This Day in History: August 4 Events, Births, Deaths

EFE's August 4 history roundup covers the 1897 discovery of Spain's Lady of Elche sculpture and dozens of other events, births and deaths.

By Lena Novosel 5 August 2026, 10:23

This Day in History: August 4 Events, Births, Deaths

On August 4, 1897, a farmer in Spain discovered the stone sculpture that became known as the Lady of Elche, according to Agencia EFE's daily historical review.

Other events on August 4

1693: Benedictine monk Dom Pérignon invented champagne in France's Champagne region.
1704: An Anglo-Dutch fleet captured Gibraltar during the War of the Spanish Succession.
1789: France's National Assembly abolished feudal privileges during the French Revolution.
1903: Cardinal Giuseppe Sarto was elected Pope Pius X.
1906: The Italian steamship Sirio sank near Cartagena, in Murcia, eastern Spain, killing 400 people while sailing from Genoa to South America.
1914: German forces entered Belgium as World War I began.
1944: French Forces of the Interior and the U.S. Army under General George Patton liberated Rennes after four years of Nazi occupation, and the Gestapo discovered Anne Frank in hiding in Amsterdam and arrested her along with several others.
1954: Alfred Hitchcock's film "Rear Window" premiered in New York.
1958: Billboard magazine launched its Billboard Hot 100 chart.
1973: Spain's then Prince Juan Carlos and Princess Sofía arrived with their children for the first time at Marivent Palace in the Balearic Islands, given to them the previous year by Mallorca's provincial council as a residence.
1976: The Spanish government of Adolfo Suárez published an amnesty decree for political crimes.
1982: France decriminalized homosexuality.
1983: Bettino Craxi became Italy's first socialist head of government since democracy was restored.
1999: A bombing by a Democratic Republic of Congo government aircraft on two rebel-held towns in the north killed 518 people.
2004: An Argentine court issued its first conviction against agents of the country's last dictatorship.
2007: The Phoenix space probe launched for Mars; it became the first spacecraft to land in the Martian Arctic, on May 25, 2008, leading to the discovery of water there.
2012: American swimmer Michael Phelps ended his Olympic career at the London Games with his fourth gold medal, the 18th of his career.
2018: Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro was unharmed in an alleged drone attack during a military event in Caracas.
2019: Frenchman Franky Zapata crossed the English Channel in twenty minutes on his "flyboard," a flying platform powered by five small jet engines fed from a kerosene tank in his backpack.
2020: An explosion from the combustion of 2,750 tons of ammonium nitrate at the port of Beirut, Lebanon, killed more than 200 people and injured about 6,500.
2021: An international research team led by Spain's University of Oviedo and the Spanish National Research Council (CSIC) created a nanolight lens a thousand times thinner than a human hair.
2023: A Russian court sentenced opposition leader Alexei Navalny to 19 more years in prison on extremism charges.
2025: Brazil's Supreme Court ordered house arrest for former President Jair Bolsonaro.

Notable births

1821: Louis Vuitton, French businessman and designer.
1900: Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon, British Queen Mother.
1901: Louis Armstrong, American jazz trumpeter.
1929: Yasser Arafat, Palestinian leader.
1953: Antonio Tajani, Italian politician.
1955: Billy Bob Thornton, American actor.
1959: Blanca Andreu, Spanish poet.
1960: José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, former Spanish prime minister.
1961: Barack Obama, former U.S. president.
1972: Eva Amaral, Spanish singer.
1981: Meghan Markle, former American actress and wife of Britain's Prince Harry.