Wednesday 4th of December 1850

Physicist and inventor William Sturgeon aka The Electrician known for making the first electromagnets dies of unknown causes at the age of 67 in Prestwich, Lancashire, United Kingdom.

Friday 4th of December 1863

Victim of Maria Swanenburg aka Goeie Mie Catharina Swanenburg is born in Leiden, Zuid-Holland, Netherlands.

Monday 4th of December 1865

Nurse Edith Louisa Cavell is born in Swardeston, Norfolk, United Kingdom.

Monday 4th of December 1871

0-year-old Pieternella Swanenburg is poisoned with arsenic by serial poisoner Maria Swanenburg aka Goeie Mie in Leiden, Zuid-Holland, Netherlands.

Saturday 4th of December 1875

Poet and writer Rainer Maria Rilke is born as René Karl Wilhelm Johann Josef Maria Rilke in Praha, Bohemia, Czechoslovakia.

Sunday 4th of December 1881

Mass murderer Konrad Beck is executed by hanging at the age of 40 in Berlin, Berlin, Germany.

Beck killed his wife and five children.

Sunday 4th of December 1892

Caudillo de España y de la Cruzada Francisco Bahamonde Franco is born in 108 Calle Frutos Saavedra, Ferrol, Galicia, Spain.

Tuesday 4th of December 1894

Murderer James Canham Read aka The Southend Murderer is executed by hanging at the age of 39 in Chelmsford Prison, Chelmsford, Essex, United Kingdom.

Sunday 4th of December 1910

Actress Thelma White known from the exploitation film ‘Reefer Madness’ is born as Thelma Wolpa in Lincoln, Nebraska, United States.

Friday 4th of December 1914

45-year-old Serial killer Henri Désiré Landru aka Le Barbe-Bleue de Gambais rents a villa in The Lodge, 47 Rue de Mantes, Vernouillet, Île-de-France, France.

Landru killed 39-year-old Jeanne-Marie Cuchet, her 17-year-old son André and two more victims in The Lodge. Their bodies were burned in his furnace.

Thursday 4th of December 1924

Start of the trial against 45-year-old Serial killer Fritz Friedrich Heinrich Karl Haarmann aka Der Hannover Werwolf in Schwürgericht, Volgersweg 65, Hannover, Niedersachsen, Germany.

Wednesday 4th of December 1940

Double murderer Gary Mark Gilmore aka The Executioner’s Song is born in McCamey, Texas, United States.

Wednesday 4th of December 1940

26-year-old Elfriede Franke is attacked and thrown out of a train by serial killer Paul Ogorzow aka Der Schnell-Bahn Mörder in Berlin, Karlshorst, Berlin, Germany.

Monday 4th of December 1944

Musician Dennis Carl Wilson known from The Beach Boys is born in Inglewood, California, United States.

Thursday 4th of December 1947

Victim of Norman John Collins aka The Michigan Coed Killer Mary Terese Fleszar is born in Willis, Michigan, United States.

Friday 4th of December 1953

26-year-old Mass murderer Vincent Ciucci chloroforms his wife Anna and three children, 9-year-old Vincent, 8-year-old Virginia and 4-year-old Angeline, and shoots them in the head in Chicago, Illinois, United States.

Ciucci then set the apartment on fire to cover up the murders and planned to run away with his 21-year-old pregnant mistress Carol Amora. Ciucci was arrested three days later.

Sunday 4th of December 1955

Musician Maurizio Bianchi aka MB is born in Pomponesco, Lombardia, Italy.

Wednesday 4th of December 1957

90 die in electric and steam train collision in Lewisham by-pass, Lewisham, Greater London, United Kingdom.

Thursday 4th of December 1969

Black Panther Mark Clark is shot dead in a police raid at the age of 22 in 2337 West Monroe Street, Chicago, Illinois, United States.

Clark, sitting in the front room of the apartment with a shotgun in his lap, was on security duty. The first shot hit Clark in the heart. He died instantly and his gun went off as he fell. His gun fired a single round which was later determined to be caused by a reflexive death convulsion after the raiding team shot him; this was the only shot the Panthers fired.

Thursday 4th of December 1969

Deputy chairman of the Black Panthers Fred Hampton is shot dead in a police raid at the age of 21 in 2337 West Monroe Street, Chicago, Illinois, United States.

FBI-informant William O'Neal had slipped the powerful barbiturate sleep agent Secobarbitol into a drink that Hampton consumed during the dinner in order to sedate Hampton so he would not awaken during the subsequent raid. Hampton fell asleep in mid-sentence talking to his mother on the telephone. Hampton was lying on a mattress in the bedroom with his pregnant fiancée who was eight-and-a-half months pregnant with their child. Two officers found him wounded in the shoulder and fellow Black Panther Harold Bell reported that he heard the following exchange: "That's Fred Hampton. Is he dead?... Bring him out. He's barely alive. He'll make it." Two shots were heard, which it was later discovered were fired point blank in Hampton's head. According to Deborah Johnson one officer then said: "He's good and dead now."

Saturday 4th of December 1971

100 die in Malaysia Airlines Boeing 737-2H6 Flight 653 crash in Tanjung Kupang, Johor, Malaysia.

The plane was presumably hijacked by a member of the Japanese Red Army who shot both pilots.

Saturday 4th of December 1971

Member of Zentralrat der Umherschweifenden Haschrebellen and Bewegung 2. Juni Georg von Rauch dies of a shot in the head at the age of 24 in Eisenacher Straße, Berlin, Schöneberg, Berlin, Germany.

von Rauch was shot dead by Kriminalhauptmeister Hans-Joachim Schulz after trying to move an observed Ford Transit van. von Rauch had his hands in the air and was unarmed.

Saturday 4th of December 1971

During a concert by 31-year-old Musician and composer Frank Vincent Zappa known from the Mothers of Invention an unidentified man in the audience sets fire to the concert hall with a flare gun in Casino Barrière de Montreux, Montreux, Vaud, Switzerland.

The event is noted in Deep Purple's 'Smoke on the Water'.

Wednesday 4th of December 1974

191 hajj pilgrims die in Martinair McDonnell Douglas DC-8-55F Flight 138 crash in Maskeliya, Madhyama Palata, Sri Lanka.

Wednesday 4th of December 1974

69-year-old Writer, philosopher, political activist and critic Jean-Paul Charles Aymard Sartre pays a visit to imprisoned member of the Rote Armee Fraktion Andreas Baader in Justizvollzugsanstalt Stammheim, Asperger Straße 60, Stuttgart, Baden-Württemberg, Germany.

Saturday 4th of December 1976

Composer Benjamin Edward Britten dies of congestive heart failure at the age of 63 in Aldeburgh, Suffolk, United Kingdom.

Friday 4th of December 1981

28-year-old Member of the Rote Armee Fraktion Stefan Werner Wisniewski is sentenced to two life sentences for murder, kidnapping, coercion of a constitutional body, and membership in a terrorist organization in Düsseldorf, Nordrhein-Westfalen, Germany.

Wisniewski commented on the verdict by saying that he did not care. In 1999 Wisniewski was released on parole.

Wednesday 4th of December 1985

Twentysixth bomb attack by Terrorist organisation Les Cellules Communistes Combattantes aka CCC in Bank of America, Van Eycklei 34, Antwerpen, Antwerpen, Belgium.

It was the fourth action in their 'Campagne Pierre Akkerman'.

Wednesday 4th of December 1985

56-year-old Murderess Gertrude Baniszewski aka Gertrude Wright is released on parole in Indianapolis, Indiana, United States.

Baniszewski was sentenced to life imprisonment for the sadistic murder of 16-year-old neighbour Sylvia Likens in 1965.

Thursday 4th of December 1986

Double murderer Michael Wayne Evans is executed by lethal injection at the age of 30 in Huntsville Prison, 815 12th Street, Huntsville, Texas, United States.

Saturday 4th of December 1993

Musician and composer Frank Vincent Zappa known from the Mothers of Invention dies of prostate cancer at the age of 53 in Los Angeles, California, United States.

Wednesday 4th of December 2002

Double murderer Leonard Uresti Rojas is executed by lethal injection at the age of 52 in Huntsville Prison, 815 12th Street, Huntsville, Texas, United States.

Rojas' last meal request was for one whole extra crispy fried chicken, salad with Thousand Island dressing, French toast, two diet Cokes, one apple pie, and French fries.

Thursday 4th of December 2003

Murderer Ivan Ray Murphy is executed by lethal injection at the age of 38 in Huntsville Prison, 815 12th Street, Huntsville, Texas, United States.

Saturday 4th of December 2004

A selection of gifts at AMVK's birthday party in Oudstrijdersstraat 35, Antwerpen, Borgerhout, Antwerpen, Belgium.

Monday 4th of December 2017

Model and topless showgirl Christine Margaret Keeler known from the Profumo Affair dies of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease at the age of 75 in Princess Royal University Hospital, London, Locksbottom, Greater London, United Kingdom.