TODAY’S HISTORY LESSON: July 3
324 Battle of Adrianople: Roman Emperor Constantine I defeats his co-emperor Licinius, who flees to Byzantium
1187 Battle of Horns of Hattin: Saladin, Sultan of Egypt and Syria, destroys Jerusalem’s crusader army
1608 Samuel de Champlain founded the city of Quebec.
1754 George Washington surrenders to French, Ft Necessity (7 Years’ War)
1775 Commander in chief George Washington took command of the Continental Army at Cambridge, Mass.
1778 British forces massacre 360 men, women & children in Wyoming, Pa
1790 In Paris, the marquis of Condorcet proposed granting civil rights to women.
1841 John Couch Adams decides to determine the position of an unknown planet by irregularities it causes in the motion of Uranus
1844 Ambassador Caleb Cushing successfully negotiated a commercial treaty with China that opened five Chinese ports to U.S. merchants and protected the rights of American citizens in China.
1863 The U.S. Civil War Battle of Gettysburg, PA, ended after three days. It was a major victory for the North as Confederate troops retreated.
1884 Dow Jones publishes its 1st stock index, the Dow Jones Transportation Average
1890 Idaho became the 43rd state in the United States.
1898 During the Spanish American War, a fleet of Spanish ships in Cuba’s Santiago Harbor attempted to run a blockade of U.S. naval forces. Nearly all of the Spanish ships were destroyed in the battle that followed.
1922 “Fruit Garden and Home” magazine was introduced. It was later renamed “Better Homes and Gardens.”
1930 The U.S. Veterans Administration was created by Congress.
1945 The first civilian passenger car built since February 1942 was driven off the assembly line at the Ford Motor Company plant in Detroit, MI. Production had been diverted due to World War II.
1954 Food rationing ended in Great Britain almost nine years after the end of World War II.
1962 Algeria became independent after 132 years of French rule.
1976 Israel launches rescue of 103 Air France crew & passengers being held at Entebbe Airport in Uganda by pro-Palestinian hijackers
1978 Supreme Court rules 5-4, FCC had a right to reprimand NY radio station WBAI for broadcasting George Carlin’s “Filthy Words”
1981 The Associated Press ran its first story about two rare illnesses afflicting homosexual men. One of the diseases was later named AIDS.
1984 Supreme Court rules Jaycees may be forced to admit women as members
1986 Pres Reagan presided over relighting of renovated Statue of Liberty
1988 Iran Air flight 655 is shot down by a US Navy ship
1991 U.S. President George H.W. Bush formally inaugurated the Mount Rushmore National Memorial in South Dakota.
1996 UK House of Commons announces that the Stone of Scone, aka the Stone of Destiny, used in the coronation of Scottish (and subsequently English and British monarchs), will be returned to Scotland after 700 years in Westminster Abbey
2013 Coup in Egypt. Egyptian defense minister Abdul Fatah al-Sisi staged a coup and forced out President Mohamed Morsi, just over a year after he was elected.
REFERENCE: HISTORY.NET, ONTHISDAY.COM, TIMEANDDATE.COM, INFOPLEASE.COM, FACTMONSTER.COM, SCOPESYS.COM, ON-THIS-DAY.COM, THEPEOPLEHISTORY.COM
