Today in History – March 4th

51 – Nero, later to become Roman Emperor, is given the title princeps iuventutis (head of the youth).
1152 – Frederick I Barbarossa elected Holy Roman Emperor
1215 – King John of England makes an oath to the Pope as a crusader to gain the support of Innocent III.
1628 – England’s King Charles I grants a royal charter to Massachusetts Bay Colony
1681 – English Quaker William Penn receives charter from Charles II, making him sole proprietor of colonial American territory Pennsylvania
1776 – The American War of Independence: The Americans capture Dorchester Heights dominating the port of Boston, Massachusetts
1791 – Vermont admitted as 14th state (1st addition to the 13 colonies)
1793 – Washington’s 2nd inauguration, shortest speech (133 words)
1870 – On command of Louis Riel, Thomas Scott is executed by a firing squad. Riel rejects all appeals and requests to intervene in an attempt to demonstrate to the Canadian government that the Metis must be taken seriously

1890 – The longest bridge in the Great Britain, the Forth Bridge (railway) (1,710 ft) in Scotland is opened by the Prince of Wales, who later became King Edward VII.
1894 – Great fire in Shanghai; over 1,000 buildings destroyed
1936 – First flight of airship Hindenburg, Germany
1959 – US Pioneer IV misses Moon & becomes 2nd (US 1st) artificial planet
1977 – 1st CRAY 1 supercomputer shipped, to Los Alamos Laboratories, NM
1985 – Virtual ban on leaded gas ordered by EPA
1994 – 4 Arab terrorist founded guilty of bombing the World Trade Center
1995 – Blind teenage boy receives a ‘Bionic Eye’ at a Washington Hospital
Russian President Vladimir Putin 2012 – Vladimir Putin wins Russian presidential election amid allegations of voter fraud

Birthdays

1678 – Antonio Vivaldi, Venice, Baroque violin virtuoso/composer (4 Seasons)
1909 – Harry B Helmsley, billionaire builder (Empire State Building), born in NYC, New York
1932 – Ed “Big Daddy” Roth, American car designer (d. 2001)
Divorces
1923 – Silent film star Rudolph Valentino (24) divorces actress Jean Acker (26) only after 6 hours of getting married
1960 – Lucille Ball files divorce from Desi Arnaz

Deaths
1193 – Saladin, Kurdish sultan (b. 1137)
1953 – Sergei S Prokoviev, Russian composer (Peter & the wolf), dies at 61
1974 – Adolph Gottlieb, US painter, dies at 71
2007 – Thomas Eagleton, American politician (b. 1929)