Statue of Dom Perignon at Moët & Chandon (Photo: Victor Grigas, CC BY-SA 4.0)

Today in History

• Dom Perignon invents champagne (1693, traditional date)
• The English and Dutch capture Gibraltar (1704)
• The US Revenue Cutter Service (forerunner of the US Coast Guard) is founded (1790)
• The Saturday Evening Post is published for the first time (1821)
• Lizzie Borden’s parents are found murdered. She is tried and acquitted of the crime (1892)
• Anne Frank and her family are arrested by the Gestapo (1944)
• Civil rights workers Michael Schwerner, Andrew Goodman, and James Chaney are found dead in Mississippi (1964)
• The Gulf of Tonkin incident, a casus belli for US involvement in Vietnam, reportedly takes place (1964)
• The US Federal Communications Commission rescinds the Fairness Doctrine (1987)

Birthdays

• Percy Bysshe Shelley, poet (1792)
• Louis Vuitton, fashion designer (1821)
• James Springer White, founded the Seventh-day Adventist Church (1821)
• John Venn, mathematician, developed the Venn diagram (1834)
• Ezra Taft Benson, Mormon leader (1899)
• HM Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother (1900)
• Louis Armstrong, jazz musician (1901)
• Helen Kane, singer (1904)
• Raoul Wallenberg, Swedish diplomat (1912)
• Warren Avis, founded Avis Rent a Car (1915)
• Helen Thomas, journalist (1920)
• Gerard Damiano, pornographer and filmmaker, directed Deep Throat and The Devil in Miss Jones (1928)
• Cleon Jones, baseball player (1942)
• Richard Belzer, actor (1944)
• Billy Bob Thornton, actor (1955)
• Barack Obama, 44th US President (1961)
• Roger Clemens, baseball player (1962)
• Daniel Dae Kim, actor (1968)
• Meghan Markle, actress and fiancée of Prince Harry of Wales (1981)

Deaths

• John Burgoyne, English general (1792)
• Hans Christian Andersen, fairy tale writer (1875)
• Pearl White, actress (1938)
• Melvyn Douglas, actor (1981)
• Victor Mature, actor (1999)
• Lee Hazlewood, singer-songwriter (2007)
• James Brady, White House Press Secretary shot in an assassination attempt against Ronald Reagan (2014)

Holidays and Observances

• Coast Guard Day (US)
• Constitution Day (Cook Islands)
• Matica Slovenská Day (Slovakia)
• National Chocolate Chip Day (US)
• Revolution Day (Burkina Faso)
• Social Security Day (US)

August 4 is the 216th day of the year (217th in leap years). There are 149 days remaining until the end of the year.