May 4 in History

Augustinians are members of several religious orders that follow the Rule of Saint Augustine, written about A.D. 400 by Augustine of Hippo. There are two distinct types of Augustinians in Catholic religious orders dating back to the 12th–13th centuries:Various congregations of Canons Regular follow the Rule of Saint Augustine, embracing the evangelical counsels and leading a semi-monastic life, while remaining committed to pastoral care appropriate to their primary vocation as priests. They generally form one large community which might serve parishes in the vicinity, and are organized into autonomous congregations. Several orders of friars who live a mixed religious life of contemplation and apostolic ministry. The largest and most familiar is the Order of Saint Augustine (O.S.A.), founded in 1244 and originally known as the Hermits of Saint Augustine (O.E.S.A.). They are commonly known as the Austin Friars in England. Two other orders, the Order of Augustinian Recollects (O.A.R.) and the Discalced Augustinians (O.A.D.), were once part of the original Order under a single Prior General. The Recollects, begun in 1588 as a reform movement in Spain to recover the Order's eremitical roots, became autonomous in 1612. At the 100th General Chapter of the Order held in Rome in May 1592, those seeking reform of their way of life came to be called the Discalced (barefoot) and were authorized to seek their goals as a semi-independent branch. They were raised to the status of a separate mendicant Order in 1610.

John Wycliffe (; also spelled Wyclif, Wickliffe, Wicklyf etc.; c. 1328 – 31 December 1384) was an English scholastic philosopher, Christian reformer, Catholic priest, and a theology professor at the University of Oxford. Wycliffe is traditionally believed to have advocated for or made a vernacular translation of the Vulgate Bible into Middle English, though more recent scholarship has minimised the extent of his advocacy or involvement for lack of direct contemporary evidence. He became an influential dissident within the Catholic priesthood during the 14th century and his ideas are often considered an important predecessor to Protestantism. His political-theological theory of dominion meant that the church was not allowed to own property or have ecclesiastic courts, and men in mortal sin were not entitled to exercise authority in the church or state, nor to own property. Wycliffe insisted on the radical poverty of all clergy. Wycliffe has been characterised as the "evening star" of scholasticism and as the "morning star" or stella matutina of the English Reformation. Certain of Wycliffe's later followers, derogatorily called Lollards by their orthodox contemporaries in the 15th and 16th centuries, adopted a number of the beliefs attributed to Wycliffe such as theological virtues, predestination, iconoclasm, and the notion of caesaropapism, with some questioning the veneration of saints, the sacraments, requiem masses, transubstantiation, monasticism, and the legitimacy or role of the Papacy. Wycliffe's writings in Latin greatly influenced the philosophy and teaching of the Czech reformer Jan Hus (c. 1369–1415).

Engelbrekt Engelbrektsson (1390s – 4 May 1436) was a Swedish nobleman, rebel leader and military leader of German ancestry. He was the leader of the Engelbrekt rebellion in 1434 against Eric of Pomerania, king of the Kalmar Union.

The Wars of the Roses, known at the time and in the following centuries as the Civil Wars, were a series of armed confrontations, machinations, battles and campaigns fought for control of the English throne from 1455 to 1487. The conflict was fought between supporters of the House of York and the House of Lancaster, two rival cadet branches of the royal House of Plantagenet. The conflict resulted in the end of Lancaster's male line in 1471, leaving the Tudor family to inherit, through the female line, the Lancaster claim to the throne. The conflict was largely brought to an end upon the union of the two houses through marriage, creating the Tudor dynasty that would subsequently rule England.

A papal bull is a type of public decree, letters patent, or charter issued by the pope of the Catholic Church. It is named after the leaden seal (bulla) traditionally appended to authenticate it.

New Netherland (Dutch: Nieuw Nederland) was a colony of the Dutch Republic located on the East Coast of what is now the United States. The claimed territories extended from the Delmarva Peninsula to Cape Cod. Settlements were established in what became the states of New York, New Jersey, Delaware, and Connecticut, with small outposts in Pennsylvania and Rhode Island. The colony was originally conceived by the Dutch West India Company in 1621 to capitalize on the North American fur trade. Settlement initially stalled because of policy mismanagement by the company and conflicts with Native Americans. The settlement of New Sweden by the Swedish South Company encroached on its southern flank, while its eastern border was redrawn to accommodate the English colonies of an expanding New England Confederation. The colony experienced dramatic growth during the 1650s and became a major center for trade across the North Atlantic. The Dutch conquered New Sweden in 1655, but during the Second Anglo-Dutch War, the Dutch surrendered New Netherland to England following the capture of New Amsterdam in 1664. In 1673, the Dutch retook the colony but relinquished it under the Treaty of Westminster (1674) that ended the Third Anglo-Dutch War. The inhabitants of New Netherland (New Netherlanders) were European colonists, Native Americans, and Africans imported as slave laborers. Not including Native Americans, the colonial population, many of whom were not of Dutch descent, was 4,301 in 1650 and 8,000 to 9,000 at the time of transfer to England in 1674.

The Vaganova Academy of Russian Ballet is a school of classical ballet in St Petersburg, Russia. Established in 1738 during the reign of Empress Anna, the academy was known as the Imperial Ballet School until the Soviet era, when, after a brief hiatus, the school was re-established as the Leningrad State Choreographic Institute. In 1957, the school was renamed in honor of the pedagogue Agrippina Vaganova, who cultivated the method of classical ballet training that has been taught there since the late 1920s. Many of the world's leading ballet schools have adopted elements of the Vaganova method into their own training. The Vaganova Academy is the associate school of the Mariinsky Ballet, one of the world's leading ballet companies. Students of the school have found employment with ballet and contemporary companies worldwide, such as the Bolshoi Ballet, The Royal Ballet, American Ballet Theatre and the Mikhailovsky Ballet.

The Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations was an English colony on the eastern coast of North America, founded in 1636 on former land of the Narragansett tribe by Puritan minister Roger Williams, at a settlement he originally called Providence Plantations, after his exile from the Massachusetts Bay Colony. Joined by three other settlements soon founded on Narragansett Bay, the colony became a haven for religious dissenters and was known for its commitment to religious freedom and self-governance.

The Fourth Anglo-Mysore War was a conflict in South India during which the Mysore State fought against the East India Company, Maratha Empire and the Hyderabad State in 1798–99.

Napoleon Bonaparte (born Napoleone di Buonaparte; 15 August 1769 – 5 May 1821), later known by his regnal name Napoleon I, was Emperor of the French from 18 May 1804 until his first abdication in 1814, with a brief restoration during the Hundred Days in 1815. He rose to prominence as a general during the French Revolution and led a series of military campaigns across Europe and the Middle East during the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars. As a statesman, he implemented numerous legal and administrative reforms in France and Europe. Born on the island of Corsica to a family of Italian origin, Napoleon moved to mainland France in 1779 and was commissioned as an officer in the French Royal Army in 1785. He supported the French Revolution in 1789 and promoted its cause in Corsica. He rose rapidly through the ranks after winning the siege of Toulon in 1793 and defeating royalist insurgents in Paris on 13 Vendémiaire in 1795. In 1796 he commanded a military campaign against the Austrians and their Italian allies in the War of the First Coalition, scoring decisive victories and becoming a national hero. He led an invasion of Egypt and Syria in 1798, which served as a springboard for his rise to political power. In November 1799 Napoleon engineered the Coup of 18 Brumaire against the French Directory and became First Consul of the Republic. He won the Battle of Marengo in 1800, which secured France's victory in the War of the Second Coalition, and in 1803 he sold the territory of Louisiana to the United States. In December 1804 Napoleon crowned himself Emperor of the French, further consolidating his power. The breakdown of the Treaty of Amiens led to the War of the Third Coalition by 1805. Napoleon shattered the coalition with a decisive victory at the Battle of Austerlitz, which led to the dissolution of the Holy Roman Empire. In the War of the Fourth Coalition, Napoleon defeated Prussia at the Battle of Jena–Auerstedt in 1806, marched his Grande Armée into Eastern Europe, and defeated the Russians in 1807 at the Battle of Friedland. Seeking to extend his trade embargo against Britain, Napoleon invaded the Iberian Peninsula and installed his brother Joseph as King of Spain in 1808, provoking the Peninsular War. In 1809 the Austrians again challenged France in the War of the Fifth Coalition, during which Napoleon consolidated his dominance over Europe after winning the Battle of Wagram. In the summer of 1812 he launched an invasion of Russia. After forcing the Russians to abandon Moscow following the Battle of Borodino, Napoleon briefly occupied the city before conducting a catastrophic retreat of his army that winter. In 1813 Prussia and Austria joined Russia in the War of the Sixth Coalition, in which Napoleon was decisively defeated at the Battle of Leipzig. The coalition invaded France and captured Paris, forcing Napoleon to abdicate in April 1814. He was exiled to the Mediterranean island of Elba and the Bourbons were restored to power. Ten months later Napoleon escaped from Elba with around a thousand men and marched on Paris, reclaiming control of the country. His opponents responded by forming a Seventh Coalition, which defeated him at the Battle of Waterloo in June 1815. Napoleon was exiled to the remote island of Saint Helena in the South Atlantic, where he died of stomach cancer in 1821, aged 51. Since his death, Napoleon has maintained a prominent place in historical research and popular culture. He is considered one of the greatest military commanders in history, and Napoleonic tactics are still studied at military schools worldwide. His legacy endures through the legal and administrative reforms he enacted in France and Western Europe, most notably the Napoleonic Code. He established a system of public education, abolished the vestiges of feudalism, emancipated Jews and other religious minorities, abolished the Spanish Inquisition, enacted the principle of equality before the law for an emerging middle class, and centralized state power at the expense of religious authorities. His conquests also acted as a catalyst for political change and the development of nation-states. However, he remains controversial because of his role in wars that devastated Europe, his looting of conquered territories, and his mixed record on civil rights. He abolished the free press, ended directly elected representative government, exiled and imprisoned critics of his regime, reinstated slavery in French colonies, banned the entry of black people and mulattos into France, reduced the civil rights of women and children, reintroduced a hereditary monarchy and nobility, and violently repressed popular uprisings against his rule.

The Brazilian War of Independence (Portuguese: Guerra de Independência do Brasil) was an armed conflict that led to the separation of Brazil from the United Kingdom of Portugal, Brazil and the Algarves. The war was fought across various regions of Brazil, including Bahia, Maranhão, Pará, Piauí, and Cisplatina (present-day Uruguay), with naval battles occurring along the Atlantic coast. Brazilian forces, consisting of regular troops, local militias, and a hastily assembled fleet, defeated the Portuguese garrisons to establish the Empire of Brazil under emperor Pedro I. The war formally ended with the Treaty of Rio de Janeiro in 1825, in which Portugal recognized Brazil's independence. After the outbreak of the Liberal Revolution in 1820, which forced king John VI to return to Portugal in 1821 after more than a decade in Rio de Janeiro, tensions between local Brazilian elites and the Portuguese Cortes arose. During his stay in Brazil, John VI had elevated the colony to the status of a kingdom in union with Portugal. The changes allowed Brazil to have its own government institutions and directly trade with the rest of the world, which many elites sought to preserve. Efforts by the Portuguese Cortes to restore Brazil to its former colonial status and reduce its political autonomy were met with resistance in various provinces. The tensions culminated in prince regent Pedro of Braganza's proclamation of independence on 7 September 1822, in what became known as the Cry of Ipiranga. Northern provinces, such as Bahia, Maranhão, and Pará, which maintained stronger ties with Portugal than the government in Rio de Janeiro, resisted Brazilian sovereignty, with Portuguese garrisons keeping control of key cities such as Salvador, São Luís, Belém, and Montevideo, in the South. Under the command of French general Pierre Labatut, supported by British admiral Thomas Cochrane at sea, the Brazilian Army, consisting of regular troops, militia, and volunteers, gradually isolated the Portuguese forces in Bahia, where the siege of Salvador ended with the surrender of approximately 10,000 Portuguese troops on 2 July 1823. On the northern front, Cochrane secured the surrender of Maranhão and Pará. Troops were recruited from various provinces and social classes, and also included slaves who were promised freedom in exchange for military service. The Brazilian Army faced logistical difficulties, poor training, and internal disputes between commanders, particularly in the early stages of the war. In turn, the Imperial Navy disrupted Portuguese supply lines, prevented the arrival of reinforcements from Europe, and captured several enemy vessels. In total, Brazilian troops numbered between 30,000 and 40,000 men, while Portuguese ones numbered around 20,000. The conflict officially ended with the Treaty of Rio de Janeiro, mediated by the United Kingdom, in which Brazil committed to paying Portugal an indemnity of 2 million pounds and grant trade privileges to the United Kingdom. Through the war, Brazil secured its territorial unity and established itself as a constitutional monarchy, in contrast with the fragmented neighboring republics that emerged from the Spanish American Wars of Independence.

The Ancient Order of Hibernians (AOH; Irish: Ord Ársa na nÉireannach) is an Irish Catholic fraternal organization. Members must be male, Catholic, and either born in Ireland or of Irish descent. Its largest membership is in the United States, where it was founded in New York City in 1836. The name was adopted by groups of Irish immigrants in the United States, its purpose to act as guards to shield Catholic churches from anti-Catholic forces in the mid-19th century, and to assist Irish Catholic immigrants, especially those who faced discrimination or harsh coal mining working conditions. Many members in the coal mining area of Pennsylvania allegedly had a background with the Molly Maguires. It became an important focus of Irish American political activity.

The Cornwall Railway was a 7 ft 1⁄4 in (2,140 mm) broad gauge railway between Plymouth in Devon to Falmouth in Cornwall, England. It was built in the second half of the 19th century. It was constantly beset with shortage of capital for the construction and was eventually forced to sell its line to the dominant Great Western Railway. The Cornwall Railway was famous for building the majestic Royal Albert Bridge over the River Tamar and, because of the difficult terrain it traversed, it had a large number of viaducts, built as timber trestles because of the shortage of money. They proved to be iconic structures, but were a source of heavy maintenance costs, eventually needing to be reconstructed in more durable materials. Its main line was the key route to many of the holiday destinations of Cornwall; in the first half of the 20th century it carried holidaymakers in summer, as well as vegetables, fish and cut flowers from Cornwall to markets in London and elsewhere in England. The section from Truro to Falmouth, originally part of its main line, never fulfilled its potential and soon became a branch line. Nonetheless, the entire route (with some minor modifications) remains open, forming part of the Cornish Main Line from Plymouth to Penzance. The Truro to Falmouth branch continues to operate today; it is now branded as the Maritime Line.

The Naval Battle of Hakodate (函館湾海戦, Hakodatewan Kaisen) was fought from 4 to 10 May 1869, between the remnants of the Tokugawa shogunate navy, consolidated into the armed forces of the rebel Ezo Republic, and the newly formed Imperial Japanese Navy. It was one of the last stages of the Battle of Hakodate during the Boshin War, and occurred near Hakodate in the northern Japanese island of Hokkaido.

The Haymarket affair was a bombing that took place at a labor demonstration on May 4, 1886, at Haymarket Square in Chicago. The rally began peacefully in support of workers striking for an eight-hour work day; it was held the day after a May 3 rally at a McCormick Harvesting Machine Company plant on the West Side of Chicago, during which police killed two strikers by opening fire at the crowd as it surged to the gate to confront strikebreakers. Many others were injured. At the Haymarket Square rally on May 4, an unknown person threw a dynamite bomb at the police as they acted to disperse the meeting, and the bomb blast and ensuing retaliatory gunfire by the police caused the deaths of seven police officers and at least four civilians; dozens of others were wounded. Eight anarchists were charged with the bombing. They were convicted of conspiracy in the internationally publicized legal proceedings. The evidence put forward in the court trial was that one of the defendants may have built the bomb but none of those on trial had thrown it, and only two of the eight were at the Haymarket at the time. Seven were sentenced to death and one to a term of 15 years in prison. Illinois governor Richard J. Oglesby commuted two of the sentences to terms of life in prison; another died by suicide in jail before his scheduled execution. The other four were hanged on November 11, 1887. In 1893, Illinois governor John Peter Altgeld pardoned the remaining defendants and criticized the trial. The site of the incident was designated a Chicago Landmark in 1992, and a sculpture was dedicated there in 2004. The Haymarket Martyrs' Monument was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1997 at the defendants' burial site in Forest Park, Illinois. The Haymarket affair is generally considered significant as the origin of International Workers' Day held on May 1. It was also the climax of the period of social unrest among the working class in America known as the Great Upheaval and Great Railroad Strike of 1877.

The Panama Canal (Spanish: Canal de Panamá) is an artificial 82-kilometer (51-mile) waterway in Panama that connects the Caribbean Sea with the Pacific Ocean. It cuts across the narrowest point of the Isthmus of Panama, and is a conduit for maritime trade between the Atlantic Ocean and the Pacific Ocean. Locks at each end lift ships up to Gatun Lake, an artificial fresh water lake 26 meters (85 ft) above sea level, created by damming the Chagres River and Lake Alajuela to reduce the amount of excavation work required for the canal. Locks then lower the ships at the other end. The original locks are 33.5 meters (110 ft) wide and allow the passage of Panamax ships. A third, wider lane of locks was constructed between September 2007 and May 2016. The expanded waterway began commercial operation on 26 June 2016. The new locks allow for the transit of larger, Neopanamax ships. An average of 200,000,000 litres (52 million US gallons) of fresh water is used in a single passing of a ship. The canal is threatened by low water levels during droughts. The Panama Canal shortcut greatly reduces the time for ships to travel between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans, enabling them to avoid the lengthy, hazardous route around the southernmost tip of South America via the Drake Passage, the Strait of Magellan or the Beagle Channel. Its construction was one of the largest and most difficult engineering projects ever undertaken. Since its inauguration on 15 August 1914, the canal has succeeded in shortening maritime communication in time and distance, invigorating maritime and economic transportation by providing a short and relatively inexpensive transit route between the two oceans, decisively influencing global trade patterns, boosting economic growth in developed and developing countries, as well as providing the basic impetus for economic expansion in many remote regions of the world. Colombia, France, and later the United States controlled the territory surrounding the canal during construction. France began work on the canal in 1881, but stopped in 1889 because of a lack of investors' confidence due to engineering problems and a high worker mortality rate. The US took over the project in 1904 and opened the canal in 1914. The US continued to control the canal and the surrounding Panama Canal Zone until the Torrijos–Carter Treaties provided for its handover to Panama in 1977. After a period of joint American–Panamanian control, the Panamanian government took control in 1999. It is now managed and operated by the Panamanian government-owned Panama Canal Authority. Annual traffic has risen from about 1,000 ships in 1914, when the canal opened, to 14,702 vessels in 2008, for a total of 333.7 million Panama Canal/Universal Measurement System (PC/UMS) tons. By 2012, more than 815,000 vessels had passed through the canal. In that year, the top five users of the canal were the United States, China, Chile, Japan, and South Korea. In 2017, it took ships an average of 11.38 hours to pass between the canal's two outer locks. The American Society of Civil Engineers has ranked the Panama Canal one of the Seven Wonders of the Modern World.

The Royal Canadian Navy (RCN; French: Marine royale canadienne, MRC) is the naval force of Canada, and one of three environmental commands of the Canadian Armed Forces. The command's official strength includes 8,400 Regular Force sailors, 4,100 naval reservists, and a fleet that includes 25 commissioned warships and additional auxiliary vessels. The RCN is headquartered in Ottawa, with its commander reporting to the Chief of Defence Staff. Three formations are responsible to the commander of the RCN: Maritime Forces Atlantic, based at CFB Halifax on the Atlantic coast; Maritime Forces Pacific, based at CFB Esquimalt on the Pacific coast; and the Naval Reserve, headquartered in Quebec City with 24 reserve divisions located across the country. Established in 1910 as the Naval Service of Canada, the service received royal sanction in 1911 and was renamed the Royal Canadian Navy. In 1968, the RCN was unified with the Canadian Army and the Royal Canadian Air Force to form the Canadian Armed Forces (CAF), the RCN becoming its naval command, Maritime Command. The historic Royal Canadian Navy designation was restored in 2011. The RCN took part in several conflicts including the First World War, Second World War, the Korean War, the Gulf War, the War in Afghanistan, and other NATO and UN peacekeeping missions.

The Battle of Rhodes or Invasion of Rhodes was fought in May 1912 as part of the Italo-Turkish War. Italian troops under Lieutenant General Giovanni Ameglio landed on the Turkish-held island and took control after 13 days of fighting, ending nearly 400 years of Ottoman rule. The battle became the major engagement during the Italian operations in the Aegean Sea. Italian forces numbered about 9,000 to 10,400 men supported by a fleet of Regia Marina ("Royal Navy") warships. Many of the Italian troops were veterans of the campaigns in Ottoman Libya, having been shipped from Benghazi and Tobruk. The Regia Marina began operating off the island a few days prior to the invasion. On 1 May, the Regia Marina cut the communications cable linking Rhodes with the Anatolian mainland. The Italian landing forces consisted of the 4th Bersaglieri Regiment, the 34th Infantry Regiment (Brigade "Livorno"), the 57th Infantry Regiment (Brigade "Abruzzi"), the Alpini Battalion "Fenestrelle" of the 3rd Alpini Regiment, four artillery batteries, and various support units. An unopposed landing in Kalithea Bay began at 4:00 am on 4 May and lasted until 2:00 pm when the Italians began their march north towards the city of Rhodes. Ottoman Army personnel numbered about 1,000 officers and men with a handful of old artillery pieces, although another 10,000 militiamen were recruited from the local Muslim civilian population. At first the Italians overestimated the Ottoman garrison on the island at 2,000 to 5,000 and therefore they waited until they gathered enough men for the attack. Rhodes was protected by a castle but the Turks did not use it and it played no part in the battle. The first line of Turkish defenses was at Smith Plateau, where a few hundred men were stationed. Italian troops attacked the position, while 11 Italian ships bombarded the area. The Turks were routed with significant losses, while the Italians reported that only seven of their men were wounded. Ottoman forces retreated that night to the mountains around Psithos and the Italians advanced to within 2 kilometers (1.2 mi) of Rhodes and stopped at 7:00 pm. When the city surrendered the following morning at 10:00 am, Italian troops marched in without opposition. Meanwhile, additional unopposed landings took place at Kalavarda and Malona Bay, both about 30 miles (48 km) south of Rhodes. On May 7, the Wali of Rhodes was captured with over 100 Turkish officials by the Italian destroyer Ostro. The Turks were trying to flee the islands, but instead ended up going to Taranto on 11 May as prisoners of war. Lieutenant General Ameglio took the offensive again on 15 May against the Ottoman forces around Psithos. With the landings at Kalavarda and Malona Bay completed, Ameglio and his main force were able to surround the Turkish position on three sides while the battleship Ammiraglio di Saint Bon bombarded troop concentrations from the fourth. After a nine-hour battle the Ottomans were defeated and the battle for Rhodes came to an end when the Turkish commanders surrendered the next day on 16 May. Eighty-three Turks were killed at Psithos, 26 were wounded and 983 surrendered. The remaining 10,000 militiamen returned to their homes. Four Italians were reported to have been killed in the final engagement and 26 men were wounded. After 390 years of Muslim rule, Rhodes was once again controlled by Christian forces.

The May Fourth Movement was a Chinese cultural and anti-imperialist political movement which grew out of student protests in Beijing on May 4, 1919. Students gathered in front of Tiananmen to protest the Chinese government's weak response to the Treaty of Versailles decision to allow the Empire of Japan to retain territories in Shandong that had been surrendered by the German Empire after the Siege of Tsingtao in 1914. The demonstrations sparked nationwide protests and spurred an upsurge in Chinese nationalism, a shift towards political mobilization, away from cultural activities, and a move towards a populist base, away from traditional intellectual and political elites. The May Fourth demonstrations marked a turning point in a broader anti-traditional New Culture Movement (1915–1921) that sought to replace traditional Confucian values and was itself a continuation of late Qing reforms. After 1919, a traditional model linking education with responsibility for cultural and political affairs remained influential among young people. They opposed traditional culture but looked abroad for cosmopolitan inspiration in the name of nationalism and were an overwhelmingly urban movement that espoused populism in an overwhelmingly rural country. Many political and social leaders of the next five decades emerged at this time, including those of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Northwestern Europe, off the coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, with a population of over 69 million in 2024. The UK includes the island of Great Britain, the north-eastern part of the island of Ireland, and most of the smaller islands within the British Isles, covering 94,354 square miles (244,376 km2). It shares a land border with the Republic of Ireland and is surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean, the North Sea, the English Channel, the Celtic Sea and the Irish Sea, while maintaining sovereignty over the Crown Dependencies and the British Overseas Territories. The capital and largest city of England and the UK is London; Edinburgh, Cardiff and Belfast are the national capitals of Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, respectively.

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS, often pronounced AM-pass; also known as simply the Academy or the Motion Picture Academy) is a professional honorary organization in Beverly Hills, California, U.S., with the stated goal of advancing the arts and sciences of motion pictures. The Academy's corporate management and general policies are overseen by a board of governors, which includes representatives from each of the craft branches. As of 2025, the organization was estimated to consist of more than 11,000 motion picture professionals. The Academy is an international organization and membership is open to qualified filmmakers around the world. The Academy is known around the world for its annual Academy Awards, both officially and popularly known as "The Oscars". In addition, the Academy holds the Governors Awards annually for lifetime achievement in film; presents Scientific and Technical Awards annually; gives Student Academy Awards annually to filmmakers at the undergraduate and graduate level; and honors film artists at the Academy Museum Gala. The Academy also operates the Margaret Herrick Library in Beverly Hills, the Academy Film Archive, the Pickford Center for Motion Picture Study in Hollywood, Los Angeles, and the Academy opened the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures in Los Angeles in 2021. The Academy maintains the largest film-related collection in the world, including 52 million items, which are conserved and exhibited through the Academy Foundation.

The Cook County Jail is a county jail of Cook County, Illinois, located in South Lawndale, Chicago. It is operated by the Cook County Sheriff's Office. It is sometimes referred to as 26th and Cal or Hotel California, as its address is on 26th Street and California Avenue.

World War II, or the Second World War, was a global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies and the Axis powers. Nearly all of the world's countries participated, with many engaging in total war on an unprecedented scale. World War II was the deadliest conflict in history, causing the deaths of 60 to 75 million people, a majority of whom were civilians. Millions died as a result of massacres, starvation, disease, and genocides including the Holocaust. After the Allied victory, Germany, Austria, Japan, and Korea were occupied, and German and Japanese leaders were tried for war crimes.

Neuengamme was a network of Nazi concentration camps in northern Germany that consisted of the main camp, Neuengamme, and more than 85 satellite camps. Established in 1938 near the village of Neuengamme in the Bergedorf district of Hamburg, the Neuengamme camp became the largest concentration camp in Northwest Germany. Over 100,000 prisoners came through Neuengamme and its subcamps, 24 of which were for women. The verified death toll is 42,900: 14,000 in the main camp, 12,800 in the subcamps, and 16,100 in the death marches and bombings during the final weeks of World War II. Following Germany's defeat in 1945, the British Army used the site as an internment camp for SS and other Nazi officials. In 1948, the British transferred the land to the Free Hanseatic City of Hamburg, which summarily demolished the camp's wooden barracks and built in its stead a prison cell block, converting the former concentration camp site into two state prisons operated by the Hamburg authorities from 1950 to 2004. Following protests by various groups of survivors and allies, the site now serves as a memorial. It is situated 15 km southeast of the centre of Hamburg.

On 4 May 1945, at 18:30 British Double Summer Time, at Lüneburg Heath, south of Hamburg, British Field Marshal Sir Bernard Montgomery accepted the unconditional surrender of the German forces in the Netherlands, northwest Germany including all islands, in Denmark and all naval ships in those areas. The surrender preceded the end of World War II in Europe and was signed in a carpeted tent at Montgomery's headquarters on the Timeloberg hill at Wendisch Evern.

San Francisco Bay is a large tidal estuary in the U.S. state of California, which gives its name to the San Francisco Bay Area. It is dominated by the cities of San Francisco, San Jose, and Oakland.

Torino Football Club, colloquially referred to as Toro, is a professional football club based in Turin, Piedmont, Italy, that plays in Serie A, the top tier of the Italian football league system. Founded in 1906 as Foot-Ball Club Torino, they are historically among the most successful clubs in the nation with seven league titles, many of which coming from the Grande Torino era in the 1940s. Their most recent Serie A title was won in 1976. Torino have won the Coppa Italia five times, and have won one international, now-defunct tournament—the Mitropa Cup—in 1991.

Ernest Miller Hemingway was an American novelist, short-story writer, and journalist. Known for an economical, understated style that influenced later 20th-century writers, he has been romanticized for his adventurous lifestyle and outspoken, blunt public image. Some of his seven novels, six short-story collections and two non-fiction works have become classics of American literature, and he was awarded the 1954 Nobel Prize in Literature.

The 1st Annual Grammy Awards, which began as The Gramophone Awards, were held on May 4, 1959. They recognized musical accomplishments by performers for the year 1958. Two separate ceremonies were held simultaneously on the same day: one in the Beverly Hilton Hotel in Beverly Hills, California, and the other in the Park Sheraton Hotel in New York City. Ella Fitzgerald, Count Basie, Domenico Modugno, Ross Bagdasarian, and Henry Mancini, each won 2 awards.

The civil rights movement was a social movement in the United States from 1954 to 1968 which aimed to abolish legalized racial segregation, discrimination, and disenfranchisement in the country, which most commonly affected African Americans. The movement had origins in the Reconstruction era in the late 19th century, and modern roots in the 1940s and in Mahatma Gandhi's nonviolent movement in India. After years of nonviolent protests and civil disobedience campaigns, the civil rights movement achieved many of its legislative goals in the 1960s, during which it secured new protections in federal law for the civil rights of all Americans, including the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the Voting Rights Act of 1965, and the Civil Rights Act of 1968.

Malcolm David Ross was a captain in the United States Naval Reserve (USNR), an atmospheric scientist, and a balloonist who set several records for altitude and scientific inquiry, with more than 100 hours flight time in gas balloons by 1961. Along with Lieutenant Commander Victor A. Prather (USN), he set the altitude record for a manned balloon flight.

The Vietnam War was an armed conflict in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia fought between North Vietnam and South Vietnam and their allies. North Vietnam was supported by the Soviet Union and China, while South Vietnam was supported by the United States and other anti-communist nations. The conflict was the second of the Indochina wars and a proxy war of the Cold War. The Vietnam War was one of the postcolonial wars of national liberation, a theater in the Cold War, and a civil war, with civil warfare a defining feature from the outset. Direct US military involvement escalated from 1965 until US forces were withdrawn in 1973. The fighting spilled into the Laotian and Cambodian civil wars, which ended with all three countries becoming communist in 1975.

The Willis Tower, formerly known and still commonly referred to as the Sears Tower, is a 110-story, 1,451-foot (442.3 m) skyscraper in the Loop of Chicago, Illinois, United States. Designed by architect Bruce Graham and engineer Fazlur Rahman Khan of Skidmore, Owings & Merrill (SOM), it opened in 1973 as the world's tallest building, a title that it held for nearly 25 years. It is the third-tallest building in the Western Hemisphere, as well as the 26th-tallest in the world. Each year, more than 1.7 million people visit the Skydeck, the highest observation deck in the United States, making it one of Chicago's most popular tourist destinations. Due to its height and location, the tower is visible from a great distance. The building has appeared in numerous films and television shows set in Chicago.

The South African Defence Force (SADF) comprised the armed forces of South Africa from 1957 until 1994. Shortly before the state reconstituted itself as a republic in 1961, the former Union Defence Force was officially succeeded by the SADF, which was established by the Defence Act of 1957. The SADF, in turn, was superseded by the South African National Defence Force in 1994.

Margaret Hilda Thatcher, Baroness Thatcher was a British stateswoman who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1979 to 1990 and Leader of the Conservative Party from 1975 to 1990. She was the longest-serving British prime minister of the 20th century and the first woman to hold the office. As prime minister, she implemented policies that came to be known as Thatcherism. A Soviet journalist dubbed her the "Iron Lady", a nickname that became associated with her uncompromising politics and leadership style.

The Type 42 or Sheffield class was developed to provide the Royal Navy with a cost-effective, medium-sized guided-missile destroyer focused on fleet air defence. Conceived in the late 1960s after the cancellation of the more complex and expensive Type 82, the Type 42 was intended to protect naval task groups against airborne threats using the Sea Dart missile system.

On May 4, 1988, a fire followed by several explosions occurred at the Pacific Engineering and Production Company of Nevada (PEPCON) chemical plant in Henderson, Nevada, United States. The disaster caused two fatalities, 372 injuries, and an estimated $100 million of damage. A large portion of the Las Vegas Valley within a 10-mile (16 km) radius of the plant was affected and several agencies activated disaster plans.

The Iran–Contra affair or Iran–Contra scandal, also referred to as the Iran Initiative or Contragate, was a political scandal in the United States that centered on arms trafficking to Iran between 1981 and 1986, facilitated by senior officials of the Reagan administration. The administration hoped to use the proceeds of the arms sale to fund the Contras, an anti-Sandinista rebel group in Nicaragua. Under the Boland Amendments, a series of laws passed by Congress and signed by Ronald Reagan, further funding of the Contras by legislative appropriations was prohibited by Congress, but the Reagan administration continued funding them secretly using non-appropriated funds.

Space Shuttle Atlantis is a retired Space Shuttle orbiter vehicle which belongs to NASA, the spaceflight and space exploration agency of the United States. Atlantis was manufactured by the Rockwell International company in Southern California and was delivered to the Kennedy Space Center in Eastern Florida in April 1985. Atlantis is the fourth operational and the second-to-last Space Shuttle built. Its maiden flight was STS-51-J made from October 3 to 7, 1985. It was, along with Challenger, one of only two orbiters equipped to carry the Shuttle-Centaur booster.

Latvia, officially the Republic of Latvia, is a country in the Baltic region of northern Europe. It is one of the three Baltic states, along with Estonia to the north and Lithuania to the south. It borders Russia to the east and Belarus to the southeast and shares a maritime border with Sweden to the west. Latvia covers an area of 64,573 km2 (24,932 sq mi), with a population of 1.83 million. The country has a temperate seasonal climate. Its capital and largest city is Riga. Latvians, who are the titular nation and comprise 65.5% of the country's population, belong to the ethnolinguistic group of the Balts and speak Latvian. Russians are the most prominent minority in the country, at almost a quarter of the population; 37.7% of the population speak Russian as their native tongue.

A prime minister, also known as a chief of cabinet, chief minister, first minister, minister-president or premier, is the head of the cabinet and the leader of the ministers in the executive branch of government, often in a parliamentary or semi-presidential system. A prime minister is not the head of state, but rather the head of government, serving as the chief of the executive under either a monarch or a president in a republican form of government.

Sacramento is the capital city of the U.S. state of California. The county seat of Sacramento County, it is located at the confluence of the Sacramento and American Rivers in the Sacramento Valley. It is the fourth-most populous city in Northern California, sixth-most populous city in the state, and 35th-most populous city in the United States, with a population of 524,943 at the 2020 census. The Sacramento metropolitan area, with 2.46 million residents, is the 27th-largest metropolitan area in the country.

Kenneth Robert Livingstone is an English politician who served as the Leader of the Greater London Council (GLC) from 1981 until the council was abolished in 1986, and as the first mayor of London from the creation of the office in 2000 until 2008. He also served as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Brent East from 1987 to 2001. He is a former member of the Labour Party, ideologically identifying as a socialist.

EAS Airlines Flight 4226 was a scheduled domestic passenger flight from Kano to Lagos, Nigeria. On 4 May 2002, the aircraft operating the flight overran the runway on its' takeoff roll and crashed into Gwammaja Quarters, a primarily Muslim densely populated residential area, located approximately three kilometres from the airport. The aircraft burst into flames, resulting in the deaths of 71 occupants, with 6 surviving. In addition, 78 on the ground were killed. With a total of 149 fatalities, Flight 4226 is the deadliest aviation accident involving a BAC One-Eleven.

Greensburg is a city in and the county seat of Kiowa County, Kansas, United States. As of the 2020 United States census, the population of the city was 740. It is home to the world's largest hand-dug well.

W Series was an all-female single-seater racing championship. It was held over a total of three seasons in 2019, 2021 and 2022 before the championship fell into administration and later liquidated, with a planned season in 2020 cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic. All three editions were won by Jamie Chadwick.