4 June in history

6 events that happened on 4 June, from 1615 to 1989.

  1. ✦ Anniversary of the day

    1615 CE 411 years ago

    Osaka Castle falls and the Toyotomi line ends

    As Tokugawa forces took Osaka Castle, Toyotomi Hideyori and his mother took their own lives. The Tokugawa shogunate faced no serious rival for the next 250 years.

    Tokugawa ShogunateOsaka Castle

  2. 1783 CE 243 years ago

    Montgolfier brothers fly a hot-air balloon in public

    In the market square at Annonay, Joseph and Étienne Montgolfier launched an unmanned linen balloon that rose some 2,000 metres. Human flights followed before the year was out.

  3. 1913 CE 113 years ago

    Suffragette Emily Davison is struck by the King's horse at Epsom

    During the Derby, Emily Wilding Davison stepped onto the course and was knocked down by Anmer, George V's horse. She died four days later and became a martyr of the suffrage movement.

  4. 1940 CE 86 years ago

    Churchill vows 'we shall fight on the beaches'

    As the Dunkirk evacuation ended, Churchill told the Commons it was not a victory but promised that Britain would 'never surrender'.

  5. 1942 CE 84 years ago

    US dive-bombers wreck Japan's carrier force at Midway

    Within minutes American dive-bombers set three Japanese carriers ablaze; a fourth was hit that afternoon. Japan lost its best carriers and many experienced aircrew.

  6. 1989 CE 37 years ago

    Solidarity sweeps Poland's semi-free elections

    Solidarity won all but one of the freely contested seats. The result led to the first non-communist-led government in the Soviet bloc and began the fall of communism in Eastern Europe.

    Eastern Europe

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