TODAY’S HISTORY LESSON – JULY 2
626 Incident at Xuanwu Gate: in fear of assassination, Li Shimin ambushes and kills his rival brothers Li Yuanji and Li Jiancheng
1644 Oliver Cromwell crushes the Royalists at the Battle of Marston Moor.
1776 The Continental Congress resolves with the Declaration of Independence that the American colonies “are, and of right ought to be, free and independent States.”
1777 Vermont becomes 1st American colony to abolish slavery
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. (Patent US7476 A)
1881 President James Garfield was shot by Charles Guiteau; he died on Sept. 19.
1890 Congress passed the Sherman Antitrust Act.
1926 US Army Air Corps created; Distinguish Flying Cross authorized
1937 American aviation pioneer Amelia Earhart disappears in the Central Pacific during an attempt to fly around the world.
1957 1st sub powered by liquid metal cooled reactor completed-The Seawolf
1961 Novelist Ernest Hemingway commits suicide at his home in Ketchum, Idaho.
1964 US President Lyndon B. Johnson signs Civil Rights Act and Voting Rights Act into law
1976 In Gregg v. Georgia, the Supreme Court ruled that the death penalty was not inherently cruel or unusual.
1976 Formal reunification of North & South Vietnam
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 1,426 pilgrims trampled to death after a panic in a tunnel in Mecca, Saudi Arabia
2001 World’s First Self-Contained Artificial Heart Transplant
** history.net, onthisday.com, infoplease.com, timeanddate.com, thepeoplehistory.com, on-this-day.com **
