Reuters historical calendar - August 4

LONDON, Aug 3 (Reuters) Following are some of the major events to have occurred on August 4 since 1900: 1914 - Britain declared war on Germany after London's ultimatum to Berlin to withdraw its invading armies from Belgium expired. The United States declared its neutrality as what became World War One began.

1916 - Denmark agreed to cede the Danish West Indies, including the Virgin Islands, to the United States for 25 million dollars. The deal took effect the following March 31.

1936 - Ioannis Metaxas set up the dictatorial Fourth of August regime in Greece.

1940 - Italy invaded British Somaliland and occupied some towns in Sudan and Kenya.

1944 - After two years hiding in an Amsterdam back room, Anne Frank, her sister, her parents and four other Jews were discovered by the Gestapo. Her diary, found after the war, was published in over 30 languages and turned into a play and film.

1956 - Asia's first nuclear reactor was brought on line at Trombay in India.

1972 - President Idi Amin declared that Uganda would expel 50,000 Asians with British passports to Britain within three months.

1983 - Bettino Craxi was sworn in as Italy's first Socialist prime minister.

1992 - Millions of blacks ended a two-day general strike against white rule in South Africa, during which over 30 people died.

1993 - Japan formally apologised for the first time to women forced to serve its soldiers as sex slaves during World War Two.

1995 - Croatia launched an offensive to regain the enclave of Krajina, held by its Serb minority for four years.

1997 - Frenchwoman Jeanne Calment, the world's oldest person, died in Arles aged 122 years and 164 days.

1998 - Canada's Nisga'a Indian Nation initialled a treaty it hoped would restore land lost to Europeans some two centuries ago.

2001 - North Korean leader Kim Jong-il and Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a declaration stating that Pyongyang would stick to a moratorium on missile launches until 2003.

2002 - Francisco ''Pakito'' Mugica and Jose Maria ''Fiti'' Arregui, two ETA leaders were sentenced to 743 years in prison, terms accumulated for a series of offences.

2003 - The Azeri parliament paved the way for the first dynastic succession in an ex-Soviet state, electing as prime minister the son of ailing President Haydar Aliyev.

2003 - Chung Mong-hun, top executive of Hyundai Group and son of its founder, facing trial over the secret transfer of 0 million to the North before the historic June 2000 summit between North and South Korea, committed suicide.

2005 - Blues singer, songwriter and guitarist ''Little'' Milton Campbell, known for writing and recording the blues anthem ''The Blues Is Alright,'' died aged 71.

REUTERS SP RN1047