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Alicante

Alicante (Alacant) is a city and municipality in the Valencian Community, Spain. It is the capital of the province of Alicante and a historic Mediterranean port. The population of the city was 337,482, the second-largest in the Valencian Community.

Toponymy
The name of the city echoes the Arabic name Laqant (لَقَنْت), al-Laqant (اللَّقَنْت) or Al-qant (القنت), which in turn reflects the Latin Lucentum and Greek root Leuké (or Leuka), meaning "white".

History
The area around Alicante has been inhabited for over 7,000 years. The first tribes of hunter-gatherers moved gradually from Central Europe between 5000 and 3000 BC. Some of the earlier settlements were made on the slopes of Mount Benacantil. By 1000 BC, Greek and Phoenician traders had begun to visit the eastern coast of Spain, establishing small trading ports and introducing the native Iberian tribes to the alphabet, iron, and the pottery wheel. The Carthaginian general Hamilcar Barca established the fortified settlement of Akra Leuké (Greek: Ἄκρα Λευκή, meaning "White Mountain" or "White Point"), in the mid-230s BC, which is generally presumed to have been on the site of modern Alicante.

Although the Carthaginians conquered much of the land around Alicante, the Romans eventually ruled Hispania Tarraconensis for over 700 years. By the 5th century AD, Rome was in decline, and the Roman predecessor town of Alicante, known as Lucentum (Latin), was more or less under the control of the Visigothic warlord Theudimer and thereafter under Visigothic rule from 400 to 700 A.D. The Goths did not put up much resistance to the Arab conquest of Medina Laqant at the beginning of the 8th century. The Moors ruled southern and eastern Spain until the 13th century Reconquista (Reconquest). Alicante was conquered again in 1247 by the Castilian king Alfonso X, but later passed to the Kingdom of Valencia in 1296 with King James II of Aragon. It gained the status of Royal Village (Vila Reial) with representation in the medieval Valencian Parliament (Corts Valencianes).

After several decades of being the battlefield where the Crown of Castile and the Crown of Aragon clashed, Alicante became a major Mediterranean trading station exporting rice, wine, olive oil, oranges, and wool. But between 1609 and 1614 King Felipe III expelled thousands of Moriscos who had remained in Valencia after the Reconquista, due to their cooperation with Barbary pirates who continually attacked coastal cities and caused much harm to trade. This act cost the region dearly; with so many skilled artisans and agricultural labourers gone, the feudal nobility found itself sliding into bankruptcy.

Conditions worsened in the early 18th century; after the War of Spanish Succession, Alicante went into a long, slow decline, surviving through the 18th and 19th centuries by making shoes and growing agricultural produce such as oranges and almonds, and thanks to its fisheries. The end of the 19th century witnessed a sharp recovery of the local economy with increasing international trade and the growth of the city harbour leading to increased exports of several products (particularly during World War I when Spain was a neutral country).

During the early 20th century, Alicante was a minor capital that took profit from the benefit of Spain's neutrality during World War I, and it provided new opportunities for local industry and agriculture. The Rif War in the 1920s saw numerous alicantinos drafted to fight in the long and bloody campaigns in the former Spanish protectorate (northern Morocco) against the Rif rebels. The political unrest of the late 1920s led to the victory of Republican candidates in local council elections throughout the country, and the abdication of King Alfonso XIII. The proclamation of the Second Spanish Republic was much celebrated in the city on 14 April 1931. The Spanish Civil War broke out on 17 July 1936. Alicante was the last city loyal to the Republican government to be occupied by General Franco's troops on 1 April 1939, and its harbour saw the last Republican government officials fleeing the country. Vicious air bombings were targeted on Alicante during the three years of civil conflict, most notably the bombing by the Italian Aviazione Legionaria of the Mercado on 25 May 1938 in which more than 300 civilians perished.

The port of Alicante was the site of the heroic episode of the British ship SS Stanbrook in 1939 at the end of the Spanish Civil War. Her captain Archibald Dickson decided to rescue thousands of Spanish Republicans families during the night of 28th March 1939 under the bombing of the Nazis.

From 1954 onward, many pied-noirs settled in the city (as many as 30,000, although other sources decrease the amount tenfold). Alicante had fostered strong links with Oran in the past, and a notable share of the population of the latter city during the French colonial period had ancestry in the province of Alicante. The immigration process accelerated after the independence of Algeria in 1962. The late 1950s and early 1960s saw the onset of a lasting transformation of the city by the tourist industry. Large buildings and complexes rose in nearby Albufereta, e.g. El Barco, and Playa de San Juan de Alicante, with the benign climate being the biggest draw to attract prospective buyers and tourists who kept the hotels reasonably busy. New construction benefited the whole economy, as the development of the tourism sector also spawned new businesses such as restaurants, bars, and other tourist-oriented enterprises. Also, the old airfield at Rabasa was closed and air traffic moved to the new El Altet Airport, which made a more convenient and modern facility for charter flights bringing tourists from northern European countries.

When Franco died in 1975, his successor Juan Carlos I played his part as the living symbol of the transition of Spain to a democratic constitutional monarchy. The governments of regional communities were given constitutional status as nationalities, and their governments were given more autonomy, including that of the Valencian region, the Generalitat Valenciana.

The Port of Alicante has been reinventing itself since the industrial decline the city suffered in the 1980s (with most mercantile traffic lost to Valencia's harbour). In recent years, the Port Authority has established it as one of the most important ports in Spain for cruises, with 72 calls to port made by cruise ships in 2007 bringing some 80,000 passengers and 30,000 crew to the city each year. The moves to develop the port for more tourism have been welcomed by the city and its residents, but the latest plans to develop an industrial estate in the port have caused great controversy.

Geography
Alicante is located in the southeast of the Iberian Peninsula, on the shores of the Mediterranean Sea. Some orographic features rise over the largely flat terrain where the city is built on including the Cabo de la Huerta, the Serra Grossa, the Tosal and the Benacantil hills.

Located in an arid territory, Alicante lacks any meaningful permanent water stream. There are however several stream beds correspondent to intermittent ramblas. There was a swamp area in the northeast of the municipality, l'Albufereta, yet it was dried up in 1928.

The municipality has two exclaves in the mainland: Monnegre (between the municipalities of San Vicente del Raspeig, Mutxamel, Busot and Jijona), and Cabeçó d'Or; the latter comprises part of the namesake Cabeçó d'Or mountain (including the summit, 1209 metres above sea level). The small island of Tabarca, 8 nautical miles to the south of the city, also belongs to the municipality.

The foot of the main staircase of the City Hall Building (Ayuntamiento) is the zero point (cota cero), used as the point of reference for measuring the height above or below sea level of any point in Spain, due to the marginal tidal variations of the Mediterranean sea at Alicante.

Economy
Until the global recession which started in 2008, Alicante was one of the fastest-growing cities in Spain. The boom depended partly on tourism directed to the beaches of the Costa Blanca and particularly on the second residence-construction boom which started in the 1960s and revived again by the late 1990s. Services and public administration also play a major role in the city's economy. The construction boom has raised many environmental concerns and both the local autonomous government and city council are under scrutiny by the European Union. The construction surge was the subject of hot debates among politicians and citizens alike. The latest of many public battles concerns the plans of the Port Authority of Alicante to construct an industrial estate on reclaimed land in front of the city's coastal strip, in breach of local, national, and European regulations. (See Port of Alicante for details).

The city serves as the headquarters of the European Union Intellectual Property Office and a sizeable population of European public workers live there.

The campus of the University of Alicante lies in San Vicente del Raspeig, bordering the city of Alicante to the north. More than 25,000 students attend the university.

Between 2005 and 2012 Ciudad de la Luz (Ciutat de la Llum), one of the largest film studios in Europe, had its base in Alicante. The studio shot Spanish and international movies such as Asterix at the Olympic Games by Frédéric Forestier and Thomas Langmann, and Manolete by Menno Meyjes. It was shut down in 2012 for violating European competition law.

Government and administration
Luis Barcala of the People's Party has been the mayor of Alicante since 19 April 2018. He became mayor after the resignation of Gabriel Echávarri, when the councillor Nerea Belmonte defected from Guanyar Alacant and refused to support the Socialist Party replacement candidate Eva Montesinos. Gabriel Echávarri of the Socialist Party (PSOE) was the mayor of the city from 13 June 2015 until April 2018, following the municipal elections on 24 May 2015. He was supported by the votes from his group (6), plus those from leftist parties Guanyar Alacant (6) and Compromís (3), as well as from the centre-right party Ciudadanos (6). The People's Party (Partido Popular, PP), with only 8 elected seats, lost the majority. On April he resigned due to various judicial issues and was temporarily substituted by the councillor Eva Montesinos.

In the previous municipal elections of May 2011, Sonia Castedo of People's Party won the elections with an absolute majority, but resigned in December 2014 due to her involvement in several corruption scandals, at present being under investigation. Her fellow party member Miguel Valor went on to become mayor up until Echávarri's election.

Climate
Alicante has mild winter temperatures, hot and sultry summers, and little rain, concentrated in equinoctial periods. Like the rest of the Province of Alicante itself, which has a range of dry climate types, the city has a hot semi-arid climate (BSh) according to the Köppen climate classification. It is one of the driest cities in Europe. Daily variations in temperature are generally small because of the stabilising influence of the sea, although occasional periods of westerly wind can produce temperature changes of 15 C-change or more. Seasonal temperature variations are also relatively small, meaning that winters are mild and summers are hot. During the summer, due to the evaporation of warm Mediterranean waters, air humidity levels are high, making the day and night stuffy for much of the season. These high humidity levels increase the heat index.

The average rainfall is 311 mm per year. The cold drop means that September and October are the wettest months. Rarely, the rainfall can be torrential, reaching over 100 mm in a 24-hour period, leading to severe flooding. Because of this irregularity, only 35 rainy days are observed on average per year, and the annual number of sunshine hours is 2,851.

The record maximum temperature of 42.0 °C was observed on 13 August 2022. The record minimum temperature of -4.6 °C was recorded on 12 February 1956. The worst flooding in the city's modern history occurred on 30 September 1997 when 270.2 mm of rain fell within six hours. Temperatures below 2 °C are very rare; the last recorded snowfall occurred in 1926. Alicante enjoys one of the sunniest and warmest winter daytime temperatures in mainland Europe.

Demographics

The official population of Alicante in 2022 was 338,577 inhabitants and 768,194 in the metropolitan area "Alicante-Elche". As of 2022, about 17.7% of the population is foreign, 62195 people, most of them immigrants who have arrived in the previous 20 years. Besides which, there is an estimation of additional thousands coming from countries outside the EU (mostly from the African continent) that are under illegal alien status and therefore are not accounted for in official population figures. The real percentage of foreign residents is higher, since the Alicante metropolitan area is home to many Northern European retirees who are officially still residents of their own countries. A sizable number of semi-permanent residents are Spanish nationals who officially still live in other areas of Spain.

Transportation
Alicante Airport outranks the Valencia Airport, being the busiest airport in the Valencian Community, and among the busiest airports in Spain after Madrid, Barcelona, Palma de Mallorca and Málaga. It is connected with Madrid and Barcelona by frequent Iberia and Vueling flights, and with many Western European cities through carriers such as Ryanair, EasyJet and Jet2. There are also regular flights to Algeria.

Alicante railway station is used by Cercanías Murcia/Alicante commuter rail services linking Alicante with suburbs and Murcia. Long-range Renfe trains run frequently to Madrid, Barcelona, and Valencia. In 2013, the Madrid–Levante high-speed rail network was extended to Alicante station, allowing AVE high-speed rail services to link to Madrid via Villena AV, Albacete-Los Llanos and Cuenca-Fernando Zóbel.

Alicante Metropolitan-Tram connects different parts within the city, its metropolitan area and with outlying settlements along Costa Blanca as well. , electric tram-trains run up to Benidorm, and diesel trains go further to Dénia.

The city has regular ferry services to the Balearic Islands and Algeria. The city is strongly fortified, with a spacious harbour.

Main sights
Amongst the most notable features of the city are the Castle of Santa Bárbara and the port of Alicante. The latter was the subject of bitter controversy in 2006–2007 as residents battled, successfully, to keep it from being changed into an industrial estate.

The Santa Bárbara castle is situated on Mount Benacantil, overlooking the city. The tower (La Torreta) at the top, is the oldest part of the castle, while part of the lowest zone and the walls were constructed later in the 18th century.

The promenade Explanada de España, lined by palm trees, is paved with 6.5 million marble floor tiles creating a wavy form. The Promenade extends from the Port of Alicante to the Gran Vía and ends at the famous statue of Mark Hersch. For the people of Alicante, the promenade is the meeting place for the traditional Spanish paseo, or stroll along the waterfront in the evenings, and a venue for outdoor musical concerts. At the end of the promenade is a monument by the artist Bañuls of the 19th century.

Barrio de la Santa Cruz is a colourful quarter of the old city, situated southwest of Santa Bárbara castle. Its small houses climb up the hill leading to the walls and the castle, through narrow streets decorated with flags and tubs of flowers.

L'Ereta Park is situated on the foothills of Mount Benacantil. It runs from the Santa Bárbara castle down to the old part of Alicante and consists of several levels, routes, decks, and rest stops which offer a panoramic view overlooking the city.

El Palmeral Park is one of the favourite parks of Alicante's citizens. It includes walking trails, children's playgrounds, ponds and brooks, picnic tables, and an auditorium for concerts.

Just a few kilometers from Alicante on the Mediterranean Sea lies Tabarca island. What was once a haven for Barbary pirates is now a tourist attraction.

Other sights include:
 * Basilica of Santa María (14th–16th centuries), built-in Gothic style over the former main mosque. Other features include the high altar, in Rococo style, and the portal, in Baroque style, both from the 18th century.
 * Co-cathedral of St. Nicholas of Bari (15th–18th centuries), also built over a mosque. It is the main church of Alicante and the bishop's seat.
 * Monastery of Santa Faz (15th century), located 5 km outside the city, in Baroque style.
 * Defence towers of the Huerta de Alicante (15th–18th centuries), built to defend against the Barbary pirates. Today some 20 towers are still extant.
 * Baroque Casa de La Asegurada (1685), the most ancient civil building in the city. (c. XVII). Today it is home to the Museum of Contemporary Art of Alicante.
 * Casa consistorial de Alicante (18th century), also in Baroque style.
 * Convent of the Canónigas de San Agustín (18th century).
 * Gravina Palace (1748–1808), nowadays hosting Gravina Museum of Fine Arts.
 * Castle of San Fernando.

There are a dozen museums in Alicante. On exhibition at the Archaeological Museum of Alicante (MARQ) are local artifacts dating from 100,000 years ago until the early 20th century. The collection is divided into different rooms representing three divisions of archaeological methodology: ground, urban and underwater archaeology, with dioramas, audiovisual and interactive zones. The archaeological museum won the European Museum of the Year Award in 2004. Gravina Museum of Fine Arts presents several paintings and sculptures from the 16th century to the 19th century. Asegurada Museum of Contemporary Art houses a major collection of twentieth-century art, composed mainly of works donated by Eusebio Sempere.

Festivals
The most important festival, the Bonfires of Saint John (Hogueras de San Juan / Fogueres de Sant Joan), takes place during the summer solstice. This is followed a week later by five nights of firework and pyrotechnic contests between companies on the urban beach Playa del Postiguet. Another well-known festival is Moors and Christians (Moros y Cristianos) in Altozano or San Blas district. Overall, the city boasts a year-round nightlife for the enjoyment of tourists, residents, and a large student population of the University of Alicante. The nightlife social scene tends to shift to nearby Playa de San Juan during the summer months.

Every summer in Alicante, a two-month-long programme of music, theatre and dance is staged in the Paseo del Puerto.

Sport
For the 2023/24 season Alicante has two football clubs in the top 4 levels of Spanish football; Hércules CF and CF Intercity. For the 2023/24 season Hércules compete in Segunda Federación, the 4th level and are well known as they played in La Liga (the Spanish Premier Division) during the 1996/1997 season and again in 2010/2011. They have had many famous players such as David Trezeguet, Royston Drenthe and Nelson Valdez. Hércules are also known for their victory over Barcelona in 1997 which led to Real Madrid winning the league. Home games are played at the 30,000-capacity José Rico Pérez Stadium.

The city's other club, Alicante CF, who played in the Third Division, was dissolved in 2014 due to economic problems. They were replaced in 2017 by newly formed club CF Intercity, who compete in Primera Federación, the 3rd level of Spanish football, in the 23/24 season and play at Estadio Antonio Solana.

Basketball club (HLA Alicante) Lucentum Alicante participates in the Spanish basketball league. It plays in the Centro de Tecnificación de Alicante.

Alicante serves as headquarters and the starting point of the Volvo Ocean Race, a yacht race around the world. The latest race sailed in January 2023.

Twin towns – sister cities
Alicante is twinned with:

 * 🇪🇬 Alexandria, Egypt
 * 🏴 Brighton and Hove, England, UK
 * 🇮🇹 Carloforte, Italy
 * 🇮🇱 Herzliya, Israel
 * León, Nicaragua
 * 🇨🇺 Matanzas, Cuba
 * 🇫🇷 Nice, France
 * Oran, Algeria
 * 🇯🇵 Toyooka, Japan (1996)
 * 🇨🇳 Wenzhou, China

title: Alicante


text:
August 4

Pre-1600

 * 598 – Goguryeo-Sui War: In response to a Goguryeo (Korean) incursion into Liaoxi, Emperor Wéndi of Sui orders his youngest son, Yang Liang (assisted by the co-prime minister Gao Jiong), to conquer Goguryeo during the Manchurian rainy season, with a Chinese army and navy.
 * 1265 – Second Barons' War: Battle of Evesham: The army of Prince Edward (the future king Edward I of England) defeats the forces of rebellious barons led by Simon de Montfort, 6th Earl of Leicester, killing de Montfort and many of his allies.
 * 1327 – First War of Scottish Independence: James Douglas leads a raid into Weardale and almost kills Edward III of England.
 * 1578 – Battle of Al Kasr al Kebir: The Moroccans defeat the Portuguese. King Sebastian of Portugal is killed in the battle, leaving his elderly uncle, Cardinal Henry, as his heir. This initiates a succession crisis in Portugal.

1601–1900

 * 1693 – Date traditionally ascribed to Dom Perignon's invention of champagne; it is not clear whether he actually invented champagne, however he has been credited as an innovator who developed the techniques used to perfect sparkling wine.
 * 1701 – Great Peace of Montreal between New France and First Nations is signed.
 * 1704 – War of the Spanish Succession: Gibraltar is captured by an English and Dutch fleet, commanded by Admiral Sir George Rooke and allied with Archduke Charles.
 * 1783 – Mount Asama erupts in Japan, killing about 1,400 people (Tenmei eruption). The eruption causes a famine, which results in an additional 20,000 deaths.
 * 1789 – France: abolition of feudalism by the National Constituent Assembly.
 * 1790 – A newly passed tariff act creates the Revenue Cutter Service (the forerunner of the United States Coast Guard).
 * 1791 – The Treaty of Sistova is signed, ending the Ottoman–Habsburg wars.
 * 1796 – French Revolutionary Wars: Napoleon leads the French Army of Italy to victory in the Battle of Lonato.
 * 1821 – The Saturday Evening Post is published for the first time as a weekly newspaper.
 * 1854 – The Hinomaru is established as the official flag to be flown from Japanese ships.
 * 1863 – Matica slovenská, Slovakia's public-law cultural and scientific institution focusing on topics around the Slovak nation, is established in Martin.
 * 1873 – American Indian Wars: While protecting a railroad survey party in Montana, the United States 7th Cavalry, under Lieutenant Colonel George Armstrong Custer clashes for the first time with the Cheyenne and Lakota people near the Tongue River; only one man on each side is killed.
 * 1887 – Granny, a sea anemone, died in Edinburgh after nearly 60 years in captivity. Her death was reported in The Scotsman and The New York Times.
 * 1889 – The Great Fire of Spokane, Washington destroys some 32 blocks of the city, prompting a mass rebuilding project.
 * 1892 – The father and stepmother of Lizzie Borden are found murdered in their Fall River, Massachusetts home. She will be tried and acquitted for the crimes a year later.

1901–present

 * 1914 – World War I: In response to the German invasion of Belgium, Belgium and the British Empire declare war on Germany. The United States declares its neutrality.
 * 1915 – World War I: The German 12th Army occupies Warsaw during the Gorlice–Tarnów Offensive and the Great Retreat of 1915.
 * 1921 – Bolshevik–Makhnovist conflict: Mikhail Frunze declares victory over the Makhnovshchina.
 * 1924 – Diplomatic relations between Mexico and the Soviet Union are established.
 * 1936 – Prime Minister of Greece Ioannis Metaxas suspends parliament and the Constitution and establishes the 4th of August Regime.
 * 1944 – The Holocaust: A tip from a Dutch informer leads the Gestapo to a sealed-off area in an Amsterdam warehouse, where they find and arrest Jewish diarist Anne Frank, her family, and four others.
 * 1944  – Under the state of emergency law, the Finnish Parliament elects Marshal C. G. E. Mannerheim as the President of Finland to replace the resigned Risto Ryti.
 * 1946 – An earthquake of magnitude 8.0 hits northern Dominican Republic. One hundred are killed and 20,000 are left homeless.
 * 1947 – The Supreme Court of Japan is established.
 * 1964 – Civil rights movement: Civil rights workers Michael Schwerner, Andrew Goodman and James Chaney are found dead in Mississippi after disappearing on June 21.
 * 1964  – Second Gulf of Tonkin Incident: U.S. destroyers USS Maddox (DD-731) and USS Turner Joy (DD-951) mistakenly report coming under attack in the Gulf of Tonkin.
 * 1965 – The Constitution of the Cook Islands comes into force, giving the Cook Islands self-governing status within New Zealand.
 * 1969 – Vietnam War: At the apartment of French intermediary Jean Sainteny in Paris, American representative Henry Kissinger and North Vietnamese representative Xuân Thuỷ begin secret peace negotiations. The negotiations will eventually fail.
 * 1972 – Ugandan President Idi Amin announces that Uganda is no longer responsible for the care of British subjects of Asian origin, beginning the expulsions of Ugandan Asians.
 * 1974 – A bomb explodes in the Italicus Express train at San Benedetto Val di Sambro, Italy, killing 12 people and wounding 22.
 * 1975 – The Japanese Red Army takes more than 50 hostages at the AIA Building housing several embassies in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. The hostages include the U.S. consul and the Swedish Chargé d'affaires. The gunmen win the release of five imprisoned comrades and fly with them to Libya.
 * 1977 – U.S. President Jimmy Carter signs legislation creating the United States Department of Energy.
 * 1983 – Jean-Baptiste Ouédraogo, president of the military government of Upper Volta, is ousted from power in a coup d'état led by Captain Thomas Sankara.
 * 1984 – The Republic of Upper Volta changes its name to Burkina Faso.
 * 1987 – The Federal Communications Commission rescinds the Fairness Doctrine which had required radio and television stations to present controversial issues "fairly".
 * 1995 – Operation Storm begins in Croatia.
 * 2006 – A massacre is carried out by Sri Lankan government forces, killing 17 employees of the French INGO Action Against Hunger (known internationally as Action Contre la Faim, or ACF).
 * 2007 – NASA's Phoenix spacecraft is launched.
 * 2018 – Syrian civil war: The Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) expel the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) from the Iraq–Syria border, concluding the second phase of the Deir ez-Zor campaign.
 * 2019 – Nine people are killed and 26 injured in a shooting in Dayton, Ohio. This comes only 13 hours after another mass shooting in El Paso, Texas, where 23 people were killed.
 * 2020 – Beirut Port explosion: At least 220 people are killed and over 5,000 are wounded when 2,700 tons of ammonium nitrate explodes in Beirut, Lebanon.

Pre-1600

 * 1222 – Richard de Clare, 6th Earl of Gloucester, English soldier (d. 1262)
 * 1281 – Külüg Khan, Emperor Wuzong of Yuan (d. 1311)
 * 1290 – Leopold I, Duke of Austria (d. 1326)
 * 1463 – Lorenzo di Pierfrancesco de' Medici, Florentine patron of the arts (d. 1503)
 * 1469 – Margaret of Saxony, Duchess of Brunswick-Lüneburg (d. 1528)
 * 1470 – Bernardo Dovizi, Italian cardinal (d. 1520)
 * 1470  – Lucrezia de' Medici, Italian noblewoman (d. 1553)
 * 1521 – Pope Urban VII (d. 1590)
 * 1522 – Udai Singh II, King of Mewar (d. 1572)

1601–1900

 * 1604 – François Hédelin, abbé d'Aubignac, French cleric and author (d. 1676)
 * 1623 – Friedrich Casimir, Count of Hanau-Lichtenberg (1641–1680) and Hanau-Münzenberg (1642–1680) (d. 1685)
 * 1701 – Thomas Blackwell, Scottish historian and scholar (d. 1757)
 * 1704 – Louis d'Orléans, Duke of Orléans (d. 1752)
 * 1719 – Johann Gottlob Lehmann, German mineralogist and geologist (d. 1767)
 * 1721 – Granville Leveson-Gower, 1st Marquess of Stafford, English politician, Lord President of the Council (d. 1803)
 * 1755 – Nicolas-Jacques Conté, French soldier, painter, balloonist, and inventor (d. 1805)
 * 1792 – Percy Bysshe Shelley, English poet and playwright (d. 1822)
 * 1805 – William Rowan Hamilton, Irish physicist, astronomer, and mathematician (d. 1865)
 * 1821 – Louis Vuitton, French fashion designer, founded Louis Vuitton (d. 1892)
 * 1821 – James Springer White, American religious leader, co-founded the Seventh-day Adventist Church (d. 1881)
 * 1834 – John Venn, English mathematician and philosopher (d. 1923)
 * 1836 – Jens Vilhelm Dahlerup, Danish architect (d. 1907)
 * 1839 – Walter Pater, English author, critic, and academic (d. 1894)
 * 1844 – Henri Berger, German composer and bandleader (d. 1929)
 * 1853 – John Henry Twachtman, American painter, etcher, and academic (d. 1902)
 * 1859 – Knut Hamsun, Norwegian novelist, poet, and playwright, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1952)
 * 1861 – Daniel Edward Howard, 16th president of Liberia (d. 1935)
 * 1867 – Jake Beckley, American baseball player and coach (d. 1918)
 * 1868 – Master C. V. V., Indian philosopher, yogi and guru (d. 1922)
 * 1870 – Harry Lauder, Scottish actor and singer (d. 1950)
 * 1871 – William Holman, English-Australian politician, 19th Premier of New South Wales (d. 1934)
 * 1876 – Giovanni Giuriati, Italian lawyer and politician (d. 1970)
 * 1876 – John Scaddan, Australian politician, 10th Premier of Western Australia (d. 1934)
 * 1877 – Dame Laura Knight, English artist (d. 1970)
 * 1884 – Béla Balázs, Hungarian poet and critic (d. 1949)
 * 1884 – Henri Cornet, French cyclist (d. 1941)
 * 1887 – Albert M. Greenfield, Ukrainian-American businessman and philanthropist (d. 1967)
 * 1888 – Taher Saifuddin, Indian religious leader, 51st Da'i al-Mutlaq (d. 1965)
 * 1890 – Dolf Luque, Cuban baseball player and manager (d. 1957)
 * 1893 – Fritz Gause, German historian and curator (d. 1973)
 * 1898 – Ernesto Maserati, Italian race car driver and engineer (d. 1975)
 * 1899 – Ezra Taft Benson, American religious leader, 13th President of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (d. 1994)
 * 1900 – Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother of the United Kingdom (d. 2002)

1901–present

 * 1901 – Louis Armstrong, American trumpet player and singer (d. 1971)
 * 1901  – Clarence Passailaigue, Jamaican cricketer (d. 1972)
 * 1902 – Bill Hallahan, American baseball player (d. 1981)
 * 1904 – Witold Gombrowicz, Polish author and playwright (d. 1969)
 * 1904  – Helen Kane, American singer and actress (d. 1966)
 * 1904  – Joe Tate, English footballer and manager (d. 1973)
 * 1905 – Abeid Karume, 1st President of Zanzibar (d. 1972)
 * 1906 – Eugen Schuhmacher, German zoologist, director, and producer (d. 1973)
 * 1908 – Kurt Eichhorn, German conductor (d. 1994)
 * 1909 – Glenn Cunningham, American runner and academic (d. 1988)
 * 1910 – Anita Page, American actress (d. 2008)
 * 1910  – William Schuman, American composer and educator (d. 1992)
 * 1910  – Hedda Sterne, Romanian-American painter and photographer (d. 2011)
 * 1912 – Aleksandr Danilovich Aleksandrov, Russian mathematician, physicist, and mountaineer (d. 1999)
 * 1912  – David Raksin, American composer and educator (d. 2004)
 * 1912  – Raoul Wallenberg, Swedish architect and diplomat (d. 1947)
 * 1913 – Wesley Addy, American actor (d. 1996)
 * 1913  – Robert Hayden, American poet and educator (d. 1980)
 * 1913  – Johann Niemann, German lieutenant (d. 1943)
 * 1915 – Warren Avis, American businessman, founded Avis Rent a Car System (d. 2007)
 * 1917 – John Fitch, American race car driver and engineer (d. 2012)
 * 1918 – Brian Crozier, Australian-English historian and journalist (d. 2012)
 * 1919 – Michel Déon, French novelist, playwright, and critic (d. 2016)
 * 1920 – Helen Thomas, American journalist and author (d. 2013)
 * 1921 – Herb Ellis, American guitarist (d. 2010)
 * 1921  – Maurice Richard, Canadian ice hockey player and coach (d. 2000)
 * 1922 – Mayme Agnew Clayton, American librarian (d. 2006)
 * 1922  – Luis Aponte Martínez, Puerto Rican cardinal (d. 2012)
 * 1926 – George Irving Bell, American physicist, biologist, and mountaineer (d. 2000)
 * 1926  – Perry Moss, American football player and coach (d. 2014)
 * 1928 – Christian Goethals, Belgian race car driver (d. 2003)
 * 1928  – Gerard Damiano, American director, producer, and screenwriter (d. 2008)
 * 1928 – Nadežka Mosusova, Serbian composer
 * 1929 – Kishore Kumar, Indian singer-songwriter and actor (d. 1987)
 * 1929  – Vellore G. Ramabhadran, Mridangam artiste from Tamil Nadu, India (d. 2012)
 * 1930 – Ali al-Sistani, Iranian-Iraqi cleric and scholar
 * 1931 – Naren Tamhane, Indian cricketer (d. 2002)
 * 1932 – Frances E. Allen, American computer scientist and academic (d. 2020)
 * 1932  – Liang Congjie, Chinese environmentalist, founded Friends of Nature (d. 2010)
 * 1934 – Dallas Green, American baseball player and manager (d. 2017)
 * 1935 – Carol Arthur, American actress and producer (d. 2020)
 * 1935  – Hans-Walter Eigenbrodt, German footballer and coach (d. 1997)
 * 1935  – Michael J. Noonan, Irish farmer and politician, 25th Minister of Defence for Ireland (d. 2013)
 * 1936 – Giorgos Zographos, Greek singer and actor (d. 2005)
 * 1937 – David Bedford, English keyboard player, composer, and conductor (d. 2011)
 * 1938 – Ellen Schrecker, American historian and academic
 * 1939 – Jack Cunningham, Baron Cunningham of Felling, English politician, Minister for the Cabinet Office
 * 1939  – Frankie Ford, American R&B/rock and roll singer (d. 2015)
 * 1940 – Coriún Aharonián, Uruguayan composer and musicologist (d. 2017)
 * 1940  – Robin Harper, Scottish academic and politician
 * 1940  – Larry Knechtel, American bass player and pianist (d. 2009)
 * 1940  – Frances Stewart, English economist and academic
 * 1940  – Timi Yuro, American singer-songwriter (d. 2004)
 * 1941 – Martin Jarvis, English actor
 * 1941  – Andy Smillie, English footballer
 * 1941  – Cliff Nobles, American musician (d. 2008)
 * 1941  – Ted Strickland, American psychologist and politician, 68th Governor of Ohio
 * 1942 – Don S. Davis, American actor (d. 2008)
 * 1942  – Cleon Jones, American baseball player
 * 1942  – David Lange, New Zealand lawyer and politician, 32nd Prime Minister of New Zealand (d. 2005)
 * 1943 – Vicente Álvarez Areces, Spanish politician, 6th President of the Principality of Asturias (d. 2019)
 * 1943  – Barbara Saß-Viehweger, German politician, lawyer and civil law notary
 * 1943  – Bjørn Wirkola, Norwegian ski jumper and footballer
 * 1944 – Richard Belzer, American actor (d. 2023)
 * 1944  – Doudou Ndoye, Senegalese lawyer and politician
 * 1945 – Paul McCarthy, American painter and sculptor
 * 1945  – Alan Mulally, American engineer and businessman
 * 1946 – Aleksei Turovski, Estonian zoologist and ethologist
 * 1947 – Klaus Schulze, German keyboard player and songwriter (d. 2022)
 * 1948 – Johnny Grubb, American baseball player and coach
 * 1949 – John Riggins, American football player, sportscaster, and actor
 * 1950 – Caldwell Jones, American basketball player and coach (d. 2014)
 * 1950  – N. Rangaswamy, Indian lawyer and politician, 9th Chief Minister of Puducherry
 * 1951 – Peter Goodfellow, English geneticist and academic
 * 1952 – James Arbuthnot, English lawyer and politician, Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills
 * 1952  – Moya Brennan, Irish singer-songwriter and harp player
 * 1952  – Gábor Demszky, Hungarian sociologist, lawyer, and politician
 * 1953 – Hiroyuki Usui, Japanese footballer and manager
 * 1954 – Anatoliy Kinakh, Ukrainian engineer and politician, 11th Prime Minister of Ukraine
 * 1954  – Steve Phillips, English footballer
 * 1954  – François Valéry, Algerian-French singer-songwriter
 * 1955 – Alberto Gonzales, American soldier, lawyer, and politician, 80th United States Attorney General
 * 1955  – Billy Bob Thornton, American actor, director, and screenwriter
 * 1957 – Rupert Farley, British actor and voice actor
 * 1957  – Brooks D. Simpson, American historian and author
 * 1957  – Valdis Valters, Latvian basketball player and coach
 * 1957  – John Wark, Scottish footballer and sportscaster
 * 1958 – Allison Hedge Coke, American-Canadian poet and academic
 * 1958  – Mary Decker, American runner
 * 1958  – Silvan Shalom, Tunisian-Israeli sergeant and politician, 30th Deputy Prime Minister of Israel
 * 1959 – Robbin Crosby, American guitarist and songwriter (d. 2002)
 * 1959  – John Gormley, Irish politician, Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government
 * 1960 – Chuck C. Lopez, American jockey
 * 1960  – Dean Malenko, American wrestler
 * 1960  – José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, Spanish academic and politician, 5th Prime Minister of Spain
 * 1960  – Bernard Rose, English director, screenwriter, and cinematographer
 * 1960  – Tim Winton, Australian author and playwright
 * 1961 – Barack Obama, American lawyer and politician, 44th President of the United States, Nobel Prize laureate
 * 1962 – Roger Clemens, American baseball player and actor
 * 1962  – Paul Reynolds, English singer-songwriter and guitarist
 * 1963 – Keith Maurice Ellison, 30th Attorney General of Minnesota
 * 1964 – Andrew Bartlett, Australian social worker and politician
 * 1965 – Vishal Bhardwaj, Indian film director, screenwriter, producer, music composer and playback singer
 * 1965  – Adam Afriyie, English businessman and politician
 * 1965  – Dennis Lehane, American author, screenwriter, and producer
 * 1965  – Fredrik Reinfeldt, Swedish soldier and politician, 42nd Prime Minister of Sweden
 * 1965  – Michael Skibbe, German footballer and manager
 * 1967 – Michael Marsh, American sprinter
 * 1968 – Daniel Dae Kim, South Korean-American actor
 * 1968  – Lee Mack, English comedian, actor, producer, and screenwriter
 * 1969 – Mark Bickley, Australian footballer and coach
 * 1969  – Max Cavalera, Brazilian singer-songwriter and guitarist
 * 1969  – Troy O'Leary, American baseball player
 * 1970 – John August, American director and screenwriter
 * 1970  – Bret Baier, American journalist
 * 1970  – Steve House, American mountaineer
 * 1970  – Steven Jack, South African cricketer
 * 1970  – Kate Silverton, English journalist
 * 1971 – Bethan Benwell, English linguist, author, and academic
 * 1971  – Jeff Gordon, American race car driver and actor
 * 1972 – Stefan Brogren, Canadian actor, director, producer, and screenwriter
 * 1973 – Eva Amaral, Spanish singer-songwriter and guitarist
 * 1973  – Xavier Marchand, French swimmer
 * 1973  – Marek Penksa, Slovak footballer
 * 1973  – Marcos Roberto Silveira Reis, Brazilian footballer
 * 1974 – Kily González, Argentine footballer
 * 1975 – Andy Hallett, American actor and singer (d. 2009)
 * 1975  – Nikos Liberopoulos, Greek footballer
 * 1975  – Jutta Urpilainen, Finnish politician, Deputy Prime Minister of Finland
 * 1975  – Daniella van Graas, Dutch model and actress
 * 1976 – Paul Goldstein, American tennis player
 * 1976  – Andrew McLeod, Australian footballer
 * 1976  – Trevor Woodman, English rugby player and coach
 * 1977 – Frankie Kazarian, American wrestler
 * 1977  – Luís Boa Morte, Portuguese footballer and manager
 * 1978 – Jeremy Adduono, Canadian ice hockey player and coach
 * 1978  – Luke Allen, American baseball player (d. 2022)
 * 1978  – Kurt Busch, American race car driver
 * 1978  – Agnė Eggerth, Lithuanian sprinter
 * 1978  – Ibán Espadas, Spanish footballer
 * 1978  – Jon Knott, American baseball player
 * 1978  – Karine Legault, Canadian swimmer
 * 1978  – Sandeep Naik, Indian politician
 * 1978  – Siri Nordby, Norwegian footballer
 * 1978  – Ricardo Serrano, Spanish cyclist
 * 1978  – Per-Åge Skrøder, Norwegian ice hockey player
 * 1978  – Satoshi Hino, Japanese voice actor
 * 1979 – Robin Peterson, South African cricketer
 * 1980 – Richard Dawson, English cricketer and coach
 * 1981 – Marques Houston, American singer-songwriter, producer, and actor
 * 1981  – Benjamin Lauth, German footballer
 * 1981  – Abigail Spencer, American actress
 * 1981  – Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, American actress and humanitarian, and member of British Royal Family
 * 1983 – Greta Gerwig, American actress, producer, and screenwriter
 * 1984 – Terry Campese, Australian rugby league player
 * 1984  – Mardy Collins, American basketball player
 * 1985 – Crystal Bowersox, American singer-songwriter and guitarist
 * 1985  – Robbie Findley, American soccer player
 * 1985  – Mark Milligan, Australian footballer
 * 1985  – Ha Seung-jin, South Korean basketball player
 * 1985  – Antonio Valencia, Ecuadorean footballer
 * 1986 – Nick Augusto, American drummer
 * 1986  – Leon Camier, English motorcycle racer
 * 1986  – Cicinho, Brazilian footballer
 * 1986  – Iosia Soliola, New Zealand-Samoan rugby league player
 * 1986  – David Williams, Australian rugby league player
 * 1987 – Jang Keun-suk, South Korean actor and singer
 * 1987  – Marreese Speights American basketball player
 * 1987  – Tomoya Warabino, Japanese actor
 * 1988 – Carly Foulkes, Canadian model and actress
 * 1988  – Kelley O'Hara, American soccer player
 * 1989 – Tomasz Kaczor, Polish sprint canoeist
 * 1989  – Jessica Mauboy, Australian singer-songwriter and actress
 * 1989  – Wang Hao, Chinese chess player
 * 1990 – Hikmet Balioğlu, Turkish footballer
 * 1990  – Siim Tenno, Estonian footballer
 * 1991 – Thiago Cardoso, Brazilian footballer
 * 1991  – Izet Hajrović, Bosnian footballer
 * 1992 – Daniele Garozzo, Italian fencer
 * 1992  – Domingo Germán, Dominican baseball player
 * 1992  – Cole Sprouse, American actor
 * 1992  – Dylan Sprouse, American actor
 * 1995 – Bruna Marquezine, Brazilian actress
 * 1998 – Lil Skies, American rapper

Pre-1600

 * 221 – Lady Zhen, Chinese empress (b. 183)
 * 966 – Berengar II of Italy (b. 900)
 * 1060 – Henry I of France (b. 1008)
 * 1113 – Gertrude of Saxony, countess and regent of Holland (b. c. 1030)
 * 1265 – Peter de Montfort, English politician (b. 1215)
 * 1265  – Henry de Montfort (b. 1238)
 * 1265  – Simon de Montfort, 6th Earl of Leicester, French-English soldier and politician, Lord High Steward (b. 1208)
 * 1265  – Hugh le Despencer, 1st Baron le Despencer, English politician (b. 1223)
 * 1266 – Eudes of Burgundy, Count of Nevers (b. 1230)
 * 1306 – Wenceslaus III of Bohemia (b. 1289)
 * 1345 – As-Salih Ismail, Sultan of Egypt (b. 1326)
 * 1378 – Galeazzo II Visconti, Lord of Milan (b. c. 1320)
 * 1430 – Philip I, Duke of Brabant (b. 1404)
 * 1526 – Juan Sebastián Elcano, Spanish explorer and navigator (b. 1476)
 * 1578 – Sebastian of Portugal (b. 1554)
 * 1598 – William Cecil, 1st Baron Burghley, English academic and politician, Lord High Treasurer (b. 1520)

1601–1900

 * 1612 – Hugh Broughton, English scholar and theologian (b. 1549)
 * 1639 – Juan Ruiz de Alarcón, Mexican actor and playwright (b. 1581)
 * 1718 – René Lepage de Sainte-Claire, French-Canadian founder of Rimouski (b. 1656)
 * 1727 – Victor-Maurice, comte de Broglie, French general (b. 1647)
 * 1741 – Andrew Hamilton, Scottish-American lawyer and politician (b. 1676)
 * 1778 – Pierre de Rigaud, Marquis de Vaudreuil-Cavagnial, Canadian-French politician, Governor General of New France (b. 1698)
 * 1792 – John Burgoyne, English general and politician (b. 1723)
 * 1795 – Timothy Ruggles, American lawyer, jurist, and politician (b. 1711)
 * 1804 – Adam Duncan, 1st Viscount Duncan, Scottish admiral (b. 1731)
 * 1822 – Kristjan Jaak Peterson, Estonian poet and author (b. 1801)
 * 1844 – Jacob Aall, Norwegian economist, historian, and politician (b. 1773)
 * 1859 – John Vianney, French priest and saint (b. 1786)
 * 1873 – Viktor Hartmann, Russian architect and painter (b. 1834)
 * 1875 – Hans Christian Andersen, Danish novelist, short story writer, and poet (b. 1805)
 * 1886 – Samuel J. Tilden, American lawyer and politician, 25th Governor of New York (b. 1814)
 * 1900 – Isaac Levitan, Russian painter and educator (b. 1860)

1901–present

 * 1914 – Jules Lemaître, French playwright and critic (b. 1853)
 * 1919 – Dave Gregory, Australian cricketer and umpire (b. 1845)
 * 1922 – Enver Pasha, Ottoman general and politician (b. 1881)
 * 1932 – Alfred Henry Maurer, American painter (b. 1868)
 * 1938 – Pearl White, American actress (b. 1889)
 * 1940 – Ze'ev Jabotinsky, Ukrainian-American general, journalist, and activist (b. 1880)
 * 1941 – Mihály Babits, Hungarian poet and author (b. 1883)
 * 1942 – Alberto Franchetti, Italian composer and educator (b. 1860)
 * 1944 – Krzysztof Kamil Baczyński, Polish soldier and poet (b. 1921)
 * 1957 – John Cain Sr., Australian politician, 34th Premier of Victoria (b. 1882)
 * 1957  – Washington Luís, Brazilian lawyer and politician, 13th President of Brazil (b. 1869)
 * 1958 – Ethel Anderson, Australian poet, author, and painter (b. 1883)
 * 1959 – József Révai, Hungarian politician, Hungarian Minister of Education (b. 1898)
 * 1961 – Margarito Bautista, Nahua-Mexican evangelizer, theologian, and religious founder (b. 1878)
 * 1962 – Marilyn Monroe, American model and actress (b. 1926)
 * 1964 – Nätti-Jussi, Finnish lumberjack and forest laborer (b. 1890)
 * 1967 – Peter Smith, English cricketer (b. 1908)
 * 1976 – Enrique Angelelli, Argentinian bishop and martyr (b. 1923)
 * 1976  – Roy Thomson, 1st Baron Thomson of Fleet, Canadian-English publisher (b. 1894)
 * 1977 – Edgar Adrian, 1st Baron Adrian, English physiologist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1889)
 * 1981 – Melvyn Douglas, American actor (b. 1901)
 * 1982 – Bruce Goff, American architect, designed the Boston Avenue Methodist Church (b. 1904)
 * 1985 – Don Whillans, English rock climber and mountaineer (b. 1933)
 * 1990 – Ettore Maserati, Italian engineer and businessman (b. 1894)
 * 1992 – Seichō Matsumoto, Japanese author (b. 1909)
 * 1996 – Geoff Hamilton, English gardener, author, and television host (b. 1936)
 * 1997 – Jeanne Calment, French super-centenarian; holds records for the world's substantiated longest-lived person (b. 1875)
 * 1998 – Yury Artyukhin, Russian colonel, engineer, and astronaut (b. 1930)
 * 1999 – Victor Mature, American actor (b. 1913)
 * 2003 – Frederick Chapman Robbins, American pediatrician and virologist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1916)
 * 2004 – Mary Sherman Morgan, American chemist and engineer (b. 1921)
 * 2004  – Hossein Panahi (Persian: حسین پناهی), Iranian actor and poet (b. 1956)
 * 2005 – Anatoly Larkin, Russian-American physicist and theorist (b. 1932)
 * 2005  – Iván Szabó, Hungarian economist and politician, Minister of Finance of Hungary (b. 1934)
 * 2007 – Lee Hazlewood, American singer-songwriter and producer (b. 1929)
 * 2007  – Raul Hilberg, Austrian-American political scientist and historian (b. 1926)
 * 2008 – Craig Jones, English motorcycle racer (b. 1985)
 * 2009 – Blake Snyder, American screenwriter and producer (b. 1957)
 * 2011 – Naoki Matsuda, Japanese footballer (b. 1977)
 * 2012 – Johnnie Bassett, American singer-songwriter and guitarist (b. 1935)
 * 2012  – Brian Crozier, Australian-English journalist and historian (b. 1918)
 * 2012  – Bud Riley, American football player and coach (b. 1925)
 * 2013 – Keith H. Basso, American anthropologist and academic (b. 1940)
 * 2013  – Art Donovan, American football player and radio host (b. 1925)
 * 2013  – Olavi J. Mattila, Finnish engineer and politician, Finnish Minister of Foreign Affairs (b. 1918)
 * 2013  – Renato Ruggiero, Italian lawyer and politician, Italian Minister of Foreign Affairs (b. 1930)
 * 2013  – Tony Snell, English lieutenant and pilot (b. 1922)
 * 2013  – Sandy Woodward, English admiral (b. 1932)
 * 2014 – James Brady, American activist and politician, 15th White House Press Secretary (b. 1940)
 * 2014  – Chester Crandell, American lawyer and politician (b. 1946)
 * 2014  – Jake Hooker, Israeli-American guitarist and songwriter (b. 1953)
 * 2015 – Elsie Hillman, American philanthropist and politician (b. 1925)
 * 2015  – Les Munro, New Zealand soldier and pilot (b. 1919)
 * 2015  – John Rudometkin, American basketball player (b. 1940)
 * 2015  – Billy Sherrill, American songwriter and producer (b. 1936)
 * 2019 – Nuon Chea, Cambodian politician and theorist for the Khmer Rouge (b. 1926)
 * 2023 – Dalia Fadila, Israeli educator (b. 1971/1972)

Holidays and observances

 * Christian feast day:
 * Aristarchus
 * Euphronius
 * Blessed Frédéric Janssoone
 * John Vianney
 * Molua (or Lua)
 * Raynerius of Split
 * Sithney, patron saint of mad dogs
 * August 4 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics)
 * Coast Guard Day (United States)
 * Constitution Day (Cook Islands); first Monday in August
 * Matica slovenská Day (Slovakia)
 * Barack Obama Day in Illinois in the United States
 * 2020 Beirut explosion commemoration day in Lebanon

license: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

title: August 4


text:
Albrecht Achilles

Albrecht Achilles may refer to:
 * Albrecht III Achilles, Elector of Brandenburg (1414–1486)
 * Albrecht Achilles (Korvettenkapitän) (1914–1943), U-boat commander

title: Albrecht Achilles


text:
Ann Widdecombe

Ann Noreen Widdecombe (born 4 October 1947) is a British politician and television personality who has been Reform UK's Immigration and Justice spokesperson since 2023. Originally a member of the Conservative Party, she was Member of Parliament (MP) for Maidstone and The Weald, and the former Maidstone constituency, from 1987 to 2010. She was a member of the Brexit Party from 2019 until it was renamed Reform UK in 2021, and served as Member of the European Parliament (MEP) for South West England from 2019 to 2020; she rejoined Reform UK in 2023.

Born in Bath, Somerset, Widdecombe read Latin at the University of Birmingham and later studied philosophy, politics and economics at Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford. She is a religious convert from Anglicanism to Roman Catholicism, and was a member of the Conservative Christian Fellowship. She served as Minister of State for Employment from 1994 to 1995 and Minister of State for Prisons from 1995 to 1997. She later served in the Shadow Cabinet of William Hague as Shadow Secretary of State for Health from 1998 to 1999 and Shadow Home Secretary from 1999 to 2001. She was appointed to the Privy Council in 1997.

Widdecombe stood down from the House of Commons at the 2010 general election. Since 2002, she has made numerous television and radio appearances, including as a television presenter. A prominent Eurosceptic, in 2016 she supported the Vote Leave campaign to withdraw the United Kingdom from the European Union (EU). Widdecombe returned to politics as the lead candidate for the Brexit Party in South West England at the 2019 European Parliament election, winning the seat in line with results nationally, serving until the country left the EU on 31 January 2020. In the general election of December 2019 – as with all other candidates for the Commons fielded by the Brexit Party – she did not win the seat she contested (Plymouth Sutton and Devonport), but retained her deposit and came third.

Ideologically, Widdecombe identifies herself as a social conservative and stresses the importance of traditional values and conservatism. As a member of the House of Commons, she opposed the legality of abortion, opposed granting LGBT people legal rights such as the same age of consent as heterosexuals, and opposed the repeal of Section 28. She supported reintroduction of the death penalty for murder, though more narrowly applied than previously. She is opposed to all forms of assisted dying. She has a history of supporting rigorous laws on animal protection and opposition to fox hunting.

Early life
Ann Noreen Widdecombe was born in Bath, Somerset, the daughter of Rita Noreen (née Plummer; 1911–2007) and Ministry of Defence civil servant James Murray Widdecombe. Widdecombe's maternal grandfather, James Henry Plummer, was born to a Catholic family of English descent in Crosshaven, County Cork, Ireland in 1874.

She attended the Royal Naval School in Singapore, and La Sainte Union Convent School in Bath. She then read Latin at the University of Birmingham and later attended Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford, to read philosophy, politics and economics. In 1971, she was the secretary of the Oxford Union for one term, and became its treasurer for one term in 1972.

While studying at Oxford, she lived next door to Mary Archer, Edwina Currie, and Gyles Brandreth's wife Michèle Brown. She worked for Unilever (1973–75) and then as an administrator at the University of London (1975–87) before entering Parliament.

Political career
In 1974, Widdecombe was personal assistant to Michael Ancram in the February and October general elections of that year. From 1976 to 1978, Widdecombe was a councillor on Runnymede District Council in Surrey.

She contested the seat of Burnley in Lancashire in the 1979 general election and then, against David Owen, the Plymouth Devonport seat in the 1983 general election. In 1983 she, with Lady Olga Maitland and Virginia Bottomley, co-founded Women and Families for Defence, a group founded in opposition to the anti-nuclear Greenham Common Women's Peace Camp.

Widdecombe was first elected to the House of Commons, for the Conservatives, in the 1987 general election as member for the constituency of Maidstone (which became Maidstone and The Weald in 1997).

In government
Widdecombe joined Prime Minister John Major's government as Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Social Security in 1990. In 1993, she was moved to the Department of Employment, and she was promoted to Minister of State the following year. In 1995, she joined the Home Office as Minister of State for Prisons and visited every prison in the UK.

In 1996, Widdecombe, as prisons minister, defended the Government's policy to shackle pregnant prisoners with handcuffs and chains when in hospital receiving prenatal care. Widdecombe told the Commons that the restrictions were needed to prevent prisoners from escaping the hospital. "Some MPs may like to think that a pregnant woman would not or could not escape. Unfortunately this is not true. The fact is that hospitals are not secure places in which to keep prisoners, and since 1990, 20 women have escaped from hospitals". Jack Straw, Labour's Home Affairs spokesman at the time, said it was "degrading and unnecessary" for a woman to be shackled at any stage.

Shadow Cabinet
In May 1997, in the context of an inquiry into a series of prison escapes, Widdecombe remarked of former Home Secretary Michael Howard, under whom she had served, that there is "something of the night" about him. This much-quoted comment is thought to have contributed to the failure of Howard's 1997 campaign for the Conservative Party leadership, a sentiment shared by both Howard himself and Widdecombe. It led to him being caricatured as a vampire, in part due to his Romanian ancestry. Howard became the official party leader in 2003, and Widdecombe then stated, "I explained fully what my objections were in 1997 and I do not retract anything I said then. But ... we have to look to the future and not the past."

After the Conservative landslide defeat at the 1997 general election, she served as Shadow Health Secretary between 1998 and 1999 and later as Shadow Home Secretary from 1999 to 2001 under the leadership of William Hague.

Leadership contest and backbenches
During the 2001 Conservative leadership election, she could not find sufficient support amongst Conservative MPs for her leadership candidacy. She first supported Michael Ancram, who was eliminated in the first round, and then Kenneth Clarke, who lost in the final round. She afterwards declined to serve in Iain Duncan Smith's Shadow Cabinet (although she indicated on the television programme When Louis Met..., prior to the leadership contest, that she wished to retire to the backbenches anyway).

In 2001, when Michael Portillo was running for leader of the Conservative Party, Widdecombe described him and his allies as "backbiters" due to his alleged destabilising influence under Hague. She went on to say that, should he be appointed leader, she would never give him her allegiance. This was amidst a homophobic campaign led by socially conservative critics of Portillo.

In the 2005 leadership election, she initially supported Kenneth Clarke again. Once he was eliminated, she turned support towards Liam Fox. Following Fox's subsequent elimination, she took time to reflect before finally declaring for David Davis. She expressed reservations over the eventual winner David Cameron, feeling that he did not, like the other candidates, have a proven track record, and she was later a leading figure in parliamentary opposition to his A-List policy. At the October 2006 Conservative Conference, she was Chief Dragon in a political version of the television programme Dragons' Den, in which A-list candidates were invited to put forward a policy proposal, which was then torn apart by her team of Rachel Elnaugh, Oliver Letwin and Michael Brown.

In an interview with Metro in September 2006 she stated that if Parliament were of a normal length, it was likely she would retire at the next general election. She confirmed her intention to stand down to The Observer's Pendennis diary in September 2007, and again in October 2007 after Prime Minister Gordon Brown quashed speculation of an autumn 2007 general election.

In November 2006, she moved into the house of an Islington Labour Councillor to experience life on a council estate, her response to her experience being "Five years ago I made a speech in the House of Commons about the forgotten decents. I have spent the last week on estates in the Islington area finding out that they are still forgotten."

In 2007 Widdecombe was one of the 98 MPs who voted to keep their expense details secret. When the expenses claims were leaked, however, Widdecombe was described by The Daily Telegraph as one of the "saints" amongst all MPs.

In May 2009, following the resignation of Michael Martin as Speaker of the House of Commons, it was reported that Widdecombe was gathering support for election as interim Speaker until the next general election. On 11 June 2009, she confirmed her bid to be the Speaker, but came last in the second ballot and was eliminated.

Widdecombe retired from politics at the 2010 general election. It was rumoured that she would be a Conservative candidate for Police and Crime Commissioner in 2012, but she refused. She since spoke about her opposition to the Coalition Government and her surprise at not being given a peerage by David Cameron.

In 2016, she supported Brexit during the 2016 EU referendum and, following the resignation of David Cameron, endorsed Andrea Leadsom in her candidacy for election for the leadership of the governing Conservative Party.

Return to politics – Brexit Party
In 2019 she returned to politics as a candidate for the Brexit Party in the European parliament elections in South West England, which were held on 23 May, though she maintained that she would still vote for the Conservatives in the local elections that took place three weeks before. She was expelled by the Conservative Party immediately after her announcement. Widdecombe had considered joining the Brexit Party in March 2019, but joined later, in May.

Widdecombe said that her decision to stand resulted from the Government's failure to deliver Britain's departure from the EU on schedule. "Both major parties need a seismic shock," she said, "to see the extent of public disgust." She subsequently won her seat.

Widdecombe became a member of the European Parliament Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs (LIBE).

Widdecombe stood as a candidate for Plymouth Sutton and Devonport in the 2019 UK general election, coming a distant third but just retaining her deposit with 5.5% of the vote. Nigel Farage said that she was told by the Conservative Party that she would be part of their Brexit negotiations if she stood down as a candidate.

Social issues
As an MP, Widdecombe expressed socially conservative views, including opposition to abortion; it was understood during her time in frontline politics that she would not become Health Secretary as long as this involved responsibility for abortions. Although a committed Christian, she characterised the issue as one of life and death on which her view had been the same when she was agnostic and was a member of the Society for the Protection of Unborn Children while studying at Oxford. During Parliament, Widdecombe was a member of the Pro-Life All Party Parliamentary Group, which met with SPUC over concerns the organisation's more strident approach to abortion policy could alienate Protestant and atheist supporters. She converted from the Church of England (CoE) to the Roman Catholic Church following the CoE decision to ordain women as priests.

She is an opponent of assisted dying in any form, saying that any such legislation would fail to "protect the mentally ill, disabled and the frail elderly". She further commented: "You cannot get to my age without having seen loved ones suffer [...] or having seen dear friends die in pain. And, yes, I too have thought 'We wouldn't do this to an animal'. But that emotional indignation has also to be extended to those whom any euthanasia law would threaten."

LGBT rights
Although not an MP at the time, Widdecombe did voice support for the partial decriminalisation of homosexuality in 1967 in England and Wales. After that, Widdecombe consistently opposed further reforms while in Parliament. Out of the 17 parliamentary votes between 1998 and 2008 considered by the Public Whip website to concern equal rights for homosexuals, Widdecombe took the opposing position in 15 cases, not being present at the other two votes. In 1999, Widdecombe stated that "I do not think that [homosexuality] can be promoted as an equally valid lifestyle to [heterosexual] marriage, but I would say the same about irregular heterosexual arrangements."

She has consistently argued against an equal age of consent for same-sex relationships, voting against a 1994 act (which would have reduced the age of consent for some male-male sexual activity from 21 to 18), and in 1998 (arguing against a further reduction from 18 to 16, which later occurred in 2000). On the latter act, she wrote in The Mail on Sunday that "one of the sundry horrors for which this Government is likely to be remembered will be that it gave its imprimatur to sodomy at 16", She later said in 2000: "I do not believe that issues of equality should override the imperatives of protecting the young." In 2003, Widdecombe opposed the repeal of Section 28 of the Local Government Act 1988. In 2012, Widdecombe voiced support in the Daily Express for the practise of conversion therapy, which claims to change the orientation of homosexuals.

Widdecombe has also expressed her opposition to same-sex marriage, introduced by David Cameron's government in 2014, arguing that "the state must have a preferred model" which is "a union that is generally open to procreation". She also opposes gender self-identification for transgender people. In 2020, she expressed her opposition to same-sex dancing on Strictly Come Dancing, saying: "I don't think it is what viewers of Strictly, especially families, are looking for. But that's up to the audience and the programme."

Criminal justice
In her speech at the 2000 Conservative conference, she called for a zero tolerance policy of prosecution, with the punishment of £100 fines for users of cannabis. This was well received by rank-and-file Conservative delegates.

Over the years, Widdecombe has expressed her support for a reintroduction of the death penalty, which was abolished in the UK in 1965. She notably spoke of her support for its reintroduction for the worst cases of murder in the aftermath of the murder of two 10-year-old girls from Soham, Cambridgeshire, in August 2002, arguing that in the five years up to 1970 when the death penalty was suspended, the national murder rate had more than doubled.

Environmental and science issues
She is a committed animal lover and one of the several Conservative MPs to have consistently voted for the ban on the hunting of foxes. Widdecombe was among more than 20 high-profile people who signed a letter to Members of Parliament in 2015 to oppose David Cameron's plan to amend the Hunting Act 2004.

In 2007, she wrote that she did not want to belittle the issue of climate change, but was sceptical of the claims that specific actions would prevent catastrophe. In 2008, she wrote that her doubts had been "crystalised" by Nigel Lawson's book An Appeal to Reason; in 2014, she likened Lawson's difficulty in getting the book published to the book-burnings in Nazi Germany. Later in 2008, Widdecombe claimed that the "science of climate change is robustly disputed", then, in 2009, that "There is no climate change, hasn't anybody looked out of their window recently?" She was one of the five MPs who voted against the Climate Change Act 2008.

The previous year, she voted to support a parliamentary motion in favour of homeopathy, disagreeing with the Science and Technology Committee's Report on the subject.

Controversies
In 2009, she partially defended Carol Thatcher's use of the racial slur 'golliwog' on Any Questions?, saying: "There is a generation to whom a golliwog is merely a toy, a generation which was much endeared by its golliwogs which grew up with them on jam jars ... and there is a generation, a new generation for whom that word is deeply offensive and one does have to make I think some allowance for the fact." In December 2019, WhatsApp conversations between her and Brexit Party activists were leaked to the Plymouth Herald which showed Widdecombe using the term amid rumours party campaign funding was being diverted away from Plymouth ahead of the general election of that year. Widdecombe said: "Yes, I threw all my toys of the pram. Bears and gollywogs flying everywhere!!"

In 2019 Widdecombe defended the comments she made in a 2012 article that supported "gay conversion" therapy. She told Sky News that science may yet "provide an answer" to the question of whether people can "switch sexuality". Following Widdecombe's apparent endorsement of conversion therapy, at least one venue, the Landmark theatre in Ilfracombe, Devon, cancelled a performance of her one-woman show.

Widdecombe and two other Brexit Party figures were criticised for previous appearances on the David Icke-affiliated Richie Allen Show, which has been accused of promoting Holocaust denial and antisemitic conspiracy theories about the Rothschild family and Zionism. Widdecombe appeared three times between August 2017 and April 2019 and was described as an "old friend of the show" by the host during one appearance. Widdecombe told Jewish Chronicle that she agreed to appear to discuss Brexit, and that she "had never heard of the Richie Allen Show until I agreed to go on" and distanced herself from its antisemitic content by, among other things, pointing to her membership of the Conservative Friends of Israel, B'nai B'rith event speeches, and her novel An Act of Treachery, which she said is set during the Holocaust.

Widdecombe was elected as a Member of the European Parliament for the Brexit Party on 23 May 2019 in the European elections. On 3 July 2019 she used her maiden speech in Strasbourg to compare Brexit to slaves revolting against their owners and to a colonised country rising up against occupying forces, a stance which was criticised by members of both the European Parliament and the British House of Commons.

Media work and appearances
In 2002 she took part in the ITV programme Celebrity Fit Club. Also in 2002 she took part in a Louis Theroux television documentary, depicting her life, both in and out of politics. In March 2004 she briefly became The Guardian newspaper's agony aunt, introduced with an Emma Brockes interview. In 2005 BBC Two showed six episodes of The Widdecombe Project, an agony aunt television programme. In 2005, she appeared in a new series of Celebrity Fit Club, this time as an agony aunt. Also in 2005, she presented the show Ann Widdecombe to the Rescue in which she acted as an agony aunt, dispensing advice to disputing families, couples, and others across the UK. In 2005, she appeared in a discussion programme on Five to discuss who had been England's greatest monarch since the Norman Conquest; her choice of monarch was Charles II.

She was the guest host of news quiz Have I Got News for You twice, in 2006 and 2007. Her first appearance as guest host, in 2006, was widely regarded as a success. Following her second appearance, Widdecombe said she would never appear on the show again because of comments made by panellist Jimmy Carr which she considered filth, though she called regular panellists Ian Hislop and Paul Merton "the fastest wits in showbusiness". Merton later revealed that he thought Widdecombe had been "the worst ever presenter" of the show, particularly on her second appearance where Merton claimed she "thought she was Victoria Wood".

In 2007 she awarded the University Challenge trophy to the winners. In the same year, she appeared in "The Sound of Drums", the 12th episode of the third series of the science-fiction drama Doctor Who, endorsing the Master's Prime Minister campaign. In 2007 and 2008 Widdecombe fronted a television series called Ann Widdecombe Versus, on ITV1, in which she spoke to various people about things related to her as an MP, with an emphasis on confronting those responsible for problems she wished to tackle. In 2007 she talked about prostitution, social benefits, and truancy. A fourth episode was screened on 18 September 2008 in which she travelled around London and Birmingham talking to girl gangs.

In 2009, Widdecombe appeared with Archbishop John Onaiyekan in an "Intelligence Squared" debate in which they defended the motion that the Catholic Church was a force for good. Arguing against the motion were Stephen Fry and Christopher Hitchens, who won the debate overall.

In October 2010, she appeared on BBC One's Strictly Come Dancing, partnered by Anton du Beke, winning the support of some viewers despite low marks from the judges. After nine weeks of routines strongly flavoured by comedy, the couple was eliminated, in the bottom two. In 2011 Widdecombe played the Lord Mayoress in an episode of Sooty.

In 2012, Widdecombe hosted the 30 one-hour episodes of Cleverdicks, a quiz show for the Sky Atlantic channel. In April 2012 Widdecombe presented an hour-long documentary for BBC Radio 5 Live, Drunk Again: Ann Widdecombe Investigates, looking at how the British attitude to alcohol consumption had changed over the previous few years. Widdecombe was in a Strictly Come Dancing special in Children in Need's 2012 appeal night. On 4 November 2012, Widdecombe guest-hosted one episode of BBC's Songs of Praise programme about singleness.

In October 2014, she appeared in the BBC series Celebrity Antiques Road Trip with expert Mark Stacey.

Widdecombe took part in a four-part BBC One television series 24 Hours in the Past, along with Colin Jackson, Alistair McGowan, Miquita Oliver, Tyger Drew-Honey and Zoe Lucker in April and May 2015, involving experiencing life as workers in a dustyard, coachhouse, pottery, and as workhouse inmates in 1840s Britain. She took part in an episode of Tipping Point: Lucky Stars in 2016. In 2017, Widdecombe took part in ITV's Sugar Free Farm.

In January 2018, Widdecombe participated in the Celebrity Big Brother twenty-first series; she was criticised over her comments regarding the Harvey Weinstein controversy and comments perceived to be anti-LGBT to her fellow housemates, most notably to drag queen Courtney Act (Shane Jenek). She finished the competition in second place, behind Jenek.

In 2019 Widdecombe appeared on the new celebrity version of The Crystal Maze, where alongside Sunetra Sarker, Wes Nelson, Matthew Wright and Nikki Sanderson, she won money for Stand Up to Cancer.

In 2020 Widdecombe travelled to Norway for three days to visit Halden Prison, for the documentary The World's Most Luxurious Prison.

Stage acting career
Following her retirement, Widdecombe made her stage debut, on 9 December 2011, at the Orchard Theatre, Dartford in the Christmas pantomime Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, alongside Strictly Come Dancing judge Craig Revel Horwood. In April 2012, she had a ten-minute non-singing cameo part in Gaetano Donizetti's comic opera La Fille du Regiment, playing the Duchesse de Crackentorp. Widdecombe reprised her pantomime performance, again with Horwood, at the Swan Theatre, High Wycombe in December 2012.

Widdecombe stepped in at short notice to play the Evil Queen in Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, which was published by the Brothers Grimm in 1812, at Bridlington Spa in December 2016. She replaced injured Lorraine Chase. This was Widdecombe's first appearance as a pantomime 'baddie'; a role she told the press she had always hoped for.

In December 2017 Widdecombe played the Empress of China in the pantomime Aladdin at the Marina Theatre in Lowestoft.

Personal life and family
Until her retirement following the 2010 general election, Widdecombe divided her time between her two homes – one in London and one in the countryside village of Sutton Valence, Kent, in her constituency. She sold both upon retiring at the next general election. She shared her home in London with her widowed mother, Rita Widdecombe, until Rita's death, on 25 April 2007, aged 95. In March 2008, she bought a house in Haytor Vale, on Dartmoor in Devon, where she retired. Her brother, Malcolm (1937–2010), who was an Anglican canon in Bristol, retired in May 2009 and died in October 2010. Her nephew, Roger Widdecombe, is an Anglican priest. She has never married nor had any children. In November 2007 on BBC Radio 4 she described how a journalist once produced a profile on her with the assumption that she had had at least "one sexual relationship", to which Widdecombe replied: "Be careful, that's the way you get sued". When interviewer Jenni Murray asked if she had ever had a sexual relationship, Widdecombe laughed "it's nobody else's business".

A 2001 report in The Guardian said that she had had a three-year romance while studying at the University of Oxford; Widdecombe confirmed this in January 2018 on the UK reality TV show Big Brother, explaining that she had ended the romance in order to prioritise her career.

Widdecombe has a fondness for cats and many other animals such as foxes; a section of her website, the Widdyweb, is about the pet cats she has lived with. Widdecombe adopted two goats at the Buttercups Goat Sanctuary in Boughton Monchelsea near Maidstone. In an interview, Widdecombe talked about her appreciation of music, despite describing herself as "pretty well tone-deaf".

Outside politics she writes novels, and a weekly column for the Daily Express.

In January 2011 Widdecombe was President of the North of England Education Conference in Blackpool, and gave a speech there supporting selective education and opposing the ban on new grammar schools being built. She also became a patron of The Grace Charity for M.E.

In April 2012 Widdecombe said that she was writing her autobiography, which she described as "rude about all and sundry, but an amount of truth is always necessary". Widdecombe is a Patron of the charity Safe Haven for Donkeys in the Holy Land (SHADH) and in 2014 visited the SHADH Donkey Sanctuary in the West Bank.

Religious views
Widdecombe became an Anglican in her 30s, after a period of being an agnostic following her departure from religious schooling. She converted to Catholicism in 1993 after leaving the Church of England, explaining to reporters from the New Statesman:

 * I left the Church of England because there was a huge bundle of straw. The ordination of women was the last straw, but it was only one of many. For years I had been disillusioned by the Church of England's compromising on everything. The Catholic Church doesn't care if something is unpopular.

In October 2006, she pledged to boycott British Airways for suspending a worker who refused to hide her Christian cross, until the company reversed the suspension.

In 2010, Widdecombe turned down the offer to be Britain's next ambassador to the Holy See, being prevented from accepting by suffering a detached retina. She was made a Dame of the Order of St. Gregory the Great by Pope Benedict XVI for services to politics and public life on 31 January 2013.

Honours

 * Widdecombe was appointed an Honorary Fellow of Canterbury Christ Church University at a ceremony held at Canterbury Cathedral on 30 January 2009.
 * She was awarded the honorary degree of Doctor of the University (D.Univ) by the University of Birmingham on 5 July 2012.
 * Holy See: Dame of the Order of St Gregory the Great (DSG) (2013)

Fiction

 * 2000: The Clematis Tree. London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson ISBN 0-297-64572-2
 * 2002: An Act of Treachery. London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson ISBN 0-297-64573-0
 * 2005: Father Figure. London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson ISBN 0-297-82962-9
 * 2005: An Act of Peace. London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson ISBN 0-297-82958-0

Non-fiction

 * 1999: Inspired and Outspoken: the collected speeches of Ann Widdecombe; edited by John Simmons, with a biographical preface by Nick Kochan. London: Politico's Publishing ISBN 1-902301-22-6
 * 2004: The Mass is a Mess, with Martin Kochanski. London: Catholic Writers' Guild

title: Ann Widdecombe