1776 – The Continental Congress adopts a resolution severing ties with Great Britain, though a public Declaration of Independence is not formally printed for the masses until July 4. https://constitutioncenter.org/blog/on-this-day-the-declaration-of-independence-is-officially-signed
0626 – In fear of assassination, Li Shimin ambushes and kills his rival brothers Li Yuanji and Li Jiancheng in the Incident at Xuanwu Gate. On September 4, Shimin’s father abdicated to him, and so Shimin became Emperor Taizong of Tang, Emperor of China.
0706 – Remains of Chinese Emperor Gaozong, his wife Empress Wu Zetian and family members interred in Qianling Mausoleum by Emperor Zhongzong, outside Chang’an on Mount Liangshan
0963 – The imperial army proclaims Nicephorus Phocas to be Emperor of the Romans on the plains outside Cappadocian Caesarea.
1214 – Battle of La Roche-aux-Moines (Angers), part of King John of England’s attempt to reclaim Normandy from France
1298 – The Battle of Gllheim: An army under Albert of Austria defeated and killed Adolf of Nassua near Worms, Germany.
1570 – Ottoman Empire invades Venetian controlled Cyprus and lays siege to its cities. Gains control of the island August 1571.
1613 – First English expedition from Massachusetts against Acadia – led by Samuel Argall.
1625 – The Spanish army took Breda, Spain, after nearly a year of siege.
1644 – Lord Cromwell crushed the Royalists at the Battle of Marston Moor near York, England.
1679 – Europeans first visit Minnesota and see headwaters of Mississippi – led by Daniel Greysolon de Du Luth.
1747 – Marshall Saxe led the French forces to victory over an Anglo-Dutch force under the Duke of Cumberland at the Battle of Lauffeld.
1776 – The Continental Congress adopts a resolution severing ties with Great Britain, though a public Declaration of Independence is not formally printed for the masses until July 4. https://constitutioncenter.org/blog/on-this-day-the-declaration-of-independence-is-officially-signed
1776 – At the Continental Congress, John Dickinson abstains from the votes that declare independence
1777 – Vermont becomes the first American territory to abolish slavery.
1816 – French frigate “La Méduse” runs aground under incompetent leadership of Viscount of Chaumareys, 400 passengers evacuated. 150 men, 1 woman are left on “la Machine,” a poorly provisioned raft. 13 days later only 15 survivors remain, inspires Théodore Géricault’s painting “The Raft of the Medusa”
1822 – Denmark Vesey (aka Telemaque) & 5 aides accused of planning a slave rebellion are hanged at Blake’s Landing, Charleston, SC
1843 – Alligator Falls Out of the Sky in Charleston, South Carolina during a thunderstorm.
1850 – Benjamin Lane patented a gas mask with a breathing apparatus. (Patent US7476 A)
1858 – Czar Alexander II freed the serfs working on imperial lands.
1864 – Statuary Hall in US Capitol established
1881 – Charles J. Guiteau fatally wounded U.S. President James A. Garfield in Washington, DC.
1885 – Canada’s North-west Insurrection ends with surrender of Big Bear
1890 – The Sherman Anti-Trust Act passed by Congress, it curtails the powers of U.S. business monopolies
1901 – Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid rob train of $40,000 at Wagner, Montana
1915 – Erich Muenter, an instructor in German at Cornell University, explodes a bomb in the US Senate reception room
1917 – Forty-eight die in rioting in East St. Louis, Illinois, as lower-paid black laborers clash with whites
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.
1941 – Nazi massacre of Jews in Lutsk, Ukraine. Jewish men were summoned for work, about 2000 of them were taken to the Lubart Fortress and murdered. German soldiers from rearguard units stationed in the city participated in the murder.
1944 – American bombers, as part of Operation Gardening, dropped land mines, leaflets and bombs on German-occupied Budapest.
1947 – An object crashed near Roswell, NM. The U.S. Army Air Force insisted it was a weather balloon, but eyewitness accounts led to speculation that it might have been an alien spacecraft.
1950 – USS Juneau and 2 British ships sink 5 of 6 attacking North Korean torpedo boats and gunboats.
1955 – “Lawrence Welk Show”” premiers on ABC
1962 – Wal-Mart Discount City opened in Rogers, Arkansas. It was the first Walmart store.
1964 – U.S. President Johnson signed the “Civil Rights Act of 1964” into law. The act made it illegal in the U.S. to discriminate against others because of their race.
1967 – The U.S. Marine Corps launched Operation Buffalo in response to the North Vietnamese Army’s efforts to seize the Marine base at Con Thien.
1970 – The Prevention of Incitement to Hatred Act (Northern Ireland) is introduced; it proves difficult to secure convictions under its provisions, seldom enforced
1976 – Ramble Inn attack: the Ulster Volunteer Force killed 6 civilians (5 Protestants, 1 Catholic) in a gun attack at a pub near Antrim; the pub was targeted because it was owned by Catholics
1976 – North and South Vietnam, divided since 1954, reunite to form the Socialist Republic of Vietnam
1980 – U.S. President Jimmy Carter reinstated draft registration for males 18 years of age.
1981 – Soyuz T-6 returned to Earth.
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.
1985 – General Motors announced that it was installing electronic road maps as an option in some of its higher-priced cars.
1986 – Supreme Court upheld affirmative action in 2 rulings
1986 – General strike against Pinochet regime in Chile
1990 – A stampede inside a pedestrian tunnel leads to the deaths of 1,426 pilgrims in Mecca during hajj.
1993 – The Sivas Massacre – an angry mob torched the Madımak Hotel, killing 37 people, mostly Alevi artists and scholars who were there to attend a conference hosted by the PSAKD (Pir Sultan Abdal Cultural Association).
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.
2000 – In Mexico, Vicente Fox Quesada of the National Action Party (PAN) defeated Francisco Labastida Ochoa of the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) in the presidential election. The PRI had controlled the presidency in Mexico since the party was founded in 1929.
2001 – AbioCor self contained artificial heart created.
2001 – Bush Administration announce that it will seek to let oil companies drill on about 1,500,000 acres of the Gulf of Mexico
2008 – A settlement is reached allowing former NBA franchise the Seattle SuperSonics to move to Oklahoma City, Oklahoma; new owner Clay Bennett agrees to pay City of Seattle $45 million to wriggle out of last 2 years of KeyArena lease
2010 – Oil tanker truck explosion in South Kivu, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, kills at least 230 people
2012 – GlaxoSmithKline settles the largest healthcare fraud case in history for (US)$3 Billion
2013 – 16 people are killed and 200 are injured in protest clashes at Cairo University against Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi
2014 – Former French President Nicolas Sarkozy is criminally charged with corruption by French prosecutors
2015 – BP agrees to compensate US government & gulf states $18.7 billion for the 2010 Gulf of Mexico oil spill
2016 – Large lorry bomb in Baghdad kills at least 125 people and wounds 150, Islamic State claims responsibility
2017 – New Jersey Governor Chris Christie causes uproar by day at beach during his government’s shutdown of beaches
2018 – 270,000 people now displaced by fighting in south-western Syria says UN since assault on rebel-held area two weeks ago
2020 – Texas Governor Greg Abbott makes wearing face masks mandatory as cases of coronavirus soar in the state
2022 – Earliest evidence for the use of opium from 14th century bce found in burials at Tel Yehud, ancient Canaan (now Israel)
REFERENCE: history.net, onthisday.com, thepeopleshistory.com, timeanddate.com, scopesys.com, on-this-day.com
