July 4
July 4 is the 185th day of the year (186th in leap years ) in the Gregorian Calendar , with 180 days remaining.
Events
993 - Saint Ulrich of Augsburg canonized.
1054 - A supernova is observed by the Chinese and Amerindians near the star ζ Tauri . For several months it remains bright enough to be seen during the day. Its remnants form the Crab Nebula .
1187 - Saladin defeats Guy of Lusignan , King of Jerusalem , at the Battle of Hattin .
1776 - American Revolutionary War : The Continental Congress approves a Declaration of Independence from the Kingdom of Great Britain forming the United States of America .
1802 - At West Point , New York the United States Military Academy opens.
1803 - The Louisiana Purchase is announced to the American people.
1817 - At Rome, New York , construction on the Erie Canal begins.
1826 - Fiftieth anniversary of the Declaration of Independence , on which John Adams and Thomas Jefferson , two of America's Founding Fathers , died. (Luther Martin , another Founding Father would die a few days later, on July 8 ,1826 .)
1837 - Grand Junction Railway , world's first long-distance railway, opens between Birmingham and Liverpool .
1838 - The Iowa Territory is organized.
1840 - The Cunard Line 's 700 ton wooden paddlewheel steamer RMS Britannia departs from Liverpool bound for Halifax, Nova Scotia on the first transatlantic passenger cruise.
1845 - Near Concord, Massachusetts , Henry David Thoreau embarks on a two-year experiment in simple living at Walden Pond (see Walden 1855 - In Brooklyn, New York , the first edition of Walt Whitman 's book of poems titled Leaves of Grass is published.
1859 - Franco-Piedmontese War : The Battle of Magenta .
1862 - Charles Lutwidge Dodgson (Lewis Carroll ) goes on a boating picnic with Alice Liddell , who asks to be entertained with a story. This story would grow into Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and its sequels.
1863 - American Civil War : Battle of Vicksburg - Ulysses S. Grant and the Union Army capture the Confederate city Vicksburg, Mississippi after the town surrendered. The siege lasted 47 days.
1865 - Alice's Adventures in Wonderland 1881 - In Alabama , the Tuskegee Institute opens.
1894 - The short-lived Republic of Hawaii is proclaimed by Sanford B. Dole .
1910 - African-American boxer Jack Johnson knocks out white boxer Jim Jeffries in a heavyweight boxing match sparking race riots across the United States .
1918 - Ottoman sultan Mehmed VI ascends to the throne.
1918 - Bolsheviks kill Tsar Nicholas II of Russia and his family (Julian calendar date).
1927 - Initial flight of the Lockheed Vega .
1934 - Joe Louis wins his first professional boxing match.
1934 - Leo Szilard patents the chain-reaction design for the atomic bomb .
1939 - Lou Gehrig , recently diagnosed with Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis , tells a crowd at Yankee Stadium that he considered himself "The luckiest man on the face of the earth" as he announces his retirement from major league baseball .
1941 - Mass murder of Polish scientists and writers , committed by Nazi Germans in captured Polish city of Lwów .
1946 - After over 400 years of colonial rule, the Philippines is granted full independence by the United States
1950 - First broadcast by Radio Free Europe
1959 - With the admission of Alaska as the 49th U.S. state earlier in the year, the 49-star flag of the United States debuts in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania .
1960 - Due to the post-Independence Day admission of Hawaii as the 50th U.S. state on August 21 , 1959, the 50-star flag of the United States debuts in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania almost ten and a half months later (see Flag Act).
1966 - President Lyndon B. Johnson signs the Freedom of Information Act into United States law . The act goes into effect the next year.
1976 - Israeli commandos raid Entebbe airport in Uganda , rescuing most of the passengers and crew of an Air France jetliner seized by pro-Palestinian hijackers.
1987 - In France , former Gestapo chief Klaus Barbie (aka the "Butcher of Lyon") is convicted of crimes against humanity and is sentenced to life imprisonment.
1990 - On 214th anniversary of the United States Declaration of Independence , Die Hard 2: Die Harder Die Hard Bruce Willis .
1997 - NASA 's Pathfinder space probe lands on the surface of Mars .
1998 - Lin "Spit" Newborn and Daniel Shersty are murdered by neonazis in the desert just outside Las Vegas , Nevada , USA .
2002 - Three people are shot at the El Al check-in booth at Los Angeles International Airport. The gunman is shot and killed by a security officer.
2002 - A Prestige Airlines cargo Boeing 707 crashes just short of the runway in Bangui, Central African Republic killing 25
2004 - The cornerstone of the Freedom Tower is lain on the site of the World Trade Center in New York City . (This was largely a symbolic event; actual construction would not start for several weeks)
Births
1330 - Ashikaga Yoshiakira , Ashikaga shogun (d. 1367 )
1540 - Gackt Camui , song writer and singer (self-claimed)
1546 - Murat III , Ottoman Emperor (d. 1595 )
1799 - Joseph François Oscar Bernadotte, future king Oscar I of Sweden-Norway (d. 1859 )
1804 - Nathaniel Hawthorne , writer (d. 1864 )
1807 - Giuseppe Garibaldi , Italian patriot
1826 - Stephen Foster , songwriter ("Oh! Susanna", "Camptown Races") (d. 1864 )
1845 - Thomas Barnardo, Irish founder of homes for underprivileged children
1847 - James Anthony Bailey , co-founder with Phineas Taylor Barnum of the Ringling Brothers and Barnum and Bailey Circus .
1872 - Calvin Coolidge , 30th president of the United States
1878 - George M. Cohan , singer, dancer, composer, actor, writer (d. 1942 )
1883 - Rube Goldberg , cartoonist (d. 1970 )
1902 - Meyer Lansky , mobster (d. 1983 )
1902 - George Murphy , dancer, actor, Senator from California (d. 1992 )
1904 - Angela Baddeley , actress, Mrs Bridges on Upstairs Downstairs, sister of Hermione Baddeley (d. 1976 )
1910 - Gloria Stuart , actress
1911 - Mitch Miller , bandleader, television personality
1917 - Manolete (Manuel Rodríguez Sánchez), bullfighter (d. 1947 )
1918 - Ann Landers , advice columnist (d. 2002 )
1918 - Abigail Van Buren , advice columnist and twin sister to Ann Landers
1921 - Tibor Varga , violinist , conductor and pedagogue
1923 - Rudolf Friedrich , member of the Swiss Federal Council
1924 - Eva Marie Saint , actress (North by Northwest , On the Waterfront )
1927 - Gina Lollobrigida , actress
1930 - George Steinbrenner , owner of the New York Yankees
1938 - Bill Withers , singer/songwriter
1942 - Floyd Little , American football player
1943 - Konrad "Conny" Bauer , musician, free jazz trombonist
1943 - Geraldo Rivera , reporter, talk show host
1946 - Ed O'Ross , American actor
1946 - Ron Kovic , author (Born on the Fourth of July 1951 - Kathleen Kennedy Townsend , U.S. political figure
1967 - Vinny Castilla , Mexican baseball player
1974 - La'Roi Glover , American football player
1976 - Daijiro Kato , Japanese motorcycle racer
1986 - Shane Kippel , Canadian actor
Deaths
965 - Pope Benedict V
1187 - Raynald of Chatillon , executed by Saladin after the Battle of Hattin .
1821 - Richard Cosway , English artist
1826 - John Adams & Thomas Jefferson , 2nd & 3rd presidents of the United States. In a remarkable coincidence, both of these framers of the United States Declaration of Independence died on the 50th anniversary of its adoption.
1831 - James Monroe , 5th president of the United States
1838 - Colonel José Antonio Vidaurre and his accomplices, authors of The Riot of Quillota, Chile were shot.
1848 - François-René de Chateaubriand , French writer, diplomat
1850 - William Kirby , father of entomology
1857 - William L. Marcy , American statesman (b. 1786 )
1891 - Hannibal Hamlin , U.S. Vice President under Abraham Lincoln
1901 - Johannes Schmidt , German linguist
1902 - Swami Vivekananda
1910 - Giovanni Schiaparelli , Italian astronomer (b. 1835 )
1926 - Pier Giorgio Frassati , Blessed Italian mountaineer.
1931 - Buddie Petit , jazz musician (b. ca 1890 )
1934 - Marie Sklodowska-Curie , co-discoverer of radium and polonium
1970 - Barnett Newman , artist
1971 - August Derleth , science fiction and fantasy writer and editor.
1975 - Georgette Heyer , author
1976 - Antoni Słonimski , Polish poet and writer (b. 1895 )
1986 - Oscar Zariski , mathematician (b. 1899 )
1991 - Dr. Victor Chang , Australian doctor, pioneer in heart transplantation , murdered
1995 - Eva Gabor , actress
1997 - Charles Kuralt , television reporter
2002 - Benjamin O. Davis Jr. , African-American general
2003 - Barry White , soul singer
2004 - Jean-Marie Auberson , Swiss conductor (b. 1920 )
Holidays and observances
External links
July 3 - July 5 - June 4 - August 4 - more historical anniversaries
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