
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).

1905: A ceremony on May 4, 1905 marks the official beginning of the second attempt to build 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. This second attempt to bridge the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans will succeed, dramatically altering world trade as well as the physical and geopolitical landscape of Central America.

1912: American geneticist Nettie Maria Stevens died, aged 50. She and fellow scientist Edmund Wilson had been the first people to develop the idea of chromosomal determination of sex.

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.

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.

1966: The first African Superhero appears as The Black Panther debuts in Marvel Comics’ Fantastic Four no. 52 (cover date July 1966). The story is set in the fictional East African country Wakanda, which is far superior technologically to the rest of the world but keeps its capabilities secret. Empowered with super-human strength and agility, the Black Panther is Wakanda’s warrior king, T’Challa.

1970: In Kent, Ohio, 28 National Guardsmen fire their weapons at a group of anti-war demonstrators on the Kent State University campus, killing four students, wounding eight, and permanently paralyzing another. The tragedy was a watershed moment for a nation divided by the conflict in Vietnam and further galvanized the anti-war movement.
Two days earlier, on May 2, National Guard troops were called to Kent to suppress students rioting in protest of the Vietnam War and the U.S. invasion of Cambodia. The next day, scattered protests were dispersed by tear gas, and on May 4 class resumed at Kent State University. By noon that day, despite a ban on rallies, some 2,000 people had assembled on the campus. National Guard troops arrived and ordered the crowd to disperse, fired tear gas, and advanced against the students with bayonets fixed on their rifles. Some of the protesters, refusing to yield, responded by throwing rocks and verbally taunting the troops.
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.
2002: An EAS Airline plane crashes into the town of Kano, Nigeria, killing 149 people. The Nigerian BAC 1-11-500 aircraft exploded in a densely populated section of the northern Nigerian city.
2007: Former Zambian President Frederick Chiluba is convicted in London High Court of stealing US$46 million, in a civil case. The court finds that Chiluba had the Zambia intelligence service send millions of dollars to his London bank account to purchase an expensive wardrobe of “stupendous proportions.” By May 2008, the Zambian government will recover more than US$60 million that Chiluba looted from the treasury.

2018: The Ansar Dine Islamic terror group occupying Timbuktu goes on a rampage to destroy ancient archeological treasures, including UNESCO World Heritage Sites. Sacred ancient documents are being secretly removed from libraries and archives to prevent their destruction, and hidden away by preservationists at risk of their lives.
2021: Release of the Nigerian film Heart2Heart, the first commercial movie made on the Internet platform Zoom. During the Covid-19 pandemic lockdowns that closed film productions globally, Nigerian director Obi Emelonye (pic) turned to new media to assemble his actors and produce the story.
BIRTHS ON THIS DAY: May 4
José Luandino Vieira, 89 years
Angolan writer, in Lagoa de Furadouro, Portugal. He was born on 4 May 1935, Writing in extended short stories that updated the African oral tradition of storytelling, he became known in 1963 for his critically-acclaimed short story collection Luuanda. Because of its damning portrayals of colonial rule, it was banned for nine years in Portuguese Angola.

Victor Oladipo, 32 years
Kehinde Babatunde Victor Oladipo born May 4, 1992, is an American professional basketball player who last played for the Miami Heat of the National Basketball Association (NBA). He played college basketball for the Indiana Hoosiers, where in the 2012–2013 season he was named the Sporting News Men’s College Basketball Player of the Year, the Co-NABC Defensive Player of the Year, and a first-team All-American by the USBWA and Sporting News. That year, he was also named the winner of the Adolph Rupp Trophy, given annually to the top player in men’s NCAA Division I basketball.

Audrey Hepburn (4 May 1929 – 20 January 1993)
A film and fashion icon during Hollywood’s Golden Age, Hepburn is one of the few people to have won an Academy Award, Emmy, Grammy, and Tony award. She was born in Brussels, Belgium on May 4, 1929. In her first major role, Hepburn became the first actress to win an Academy Award, a Golden Globe, and a BAFTA for “Roman Holiday” (1953). Hepburn’s other major film roles included “Breakfast at Tiffany’s” (1961), My Fair Lady (1964), and the thriller “Wait Until Dark” (1967)”.
In later life Hepburn was a UNICEF Ambassador, making many field trips and testifying before US Congress. She is the recipient of several humanitarian awards, including the US Presidential Medal of Freedom. She died at the age of 63.
Hosni Mubarak (4 May 1928 – 25 February 2020)
Egyptian air marshal, politician, 4th President of Egypt. The Fourth President of Egypt, Mubarak ruled in an autocratic manner from 1981 until he was ousted during the Arab Spring in 2011. Before he entered politics, he was a career officer in the Egyptian Air Force. He stepped down after 18 days of demonstrations during the 2011 Egyptian revolution. He died at 91.
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