Holidays Calendar for December 4, 2023
King Tupou I Day is a Tongan public holiday celebrated on December 4 (actual observation date may vary from year to year). It was established to commemorate the anniversary of King Tupou I's coronation.
The Presentation of Mary, also known as the Entry of the Most Holy Theotokos into the Temple, is one of the twelve Great Feasts in the Eastern Orthodox Church. It is celebrated on December 4 in the Gregorian calendar.
Religious Holidays →
Jordan,
State of Palestine,
Lebanon,
Syria,
Turkey
Eid il-Burbara (Saint Barbara's Day)
Eid il-Burbara (Saint Barbara's Day) is a religious holiday celebrated by Middle Eastern Christians. It is observed on December 4, the feast day of Saint Barbara. The holiday is celebrated by Christians in Lebanon, Syria, Israel, Palestine, Jordan, and Turkey.
International Cheetah Day is observed annually on December 4. Its main purpose is to raise awareness of the vulnerable status of the cheetah and the importance of its protection and conservation.
Cabernet Franc Day, sometimes referred to as International Cabernet Franc Day, is celebrated annually on December 4. It was created to honor one of the world’s most widely planted and important black grape varieties.
The Ukrainian Armed Forces observe one of its professional days, Missile Troops and Artillery Day, every year on December 4. This day was established by the Presidential Decree of Leonid Kuchma in 1997 and received a new date in 2024.
Navy Day in India is celebrated on December 4. It was established to commemorate the Operation Trident that took place during the Indo-Pakistani War of 1971. The largest celebration is held in the port city of Visakhapatnam.
Miners' Day (Dzień Górnika) is a traditional professional holiday in Poland celebrated on December 4. It is commonly known as Barbórka because it coincides with the feast day of Saint Barbara, the patron saint of miners and other who work with explosives.
Insurance Day in Iran is celebrated on the 13th of Azar in the Iranian calendar, which corresponds to December 4 in the Gregorian calendar. It celebrates the importance of feeling secure as one of the fundamental human needs, and the contribution of insurance companies to making people feel secure.
Computer Science Day in Russia, also known as the birthday of Russian computer science, is an informal observance celebrated on December 4. It commemorates the invention of the first Russian digital computer.
Thai Environment Day is celebrated on December 4. It is an official observance that was established in 1991. Although it is not a national holiday, it is widely marked with various events and activities.
Wildlife Conservation Day, sometimes referred to as World Wildlife Conservation Day, is celebrated every year on December 4. It was created to raise awareness of the numerous endangered species that are on the brink of extinction and highlight the importance of conservation efforts.
Epic of Manas Day is a cultural observance in Kyrgyzstan celebrated on December 4. It was initiated by the Ministry of Culture, Information and Tourism of the Kyrgyz Republic in 2015. The initiative was supported by the parliament and then approved by the government.
National Cookie Day is a food-related holiday dedicated to one of the world’s most popular treats. Celebrated on December 4 every year, it is a perfect occasion to indulge yourself with your favorite type of cookie, be it peanut butter, chocolate chip, oatmeal raisin, or even all at once!
National Dice Day is an unofficial holiday celebrated annually on December 4. It was created to recognize a gaming tool with a millennia-long history that is used to generate random values.
The International Day of Banks was added to the list of UN international days in December 2019. The General Assembly decided to celebrate banks every December 4 to highlight their contribution to achieving sustainable development goals.
Thanksgiving Day in the United States kicks off the holiday season. Thousands of people wake up at the crack of dawn on Black Friday to make the most of discounts and special offers in big-box stores. And after Black Friday comes Cyber Monday, when people are encouraged to shop online.
Festivals on December 4, 2023
- Guangzhou International Documentary Film Festival in Guangzhou, China
- Jazz Bez in Lviv, Ukraine
- Riga Christmas Market in Riga, Latvia
- Prague Christmas Market in Prague, Czech Republic
- Vilnius Christmas Market in Vilnius, Lithuania
- Tallinn Christmas Market in Tallinn, Estonia
- Helsinki Christmas Market in Helsinki, Finland
- Portland Christmas Ship Parade in Portland (OR), USA
- Nuremberg Christmas Market in Nuremberg, Germany
- Maastricht Christmas Market in Maastricht, Netherlands
- Singapore International Film Festival in Singapore, Singapore
- Striezelmarkt (Dresden Christmas Market) in Dresden, Germany
- GUM Christmas Fair at Red Square in Moscow, Russia
- Stuttgart Christmas Market in Stuttgart, Germany
- Frankfurt Christmas Market in Frankfurt am Main, Germany
This Day in History
- 2005 Tens of thousands of people in Hong Kong went out to the streets to protest for democracy, calling on the government to allow universal and equal suffrage.
- 1993 Died: Frank Zappa, American musician, songwriter, composer, producer, whose career spanned for 30 years. He was a self-taught composer and performer, and worked in many musical genres during his career.
- 1992 Born: Kim Seok-jin, known professionally as Jin, South Korean singer, songwriter, and member of the South Korean boy band BTS.
- 1991 The last and the longest-held American hostage in Lebanon, journalist Terry A. Anderson, was released after seven years in captivity in Beirut.
- 1980 English rock group Led Zeppelin officially disbanded, following the death of drummer John Bonham on September 25.
- 1977 Malaysian Airline System Flight 65 was hijacked and diverted to Singapore. The aircraft crashed in Tanjung Kupang, Johor, Malaysia, all 93 passengers and 7 crew killed.
- 1973 Born: Tyra Banks, American model, television personality, producer, actress. She became famous as a model working for Victoria's Secret and being one of its original Angels. She is also the creator and host of America's Next Top Model.
- 1971 Someone set ablaze the Montreux Casino in Switzerland during the concert of Frank Zappa. This incident became the basis for the the Deep Purple song "Smoke on the Water".
- 1969 Born: Shawn Corey Carter, better known by his stage name Jay-Z, American rapper, producer and entrepreneur. He is one of the most successful hip-hop artists in the USA and one of the world's best-selling artists of all time.
- 1966 Born: Fred Armisen, American comedian and actor known as the co-creator and co-star of the comedy series Portlandia, Documentary Now!, and Moonbase 8.
- 1964 Born: Marisa Tomei, American actress who gained prominence for her performance in My Cousin Vinny, which earned her the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress.
- 1963 Born: Serhiy Bubka, Ukrainian pole vaulter. He won six consecutive IAAF World Championships, an Olympic gold medal and broke the world record for men's pole vault 35 times (18 indoor and 17 outdoor records).
- 1954 The first hamburger and fast food restaurant Burger King was opened in Miami.
- 1949 Born: Jeff Bridges, American actor with a career spanning over seven decades. He gained fame in the 1970s for his roles in The Last Prince and Thunderbolt and Lightfoot.
- 1945 Died: Thomas Hunt Morgan, American biologist and science author. In 1933 he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for his discoveries elucidating the role that the chromosome plays in heredity.
- 1945 The United States Senate approved by a vote 65 to 7 the participation of the United States in the United Nations that had been established earlier on October 24.
- 1944 Born: Dennis Wilson, American musician, singer and songwriter. He was one of the co-founders (drummer) of the American rock band The Beach Boys.
- 1932 Born: Roh Tae-woo, South Korean politician and general. He served as the 6th President of South Korea from February 25, 1988 to February 24, 1993.
- 1922 Born: Gérard Philipe, French actor active from 1944 till his death in 1959. Despite his short life (Philipe died from liver cancer a few days before his 37th birthday), he had a very successful career.
- 1910 Born: Ramaswamy Venkataraman, Indian activist, lawyer and politician. He served as the 8th President of India from July 25, 1987 to July 25, 1992.
- 1909 The first Grey Cup game in Canadian football was played between the University of Toronto Varsity Blues and the Toronto Parkdale Canoe Club, 26-6.
- 1909 The Montreal Canadiens ice hockey club was founded as a charter member of the National Hockey Association. The club would become the oldest surviving professional hockey franchise in the world.
- 1908 Born: Alfred Hershey, American biologist, remembered for his discovery on the replication of viruses and their genetic structure. He was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1969.
- 1902 Died: Charles Dow, American journalist. He founded The Wall Street Journal that became one of the most respectable financial publications in the world. He also invented the Dow Jones Industrial Average.
- 1893 Died: John Tyndall, English physicist and chemist, famous for his study of diamagnetism, discoveries in the realms of infrared radiation and physical properties of air. He published more than a dozen science books, bringing the experimental physics to a wide audience.
- 1875 Born: Rainer Maria Rilke, Austrian poet and author, widely regarded as one of the most lyrically intense German-language poets. His best known works include Duino Elegies, Sonnets to Orpheus, and The Notebooks of Malte Laurids Brigge.
- 1850 Died: William Sturgeon, English physicist and inventor. He is known for making the first electromagnets and inventing the first practical English electric motor.
- 1850 Died: Charles Richet, French physiologist, known for his investigations in neurochemistry, digestion, thermoregulation in homeothermic animals, and breathing. In 1913 he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in recognition of his works on anaphylaxis.
- 1835 Born: Samuel Butler, English author of Victorian era. Two of his most famous pieces are the Utopian satire Erewhon and a semi-autobiographical novel The Way of All Flesh.
- 1798 Died: Luigi Galvani, Italian physician, physicist and philosopher. He is known for his experiments, discovering that dead frog muscles twitch when struck by an electrical spark. This was one of the first forays into the study of bioelectricity.
- 1791 The first edition of The Observer, the world's first Sunday newspaper, was published by W.S. Bourne in London.
- 1679 Died: Thomas Hobbes, English philosopher, best known for his work on political philosophy. His most famous book is Leviathan, which established social contract theory that became the foundation of most later Western political philosophy.
- 1642 Died: Armand Jean du Plessis, Cardinal-Duke of Richelieu and of Fronsac, French clergyman and statesman. In 1622 he became King Louis XIII's chief minister, thus actually assuming the reign of France.
- 1131 Died: Omar Khayyám, Persian mathematician, astronomer, philosopher and poet. He is renowned for his poetry, quatrains, full of philosophical thoughts and teachings. His quatrains are gathered in the Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam.