Post on 24-Oct-2021
This Day in HistoryMay 4
1776
Two months before the Declaration of Independence, Rhode Island becomes the first colony to declare independence from Britain
1864
Union General Ulysses S. Grant’s army crosses the Rapidan River in Virginia
1865
A few weeks after his assassination, Abraham Lincoln is buried in Springfield, Illinois
1886
A massive labor riot breaks out in Chicago’s Haymarket Square—more than a dozen people are killed and nearly 100 are injured
1965
Willie Mays hits his 512th home run, breaking the National League career record—he would finish his career with 660 home runs, 5th on the all-time list
1970
The Ohio National Guard kills 4 people at Kent State University during a Vietnam War protest—the event is memorialized in Neil Young’s song “Ohio”
1974
The soundtrack to the movie The Sting, featuring Marvin Hamlisch’s adaptations of Scott Joplin’s ragtime piano tunes, hits #1 in the U.S., where it stays for five weeks—The Sting is one of Mr. Seeley’s all-time-favorite movies
1979
Margaret Thatcher becomes the first female British Prime Minister
1980
Josip Broz Tito, communist leader of Yugoslavia, dies at age 88
1984
Bruce Springsteen releases “Pink Cadillac,” the biggest hit off his blockbuster Born in the USA album—the song does not actually appear on the album, but is released as a B-side of “Dancing in the Dark”
1987
San Francisco Giants outfielder Candy Maldonado hits for the cycle (single, double, triple, and home run in a single game), one of 330 players to do so in MLB history
2012
Adam Yauch, also known as MCA, of the Beastie Boys dies of cancer at age 47 in New York City
2018
Arizona schools reopen after a six-day teacher walkout
2020
Delta Airlines, United Airlines, and JetBlue Airways begin requiring all passengers to wear face coverings from the time they check in to the time they deplane
2020
During the coronavirus pandemic, most Costco stores in the U.S. return to regular operating hours—all employees and customers are required to wear face coverings
2020
The Rise of Skywalker, the latest movie in the Star Wars franchise, begins streaming on Disney+—May the Fourth be with you
2020
For the first time ever, the U.S. Supreme Court hears oral arguments over the phone and streams its proceedings live—it is another example of how the coronavirus has changed the ways people work
2020
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security releases a report that says Chinese leaders “intentionally concealed the severity” of the coronavirus pandemic in early January in order to hoard personal protective equipment
2021
Star Wars fans across the galaxy celebrate Star Wars Day, an unofficial yearly holiday in honor of the film and TV franchise—May the Fourth be with you
2021
The first episode of a new Star Wars: The Clone Wars animated series, The Bad Batch, premieres today on Disney+—May the Fourth be with you
2021
Restrictions on travel to the U.S. from India go into effect today because of surging COVID-19 numbers in the South Asian nation, with 1/3 of new global cases coming from India—President Biden announced the restrictions Friday, on advice of the CDC
2021
Data from Brazil’s National Civil Registry shows that 1/3 of all people who have died in the South American nation in 2021 were victims of COVID-19—less than 10% of Brazil’s population has been vaccinated
2021
After being postponed sincelast year because of the coronavirus pandemic, ASU’s Gammage Auditorium announces that live Broadway shows will be returning to the theater beginning in September, with Hamilton, Mean Girls, and The Lion King headlining the 2021-22 season
2021
Arizona will again require people to be actively looking for work to receive unemployment benefits—in March 2020, Governor Duceytemporarily waived the requirement because of the pandemic
2021
At least 20 people were killed and about 70 more injured when a metro overpass inMexico City collapsed, sending a subway car plunging toward a busy road late last night—the accident trapped cars under rubble and passengers in train cars hanging in mid-air
2021
The FDA is expectedto authorize Pfizer’sCOVID-19 vaccine for children ages 12 to 15 by next week