965 Pope Benedict V (died)
973 Ulrich of Augsburg (died), German bishop (born 890)
1054 A supernova is seen by Chinese, Arab and possibly Amerindian observers near the star Zeta Tauri. For several months it remains bright enough to be seen during the day. Its remnants form the Crab Nebula.
1541 Pedro de Alvarado (died), Spanish explorer (born 1495)
1546 Murad III (born), Ottoman sultan (died 1595)
1551 Gregory Cromwell (died), 1st Baron Cromwell, English politician (born 1514)
1623 William Byrd (died), English composer (born 1540)
1634 The city of Trois-Rivières is founded in New France (now Quebec, Canada)
1641 Pedro Teixeira (died), Portuguese explorer
1694 Louis-Claude Daquin (born), French organist and composer (died 1772)
1742 Luigi Guido Grandi (died), Italian monk, mathematician, and engineer (born 1671)
1744 The Treaty of Lancaster, in which the Iroquois cedes lands between the Allegheny Mountains and the Ohio River to the British colonies, was signed in Lancaster, Pennsylvania.
1754 French and Indian War: George Washington surrenders Fort Necessity to French Capt. Louis Coulon de Villiers.
1776 American Revolution: The United States Declaration of Independence is adopted by the Second Continental Congress.
1778 American Revolutionary War: American forces under George Clark capture Kaskaskia during the Illinois campaign.
1790 George Everest (born), Welsh surveyor and geographer (died 1866)
1802 At West Point, New York, the United States Military Academy opens.
1803 The Louisiana Purchase is announced to the American people.
1816 Hiram Walker (born), American businessman, founded Canadian club whiskey (died 1899)
1817 In Rome, New York, construction on the Erie Canal begins.
1826 John Adams (died), American politician, 2nd President of the United States (born 1735)
1826 Stephen Foster (born), American songwriter (died 1864)
1826 Thomas Jefferson (born 1743), third president of the United States, dies the same day as John Adams, second president of the United States, on the fiftieth anniversary of the adoption of the United States Declaration of Independence.
1827 Slavery is abolished in New York State.
1831 James Monroe (died), American politician, 5th President of the United States (born 1758)
1831 Samuel Francis Smith writes My Country, ‘Tis of Thee for the Boston, MA July 4th festivities.
1837 Grand Junction Railway, the world’s first long-distance railway, opens between Birmingham and Liverpool.
1838 The Iowa Territory is organized.
1847 James Anthony Bailey (born), American circus ringmaster, co-founded Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus (died 1906)
1848 François-René de Chateaubriand (died), French historian and politician (born 1768)
1850 William Kirby (died), English entomologist (born 1759)
1855 In Brooklyn, New York City, the first edition of Walt Whitman’s book of poems, Leaves of Grass, is published.
1862 Lewis Carroll tells Alice Liddell a story that would grow into Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and its sequels.
1863 American Civil War: Siege of Vicksburg – Vicksburg, Mississippi surrenders to Ulysses S. Grant after 47 days of siege. 150 miles up the Mississippi River, a Confederate Army was repulsed at the Battle of Helena, Arkansas.
1863 American Civil War: The Army of Northern Virginia withdrew from the battlefield after losing the Battle of Gettysburg, signalling an end to the Southern invasion of the North.
1865 Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland is published.
1872 Calvin Coolidge (born), American politician, 30th President of the United States (died 1933)
1878 Thoroughbred horses Ten Broeck and Mollie McCarty run a match race, recalled in the song Molly and Tenbrooks.
1879 Anglo-Zulu War: the Zululand capital of Ulundi is captured by British troops and burned to the ground, ending the war and forcing King Cetshwayo to flee.
1881 In Alabama, the Tuskegee Institute opens.
1881 Ulysses S. Grant III (born), American general (died 1968)
1882 Louis B. Mayer (born), Belarusian-American film producer, founded the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (died 1957)
1883 Rube Goldberg (born), American sculptor, cartoonist, and author (died 1970)
1886 The first scheduled Canadian transcontinental train arrives in Port Moody, British Columbia.
1886 The people of France offer the Statue of Liberty to the people of the United States.
1892 Western Samoa changes the International Date Line, so that year it had 367 days, with two occurrences of Monday, July 4.
1894 The short-lived Republic of Hawaii is proclaimed by Sanford B. Dole.
1902 Meyer Lansky (born), Belarusian-American gangster (died 1983)
1903 Dorothy Levitt is reported as the first woman in the world to compete in a ‘motor race’.
1910 African-American boxer Jack Johnson knocks out white boxer Jim Jeffries in a heavyweight boxing match, sparking race riots across the United States.
1910 Robert K. Merton, American sociologist (died 2003)
1911 A massive heat wave strikes the northeastern United States, killing 380 people in eleven days and breaking temperature records in several cities.
1911 Mitch Miller (born), American singer and producer (died 2010)
1918 Bolsheviks killed Tsar Nicholas II of Russia and his family (Julian calendar date).
1920 Leona Helmsley (born), American businesswoman (died 2007)
1926 Knoebels Amusement Resort is opened in Elysburg, Pennsylvania.
1926 Lake Underwood (born), American entrepreneur who competed as a champion in the racing of prototype automobiles and motorcycles and was described as “Porsche’s Quiet Giant”
1927 Gina Lollobrigida (born), Italian actress
1927 Neil Simon (born), American playwright and screenwriter
1927 The Lockheed Vega first flew.
1930 George Steinbrenner (born), American businessman (died 2010)
1934 Leo Szilard patented the chain-reaction design for the atomic bomb.
1934 Marie Curie (died), French-Polish physicist and chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (born 1867)
1938 Bill Withers (born), American singer-songwriter and producer
1939 Lou Gehrig, recently diagnosed with Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, informs a crowd at Yankee Stadium that he considered himself “The luckiest man on the face of the earth”, then announces his retirement from major league baseball.
1940 Dave Rowberry (born), English pianist and songwriter (The Animals) (died 2003)
1943 Alan Wilson (born), American singer-songwriter and guitarist (Canned Heat) (died 1970)
1943 Geraldo Rivera (born), American lawyer, journalist, and author
1943 World War II: The Battle of Kursk, the largest full-scale battle in history and the world’s largest tank battle, begins in Prokhorovka village.
1946 After 381 years of near-continuous colonial rule by various powers, the Philippines attains full independence from the United States.
1947 The “Indian Independence Bill” is presented before the British House of Commons, proposing the independence of the Provinces of British India into two sovereign countries: India and Pakistan.
1948 René Arnoux (born), French race car driver
1950 Radio Free Europe first broadcasts.
1951 A court in Czechoslovakia sentences American journalist William N. Oatis to ten years in prison on charges of espionage.
1951 William Shockley announced the invention of the junction transistor.
1958 Steve Hartman (born), American newscaster
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).
1960 Roland Ratzenberger (born), Austrian race car driver (died 1994)
1960 Sid Vicious (born), American wrestler and actor
1963 Henri Leconte (born), French tennis player
1964 Mark Slaughter (born), American singer-songwriter and producer (Slaughter and Vinnie Vincent Invasion)
1966 U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson signs the Freedom of Information Act into United States law. The act went into effect the next year.
1969 The Zodiac Killer attacks two teens (one male, one female) at Blue Rock Springs in California; they were his second known victims. The female died.
1971 Koko (born), American gorilla
1972 William Goldsmith (born), American drummer (Sunny Day Real Estate, Foo Fighters, and The Fire Theft)
1973 Jan Magnussen (born), Danish race car driver
1976 Israeli commandos raid Entebbe airport in Uganda, rescuing all but four of the passengers and crew of an Air France jetliner seized by Palestinian terrorists.
1977 The George Jackson Brigade plants a bomb at the main power substation for the Washington state capitol in Olympia, in solidarity with a prison strike at the Walla Walla State Penitentiary Intensive Security Unit
1982 Four Iranian diplomats are abducted by Lebanese militia in Lebanon.
1987 In France, former Gestapo chief Klaus Barbie (aka the “Butcher of Lyon”) is convicted of crimes against humanity and sentenced to life imprisonment.
1995 Eva Gabor (died), Hungarian-American actress and singer (born 1919)
1997 Charles Kuralt (died), American journalist (born 1934)
1997 John Zachary Young (died), English zoologist (born 1907)
1997 NASA’s Pathfinder space probe lands on the surface of Mars.
1998 Malia Obama (born), American daughter of Barack Obama
2003 Barry White (died), American singer-songwriter, pianist, and producer (born 1944)
2004 The cornerstone of the Freedom Tower is laid on the site of the World Trade Center in New York City.
2005 The Deep Impact collider hits the comet Tempel 1.
2007 Bill Pinkney (died), American singer (The Drifters) (born 1925)
2008 Jesse Helms (died), American journalist and politician (b. 1921)
2009 The Statue of Liberty’s crown reopens to the public after eight years of closure due to security concerns following the September 11 attacks.
2012 The discovery of particles consistent with the Higgs boson at the Large Hadron Collider is announced at CERN.
EO Smith
Latest posts by EO Smith (see all)
- Patriotism - 4 July, 2017
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- Alternative Facts and Science - 24 January, 2017