Thursday 4th of August 1521

228th Pope Urbanus VII is born as Giovanni Battista Castagna in Rome, Lazio, Italy.

Monday 4th of August 1755

Painter, balloonist, army officer and inventor Nicolas-Jacques Conté known for his invention of the modern pencil is born in Saint-Céneri-près-Sées, Basse-Normandie, France.

Saturday 4th of August 1792

Romantic poet Percy Bysshe Shelley is born in Field Place, Broadbridge Heath, West Sussex, United Kingdom.

Thursday 4th of August 1859

Writer Knut Hamsun is born as Knud Pedersen in Lom, Gudbrandsdal, Norway.

Wednesday 4th of August 1875

Writer of fairy tales Hans Christian Andersen dies of liver cancer at the age of 70 in Rolighed, Copenhagen, Østerbro, Hovedstaden, Denmark.

Tuesday 4th of August 1885

Eccentric painter Olive Edith May Branson is born in Madras, Tamil Nadu, India.

Thursday 4th of August 1892

70-year-old Andrew Jackson Borden is hacked to death by presumed axe murderess Lizzie Borden in Borden House, Fall River, Massachusetts, United States.

One of his eyeballs had been split cleanly in two, suggesting he had been asleep when attacked. His wife Abby was also killed. "Lizzie Borden took an axe, and gave her mother forty whacks. When she saw what she had done, she gave her father forty-one."

Wednesday 4th of August 1897

28-year-old Serial killer Joseph Vacher aka L’Eventreur du Sud-Est is arrested after an attempt to kill a woman in Bois des Pelleries, Tournon-sur-Rhône, Rhône-Alpes, France.

Sunday 4th of August 1901

Jazz trumpeter, composer and vocalist Louis Daniel Armstrong aka Satchmo is born in New Orleans, Louisiana, United States.

Saturday 4th of August 1906

150 die in SS Sirio shipwreck in Cabo de Palos, Cartagena, Murcia, Spain.

The shipwreck gained notoriety because captain Giuseppe Piccone abandoned ship at the first opportunity.

Sunday 4th of August 1907

Commander of KZ Jägala Aleksander Laak is born in Pöide Vald, Saaremaa, Estonia.

Friday 4th of August 1933

Murderer Olin Clay Fogleman is executed by Old Sparky at the age of 31 in Raleigh State Prison, Raleigh, North Carolina, United States.

Friday 4th of August 1944

The Achterhuis where 15-year-old Diarist Anne Annelies Marie Frank was hiding is stormed by a group of German uniformed police led by SS-Oberscharführer Karl Silberbauer of the Sicherheitsdienst in Prinsengracht 263, Amsterdam, Noord-Holland, Netherlands.

On 3 September the Frank family was deported on what would be the last transport from Westerbork transit camp to Auschwitz KZ.

Monday 4th of August 1947

Electronic music pioneer Klaus Schulze aka Richard Wahnfried is born in Berlin, Berlin, Germany.

Friday 4th of August 1950

Mass murderer Kenneth Granviel is born in Tarrant, Texas, United States.

Wednesday 4th of August 1954

Victim of Edmund Kemper aka The Co-ed Killer Cynthia Ann 'Cindy' Schall is born in San Mateo, California, United States.

Thursday 4th of August 1955

Victim of Randy Kraft aka The Scorecard Killer Roger Edward Dickerson is born in Corvallis, Oregon, United States.

Friday 4th of August 1961

44th President of the United States Barack Hussein Obama is born in Kapiʻolani Maternity & Gynecological Hospital, 1319 Punahou Street, Honolulu, Makiki, Hawaii, United States.

Saturday 4th of August 1962

Mass murderer Ray Lanker dies of a self-inflicted gunshot wound in his head at the age of 14 in Riverside Methodist Hospital, Columbus, Ohio, United States.

Earlier that day Lanker shot dead his 45-year-old father Ralph, his mother Virginia, his 12-year-old sister Bea and his 9-year-old brother Thomas in their Grove City home.

Wednesday 4th of August 1965

22-year-old Zofia Wiśniewska is attacked by serial killer Zdzisław Marchwicki aka The Zagłębie Vampire in Będzin, Województwo Sląskie, Poland.

Wiśniewska survived.

Sunday 4th of August 1974

12 die in Italicus Express bomb attack in Apennine Base Tunnel, San Benedetto Val di Sambro, Emilia-Romagna, Italy.

Former Prime Minister of Italy Aldo Moro had been on the train on 3 August but disembarked before the train left Rome. Responsibility was claimed by the neo-fascist terrorist organization Ordine Nero.

Monday 4th of August 1980

21-year-old Performance artist Danny Devos aka DDV starts his performance '11 Days' in Prinsenhof 03, Gent, Oost-Vlaanderen, Belgium.

For 11 days I lived on 250 grams of chips and 1 liter Coca-Cola a day. The next day I ate half a bread, 6 eggs, 6 slices of bacon and 250 grams of mushrooms.

Saturday 4th of August 1990

69-year-old Composer and bandoneon player Ástor Pantaleón Piazzolla aka El Gran suffers a cerebral hemorrhage in Paris, VIe, Île-de-France, France.

Piazzolla was left in a coma and never regained consciousness until his death on 4 July 1992.

Wednesday 4th of August 1999

Murderer Ricky Don Blackmon is executed by lethal injection at the age of 42 in Huntsville Prison, 815 12th Street, Huntsville, Texas, United States.

Monday 4th of August 2003

A sign in a hairdresser shop on Serangoon Road in Singapore, Little India, Singapore.

Saturday 4th of August 2007

Singer-songwriter Lee Barton Hazlewood dies of renal cancer at the age of 78 in Henderson, Nevada, United States.

Saturday 4th of August 2007

Sunset over the beach and the sea in Oostende, West-Vlaanderen, Belgium.

Thursday 4th of August 2022

Evening down in San Rocco, Oostende, Mariakerke, West-Vlaanderen, Belgium.