Holidays Calendar for August 4, 2020
Citizens of the Cook Islands annually celebrate Constitution Day on August 4. The holiday celebrates the day, when the Islands declared a self-governing nation in a free association with New Zealand.
Founders Day is a public holiday in Ghana celebrated on August 4. It is dedicated to the people who fought for the country’s independence from the United Kingdom. Originally celebrated on September 21 (birth anniversary of Ghana’s first prime minister and president Kwame Nkrumah), it was moved to August 4 in 2017.
Public Holidays →
Antigua and Barbuda,
British Virgin Islands,
Saint Kitts and Nevis
Carnival Tuesday
In many countries of the Caribbean, the annual carnival is held in July and August rather than during the Pre-Lenten season to celebrate the abolition of slavery. A number of these countries observe Emancipation Day on the first Monday of August; in some of them, the following Tuesday is also a public holiday, commonly referred to as Carnival Tuesday or August Tuesday.
The anniversary of the 2020 Beirut explosion is a national day of mourning and a public holiday in Lebanon. It is observed annually on August 4 to pay tribute to the victims of the explosion at the Port of Beirut that killed over 200 people, injured 7,000, and left approximately 300,000 people homeless.
International Clouded Leopard Day is observed on August 4 to raise awareness of a vulnerable leopard species native to Southeast Asia. It was founded in 2018 by The Aspinall Foundation and observed for the first time at Howletts Wild Animal Park in Kent, England.
Coast Guard Day is celebrated in the United States on August 4. This observance commemorates the anniversary of the founding of the U.S. Coast Guard as the Revenue-Marine in 1790.
Armed Forces Day in Venezuela coincides with the country’s Independence Day celebrated on July 5. Besides, each service branch of the National Bolivarian Armed Forces of Venezuela has its own holiday. For example, National Guard Day is celebrated on August 4.
Matica Slovenská Day is a remembrance day in Slovakia, that is observed every year on August 4. This day commemorates the day, when the main scientific and cultural institution of Slovakia was established in 1863.
August 4 is Revolution Day in Burkina Faso. This holiday commemorates the anniversary of revolution on August 4, 1983, that led to many changes in the country.
Barack Obama Day is a commemorative holiday observed in the state of Illinois every year on August 4. It was established in 2017 to honor the 44th President of the United States, whose political career was launched in Illinois.
Cabuyao Cityhood Day (Araw ng Pagkalungsod ng Cabuyao) is a special non-working holiday in the city of Cabuyao, Laguna, Philippines. It is celebrated annually on August 4 to commemorate Cabuyao’s conversion from a municipality into a city in 2012.
August 4 is a perfect day to bake a batch of chocolate chip cookies and share them with your friends and family because it is National Chocolate Chip Cookie Day. Chocolate chip cookies are widely regarded as a quintessential American dessert, so it is not surprising that there is a holiday dedicated to them.
National Champagne Day is informally observed on December 31. This is the perfect day to celebrate champagne because it is customary to toast the New Year with champagne. However, some holiday calendars claim that Champagne Day is celebrated on August 4.
The United States has an astonishing number of food days dedicated to various types of foods and beverages. For example, National White Wine Day is unofficially celebrated on August 4. This holiday is a great occasion to enjoy a glass or two of crispy white wine, perfect during the summer heat.
Single Working Women’s Day is celebrated annually on August 4. It was created to highlight the contribution of single working women to society, which is often underestimated and overlooked.
National Night Out is a special event that is held in the USA every year on the first Tuesday in August. This event was started in 1984 in order to make communities safer.
Other Observances →
Australia
National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Children’s Day in Australia
National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Children’s Day (NIACD), also referred to as simply Children’s Day, is observed in Australia annually on August 4. It was established in 1988 to highlight the role of family, community, culture, and language in the lives of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children.
Festivals on August 4, 2020
- Spicemas (Grenada Carnival) in St. George’s, Grenada
- Salzburg Festival in Salzburg, Austria
- Beat Film Festival in Moscow, Russia
- BVI Emancipation Festival in Road Town, British Virgin Islands
- Qingdao International Beer Festival in Qingdao, China
- Transilvania International Film Festival in Cluj-Napoca, Romania
- Minnesota Fringe Festival in Minneapolis, USA
- Jazz in Marciac in Marciac, France
- Verbier Festival in Verbier, Switzerland
- International Istanbul Film Festival in Istanbul, Turkey
- Taiwan International Balloon Festival in Luye, Taiwan
- Chartres en lumières (Chartres in Lights) in Chartres, France
- Highland Renaissance Festival in Eminence, USA
- World Amigurumi Exhibition in New York, USA
This Day in History
- 2007 NASA launched Phoenix, a robotic spaceship, on a space exploration mission on Mars. The spaceship successfully landed on Mars on May 25, 2008.
- 2006 Sri Lanka government forces carried out a massacre, killing 17 employees of the French international non-governmental organization Action Against Hunger.
- 2003 Died: Frederick Chapman Robbins, American pediatrician and virologist, Nobel Prize laureate for his breakthrough work on the isolation and growth of the polio virus, paving the way to the development of vaccines.
- 1995 The Croatian Army and the Army of the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina started Operation Storm in Croatia. The operation was the last major battle of the Croatian War of Independence.
- 1992 Born: Dylan and Cole Sprouse, American twin actors. They came to prominence starring on the Disney Channel series The Suite Life of Zack & Cody and its spin-off, The Suite Life on Deck.
- 1991 The Greek cruise ship MTS Oceanos sank off the Wild Coast of South Africa. The captain and the crew evacuated from the ship, leaving all passengers on board in ignorance. Later all passengers were rescued.
- 1983 Born: Greta Gerwig, American actress, screenwriter, and film director. Her most notable directing credits include Lady Bird, Little Women, and Barbie.
- 1981 Born: Meghan, Duchess of Sussex (born Meghan Markle), American member of the British royal family and former actress. She is married to Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex.
- 1977 Died: Edgar Adrian, 1st Baron Adrian, English physiologist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate for his work on the function of neurons.
- 1974 A bomb exploded in the Italicus Express train at San Benedetto Val di Sambro, Italy. 12 people were killed, 22 more wounded.
- 1969 The Vietnam War: American representative Henry Kissinger and North Vietnamese representative Xuan Thuy began secret negotiations on peace. The negotiations would eventually fail.
- 1968 Born: Daniel Dae Kim, South Korean-born American actor. He is known for his roles as Jin-Soo Kwon in Lost, Chin Ho Kelly in Hawaii Five-0, Gavin Park in Angel, and Johnny Gat in the Saints Row video game series.
- 1964 The second Gulf of Tonkin incident: U.S. destroyers USS Maddox and USS Turner Joy mistakenly reported coming under attack by North Vietnam in the Gulf of Tonkin.
- 1961 Born: Barack Obama, American lawyer and politician, the 44th President of the United States. He received the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize for his extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples.
- 1955 Born: Billy Bob Thornton, American film actor, filmmaker, singer, and songwriter. He received international attention after writing, directing, and starring in the independent drama film Sling Blade.
- 1946 An earthquake of magnitude 8.0 hit northern Dominican Republic. 100 people were killed and 20,000 were left homeless.
- 1938 Died: Pearl White, American stage and film actress. She began her career on stage at the age of six and later moved to the silent film industry, appearing in a number of popular serials.
- 1914 Germany invaded Belgium. In response, Belgium and the United Kingdom declared war on Germany, thus officially entering World War I. The United States declared its neutrality.
- 1905 Died: Walther Flemming, German biologist, known as the founder of cytogenetics, a branch of genetics that focuses on the study of the structure and function of the cell.
- 1901 Born: Louis Armstrong, American trumpet player and singer. He played a foundational influence in jazz, shifting the focus of the genre from collective improvisation to solo performance.
- 1900 Born: Elizabeth Angela Marguerite Bowes-Lyon, future Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother, Queen of the United Kingdom and the Dominions of the British Commonwealth from 1936 to 1952 as the wife of King George VI.
- 1875 Died: Hans Christian Andersen, Danish author. He is best remembered his fairy tales such as The Little Mermaid, The Ugly Duckling, The Snow Queen, The Nightingale, and The Emperor's New Clothes.
- 1859 Born: Knut Hamsun, Norwegian author, poet, and playwright, the 1920 Nobel Prize in Literature laureate in 1920. His body of work includes a collection of poetry, more than 20 novels, short stories, plays, and essays.
- 1853 Born: John Henry Twachtman, American painter, best known for his impressionist landscapes. His style is considered to be among the most personal and experimental of his generation.
- 1849 Died: Anita Garibaldi, Brazilian wife of the Italian revolutionary Giuseppe Garibaldi. Their partnership epitomized the spirit of the 19th century's age of romanticism and revolutionary liberalism.
- 1834 Born: John Venn, English mathematician and philosopher, noted for the introduction of the Venn diagram, used in the fields of set theory, probability, logic, statistics, and computer science.
- 1822 Died: Kristjan Jaak Peterson, Estonian poet, commonly regarded as the founder of modern Estonian poetry. He died of tuberculosis at the age of 21, leaving only two small volumes of his works.
- 1821 Born: Louis Vuitton, French fashion designer, the founder of the Louis Vuitton brand of leather goods.
- 1789 Feudalism was abolished in France: members of the National Constituent Assembly took an oath to abandon their privileges.
- 1755 Born: Nicolas-Jacques Conté, French soldier and painter, known as the inventor of the modern pencil.
- 1526 Died: Juan Sebastián Elcano, Spanish explorer, known as the first person to complete the circumnavigation of the Earth.
- 1525 Died: Andrea della Robbia, Italian sculptor, regarded as one of the most important ceramic glaze artists of all time.
- 1521 Born: Pope Urban VII (born Giovanni Battista Castagna), known for the shortest papacy in the history that lasted only for 12 days.
- 1306 Died: Wenceslaus III of Bohemia, King of Hungary between 1301 and 1305 and King of Bohemia and Poland from 1305.