History Events on July 04

Ulrich of Augsburg is canonized as a saint.

#Ulrich_of_Augsburg

U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson signs the Freedom of Information Act into United States law. The act went into effect the next year.

#Lyndon_B._Johnson

Rwandan genocide: Kigali, the Rwandan capital, is captured by the Rwandan Patriotic Front, ending the genocide in the city.

#Rwandan_genocide

The Crusades: Battle of Hattin: Saladin defeats Guy of Lusignan, King of Jerusalem.

#Crusades

The funeral of Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his wife Sophie takes place in Vienna, six days after their assassinations in Sarajevo.

#Archduke_Franz_Ferdinand_of_Austria

The city of Trois-Rivières is founded in New France (now Quebec, Canada).

#Trois-Rivières

The first edition of Walt Whitman's book of poems, Leaves of Grass, is published In Brooklyn.

#Walt_Whitman

Philip Amadas and Arthur Barlowe arrive at Roanoke Island

#Philip_Amadas

The Deep Impact collider hits the comet Tempel 1.

#Deep_Impact_(spacecraft)

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 W?adys?aw Sikorski, the commander-in-chief of the Polish Army and the Prime Minister of the Polish government-in-exile; only the pilot survives.

#Gibraltar

Greece beats Portugal in the UEFA Euro 2004 Final and becomes European Champion for first time in its history.

#Greece_national_football_team

American Civil War: The Army of Northern Virginia withdraws from the battlefield after losing the Battle of Gettysburg, signalling an end to the Confederate invasion of U.S. territory.

#Army_of_Northern_Virginia

The Statue of Liberty's crown reopens to the public after eight years of closure due to security concerns following the September 11 attacks.

#Statue_of_Liberty

U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower signed the Rivers and Harbors Flood Control Bill.

#Dwight_D._Eisenhower

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.

#Battle_of_Kursk

Vladivostock Air Flight 352 crashes on approach to Irkutsk Airport killing all 145 people on board.

#Vladivostok_Air_Flight_352

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.

#World_War_II

Mehmed V died at the age of 73 and Ottoman sultan Mehmed VI ascends to the throne.

#Mehmed_V

Henry David Thoreau moves into a small cabin on Walden Pond in Concord, Massachusetts. Thoreau's account of his two years there, Walden, will become a touchstone of the environmental movement.

#Henry_David_Thoreau

Battle of Mantinea: The Thebans, led by Epaminondas, defeated the Spartans.

#Battle_of_Mantinea_(362_BC)

In Alabama, the Tuskegee Institute opens.

#Alabama

NASA's Pathfinder space probe lands on the surface of Mars.

#NASA

The Philippine-American War is officially concluded.

#Philippine-American_War

The U.S. celebrates its Bicentennial.

#United_States_Bicentennial

The discovery of particles consistent with the Higgs boson at the Large Hadron Collider is announced at CERN.

#Higgs_boson

Ottoman-Hungarian wars: The Siege of Nándorfehérvár (Belgrade) begins.

#Ottoman-Hungarian_wars

American Revolution: The United States Declaration of Independence is adopted by the Second Continental Congress.

#American_Revolution

William Shockley announces the invention of the junction transistor.

#William_Shockley

Leo Szilard patents the chain-reaction design that would later be used in the atomic bomb.

#Leo_Szilard

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.

#Theodosius_II

American Revolutionary War: U.S. forces under George Clark capture Kaskaskia during the Illinois campaign.

#American_Revolutionary_War

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.

#SN_1054

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.

#House_of_Commons_of_the_United_Kingdom

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.

#Israel_Defense_Forces

First flight of the Lockheed Vega.

#Lockheed_Vega

The short-lived Republic of Hawaii is proclaimed by Sanford B. Dole.

#Republic_of_Hawaii

Cold War: A court in Czechoslovakia sentences American journalist William N. Oatis to ten years in prison on charges of espionage.

#Czechoslovak_Socialist_Republic

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 Acts (United States)).

#U.S._state

American Civil War: Siege of Vicksburg: Vicksburg, Mississippi surrenders to U.S. forces under 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.

#American_Civil_War

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.

#Gestapo

The Louisiana Purchase is announced to the U.S. people.

#Louisiana_Purchase

The Iowa Territory is organized.

#Iowa_Territory

In Rome, New York, construction on the Erie Canal begins.

#Rome,_New_York

Japan launches the Nozomi probe to Mars, joining the United States and Russia as a space exploring nation.

#Nozomi_(spacecraft)

William Howard Taft becomes American governor of the Philippines.

#William_Howard_Taft

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.

#Thomas_Jefferson

Slavery is abolished in the State of New York.

#Slavery_in_the_United_States

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.

#Soviet_submarine_K-19

The first scheduled Canadian transcontinental train arrives in Port Moody, British Columbia.

#Port_Moody

After 381 years of near-continuous colonial rule by various powers, the Philippines attains full independence from the United States.

#Philippines

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.

#George_Jackson_Brigade

A massive heat wave strikes the northeastern United States, killing 380 people in eleven days and breaking temperature records in several cities.

#1911_Eastern_North_America_heat_wave

The founder of Pakistan, Quaid-i-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah, joins Sindh-Madrasa-tul-Islam, Karachi.

#Pakistan

At West Point, New York, the United States Military Academy opens.

#West_Point,_New_York

The Battle of Klushino is fought between forces of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth and Russia during the Polish-Muscovite War.

#Battle_of_Klushino

Lewis Carroll tells Alice Liddell a story that would grow into Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and its sequels.

#Lewis_Carroll

Grand Junction Railway, the world's first long-distance railway, opens between Birmingham and Liverpool.

#Grand_Junction_Railway

The cornerstone of the Freedom Tower is laid on the World Trade Center site in New York City.

#One_World_Trade_Center

The Kielce pogrom against Jewish Holocaust survivors in Poland.

#Kielce_pogrom

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.

#Le_Havre

Jordan II of Capua is anointed as prince after his infant nephew's death.

#Jordan_II_of_Capua

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.

#Lou_Gehrig

Pactum Sicardi, a peace treaty between the Principality of Benevento and the Duchy of Naples, is signed.

#Pactum_Sicardi

Cold War: Radio Free Europe first broadcasts.

#Cold_War

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.

#Anglo-Zulu_War

President Woodrow Wilson addresses American Civil War veterans at the Great Reunion of 1913.

#President_of_the_United_States

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.

#World_War_I

Nazi crimes against the Polish nation: Nazi troops massacre Polish scientists and writers in the captured Ukrainian city of Lviv.

#Nazi_crimes_against_the_Polish_nation

Christian III is elected King of Denmark and Norway in the town of Rye.

#Election_of_Christian_III

Samuel Francis Smith writes "My Country, 'Tis of Thee" for the Boston, Massachusetts July 4 festivities.

#Samuel_Francis_Smith

Chile claims its first title in international soccer by defeating Argentina in the 2015 Copa América Final.

The first of four days of bombings begins on the southern Philippine island group of Mindanao.

Three Iranian diplomats and a journalist are kidnapped in Lebanon by Phalange forces, and their fate remains unknown.

World War II: The 250-day Siege of Sevastopol in the Crimea ends when the city falls to Axis forces.

Bolsheviks kill Tsar Nicholas II of Russia and his family (Julian calendar date).

African-American boxer Jack Johnson knocks out white boxer Jim Jeffries in a heavyweight boxing match, sparking race riots across the United States.

The first double-decked street car service was inaugurated in San Diego, California.

Western Samoa changes the International Date Line, causing Monday (July 4) to occur twice, resulting in a year with 367 days.

Orangetown Resolutions are adopted in the Province of New York, one of many protests against the British Parliament's Coercive Acts.

The Treaty of Lancaster, in which the Iroquois cede lands between the Allegheny Mountains and the Ohio River to the British colonies, was signed in Lancaster, Pennsylvania.

Francesco II Ordelaffi of Forlì surrenders to the Papal commander Gil de Albornoz.

Battle of West-Capelle: John I of Avesnes defeats Guy of Dampierre.