Events

• 836 - Pactum Sicardi, peace between the Principality of Benevento and the Duchy of Naples
• 993 - Saint Ulrich of Augsburg canonized.
• 1054 - A supernova is observed by the Chinese, the Arabs and possibly Amerindians near the star ζ Tauri. For several months it remains bright enough to be seen during the day. Its remnants form the Crab Nebula.
• 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 forms.
• 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.
• 1805 - Napolean Bonaparte Retreats.
• 1810 - The French occupy Amsterdam.
• 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.
• 1837 - Grand Junction Railway, world's first long-distance railway, opens between Birmingham and Liverpool.
• 1838 - The Iowa Territory is organized.
• 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 - 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.
• 1859 - Austro-Sardinian War: The Battle of Magenta.
• 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.
• 1865 - Alice's Adventures in Wonderland is published.
• 1881 - In Alabama, the Tuskegee Institute opens.
• 1886 - First scheduled Canadian transcontinental train arrives in Port Moody, British Columbia.
• 1887 - Founder of Pakistan, Quaid-i-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah joined Sindh-Madrasa-tul-Islam, Karachi.
• 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.
• 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.
• 1918 - Ottoman sultan Mehmed VI ascends to the throne.
• 1918 - Bolsheviks kill Tsar Nicholas II of Russia and his family (Julian calendar date).
• 1927 - First flight of the Lockheed Vega.
• 1934 - Leo Szilard patents the chain-reaction design for the atomic bomb.
• 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.
• 1940 - Robert Pershing Wadlow, the tallest man on Earth, died in his sleep.
• 1941 - Mass murder of Polish scientists and writers, committed by Nazi Germans in the captured Polish city of Lwów.
• 1946 - After 381 years of near-continuous colonial rule, the Philippines is granted full independence by the United States.
• 1947 - "Indian Independence Bill" is presented before British House of Commons, suggesting bifurcation of British India into two sovereign countries - India and Pakistan.
• 1950 - First broadcast by Radio Free Europe.
• 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.
• 1976 - Israeli commandos raid Entebbe airport in Uganda, rescuing all of the passengers and crew of an Air France jetliner seized by Palestinian terrorists.
• 1982 - Iranian diplomats kidnapping (1982):Four Iranian diplomats kidnapped by Lebanese militia in Lebanon.
• 1987 - In France, former Gestapo chief Klaus Barbie (aka the "Butcher of Lyon") is convicted of crimes against humanity and is sentenced to life imprisonment.
• 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.
• 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 wouldn't 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.
• 2006 - North Korea tests four short-range missiles, one medium-range missile, and a long-range Taepodong-2. The long-range Taepodong-2 reportedly fails in mid-air over the Sea of Japan.
• 2007 - Zaca Fire Starts in Santa Barbara, California becomes second largest fire in California history.

Births