Portal:History of science/Selected anniversaries/July 4
- 1054 - A supernova is observed by the Chinese, the Arabs and possibly Amerindians near the star ζ Tauri. For several months it remains bright enough to be seen during the day. Its remnants form the Crab Nebula
- 1742 - Death of Guido Grandi, Italian mathematician (b. 1671)
- 1854 - Birth of Victor Babeş, Romanian bacteriologist (d. 1926)
- 1850 - Death of William Kirby, English entomologist (b. 1759)
- 1868 - Birth of Henrietta Swan Leavitt, American astronomer (d. 1921)
- 1910 - Death of Giovanni Schiaparelli, Italian astronomer (b. 1835)
- 1934 - Leó Szilárd patents the chain-reaction design for the atomic bomb
- 1934 - Death of Maria Sklodowska-Curie, Nobel Prize in Chemistry and Physics (b. 1867)
- 1977 - Death of Gersh Budker, Russian physicist (b. 1918)
- 1986 - Death of Oscar Zariski, Russian mathematician (b. 1899)
- 1997 - Death of John Zachary Young, English zoologist (b. 1907)