Kimora Lee Simmons is a designer, former fashion model and businesswoman. She was born on May 4, 1975 in St. Louis, Missouri. Her mother is of Japanese and Korean descent but was adopted by an American family during the Korean War so she grew up in America. Her father is of African American descent, who worked in a number of jobs such as an Equal Employment Opportunity Commission investigator, a bail bondsman, a Federal Marshal as well as a barber. He was sentenced to jail time for being a drug dealer. Her parents separated, and Simmons was raised by her mother.

Kimora grew up in the suburbs of St. Louis and went through a difficult time at school because the other children teased her for being so tall and due to her mixed ancestry. By the age of 11, she was already 5 feet 10 inches in height. Next year, her mother enrolled her in a modeling class to give her more confidence. She graduated from Lutheran North High School in St. Louis. At the age of 13, she was discovered by an agent from Paris Agency Glamour when she participated in a model search organized in Kansas City. At the age of 14, she signed an exclusive contract with Karl Lagerfeld, who was a designer for Chanel. She was the show closer for his haute couture line in 1989.

Soon, Kimora was getting a lot of attention in the fashion industry. She also received modeling contracts from Valentino and Yves Saint Laurent. She mentioned in a few interviews how her height, which was earlier considered gangly and awkward by her classmates, was now an advantage for her. She was featured on the covers of Harper’s Bazaar magazine in Germany, Indonesia, Singapore and Malaysia.

At the age of 17, Kimora met Russell Simmons at New York City’s Fashion Week in 1992. Simmons was 35 years old at the time. The couple was married on a Caribbean island by Simmons’ brother, who was a certified minister. They were married in 1998 and separated in 2006. They also had two daughters together. In March 2007, Simmons met her second husband, an actor and model named Djimon Hounsou.

John Quincy Adams was born free in Louisville, Kentucky, on May 4, 1848, to the Reverend Henry and Margaret Priscilla Adams (née Corbin).

Thirteen Freedom riders began bus trip through South.

José Luandino Vieira , original name José Vieira Mateus da Graça (born May 4, 1935, Lagoa de Furadouro, Portugal), Angolan writer of short fiction and novels.

Vieira immigrated with his parents to Angola in 1938, living in and around the musseques (African quarters) of Luanda. His writings reflect the fusion of Kimbundu (the language of the Mbundu people) and a variety of Portuguese that is the unique language of the musseque. Vieira, a white Angolan, committed himself early to the overthrow of the Portuguese colonial government and was arrested in 1961 for disclosing, during a BBC interview, secret lists of deserters from the Portuguese armies fighting in Africa. He spent 11 years in prison, mostly at Tarrafal, Cape Verde Islands.

Vieira is best known for his early collection of short stories, Luuanda (1963). The book, which received a Portuguese writers’ literary award in 1965, was banned until the overthrow of the colonial government in 1974. Although the stories are not overtly political, their realism makes clear the oppressiveness of Portuguese occupation. Many of Vieira’s stories follow the traditional structure of African oral narrative. His political novella A vida verdadeira de Domingos Xavier (1974; The Real Life of Domingos Xavier) portrays the cruelty of white “justice” and the courage of African men and women in preindependent Angola. His other works—among them Velhas estórias (1974; “Old Stories”), Nós os do Makulusu (1974; “Our Gang from Makulusu”), Vidas novas (1975; “New Lives”), and João Vêncio: os sues amores (1979; The Loves of João Vêncio)—include both novels and collections of stories. In 2003 Vieira published the novel Nosso musseque (Our Musseque).

As secretary-general of the Union of Angolan Writers, Vieira directed the publication of a number of works by other Angolan authors and poets.

Smith, J. W.

Lawn sprinkler

May 04, 1897

Patent No. 581,785

Dr. Daniel Hale Williams founded the Provident Hospital and Training School.

Ruth First , in full Heloise Ruth First (born May 4, 1925, Johannesburg, South Africa—died August 17, 1982, Maputo, Mozambique), South African activist, scholar, and journalist known for her relentless opposition to South Africa’s discriminatory policy of apartheid.

Cowboy Bill

Pickett earns

the title of

inventor of

Bull

Dogging.

Ulysses S. Grant crossed the Rapidan and began his duel with Robert E. Lee. At the same time Ben Butlers Army of the James moved on Lees forces. Black division in Grants army did not play a prominent role in Wilderness Campaign, but Ben Butler gave his Black infantrymen and his eighteen hundred Black cavalrymen important assignments. Black troops of the Army of the James were the first Union Soldiers to take possession of James River (at Wilsons Wharf Landing, Fort Powhatan and City Point).