Historical Events on July 4

Events 1 - 200 of 288

• 836 Pactum Sicardi, peace between the Principality of Benevento and the Duchy of Naples
• 993 Saint Ulrich of Augsburg is canonized.

• 1054 Brightest known supernova SN 1054 (creates the Crab Nebula) 1st reported by Chinese astronomers
• 1120 Jordan II of Capua is anointed as prince after his infant nephew's death

• 1301 Battle at Breukelen: Holland vs Lichtenberg
• 1359 Francesco II Ordelaffi of Forlì surrenders to the Papal commander Gil de Albornoz.
• 1415 Angelo Correr renounces his claim to the Papacy as Pope Gregory XII
• 1453 41 Jewish martyrs burned at stake at Breslau

• 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 form
• 1652 Prince of Condé starts blood bath in Paris
• 1653 English Barebones Parliament goes into session
• 1672 States of Holland declares "Eternal Edict" void
• 1693 Battle at Boussu-lez-Walcourt: French-English vs Dutch army

• 1774 Orangetown Resolutions adopted in the Province of New York, one of many protests against the British Parliament's Coercive Acts

• 1779 French fleet occupies Grenada

• 1789 1st US tariff act signed by President Washington
• 1796 1st Independence Day celebration is held
• 1802 1st US Military Academy opens at West Point, NY

• 1810 French troops occupy Amsterdam
• 1817 Chief Engineer James Geddes begins construction on the Erie Canal, (Rome, New York), one of the first great engineering works in North America

• 1827 Slavery abolished in New York
• 1828 Construction begins on B & O (Baltimore-Ohio) 1st US passenger RR
• 1829 Cornerstone laid for 2nd US mint at Chestnut and Juniper St, Philadelphia, the "Grecian Temple"
• 1829 The first London bus "omnibus", operated by George Shillibeer, begins service between Marylebone Road and Bank Junction
• 1831 "America (My Country 'Tis of Thee)" is 1st sung in Boston
• 1836 Wisconsin Territory forms
• 1837 Grand Junction Railway, the world's first long-distance railway, opens between Birmingham and Liverpool
• 1838 Iowa Territory is organised from Wisconsin Territory, lasting until 1846
• 1838 Huskar Colliery Mining Disaster in Silkstone England: mining pit floods drown 26 children, leads to 1842 'Mines and Collieries Act' bans women and children working underground
• 1840 The Cunard Line's 700 ton wooden paddle steamer RMS Britannia departs from Liverpool bound for Halifax, Nova Scotia on the first transatlantic crossing with a scheduled end

• 1845 Texas Congress votes for annexation to US

• 1861 In a special session of 27th Congress Lincoln requests 400,000 troops
• 1861 Skirmish at Harper's Ferry, West Virginia

• 1862 R Morgan's: Tomkinsville, KY to Somerset, KY [->JUL 28]
• 1863 Boise, Idaho founded (now capital of Idaho)
• 1863 Failed Confederate assault on Helena Arkansas (640 casualties)

• 1863 Skirmish at Smithburg, TN
• 1863 Vicksburg, Mississippi surrenders to Union forces
• 1865 First edition of "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland" by Lewis Carroll is published
• 1866 Firecracker thrown in wood starts fire destroying half of Portland, Maine, US
• 1868 Battle at Ueno, Japan: last Tokugawa armies defeated
• 1868 Maori leader Te Kooti and 300 of his followers captured the schooner Rifleman in the Chatham Islands and sail for New Zealand; landing at Whareongaonga six days later
• 1873 Aquarium opens in Woodward Gardens, San Francisco
• 1874 Social Democratic Workmen's Party of North America formed
• 1875 White Democrats kill several blacks in terrorist attacks in Vicksburg
• 1876 1st public exhibition of electric light in San Francisco
• 1876 Batholdi visits Bedloe Island, future home of his Statue of Liberty
• 1879 Africaner Union forms by Rev SJ du Toit at Cape colony
• 1879 Battle at Ulundi: Lord Chelmsford beats Zulu King Cetshwayo

• 1882 Telegraph Hill Observatory opens in San Francisco
• 1883 Buffalo Bill Cody presents 1st wild west show, North Platte, Nebraska
• 1884 1st US bullfight held (Dodge City Ks)

• 1886 1st scheduled transcontinental passenger train reaches Port Moody, British Columbia

• 1888 1st organized rodeo competition held, Prescott, Arizona
• 1889 Washington state constitutional convention holds 1st meeting
• 1890 Wimbledon Women's Tennis: Lena Rice becomes the only Irish female to win at Wimbledon beating May Jacks 6-4, 6-1
• 1891 Wimbledon Men's Tennis: Wilfred Baddeley wins first of 3 Wimbledon singles championships; beats Joshua Pim 6-4, 1-6, 7-5, 6-0
• 1892 James Keir Hardie chosen 1st socialist in British Lower house
• 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
• 1892 Wimbledon Men's Tennis: Defending champion Wilfred Baddeley beats Joshua Pim 4-6, 6-3, 6-3, 6-2
• 1894 Elwood Haynes successfully tests one of 1st US autos at 6 MPH
• 1894 Republic of Hawaii proclaimed, Sanford B Dole as president
• 1895 Katherine Lee Bates publishes "America the Beautiful"
• 1898 French liner "La Bourgogne" collides with bark Cromartyshire, 560 die
• 1898 US flag hoisted over Wake Island (Spanish–American War)
• 1900 Williams Jennings Bryan nominated as Democratic Party presidential candidate, USA

• 1903 Pacific Cable (San Francisco, Hawaii, Guam, Philippines) opens, President Theodore Roosevelt sends a message
• 1904 International Lawn Tennis Challenge, Wimbledon: Laurence Doherty & Reggie Doherty beat Paul de Borman & William le Maire de Warzée 6-0, 6-1, 6-3 to give British Isles an unassailable 3-0 lead over Belgium (ends 5-0)

• 1906 Wimbledon Men's Tennis: Laurence Doherty beats Frank Riseley 6-4, 4-6, 6-2, 6-3 for his 5th straight Wimbledon singles title
• 1906 Great Britain, France, and Italy declare independence of Ethiopia (Abyssinia), but all lay claim to their own 'spheres of influence' in that land

• 1908 New York Giants pitcher George "Hooks" Wiltse no-hits Philadelphia Phillies, 1-0 in 10 inn

• 1910 The US Congress pass the Mann-Elkins Act, an important piece of railroad reform legislation
• 1910 In a mutual defense agreements, Japan and Russia delineate their spheres of interest in Manchuria
• 1911 105°F (41°C) at Vernon, Vermont (state record)
• 1911 106°F (41°C) at Nashua, New Hampshire (state record)

• 1912 Detroit Tiger George Mullen no-hits St Louis Browns, 7-0
• 1912 Jack Johnson beats "Fireman" Jim Flynn by disqualification in 9 in Las Vegas to retain world heavyweight boxing title
• 1913 Wimbledon Women's Tennis: In an all-British final Dorothea Chambers beats Winifred McNair 6-0, 6-4
• 1914 Wimbledon Women's Tennis: Dorothea Chambers wins her 7th and last Wimbledon singles title beating Ethel Larcombe 7-5, 6-4
• 1914 Wimbledon Men's Tennis: Australian Norman Brookes beats 4-time defending champion Anthony Wilding of New Zealand 6-4, 6-4, 7-5

• 1918 Altar dedicated at full-scale replica of Stonehenge at Maryhill, Washington

• 1919 ADGB (Allgemeine Deutsche Gewerkschaftsbund) party forms

• 1920 The provisional government of Siberia's Maritime Province agrees to hand over parts of the strategic oil- and coal-rich Sakhalin Islands to Japan
• 1923 Jack Dempsey beats Tommy Gibbons on points over 15 hard fought rounds in Shelby, Montana to retain world heavyweight boxing title
• 1924 Wimbledon Women's Tennis: Kitty McKane of England beats American Helen Wills 4-6, 6-4, 6-4 for her 1st of 2 Wimbledon singles titles
• 1925 44 die when Dreyfus Hotel in Boston collapses
• 1925 Wimbledon Men's Tennis: In an all-French final René Lacoste beats Jean Borotra 6-3, 6-3, 4-6, 8-6
• 1925 A's Lefty Grove beats Yanks Herb Pennock 1-0 in 15 innings
• 1926 NSDAP-party forms in Weimar

• 1927 First flight of the Lockheed Vega.
• 1929 AM radio station WOWO, Indiana's transmitter burns down

• 1931 Wimbledon Men's Tennis: Sidney Wood Jr beats fellow American Frank Shields in a walkover - ankle injury
• 1931 1st fireworks are held at Cleveland Stadium
• 1931 1st trailside museum opens in Cleveland Metroparks

• 1933 Work begins on Oakland Bay Bridge
• 1934 Jordanians revolt in Amsterdam after reduction in employment

• 1936 Wimbledon Women's Tennis: American Helen Jacobs wins her only Wimbledon title beating Hilde Krahwinkel Sperling 6-2, 4-6, 7-5
• 1936 League of Nations ends sanctions against Italy after Italian takeover of Abyssinia
• 1938 Phillies complete move to Shribe Park in Philadelphia, lose 10-5 to Boston Bees
• 1938 France-Turkish friendship treaty
• 1939 Red Sox 3rd baseman Jim Tabor hits record-tying 2 grand slams in one MLB game, 18-12 win v Phillies

• 1940 British destroys French battle fleet at Oran, Algeria, 1267 die
• 1941 Latvia partisans shoot 416 Jews dead
• 1941 Politburo of Yugoslav communist party reorganizes

• 1942 1st American bombing mission over enemy-occupied Europe (WWII)
• 1942 US air offensive against nazi-Germany begins

• 1944 1,100 US guns fire 4th of July salute at German lines in Normandy

• 1944 Allied assault on Carpiquet airport at Caen
• 1944 Gestapo arrests German Social Democrat Julius Leber
• 1945 Field Marshal Henry Maitland Wilson gives Britain's agreement to use the atomic bomb against Japan at the Combined Policy Committee in Washington D. C.
• 1946 Anti Jewish riots in Kielce Poland, 42 die
• 1946 Philippines gains independence from US

• 1947 Wimbledon Men's Tennis: Jack Kramer wins his only Wimbledon singles title beating fellow American Tom Brown 6-1, 6-3, 6-2
• 1947 British Open Men's Golf, Royal Liverpool: Irishman Fred Daly wins his only Open, 1 stroke clear of Reg Horne and Frank Stranahan
• 1950 Boston Braves slugger Sid Gordon ties MLB season grand slam record (4) with a bases loaded hit vs Phillies
• 1950 Harry Truman signs public law 600 (Puerto Ricans write own constitution)
• 1950 The first broadcast by Radio Free Europe.
• 1952 Wimbledon Men's Tennis: Australian Frank Sedgman wins his only Wimbledon singles title beating Czech Jaroslav Drobný 4-6, 6-2, 6-3, 6-2
• 1952 Canadian Currency, Mint and Exchange Fund Act allows gold coins of $5, $10, and $20 to be minted

• 1953 Imre Nagy succeeds Matyas Rákosi as premier of Hungary
• 1954 WMSL (WYUR, now WAFF) TV channel 48 in Huntsville, AL (ABC) begins
• 1954 FIFA World Cup Final, Wankdorf Stadium, Bern, Switzerland: Helmut Rahn scores twice as West Germany beats Hungary, 3-2
• 1954 Dr Sam Sheppard's wife Marilyn is murdered (he is accused of the crime)
• 1954 Meat and all other food rationing officially ends in Britain, nine years after the end of World War II
• 1956 Independence National Historical Park forms in Philadelphia
• 1956 US most intense rain fall (1.23" in 1 minute) at Unionville Maryland
• 1957 Dutch 2nd Chamber accepts temporary tax increase

• 1959 America's new 49-star flag honoring Alaska statehood unfurled
• 1959 Cayman Islands separated from Jamaica, made a crown colony
• 1959 Island Records founded in Jamaica

• 1960 America's new 50-star flag honoring Hawaiian statehood unfurled

• 1961 Walt Disney is one of the two main speakers on the Independence Day in The Rebuild Hills at Skørping in Denmark
• 1962 KIKU (now KHNL) TV channel 13 in Honolulu, HI (IND) 1st broadcast
• 1964 Wimbledon Women's Tennis: Brazilian Maria Bueno earns a 3rd Wimbledon singles title with a 6-4, 7-9, 6-3 win over Margaret Smith of Australia
• 1964 Beachboys' "I Get Around" reaches #1
• 1965 US Open Women's Golf, Atlantic City CC: Carol Mann wins by 2 shots from fellow American Kathy Cornelius

• 1967 Opening ceremony of Tassajara Zen Mountain Center
• 1968 Arthur Kopit's "Indians" premieres in London
• 1968 Radio astronomy satellite Explorer 38 launched
• 1969 "Give Peace a Chance" by Plastic Ono Band is released in UK

• 1969 USSR performs nuclear test at Eastern Kazakh/Semipalitinsk USSR
• 1969 The Ohio Fireworks Derecho kills 18 Ohioans and destroys over 100 boats on Lake Erie.
• 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
• 1970 The Falls Road curfew in North Ireland, imposed by the British Army while searching for IRA weapons, continues throughout the day; a man is killed by the British Army
• 1971 France performs nuclear test at Mururoa atoll
• 1972 The Royal Ulster Constabulary forward a file about the killings on 'Bloody Sunday' (30 January 1972) to the Director of Public Prosecutions for Northern Ireland
• 1973 Alan Ayckbourne's "Absurd Person Singular," premieres in London
• 1973 CARICOM - Caribbean Community & Common Market, forms
• 1974 Mike Marshall goes 9-0 with 3 saves in 20 appearances in 30 days

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