Wikipedia:Selected anniversaries/October 4
October 4: Independence Day in Lesotho (1966); Feast Day of St. Francis of Assisi (Catholicism); World Animal Day.
- 1830 - Belgian Revolution: A provisional government in Brussels declared the creation of the independent and neutral state of Belgium, in revolt against the United Kingdom of the Netherlands.
- 1883 - The Orient Express began operations.
- 1910 - Manuel II (pictured), the last King of Portugal, fled to the United Kingdom when a revolution erupted in Lisbon and his palace was shelled. The Portuguese First Republic was proclaimed the next day.
- 1957 - Soviet spacecraft Sputnik 1 was launched by an R-7 rocket from Baikonur Cosmodrome, Kazakh SSR and became the first artificial satellite to orbit the Earth.
- 1993 - Russian Constitutional Crisis: In Moscow, tanks bombarded the White House, a government building that housed the Russian parliament, while demonstrators against President Boris Yeltsin rallied outside.
Recent days: October 3 – October 2 – October 1
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