TODAY IN HISTORY October 4

23 – Rebels capture and sack the Chinese capital Chang’an during a peasant rebellion. They kill and decapitate the emperor, Wang Mang, two days later.

1302 – A peace treaty between the Byzantine Empire and the Republic of Venice ends the Byzantine-Venetian War (1296-1302).

1511 – Formation of the Holy League of Ferdinand II of Aragon, the Papal States and the Republic of Venice against France.

1582 – Pope Gregory XIII implements the Gregorian calendar. In Italy, Poland, Portugal, and Spain, October 4 of this year is followed directly by October 15.

1777 – Troops under George Washington are repelled by British troopsunder Sir William Howe.

1795 – Napoleon Bonaparte first rises to national prominence by suppressing armed counter-revolutionary rioters threatening the National Convention.

1853 – The Ottoman Empire declares war on the Russian Empire.

1927 – Gutzon Borglum begins sculpting Mount Rushmore.

1941 – Norman Rockwell’s Willie Gillis character debuts on the cover of The Saturday Evening Post.

1957 – Space Race: Launch of Sputnik 1, the first artificial satellite to orbit the Earth.

1963 – Hurricane Flora kills 6,000 in Cuba and Haiti.

1965 – Pope Paul VI arrives in New York City, the first Pope to visit the Americas.

1983 – Richard Noble sets a new land speed record of 633.468 miles per hour (1,019.468 km/h), driving Thrust2 at the Black Rock Desert in Nevada.

1993 – Russian Constitutional Crisis: In Moscow, tanks bombard the White House, a government building that housed the Russian parliament, while demonstrators against President Boris Yeltsin rally outside.

2006 – Wikileaks is launched by Julian Assange.

1289 – Louis X of France (d. 1316)

1550 – Charles IX of Sweden (d. 1611)

1625 – Jacqueline Pascal, French nun and composer (d. 1661)

1822 – Rutherford B. Hayes, 19th President of the United States (d. 1893)

1861 – Frederic Remington, painter, sculptor, and illustrator (d. 1909)

1880 – Damon Runyon, American author and playwright (d. 1946)

1895 – Buster Keaton, American film actor, director, and producer (d. 1966)

1914 – Brendan Gill, American journalist and essayist (d. 1997)

Janis and her Porsche

1941 – Roy Blount, Jr., American journalist and author

1941 – Karl Oppitzhauser, Austrian race car driver

1946 – Susan Sarandon, American actress and activist

1052 – Vladimir of Novgorod (b. 1020)

1661 – Jacqueline Pascal, French nun and composer (b. 1625)

1669 – Rembrandt, Dutch painter and illustrator (b. 1606)

1859 – Karl Baedeker, German publisher, founded Baedeker (b. 1801)

1946 – Barney Oldfield, American race car driver and actor (b. 1878)

1947 – Max Planck, physicist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1858)

1970 – Janis Joplin, American singer-songwriter (b. 1943)

1982 – Glenn Gould, Canadian pianist and conductor (b. 1932)

1992 – Denny Hulme, New Zealand race car driver (b. 1936)

1999 – Art Farmer, American trumpet player and composer (b. 1928)

2004 – Gordon Cooper, American colonel, engineer, and astronaut (b. 1927)