4th July, on this day

836 Pactum Sicardi, peace between the Principality of Benevento and the Duchy of Naples
993 Saint Ulrich of Augsburg canonised.
1054 Brightest known super-nova (Crab Nebula) starts shining (23 days)
1120 Jordan II of Capua 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
1634 The city of Trois-Rivières is founded in New France, later to become the Canadian province of Quebec.
1636 City of Providence, Rhode Island formed
1653 Barebones Parliment goes into session in England
1776 American commander George Washington signs the Declaration of Independence during the war with the British. July 4th is now recognised as American Independence Day
1778 Forces under George Rogers Clark capture Kaskaskia during the Illinois campaign.
1789 1st US tariff act
1802 US Military Academy officially opens (West Point, NY)
1803 The Louisiana Purchase is announced to the American people.
1810 The French occupy Amsterdam.
1817 Construction on Erie Canal begins
1819 William Herschel makes last telescopic observation of 1819 comet
1827 Slavery abolished in NY
1828 Construction begins on Band O (Baltimore-Ohio) 1st US passenger RR
1829 First regular scheduled bus service starts in London - a horse drawn service between Marylebone Road and the Bank of England
1832 "America" 1st sung publicly
1836 Wisconsin Territory formed
1837 Grand Junction Railway, world's first long-distance railway, opens between Birmingham and Liverpool.
1838 The Iowa Territory is organized.
1840 The Cunard Shipping Line begins its first Atlantic crossing when the paddle steamer Britannia sails from Liverpool en route to Halifax. The voyage takes 14 days
1845 Texas Congress votes for annexation to US
1848 Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels publish their Communist Manifesto
1862 Lewis Carroll creates Alice in Wonderland for Alice P Liddell
1863 American Civil War: Union forces defeat the Confederates at the Battle of Vicksburg
1865 1st edition of "Alice in Wonderland" is published
1866 Firecracker thrown in wood starts fire destroying Portland, Me
1875 White Democrats kill several blacks in terrorist attacks in Vicksburg
1876 1st public exhibition of electric light in SF
1881 In Alabama, the Tuskegee Institute opens.
1881 American outlaw William H Bonney, known as Billy the Kid, is shot dead by lawman Pat Garrett
1883 Buffalo Bill Cody presents 1st wild west show, North Platte, Nebr
1884 1st US bullfight held (Dodge City Ks)
1884 The Statue of Liberty is presented to America by the people of France
1886 1st scheduled transcontinental passenger train reaches Port Moody, BC
1888 1st organized rodeo competition held, Prescott, Ariz
1892 James Keir Hardie is elected MP for Holytown, Lanarkshire to become the first socialist to win seat in British parliament
1894 Elwood Haynes successfully tests one of 1st US autos at 6 MPH
1894 The short-lived Republic of Hawaii is proclaimed by Sanford B. Dole.
1898 "La Bourgogne" collides with "Cromartyshire", 560 drown
1898 French liner "La Bourgogne" collides with bark "Cromartyshire", 50 die
1898 US flag hoisted over Wake Island (Spanish-American War)
1903 USA President Theodore Roosevelt inaugurates the Pacific Communications Cable by sending a message around the world
1904 Start of construction work to build the Panama Canal
1906 Britain, France and Italy guarantee the independence of Ethiopia
1910 African-American boxer Jack Johnson knocks out white boxer Jim Jeffries in a heavyweight boxing match sparking race riots across the United States.
1914 1st US motorcycle race (300 miles, Dodge City Ks)
1918 Ottoman sultan Mehmed VI ascends to the throne.
1918 Bolsheviks kill Tsar Nicholas II of Russia and his family (Julian calendar date).
1918 Altar dedicated at full-scale replica of Stonehenge at Maryhill, Wa
1919 In Toledo, Ohio, American boxer Jack Dempsey beats Jess Willard to become heavyweight champion of the world. Williard is knocked down 7 times before retiring in the third round
1925 44 die when the Dreyfus Hotel in Boston collapses
1934 Leo Szilard patents the chain-reaction design for the atomic bomb
1941 Mass murder of Polish scientists and writers, committed by Nazi Germans in the captured Polish city of Lwów.
1941 Howard Florey and Norman Heatley meet for the 1st time, 11 days later
they successfully recreate pencillin
1942 1st American bombing mission over enemy-occupied Europe (WW II)
1943 Polish prime minister Wladyslaw Sikorski, leader of the Polish Government in exile during World War II, is killed in an aircrash
1946 Independence for the Philippine Islands from the United States of America
1947 "Indian Independence Bill" is presented before British House of Commons, suggesting bifurcation of British India into two sovereign countries - India and Pakistan.
1948 In Britain, the beginning of the NHS - the National Health Service
1950 First broadcast by Radio Free Europe.
1954 West Germany beats Hungary 3-2 for soccer's 5th World Cup in Bern
1959 America's new 49-star flag honoring Alaska statehood unfurled
1959 Cayman Islands separated from Jamaica, made a crown colony
1960 America's new 50-star flag honoring Hawaiian statehood unfurled
1962 Island Records begins
1966 LBJ signs Freedom of Information Act
1966 The Beatles, in the Phillipines to give two concerts, are accused of 'standing up' Imelda Marcos. Their entourage is beat upat the airport.
1967 Freedom of Information Act goes into effect
1968 British yachtsman Alex Rose brings his ship, Lively Lady, into Portsmouth Harbour after completing his single-handed voyage around the world
1968 Two teens are killed at Lake Herman Road in California. They were the first (known) victims of the Zodiac Killer.
1969 "Give Peace a Chance" by Plastic Ono Band is released in the UK
1969 200,000 attend Atlanta Pop Festival featuring Led Zep & Janis Joplin
1969 British tennis player Ann Jones wins the Wimbledon women's singles title beating American Billie Jean King in the final
1969 British group The Rolling Stones release Honky Tonk Women
1970 100 injured in race rioting in Asbury Park NJ
1970 Chartered Dan-Air Comet crashes into mountains north of
Barcelona, Spain killing 112 vacationing Britons
1973 In audience with Italian cyclists, Pope Paul VI praises athletes who
"offer the magnificent show of a healthy, strong, generous youth"
1975 Bundy victim (?) Nancy Baird disappears from Layton, Utah
1976 Raid on Entebbe-Israel rescues 229 Air France passengers
1977 Nigel Harrison replaces Gary Valentine as bassist of Blondie
1978 Memphis firefighters halt 3-day strike under a court order
1982 Iranian diplomats kidnapping (1982):Four Iranian diplomats kidnapped by Lebanese militia in Lebanon.
1982 Jimmy Connors beats John McEnroe for his last Wimbeldon championship
1987 Martina Navratilova wins 6th straight Wimbeldon defeats Steffi Graf
1987 Nazi Klaus Barbie, "Butcher of Lyon" convicted by a French court
1988 Stefan Edberg beats Boris Becker for Wimbeldon crown
1988 US navy shoots down Iranian civilian jetliner over Gulf, kills 290
1990 2 Live Crew release "Banned in the USA" the lyrics quote Star
Spangled Banner and Gettysburg Address
1992 USS George Washington (CVN-73), a Nimitz Class aircraft carrier of the United States Navy is commissioned at Norfolk, Virginia.
1993 Sumitomo Chemical's resin plant in Nihama explodes killing one and injuring three workers.
1996 Prince Charles, Prince of Wales delivers his terms for a divorce from Diana, Princess of Wales - an offer of £15m reportedly backed by the Queen
1997 The unmanned American space probe 'Pathfinder' lands on Mars
2001 A Vladivostok Avia Tupolev TU-154 jetliner crashes on approach to landing at Irkutsk, Russia killing 145 people.
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.
2007 Zaca Fire Starts in Santa Barbara, California becomes second largest fire in California history.

4th July 2006

Iraqi minister's convoy snatched

Indonesian bird flu toll hits 40

Euro MPs push for air fuel taxes

4th July 2007

BBC's Johnston describes relief

Afghan bomb kills six Canadians

Crackdown in Ethiopia condemned

4th July 2008

Dozens hurt by Belarus bomb

Disaster hits Slovenian canoeists

Georgia shells Ossetia

4th July 2009

Iran 'hangs 20 drug traffickers'

Calm urged after N Korea missiles

US soldiers killed in Afghanistan

4th July 2010

15 die as Philippine bus hits wall to avoid crowd

Giant skimmer tested at spill site

Kaczynski accepts election defeat

Birthdates which occurred on 4th July :

1715 Christian Gellert Saxony, poet, novelist (Fables & Tales)
1753 Jean-Pierre-Francois Blanchard 1st balloon flights in England, US
1804 Nathaniel Hawthorne Mass, author (House of 7 Gables, Scarlet Letter)
1807 Giuseppe Garibaldi unified Italy
1826 Stephen Foster Lawrencevil, Pa, composer (Oh! Susanna, Swanee River)
1847 James Anthony Bailey Detroit, circus impresario (Barnum & Bailey)
1867 Stephen Mather organized US National Park Service
1872 Calvin Coolidge (R) 29th pres (1923-29)
1875 Giovanni & Giacomo Tocci Italy, siamese twins
1878 George M Cohan entertainer, Give my regards to Broadway
1880 George Mullin pitcher (Detroit Tigers-no-hitter on 7/4/1912)
1880 Pat Rooney vaudevillian/actor (Night Club)
1883 Rube Goldberg who made the easy outrageously difficult
1885 Louis B Mayer Minsk Russia, motion-picture executive (MGM)
1894 Henry Carlson basketball coach (originated figure 8 play)
1898 Johnny Lee Missouri, actor (Calhoun-Amos 'n' Andy)
19-- Michael Sweet rock vocalist (Stryper-Against the Law)
1900 Louis "Satchmo" Armstrong New Orleans LA, jazz musician (Hello Dolly)
1902 George Murphy New Haven Ct, (Sen-R-Calif)/actor/dancer (MGM Parade)
1902 Meyer Lansky mobster (Started numbers)
1902 Vince Barnett Pittsburgh, actor (Star is Born, Human Jungle)
1903 Flor Peeters Antwerp Belgium, organist (Lied Symphony)
1905 Lionel Trilling author (1969 Poses Award, Liberal Imagination)
1909 Alec Templeton Cardiff Wales, pianist/composer (Concertino Lirico)
1911 Mitch Miller Rochester NY, sing along with Mitch (Yellow Rose of Tx)
1912 Virginia Graham Chicago Ill, TV personality (Girl Talk, Where Was I)
1915 Timmie Rogers Detroit Mich, singer (Sugar Hill Time)
1916 Tokyo Rose WW II propogandist
1918 Abigail Van Buren twin sister, advice columnist
1918 Ann Landers twin sister, advice columnist
1918 Buster Davis Johnstown Pa, choral director (Garry Moore Show)
1918 Taufa'ahau Tupou IV king of Tonga (1965- )
1920 Leona Helmsley (wife of Harry), real estate billionaire
1921 Gerard Debreu France, economist (Nobel 1983)
1924 Eva Marie Saint Newark NJ, actress (On the Waterfront)
1926 Mary Stuart Miami Fla, actress (Jo-Search for Tomorrow)
1927 Gina Lollobrigida Subiaco Italy, actress (Trapeze, Falcon Crest)
1927 Neil Simon playwright (Odd Couple, Plaza Suite, Biloxi Blues)
1928 Stephen Boyd actor (Fantastic Voyage, Ben-Hur)
1929 Al Davis Brocton Mass, NFL team owner (LA Raiders)
1930 George Steinbrenner NY Yankees owner/ship builder/horse owner
1938 Bill Withers WV, rhythm & blues singer (Lean on Me)
1939 Ed Bernard Phila, actor (Joe-Police Woman, Jim-White Shadow)
1943 Emerson Boozer NFL running back (NY Jet)/sportscaster
1946 Michael Milken LA Calif, partner (Intl Capital Access Group)
1946 Ron Kovic disabled vietnam vet (Born on 4th of July)
1948 Rene Arnoux France, formula-1 racer (6th place-1980)
1950 David Jensen rocker British DJ
1953 Geraldo Rivera NYC, news personality (20/20, Geraldo)
1955 John Waite singer (Babies/Bad English-Forget Me Not)
1958 Kirk Pengilly Sydney Australia, rocker (Inxs-Kiss the Dirt)
1962 Pam Shriver tennis player (US Open's Doubles 1983,4,6,7)
1963 Henri Leconte France, tennis player (French finalist 1988)
1964 Mark Allen Slaughter Las Vegas, guitarist (Slaughter-Stick it Live)

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Deaths which occurred on July 4th:
1627 Thomas Middleton Elizabethan dramatist, dies (birth date unknown)
1826 John Adams & Thomas Jefferson 2nd & 3rd presidents, die
1831 James Monroe 5th president, dies
1848 Francois Rene de Chateaubriand French novelist/politician, dies
1934 Chaim Nachman Bialik zionist poet, dies
1938 Suzanne Lenglen 6 time Wimbeldon champ, dies at 39 of anemia
1957 Judy Tyler actress (Princess-Howdy Doody), dies at 24 in car crash
1962 Rex Bell cowboy (Cowboys & Injuns), dies at 56
1963 Grant Richards actor (Doug-Doorway to Danger), dies at 48
1970 Harold Vanderbilt America Cup winner (1930, 34, 37), dies at 85


Golden Link 1/ On this day 4th July

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