July 2
Africans on the Cuban schooner Amistad rise up against their captors, kill two crew members, and seize control of the ship, which had been transporting them to a life of slavery on a sugar plantation in Puerto Principe, Cuba. – 1839.
U.S. president James A. Garfield, who had been in office just less than four months, is shot by an assassin. Garfield lingered for 80 days before dying of complications from the shooting. – 1881.
The Lockheed aircraft carrying American aviator Amelia Earhart and navigator Frederick Noonan is reported missing near Howland Island in the Pacific. The pair was attempting to fly around the world. No trace of Earhart or Noonan ever was found. – 1937.
President Lyndon Johnson signs Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which forbids employers and unions from discriminating on the basis of race, color, gender, nationality, or, religion. – 1964.
July 3
On the third day of the Battle of Gettysburg, Confederate General Robert E. Lee’s last attempt at breaking the Union line ends in disastrous failure which brings the most decisive battle of the American Civil War to an end. The Union had 23,000 killed, wounded, or missing in action and the Confederates suffered 25,000 casualties. – 1863.
In the Persian Gulf, the U.S. Navy cruiser Vincennes shoots down an Iranian passenger jet that it mistakes for a hostile Iranian fighter aircraft. Two missiles were fired from the American warship. The aircraft was hit, and all 290 passengers aboard were killed. The U.S. Navy report blamed crew error caused by psychological stress on men who were in combat for the first time. In 1996, the U.S. agreed to pay $62 Million in damages to the families of the Iranians killed in the attack. – 1988.
July 4
In Philadelphia, Pa., the Continental Congress adopts the Declaration of Independence, which proclaims the independence of the United States of America from Great Britain and its king. The declaration came 442 days after the first volleys of the American Revolution were fired at Lexington and Concord in Massachusetts and marked an ideological expansion of the conflict that eventually encouraged France’s intervention on behalf of the colonial Patriots. – 1776.
Record temperatures are set in the northeastern United States when a deadly heat wave hits the area that would go on to kill 380 individuals. In Nashua, N.H., the mercury peaked at 106 degrees Fahrenheit. Other high-temperature records were set all over New England during an 11-day period. – 1911.
July 5
In the East End of London, revivalist preacher William Booth and his wife, Catherine, establish the Christian Mission, later known as the Salvation Army. Determined to wage war against the evils of poverty and religious indifference with military efficiency, Booth modeled his Methodist sect after the British army, by labeling uniformed ministers as officers and new members as recruits. – 1865.
Dolly, the sheep, is the first mammal to have been successfully cloned from an adult cell and is born at the Roslin Institute in Scotland. – 1996.
July 6
In Hartford, Conn., a fire breaks out under the big top of the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus, to kill 167 individuals and injure 682. The cause of the fire was unknown, but it spread at incredible speed, racing up the canvas of the circus tent. Within 10 minutes it was over, and 100 children and 60 adults were dead. – 1944.
July 7
Construction of the Hoover Dam begins. Over the next five years, a total of 21,000 men worked ceaselessly to produce what would be the largest dam of its time, as well as one of the largest man-made structures in the world. – 1930.
On the morning of July 7, 2005, bombs are detonated in three crowded London subways and one bus during the peak of the city’s rush hour. The synchronized suicide bombings, which are thought to be the work of al-Qaida, kills 56, including the bombers, and injures another 700. It is the largest attack on Great Britain since World War II. No warning was given. – 2005.
July 8
Paris, the capital city of France, officially celebrates turning 2,000 years old. In fact, a few more candles technically would have been required on the birthday cake, because the City of Lights was most likely founded around 250 B.C.E.. – 1951.