On This Day: May 4th

Emperor Napoleon arrives at Portoferraio on the island of Elba to begin his exile.

Fourth Anglo-Mysore War: The Battle of Seringapatam: The siege of Seringapatam ends when the city is invaded and Tipu Sultan killed by the besieging British army, under the command of General George Harris.

Rhode Island becomes the first American colony to renounce allegiance to King George III.

The Imperial Theatrical School, the first ballet school in Russia, is founded.

Having been appointed the director-general of New Netherland, Dutch explorer Peter Minuit arrives in present day Manhattan Island aboard the See Meeuw.

In the papal bull Inter caetera, Pope Alexander VI divides the New World between Spain and Portugal along the Line of Demarcation.

Wars of the Roses: The Battle of Tewkesbury: Edward IV defeats a Lancastrian Army and kills Edward of Westminster, Prince of Wales.

Assassination of the Swedish rebel (later national hero) Engelbrekt Engelbrektsson (27 April O.S.).

Religious reformer John Wycliffe is condemned as a heretic at the Council of Constance.

The Augustinian monastic order is constituted at the Lecceto Monastery when Pope Alexander IV issues a papal bull Licet ecclesiae catholicae.