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July 4 in History
Historical Events on July 4
362 BC
Battle of Mantinea: The Thebans, led by Epaminondas, defeated the Spartans.
414
Emperor Theodosius II, age 13, yields power to his older sister Aelia Pulcheria, who reigned as regent and proclaimed herself empress (Augusta) of the Eastern Roman Empire.
836
Pactum Sicardi, a peace treaty between the Principality of Benevento and the Duchy of Naples, is signed.
993
Ulrich of Augsburg is canonized as a saint.
1054
A supernova, called SN 1054, is seen by Chinese Song dynasty, 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.
1120
Jordan II of Capua is 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.
1359
Francesco II Ordelaffi of Forlì surrenders to the Papal commander Gil de Albornoz.
1456
Ottoman wars in Europe: The Siege of Nándorfehérvár (Belgrade) begins.
1534
Christian III is elected King of Denmark and Norway in the town of Rye.
1584
Philip Amadas and Arthur Barlowe arrive at Roanoke Island
1610
The Battle of Klushino is fought between forces of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth and Russia during the Polish-Muscovite War.
1634
The city of Trois-Rivières is founded in New France (now Quebec, Canada).
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.
1774
Orangetown Resolutions are adopted in the Province of New York, one of many protests against the British Parliament's Coercive Acts
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.
1802
At West Point, New York, the United States Military Academy opens.
1803
The Louisiana Purchase is announced to the American people.
1817
In Rome, New York, construction on the Erie Canal begins.
1826
Thomas Jefferson, 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
Samuel Francis Smith writes "My Country, 'Tis of Thee" for the Boston, Massachusetts July 4 festivities.
1837
Grand Junction Railway, the world's first long-distance railway, opens between Birmingham and Liverpool.
1838
The Iowa Territory is organized.
1855
The first edition of Walt Whitman's book of poems, Leaves of Grass, is published In Brooklyn.
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. One hundred fifty miles up the Mississippi River, a Confederate Army is repulsed at the Battle of Helena, Arkansas.
1863
American Civil War: The Army of Northern Virginia withdraws from the battlefield after losing the Battle of Gettysburg, signalling an end to the Southern invasion of the North.
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.
1886
The first scheduled Canadian transcontinental train arrives in Port Moody, British Columbia.
1887
The founder of Pakistan, Quaid-i-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah, joins Sindh-Madrasa-tul-Islam, Karachi.
1892
Western Samoa changes the International Date Line, causing Monday (July 4) to occur twice, resulting in a year with 367 days.
1894
The short-lived Republic of Hawaii is proclaimed by Sanford B. Dole.
1898
En route from New York to Le Havre, the SS La Bourgogne collides with another ship and sinks off the coast of Sable Island, with the loss of 549 lives.
1901
William Howard Taft becomes American governor of the Philippines.
1903
Philippine-American War is officially concluded.
1910
African-American boxer Jack Johnson knocks out white boxer Jim Jeffries in a heavyweight boxing match, sparking race riots across the United States.
1911
A massive heat wave strikes the northeastern United States, killing 380 people in eleven days and breaking temperature records in several cities.
1913
President Woodrow Wilson addresses American Civil War veterans at the Great Reunion of 1913.
1914
The funeral of Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his wife Sophie takes place in Vienna, six days after their assassinations in Sarajevo.
1918
Mehmed V died at the age of 73 and Ottoman sultan Mehmed VI ascends to the throne.
1918
World War I: The Battle of Hamel, a successful attack by the Australian Corps against German positions near the town of Le Hamel on the Western Front.
1918
Bolsheviks kill Tsar Nicholas II of Russia and his family (Julian calendar date).
1927
First flight of the Lockheed Vega.
1934
Leo Szilard patents the chain-reaction design that would later be used in the atomic bomb.
1939
Lou Gehrig, recently diagnosed with Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, informs a crowd at Yankee Stadium that he considers himself "The luckiest man on the face of the earth", then announces his retirement from major league baseball.
1941
Nazi troops massacre Polish scientists and writers in the captured Ukrainian city of Lviv.
1941
World War II: The Burning of the Riga synagogues: The Great Choral Synagogue in German occupied Riga is burnt with 300 Jews locked in the basement.
1942
World War II: The 250-day Siege of Sevastopol in the Crimea ends when the city falls to Axis forces.
1943
World War II: The Battle of Kursk, the largest full-scale battle in history and the world's largest tank battle, begins in the village of Prokhorovka.
1943
World War II: In Gibraltar, a Royal Air Force B-24 Liberator bomber crashes into the sea in an apparent accident moments after takeoff, killing sixteen passengers on board, including general Władysław Sikorski, the commander-in-chief of the Polish Army and the Prime Minister of the Polish government-in-exile; only the pilot survives.
1946
The Kielce pogrom against Jewish Holocaust survivors in Poland.
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.
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 announces the invention of the junction transistor.
1958
President Dwight D. Eisenhower signed the Rivers and Harbors Flood Control Bill.
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, almost ten and a half months later (see Flag Act).
1961
On its maiden voyage, the Soviet nuclear-powered submarine K-19 suffers a complete loss of coolant to its reactor. The crew are able to effect repairs, but 22 of them die of radiation poisoning over the following two years.
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.
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.
1976
The U.S. celebrates its Bicentennial.
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
Three Iranian diplomats and a journalist are kidnapped in Lebanon by Phalange forces, and their fate remains unknown.
1987
In France, former Gestapo chief Klaus Barbie (a.k.a. the "Butcher of Lyon") is convicted of crimes against humanity and sentenced to life imprisonment.
1994
Rwandan genocide: Kigali, the Rwandan capital, is captured by the Rwandan Patriotic Front, ending the genocide in the city.
1997
NASA's Pathfinder space probe lands on the surface of Mars.
1998
Japan launches the Nozomi probe to Mars, joining the United States and Russia as a space exploring nation.
2004
The cornerstone of the Freedom Tower is laid on the World Trade Center site in New York City.
2005
The Deep Impact collider hits the comet Tempel 1.
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.
2009
The first of four days of bombings begins on the southern Philippine island group of Mindanao.
2012
The discovery of particles consistent with the Higgs boson at the Large Hadron Collider is announced at CERN.
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