The final contact attempt with Pioneer 10 receives no response.
Friday, March 4, 2005
The car of released Italian hostage Giuliana Sgrena is fired on by U.S. soldiers in Iraq, causing the death of 1 passenger and injuring 2 more.
Monday, March 4, 2002
2001 U.S. Attack on Afghanistan: Seven American Special Operations Forces soldiers are killed as they attempt to infiltrate the Shahi Kot Valley on a low-flying helicopter reconnaissance mission. Around local time a Boeing CH-47 Chinook helicopter was hit by a rocket-propelled grenade, causing a soldier to fall out and damaging a hydraulic line. The helicopter made an emergency landing a half-mile away. A second helicopter on the mission picked up the first helicopter's crew and flew to where the crew member had fallen. The soldiers soon came under heavy fire, and six were killed. The remaining soldiers returned fire and retrieved the bodies before returning to base.
Ansett Australia, one of the oldest airlines in the world and the second largest in Australia, ceases operation after collapsing financially. This event also marks the largest job loss in Australian history.
Saturday, March 4, 2000
The PlayStation 2 is released in Japan, and in North America. Several months later it becomes the best-selling game console of all time.
U.S. President Ronald Reagan addresses the American people on the Iran-Contra Affair, acknowledging that his overtures to Iran had 'deteriorated' into an arms-for-hostages deal.
The southern part of Quebec, and especially Montreal, receive 16½ (42 cm) of snow in what becomes known as the Century's Snowstorm ("la tempête du siècle").
In Paris, 6 people are sentenced to death for conspiring to assassinate President Charles de Gaulle. De Gaulle pardons 5 of them but the other conspirator is executed by firing squad a few days later.
Treaty of Dunkirk (coming into effect 8 September) signed between the United Kingdom and France providing for mutual assistance in the event of attack.
Monday, March 4, 1946
C.G.E. Mannerheim resigns as president of Finland.
Sunday, March 4, 1945
Football club FC Red Star (in Serbian: "FK Crvena Zvezda") formed in Belgrade, Yougoslavia.
Resistance fighters ambush and attempt to execute SS general Hanns Albin Rauter, the arch-persecutor of the Dutch.
In the United Kingdom, The Princess Elizabeth, later to become Queen Elizabeth II, joins the British Army's Women's Auxiliary Territorial Service as a truck driver/mechanic.
A Communist-led government is formed in Romania under Petru Groza following Soviet intervention.
France is divided into 83 départements, which cut across the former provinces, in an attempt to dislodge regional loyalties based on noble ownership of land.