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On this day in history - May 4

What Happened On This Day – May 4

  • 1994 Yitzhak Rabin and Yasser Arafat sign a peace accord to ensure Palestinian self-rule in Gaza and Jericho

    Together with Shimon Peres, the two leaders received the 1994 Nobel Peace Prize. A year later, Rabin was assassinated by a Jewish extremist.

  • 1959 The Grammy is presented for the first time

    It is one of the most prestigious awards in the music industry. Winners of the first edition included Ella Fitzgerald, Henry Mancini, and Frank Sinatra.

  • 1953 Ernest Hemingway wins the Pulitzer Prize

    The American author was awarded the prestigious accolade for his novel The Old Man and the Sea. The story about a fisherman and his battle with a large marlin also earned him the Nobel Prize for Literature.

  • 1904 The United States takes over the construction of the Panama Canal

    French engineers had begun digging a waterway between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans in 1881, but they had to abandon the project after about 22,000 lives had been lost to accidents and disease.

  • 1675 King Charles II of England commissions the Royal Observatory in Greenwich

    The observatory was built on the prime meridian. The mean solar time at this location is the basis for Greenwich Mean Time (GMT).

Illustration of stork, signifying birth

Births On This Day,
May 4

  • 1989 Rory McIlroy

    Irish golfer

  • 1929 Audrey Hepburn

    Belgian/English actress, singer

  • 1928 Hosni Mubarak

    Egyptian air marshal, politician, 4th President of Egypt

  • 1916 Jane Jacobs

    American/Canadian journalist, author, activist

  • 1825 Thomas Henry Huxley

    English biologist

Illustration of tombstone, signifying death

Deaths On This Day,
May 4

  • 2014 Elena Baltacha

    Ukrainian/Scottish tennis player

  • 1980 Josip Broz Tito

    Yugoslav marshal, politician, 1st President of Yugoslavia

  • 1924 E. Nesbit

    English author

  • 1903 Gotse Delchev

    Bulgarian activist

  • 1799 Tipu Sultan

    Indian army officer, king