The position first
Sampled at noon from 1930 to 2035, the Sun on 4 May occupies between thirteen point one and fourteen point five degrees of Taurus. Call it fourteen degrees and you will rarely be more than a fraction out.
The tightness of that band is a consequence of the leap year rule. A common year is about six hours shorter than the Sun's return to the same longitude, so the position on a fixed date creeps forward and a leap day hands the accumulated time back. The two effects cancel, and the same calendar date keeps landing in almost the same part of the orbit for centuries.
Fourteen degrees also means the nearest sign boundary is about a fortnight of solar motion away, so no question of a cusp arises here in any year or any time zone.
What fixed and earth actually mean
Modality and element are a grid, not a description. Each sign takes one of three modalities, cardinal, fixed or mutable, according to where it falls in a season, and one of four elements in a repeating cycle. Taurus is the fixed sign of spring and the second of the earth signs.
Fixed means positioned in the middle of a season, when conditions have settled, and the tradition reads that as persistence and resistance to change. Earth is the element associated with matter, the body and what can be handled. Neither term is a compliment or a warning, and neither was chosen to describe a personality. They are structural positions in a scheme, with readings attached afterwards.
Knowing this makes the usual adjective lists easier to place. Stubborn and reliable are attempts to put the fixed modality into everyday words, and they are downstream of the structure rather than observations about people born in May.
Venus, and the decan beneath it
Venus rules Taurus in the classical scheme, where it also rules Libra. The two rulerships are read differently, Libra as the airy and social face of Venus and Taurus as the earthy one, concerned with attachment, ownership and the senses rather than with charm.
Underneath the sign ruler sits the decan ruler. Fourteen degrees places this birthday in the second decan of Taurus, from ten to twenty. The Chaldean order of faces assigns that band to the Moon and the triplicity scheme assigns it to Virgo, so the layer beneath Venus is either lunar or Mercurial depending on which tradition is being followed. Sources disagree because the schemes disagree, not because one of them is careless. Anyone quoting a decan ruler for this date should say which count produced it.
The limits of a date
None of the above needs a birth time. Everything that follows does. The Moon changes sign roughly every two and a half days, so this date narrows it to two candidates and stops there. The Ascendant cycles through all twelve signs every day, so the date narrows it not at all.
That is the honest ranking. The Sun is the placement a birthday fixes and it is also the one that distinguishes you least, since a twelfth of the world shares it. The widget above computes your exact solar degree from your own year and birthplace, which sharpens the one thing the date does give you, and reports how far you stood from the nearest sign boundary. On this date that distance is large enough that the result is a formality, which is worth confirming rather than assuming.
Questions people ask about this
Is 4 May Taurus?
Yes, in every year sampled at noon between 1930 and 2035. The Sun sits about fourteen degrees into the sign, which is roughly the middle, so no boundary is anywhere near.
What does fixed earth mean for Taurus?
Fixed refers to the sign's position in the middle of a season, read as persistence. Earth refers to the elemental group associated with matter and the body. They are structural labels with interpretations attached.
Which decan does 4 May fall in?
The second decan of Taurus, ten to twenty degrees, with several degrees of margin at both ends. No year in the sampled range moves it out of that band.
Does Venus ruling Taurus mean the same as Venus ruling Libra?
The tradition reads them differently. Venus in Libra is described through air and relationship, and Venus in Taurus through earth, the senses and attachment. Same planet, different expression.
How far is this birthday from the Gemini boundary?
About sixteen degrees, which is roughly sixteen days of solar motion. There is no chance of a 4 May birth falling in Gemini under any calculation.
What should I check next?
The Moon sign and the rising sign, both of which need the hour of birth. Between them they usually account for more of a chart reading than the Sun does.