TODAY’S HISTORY LESSON: JULY 4
1712 12 slaves are executed for starting an uprising in New York that killed nine whites.
1776 The amended Declaration of Independence, prepared by Thomas Jefferson, is approved and signed by John Hancock–President of the Continental Congress–and Charles Thomson, Congress secretary. The state of New York abstains from signing.
1785 James Hutton, geologist, publicly reads an abstract of his theory of uniformitarianism for the first time at the meeting of the Royal Society of Edinburgh
1817 Construction begins on the Erie Canal, to connect Lake Erie and the Hudson River.
1826 Two of America’s founding fathers–Thomas Jefferson and John Adams–die.
1836 Wisconsin Territory formed
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
1845 Henry David Thoreau begins his 26-month stay at Walden Pond.
1845 Texas Congress votes for annexation to US
1862 Lewis Carroll first told the story of Alice’s Adventures Underground to the Liddell sisters.
1894 After seizing power, Judge Stanford B. Dole declares Hawaii a republic.
1895 The poem America the Beautiful is first published.
1910 Race riots break out all over the United States after African American Jack Johnson knocks out Jim Jeffries in a heavyweight boxing match.
1934 Hungarian physicist Leo Szilard patents the chain-reaction design for the atomic bomb
1946 Philippines gains independence from the United States
1960 The 50-star flag makes its debut in Philadelphia.
1966 Freedom of Information Act in the US is signed into law
1976 An Israeli raid at Entebbe airport in Uganda rescues 105 hostages.
1987 Nazi Klaus Barbie, “Butcher of Lyon” convicted by a French court
1988 US navy shoots down Iranian civilian jetliner over Gulf, kills 290
1997 The U.S. Pathfinder probe landed on Mars.
2017 North Korea tests first successful intercontinental ballistic missile into Sea of Japan
REFERENCE: history.net, onthisday.com, thepeopleshistory.com, timeanddate.com, scopesys.com, on-this-day.com
