4 MAY

1897 - Andres Bonifacio, founder and leader of the Katipunan, the Philippine revolutionary movement against colonial Spain, gives his testimony in Cavite before the court martial formed by Emilio Aguinaldo  as part of the scheme of the latter's camp to wrest the presidency  from the Supremo; testifying before the turn of his wife, Gregoria de Jesus, Bonifacio states that he is unaware  of the existence of  another revolutionary government in the province and neither aware whether or not he holds any legal powers in said government.

1945 - The 1,500-ton Balao Class submarine USS Lagarto disappears without trace after attacking a Japanese tanker and destroyer convoy some 100 miles off Thailand's southeast coast; believed to have been sunk by a Japanese minelayer, its wreckage will be discovered in May 2005.

1970 - American National Guardsmen fire their weapons at about 2,000 antiwar demonstrators on the Kent State University campus, killing four students, wounding eight, and permanently paralyzing another; despite that fact that no warning shot was fired during the dispersal, a federal court will drop all charges against the Ohio National Guardsmen charged with the students' killings four years later.

1979 - Margaret Thatcher becomes the first woman Prime Minister of Britain as  the Conservative Party wins the general election; Thatcher, who will be dubbed "Iron Lady," will soon become one of the dominant political figures of the 20th century, especially figuring in the international arena along with her ideological soul mate American President Ronald Reagan.