August 4
Lead Story
1944
Anne Frank captured
Acting on tip from a Dutch informer, the Nazi Gestapo captures 15-year-old Jewish diarist Anne Frank and her family in a sealed-off area of an Amsterdam warehouse. The Franks had taken shelter there in 1942 out of fear of deportation to a Nazi concentration camp. They occupied the small space with another Jewish family and a single Jewish man, and were aided by Christian friends, who brought them food and supplies. Anne spent much of her time in the secret annex working on her diary. The diary survived the war, overlooked by the Gestapo that discovered the hiding place, but Anne and nearly all of the others perished in the Nazi death camps.
Read more "HERE"
Automotive
2006
Talladega Nights released
Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby, an irreverent comedy based in the outlandish (fictionalized) world of American stock car racing, premieres in movie theaters around the United States on this day in 2006.
Read more "HERE"
Cold War
1953
Eisenhower warns of ominous situation in Asia
Speaking before the Governors Conference in Seattle, President Dwight D. Eisenhower warns that the situation in Asia is becoming very ominous for the United States. In the speech, Eisenhower made specific reference to the need to defend French Indochina from the communists.
Read more "HERE"
Crime
1892
Lizzie Borden took an axe
Andrew and Abby Borden, elderly residents of Fall River, Massachusetts, are found bludgeoned to death in their home. Lying in a pool of blood on the living room couch, Andrews face had been nearly split in two. Abby, Lizzies stepmother, was found upstairs with her head smashed to pieces.
Read more "HERE"
General Interest
1753
Washington becomes Master Mason
George Washington, a young Virginia planter, becomes a Master Mason, the highest basic rank in the secret fraternity of Freemasonry. The ceremony was held at the Masonic Lodge No. 4 in Fredericksburg, Virginia. Washington was 21 years old and would soon command his first military operation as a major in the Virginia colonial militia.
Read more "HERE"
1964
Slain civil rights workers found
The remains of three civil rights workers whose disappearance on June 21 garnered national attention are found buried in an earthen dam near Philadelphia, Mississippi. Michael Schwerner and Andrew Goodman, both white New Yorkers, had traveled to heavily segregated Mississippi in 1964 to help organize civil rights efforts on behalf of the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE). The third man, James Chaney, was a local African American man who had joined CORE in 1963. The disappearance of the three young men led to a massive FBI investigation that was code-named MIBURN, for Mississippi Burning.
Read more "HERE"
Hollywood
1989
Sex, lies and videotape opens
On this day in 1989, sex, lies and videotape, which helped usher in the independent film revolution of the early 1990s, opens in theaters in New York and Los Angeles. The film, which starred James Spader, Andie MacDowell, Peter Gallagher and Laura San Giacomo, marked the feature-film directorial debut of Steven Soderbergh, who received an Oscar nomination for Best Screenplay.
Read more "HERE"
Old West
1873
Custer and 7th Cavalry attacked by Indians
While protecting a railroad survey party in Montana, Custer and his 7th Cavalry clash for the first time with the Sioux Indians, who will defeat them three years later at Little Big Horn.
Read more "HERE"
Sports
1936
Jesse Owens wins long jumpand respectin Germany
On this day in 1936, American Jesse Owens wins gold in the long jump at the Summer Olympics in Berlin, Germany. It was the second of four gold medals Owens won in Berlin, as he firmly dispelled German Fuhrer Adolf Hitlers notion of the superiority of an Aryan master race, for all the world to see.
Read more "HERE"
2012
Oscar Pistorius becomes the first amputee runner to compete at the Olympics
On this day in 2012 in London, Oscar Pistorius of South Africa becomes the first amputee to compete at the Olympics by running in an opening heat of the mens 400-meter. Pistorius finished second out of five runners and advanced to the semifinals, where he finished eighth out of eight runners. Nicknamed Blade Runner because of the J-shaped carbon fiber blades he wears to run, Pistorius inspired people around the world. His image would drastically change early the next year when the star athlete was arrested for the murder of his girlfriend.
Read more "HERE"
Vietnam War
1967
Court upholds court-martial conviction of officer who participated in demonstration
The U.S. Court of Military Appeals in Washington upholds the 1965 court-martial of Second Lieutenant Henry H. Howe, who had been sentenced to dismissal from the service and a year at hard labor for participating in an antiwar demonstration.
1969
Secret negotiations are initiated in Paris
The first secret negotiating session takes place between Henry Kissinger and North Vietnamese representative Xuan Thuy, at the apartment of French intermediary Jean Sainteny in Paris.
Read more [URL="https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/secret-negotiations-are-initiated-in-paris"]"HERE"
World War I
1914
U.S. proclaims neutrality in World War I
As World War I erupts in Europe, President Woodrow Wilson formally proclaims the neutrality of the United States, a position that a vast majority of Americans favored, on August 4, 1914.
Read more "HERE"
Lead Story
1944
Anne Frank captured
Acting on tip from a Dutch informer, the Nazi Gestapo captures 15-year-old Jewish diarist Anne Frank and her family in a sealed-off area of an Amsterdam warehouse. The Franks had taken shelter there in 1942 out of fear of deportation to a Nazi concentration camp. They occupied the small space with another Jewish family and a single Jewish man, and were aided by Christian friends, who brought them food and supplies. Anne spent much of her time in the secret annex working on her diary. The diary survived the war, overlooked by the Gestapo that discovered the hiding place, but Anne and nearly all of the others perished in the Nazi death camps.
Read more "HERE"
Automotive
2006
Talladega Nights released
Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby, an irreverent comedy based in the outlandish (fictionalized) world of American stock car racing, premieres in movie theaters around the United States on this day in 2006.
Read more "HERE"
Cold War
1953
Eisenhower warns of ominous situation in Asia
Speaking before the Governors Conference in Seattle, President Dwight D. Eisenhower warns that the situation in Asia is becoming very ominous for the United States. In the speech, Eisenhower made specific reference to the need to defend French Indochina from the communists.
Read more "HERE"
Crime
1892
Lizzie Borden took an axe
Andrew and Abby Borden, elderly residents of Fall River, Massachusetts, are found bludgeoned to death in their home. Lying in a pool of blood on the living room couch, Andrews face had been nearly split in two. Abby, Lizzies stepmother, was found upstairs with her head smashed to pieces.
Read more "HERE"
General Interest
1753
Washington becomes Master Mason
George Washington, a young Virginia planter, becomes a Master Mason, the highest basic rank in the secret fraternity of Freemasonry. The ceremony was held at the Masonic Lodge No. 4 in Fredericksburg, Virginia. Washington was 21 years old and would soon command his first military operation as a major in the Virginia colonial militia.
Read more "HERE"
1964
Slain civil rights workers found
The remains of three civil rights workers whose disappearance on June 21 garnered national attention are found buried in an earthen dam near Philadelphia, Mississippi. Michael Schwerner and Andrew Goodman, both white New Yorkers, had traveled to heavily segregated Mississippi in 1964 to help organize civil rights efforts on behalf of the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE). The third man, James Chaney, was a local African American man who had joined CORE in 1963. The disappearance of the three young men led to a massive FBI investigation that was code-named MIBURN, for Mississippi Burning.
Read more "HERE"
Hollywood
1989
Sex, lies and videotape opens
On this day in 1989, sex, lies and videotape, which helped usher in the independent film revolution of the early 1990s, opens in theaters in New York and Los Angeles. The film, which starred James Spader, Andie MacDowell, Peter Gallagher and Laura San Giacomo, marked the feature-film directorial debut of Steven Soderbergh, who received an Oscar nomination for Best Screenplay.
Read more "HERE"
Old West
1873
Custer and 7th Cavalry attacked by Indians
While protecting a railroad survey party in Montana, Custer and his 7th Cavalry clash for the first time with the Sioux Indians, who will defeat them three years later at Little Big Horn.
Read more "HERE"
Sports
1936
Jesse Owens wins long jumpand respectin Germany
On this day in 1936, American Jesse Owens wins gold in the long jump at the Summer Olympics in Berlin, Germany. It was the second of four gold medals Owens won in Berlin, as he firmly dispelled German Fuhrer Adolf Hitlers notion of the superiority of an Aryan master race, for all the world to see.
Read more "HERE"
2012
Oscar Pistorius becomes the first amputee runner to compete at the Olympics
On this day in 2012 in London, Oscar Pistorius of South Africa becomes the first amputee to compete at the Olympics by running in an opening heat of the mens 400-meter. Pistorius finished second out of five runners and advanced to the semifinals, where he finished eighth out of eight runners. Nicknamed Blade Runner because of the J-shaped carbon fiber blades he wears to run, Pistorius inspired people around the world. His image would drastically change early the next year when the star athlete was arrested for the murder of his girlfriend.
Read more "HERE"
Vietnam War
1967
Court upholds court-martial conviction of officer who participated in demonstration
The U.S. Court of Military Appeals in Washington upholds the 1965 court-martial of Second Lieutenant Henry H. Howe, who had been sentenced to dismissal from the service and a year at hard labor for participating in an antiwar demonstration.
1969
Secret negotiations are initiated in Paris
The first secret negotiating session takes place between Henry Kissinger and North Vietnamese representative Xuan Thuy, at the apartment of French intermediary Jean Sainteny in Paris.
Read more [URL="https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/secret-negotiations-are-initiated-in-paris"]"HERE"
World War I
1914
U.S. proclaims neutrality in World War I
As World War I erupts in Europe, President Woodrow Wilson formally proclaims the neutrality of the United States, a position that a vast majority of Americans favored, on August 4, 1914.
Read more "HERE"