362 BC – Battle of Mantinea: The Thebans, led by Epaminondas, defeated the Spartans.
1054 – A supernova is seen by Chinese, Arab and possibly Amerindian observers near the star Zeta Tauri. For several months it remains bright enough to be seen during the day. Its remnants form the Crab Nebula.
1636 – City of Providence, Rhode Island is formed
1744 – The Treaty of Lancaster, in which the Iroquois cedes lands between the Allegheny Mountains and the Ohio River to the British colonies, was signed in Lancaster, Pennsylvania.
1754 – French and Indian War: George Washington surrenders Fort Necessity to French Capt. Louis Coulon de Villiers.
1774 – Orangetown Resolutions are adopted in the Province of New York, one of many protests against the British Parliament’s Coercive Acts
1776 – According to popular legend the Liberty Bell rings for the 2nd Continental Congress
1776 – American Revolution: The United States Declaration of Independence is adopted by the Second Continental Congress.
1778 – American Revolutionary War: American forces under George Clark capture Kaskaskia during the Illinois campaign.
1796 – 1st Independence Day celebration is held
1802 – At West Point, New York, the United States Military Academy opens.
1803 – The Louisiana Purchase is announced to the American people.
1817 – In Rome, New York, construction on the Erie Canal begins.
1826 – Thomas Jefferson, third president of the United States, dies the same day as John Adams, second president of the United States, on the fiftieth anniversary of the adoption of the United States Declaration of Independence.
1827 – Slavery is abolished in New York State.
1831 – James Monroe, American politician, 5th President of the United States (b. 1758) died.
1831 – Samuel Francis Smith writes My Country, ‘Tis of Thee for the Boston, MA July 4th festivities.
1838 – The Iowa Territory is organized.
1845 – Henry David Thoreau moves into his shack on Walden Pond
1845 – Texas Congress votes for annexation to US
1855 – In Brooklyn, New York City, the first edition of Walt Whitman’s book of poems, Leaves of Grass, is published.
1862 – Lewis Carroll tells Alice Liddell a story that would grow into Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and its sequels.
1863 – Boise, Idaho founded (now capital of Idaho)
1863 – Paul Joseph Revere, US grandson of Paul Revere/Union brig-gen, dies
1863 – American Civil War: Siege of Vicksburg – Vicksburg, Mississippi surrenders to Ulysses S. Grant after 47 days of siege. 150 miles up the Mississippi River, a Confederate Army was repulsed at the Battle of Helena, Arkansas.
1863 – American Civil War: The Army of Northern Virginia withdrew from the battlefield after losing the Battle of Gettysburg, signalling an end to the Southern invasion of the North.
1865 – Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland is published.
1872 – Calvin Coolidge, American politician, 30th President of the United States (d. 1933) was born.
1875 – White Democrats kill several blacks in terrorist attacks in Vicksburg
1881 – Ulysses S. Grant III, American soldier (d. 1968)Born
1883 – Rube Goldberg, American sculptor, cartoonist, and author (d. 1970) was born.
1886 – The people of France offer the Statue of Liberty to the people of the United States.
1894 – Republic of Hawaii proclaimed, Sanford B Dole as president
1902 – Meyer Lansky, mobster (Started numbers) Born
1903 – Dorothy Levitt is reported as the first woman in the world to compete in a ‘motor race’.
1910 – African-American boxer Jack Johnson knocks out white boxer Jim Jeffries in a heavyweight boxing match, sparking race riots across the United States.
1911 – A massive heat wave strikes the northeastern United States, killing 380 people in eleven days and breaking temperature records in several cities.
1913 – President Woodrow Wilson addresses American Civil War veterans at the Great Reunion of 1913.
1914 – The funeral of Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his wife Sophie takes place in Vienna, six days after their assassinations in Sarajevo.
1916 – Tokyo Rose, [Iva Toguri D'Aquino], propagandist (WW II)Born
1918 – Pauline Phillips, American columnist and radio host, created Dear Abby (d. 2013) was born.
1924 – Eva Marie Saint, Newark NJ, actress (On the Waterfront, North by Northwest) Born
1927 – Neil Simon, Bronx, playwright (Odd Couple, Plaza Suite, Biloxi Blues)Born
1934 – Leo Szilard patented the chain-reaction design for the atomic bomb.
1934 – Marie Curie, French-Polish Physicist/Chemist, dies at 66
1938 – Bill Withers, Slab Fork WV, rhythm & blues singer (Lean on Me)born
1939 – Lou Gehrig, recently diagnosed with Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, informs a crowd at Yankee Stadium that he considered himself “The luckiest man on the face of the earth”, then announces his retirement from major league baseball.
1940 – Dave Rowberry, English pianist and songwriter (The Animals) (d. 2003) was born.
1941 – Nazi troops massacre Polish scientists and writers in the captured Ukrainian city of Lviv.
1941 – Brian Willson, American peace activist Born
1943 – World War II: The Battle of Kursk, the largest full-scale battle in history and the world’s largest tank battle, begins in Prokhorovka village.
1947 – The “Indian Independence Bill” is presented before the British House of Commons, proposing the independence of the Provinces of British India into two sovereign countries: India and Pakistan.
1950 – Radio Free Europe first broadcasts.
1951 – A court in Czechoslovakia sentences American journalist William N. Oatis to ten years in prison on charges of espionage.
1951 – William Shockley announced the invention of the junction transistor.
1955 – John Waite, vocalist (Babies/Bad English-Forget Me Not, Missing You)born
1960 – Due to the post-Independence Day admission of Hawaii as the 50th U.S. state on August 21, 1959, the 50-star flag of the United States debuts in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, almost ten and a half months later (see Flag Act).
1966 – U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson signs the Freedom of Information Act into United States law. The act went into effect the next year.
1969 – “Give Peace a Chance” by Plastic Ono Band is released in UK
1970 – Casey Kasem’s “American Top 40″ debuts on LA radio
1972 – William Goldsmith, American drummer (Sunny Day Real Estate, Foo Fighters, and The Fire Theft) was born.
1977 – The George Jackson Brigade plants a bomb at the main power substation for the Washington state capitol in Olympia, in solidarity with a prison strike at the Walla Walla State Penitentiary Intensive Security Unit
1988 – US Navy shoots down Iranian civilian jetliner over Gulf, kills 290
1995 – Eva Gabor, actress (Green Acres), dies at 76
1996 – Hot Mail, a free internet E-mail service begins
2003 – Barry White, American singer, dies at 58
2004 – The cornerstone of the Freedom Tower is laid on the site of the World Trade Center in New York City.
2005 – The Deep Impact collider hits the comet Tempel 1.
2008 – Jesse Helms, American journalist and politician (b. 1921) died.
2009 – Drake Levin, American guitarist (Paul Revere & the Raiders) (b. 1946) died.
2009 – The Statue of Liberty’s crown reopens to the public after eight years of closure due to security concerns following the September 11 attacks.
2012 – The discovery of particles consistent with the Higgs boson at the Large Hadron Collider is announced at CERN.