June 4, 1783: French inventors and brothers Joseph-Michel and Jacques-Etienne Montgolfier had their first public demonstration of a hot air balloon flight on June 4, according to todayinsci.com. The balloon took off from Annonay, France, rose to roughly 3,280 feet and traveled for a mile and a half.
Joseph’s first idea to invent the hot air balloon came because of his dream of flying into the sky. He took paper from his father’s factory and started experimenting. His brother had the idea to fill it with hydrogen gas. After experimenting with it, they achieved a small success using a taffeta envelope filled with hot air that rose to the ceiling. This led to the demonstration that happened on June 4, which in turn led to further demonstrations and improvements. These resulted in the hot air balloon used today.
June 4, 1919: The 19th Amendment was passed by Congress and sent to the states for ratification, giving women the right to vote. Though the process was not completed and practiced until Aug. 18, 1920, this was an important milestone for women after decades of protest, according to the U.S. National Archives.
Rebecca Jacobs, a junior studying physics education with a minor in mathematics from Canada and dual citizenship in the United States, said regarding the event, “This impacted a lot. Since women can vote, it’s lead to other steps and other things. It’s nice to have that agency - that my vote, that extra vote, can change how the government is for the following years.”
June 4, 1942: The Battle of Midway was started and predominantly fought as U.S. aircraft attacked four Japanese carriers and forced Japanese Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto to withdraw, according to aboutedcuation.com. Later fighting ensued on June 7, which led to sunken aircraft carriers on both sides, the Japanese going into defense and the subsequent US victory and going into offense.
June 4,1970: Tonga declared independence from the United Kingdom and joined the Commonwealth of Nations but remained the only monarchy in the Polynesian islands, according to the Kingdom of Tonga’s website.
“Little things have changed here and there so you can still tell we were colonized by the British government, but a lot of things have changed,” said Ana Lotebatu, a senior studying political science from Tonga. “Since we are a monarchy, we have our own king and we are a totally independent country.”
June 4, 1989: The Tiananmen Square incident, also called the June 4th Incident, happened 26 years ago. University students gathered in Tiananmen Square in Beijing, China, protesting and demanding political, social and economic reform for nearly two weeks, according to the Encyclopedia Britannica. The government sent in heavily armed troops and tanks into the Square and opened fire on protesters, leaving an estimated 241 dead and around 7,000 wounded.
Yuki Sun, a freshman from Hong Kong studying TESOL, said, “In our culture, we just say June 4 event. We don’t know exactly what happened. I can see how cruel China’s government is, but I don’t think the government is going to change any more. I don’t think we can make any change as a student because they are the government and they have the right to change everything in a country.”