History for August 4

History for August 4 - On-This-Day.com
Louis Armstrong 1901 - Musician, singer, Raoul Wallenberg 1912 - Sweedish humanitarian during World War II, Richard Belzer 1944 - Actor, comedian ("Law and Order: Special Victims Unit")



John Riggins 1949 - Football player, Billy Bob Thornton 1955 - Actor, Barack Hussein Obama 1961 - 44th President of the United States


1735 - Freedom of the press was established with an acquittal of John Peter Zenger. The writer of the New York Weekly Journal had been charged with seditious libel by the royal governor of New York. The jury said that "the truth is not libelous."


1790 - The Revenue Cutter Service was formed. This U.S. naval task force was the beginning of the U.S. Coast Guard.


1944 - Nazi police raided a house in Amsterdam and arrested eight people. Anne Frank, a teenager at the time, was one of the people arrested. Her diary would be published after her death.


1972 - Arthur Bremer was found guilty of shooting George Wallace, the governor of Alabama. Bremer was sentenced to 63 years in prison.


1977 - U.S. President Carter signed the measure that established the Department of Energy.


1983 - New York Yankee outfielder Dave Winfield threw a baseball during warm-ups and accidentally killed a seagull. After the game, Toronto police arrested him for "causing unnecessary suffering to an animal."


1984 - Upper Volta, an African republic, changed its name to Burkina Faso.


1987 - The Fairness Doctrine was rescinded by the Federal Communications Commission. The doctrine had required that radio and TV stations present controversial issues in a balanced fashion.