September 4 Birthday

Famous Birthdays on September 4

• Mitzi Gaynor (1931)

  American actress and dancer best known for starring in the 1958 film adaptation of South Pacific.

• Damon Wayans (1960)

  American actor and comedian known for In Living Color and the Major Payne and Beverly Hills Cop films.

• Beyoncé Knowles (1981)

  American singer and former Destiny's Child member whose solo career made her one of the best-selling music artists of all time.

• Wes Bentley (1978)

  American actor known for his breakout role in American Beauty and later work in The Hunger Games series.

This Day in History

• 1781 — A group of Spanish settlers founded the pueblo that would grow into the city of Los Angeles.

• 1886 — Apache leader Geronimo formally surrendered to the U.S. Army in Arizona, ending decades of armed resistance in the Southwest.

• 1957 — The Arkansas National Guard, on the governor's orders, blocked nine Black students from entering Little Rock Central High School, a defining early confrontation of school desegregation.

• 1998 — Google is widely cited as having been founded on this date, though the company's own history has referenced more than one date for its official incorporation.

What September 4 Says About You

A numerology day number of 4 is traditionally tied to structure, groundwork, and things built to last, and September 4 has a track record of marking the start of institutions and cities rather than single dramatic moments. In 1781, a group of Spanish settlers founded the small pueblo that would grow, over the following two centuries, into the sprawling city of Los Angeles — a foundation laid so far from its eventual scale that the connection almost strains belief. More than two centuries later, Google is widely cited as having been founded on this date in 1998, though the company itself has referenced more than one date for its formal incorporation over the years, a minor historical ambiguity worth noting honestly rather than smoothing over. The date's harder history includes Geronimo's formal surrender to the U.S. Army in 1886, ending decades of armed resistance in the Southwest, and the Arkansas National Guard's blockade of nine Black students at Little Rock Central High School in 1957, one of the defining early confrontations of the school desegregation era. Four people born on September 4 built careers of very different scale and register. Mitzi Gaynor, born in 1931, became a defining screen presence of 1950s Hollywood musicals through South Pacific. Damon Wayans, born in 1960, helped shape the sketch-comedy landscape of the 1990s through In Living Color. Beyoncé, born in 1981, moved from Destiny's Child into a solo career that made her one of the best-selling recording artists in history. And Wes Bentley, born in 1978, announced himself with a single breakout performance in American Beauty before building a long character-actor career. As a Virgo date, September 4 carries the sign's grounded, detail-oriented instincts, which suits both a numerology number built around foundations and a historical record full of institutions that started small and grew large, or that took decades to resolve. Because September's birthstone and flowers apply to the entire month rather than any single day, sapphire's traditional link to wisdom isn't the 4th's alone to claim, though it sits comfortably beside a date whose real events — a pueblo becoming a metropolis, a search engine becoming a verb, a resistance campaign giving way to decades of consequence — all rewarded patience over speed. Geronimo's 1886 surrender, for its part, ended what is generally regarded as the last major armed Native resistance campaign in the American Southwest, and he spent the rest of his life as a prisoner of war, eventually appearing at public exhibitions including the 1904 World's Fair, a strange coda to decades of armed conflict. A September 4 birthday, in the end, belongs to a date defined less by single dramatic turns than by long, patient consequences.