History of the Day for:
June 4
- 1784: Marie Thible of Lyon, France, became the first woman to fly in a hot-air balloon.
- 1812: The Louisiana Territory was renamed the Missouri Territory.
- 1896: The first Ford car was road tested in Detroit.
- 1939: Sylvan Goldman introduced the first grocery store shopping cart, in Oklahoma City.
- 1940: The Allied evacuation from Dunkirk ended with the rescue of 340,000 troops.
- 1942: The Battle of Midway began.
- 1944: Allied forces entered Rome.
- 1947: The House of Representatives approved the Taft-Hartley Act.
- 1954: France granted full independence to Vietnam.
- 1964: Sandy Koufax of the Los Angeles Dodgers tied Bob Feller's record set in 1951 by pitching a third career no-hit baseball game, against the Philadelphia Phillies.
- 1989: Hundreds were killed by Chinese army troops when they stormed Beijing to crush a student pro-democracy movement.
- 1990: Dr. Jack Kevorkian assisted an Oregon woman to commit suicide, beginning a national debate over the right to die.
- 1991: The United Kingdom's Conservative government announces that some British regiments would disappear or be merged into others — the largest armed forces cuts in almost twenty years.
- 1996: The first flight of Ariane 5 explodes after roughly 20 seconds. It was a Cluster mission.
- 1998: Terry Nichols is sentenced to life in prison for his role in the Oklahoma City bombing.
- 2001: Gyanendra, the last King of Nepal, ascends to the throne after the massacre in the Royal Palace.