Friday 4th of October 1669

Painter and printmaker Rembrandt dies of unknown causes at the age of 63 in Amsterdam, Noord-Holland, Netherlands.

Friday 4th of October 1822

19th President of the United States Rutherford Birchard Hayes is born in 17 E. William Street, Delaware, Ohio, United States.

Friday 4th of October 1878

Aviation pioneer Eugène Lefebvre known for becoming the first man to die in an engine-powered aircraft is born in Corbie, Hauts de France, France.

Tuesday 4th of October 1892

Chancellor of Austria Engelbert Dollfuss is born in Texing, Niederösterreich, Austria.

Friday 4th of October 1895

Actor, film director and stunt performer Buster Joseph Frank Keaton aka The Great Stone Face is born in Piqua, Kansas, United States.

Keaton acquired the nickname 'Buster' at about eighteen months of age when Harry Houdini saw the young Keaton take a tumble down a long flight of stairs without injury. After the infant sat up and shook off his experience Houdini remarked "That was a real buster!"

Wednesday 4th of October 1899

36-year-old Serial killer and cannibal Karl Friedrich Wilhelm Großmann aka Die Bestie vom Schlesischen Bahnhof is sentenced to 15 years imprisonment for assault on a minor in Bayreuth, Bayern, Germany.

Großmann assaulted 10-year-old Maria Gottwald and 4-year-old Babette Burkel on 21 April 1899. Burkel died later of her injuries.

Tuesday 4th of October 1904

Sculptor Frédéric Auguste Bartholdi known for sculpting the Statue of Liberty dies of tuberculosis at the age of 70 in Paris, VIe, Île-de-France, France.

Friday 4th of October 1918

Over 100 die in Morgan Munitions Depot explosion in T. A. Gillespie Company Shell Loading Plant, Sayreville, New Jersey, United States.

The initial explosion triggered a fire and subsequent series of explosions that continued for three days.

Thursday 4th of October 1923

Actor and political activist Charlton Heston is born as John Charles Carter in No Man's Land, Illinois, United States.

Thursday 4th of October 1928

Writer and futurist Alvin Toffler is born in New York City, New York, United States.

Sunday 4th of October 1931

Philosopher Richard McKay Rorty is born in New York City, New York, United States.

Sunday 4th of October 1936

Murderer James Hanratty aka The A6 Lay-By Murderer is born in London, Bromley, Greater London, United Kingdom.

Wednesday 4th of October 1944

Singer Patti LaBelle aka The Godmother of Soul known for the iconic disco song ‘Lady Marmalade’ is born as Patricia Louise Holt-Edwards in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States.

Saturday 4th of October 1947

Theoretical physicist Max Karl Ernst Ludwig Planck known for originating quantum theory dies of a stroke at the age of 89 in Göttingen, Niedersachsen, Germany.

Tuesday 4th of October 1949

Spree killer Marion Albert Pruett aka The Mad Dog Killer is born in Gastonia, North Carolina, United States.

Tuesday 4th of October 1949

18th Duke of Veragua Cristóbal Colón de Carvajal y Gorosábel is born in Madrid, Área metropolitana de Madrid, Spain.

Cristobal Colon is a direct descendant of Christopher Columbus.

Friday 4th of October 1957

The first artificial satellite Sputnik 1 is launched into an elliptical low Earth orbit in Baikonur Cosmodrome Site 1/5, Baykonur, Kazakhstan.

Sputnik 1 orbited for three weeks before its batteries died, then silently for two more months before falling back into the atmosphere.

Wednesday 4th of October 1961

36-year-old Stand-up comedian, social critic and satirist Lenny Bruce is arrested for obscenity in Jazz Workshop, 473 Broadway Street, San Francisco, North Beach, California, United States.

Bruce was booked for violation of Section 205 of the Police Code (“depicting or distributing obscene matter for the sake of prurient appeal”). Bruce made bail and was back at the Jazz Workshop for the second show that same night, where he related his arrest and booking to a standing-room audience.

Monday 4th of October 1965

68-year-old 262nd Pope Paulus VI aka The Pilgrim Pope arrives for the first US Papal visit ever in New York City, New York, United States.

Friday 4th of October 1968

Serial killer Beverley Gail Allitt aka The Angel of Death is born in Corby Glen, Lincolnshire, United Kingdom.

Sunday 4th of October 1970

Singer-songwriter Janis Lyn Joplin dies of a heroin overdose at the age of 27 in Landmark Motor Hotel Room #105, 7047 Franklin Avenue, Hollywood, California, United States.

Joplin had been given heroin that was much more potent than normal, as several of her dealer's other customers also overdosed that week.

Monday 4th of October 1976

23-year-old Serial killer David Richard Berkowitz aka Son of Sam presumably throws a Molotov cocktail into the house of his neighbour Sam Carr in 35 Pine Street, Yonkers, New York, United States.

Berkowitz tried to kill the demon lurking in Harvey with the Molotov cocktail but it fizzled.

Wednesday 4th of October 1978

36-year-old Singer-songwriter Tammy Wynette aka The First Lady of Country Music is supposedly kidnapped and terrorized by an unidentified masked man, physically assaulted and abandoned 80 miles away in Nashville, Tennessee, United States.

In her 2000 memoir Wynette's daughter Jackie Daly published that her mother had confessed to her that the kidnapping was a hoax to cover up domestic violence from her fifth husband George Richey. Richey denied the allegation.

Thursday 4th of October 1979

Neighbour to David Berkowitz aka Son of Sam Michael Carr dies in a fatal crash into a lamppost in West Side Highway, New York, Manhattan, New York, United States.

Michael and his brother John were supposed members of the Satanic cult 'Twenty-two Disciples of Hell'. Their father Sam owned the dog that David Berkowitz aka Son of Sam said had ordered him to kill.

Thursday 4th of October 1979

Start of the trial against 46-year-old Serial killer Joachim Georg Kroll aka Jockel aka Der Ruhrkannibale in Landgericht Saal 201, König-Heinrich-Platz 1, Duisburg, Nordrhein-Westfalen, Germany.

Kroll was charged with eight of at least twelve committed murders.

Saturday 4th of October 1980

SS-Obersturmbannführer Ernst Boje Ehlers aka der Endlöser von Belgien commits suicide by electrocution at the age of 71 in Kiel, Schleswig-Holstein, Germany.

Ehlers was supposed to go on trial for complicity in murder and his role in deporting thousands of Jews to Nazi death camps on 26 November.

Saturday 4th of October 1980

19-year-old Clemens Lichtenberg is beaten to death with a rock by serial killer Kurt-Friedhelm Steinwegs aka Die Bestie vom Niederrhein in Essen, Nordrhein-Westfalen, Germany.

Sunday 4th of October 1981

36-year-old Serial killer Dennis Andrew Nilsen aka Killing For Company burns the dissected remains of five murder victims on a bonfire at the rear of his house in 195 Melrose Avenue, London, Greater London, United Kingdom.

Nilsen crowned the bonfire with an old car tyre to disguise the smell.

Sunday 4th of October 1981

The body of 42-year-old Assassin Lee Harvey Oswald is exhumed to determine the truth about a claim by investigator Michael Eddowes that a look-alike Russian agent was buried instead of Oswald in Shannon Rose Hill Memorial Burial Park, Fort Worth, Texas, United States.

Dental records confirmed that it was Oswald's body in the grave and it was reburied in a new coffin due to water damage to the original.

Monday 4th of October 1982

Pianist Glenn Hubert Gould known for his interpretations of the music of Johann Sebastian Bach dies of complications from a stroke at the age of 50 in Toronto General Hospital, Toronto, Ontario, United States.

Tuesday 4th of October 1983

14-year-old Derrick Hansen is found dismembered by serial killer Larry Eyler aka The Leather Boy Killer in Petrified Springs Park, Kenosha, Wisconsin, United States.

Hansen disappeared on 27 September on the Chicago and Buffalo intersection in Milwaukee.

Sunday 4th of October 1992

The grave of 68-year-old Comedian and actor Benny Alfred Hawthorne Hill known for The Benny Hill Show is robbed following rumours that he was buried with large amounts of gold jewellery in Hollybrook Cemetary, Southampton, Shirley Warren, Hampshire, United Kingdom.

As a security measure, a 1-foot-thick concrete slab was placed over Hill's grave.

Wednesday 4th of October 1995

Murderer Harold Joe Lane is executed by lethal injection at the age of 50 in Huntsville Prison, 815 12th Street, Huntsville, Texas, United States.

Friday 4th of October 1996

Kidnapper and multiple murderer Larry Gene Bell is executed by Old Sparky at the age of 47 in Broad River Correctional Institution, Columbia, South Carolina, United States.

Bell was especially infamous because he forced his victims to write a 'Last Will and Testament' before they were murdered and taunted their parents by telephone.

Saturday 4th of October 1997

30-year-old Suicide bomber Muriel Degauque aka Maryam marries Fouad in Brussel, Saint-Josse-ten-Noode, Brabant, Belgium.

Friday 4th of October 2002

Film director André Delvaux dies of a heart attack at the age of 76 in Valencia, Valencia, Spain.

Tuesday 4th of October 2005

The Y2K bug in real life and super delay on a cinema display in Beijing, Hebei, China.

Tuesday 4th of October 2005

Some peculiar Gods or Ghosts in Dōngyuè Miào, 141 Chaoyangmen Outer St, Beijing, Hebei, China.