October 4: Independence Day in Lesotho ( 1966); Ramadan begins at sunset ( Islam, 2005); Feast Day of St. Francis of Assisi ( Catholicism).

• 1830: Belgian Revolution: A provisional government in Brussels declared the creation of the independent and neutral state of Belgium, in revolt against the United Kingdom of the Netherlands.
• 1883: The Orient Express began operations.
• 1910: Manuel II (pictured), the last King of Portugal, fled to the United Kingdom when a revolution erupted in Lisbon and his palace was shelled. The Portuguese First Republic was proclaimed the next day.
• 1957: Soviet spacecraft Sputnik 1 was launched by an R-7 rocket from Baikonur Cosmodrome, Kazakh SSR and became the first artificial satellite to orbit the Earth.
• 1993: Russian Constitutional Crisis: Tanks bombarded the White House in Moscow, a government building that housed the Russian parliament, where demonstrators against President Boris Yeltsin rallied outside.

Recent days: October 3 – October 2 – October 1