This Day in HistoryMay 4

1776

Two months before the Declaration of Independence, Rhode Island becomes the first colony to declare independence from Britain

1864

Union General Ulysses S. Grant’s army crosses the Rapidan River in Virginia

1865

A few weeks after his assassination, Abraham Lincoln is buried in Springfield, Illinois

1886

A massive labor riot breaks out in Chicago’s Haymarket Square—more than a dozen people are killed and nearly 100 are injured

1965

Willie Mays hits his 512th home run, breaking the National League career record—he would finish his career with 660 home runs, 5th on the all-time list

1970

The Ohio National Guard kills 4 people at Kent State University during a Vietnam War protest—the event is memorialized in Neil Young’s song “Ohio”

1974

The soundtrack to the movie The Sting, featuring Marvin Hamlisch’s adaptations of Scott Joplin’s ragtime piano tunes, hits #1 in the U.S., where it stays for five weeks—The Sting is one of Mr. Seeley’s all-time-favorite movies

1979

Margaret Thatcher becomes the first female British Prime Minister

1980

Josip Broz Tito, communist leader of Yugoslavia, dies at age 88

1984

Bruce Springsteen releases “Pink Cadillac,” the biggest hit off his blockbuster Born in the USA album—the song does not actually appear on the album, but is released as a B-side of “Dancing in the Dark”

1987

San Francisco Giants outfielder Candy Maldonado hits for the cycle (single, double, triple, and home run in a single game), one of 330 players to do so in MLB history

2012

Adam Yauch, also known as MCA, of the Beastie Boys dies of cancer at age 47 in New York City

2018

Arizona schools reopen after a six-day teacher walkout

2020

Delta Airlines, United Airlines, and JetBlue Airways begin requiring all passengers to wear face coverings from the time they check in to the time they deplane

2020

During the coronavirus pandemic, most Costco stores in the U.S. return to regular operating hours—all employees and customers are required to wear face coverings

2020

The Rise of Skywalker, the latest movie in the Star Wars franchise, begins streaming on Disney+—May the Fourth be with you

2020

For the first time ever, the U.S. Supreme Court hears oral arguments over the phone and streams its proceedings live—it is another example of how the coronavirus has changed the ways people work

2020

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security releases a report that says Chinese leaders “intentionally concealed the severity” of the coronavirus pandemic in early January in order to hoard personal protective equipment

2021

Star Wars fans across the galaxy celebrate Star Wars Day, an unofficial yearly holiday in honor of the film and TV franchise—May the Fourth be with you

2021

The first episode of a new Star Wars: The Clone Wars animated series, The Bad Batch, premieres today on Disney+—May the Fourth be with you

2021

Restrictions on travel to the U.S. from India go into effect today because of surging COVID-19 numbers in the South Asian nation, with 1/3 of new global cases coming from India—President Biden announced the restrictions Friday, on advice of the CDC

2021

Data from Brazil’s National Civil Registry shows that 1/3 of all people who have died in the South American nation in 2021 were victims of COVID-19—less than 10% of Brazil’s population has been vaccinated

2021

After being postponed sincelast year because of the coronavirus pandemic, ASU’s Gammage Auditorium announces that live Broadway shows will be returning to the theater beginning in September, with Hamilton, Mean Girls, and The Lion King headlining the 2021-22 season

2021

Arizona will again require people to be actively looking for work to receive unemployment benefits—in March 2020, Governor Duceytemporarily waived the requirement because of the pandemic

2021

At least 20 people were killed and about 70 more injured when a metro overpass inMexico City collapsed, sending a subway car plunging toward a busy road late last night—the accident trapped cars under rubble and passengers in train cars hanging in mid-air

2021

The FDA is expectedto authorize Pfizer’sCOVID-19 vaccine for children ages 12 to 15 by next week