📜 This Day in History

August 4

• 1265Second Barons' War: Royal troops led by Prince Edward defeated baronial forces under Simon de Montfort at the Battle of Evesham in Worcestershire, England.
• 1796French Revolutionary Wars: Commanded by Napoleon Bonaparte, the French Army of Italy decisively defeated Austrian forces led by Peter Vitus von Quosdanovich at the Battle of Lonato.
• 1892Lizzie Borden's father and stepmother were found murdered in their home in Fall River, Massachusetts; Borden was later tried and acquitted for the murders.
• 1983Jean-Baptiste Ouédraogo, the president of Upper Volta, was ousted in a coup d'état led by Thomas Sankara.
• 1997French supercentenarian Jeanne Calment died at the age of 122 years, 164 days, with the longest confirmed human lifespan in history.
• 2020A large explosion of ammonium nitrate stored at the Port of Beirut in Lebanon killed 218 people and caused US$15 billion in damage.

Born on this day

• 1792Percy Bysshe Shelley, English poet and playwright (died 1822)
• 1859Knut Hamsun, Norwegian novelist, poet, and playwright, Nobel Prize laureate (died 1952)
• 1901Louis Armstrong, American trumpet player and singer (died 1971)
• 1961Barack Obama, American lawyer and politician, 44th President of the United States, Nobel Prize laureate