4 May in History

1415--At the council of Constance, John Hus and John Wycliffe are condemned as heretics.

1493--Pope Alexander V gives most of the New World to the Spanish Empire in the papal bull Inter Caetera

1904--The United states begins construction of the Panama Canal.

1942--The Battle of the Coral Sea begins.

1961--The Freedom Riders begin a bus tour of the American South.

1979--Margaret Thatcher becomes Prime Minister of the United Kingdom.

1990--Latvia declares independence from the Soviet Union.