On this day for the United States
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Events
- 1754 – Lt–Col. George Washington surrenders Fort Necessity to French Capt. Louis Coulon de Villiers.
- 1776 – American Independence Day: The United States Declaration of Independence by the Second Continental Congress declaring itself free of British rule.
- 1802 – At West Point, New York the United States Military Academy opens.
- 1803 – The Louisiana Purchase is announced to the American people.
- 1817 – At Rome, New York, United States, construction on the Erie Canal begins.
- 1826 – Former American presidents John Adams and Thomas Jefferson die, fifty years to the day after the adoption of the United States Declaration of Independence.
- 1827 – Slavery is abolished in New York State.
- 1838 – The Iowa Territory is organized.
- 1845 – Near Concord, Massachusetts, Henry David Thoreau embarks on a two–year experiment in simple living at Walden Pond (see Walden).
- 1855 – In Brooklyn, New York, the first edition of Walt Whitman's book of poems titled 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 – 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 is repulsed at the Battle of Helena, Arkansas.
- 1881 – In Alabama, the Tuskegee Institute opens.
- 1894 – The short–lived Republic of Hawaii is proclaimed by Sanford B. Dole.
- 1910 – African-American boxer Jack Johnson knocks out white boxer Jim Jeffries in a heavyweight boxing match sparking race riots across the United States.
- 1927 – First flight of the Lockheed Vega.
- 1939 – Lou Gehrig, recently diagnosed with Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, tells a crowd at Yankee Stadium that he considered himself "The luckiest man on the face of the earth" as he announces his retirement from major league baseball.
- 1946 – After 381 years of near–continuous colonial rule, the Philippines is granted full independence by the United States.
- 1959 – With the admission of Alaska as the 49th U.S. state earlier in the year, the 49–star flag of the United States debuts in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
- 1960 – Due to the post–Independence Day admission of Hawaiˈi 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 – President Lyndon B. Johnson signs the Freedom of Information Act into United States law. The act goes into effect the next year.
- 1968 – Two teens are killed at Lake Herman Road in California. They were the first (known) victims of the Zodiac Killer.
- 1992 – USS George Washington (CVN-73), a Nimitz Class aircraft carrier of the United States Navy is commissioned at Norfolk, Virginia.
- 1997 – NASA's Pathfinder space probe lands on the surface of Mars.
- 2004 – The cornerstone of the Freedom Tower is laid on the site of the World Trade Center in New York City. (This was largely a symbolic event; actual construction would not start for several weeks.)
- 2005 – The Deep Impact collider hits the comet Tempel 1.
- 2006 – Space Shuttle program: STS-121 Mission – Space Shuttle Discovery launches at 18:37:55 UTC.
- 2007 – Zaca Fire Starts in Santa Barbara, California becomes second largest fire in California history.