July
4
Independence
Day
United States of America : July 4 1776
Events
July
4
414
– Emperor Theodosius II, age 13, yields power
to his older sister Aelia Pulcheria who reigns
as regent and proclaimed herself empress (Augusta)
of the Eastern Roman Empire.
836 – Pactum Sicardi, peace between the Principality
of Benevento and the Duchy of Naples.
993 – Saint Ulrich of Augsburg is canonized.
1054 – A supernova is seen by Chinese, 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 – The Siege of Nándorfehérvár (Belgrade)
begins. (Part of the Ottoman wars in Europe)
1534 – Christian III is elected King of Denmark
and Norway in the town of Rye.
1569 – The King of Poland and the Grand Duke
of Lithuania, Sigismund II Augustus finally
sign the document of union between Poland
and Lithuania, creating new country known
as Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth.
1610 – The Battle of Klushino 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 (Quebec, Canada)
1636 – City of Providence, Rhode Island forms.
1744 – The Treaty of Lancaster, in which the
Iroquois ceded lands between the Allegheny
Mountains and the Ohio River to the British
colonies, is signed in Lancaster, Pennsylvania.
1754 – French and Indian War: George Washington
surrenders Fort Necessity to French Capt.
Louis Coulon de Villiers.
1774 – Orangetown Resolutions adopted in the
Province of New York, one of many protests
against the British Parliament's Coercive
Acts
The United States declares its independence
in 1776.
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.
1810 – The French occupy Amsterdam.
1817 – At Rome, New York, United States, 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 wrote My Country,
'Tis of Thee for the Boston, MA July 4th festivities.
1837 – Grand Junction Railway, the world's
first long-distance railway, opens between
Birmingham and Liverpool.
1838 – The Iowa Territory is organized.
1855 – In Brooklyn, New York, the first edition
of Walt Whitman's book of poems, titled Leaves
of Grass, is published.
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. 150 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
its loss at the Battle of Gettysburg, signalling
an end to the Southern invasion of the North.
1865 – Alice's Adventures in Wonderland is
published.
1878 – Thoroughbred horses Ten Broeck and
Mollie McCarty run a match race, immortalized
in the song Molly and Tenbrooks.
1879 – Anglo-Zulu War: the Zululand capital
of Ulundi is captured by British troops and
burnt to the ground, thus, ending the war
and forcing King Cetshwayo to flee.
1881 – In Alabama, the Tuskegee Institute
opens.
1886 – The people of France offer the Statue
of Liberty to the people of the United States.
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, 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.
1903 – Dorothy Levitt is reported as the first
woman in the world to compete in a 'motor
race'.
1910 – African-American boxer Jack Johnson
knocks out white boxer Jim Jeffries in a heavyweight
boxing match sparking race riots across the
United States.
1913 – President Woodrow Wilson addresses
American Civil War veterans at the Great Reunion
of 1913.
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 – 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 considers himself
"The luckiest man on the face of the
earth" as he announces his retirement
from major league baseball.
1941 – Nazi Germans massacre Polish scientists
and writers in the captured Ukrainian city
of Lviv.
1943 – World War II: Beginning of the Battle
of Kursk, the largest full-scale battle in
history and the world's largest tank battle
at Prokhorovka village.
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 partition of the Provinces of
British India into two sovereign countries
– India and Pakistan.
1950 – The first broadcast by Radio Free Europe.
1951 – A court in Czechoslovakia sentences
American journalist William N. Oatis to ten
years in prison on a charge of espionage.
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.
1969 – Two teens (one male, one female) are
attacked at Blue Rock Springs in California.
They are the second (known) victims of the
Zodiac Killer. The male survives.
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.
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 – Iranian diplomats kidnapping (1982):
four Iranian diplomats are 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.
1993 – Sumitomo Chemical's resin plant in
Nihama explodes killing one worker and injuring
three others.
1997 – NASA's Pathfinder space probe lands
on the surface of Mars.
2004 – The cornerstone of the Freedom Tower
is laid on the site of the World Trade Center
in New York City.
2005 – The Deep Impact collider hits the comet
Tempel 1.
2006 – North Korea tests four short-range
missiles, one medium-range missile, and a
long-range Taepodong-2. The long-range Taepodong-2
reportedly fails in mid-air over the Sea of
Japan.
2009 – The Statue of Liberty's crown reopens
to the public after 8 years, due to security
reasons following the World Trade Center attacks.
Holidays
and observances
Christian
Feast Day:
Andrew of Crete
Bertha of Artois
Bl Catherine Jarrige
Elizabeth of Portugal, patron saint of Coimbra
(city holiday), known there as Rainha Santa
Isabela.
Oda of Canterbury
Bl Pier Giorgio Frassati
Ulrich of Augsburg
July 4 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics)
Filipino-American Friendship Day (Philippines)
Independence Day, celebrates the Declaration
of Independence of the United States from
Great Britain in 1776. (United States and
its dependencies)
Liberation Day (Rwanda)
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