Today in History: The Supreme Court Decides that Transgender Bulent Ersoy is Male

August 4 is the 216th (217th in leap years) day of the year according to the Gregorian calendar. The number of days left until the end of the year is 149.

Railways

• 4 August 1871 The first railway line of state enterprise Haydarpasa-Izmit railway construction was started.
• 4 August 1895 Çöğürler-Afyon (74 km) line was opened. The line was purchased on December 31, 1928.
• 4 August 1903 Bulgarian terrorists blew up some railway points with dynamite. Banice Station's warehouse was set on fire, telegraph wires were broken.
• August 4, 2019 Istanbul-Izmir Highway was opened to service by President Recep Tayyip ERDOĞAN at a ceremony held in Bursa on August 4, XNUMX.

Events 

• 1578 – The Battle of Vadi al-Mahazin ends with the decisive victory of the Ottoman Empire and its Moroccan allies against the Portuguese.
• 1683 - Dom Perignon produces the first champagne.
• 1791 – The Treaty of Sistovi was signed between the Ottoman and Austrian States.
• 1870 – The Red Cross Society was founded in the United Kingdom.
• 1923 – Rauf Bey (Orbay) left the Prime Ministry.
• 1940 – Taksim Casino was opened. The aim of the casino opened by the Istanbul Municipality was to provide cheap entertainment to the public.
• 1944 - Anne Frank is captured by the Nazis. He died in a concentration camp in 1945. The notes he kept in hiding later became classics.
• 1950 – TSKB – Turkey Industrial Development Bank A. Ş. was established.
• 1958 – High devaluation was made with the pressure of the International Monetary Fund. The dollar went from 2 liras to 80 cents to 9 liras.
• 1959 – Egg-sized hail fell in Istanbul. Injuries and property damage occurred.
• 1976 – King Juan Carlos of Spain pardons 90% of political prisoners.
• 1983 – For the first time in Italy, a socialist, General Secretary of the Socialist Party, Bettino Craxi, was appointed Prime Minister.
• 1986 – The Supreme Court ruled that Bülent Ersoy, who changed his gender with surgery, was male.
• 1987 – The International Peace Research Institute claimed that Turkey is among the countries selling arms to Iran.
• 1988 – Numerous barrels reportedly toxic hit the Samsun and Sinop coastlines.
• 1995 – Operation Storm begins as Croatia begins its offensive against Republika Srpska.
• 2005 – Screenwriter Safa Önal entered the Guinness Book of Records with his 395 screenplays that were filmed.
• 2019 – 10 people were killed and 27 injured in the shooting in Dayton, Ohio, USA.
• 2020 – 2020 Beirut explosions: 2 tons of ammonium nitrate exploded in a warehouse in Beirut Port, Lebanon's capital; 750 people died, 154 thousand people were injured. Great damage was done to the city.

Births 

• 1521 – VII. Urban, 228th Pope of the Catholic Church (d. 1590)
• 1792 – Percy Bysshe Shelley, English poet (d. 1822)
• 1801 – Augustin-Alexandre Dumont, French sculptor (d. 1884)
• 1805 – William Rowan Hamilton, Irish mathematician (d. 1865)
• 1834 – John Venn, English mathematician (d. 1923)
• 1859 – Knut Hamsun, Norwegian novelist, playwright, poet, and Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1952)
• 1901 – Louis Daniel Armstrong, American jazz trumpeter (d. 1971)
• 1912 – Daniel Aaron, American author and academic (d. 2016)
• 1912 – Raoul Wallenberg, Swedish architect, businessman, diplomat, and philanthropist (d. 1947)
• 1920 – Helen Thomas, American journalist and reporter (d. 2013)
• 1921 – Maurice Richard, Canadian ice hockey player and coach (d. 2000)
• 1927 – Turgut Uyar, Turkish poet (d. 1985)
• 1928 – Gerard Damiano, American porn film director (d. 2008)
• 1930 – Ali Sistani, the most important Shiite religious leader in Iraq
• 1932 – Frances E. Allen, American computer scientist (d. 2020)
• 1934 – Dallas Green, American former baseball player, manager, and manager (d. 2017)
• 1935 – Carol Arthur, American actress (d. 2020)
• 1940 – Hilmi Özkök, Turkish soldier and 24th Chief of General Staff of the Turkish Armed Forces
• 1941 – Zeki Ökten, Turkish director (d. 2009)
• 1942 – Don S. Davis, American actor, painter (d. 2008)
• 1943 – Vicente Alberto Álvarez Areces, Spanish politician (d. 2019)
• 1944 – Orhan Gencebay, Turkish musician
• 1952 – Moya Brennan, Grammy Award-nominated Celtic folk singer
• 1953 – Hiroyuki Usui, Japanese former international football player
• 1954 – Anatoly Kinah, a Ukrainian politician
• 1955 – Billy Bob Thornton, American actor, film writer, musician
• 1957 – John Wark is a Scottish national football player.
• 1958 – Mary Decker, American female former middle distance runner
• 1958 – Silvan Shalom, Israeli right-wing politician and minister
• 1959 – John Gormley, Irish politician
• 1960 – José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, Spanish politician and Prime Minister
• 1961 - Barack Obama, 44th President of the United States
• 1965 – Dennis Lehane, American writer and screenwriter
• 1965 – Fredrik Reinfeldt, Swedish politician and Prime Minister
• 1965 – Michael Skibbe, German football player and manager
• 1968 – Daniel Dae Kim, American actor
• 1969 - Max Cavalera is a Brazilian singer, guitarist and songwriter.
• 1970 – John August, American screenwriter, director, and actor
• 1970 – Ron Lester, American actor (d. 2016)
• 1971 - Jeff Gordon, American race car driver
• 1973 – Marcos is a Brazilian international football player.
• 1974 – Kily González, Argentine national football player
• 1975 – Andy Hallett, American actor and singer (d. 2009)
• 1975 – Nikos Liberopoulos, Greek striker
• 1977 – Luís Boa Morte, Portuguese national football player and manager
• 1981 – Marques Houston, American R&B singer and actor
• 1981 – Meghan, American actress and model, member of the British Royal Family
• 1982 – Öykü Gürman, Turkish singer
• 1983 – David Cerrajería, Spanish football player
• 1983 – Greta Gerwig, American actress, director, screenwriter, and playwright
• 1984 – Alexis Ruano Delgado, Spanish football player
• 1985 – Robbie Findley, American football player
• 1985 – Mark Milligan, Australian international footballer
• 1987 – Marreese Speights, American professional former basketball player
• 1987 – Jang Keun Suk, South Korean actress, singer and model
• 1987 – Antonio Valencia is an Ecuadorian national football player.
• 1988 - Tom Parker, English musician
• 1989 – Jessica Mauboy, Australian singer-songwriter and actress
• 1990 – Hikmet Balioğlu, Turkish football player
• 1991 – Izet Hajrović, Bosnian national football player
• 1992 – Cole Sprouse, American actor
• 1992 – Dylan Sprouse, American actor
• 1994 – Almila Ada, Turkish actress

Deaths 

• 1060 – Henri I, king of France from 20 July 1031 until his death on 4 August 1060 (b. 1008)
• 1306 – III. Wenceslaus, king of Hungary between 1301 and 1305 and of Bohemia and Poland in 1305 (b. 1289)
• 1345 – Ismail, ruler of the sixteenth Mamluk State from the Turkish-origin Bahri Dynasty, which reigned between 1342-1345 (b. 1325)
• 1526 – Juan Sebastián Elcano, Spanish explorer, sailor (b. 1486)
• 1578 – Sebastião I, King of Portugal (b. 1554)
• 1639 – Juan Ruiz de Alarcón, Mexican Writer, actor, lawyer (b. 1581)
• 1683 – Turhan Hatice Sultan, 2nd Valide Sultan of the Ottoman Empire (Mother of Mehmet IV) (b. 1627)
• 1875 – Hans Christian Andersen, Danish fairy tale writer (b. 1805)
• 1892 – Ernestine Rose, American author (b. 1810)
• 1900 – Étienne Lenoir, Belgian engineer (b. 1822)
• 1922 – Enver Pasha, Ottoman soldier and politician (b. 1881)
• 1948 – Mileva Marić, Serbian physicist (b. 1875)
• 1957 – Talat Artemel, Turkish theater and cinema artist (b. 1901)
• 1977 – Edgar Douglas Adrian, British electrophysiologist (b. 1889)
• 1977 – Ernst Bloch, German philosopher (b. 1885)
• 1981 – Fazila Şevket Giz, Turkish zoologist (one of Turkey's first female professors) (b. 1903)
• 1981 – Melvyn Douglas, American actor (b. 1901)
• 1991 – Nikiforos Vrettakos, Greek poet and writer (b. 1912)
• 1993 – Sabri Berkel, Turkish painter (b. 1907)
• 1997 – Jeanne Calment, longest living person in the world (122 years 164 days) (b. 1875)
• 1998 – Yuri Artyuhin, Soviet cosmonaut (b. 1930)
• 1999 – Victor Mature, American actor (b. 1915)
• 2003 – Frederick Chapman Robbins, American microbiologist and Nobel Prize laureate in Physiology or Medicine (b. 1916)
• 2004 – Baki Tamer, Turkish character, theater, TV series and movie actor (b. 1924)
• 2005 – Osman Numan Baranus, Turkish poet and writer (b. 1930)
• 2007 – Lee Hazlewood, American country singer, composer, and producer (b. 1929)
• 2007 – Samih Rifat, Turkish architect, photographer, translator and writer (b. 1945)
• 2008 – Craig Jones, British motorcycle racer (b. 1985)
• 2009 – Blake Snyder, American author, screenwriter, consultant, and educator (b. 1957)
• 2011 – Naoki Matsuda, Japanese former international football player (b. 1977)
• 2012 – Metin Erksan, Turkish film director (b. 1929)
• 2013 – Şêrko Bêkes, contemporary Kurdish poet (b. 1940)
• 2013 – Ahmet Erhan, Turkish poet and writer (b. 1958)
• 2013 – Renato Ruggiero, Italian diplomat and former minister (b. 1930)
• 2014 – Walter Massey, Canadian actor (b. 1928)
• 2015 – Takashi Amano, Japanese photographer, aquarist, and writer (b. 1954)
• 2016 – Zinaida Sharko is a Russian theater and film actress (b. 1929)
• 2017 – Luiz Melodia, Brazilian actor, singer and songwriter (b. 1951)
• 2017 – Yavuz Özışık, Turkish pianist and musician (b. 1942)
• 2019 – Ernie Bowman, Former American professional baseball player (b. 1935)
• 2019 – Ivo Lill, Estonian glass artist (b. 1953)
• 2020 – Üstün Asutay, Turkish theater, cinema and TV series actor (b. 1938)
• 2020 – Ebrahim Alkazi, Indian theater director and educator (b. 1925)
• 2020 – Frances E. Allen, American computer scientist (b. 1932)
• 2020 – Sunnam Rajaiah, Indian politician (b. 1960)