September 4

1260 At the Battle of Montaperto in Italy, the Tuscan Ghibellines, who support the emperor, defeat the Florentine Guelfs, who support papal power.

1479 After four years of war, Spain agrees to allow a Portuguese monopoly of trade along Africa’s west coast and Portugal acknowledges Spain’s rights in the Canary Islands.

1781 Los Angeles, first an Indian village Yangma, is founded by Spanish decree.

1787 Louis XVI of France recalls parliament.

1790 Jacques Necker is forced to resign as finance minister in France.

1804 USS Intrepid explodes while entering Tripoli harbor on a mission to destroy the enemy fleet there during the First Barbary War.

1820 Czar Alexander declares that Russian influence in North America extends as far south as Oregon and closes Alaskan waters to foreigners.

1862 Robert E. Lee’s Confederate army invades Maryland, starting the Antietam Campaign.

1870 A republic is proclaimed in Paris and a government of national defense is formed.

1881 The Edison electric lighting system goes into operation as a generator serving 85 paying customers is switched on.

1886 Elusive Apache leader Geronimo surrenders to General Nelson A. Miles at Skeleton Canyon, Ariz.

1893 Beatrix Potter sends a note to her governess’ son with the first drawing of Peter Rabbit, Cottontail and others. The Tale of Petter Rabbit is published eight years later.

1915 The U.S. military places Haiti under martial law to quell a rebellion in its capital Port-au-Prince.

1941 German submarine U-652 fires at the U.S. destroyer Greer off Iceland, beginning an undeclared shooting war.

1942 Soviet planes bomb Budapest in the war’s first air raid on the Hungarian capital.

1943 Allied troops capture Lae-Salamaua, in New Guinea.

1944 British troops liberate Antwerp, Belgium.

1945 The American flag is raised on Wake Island after surrender ceremonies there.

1951 The first transcontinental television broadcast in America is carried by 94 stations.

1957 Arkansas governor Orval Faubus calls out the National Guard to bar African-American students from entering a Little Rock high school.

1967 Operation Swift begins as US Marines engage North Vietnamese Army troops in Que Son Valley.

1972 Mark Spitz becomes first Olympic competitor to win 7 medals during a single Olympics Games.

1975 Sinai II Agreement between Egypt and Israel pledges that conflicts between the two countries "shall not be resolved by military force but by peaceful means."

1998 Google founded by Stanford University students Larry Page and Sergey Brin.

Born on September 4

1768 Vicomte François René de Chateaubriand, French writer and chef who gave his name to a style of steak.

1846 Daniel Hudson Burnham, architect and city planner.

1905 Mary Renault (Mary Challans), author who wrote about her wartime experiences in The Last of the Wine and The King Must Die.

1908 Richard Wright, novelist best known for Native Son.

1918 Paul Harvy, radio commentator.

1920 Craig Claiborne, food critic and cookbook author.

1920 Maggie Higgins, the first woman to win the Pulitzer Prize (1951) for international reporting, for her work in Korean war zones.

1924 Joan Delano Aiken, author of supernatural fiction and alternative history novels for children; won Guardian Children’s Fiction Prize (The Whispering Mountain), an Edgar Allen Poe Award (Night Fall) and an MBE (Member of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire) for her contributions to children’s literature.

1927 John McCarthy, computer and cognitive scientist who coined the term "artificial intelligence."

1931 Mitzi Gaynor, actress, singer, dancer (film adaptations of There’s No Business Like Show Business, South Pacific).

1934 Sir Clive William John Granger, British economist who received the Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences.

1935 Charles A. Hines, US Army major general.

1958 Dr. Drew (David Drew Pinsky), syndicated radio talk show (Loveline) and television host (Dr. Drew, Lifechangers).

1962 Shinya Yamanaka, Japanese physician and researcher; received Nobel Prize for his discovery that mature cells can be converted to stem cells (2012); awarded Breakthrough Prize in Life Sciences (2013).

1971 Ione Skye, actress (Say Anything … ).

1978 Wes Bentley, actor (American Beauty, The Hunger Games).

1981 Beyonce Knowles, singer, songwriter, actress, dancer, producer; won five Grammy Awards for Dangerously in Love album (2003) and six for I am … Sasha Fierce (2008).

More about: