August 4 is the 216th day of the year.
There are 149 days remaining until the end of the year.
Sunrise Today: 6:16 AM
Sunset Today: 8:15 PM
Daylight Hours: 13 hours, 59 minutes (-1m 53s)
High tides 02:55 5.63:50pm 6.1
Low tides 08:56 0.2 9:44pm 1.3
Moonrise Today: 11:09 PM
Moonset Today: 11:12 AM
The moon will be 78.1% Illuminated waxing gibbous
Today is...
Twins Day Festival
It's also the Christian feast day of
John Vianney Sithney, patron saint of mad dogs
Coast Guard Day (United States)
Constitution Day (Cook Islands)
Matica slovenská Day (Slovakia)
Revolution Day (Burkina Faso)
70 – The destruction of the Second Temple in Jerusalem by the Romans.
1693 – Date traditionally ascribed to Dom Perignon's invention of champagne, although he actually did not have anything to do with sparkling wine.
1704 – War of the Spanish Succession: Gibraltar is captured by an English and Dutch fleet, commanded by Admiral Sir George Rooke and allied with Archduke Charles.
1789 – In France members of the National Constituent Assembly take an oath to end feudalism and abandon their privileges.
1790 – A newly passed tariff act creates the Revenue Cutter Service (the forerunner of the United States Coast Guard).
1821 – The Saturday Evening Post is published for the first time as a weekly newspaper.
1854 – The Hinomaru is established as the official flag to be flown from Japanese ships.
1892 – The father and stepmother of Lizzie Borden are found murdered in their Fall River, Massachusetts home.
1902 – The Greenwich foot tunnel under the River Thames opens.
1906 – Central railway station, Sydney opens.
1914 – World War I: Germany invades Belgium. In response, Belgium and the United Kingdom declare war on Germany. The United States declares its neutrality.
1958 – The Billboard Hot 100 is published for the first time.
1964 – American civil rights movement: Civil rights workers Michael Schwerner, Andrew Goodman and James Chaney are found dead in Mississippi after disappearing on June
21.
1964 – Gulf of Tonkin incident: U.S. destroyers USS Maddox and USS Turner Joy report coming under attack in the Gulf of Tonkin.
1977 – U.S. President Jimmy Carter signs legislation creating the United States Department of Energy.
1987 – The Federal Communications Commission rescinds the Fairness Doctrine which had required radio and television stations to present controversial issues "fairly".
1993 – A federal judge sentences Los Angeles Police Department officers Stacey Koon and Laurence Powell to 30 months in prison for violating motorist Rodney King's civil
rights.
If today is your birthday, Happy Birthday To You, and you get to share birthday cake with:
1821 – Louis Vuitton, French fashion designer, founded Louis Vuitton (d. 1892)
1870 – Harry Lauder, Scottish actor and singer (d. 1950)
1901 – Louis Armstrong, American trumpet player and singer (d. 1971)
1912 – Raoul Wallenberg, Swedish architect and diplomat (d. 1947)
1918 – Iceberg Slim, American author (d. 1992)
1920 – Helen Thomas, American journalist and author (d. 2013)
1921 – Herb Ellis, American guitarist (d. 2010)
1929 – Kishore Kumar, Indian singer-songwriter and actor (d. 1987)
1947 – Klaus Schulze, German keyboard player and songwriter (Tangerine Dream, Ash Ra Tempel, and The Cosmic Jokers)
1961 – Barack Obama, American lawyer and politician, 44th President of the United States, Nobel Prize laureate