TODAY’S HISTORY LESSON – JULY 2
1625 The Spanish army takes Breda, Spain, after nearly a year of siege.
1644 Oliver Cromwell crushes the Royalists at the Battle of Marston Moor.
1776 Richard Henry Lee’s resolution that the American colonies “are, and of right ought to be, free and independent States” was adopted by the Continental Congress.
1822 Denmark Vesey is executed in Charleston, South Carolina, for planning a massive slave revolt.
1850 Benjamin Lane patented a gas mask with a breathing apparatus
1858 Czar Alexander II frees the serfs working on imperial lands.
1863 The Union left flank holds at Little Round Top during the Battle of Gettysburg.
1881 Charles J. Guiteau fatally wounds President James A. Garfield in Washington, D.C.
1890 The U.S. Congress passed the Sherman Antitrust Act.
1934 Adolf Hitler conducts a purge of traitors in the Nazi party . Hundreds of people were executed after undergoing a 3 minute trial to face the charges of being traitors. Hitler seemingly secured his power in the nation by forcing the power from the conservatives. Vice Chancellor von Papen, a conservative and critic of Nazi policies, was set to resign the next day.
1937 American aviation pioneer Amelia Earhart disappeared in the Central Pacific during an attempt to fly around the world at the equator.
1939 At Mount Rushmore, Theodore Roosevelt’s face was dedicated.
1961 Novelist Ernest Hemingway commits suicide at his home in Ketchum, Idaho.
1962 Wal-Mart Discount City opened in Rogers, Arkansas. It was the first Walmart store.
1964 President Lyndon Johnson signs the Civil Rights Act into law.
1976 North and South Vietnam are officially reunified.
1980 President Jimmy Carter reinstates draft registration for males 18 years of age.
1982 Larry Walters (“Lawnchair Larry”) took flight in his homeade airship that consisted of a lawnchair with 45 helium-filled weather balloons attached to it. He stayed in flight for about an hour.
1990 Panic in tunnel of Mecca: 1,426 pilgrims trampled to death
1992 The one millionth Chevrolet Corvette America’s first sports car came off of the assembly line in Bowling Green, Kentucky. The car had first been shown as a prototype at the 1953 Motorama in New York City.
1992 The IRA admits to killing three informers for MI5 and the Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC) Special Branch stating they were tried and found guilty and sentenced to death by the IRA.
1998 Cable News Network (CNN) retracted a story that alleged that U.S. commandos had used nerve gas to kill American defectors during the Vietnam War.
2006 Israel issues an air-strike on Ismail Haniya’s, the Palestinian Prime Minister, office. The attack that injured three security guards is a response to the capture of Corporal Gilad Shalit by militant Palestinian groups on June 25th, 2006.
2012 In the largest healthcare fraud settlement in US history, GlaxoSmithKline was set to pay $3 billion to cover criminal fines and civil settlements with the federal and state governments. The company pled guilty to promoting unapproved uses for two anti-depressant drugs and failing to report safety information to the FDA about other drugs
** history.net, onthisday.com, infoplease.com, timeanddate.com, thepeoplehistory.com, on-this-day.com **
