Events on March 4 60
Year 852
Croatian Knez Trpimir I issues a statute, a document with the first known written mention of the Croats name in Croatian sources.
Year 932
Translation of the relics of martyr Wenceslaus I, Duke of Bohemia, Prince of the Czechs.
Year 1238
The Battle of the Sit River is fought in the northern part of the present-day Yaroslavl Oblast of Russia between the Mongol hordes of Batu Khan and the Russians under Yuri II of Vladimir-Suzdal during the Mongol invasion of Rus'.
Year 1461
Wars of the Roses in England: Lancastrian King Henry VI is deposed by his House of York cousin, who then becomes King Edward IV.
Year 1493
Explorer Christopher Columbus arrives back in Lisbon, Portugal, aboard his ship Niña from his voyage to what is now The Bahamas and other islands in the Caribbean.
Year 1519
Hernán Cortés arrives in Mexico in search of the Aztec civilization and its wealth.
Year 1665
English King Charles II declares war on the Netherlands marking the start of the Second Anglo-Dutch War.
Year 1681
Charles II grants a land charter to William Penn for the area that will later become Pennsylvania.
Year 1776
American Revolutionary War: The Continental Army fortifies Dorchester Heights with cannon, leading the British troops to abandon the Siege of Boston.
Year 1789
In New York City, the first Congress of the United States meets, putting the United States Constitution into effect. The United States Bill of Rights is written and proposed to Congress.
Year 1790
France is divided into 83 départements, cutting across the former provinces in an attempt to dislodge regional loyalties based on ownership of land by the nobility.
Year 1791
The Constitutional Act of 1791 is introduced by the British House of Commons in London which envisages the separation of Canada into Lower Canada (Quebec) and Upper Canada (Ontario).
Year 1797
John Adams is inaugurated as the 2nd President of the United States of America, becoming the first President to begin his presidency on March 4.
Year 1804
Castle Hill Rebellion: Irish convicts rebel against British colonial authority in the Colony of New South Wales.
Year 1814
Americans defeat British forces at the Battle of Longwoods between London, Ontario and Thamesville, near present-day Wardsville, Ontario.
Year 1848
Carlo Alberto di Savoia signs the Statuto Albertino that will later represent the first constitution of the Regno d'Italia.
Year 1861
The first national flag of the Confederate States of America (the "Stars and Bars") is adopted.
Year 1865
The third and final national flag of the Confederate States of America is adopted by the Confederate Congress.
Year 1890
The longest bridge in Great Britain, the Forth Bridge in Scotland, measuring 1,710 feet (520 m) long, is opened by the Prince of Wales, later King Edward VII.
Year 1899
Cyclone Mahina sweeps in north of Cooktown, Queensland, with a 12 metres (39 ft) wave that reaches up to 5 kilometres (3.1 mi) inland, killing over 300.
Year 1909
U.S. President William Taft used what became known as a Saxbe fix, a mechanism to avoid the restriction of the U.S. Constitution's Ineligibility Clause, to appoint Philander C. Knox as U.S. Secretary of State
Year 1913
First Balkan War: The Greek army engages the Turks at Bizani, resulting in victory two days later.
Year 1917
Jeannette Rankin of Montana becomes the first female member of the United States House of Representatives.
Year 1933
Frances Perkins becomes United States Secretary of Labor, the first female member of the United States Cabinet.
Year 1933
The Parliament of Austria is suspended because of a quibble over procedure - Chancellor Engelbert Dollfuss initiates an authoritarian rule by decree.
Year 1941
World War II: The United Kingdom launches Operation Claymore on the Lofoten Islands; the first large scale British Commando raid.
Year 1943
World War II: The Battle of the Bismarck Sea in the south-west Pacific comes to an end.
Year 1944
World War II: After the success of Big Week, the USAAF begins a daylight bombing campaign of Berlin.
Year 1962
A Caledonian Airways Douglas DC-7 crashes shortly after takeoff from Cameroon, killing 111 - the worst crash of a DC-7.
Year 1966
A Canadian Pacific Air Lines DC-8-43 explodes on landing at Tokyo International Airport, killing 64 people.
Year 1970
French submarine Eurydice explodes underwater, resulting in the loss of the entire 57-man crew.
Year 1974
People magazine is published for the first time in the United States as People Weekly.
Year 1976
The Northern Ireland Constitutional Convention is formally dissolved in Northern Ireland resulting in direct rule of Northern Ireland from London by the British parliament.
Year 1977
The 1977 Vrancea earthquake in eastern and southern Europe kills more than 1,500, mostly in Bucharest, Romania.
Year 1980
Nationalist leader Robert Mugabe wins a sweeping election victory to become Zimbabwe's first black prime minister.
Year 1985
The Food and Drug Administration approves a blood test for AIDS infection, used since then for screening all blood donations in the United States.
Year 1986
The Soviet Vega 1 begins returning images of Halley's Comet and the first images of its nucleus.
Year 1996
A derailed train in Weyauwega, Wisconsin (USA) causes the emergency evacuation of 2,300 people for 16 days.
Year 1998
Gay rights: Oncale v. Sundowner Offshore Services, Inc.: The Supreme Court of the United States rules that federal laws banning on-the-job sexual harassment also apply when both parties are the same sex.
Year 2001
BBC bombing: A massive car bomb explodes in front of the BBC Television Centre in London, seriously injuring one person; the attack was attributed to the Real IRA.
Year 2002
Afghanistan: Seven American Special Operations Forces soldiers and 200 Al-Qaeda Fighters are killed as American forces attempt to infiltrate the Shah-i-Kot Valley on a low-flying helicopter reconnaissance mission.
Year 2009
The International Criminal Court (ICC) issues an arrest warrant for Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir for war crimes and crimes against humanity in Darfur. Al-Bashir is the first sitting head of state to be indicted by the ICC since its establishment in 2002.
Year 2012
A series of explosions is reported at a munitions dump in Brazzaville, the capital of the Republic of the Congo, killing at least 250 people.
Year 2015
At least 34 miners die in a suspected gas explosion at the Zasyadko coal mine in the rebel-held Donetsk region of Ukraine.
Year ?
Nero, later to become Roman emperor, is given the title princeps iuventutis (head of the youth).