On This Day - What happened 4 May

Grant in 1864 waged the bloody Overland Campaign, which exacted heavy losses on both sides. When Lincoln asked what Grant's plans were, the persistent general replied, "I propose to fight it out on this line if it takes all summer".

On May 4, all remaining Confederate forces in Alabama and Mississippi surrendered. President Johnson officially declared an end to the insurrection on May 9, 1865; Confederate president, Jefferson Davis, was captured the following day.

Wong was working at Hollywood's Ville de Paris department store when Metro Pictures needed 300 female extras to appear in Alla Nazimova's film The Red Lantern (1919). Without her father's knowledge, a friend of his with movie connections helped her land an uncredited role as an extra carrying a lantern.

Hepburn was born Audrey Kathleen Ruston or, later, Hepburn-Ruston on 4 May 1929 at number 48 Rue Keyenveld in Ixelles, Brussels, Belgium. She was known to her family as Adriaantje.

With French supply lines interrupted, the French position became untenable, particularly when the advent of the monsoon season made dropping supplies and reinforcements by parachute difficult. With defeat imminent, the French sought to hold on until the opening of the Geneva peace meeting on April 26. The last French offensive took place on May 4, but it was ineffective. The Việt Minh then began to hammer the outpost with newly supplied Soviet Katyusha rockets and other weaponry provided by communist allies.

In May 4, 1958, the Buffetts' third child, Peter Andrew, was born.

The Kennedy Round was the sixth session of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) multilateral trade negotiations held between 1964 and 1967 in Geneva, Switzerland. Congressional passage of the U.S. Trade Expansion Act in 1962 authorized the White House to conduct mutual tariff negotiations, ultimately leading to the Kennedy Round. Participation greatly increased over previous rounds. Sixty-six nations, representing 80% of world trade, attended the official opening on May 4, 1964, at the Palais des Nations. Despite several disagreements over details, the director-general announced the round’s success on May 15, 1967, and the final agreement was signed on June 30, 1967—the last day permitted under the Trade Expansion Act. The main objectives of the Kennedy Round were to: Slash tariffs by half with a minimum of exceptions. Break down farm trade restrictions. Remove non-tariff barriers. Help developing countries.

Further protests erupted against what was perceived as an expansion of the conflict, and the unrest escalated to violence when Ohio National Guardsmen shot and killed four unarmed students on May 4.

The Labour government then faced fresh public unease about the direction of the country and a damaging series of strikes during the winter of 1978–79, dubbed the "Winter of Discontent". The Conservatives attacked the Labour government's unemployment record, using advertising with the slogan "Labour Isn't Working". A general election was called after the Callaghan ministry lost a motion of no confidence in early 1979. The Conservatives won a 44-seat majority in the House of Commons and Thatcher became the first female British prime minister.

The Revolutionary Guard, or Pasdaran-e Enqelab, was established by Khomeini on 5 May 1979, as a counterweight both to the armed groups of the left, and to the Shah's military. The guard eventually grew into "a full-scale" military force,becoming "the strongest institution of the revolution."

Tito died at the Medical Centre of Ljubljana on 4 May 1980, three days short of his 88th birthday.

Provincial power was still exercised by the Communist Party, but now devolved mainly to ethnic Albanian communists. Tito's death on 4 May 1980 ushered in a long period of political instability, worsened by growing economic crisis and nationalist unrest.

On 4 May, two days after the sinking of General Belgrano, the British lost the Type 42 destroyer HMS Sheffield to fire following an Exocet missile strike from the Argentine 2nd Naval Air Fighter/Attack Squadron.

While some 100,000 students marched on the streets of Beijing on 4 May to commemorate the May Fourth Movement and repeat demands from earlier marches, many students were satisfied with the government's concessions. On 4 May, all Beijing universities except PKU and BNU announced the end of the class boycott. Subsequently, the majority of students began to lose interest in the movement.

Jermaine Robinson, 15, was indicted on multiple counts of robbery and assault in the attacks on Lewis and John Loughlin, another jogger near the reservoir. In a plea deal, he pleaded guilty on October 5, 1989, to the robbery of Loughlin and was sentenced to a year in a juvenile facility.

Michael Briscoe, 17, was initially arrested for the rape of the female jogger, but his indictment was for riot and assault related to the attack of David Lewis, one of the four male joggers near the reservoir. In a plea deal arranged in June 1990, he pleaded guilty to assault and was immediately sentenced to a year in prison, with credit for time served.

Latvia declared the restoration of independence on May 4, 1990, with the declaration stipulating a transitional period to complete independence.

Johnson began his theatrical career in The Mummy Returns (2001).

On May 4, the newly infected number of people in Hong Kong dropped to a single digit.

Ollila stepped down as chairman on 4 May 2012 and was replaced by Risto Siilasmaa.

On May 4 Jeenbekov ordered that all mining of uranium in the country will be banned.

On 8 January 2020, Grimes announced that she was pregnant with her first child with Musk. On 4 May 2020, Grimes gave birth to a son named X Æ A-Xii, where his first name is X and Æ is pronounced Ash.

Canada reported 60,616 cases and 3,842 deaths on 4 May, while Mexico reported 23,471 cases and 2,154 deaths. The Dominican Republic and Cuba are the only Caribbean countries reporting more than 1,000 cases (7,954 and 1,649, respectively), while Panama and Honduras lead Central America with 7,197 and 1,055 cases, respectively.

The 11th Governor of Massachusetts, John Brooks, was born in 1752.

The German philosopher and psychologist, Johann Friedrich Herbart, was born in Oldenburg, Germany in 1776.

Five monks from the London Charterhouse monastery were hung, drawn and quartered at Tyburn, London, for refusing to acknowledge Henry VIII as the head of the Church of England.

The only heir apparent to the English throne to ever die in battle was Edward of Westminster, who died at 17 years old.

Peter Minuit (1580-1638) was director general of the New Netherland colony in America and founder of New Amsterdam.