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The US Continental Congress adopted the Declaration of Independence in 1776, and the first Fourth of July celebration was held in 1804. West Point opened in 1802, and founding fathers John Adams and Thomas Jefferson died in 1826. Lou Gehrig retired from baseball in 1939, and the 49th and 50th stars were added to the US flag in 1959 and 1960. France gave the US the Statue of Liberty in 1886, and the Freedom of Information Act was signed in 1966. The Butcher of Lyon was sentenced to life in prison in 1987, and the world’s first long-distance railway opened in 1837. Lewis Carroll told the story of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland in 1862, and in 1910, Jack Johnson became the first black man to become the heavyweight boxing champion of the world, causing race riots across the US.
The United States Continental Congress adopted the Declaration of Independence. (1776) The document, written primarily by Thomas Jefferson who would later become the third president of the United States, was published in many forms for distribution to new US citizens. The signed copy is exhibited in Washington DC at the National Archives.
The first Fourth of July celebration was held west of the Mississippi River. (1804) With an expeditionary party exploring the United States, Lewis and Clark stopped in Kansas to organize the party. They fired at the expedition’s cannon and the men of the squad were given an extra ration of whiskey to celebrate the day.
West Point has opened. (1802) Officially called the US Military Academy, the school is the oldest of the US military academies. Its first cadets ranged in age from 10 to 37, and Joseph Gardner Swift, who would later become the campus superintendent, was the first to graduate from the academy. More than 4,000 students attend the Academy today.
Two of the founding fathers of the United States died. (1826) John Adams and Thomas Jefferson, the second and third presidents of the United States, died on the same day. Adams was 90 and Jefferson was 83.
Famed major league baseball player Lou Gehrig bid a tearful farewell to baseball and its fans. (1939) Stricken with a fatal neurological disease that would later be named after him, Gehrig retired. He told his fans: “Today I consider myself the luckiest man on the face of the Earth.” Gehrig set many records in baseball and continues to hold the record for most career Grand Slams.
The 49th and 50th stars were added to the US flag, one year apart. (1959 & 1960) The new state of Alaska led to the addition of the 49th star to the flag in 1959. A year later, Hawaii became the 50th state and the flag was changed again, resulting in the 50th star.
France gives the United States the Statue of Liberty (1886) The gift celebrates the centennial of US independence. The sculpture was commissioned from the French artist Frédéric Bartholdi, who holds the patent for the structure of the statue. More than three million people visit the national monument each year.
The Freedom of Information Act was signed by US President Lyndon B. Johnson. (1966) The law, which allows public access to documents and information controlled by the US government, went into effect a year later. The Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) is used frequently in the US media, but the person who has issued more FOIA requests than any other person is a German woman named Barbara Schwarz. She is certain that she is a US citizen and was abducted from a secret US submarine base in Utah. The US government denies that the documents exist. Believing in a conspiracy to keep her from the truth, she filed a complaint that set the voluminous litigation record in the United States, with 2,370 pages and 3,087 federal employee defendants named.
The Butcher of Lyon has been sentenced to life in prison for crimes against humanity. (1987) Klaus Barbie was the head of the Lyon Gestapo and an SS officer for the Nazi party in Germany. He is believed to have tortured countless people and is responsible for as many as 4,000 deaths.
The world’s first long-distance railway opens. (1837) The Grand Junction Railway tracks linked Birmingham and Liverpool in the UK. The tracks stretched approximately 82 miles (132 kilometers). The railway operated until merging with the London and North Western Railway in 1846.
Charles Lutwidge Dodgson told three little girls a story about a bored little girl named Alice, a story that would be published as Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland three years later. (1862) After the tale was finished, one of the girls, Alice Liddell, asked Dodgson to write it for her. It took two years, but Dodgson, who wrote under the name Lewis Carroll, finally delivered the manuscript to her in November 1864. He continued work on the story and published it the following year. One of the most famous stories of all time, the story has been translated into more than 120 languages. In 1998, an 1865 first edition copy sold at auction in New York for $1.5 million US dollars.
In a title boxing match, black boxer Jack Johnson knocked out heavyweight champion Jim Jeffries, an undefeated white boxer, and race riots broke out across the United States. (1910) Johnson was the first black man to become the heavyweight boxing champion of the world. Riots have broken out in 25 states; hundreds of people were injured and 25 were killed.
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