What happened on July 3 ?

324 - Battle of Adrianople Constantine I defeats Licinius, who flees to Byzantium

987 - Hugh Capet was crowned King of France, the first of the Capetian dynasty which ruled France till the French Revolution in 1792.

1250 - Louis IX of France is captured by Baibars' Mamluk army at the Battle of Fariskur while he is in Egypt conducting the Seventh Crusade; he later has to ransom himself.

1608 - Quebec City founded by Samuel de Champlain.

1754 - French and Indian War: George Washington surrenders Fort Necessity to French forces.

1767 - Pitcairn Island is discovered by Midshipman Robert Pitcairn on an expeditionary voyage commanded by Philip Carteret.

1767 Norway's oldest newspaper still in print, Adresseavisen, is founded (first edition published this date).

1775 - American Revolutionary War: George Washington takes command of the Continental Army at Cambridge, Massachusetts.

1778 - American Revolutionary War: British forces massacre 360 men, women & children in the Wyoming Valley massacre.

1778 - Prussia declares war on Austria.

1819 - The first savings bank in the United States (The Bank of Savings in New York City) opens.

1839 - The first state normal school in the United States, the forerunner to today's Framingham State College, opens in Lexington, Massachusetts with 3 students.

1844 - The last pair of Great Auks is killed.

1848 - Slaves are freed in the Danish West Indies (now U.S. Virgin Islands).

1852 - Congress establishes the United States's 2nd mint in San Francisco, California.

1863 - U.S. Civil War: The final day of the Battle of Gettysburg.

1866 - Austro-Prussian War is decided at the Battle of Königgratz, resulting in Prussia taking over as the prominent German nation from Austria.

1884 - Dow Jones published its 1st stock average.

1886 - The New York Tribune becomes the first newspaper to use a linotype machine, eliminating typesetting by hand.

1890 - Idaho is admitted as the 43rd U.S. state.

1898 - Spanish fleet, led by Pascual Cervera y Topete, destroyed by the U.S. Army in Santiago, Cuba during the Spanish-American War.

1928 - First color television broadcast in London.

1938 - World speed record for a steam railway locomotive is set in England, by the Mallard, which reaches a speed of 203 km/h (126 mph).

1944 - World War II: Minsk was liberated from Nazi control by Soviet troops during Operation Bagration.

1952 - Puerto Rico's Constitution is approved by the Congress of the United States.

1962 - The Algerian War of Independence against the French ends.

1970 - A British Dan-Air De Havilland Comet chartered jetliner crashes into mountains north of Barcelona, Spain killing 112 people.

1976 - Israeli commandos rescue 105 hostages at Entebbe Airport, Uganda during Operation Yonatan.

1977 - The Senegalese Republican Movement (MRS) is founded.

1979 - US President Jimmy Carter signs the first directive for secret aid to the opponents of the pro-Soviet regime in Kabul.

1985 - Back to the Future debuts in theaters all over the U.S.

1986 - US President Ronald Reagan presides over the relighting of the renovated Statue of Liberty.

1988 - United States Navy warship USS Vincennes shoots down Iran Air Flight 655 over the Persian Gulf, killing all 290 people aboard.

2001 - A Vladivostokavia Tupolev TU-154 jetliner crashes on approach to landing at Irkutsk, Russia killing 145 people.

2004 - Official opening of Bangkok's subway system.

2005 - The national law legalizing same-sex marriage takes effect in Spain.

2006 - Asteroid labeled as 2004 XP14 flies by Earth's atmosphere.