May 4 is :
Bird Day According to the U.S. Library of Congress, the very first Bird Day was on May 4, 1894.
National Candied Orange Peel Day
Unofficial Star Wars Day…May the Force be with you.
International Firefighters’ Day
Feast day of Saint Florian, patron saint of firemen.
1626 – Dutch explorer Peter Minuit arrived in New Netherland (present day Manhattan Island). According to tradition, he purchased the island of Manhattan from Native Americans on May 24, 1626 for goods valued at 60 Dutch guilders, which in the 19th century was estimated to be the equivalent of US $24 (or $680 today). His surname, Minuit, means “midnight” in French.
Rhode Island Declaration of Independence Day, proclaimed by the colony in 1776, two months before the Continental Congress made its declaration.
Emperor Napoleon I of France arrived at Portoferraio on the island of Elba on May 4, 1814 to begin his exile.
May 4, 1904 The United States began construction on the Panama Canal .
The construction of the Panama Canal is where the expression “Another Day, Another Dollar” comes from, as the workers were rumored to be paid a dollar a day for their labor. The construction of the canal was completed in 1914, 401 years after Panama was first crossed by Vasco Núñez de Balboa. The United States spent almost $500,000,000 (roughly equivalent to $9,169,650,000 now) to finish the project. This was by far the largest American engineering project to date. The canal was formally opened on August 15, 1914, with the passage of the cargo ship SS Ancon.
The Ohio National Guard, sent to Kent State University on May 4, 1970, after disturbances in the city of Kent the weekend before, opened fire, killing four unarmed students and wounding nine others. The students were protesting the United States’ invasion of Cambodia.
May 4, 1979 – Margaret Thatcher became the first female Prime Minister of the United Kingdom.