December 4

530 BC – Cyrus the Great of Persia, noted in the Old Testament for ordering the return of the Jews to Israel, and authorizing the building of the Second Temple, dies in battle near the headwaters of the Jaxartes river in Central Asia.

771 – King Carloman dies, leaving his brother Charlemagne, sole King of the Franks.

1110 – During the 1st Crusade, the Fatimid caliphate ruled city of Sidon is captured by the forces of Baldwin I of Jerusalem, Sigurd I of Norway and Ordelafo Faliero, Doge of Venice.

1619 – Aboard the ship Margaret, 38 English colonists arrive at Berkeley Hundred on the north bank of the James River near Herring Creek in Virginia Colony.

1783 – A week after British forces have evacuated New York City at the end of the Revolution, Fraunces Tavern puts on a victory dinner for General Washington, where he bids farewell to his officers of the Continental Army

1786 – Mission Santa Barbara – later expanding to become Santa Barbera California – is dedicated on the feast day of Saint Barbara by Fermín Lasuén of the Franciscan order.

1804 – The House of Representatives adopts articles of impeachment for ‘partisan decisions’ against Supreme Court Justice Samuel Chase.

1861 – The Electors of the several states of the Confederate States of America unanimously elect Jefferson Davis as President and Alexander H. Stephens as Vice President.

1865 – North Carolina ratifies the 13th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.

1867 – Former Minnesota farmer Oliver Hudson Kelley founds the Order of the Patrons of Husbandry, known today as The Grange.

1872 – The crewless American brigantine Mary Celeste, drifting in the Atlantic, is discovered by the Canadian brig Dei Gratia. Her master Benjamin Briggs and all 9 others known to have been on board are never accounted for.

1881 – The first edition of the Los Angeles Times is published.

1918 – President Wilson becomes the first U.S. president to travel to Europe while in office, sailing for the World War I peace talks in Versailles, France.

1942 – On Guadalcanal, the “Long Patrol” of the Marine Corps 2nd Raider Battalion under Colonel Evans Carlson returns from behind the Japanese lines.

1945 – The Senate approves the treaty of U.S. participation in the United Nations.

1950 – During the Korean War, Ensign Jesse L. Brown – the first Black to complete the U. S. Navy’s basic flight training program – is killed in action during the Battle of Chosin Reservoir. In a futile attempt to rescue him, his wingman Lt J.G. Thomas J. Hudner Jr., intentionally crashes his own aircraft nearby, and is later as awarded the Medal of Honor for the effort.

1965 – The Gemini 7 mission with crew members Frank Borman and Jim Lovell launches to later rendezvous with Gemini 6A.
Eastern Air Lines Flight 853, a Lockheed Super Constellation, enroute from Boston Logan International Airport to Newark International Airport, collides in mid-air with Trans World Airlines Flight 42, a Boeing 707, enroute from San Francisco International Airport to John F. Kennedy International Airport, over Carmel, New York. While the Boeing plane is able to land safely at John F. Kennedy International Airport, the Lockheed crash lands in a pasture on Hunt Mountain in North Salem, New York killing 3 of the 51 passengers aboard and the plane’s Captain.

1978 – Following the murder of Mayor George Moscone, City Councilwoman Dianne Feinstein is appointed San Francisco’s first female mayor.

1983 – Responding to an F-14 being fired on by an SA-7 surface to air missile, US Navy aircraft launch from the USS John F. Kennedy and USS Independence to attack Syrian missile sites in Lebanon. An A-6 Intruder and A-7 Corsair are shot down with 1 pilot killed, 1 rescued and 1 captured and held prisoner until early January.

1991 – Terry A. Anderson is released after seven years in captivity as a hostage in Beirut; he is the last and longest held American hostage in Lebanon.

1992 – To provide increased support for U.N. UNISOM humanitarian relief efforts for civilians during the Somali Civil War, President Bush orders 28,000 additional U.S. troops to Somalia.

1998 – The Unity Module, the second module of the International Space Station, is launched.

2017 – The Thomas Fire starts near Santa Paula, California, burning 440 square miles of land in Ventura and Santa Barbara counties, the largest wildfire to date in modern California history.