4 Mar 1889
- Sa-ik Hong was born.
» In-depth article
4 Mar 1913
- The United States Congress authorized the construction of battleship Arizona, named after a state that was created little over one year prior.
» In-depth article - Henry Stimson stepped down from his position as the United States Secretary of War.
» In-depth article
4 Mar 1927
- Destroyer No. 34 was launched.
» In-depth article
4 Mar 1932
- The League of Nations demanded a ceasefire between Japanese and Chinese forces in China.
» In-depth article
4 Mar 1933
- Battle of the Great Wall: Troops of the 139th Division of Chinese 32nd Corps repulsed a Japanese attack on the Lengkou Pass of the Great Wall. Elsewhere, the provincial capital of Rehe Province, Chengde, was captured by Japanese troops without opposition.
» In-depth article - Franklin Roosevelt was inaugurated as the thirty-second President of the United States.
» In-depth article - Henry Stimson stepped down from his position as the United States Secretary of State.
» In-depth article
4 Mar 1938
- Members of the Austrian Social Democratic Party offered help against German threat if the Austrian government would lift the ban on their party activities. Chancellor Kurt Schuschnigg granted the request, but it was largely too late to make a difference.
» In-depth article
4 Mar 1939
- The failure of Dr. Negrin's Communist Government to sue for peace resulted in a civil war within a civil war on the streets of Madrid, Spain. The National Defence Council, led by Colonel Casada, triumphed in the struggle for control of the Republic and tried to negotiate peace terms with General Franco. In the meantime Dr. Negrin, accompanied by his Cabinet and Russian advisers, flew out of Madrid to safety.
» In-depth article - Corazziere was commissioned into service.
» In-depth article
4 Mar 1940
- French steamer S.N.A.1 collided with British ship Thurston 30 miles north of Land's End in southwestern England at about 0000 hours. S.N.A.1 sank, with 30 survivors rescued by Thurston. At 0523 hours, however, German submarine U-29 sank Thurston, killing 64. 3 British and 1 French were subsequently rescued.
- German submarine U-29 sank British ship Pacific Reliance at 1239 hours, destroying the cargo of aircraft parts. The entire crew of 53 were rescued by British merchant ship Macville and delivered to Newlyn, Cornwall, England.
- Soviet and Finnish troops continued to fight near Viipuri, Finland, particularly near the Vuoksi River near Äyräpää church.
» In-depth article - The Chief Executive Officer of the American firm General Motors James Mooney, holder of the German Grand Cross of the German Eagle medal for his services to Germany, met with Adolf Hitler in an attempt to dissuade Hitler from escalating the war.
» In-depth article
- US Undersecretary of State Sumner Welles departed Berlin, Germany.
4 Mar 1941
- Prince Paul, Regent of Yugoslavia, arrived in Berchtesgaden in Germany where Hitler applied further pressure for Yugoslavia to join Tripartite Pact. Hitler offered to cede Salonika and part of Macedonia to Yugoslavia in return for allowing German troops to transit into Greece.
» In-depth article - Four British freighters departed Alexandria and Port Said, Egypt with men and equipment, escorted by destroyers HMS Hereward and HMS Stuart, for Greece; it was codenamed Operation Lustre. Meanwhile, British General Wilson arrived in Athens, Greece to take command of all Allied ground forces; he discovered the Greek troops were still manning the Metaxas Line on the Bulgarian-Greek border rather than the agreed upon Aliakmon Line. From the sea, Italian warships bombarded Greek coastal positions in Albania.
» In-depth article - Australian Walrus seaplane of HMAS Canberra spotted German ship Coburg and captured Norwegian tanker Ketty Brøvig, which was being used to supply German armed merchant cruisers. The German ships escaped HMAS Canberra's interception attempt.
» In-depth article
- British landing ships HMS Queen Emma and HMS Princess Beatrix, escorted by five destroyers, landed 500 British Commandos, Royal Engineers, and Free Norwegian troops at four ports in the Loftoten Islands, off Narvik, Norway at dawn. Operation Claymore, the first large scale commando raid of the war, saw the destruction of fish oil factories (along with 3,600 tons of fish oil, used for high explosives) and nine merchant ships. An unexpected bonus was the discovery of coding rotors for the Enigma cryptographic sysyem found aboard German trawler Krebs. The raiders withdrew without a single casualty along with 228 German captives.
4 Mar 1942
- USS Enterprise launched aircraft against Marcus Island.
» In-depth article - Harold Alexander arrived in Burma.
» In-depth article - Australian sloop HMAS Yarra was sunk by Japanese cruisers 300 miles south of Java, Dutch East Indies at 0800 hours whilst attempting to protect a convoy of vessels withdrawing to Australia; 158 were killed, 13 survived. The other three ships in the small convoy (minesweeper MMS-51, depot ship Anking, and tanker Francol) were sunk during the same attack.
- HMS Edinburgh completed her refitting at Tyne, England, United Kingdom.
» In-depth article - USS Grampus sank Japanese tanker Kaijo Maru in the Pacific Ocean, killing all 90 aboard.
» In-depth article - USS Narwhal sank Japanese Army cargo ship Taki Maru 200 miles south of Japan in the Pacific Ocean.
» In-depth article
- In Burma, Japanese troops enveloped Chinese troops at Toungoo while British 7th Queen's Own Hussars regiment clashed with Japanese troops at Pegu.
» In-depth article
- All Dutch troops evacuated Batavia and Leuwiliang, Java, Dutch East Indies after sundown for Bandoeng 70 miles to the southeast.
» In-depth article - USS S-4 damaged Japanese fleet oiler Erimo in the Sunda Strait between Java and Sumatra in the Dutch East Indies, killing 4; Erimo would be beached to prevent sinking.
» In-depth article
- At 0000 hours, US radar operators detected two signals approaching Pearl Harbor, US Territory of Hawaii; they were two H8K flying boats from Wotje, Marshall Islands via French Frigate Shoals (where they took on fuel from submarines I-15 and I-19). At 0130 hours, five PBY Catalina aircraft were launched, armed with torpedoes, to search for the carriers that the Americans thought where the flying boats must have launched from; at the same time, five US Army fighters were launched to attack the flying boats. At 0210 hours and 0230 hours, the two flying boats dropped their payloads uncontested, although the first bombs fell harmlessly in the mountains 10 miles from Pearl Harbor and the second bombs landed in the water just outside of Pearl Harbor. The two aircraft flew back to Wotje unscathed.
» In-depth article
- Sir William Jowitt was appointed Paymaster-General of the United Kingdom with special responsibility for post-war reconstruction.
4 Mar 1943
See all photos dated 4 Mar 1943
- Richard Saul became the head of the British Air Headquarters Air Defences Eastern Mediterranean.
» In-depth article - The Battle of the Bismarck Sea continued as US bombers sank already fatally damaged and abandoned destroyer Tokitsukaze and sank 6 landing barges that had arrived to rescue survivors of ships sunk on the previous day. After expending their bomb loads, American air crews strafed Japanese survivors floating in the sea.
» In-depth article - The Bulgarian government, in an attempt to protect Bulgarian Jews, fulfilled German pressure by deporting about 4,000 Greek Jews from the occupied territory of Thrace. These Greek Jews were eventually sent to concentration camps in Poland.
» In-depth article - Bell was commissioned into service.
» In-depth article - George Kenney departed Australia for Washington DC, United States.
» In-depth article
- USS S-28 departed Dutch Harbor, US Territory of Alaska for Esquimalt, British Columbia, Canada.
» In-depth article
See all photos dated 4 Mar 1943
4 Mar 1944
- Zhukov's attack against Armeegruppe Süd in Ukraine was resumed.
- 750 Jews from the Lodz ghetto were sent to the Hugo Schneider AG factories in Czestochowa, Poland as forced laborers.
- The Japanese Navy formed the 14th Air Fleet under the command of Vice Admiral Chuichi Nagumo with Rear Admiral Hideo Yano as his chief of staff; the fleet had the sgrenth of two air flotillas and one seaplane tender.
» In-depth article
- USAAF launched its first major bombing raid on Berlin, Germany.
» In-depth article
- Destroyer Yukikaze arrived at Yokosuka, Japan.
» In-depth article
- USS Bluefish sank a Japanese oiler in the South China Sea, hitting her with 3 of 3 torpedoes fired.
» In-depth article
- Viktor Abakumov was awarded the Order of Suvorov 2nd Class.
» In-depth article - Lavrentiy Beria was awarded the Order of Suvorov 1st Class.
» In-depth article - Vsevolod Merkulov was awarded the Order of Kutuzov 1st Class.
» In-depth article
4 Mar 1945
- After breaking through near Stargard, Soviet 1st Byelorussian Front heads toward Stettin, Germany (now Szczecin, Poland).
- USS Baya fired six torpedoes at a Japanese convoy in the South China Sea, hitting a transport and an oil with 2 torpedoes each and sinking both.
» In-depth article - German troops encircled the spearhead of Soviet 3rd Guards Tank Army in Silesia, Germany (now Poland) during Operation Gemse.
» In-depth article
- Rifleman Bhanbhagta Gurung won the Victoria Cross for advancing alone to clear Japanese positions near Mandalay, Burma ahead of General Slim's British 14th Army.
- USS Hancock arrived at Ulithi, Caroline Islands; Air Group 6 relieved Air Group 80.
» In-depth article
- Soviet and Polish troops attacked Kolberg, Germany (now Kolobrzeg, Poland).
» In-depth article
- 159 American B-29 bombers attacked the urban areas of Tokyo, Japan.
» In-depth article
- USS Marcus Island began a 4-day period of training in Leyte Gulf, Philippine Islands.
» In-depth article
4 Mar 1954
Photo(s) dated 4 Mar 1954
Photo(s) dated 4 Mar 1954
4 Mar 1959
Photo(s) dated 4 Mar 1959
Photo(s) dated 4 Mar 1959
Timeline Section Founder: Thomas Houlihan
Contributors: Alan Chanter, C. Peter Chen, Thomas Houlihan, David Stubblebine
Special Thanks: Rory Curtis
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