June 4
1615 - The fortress of Osaka, Japan, fell to shogun Ieyasu after a six month siege.
1647 - The British army seized King Charles I and held him as a hostage.
1674 - Horse racing was prohibited in Massachusetts.
1783 - A hot-air balloon was demonstrated by Joseph and Jacques Montgolfier. It reached a height of 1,500 feet.
1784 - Marie Thible became the first woman to fly in a hot-air balloon. The flight was 45 minutes long and reached a height of 8,500 feet.
1792 - Captain George Vancouver claimed Puget Sound for Britain.
1794 - British troops captured Port-au-Prince, Haiti.
1805 - Tripoli was forced to conclude peace with U.S. after conflicts over tribute.
1812 - The Louisiana Territory had its name changed to the Missouri Territory.
1816 - The Washington was launched at Wheeling, WV. It was the first stately, double-decker steamboat.
1878 - Turkey turned Cyprus over to Britain.
1892 - The Sierra Club was incorporated in San Francisco.
1896 - Henry Ford made a successful test drive of his new car in Detroit, MI. He called the vehicle was called a "Quadricycle."
1911 - Gold was discovered in Alaska's Indian Creek.
1918 - French and American troops halted Germany's offensive at Chateau-Thierry, France.
1919 - The U.S. Senate passed the Women's Suffrage bill.
1924 - An eternal light was dedicated at Madison Square in New York City in memory of all New York soldiers who died in World War I.
1931 - The first rocket-glider flight was made by William Swan in Atlantic City, NJ.
1935 - "Invisible" glass was patented by Gerald Brown and Edward Pollard.
1939 - The first shopping cart was introduced by Sylvan Goldman in Oklahoma City, OK. It was actually a folding chair that had been mounted on wheels.
1940 - The British completed the evacuation of 300,000 troops at Dunkirk, France.
1942 - The Battle of Midway began. It was the first major victory for America over Japan during World War II. The battle ended on June 6 and ended Japanese expansion in the Pacific.
1943 - In Argentina, Juan Peron took part in the military coup that overthrew Ramon S. Castillo.
1944 - The U-505 became the first enemy submarine captured by the U.S. Navy.
1944 - During World War II, the U.S. Fifth Army entered Rome, which began the liberation of the Italian capital.
1944 - "Leonidas Witherall" was first broadcast on the Mutual Broadcasting System.
1946 - Juan Peron was installed as Argentina's president.
1947 - The House of Representatives approved the Taft-Hartley Act. The legislation allowed the President of the United States to intervene in labor disputes.
1954 - French Premier Joseph Laniel and Vietnamese Premier Buu Loc initialed treaties in Paris giving "complete independence" to Vietnam.
1960 - The Taiwan island of Quemoy was hit by 500 artillery shells fired from the coast of Communist China.
1974 - The Cleveland Indians had "Ten Cent Beer Night". Due to the drunken and unruly fans the Indians forfeited to the Texas Rangers.
1974 - Sally Murphy became the first woman to qualify as an aviator with the U.S. Army.
1984 - For the first time in 32 years, Arnold Palmer failed to make the cut for the U.S. Open golf tournament.
1985 - The U.S. Supreme Court upheld a lower court ruling striking down an Alabama law that provided for a daily minute of silence in public schools.
1986 - Jonathan Jay Pollard, a former Navy intelligence analyst, pled guilty in Washington to spying for Israel. He was sentenced to life in prison.
1986 - The California Supreme Court approved a law that limited the liability of manufacturers and other wealthy defendants. It was known as the "deep pockets law."
1989 - In Beijing, Chinese army troops stormed Tiananmen Square to crush the pro-democracy movement. It is believed that hundreds, possibly thousands, of demonstrators were killed.
1992 - The U.S. Postal Service announced that people preferred the "younger Elvis" stamp design in a nationwide vote.
1998 - George and Ira Gershwin received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
2003 - The U.S. House of Representatives passed a bill that would ban "partial birth" abortions with a 282-139 vote.
2003 - Amazon.com announced that it had received more than 1 million orders for the book "Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix." The released date was planned for June 21.
2008 - The United Kingdom and Canada became the first countries to be able to buy and rent films at the iTunes Store.
