Today in History - History - August 4th

1941Winston Churchill departs on Prince of Wales to US

1945Golfer Byron Nelson records most tournament wins (18) in a season

199624th du Maurier Golf Classic: Laura Davies

2005Prime Minister Paul Martin announces that Michaëlle Jean will be Canada's 27th — and first black — Governor General.

1962Nelson Mandela captured by South African police

2009Kim Jong-il meets former president Bill Clinton. He pardons and releases captured American journalists Euna Lee and Laura Ling who were found guilty of entering the country illegally.

1968Kathy Whitworth wins LPGA Gino Paoli Golf Open

1942Col-gen Jeremenko arrives in Stalingrad/welcomed by Nikita Khrushchev

1995Darryl Strawberry joins the NY Yankees

2010California's Proposition 8, the ballot initiative prohibiting same-sex marriage passed by the state's voters in 2008, was overturned by Judge Vaughn Walker in the case Perry v. Schwarzenegger.

1901Louis Armstrong, New Orleans Louisiana, jazz trumpeter (Hello Dolly), (d. 1971)

1962Roger Clemens, Dayton Ohio, MLB pitcher (Red Sox, Blue Jays, 7 Cy Youngs, MVP)

1947Ken Dryden, Hamilton Ontario, NHL goalie (Montreal Canadiens, 6 Stanley Cups)

1821Louis Vuitton, Anchay France, Founder of the leather goods company

1961Barack Obama, Honolulu Hawaii,44th United States President (Democrat) and first African—American president

1900Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon, London or Hitchin UK, consort of King George VI and Queen Mother after his death (d. 2002)

1847Author of Moby Dick, American novelist Herman Melville (28) marries Elizabeth Shaw, daughter of Chief Justice of the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court

1782Musician Wolfang Amadeus Mozart (26) weds Constanze Weber in St. Stephen's Cathedral in Vienna, Austria

1964Jazz saxophonist and composer John Coltrane (35) weds Alice Macleod

2001"James Bond" actor Pierce Brosnan (49) weds TV host and journalist Keely Shaye Smith (37) at the 785-year-old Ballintubber Abbey in County Mayo, Ireland

2012Actress Natalie Portman (31) weds ballet dancer and choreographer Benjamin Millepied (35) in Big Sur, California

1939Philosopher of communication theory Marshall McLuhan (28) weds teacher and aspiring actress Corinne Lewis (27)

1853Confederate general Thomas Jackson (29) weds Elinor Junkin in Lexington

1757American revolution patriot Paul Revere (22) weds Sarah Orne in Bridgewater, Massachusetts

1875Hans Christian Andersen, Danish fairy tale writer, dies at 70

1931Daniel Williams, American heart surgeon, dies at 73