This Day in History

April 4

527 In Constantinople, Justin, seriously ill, crowns his nephew Justinian as his co-emperor.
1581 Francis Drake completes circumnavigation of the world.
1812 The territory of Orleans becomes the 18th state and will become known as Louisiana.
1818 The United States flag is declared to have 13 red and white stripes and 20 stars.
1841 President William Henry Harrison, aged 68, becomes the first president to die in office, just a month after being sworn in.
1862 The Battle of Yorktown begins as Union gen. George B. McClellan closes in on Richmond, Va.
1917 The U.S. Senate votes 90-6 to enter World War I on Allied side.
1918 The Battle of the Somme ends.
1941 Field Marshal Erwin Rommel captures the British held town of Benghazi in North Africa.
1949 The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) treaty is signed.
1968 Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. is assassinated in Memphis, Tennessee.
1974 Hank Aaron ties Babe Ruth's home-run record.
1979 Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, the president of Pakistan is executed.
1985 A coup in Sudan ousts President Nimeiry and replaces him with General Dahab.
Born on April 4

1780 Edward Hicks, Quaker preacher and painter (The Peaceable Kingdom).
1792 Thaddeus Stevens, U.S. Republican congressional leader.
1802 Dorothea Dix, American social reformer.
1821 Linus Yale, inventor of the Yale lock.
1884 Isoroku Yamamoto, Japanese naval commander during WWII.
1896 Arthur Murray, ballroom dance instructor.
1896 Robert Sherwood, playwright.
1914 Marguerite Duras, French author (The Lover).
1915 Muddy Waters, American blues musician.
1928 Maya Angelou, American poet and author.
1932 Anthony Perkins, actor (Psycho).
1938 Bart Giamatti, baseball commisioner, president of Yale.