| 4 July 1054 | world [astronomy] | A bright new star, visible in daylight, appears in the constellation Taurus. The supernova is observed in China and Korea, and is recorded in rock paintings in southwestern America. |
| 4 July 1159 | Poland, Holy Roman Empire [administration] | Wladyslaw II, the former grand prince of Poland, dies; the Holy Roman Emperor Frederick I Barbarossa has his sons restored to Silesia, so attaching it to German interests. |
| 4 July–29 August 1475 | England, France [wars] | King Edward IV of England lands at Calais, France, with a large army. He finds his allies unwilling or unable to campaign, and manoeuvres as far as the River Somme, where he bargains with King Louis XI of France. The Treaty of Picquigny specifies a seven-year truce, the freedom and security of merchants, and compensation to Edward of 75,000 crowns, followed by annual payments of 50,000 crowns. |
| 4 July 1652 | France [Fronde (1648–52)] | The forces of Louis II de Bourbon, Prince of Condé, massacre the Fronde parliamentary deputies. This discredits the new government and creates a desire for peace in the civil war. |
| 4 July 1776 | America [American Revolution] | The American Declaration of Independence, drafted by Thomas Jefferson with revisions by Benjamin Franklin and John Adams, is approved by the Continental Congress. It announces the separation of the 13 North American British colonies from Britain. |
| 4 July 1784 | Habsburg Monarchy [legislation] | The Habsburg monarch and Holy Roman Emperor Joseph II of Austria repeals the constitution of Hungary as part of his campaign to create a unified Habsburg empire and to break the power of the local Hungarian nobility. |
| 4 July 1807 | France, Sicily, Naples [births and deaths] | Giuseppe Garibaldi, Italian soldier whose conquest of Sicily and Naples helps to unify Italy, born in Nice, France (–1882). |
| 4 July 1826 | USA [births and deaths] | Thomas Jefferson, third president of the USA 1801–09, a Democratic-Republican, dies in Monticello, Virginia (83). |
| 4 July 1866 | France, Venice, Austrian Empire [political events] | Emperor Napoleon III of France announces the cession of the Italian state of Venice by Austria following the Austrian defeat in the Seven Weeks' War with Prussia, as agreed in the treaty between Prussia and Austria of 12 June. |
| 4 July 1874 | USA [other structures] | The St Louis Bridge over the Mississippi River at St Louis, Missouri, is officially opened. Built by US engineer James Buchanan Eads, it consists of three hollow-steel arch trusses each over 150 m/500 ft long, making it the longest bridge in the world. A landmark in engineering, the arches are cantilevered so they can be raised, the foundations are planted to record depths of 30 m/100 ft, and it pioneers the use of structural steel. |
| 4 July 1885 | Russia, USA [births and deaths] | Louis B Mayer, US film executive, head of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM) 1924–48, born in Minsk, Russia (–1957). |
| 4 July 1900 | USA [births and deaths] | Louis Armstrong, US jazz trumpeter, composer, and band leader, born in New Orleans, Louisiana (–1971). |
| 4 July 1903 | USA, Philippines [communications] | Honolulu, USA, and Manila in the Philippines are linked by undersea cable. US president Theodore Roosevelt inaugurates transpacific communications by sending a message around the world via San Francisco, Honolulu, and Manila. It takes 12 minutes. |
| 4 July 1934 | [births and deaths] | Marie Curie (born Sklodowska), Polish-born French physicist who, with her husband Pierre Curie, discovered polonium and radium, and who won the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1903 and for Chemistry in 1911, dies near Sallanches, France (66). |
| 4 July 1960 | USA [everyday life] | The 50-star US flag, recognizing Hawaii's statehood of August 1959, becomes the official flag. |
| 4 July 1978 | USA [technology] | Scientists at the Princeton Large Torus test reactor achieve a temperature of 54 million K/60 million°F, and maintain it for one-twentieth of a second. It is hailed as a breakthrough for nuclear fusion. |
| 4 July 1986 | USA [other structures] | The Statue of Liberty in New York City is reopened by US president Ronald Reagan in the presence of President François Mitterrand of France, following refurbishment in celebration of its 100th birthday. |
| 4 July 1997 | USA [space exploration] | The US spacecraft Mars Pathfinder lands on Mars. Two days later the probe's rover Sojourner, a six-wheeled vehicle that is controlled by an Earth-based operator, begins to explore the area around the spacecraft. |
| 4 July 1998 | USA [astronomy] | Astronomers from the University of Hawaii discover the first asteroid entirely within the Earth's orbit; it is 40 m/130 ft in diameter. |
| 4 July 2004 | Portugal [football] | Greece is the unexpected winner of football's 2004 European Championship, beating the host country Portugal 1–0 in the final in Lisbon. |
