| 4 August 1060 | France [administration] | Following the death of Henry I, king of France, he is succeeded by his eight-year-old son, Philip I, already crowned as co-king, with Baldwin V, count of Flanders, as his guardian. |
| 4 August 1265 | England [political events] | King Henry III of England and his son Edward Plantagenet defeat and kill the leader of the baronial party Simon IV de Montfort, Earl of Leicester, at Evesham, England. |
| 4 August 1305 | Bohemia, Holy Roman Empire [political events] | King Wenceslas III of Bohemia is murdered, ending the Premyslid dynasty. |
| 4 August 1347 | France, England [Hundred Years War (1337–1453)] | Calais in France surrenders to King Edward III of England, who expels its citizens and establishes an English colony. |
| 4 August 1413 | France [political events] | The ‘Armagnacs’ (supporters of the late Louis, Duke of Orléans) restore royal authority in Paris, France, with the help of the dauphin Louis, quelling the riots that have been sweeping the city. |
| 4 August 1501 | France, Naples, Italy [wars] | The French complete their conquest of the northern half of the kingdom of Naples; the last castles surrender. King Federigo surrenders himself and the throne to King Louis XII of France and accepts the French duchy of Anjou. Louis d'Armagnac, Duke of Nemours, becomes viceroy. |
| 4 August 1578 | North Africa, Portugal, Morocco [wars] | King Sebastian I of Portugal and Al Mutawakkil, his candidate for the throne of Morocco, invading Morocco on a crusade, are drowned after his forces are routed near Alcazarquivir (Ksar el Kebir) in the Battle of the Three Kings by the army of the sultan of Morocco, Abd-al-Malik (who dies the next day). Sebastian's uncle, Cardinal Henry, aged 67, succeeds as king of Portugal. |
| 4 August 1590 | Japan [political events] | The Japanese regent Toyotomi Hideyoshi receives the submission of Hojo Ujimasa, his last significant rival, and completes the subjugation of the north by the end of the year, unifying Japan under his rule. |
| 4 August 1644 | France, Holy Roman Empire [Thirty Years War (1618–48)] | A three-day battle takes place at Freiburg between French troops under the Duke of Enghien and the Bavarian-imperialist army under Franz von Mercy. Mercy is forced to retreat, leaving the French to occupy a substantial portion of the left bank of the River Rhine. |
| 4 August 1789 | France [French Revolution] | The French National Assembly in Paris removes the feudal privileges of the nobility – including seigneurial rights and hunting rights. |
| 4 August 1792 | England [births and deaths] | Percy Bysshe Shelley, English Romantic lyric poet, born in Field Place, near Horsham, Sussex, England (–1822). |
| 4 August 1875 | Denmark [births and deaths] | Hans Christian Andersen, Danish storyteller, dies in Copenhagen, Denmark (70). |
| 4 August 1914 | Germany, Belgium, France [World War I (1914–18)] | Germany declares war on Belgium and invades Belgium and France. |
| 4 August 1914 | United Kingdom, Germany [World War I (1914–18)] | Britain declares war on Germany and establishes a naval blockade of the North Sea, the Channel, and the Mediterranean Sea in order to cut supplies to the Central Powers. |
| 4 August 1936 | Spain [Spanish Civil War (1936–39)] | In the Spanish Civil War, General Franco's Nationalist army captures Badajoz in the southwest, enabling antigovernment forces in the north and south to combine. |
| 4 August 1950 | USA [Korean War (1950–53)] | After the start of fighting in Korea, the US Army calls up 21,000 enlisted reservists for 21 months' duty. |
| 4 August 1972 | Uganda, UK [political events] | President Idi Amin of Uganda gives Asians holding foreign passports 90 days to leave the country on the grounds that they are ‘sabotaging the economy’. His action prompts a flood of refugees into Britain. |
| 4 August 1976 | UK [cricket] | The Marylebone Cricket Club in London, England, allows a women's cricket match to be played on its Lord's ground for the first time in its 190-year history. England defeats Australia in a limited overs match. |
| 4 August 1997 | UK, Peru, Australia, India, South America [computing] | Using computer models, British meteorologist Alan O'Neill demonstrates a connection between the collapse of anchovy fishing in Peru, drought in Australia, and the late arrival of India's monsoons and El Niño, the warm water current off South America's west coast. |
| 4 August 2000 | England [social customs] | Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother, celebrates her 100th birthday in London, England. She becomes the first centenarian in royal history. |
