Historical Events on July 4

Events 1 - 200 of 254

• 836 Pactum Sicardi, peace between the Principality of Benevento and the Duchy of Naples
• 993 Saint Ulrich of Augsburg is canonized.
• 1054 Brightest known supernova SN 1054 (creates the Crab Nebula) 1st reported by Chinese astronomers

• 1120 Jordan II of Capua is anointed as prince after his infant nephew's death

• 1301 Battle at Breukelen: Holland vs Lichtenberg
• 1359 Francesco II Ordelaffi of Forlì surrenders to the Papal commander Gil de Albornoz.
• 1415 Angelo Correr renounces his claim to the Papacy as Pope Gregory XII
• 1453 41 Jewish martyrs burned at stake at Breslau

• 1634 The city of Trois-Rivières is founded in New France, later to become the Canadian province of Quebec
• 1636 City of Providence, Rhode Island form
• 1652 Prince of Condé starts blood bath in Paris
• 1653 English Barebones Parliament goes into session
• 1672 States of Holland declares "Eternal Edict" void
• 1693 Battle at Boussu-lez-Walcourt: French-English vs Dutch army

• 1774 Orangetown Resolutions adopted in the Province of New York, one of many protests against the British Parliament's Coercive Acts

• 1779 French fleet occupies Grenada

• 1789 1st US tariff act signed by President Washington
• 1796 1st Independence Day celebration is held
• 1802 1st US Military Academy opens at West Point, NY

• 1810 French troops occupy Amsterdam
• 1817 Chief Engineer James Geddes begins construction on the Erie Canal, (Rome, New York), one of the first great engineering works in North America

• 1827 Slavery abolished in New York
• 1828 Construction begins on B & O (Baltimore-Ohio) 1st US passenger RR
• 1829 Cornerstone laid for 2nd US mint at Chestnut and Juniper St, Philadelphia, the "Grecian Temple"
• 1829 The first London bus "omnibus", operated by George Shillibeer, begins service between Marylebone Road and Bank Junction
• 1831 "America (My Country 'Tis of Thee)", with lyric by Samuel Francis Smith, has 1st public performance at Park Street Church in Boston, Massachusetts
• 1836 Wisconsin Territory forms
• 1837 Grand Junction Railway, the world's first long-distance railway, opens between Birmingham and Liverpool
• 1838 Huskar Pit Disaster: 26 children drown trying to escape flooding in the Silkstone Colliery in England. Leads to the 1842 Mines Act, which bans women and children working underground. [1]
• 1838 Iowa Territory is organised from Wisconsin Territory, lasting until 1846
• 1840 The Cunard Line's 700 ton wooden paddle steamer RMS Britannia departs from Liverpool bound for Halifax, Nova Scotia on the first transatlantic crossing with a scheduled end

• 1845 Texas Congress votes for annexation to US

• 1861 In a special session of 27th Congress Lincoln requests 400,000 troops
• 1861 Skirmish at Harper's Ferry, West Virginia

• 1862 R Morgan's: Tomkinsville, KY to Somerset, KY [->JUL 28]
• 1863 Boise, Idaho, founded (now capital of Idaho)
• 1863 Failed Confederate assault on Helena Arkansas (640 casualties)

• 1863 Skirmish at Smithburg, Tennessee
• 1863 Vicksburg, Mississippi surrenders to Union forces
• 1865 First edition of "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland" by Lewis Carroll is published
• 1866 Firecracker thrown in wood starts fire destroying half of Portland, Maine, US
• 1867 The Republican Party of Texas is founded in Houston, with a goal regaining admittance to the union after the US Civil War
• 1868 Battle at Ueno, Japan: last Tokugawa armies defeated
• 1868 Maori leader Te Kooti and 300 of his followers captured the schooner Rifleman in the Chatham Islands and sail for New Zealand; landing at Whareongaonga six days later
• 1873 Aquarium opens in Woodward Gardens, San Francisco
• 1874 Social Democratic Workmen's Party of North America formed
• 1875 White Democrats kill several blacks in terrorist attacks in Vicksburg
• 1876 1st public exhibition of electric light in San Francisco
• 1876 Batholdi visits Bedloe Island, future home of his Statue of Liberty
• 1879 Africaner Union forms by Rev SJ du Toit at Cape colony
• 1879 Battle at Ulundi: Lord Chelmsford beats Zulu King Cetshwayo

• 1882 Telegraph Hill Observatory opens in San Francisco
• 1883 Buffalo Bill Cody presents 1st wild west show, North Platte, Nebraska
• 1884 1st US bullfight held (Dodge City Ks)

• 1886 1st scheduled transcontinental passenger train reaches Port Moody, British Columbia

• 1888 1st organized rodeo competition held, Prescott, Arizona
• 1889 Washington state constitutional convention holds 1st meeting
• 1892 James Keir Hardie chosen 1st socialist in British Lower house
• 1892 Western Samoa changes the International Date Line, so that year there were 367 days in this country, with two occurrences of Monday, July 4
• 1894 Elwood Haynes successfully tests one of 1st US autos at 6 MPH
• 1894 Republic of Hawaii proclaimed, Sanford B Dole as president
• 1895 Katherine Lee Bates publishes "America the Beautiful"
• 1898 French liner "La Bourgogne" collides with bark Cromartyshire, 560 die
• 1898 US flag hoisted over Wake Island (Spanish–American War)
• 1900 Williams Jennings Bryan nominated as Democratic Party presidential candidate, USA

• 1903 Pacific Cable (San Francisco, Hawaii, Guam, Philippines) opens, President Theodore Roosevelt sends a message

• 1906 Great Britain, France, and Italy declare independence of Ethiopia (Abyssinia), but all lay claim to their own 'spheres of influence' in that land

• 1908 MLB New York Giants pitcher George "Hooks" Wiltse no-hits Philadelphia Phillies, 1-0 in 10 inning; missed a perfect game by hitting one batter with a pitch (Polo Grounds, NYC)
• 1909 British Secret Service Bureau forms foreign section, the Secret Intelligence Service (SIS), commonly known as MI6

• 1910 In a mutual defense agreements, Japan and Russia delineate their spheres of interest in Manchuria
• 1910 The US Congress pass the Mann-Elkins Act, an important piece of railroad reform legislation
• 1911 105°F (41°C) at Vernon, Vermont (state record)
• 1911 106°F (41°C) at Nashua, New Hampshire (state record)

• 1912 Detroit Tiger George Mullen no-hits St Louis Browns, 7-0
• 1912 Jack Johnson beats "Fireman" Jim Flynn by disqualification in 9 in Las Vegas to retain world heavyweight boxing title

• 1918 Altar dedicated at full-scale replica of Stonehenge at Maryhill, Washington

• 1919 ADGB (Allgemeine Deutsche Gewerkschaftsbund) party forms

• 1920 The provisional government of Siberia's Maritime Province agrees to hand over parts of the strategic oil- and coal-rich Sakhalin Islands to Japan
• 1923 Jack Dempsey beats Tommy Gibbons on points over 15 hard fought rounds in Shelby, Montana to retain world heavyweight boxing title
• 1924 Italian immigrant chef Caesar Cardini, creates his famous salad for the very first time, at his restaurant in Tijuana, Mexico [1]
• 1925 MLB New York Yankees Herb Pennock beats Philadelphia A's Lefty Grove 1-0 in 15 innings in first game of a doubleheader at Yankee Stadium
• 1925 The former Dreyfus Hotel collapses in Boston, Massachusetts, killing 44 of an estimated 200 patrons dancing in the second floor Pickwick Club
• 1926 NSDAP-party forms in Weimar
• 1927 First flight of the Lockheed Vega, a pilot plus four-passenger monoplane; its 225 HP engine allowed cruising speed of 120 MPH

• 1929 AM radio station WOWO, Indiana's transmitter burns down
• 1931 1st fireworks are held at Cleveland Stadium
• 1931 1st trailside museum opens in Cleveland Metroparks

• 1933 Work begins on Oakland Bay Bridge

• 1934 Jordanians revolt in Amsterdam after reduction in employment
• 1936 League of Nations ends sanctions against Italy after Italian takeover of Abyssinia
• 1938 France-Turkish friendship treaty
• 1938 Phillies complete move to Shribe Park in Philadelphia, lose 10-5 to Boston Bees

• 1939 Red Sox 3rd baseman Jim Tabor hits record-tying 2 grand slams in one MLB game, 18-12 win v Phillies
• 1940 WWII: British Navy bombards neutral French battle fleet at Mers El Kébir, near Oran, French Algeria to prevent Axis powers from taking the ships; 1267 French serviceman die, one ship sunk and 5 more damaged

• 1941 Latvia partisans shoot 416 Jews dead
• 1941 Politburo of Yugoslav communist party reorganizes
• 1942 1st American bombing missions over Nazi Germany-occupied Europe (WWII)

• 1942 US air offensive against Nazi Germany begins
• 1944 1,100 US guns fire 4th of July salute at German lines in Normandy

• 1944 Allied assault on Carpiquet airport at Caen
• 1944 Gestapo arrests German Social Democrat Julius Leber
• 1945 Field Marshal Henry Maitland Wilson gives Britain's agreement to use the atomic bomb against Japan at the Combined Policy Committee in Washington D. C.
• 1946 Anti Jewish riots in Kielce Poland, 42 die
• 1946 Philippines gains independence from US

• 1950 Boston Braves slugger Sid Gordon ties MLB season grand slam record (4) with a bases loaded hit vs Phillies
• 1950 Harry Truman signs public law 600 (Puerto Ricans write own constitution)
• 1950 The first broadcast by Radio Free Europe.
• 1952 Canadian Currency, Mint and Exchange Fund Act allows gold coins of $5, $10, and $20 to be minted
• 1953 Imre Nagy succeeds Matyas Rákosi as premier of Hungary
• 1954 Dr Sam Sheppard's wife Marilyn is murdered (he is accused of the crime)
• 1954 FIFA World Cup Final, Wankdorf Stadium, Bern, Switzerland: Helmut Rahn scores twice as West Germany beats Hungary, 3-2
• 1954 Meat and all other food rationing officially ends in Britain, nine years after the end of World War II
• 1954 WMSL (WYUR, now WAFF) TV channel 48 in Huntsville, AL (ABC) begins
• 1956 Independence National Historical Park forms in Philadelphia
• 1956 US most intense rain fall (1.23" in 1 minute) at Unionville Maryland
• 1957 Dutch 2nd Chamber accepts temporary tax increase
• 1959 America's new 49-star flag honoring Alaska statehood unfurled
• 1959 Cayman Islands separated from Jamaica, made a crown colony
• 1959 Island Records founded in Jamaica
• 1960 America's new 50-star flag honoring Hawaiian statehood unfurled

• 1961 Walt Disney is one of the two main speakers on the Independence Day in The Rebuild Hills at Skørping in Denmark
• 1962 KIKU (now KHNL) TV channel 13 in Honolulu, HI (IND) 1st broadcast
• 1964 Beachboys' "I Get Around" reaches #1

• 1967 Opening ceremony of Tassajara Zen Mountain Center

• 1968 Radio astronomy satellite Explorer 38 launched

• 1969 The Ohio Fireworks Derecho kills 18 Ohioans and destroys over 100 boats on Lake Erie.
• 1969 USSR performs nuclear test at the Semipalatinsk Test Site in northeast Kazakhstan
• 1970 100 injured in race rioting in Asbury Park, NJ

• 1970 Chartered Dan-Air Comet crashes into mountains north of Barcelona, Spain killing 112 vacationing Britons
• 1970 The Falls Road curfew in North Ireland, imposed by the British Army while searching for IRA weapons, continues throughout the day; a man is killed by the British Army
• 1971 France performs nuclear test at Mururoa atoll
• 1972 The Royal Ulster Constabulary forward a file about the killings on 'Bloody Sunday' (30 January 1972) to the Director of Public Prosecutions for Northern Ireland

• 1973 CARICOM - Caribbean Community & Common Market, forms
• 1974 Mike Marshall goes 9-0 with 3 saves in 20 appearances in 30 days

• 1976 Israel launches hostage rescue mission of 106 Air France crew and passengers held at Entebbe Airport in Uganda by pro-Palestinian hijackers. Three hostages die along with all the hijackers, numerous Ugandan soldiers and Yonatan Netanyahu, an Israeli soldier
• 1976 Opening ceremony of the Dai Bosatsu monastery Catskill Mt NY
• 1977 Nigel Harrison replaces Gary Valentine as bassist of Blondie
• 1977 Norman Lear's late night television talk show parody "Fernwood 2-Night", starring Martin Mull, Fred Willard, and Frank De Vol, debuts in syndication
• 1977 Red Sox end 9-game losing streak by smashing a MLB-record 8 HRs in a 9-6 win vs Toronto at Fenway Park
• 1978 Memphis fire fighters halt 3-day strike under a court order
• 1979 Algerian ex-president Ahmed Ben Bella is freed after spending over a decade under house arrest

• 1982 4th NASA Space Shuttle Mission: Columbia 4 (STS-4) lands at Edwards AFB
• 1982 Miguel de la Madrid Hurtado elected president of Mexico
• 1982 USSR performs nuclear test at the Semipalatinsk Test Site in northeast Kazakhstan

• 1984 Funeral for S Nakagawa and burial of half his ashes next to N Senzaki

• 1986 England cricket captain Mike Gatting smashes 183 not out in the drawn 3rd Test vs India at Birmingham
• 1987 Discovery moves to Launch Pad 39B for STS-26 mission

• 1988 US Navy shoots down Iranian civilian jetliner over Gulf, kills 290

• 1989 Unmanned Russian Mig-23 crashes in Bellegem-Kooigem, Belgium (1 dies)

• Previous
• 1
• 2
• Next