On this day: July 4th

On this day: July 4th

There are many and several events on this day in history. Read and discover what happened on this day: On this day: July 4th

On this day: July 4th

Events  On this day: July 4th

• 1776: American Independence Day. The Continental Congress approved the Declaration of Independence.
• 1802: The US Military Academy opens at West Point.
• 1826: Thomas Jefferson and John Adams die on the same day, 50 years after signing the Declaration of Independence.
• 1863: Vicksburg, the last Confederate stronghold on the Mississippi River, surrendered to General Grant and the Army of the West after a six-week siege. With the Union in control of the Mississippi, the Confederacy was effectively split in two, cut off from its western allies.
• 1865: ‘Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland’ by Lewis Carroll is first published.
• 1882: The “Last Great Buffalo Hunt” began on Indian reservation lands near Hettinger, North Dakota, as 2,000 Teton Sioux Indians in full hunting regalia killed about 5,000 buffalo. By this time, most of the estimated 60-75 million buffalo in America had been killed by white hunters who usually took the hides and left the meat to rot. By 1883, the last of the free-ranging buffalo were gone.
• 1946: the Philippines gains independence from the United States. The Southeast Asian country had been ruled for almost 381 years by various colonial powers, starting with the Spanish in the early 16th century.
• 1966: The Freedom of Information Act in the US is signed into law. The 36th President of the United States, Lyndon B. Johnson, signed the law, which allows for the disclosure of government information to the public. It came into effect a year later, in 1967.
• 2012: The Discovery of Higgs boson particle is announced by scientists at the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN). The existence of the elusive elementary particle in physics, was suggested in the 1960s. The Higgs boson, which is named after Nobel laureate, Peter Higgs, was finally detected by scientists working at the Large Hadron Collider.

Birthdays On this day: July 4th

• 1804: Novelist and short-story writer Nathaniel Hawthorne (1804-1864) was born in Salem, Massachusetts
• 1826: Songwriter Stephen Foster (1826-1864) was born in Lawrenceville, Pennsylvania
• 1872: Calvin Coolidge (30th US President)
• 1927: Neil Simon (Playright)
• 1930: George Steinbrenner (NY Yankees Owner)
• 1943: Geraldo Rivera (TV Reporter)
• 1952: Álvaro Uribe (Colombian politician, 39th President of Colombia)
• 1960: Barry Windham (American wrestler)
• 1962: Pam Shriver (Tennis Player)
• 1973: Gackt (Japanese singer-songwriter, musician, producer, actor)
• 1998: Malia Obama (Daughter of President Obama)

Deaths On this day: July 4th

• 1551: Gregory Cromwell, 1st Baron Cromwell
• 1826: Thomas Jefferson (American politician, 3rd President of the United States)
• 1934: Marie Curie (Polish chemist, physicist, Nobel Prize laureate)
• 2008: Jesse Helms (American politician)
• 2011: Otto von Habsburg (Austrian/German son of Charles I of Austria)

Read also: On this day: July 3rd