Portal:United States/On this day/July 4

On this day for the United States

July 4:

Events

• 1754 - Lt-Col. George Washington surrenders Fort Necessity to French Capt. Louis Coulon de Villiers.
• 1776 - American Independence Day: The United States Declaration of Independence by the Second Continental Congress declaring itself free of British rule.
• 1802 - At West Point, New York the United States Military Academy opens.
• 1803 - The Louisiana Purchase is announced to the American people.
• 1817 - At Rome, New York, United States, construction on the Erie Canal begins.
• 1826 - Former American presidents John Adams and Thomas Jefferson die, fifty years to the day after the adoption of the United States Declaration of Independence.
• 1827 - Slavery is abolished in New York State.
• 1838 - The Iowa Territory is organized.
• 1845 - Near Concord, Massachusetts, Henry David Thoreau embarks on a two-year experiment in simple living at Walden Pond (see Walden).
• 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.
• 1881 - In Alabama, the Tuskegee Institute opens.
• 1894 - The short-lived Republic of Hawaii is proclaimed by Sanford B. Dole.
• 1910 - African-American boxer Jack Johnson knocks out white boxer Jim Jeffries in a heavyweight boxing match sparking race riots across the United States.
• 1927 - First flight of the Lockheed Vega.
• 1939 - Lou Gehrig, recently diagnosed with Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, tells a crowd at Yankee Stadium that he considered himself "The luckiest man on the face of the earth" as he announces his retirement from major league baseball.
• 1946 - After 381 years of near-continuous colonial rule, the Philippines is granted full independence by the United States.
• 1959 - With the admission of Alaska as the 49th U.S. state earlier in the year, the 49-star flag of the United States debuts in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
• 1960 - Due to the post-Independence Day admission of Hawaiˈi 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.
• 1968 - Two teens are killed at Lake Herman Road in California. They were the first (known) victims of the Zodiac Killer.
• 1992 - USS George Washington (CVN-73), a Nimitz Class aircraft carrier of the United States Navy is commissioned at Norfolk, Virginia.
• 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. (This was largely a symbolic event; actual construction would not start for several weeks.)
• 2005 - The Deep Impact collider hits the comet Tempel 1.
• 2006 - Space Shuttle program: STS-121 Mission - Space Shuttle Discovery launches at 18:37:55 UTC.
• 2007 - Zaca Fire Starts in Santa Barbara, California becomes second largest fire in California history.