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July 4 is the 185th day of the year (186th in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar, with 180 days remaining. more...

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Events

836 - Pactum Sicardi, peace between the Principality of Benevento and the Duchy of Naples; 993 - Saint Ulrich of Augsburg canonized.; 1054 - A supernova is observed by the Chinese, the Arabs and possibly 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.; 1120 - Jordan II of Capua anointed as prince after his infant nephew's death; 1187 - The Crusades: Battle of Hattin - Saladin defeats Guy of Lusignan, King of Jerusalem.; 1253 - Battle of West-Capelle: John I of Avesnes defeats Guy of Dampierre; 1636 - City of Providence, Rhode Island forms.; 1712 - 11 slaves are executed in New York for starting an uprising that killed 9 whites; 1774 - Orangetown Resolutions adopted in Tappan, New York in Rockland County.; 1776 - American Revolutionary War: The Continental Congress approves a Declaration of Independence from the Kingdom of Great Britain.; 1802 - At West Point, New York the United States Military Academy opens.; 1803 - The Louisiana Purchase is announced to the American people.; 1810 - The French occupy Amsterdam.; 1817 - At Rome, New York, United States, construction on the Erie Canal begins.; 1826 - Former American presidents Thomas Jefferson and John Adams die, fifty years to the day after the adoption of the United States Declaration of Independence.; 1827 - Slavery is abolished in New York State.; 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 paddle steamer RMS Britannia departs from Liverpool bound for Halifax, Nova Scotia on the first transatlantic crossing with a scheduled end.; 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 - Austro-Sardinian War: The Battle of Magenta.; 1862 - Lewis Carroll tells Alice Liddell a story that would grow into Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and its sequels.; 1863 - American Civil War: Battle of Vicksburg - Vicksburg, Mississippi surrenders to Ulysses S. Grant after 47 days of siege. 150 miles up the Mississippi River, a Confederate Army is repulsed at the Battle of Helena, Arkansas.; 1865 - Alice's Adventures in Wonderland is published.; 1881 - In Alabama, the Tuskegee Institute opens.; 1886 - First scheduled Canadian transcontinental train arrives in Port Moody, British Columbia.; 1887 - Founder of Pakistan, Qauid-i-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah joined Sindh-Madrasa-tul-Islam, Karachi.; 1892 - Western Samoa changes the International Date Line, so that year there were 367 days in this country, with two occurrences of Monday, July 4.; 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 - First 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 381 years of colonial rule, the Philippines is granted full independence by the United States.; 1947 - "Indian Independence Bill" is presented before British House of Commons, suggesting bifurcation of British India into two sovereign coutries - India and Pakistan.; 1950 - First broadcast by Radio Free Europe.; 1954 - "The miracle of Bern", Germany wins the FIFA World Cup in Switzerland against Hungary.; 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.; 1970 - Popular syndicated radio show, "American Top 40", hosted by "Casey Kasem, debuts.; 1976 - Israeli commandos raid Entebbe airport in Uganda, rescuing all of the passengers and crew of an Air France jetliner seized by Palestinian terrorists.; 1976 - The United States celebrates its bicentennial.; 1982 - Four Iranian diplomats kidnapped 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 is sentenced to life imprisonment.; 1992 - USS George Washington (CVN-73), a Nimitz Class aircraft carrier of the United States Navy is commissioned at Norfolk, Virginia.; 1997 - NASA's Pathfinder space probe lands on the surface of Mars.; 1999 - David Beckham marries Victoria Adams in Ireland; 2004 - The cornerstone of the Freedom Tower is laid 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); 2005 - The Deep Impact collider hits the comet Tempel 1.; 2006 - Space Shuttle program: STS-121 Mission - Space Shuttle Discovery launches at 18:37:55 UTC . The first Independence Day shuttle launch.;

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