Today in History, November 4
November 4 in History
1791 – Battle of the Wabash (St. Clair’s Defeat): A Native American confederation (Miami, Shawnee, and others) delivers a crushing defeat to U.S. forces under General Arthur St. Clair along the Wabash River in present-day Ohio. It remains one of the worst losses in U.S. military history against Native forces and prompted major Army reforms.
1842 – Abraham Lincoln marries Mary Todd at her sister’s home in Springfield, Illinois.
1862 – Richard J. Gatling receives a U.S. patent for the Gatling gun, an early rapid-fire weapon.
1922 – British archaeologist Howard Carter discovers the entrance to the nearly intact tomb of Pharaoh Tutankhamun in Egypt’s Valley of the Kings.
1942 – Allied forces under Bernard Montgomery break through Axis lines at the Second Battle of El Alamein in Egypt, a major turning point in the North African campaign of World War II.
1956 – Soviet forces crush the Hungarian Revolution in Budapest, ending the uprising against communist rule.
1979 – Iranian students and militants storm the U.S. Embassy in Tehran, taking more than 50 Americans hostage and beginning the 444-day Iran hostage crisis.
1995 – Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin is assassinated by a right-wing extremist after a peace rally in Tel Aviv.
2008 – Barack Obama is elected the 44th President of the United States, becoming the first African American to hold the office.
2016 – The Paris Agreement on climate change enters into force.
Arkansas & Oklahoma Connections
Arkansas (1919) – In the aftermath of the Elaine Massacre (one of the deadliest racial massacres in U.S. history, in which hundreds of Black sharecroppers were killed), rapid trials continued. On November 4, several Black defendants--including Albert Giles and Joe --were convicted by all-white juries after extremely brief deliberations and sentenced to death. These cases later reached the U.S. Supreme Court in Moore v. Dempsey (1923), which strengthened due-process protections against mob-dominated trials.
Oklahoma (1879) – Will Rogers, the humorist, actor, cowboy, social commentator, and “Oklahoma’s Favorite Son,” is born near Oologah in Indian Territory (present-day Oklahoma). Of partial Cherokee heritage, he rose to national fame through vaudeville, films, and newspaper columns with his folksy, sharp observations on American life.
Born on November 4
1879 – Will Rogers, American humorist, actor, and social commentator (Oklahoma).
1916 – Walter Cronkite, pioneering CBS news anchor often called “the most trusted man in America.”
1946 – Laura Bush, former U.S. First Lady and literacy advocate.
1961 – Ralph Macchio, American actor (The Karate Kid).
1969 – Matthew McConaughey, American actor (Academy Award winner for Dallas Buyers Club).
1969 – Sean “Diddy” Combs, American rapper, producer, and entrepreneur.
