On July 4th...

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Independence Day (United States)
King's Birthday (Tonga)

1534 The town of Rye elected Christian III King of Denmark and Norway.

1636 The city of Providence, Rhode Island, was established.

1776 The Continental Congress formally adopted the Declaration of Independence.

1789 The first U. S. tariff act was signed by President George Washington.

1799 King Oscar I of Sweden and Norway was born.

1804 Author Nathaniel Hawthorne was born.

1807 Italian patriot Giuseppe Garibaldi was born.

1808 Fisher Ames, member of the first U.S. House of Representatives, died.

1816 Distillery founder Hiram Walker was born.

1817 Construction began on the Erie Canal.

1826 Songwriter Stephen Foster was born.
1826 John Adams, 2nd President of the United States, died.
1826 Thomas Jefferson, 3rd President of the United States, died.

1831 "America (My Country 'Tis of Thee)" was first sung, in Boston, Massachusetts.
1831 James Monroe, 5th President of the United States, died.

1836 Wisconsin Territory was formed.

1838 A flood in the Huskar Colliery at Silkstone, England, killed 26 children.
1838 Iowa Territory was formed.

1845 The Texas Congress voted for annexation by the United States.

1848 The cornerstone of the Washington Monument was laid.

1863 Vicksburg, Mississippi, surrendered to the Union Army.
1863 Boise, Idaho, was founded.

1872 Calvin Coolidge, 30th President of the United States, was born.

1874 The Eads Bridge, the first steel truss bridge in the world, was dedicated.
1874 The Social Democratic Workmen's Party of North America was formed.

1883 Cartoonist Rube Goldberg was born.

1884 France presented the Statue of Liberty to the United States.

1885 Film producer Louis B. Mayer was born.

1891 American politician Hannibal Hamlin died.

1894 Federal troops were sent into Chicago, Illinois, to protect trains from striking workers.
1894 The Republic of Hawaii was proclaimed.

1895 Katherine Lee Bates published "America the Beautiful."

1900 Blanche Bingley and R. F. Doherty won their respective singles championships at Wimbledon.

1903 The first Pacific Cable, running between San Francisco, California, and Manila, Philippines, went into service.

1910 Astronomer Giovanni Schiaparelli died.

1911 Musician Mitch Miller was born.

1913 Anthony Wilding and Dorothea Chambers won their respective singles championships at Wimbledon.

1914 Dorothea Chambers and Norman Brookes won their respective singles championships at Wimbledon.

1918 Esther Pauline Friedman, advice columnist known as Ann Landers, was born.

1924 Actress Eva Marie Saint was born.

1925 TheDreyfus Hotel in Boston, Massachusetts, collapsed, killing 44 persons.
1925 Rene Lacoste won the men's singles championship at Wimbledon.

1927 Actress Gina Lollobrigida was born.
1927 Playwright Neil Simon was born.

1930 Helen Moody won the women's singles championship at Wimbledon.
1930 George Steinbrenner, owner of the New York Yankees, was born.

1934 Nobel Prize-winning chemist Marie Curie died.

1938 Singer Bill Withers was born.

1943 Television journalist Geraldo Rivera was born.

1946 The Philippines celebrated its official independence from the United States.

1947 Jack Kramer and Margaret Osborne won their respective singles championships at Wimbledon.
1947 Fred Daly won the British Open.

1952 Frank Sedgman and Maureen Connolly won their respective singles championships at Wimbledon.

1954 West Germany defeated Hungary, 3-2, to win the FIFA World Cup.
1954 Dr. Sam Sheppard's wife, Marilyn, was murdered.

1956 Independence National Historical Park was established in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

1958 Ashley Cooper and Althea Gibson won their respective singles championships at Wimbledon.

1960 The 50-star U.S. flag was officially flown for the first time.
1960 Mickey Wright won the LPGA Championship.

1965 Tornadoes and windstorms killed 25 persons in northern Italy.
1965 Carol Mann won the U. S. Women's Open.

1969 Ann Jones won the women's singles championship at Wimbledon.

1970 A chartered Dan-Air Comet crashed into mountains north of Barcelona, Spain, killing 112 vacationing Britons.
1970 John Newcombe won the men's singles championship at Wimbledon.

1975 Billie Jean King won the women's singles championship at Wimbledon.

1976 Israeli troops rescued 229 Air France hostages at the airport in Entebbe, Uganda.

1981 John McEnroe won the men's singles championship at Wimbledon.

1982 Jimmy Connors won the men's singles championship at Wimbledon.

1987 Martina Navratilova won the women's singles championship at Wimbledon.

1988 The U. S. Navy shot down an Iranian civilian airliner over the Persian Gulf, killing 290 persons.
1988 Stegan Edberg won the men's singles championship at Wimbledon.

1992 Steffi Graf won the women's singles championship at Wimbledon.

1993 Pete Sampras won the men's singles championship at Wimbledon.

1995 Actress Eva Gabor died.
1995 Bob Ross, host of The Joy of Painting, died.

1997 Pathfinder landed on Mars.
1997 Television journalist Charles Kuralt died.

1998 Jana Novotná won the women's singles championship at Wimbledon.

1999 Pete Sampras won the men's singles championship at Wimbledon.

2003 Singer Barry White died.

2004 The cornerstone of the Freedom Tower in New York City, New York, was laid.
2004 Roger Federer won the men's singles championship at Wimbledon.

2005 The Deep Impact collider hit Comet Tempel 1.
2005 Football coach Hank Stram died.

2008 American politician Jesse Helms died.

2009 Serena Williams and Rafael Nadal won their respective singles championship at Wimbledon.

2016 The Juno spacecraft entered Jupiter's orbit.

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This page was last updated on July 03, 2018.