On This Day — 4 October
2000s
2017
Joint Nigerien-American Special Forces are ambushed by Islamic State militants outside the village of Tongo Tongo.
United States Army Special Forces
2010
The Ajka plant accident in Hungary releases a million cubic metres of liquid alumina sludge, killing nine, injuring 122, and severely contaminating two major rivers.
Ajka alumina plant accident
2006
WikiLeaks is launched.
WikiLeaks
2004
SpaceShipOne wins the Ansari X Prize for private spaceflight.
SpaceShipOne
2003
The Maxim restaurant suicide bombing in Israel kills twenty-one Israelis, both Jews and Arabs.
Maxim restaurant suicide bombing
2001
Siberia Airlines Flight 1812 crashes after being struck by an errant Ukrainian missile. Seventy-eight people are killed.
Siberia Airlines Flight 1812
1900s
1997
The second largest cash robbery in U.S. history occurs in North Carolina.
October 1997 Loomis Fargo robbery
1993
Battle of Mogadishu occurs killing 18 U.S. Special Forces, two UN Peacekeepers and at least 600 Somalian militia men and civilians.
Battle of Mogadishu (1993)
1993
Tanks bombard the Russian parliament, while demonstrators against President Yeltsin rally outside.
1993 Russian constitutional crisis
1992
The Rome General Peace Accords end a 16-year civil war in Mozambique.
Rome General Peace Accords
1992
El Al Flight 1862 crashes into two apartment buildings in Amsterdam, killing 43 including 39 on the ground.
El Al Flight 1862
1991
The Protocol on Environmental Protection to the Antarctic Treaty is opened for signature.
Protocol on Environmental Protection to the Antarctic Treaty
1985
The Free Software Foundation is founded.
Free Software Foundation
1983
Richard Noble sets a new land speed record of 633.468 miles per hour (1,019.468 km/h) at the Black Rock Desert in Nevada.
Richard Noble
1967
Omar Ali Saifuddien III of Brunei abdicates in favour of his son.
Omar Ali Saifuddien III
1966
Basutoland becomes independent from the United Kingdom and is renamed Lesotho.
Basutoland
1965
Pope Paul VI begins the first papal visit to the Americas.
Pope Paul VI
1963
Hurricane Flora kills 6,000 in Cuba and Haiti.
Hurricane Flora
1960
Eastern Airlines flight 375 crashes on takeoff from Boston's Logan International Airport, killing 62 people of the 72 aboard.
Eastern Air Lines Flight 375
1958
The current constitution of France is adopted.
Constitution of France
1957
Sputnik 1 becomes the first artificial satellite to orbit the Earth.
Sputnik 1
1941
Norman Rockwell's Willie Gillis character debuts on the cover of The Saturday Evening Post.
Willie Gillis
1936
The Metropolitan Police and various anti-fascist organizations violently clash in the Battle of Cable Street.
Metropolitan Police
1927
Gutzon Borglum begins sculpting Mount Rushmore.
Gutzon Borglum
1925
Great Syrian Revolt: Rebels led by Fawzi al-Qawuqji capture Hama from the French Mandate of Syria.
Great Syrian Revolt
1925
S2, a Finnish Sokol class torpedo boat, sinks during a fierce storm near the coast of Pori in the Gulf of Bothnia, taking with it the whole crew of 53.
Finnish torpedo boat S2
1920
The Mannerheim League for Child Welfare, a Finnish non-governmental organization, is founded on the initiative of Sophie Mannerheim.
Mannerheim League for Child Welfare
1918
World War I: An explosion kills more than 100 people and destroys a Shell Loading Plant in New Jersey.
T. A. Gillespie Company Shell Loading Plant explosion
1917
World War I: The Battle of Broodseinde is fought between the British and German armies in Flanders.
World War I
1800s
1895
Horace Rawlins wins the first U.S. Open Men's Golf Championship.
Horace Rawlins
1883
First run of the Orient Express.
Orient Express
1883
First meeting of the Boys' Brigade in Glasgow, Scotland.
Boys' Brigade
1876
The Agricultural and Mechanical College of Texas (now known as Texas A&M) opens as the first public college in Texas.
Texas A&M University
1862
American Civil War: The two-day Second Battle of Corinth ends in a Union victory, with General William Rosecrans protecting the critical rail junction of Corinth, Mississippi from Confederate forces under General Earl Van Dorn.
American Civil War
1853
The Crimean War begins when the Ottoman Empire declares war on the Russian Empire.
Crimean War
1830
The Belgian Revolution takes legal form when the provisional government secedes from the Netherlands.
Belgian Revolution
1824
Mexico adopts a new constitution and becomes a federal republic.
1824 Constitution of Mexico
Before 1800
1795
Napoleon first rises to prominence by suppressing counter-revolutionary rioters threatening the National Convention.
13 Vendémiaire
1777
American Revolutionary War: Troops under George Washington are repelled by British troops under William Howe.
American Revolutionary War
1693
Nine Years' War: Piedmontese troops are defeated by the French.
Nine Years' War
1636
Thirty Years' War: The Swedish Army defeats the armies of Saxony and the Holy Roman Empire at the Battle of Wittstock.
Thirty Years' War
1602
Eighty Years' War and the Anglo-Spanish War: A fleet of Spanish galleys are defeated by English and Dutch galleons in the English Channel.
Eighty Years' War
1597
Governor Gonzalo Méndez de Canço begins to suppress a native uprising against his rule in what is now the US state of Georgia.
Gonzalo Méndez de Canço
1582
The Gregorian Calendar is introduced by Pope Gregory XIII.
Gregorian calendar
1535
The Coverdale Bible is printed, with translations into English by William Tyndale and Myles Coverdale.
Coverdale Bible
1511
Formation of the Holy League of Aragon, the Papal States and Venice against France.
War of the League of Cambrai
1363
Battle of Lake Poyang: In one of the largest naval battles in history, Zhu Yuanzhang's rebels defeat rival Chen Youliang.
Battle of Lake Poyang
1302
The Byzantine–Venetian War comes to an end.
Byzantine–Venetian War (1296–1302)
1209
Otto IV is crowned Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire by Pope Innocent III.
Otto IV, Holy Roman Emperor
23
Rebels sack the Chinese capital Chang'an during a peasant rebellion.
AD 23