What happened on July 4 ?
Events
993 - Saint Ulrich of Augsburg canonized.
1054 - A supernova is observed by the Chinese, the Arabs and possibly Amerindians near the star ? Tauri. For several months it remains bright enough to be seen during the day. Its remnants form the Crab Nebula.
1187 - The Crusades: Battle of Hattin - Saladin defeats Guy of Lusignan, King of Jerusalem.
1636 - City of Providence, Rhode Island forms.
1712 - 12 slaves are executed in New York for starting an uprising that killed 9 whites
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.
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 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 - 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.
1865 - Alice's Adventures in Wonderland is published.
1881 - In Alabama, the Tuskegee Institute opens.
1887 - Qauid-i-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah joined Sindh-Madrasa-tul-Islam.
1886 - First scheduled Canadian transcontinental train arrives in Port Moody, British Columbia.
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.
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 Discovery launches at 18:37:55 UTC to commence mission STS-121 for the first time in NASA history. It is the first Independence Day shuttle launch.
2006 - North Korea tests four short-range missiles one medium-range missile, and a long-range Taepodong-2. The latter reportedly fails in mid-air over the Sea of Japan.
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