October 4 in history — What Happened Today in History

The Free Software Foundation is founded.

Richard Noble sets a new land speed record of 633.468 miles per hour (1,019.468 km/h) at the Black Rock Desert in Nevada.

Omar Ali Saifuddien III of Brunei abdicates in favour of his son.

Basutoland becomes independent from the United Kingdom and is renamed Lesotho.

Pope Paul VI begins the first papal visit to the Americas.

Hurricane Flora kills 6,000 in Cuba and Haiti.

Eastern Airlines flight 375 crashes on takeoff from Boston's Logan International Airport, killing 62 people of the 72 aboard.

The current constitution of France is adopted.

Sputnik 1 becomes the first artificial satellite to orbit the Earth.

Norman Rockwell's Willie Gillis character debuts on the cover of The Saturday Evening Post.

The Metropolitan Police and various anti-fascist organizations violently clash in the Battle of Cable Street.

Gutzon Borglum begins sculpting Mount Rushmore.

Great Syrian Revolt: Rebels led by Fawzi al-Qawuqji capture Hama from the French Mandate of Syria.

S2, a Finnish Sokol class torpedo boat, sinks during a fierce storm near the coast of Pori in the Gulf of Bothnia, taking with it the whole crew of 53.

The Mannerheim League for Child Welfare, a Finnish non-governmental organization, is founded on the initiative of Sophie Mannerheim.

World War I: An explosion kills more than 100 people and destroys a Shell Loading Plant in New Jersey.

World War I: The Battle of Broodseinde is fought between the British and German armies in Flanders.

Horace Rawlins wins the first U.S. Open Men's Golf Championship.

First meeting of the Boys' Brigade in Glasgow, Scotland.

The Agricultural and Mechanical College of Texas (now known as Texas A&M) opens as the first public college in Texas.

American Civil War: The two-day Second Battle of Corinth ends in a Union victory, with General William Rosecrans protecting the critical rail junction of Corinth, Mississippi from Confederate forces under General Earl Van Dorn.

The Crimean War begins when the Ottoman Empire declares war on the Russian Empire.

The Belgian Revolution takes legal form when the provisional government secedes from the Netherlands.

Mexico adopts a new constitution and becomes a federal republic.

Napoleon first rises to prominence by suppressing counter-revolutionary rioters threatening the National Convention.

American Revolutionary War: Troops under George Washington are repelled by British troops under William Howe.

Nine Years' War: Piedmontese troops are defeated by the French.

Thirty Years' War: The Swedish Army defeats the armies of Saxony and the Holy Roman Empire at the Battle of Wittstock.

Sergey Shubenkov, Russian hurdler

Dakota Johnson, American actress

Melissa Benoist, American actress and singer

Lonnie Chisenhall, American baseball player

Caner Erkin, Turkish footballer

Evgeni Krasnopolski, Israeli figure skater

Derrick Rose, American basketball player

Marina Weisband, German politician

Shontelle, Barbadian singer-songwriter

Thorsten Wiedemann, German rugby player

Lena Katina, Russian singer-songwriter

Petri Kontiola, Finnish ice hockey player

Karolina Tymińska, Polish heptathlete

John Cloudsley-Thompson, Pakistani-English commander (born 1921)

Ulric Cross, Trinidadian navigator, judge, and diplomat (born 1917)

Akira Miyoshi, Japanese composer (born 1933)

Diana Nasution, Indonesian singer (born 1958)

Võ Nguyên Giáp, Vietnamese general and politician, 3rd Minister of Defence for Vietnam (born 1911)

Nicholas Oresko, American sergeant, Medal of Honor recipient (born 1917)

David Atkinson, Canadian actor and singer (born 1921)

Stan Mudenge, Zimbabwean historian and politician, Zimbabwean Minister of Foreign Affairs (born 1941)

Tom Stannage, Australian footballer, historian, and academic (born 1944)

Doris Belack, American actress (born 1926)

Norman Wisdom, English actor, comedian, and singer-songwriter (born 1915)

Gerhard Kaufhold, German footballer (born 1928)

Günther Rall, German general and pilot (born 1918)