04 September History
- 1260 - At the Battle of Montaperto in Italy, the Tuscan Ghibellines, who support the emperor, defeat the Florentine Guelfs, who support papal power.
- 1479 - After four years of war, Spain agrees to allow a Portuguese monopoly of trade along Africa's west coast and Portugal acknowledges Spain's rights in the Canary Islands.
- 1781 - Los Angeles, first an Indian village Yangma, is founded by Spanish decree.
- 1787 - Louis XVI of France recalls parliament.
- 1790 - Jacques Necker is forced to resign as finance minister in France.
- 1820 - Czar Alexander declares that Russian influence in North America extends as far south as Oregon and closes Alaskan waters to foreigners.
- 1862 - Robert E. Lee's Confederate army invades Maryland, starting the Antietam Campaign.
- 1870 - A republic is proclaimed in Paris and a government of national defense is formed.
- 1881 - The Edison electric lighting system goes into operation as a generator serving 85 paying customers is switched on.
- 1886 - Elusive Apache leader Geronimo surrenders to General Nelson A. Miles at Skeleton Canyon, Ariz.
- 1893 - Beatrix Potter sends a note to her governess' son with the first drawing of Peter Rabbit, Cottontail and others. The Tale of Petter Rabbit is published eight years later.
- 1915 - The U.S. military places Haiti under martial law to quell a rebellion in its capital Port-au-Prince.
- 1941 - German submarine U-652 fires at the U.S. destroyer Greer off Iceland, beginning an undeclared shooting war.
- 1942 - Soviet planes bomb Budapest in the war's first air raid on the Hungarian capital.
- 1943 - Allied troops capture Lae-Salamaua, in New Guinea.
- 1944 - British troops liberate Antwerp, Belgium.
- 1945 - The American flag is raised on Wake Island after surrender ceremonies there.
- 1951 - The first transcontinental television broadcast in America is carried by 94 stations.
- 1957 - Arkansas governor Orval Faubus calls out the National Guard to bar African-American students from entering a Little Rock high school.
04 September Birthdays
- 1768 - Vicomte François René de Chateaubriand, French writer and chef who gave his name to a style of steak.
- 1846 - Daniel Hudson Burnham, architect and city planner.
- 1905 - Mary Renault (Mary Challans), author who wrote about her wartime experiences in The Last of the Wine and The King Must Die.
- 1908 - Richard Wright, novelist best known for Native Son.
- 1918 - Paul Harvy, radio commentator.
- 1920 - Craig Claiborne, food critic and cookbook author.
- 1920 - Maggie Higgins, the first woman to win the Pulitzer Prize (1951) for international reporting for her work in Korean war zones.