Pablo Picasso's "Nude, Green Leaves and Bust" sells for US$106 million at Christie's in New York, becoming the most expensive work of art sold at auction. //uk.reuters.com/article/idUKTRE6436KR20100504 (Reuters)
Cyclone Nargis: Myanmar's State Peace and Development Council declares that five states in the Irrawaddy River delta are a disaster area following the cyclone with at least 351 deaths. //www.msnbc.msn.com/id/24447510/ (MSNBC)
In one of the largest insurgent attacks in Iraq, at least 60 people are killed and dozens wounded in a suicide bombing at a Kurdish police recruitment center in Irbil, northern Iraq.
At least 19 people are killed in a series of tornadoes in the states of Colorado, Kansas and Missouri.
May 10 ndash A major severe weather outbreak spawns more tornadoes than any week in U.S. history 393 tornadoes are reported in 19 states.
Saturday, May 4, 1996
A Sudanese Federal Airlines jet crashes on a domestic flight in a severe dust storm, while making an emergency landing 325 kilometres northeast of Khartoum, killing all 53 passengers and crew.
Cold War: Estonia restores the formal name of the country, the Republic of Estonia, as well as the state emblems (the coat of arms, the flag and the anthem).
Cold War: Latvia declares independence from the Soviet Union.
Falklands War: HMS "Sheffield" is hit by an Exocet missile, and burns out of control 20 sailors are killed. The ship sinks on May 10.
Sunday, May 4, 1980
Yugoslav President Josip Broz Tito dies. The funeral ceremony later becomes the world's biggest diplomatic meeting and media event ever, with more than 140 state delegations in Belgrade from all over the world (only the funeral of Pope John Paul II in April 2005 will have more news coverage and a higher number of delegations).
Friday, May 4, 1979
Counting in the previous day's British general election shows that the Conservatives have won and Margaret Thatcher becomes the country's first female prime minister, ending the rule of James Callaghan's Labour government.//news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/vote_2005/basics/4393311.stm
Monday, May 4, 1970
The New York Knicks win their first NBA chionship, defeating the Los Angeles Lakers 113-99 in Game 7 of the world chionship series at Madison Square Garden.
Arms Crisis in the Republic of Ireland: Charles Haughey and Neil Blaney are dismissed as members of the Irish Government, for accusations of their involvement in a plot to import arms for use by the Provisional IRA in Northern Ireland.
The Beatles release their 12th and final album, "Let It Be".
Kent State shootings: Four students at Kent State University in Ohio are killed and 9 wounded by Ohio National Guardsmen, at a protest against the incursion into Cambodia.
Thursday, May 4, 1967
Four hundred students seize the administration building at Cheyney State College, now Cheyney University of Pennsylvania, the oldest institute for higher education for African Americans.
Hong Kong 1967 riots: Clashes between striking workers and police kill 51 and injure 800.
Fiat signs a contract with the Soviet government to build a car factory in the Soviet Union.
Monday, May 4, 1964
Pacific Air Lines Flight 773 crashes near San Ramon, California, killing all 44 aboard the FBI later reports that a cockpit recorder tape indicates that the pilot and co-pilot had been shot by a suicidal passenger.
The United States Congress recognized Bourbon whiskey as a distinctive product of the United States.
At a mail rockets demonstration by Gerhard Zucker on Hasselkopf Mountain near Braunlage (Lower Saxonia, Germany), 3 persons are killed by a rocket explosion.
The French navy bombards Damascus because of the Druze riots.
Admiral Richard E. Byrd and Floyd Bennett claim to have flown over the North Pole (later discovery of his diary seems to indicate that this did not happen).
Talks between the government and strikers begin in the U.K.
Planes piloted by Major Harold Geiger and Horace Meek Hickam, students at the Air Corps Tactical School, collide in mid-air at Langley Field, Virginia. Hickam parachutes to safety.
The magazine "Popular Science" is first published in the U.S.
The Third Carlist War in Spain-Carlist Army is defeated at the Battle of Oroquieta, Navarra, Spain.1,000 government troops (Moriones) easily defeated the much larger number of Carlists at Oroquieta. 50 Carlists were killed and Moriones takes 700 prisoners but Don Carlos escapes.
10 ndash Naval Battle of Hakodate: The Imperial Japanese navy defeats adherents of the Tokugawa shogunate.
Thursday, May 4, 1865
Jefferson Davis meets with his Confederate Cabinet (14 officials) for the last time, in Washington, Georgia, and the Confederate Government is officially dissolved.
