderson, Australian poet, author, and painter (born 1883) Ethel Campbell Louise Anderson was an early twentieth century Australian poet, essayist, novelist and painter. She considered herself to be mainly a poet, but is now best appreciated for her witty and ironic stories. Anderson has been described as "a high-profile author, artist, art commentator and emissary for modernism". Read more
• 04 Aug 1957: John Cain Sr., Australian politician, 34th Premier of Victoria (born 1882) John Cain was an Australian politician who served as the 34th Premier of Victoria. He was the first Labor Party leader to win a majority in the Victorian Legislative Assembly, and is the only premier of Victoria whose son has also served as premier. Read more
• 04 Aug 1957: Washington Luís, Brazilian lawyer and politician, 13th President of Brazil (born 1869) Washington Luís Pereira de Sousa was a Brazilian politician who served as the 13th president of Brazil. Elected governor of São Paulo state in 1920 and president of Brazil in 1926, Washington Luís belonged to the Republican Party of São Paulo (PRP) and served as the last president of the First Brazilian Republic. Read more
• 04 Aug 1944: Krzysztof Kamil Baczyński, Polish soldier and poet (born 1921) Krzysztof Kamil Baczyński, was a Polish poet and Home Army soldier, one of the most well known of the Generation of Columbuses, the young generation of Polish poets, of whom several perished in the Warsaw Uprising and during the German occupation of Poland. Read more
• 04 Aug 1942: Alberto Franchetti, Italian composer and educator (born 1860) Alberto Franchetti was an Italian composer and racing driver, best known for the 1902 opera Germania. Read more
• 04 Aug 1941: Mihály Babits, Hungarian poet and author (born 1883) Mihály Babits was a Hungarian poet, writer, essayist, and translator. His poems are well known for their intense religious themes. His novels such as “The Children of Death” (1927) explore psychological problems. Read more
• 04 Aug 1940: Ze'ev Jabotinsky, Ukrainian-American general, journalist, and activist (born 1880) Ze'ev Jabotinsky was a Zionist leader, orator, writer, and soldier. He was the founder of the Revisionist Zionist movement and its associated organizations, including the Union of Revisionist Zionists (Hatzohar), New Zionist Organization, Betar youth movement, and paramilitary Irgun. Read more
• 04 Aug 1938: Pearl White, American actress (born 1889) Pearl Fay White was an American stage and film actress. She began her career on the stage at age 6, and later moved on to silent films appearing in a number of popular serials. Read more
• 04 Aug 1932: Alfred Henry Maurer, American painter (born 1868) Alfred Henry Maurer was an American modernist painter. He exhibited his work in avant-garde circles internationally and in New York City during the early twentieth century. Highly respected today, his work met with little critical or commercial success in his lifetime, and he died, a suicide, at the age of sixty-four. Read more
• 04 Aug 1922: Enver Pasha, Ottoman general and politician (born 1881) İsmâil Enver Pasha was an Ottoman Turkish military officer, revolutionary, and convicted war criminal who was a part of the dictatorial triumvirate known as the "Three Pashas" in the Ottoman Empire. Read more
• 04 Aug 1919: Dave Gregory, Australian cricketer and umpire (born 1845) David William Gregory was an Australian cricketer. A right-handed batsman, Gregory was the first Australian national cricket captain, leading the side for the first three recognised Test matches between England and Australia in March and April 1877 and January 1879. Gregory was also the captain of the New South Wales team, notably during the Sydney Riot of 1879 when he rebelled against an unpopular decision by Victorian umpire George Coulthard during a game against the touring English team. Read more
• 04 Aug 1914: Jules Lemaître, French playwright and critic (born 1853) François Élie Jules Lemaître was a French critic and dramatist. Read more
• 04 Aug 1900: Isaac Levitan, Russian painter and educator (born 1860) Isaac Ilyich Levitan was a Russian landscape painter who advanced the genre of the "mood landscape". Read more
• 04 Aug 1886: Samuel J. Tilden, American lawyer and politician, 25th Governor of New York (born 1814) Samuel Jones Tilden was an American politician who served as the 25th governor of New York and was the Democratic nominee in the disputed 1876 United States presidential election. Read more
• 04 Aug 1875: Hans Christian Andersen, Danish novelist, short story writer, and poet (born 1805) Hans Christian Andersen was a Danish writer. Although a prolific writer of plays, travelogues, novels, and poems, he is best remembered for his literary fairy tales. Read more
• 04 Aug 1873: Viktor Hartmann, Russian architect and painter (born 1834) Viktor Aleksandrovich Hartmann or Gartman was a Russian architect and painter. He was associated with the Abramtsevo Colony, purchased and preserved beginning in 1870 by Savva Mamontov, and the Russian Revival. Read more
• 04 Aug 1859: John Vianney, French priest and saint (born 1786) John Vianney was a French Catholic priest and member of the Third Order of Mary who is often referred to as the Curé d'Ars. Canonized a saint in 1925, he is known for his priestly and pastoral work in his parish in Ars, France, resulting in the radical spiritual transformation of the community and its surroundings. Catholics note his saintly life, mortification, persevering ministry in the sacrament of confession, and ardent devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary. His feast day is 4 August. He is the patron saint of parish priests. Read more
• 04 Aug 1844: Jacob Aall, Norwegian economist, historian, and politician (born 1773) Jacob Aall was a Norwegian politician, historian, landowner and government economist. Read more
• 04 Aug 1822: Kristjan Jaak Peterson, Estonian poet and author (born 1801) Kristjan Jaak Peterson, also known as Christian Jacob Petersohn, was an Estonian poet, commonly regarded as a herald of Estonian national literature and the founder of modern Estonian poetry. Read more
• 04 Aug 1804: Adam Duncan, 1st Viscount Duncan, Scottish admiral (born 1731) Admiral of the White Adam Duncan, 1st Viscount Duncan was a Royal Navy officer who served in the Seven Years' War, American War of Independence and French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars. He is best known for defeating the Batavian Navy at the 1797 Battle of Camperdown, which was one of the most significant naval battles of the French Revolutionary Wars. Read more

Why is 04 August Important in History?

04 August is important because many political, cultural, scientific, educational and social events took place on this date. These facts are useful for students, exam aspirants and readers interested in daily history and general knowledge.

History of Today 04 August for Competitive Exams

Questions based on today in history, famous personalities, historical events and important dates are often asked in UPSC, SSC, Banking, Railway, Defence and State PSC examinations.

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Frequently Asked Questions

What happened on 04 August in history?

On 04 August, many important historical events, famous births and notable deaths occurred across the world.

Why is History of Today important for exams?

History of Today helps students remember important dates, events and personalities for competitive exams like UPSC, SSC, Banking, Railway and PSC.

Where can I read daily history facts?

You can read daily history facts on this History of Today section, updated regularly with important events, births and deaths.