FAMOUS BIRTHDAYS FOR OCTOBER 4
Barney Oldfield (1878-1946) - American race car driver and actor.
Rutherford B. Hayes (1893-1822) – General, lawyer, and 19th President of the U.S.
Jenny Twitchell Kempton (1835-1921) – Opera singer and educator.
James Whitcomb (1795-1852) - Lawyer and politician, 8th Governor of Indiana.
Walter Rauschenbusch (1861-1918) - Pastor and theologian.
Frederic Remington (1861-1909) - Painter, sculptor, and illustrator.
Edward Stratemeyer (1862-1930) - American author and publisher.
Francis Xavier Seelos (1819-1867) - German-American priest and missionary.
Florence Eliza Allen (1960-1876) - American mathematician and suffrage activist.
Robert Edwards (1879-1948) - American artist, musician, and writer.
Catherine Booth (1-29-1890 - English theologian and saint, co-founded The Salvation Army.
Robert Lawson (1892-1957) - American author and illustrator.
Buster Keaton (1895-1966) - American film actor, director, and producer.
John Vincent Atanasoff (1903-1995) - American physicist and academic, invented the Atanasoff–Berry computer.
Joan Whitney Payson (1903-1975) - American businesswoman and philanthropist.
Mary Celine Fasenmyer (1906-1996) - American mathematician.
John Collins (1913-2001) - American guitarist.
Jan Murray (1916-2006) - American comedian, actor, and game show host.
George Sidney (1916-2002) - American director and producer.
Ken Wood (1916-1997) - inventor of the Kenwood Chef food mixer.
Don Lenhardt (1922-2014) - American baseball player and coach.
Charlton Heston (1923-2008) - American actor, director and gun rights activist.
Donald J. Sobol (1924-2012) - American soldier and author.
Raymond Watson (1926-2012) - American businessman.
Gordon Cooper (1927-2004) - American colonel, engineer, and astronaut.
Wolf Kahn (1927-2020) - American painter and academic.
Art Farmer (1928-1999) - American trumpet player and composer.
Scotty Beckett (1929-1968) - American actor and singer.
John E. Mack (1929-2004) - American psychiatrist and author.
Leroy Van Dyke (1929-Still Living) - American singer-songwriter and guitarist.
Loretta Lynn (1932-2022) - American singer-songwriter and musician.
Jimmy Orr (1935-2020) - American football player.
Jackie Collins (1937-2015) - English-American author and actress.
David Crocker (1937-Still Living) - American philosopher and academic.
Dave Pike (1938-2015) - American vibraphone player and songwriter.
Steve Swallow (1940-Still Living) - American bass player and composer.
Alberto Vilar (1940-2021) - American businessman and philanthropist.
Karen Cushman (1941-Still Living) - American author.
Robert Wilson (1941-Still Living) - American director and playwright.
Bernice Johnson Reagon (1942-2024) - American singer-songwriter.
Karl W. Richter (1942-1967) - American lieutenant and pilot.
Janis Joplin (1943-1970) - American singer-songwriter.
Tony La Russa (1944- Still Living) - American baseball player and manager.
Clifton Davis (1945- Still Living) - American singer-songwriter, actor, and minister.
Larry Clapp (1946-2013) - American lawyer and politician.
Chuck Hagel (1946-Still Living) - American sergeant and politician, 24th United States Secretary of Defense.
Susan Sarandon (1946-Still Living) - American actress and activist.
Neal Walk (1948-2015) - American basketball player.
Linda McMahon (1948-Still Living) - American businesswoman and politician.
Duke Robillard (1948-Still Living) - American singer-songwriter and guitarist.
Stephen Gyllenhaal (1949-Still Living) - American director, producer, and screenwriter.
Alan Rosenberg (1950-Still Living) - American actor.
Truck Robinson (1951-Still Living) - American basketball player and coach.
Anita DeFrantz (1952-Still Living) - American rower and sports administrator.
Jody Stephens (1952-Still Living) - American rock drummer.
Charlie Leibrandt (1956-Still Living) - American baseball player.
Sherri Turner (1956-Still Living) - American golfer.
Clark Middleton (1957-2020) - American actor.
Russell Simmons (1957-Still Living) - American businessman, founded Def Jam Recordings and Phat Farm.
Skip Heller (1965-Still Living) - American singer-songwriter, guitarist, and producer.
Steve Olin (1965-1993) - American baseball player.
Micky Ward (1965-Still Living) - American boxer.
Vicky Bullett (1967-Still Living) - American basketball player and coach.
Blaise Alexander (1976-2001) - American race car driver.
Alicia Silverstone (1976-Still Living) - American actress, producer, and author.
Rachael Leigh Cook (1979-Still Living) - American actress.
Sarah Fisher (1980-Still Living) - American race car driver.
HISTORICAL EVENTS FOR OCTOBER 4
1777 – British troops under the command of William Howe push back troops under George Washington during an Revolutionary War battle.
1876 – Texas A & M (Agricultural and Mechanical College of Texas) opens as the first public college in Texas.
1895 – Horace Rawlins wins the first U.S. Open Men's Golf Championship.
1918 – A New Jersey shell loading plant explodes and kills 100 people while making ammunition for troops fighting in WWI.
1941 – The Saturday Evening Post prints Norman Rockwell's Willie Gillis on the cover of the paper, debuting the character on a journey as he enlists in the military.
1960 – 62 people died after an airliner crash during takeoff at the Boston's Logan International Airport.
1970 - Janis Joplin dies of an accidental drug overdose.
1983 – Richard Noble sets a new land speed record at the Black Rock Desert in Nevada driving 633.468 miles per hour.
1985 – The Free Software Foundation is founded in Massachusetts as a nonprofit organization that promotes the freedom of open source software users.
1991 – The Protocol on Environmental Protection to the Antarctic Treaty is opened for signature.
1993 – 18 U.S. Special Forces, two UN Peacekeepers and at least 600 Somalia militiamen and civilians died during the Battle of Mogadishu.
1997 – The Loomis Fargo Heist in Charlotte, North Carolina, occurs and becomes known as the second largest robbery in U.S. history.
2004 – Paul Allen, the co-founder of Microsoft, funds SpaceShipOne and wins the Ansari X Prize for private spaceflight. The success of the spacecraft lays the foundation for commercial flight into space.
2006 – WikiLeaks is launched.
2011 - New York Yankees Aaron Judge breaks Roger Maris’ home run record when hits his 62nd home run of the season.
2021 – Bubba Wallace wins a major NASCAR race at the Talladega Superspeedway to become the first Black Driver winner.
2022 – American John F. Clauser, along with Frenchman Alain Aspect and Austrian Anton Zeilinger, were jointly awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics.