Portal:United States/On this day/July 3

On this day for the United States

July 3:

Events

• 1754 - French and Indian War: George Washington surrenders Fort Necessity to French forces.
• 1775 - American Revolutionary War: George Washington takes command of the Continental Army at Cambridge, Massachusetts.
• 1778 - American Revolutionary War: British forces massacre 360 men, women and children in the Wyoming Valley massacre.
• 1819 - The first savings bank in the United States (The Bank of Savings in New York City) opens.
• 1839 - The first state normal school in the United States, the forerunner to today's Framingham State College, opens in Lexington, Massachusetts with 3 students.
• 1848 - Slaves are freed in the Danish West Indies (now U.S. Virgin Islands) by Peter von Scholten.
• 1852 - Congress establishes the United States's 2nd mint in San Francisco, California.
• 1863 - U.S. Civil War: The final day of the Battle of Gettysburg culminates with Pickett's Charge.
• 1884 - Dow Jones published its 1st stock average.
• 1886 - The New York Tribune becomes the first newspaper to use a linotype machine, eliminating typesetting by hand.
• 1890 - Idaho is admitted as the 43rd U.S. state.
• 1898 - Spanish fleet, led by Pascual Cervera y Topete, destroyed by the U.S. Navy in Santiago, Cuba during the Spanish-American War.
• 1952 - Puerto Rico's Constitution is approved by the Congress of the United States.
• 1979 - US President Jimmy Carter signs the first directive for secret aid to the opponents of the pro-Soviet regime in Kabul.
• 1986 - US President Ronald Reagan presides over the relighting of the renovated Statue of Liberty.
• 1988 - United States Navy warship USS Vincennes shoots down Iran Air Flight 655 over the Persian Gulf, killing all 290 people aboard.
• 1994 - The deadliest day in Texas traffic history, according to the Texas Department of Public Safety. Forty six people were killed in crashes.