Events on April 4 55
Year 1287
King Wareru founds the Ramanya Kingdom, and proclaims independence from the Pagan Kingdom.
Year 1812
United States President James Madison enacts a ninety-day embargo on trade with the United Kingdom.
Year 1814
Napoleon abdicates for the first time and names his son Napoleon II as Emperor of the French.
Year 1818
The United States Congress adopts the flag of the United States with 13 red and white stripes and one star for each state (then 20).
Year 1841
William Henry Harrison dies of pneumonia, becoming the first President of the United States to die in office, and setting the record for the briefest administration. Vice President John Tyler succeeds Harrison as President.
Year 1850
A large part of the English village of Cottenham burns to the ground in suspicious circumstances.
Year 1859
Bryant's Minstrels debut "Dixie" in New York City in the finale of a blackface minstrel show.
Year 1865
American Civil War: A day after Union forces capture Richmond, Virginia, U.S. President Abraham Lincoln visits the Confederate capital.
Year 1866
Alexander II of Russia narrowly escapes an assassination attempt by Dmitry Karakozov in the city of Saint Petersburg.
Year 1873
The Kennel Club is founded, the oldest and first official registry of purebred dogs in the world.
Year 1887
Argonia, Kansas elects Susanna M. Salter as the first female mayor in the United States.
Year 1905
In India, an earthquake hits the Kangra Valley, killing 20,000, and destroying most buildings in Kangra, McLeod Ganj and Dharamshala.
Year 1913
First Balkan War: Greek aviator Emmanouil Argyropoulos becomes the first pilot to die in the Hellenic Air Force when his plane crashes.
Year 1933
U.S. Navy airship, USS Akron, is wrecked off the New Jersey coast due to severe weather.
Year 1944
World War II: First bombardment of oil refineries in Bucharest by Anglo-American forces kills 3000 civilians.
Year 1945
World War II: Soviet troops liberate Hungary from German occupation and occupy the country itself.
Year 1949
Twelve nations sign the North Atlantic Treaty creating the North Atlantic Treaty Organization.
Year 1960
France agrees to grant independence to the Mali Federation, a union of Senegal and French Sudan.
Year 1967
Martin Luther King Jr. delivers his "Beyond Vietnam: A Time to Break Silence" speech in New York City's Riverside Church.
Year 1968
Martin Luther King Jr. is assassinated by James Earl Ray at a motel in Memphis, Tennessee.
Year 1968
A.E.K. Athens B.C. becomes the first Greek team to win the European Basketball Cup.
Year 1973
A Lockheed C-141 Starlifter, dubbed the Hanoi Taxi, makes the last flight of Operation Homecoming.
Year 1975
Microsoft is founded as a partnership between Bill Gates and Paul Allen in Albuquerque, New Mexico
Year 1975
A United States Air Force Lockheed C-5A Galaxy transporting orphans, crashes near Saigon, South Vietnam shortly after takeoff, killing 172 people.
Year 1976
Prince Norodom Sihanouk resigns as leader of Cambodia and is placed under house arrest.
Year 1981
The Islamic Republic of Iran Air Force mounts an attack on H-3 Airbase and destroys about 50 Iraqi aircraft.
Year 1988
Governor Evan Mecham of Arizona is convicted in his impeachment trial and removed from office.
Year 1991
Senator John Heinz of Pennsylvania and six others are killed when a helicopter collides with their airplane over an elementary school in Merion, Pennsylvania.
Year 1991
The current flag of Hong Kong is adopted for post-colonial Hong Kong during the Third Session of the Seventh National People's Congress.
Year 1994
Marc Andreessen and Jim Clark found Netscape Communications Corporation under the name Mosaic Communications Corporation.
Year 1996
Comet Hyakutake is imaged by the USA Asteroid Orbiter Near Earth Asteroid Rendezvous.
Year 2002
The Angolan government and UNITA rebels sign a peace treaty ending the Angolan Civil War.
Year ?
Roman consul Agrippa Menenius Lanatus celebrated a triumph for a military victory over the Sabines.