View Historical Events by Day: What Happened on June 4 in History?

In an effort to gain public attention about train travel, a train named the Transcontinental Express traveling via the first transcontinental railroad arrives in San Francisco 83 hours and 39 minutes after it left New York City showcasing the speed and efficiency of the first transcontinental railroad. Only ten years before, the same journey would have taken months over land or weeks on ship. The feat was reported widely in U.S. newspapers. More

Henry Ford, the founder of Ford Motor Company takes his first car for a spin on the city of Detroit. More

The 19th amendment granting women the right to vote is passed by Congress. It had been first proposed in Congress, forty two years earlier in 1878. The amendment then needed to be ratified by three-fourths of the states. when Tennessee became the 36th state to ratify the amendment on August 18, 1920 and became law on August 26, 1920. More

194The battle of Midway - Early on the morning of June 4, aircraft from four Japanese aircraft carriers attacked and severely damaged the US base on Midway. Unbeknownst to the Japanese, the US carrier forces were just to the east of the island and ready for battle. More

Rome was liberated by the U.S. 5th Army, led by General Mark Clark.

The Kingdom of Tonga declares its independence within the British Commonwealth. Tonga, is a Polynesian kingdom, part of the Oceania continent with 171 islands, of which 45 are inhabited. Tonga is a member of the Commonwealth of Nations, the United Nations, the Pacific Islands Forum, and the Alliance of Small Island States.

Jonathan Pollard, a former U.S. Navy intelligence analyst, pleads guilty to espionage for selling top-secret U.S. military intelligence information to Israel. He was sentenced to life in prison, while his wife Anne received a five-year sentence for being an accessory. In 1995, while imprisoned, he was granted Israeli citizenship. Pollard was released from prison on November 20, 2015. Five years later, Pollard relocated to Israel with his second wife and settled in Jerusalem. More

Chinese military cracks down on pro-democracy protesters in Tiananmen Square, Beijing bringing the protests to a halt. More