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July 4: Independence Day |
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This
Day In History: July
4: Independence
Day Events
occuring on July 4 July 4, 1778 – in the
American Revolutionary War, American
forces under George Clark capture
Kaskaskia during the Illinois
campaign. July 4, 1802 – The
United States Military Academyat West
Point, New York opens. July 4, 1803 – The
Louisiana Purchase is announced to the
American people. 1817 –Construction on the Erie
Canal begins at Rome, New York. 1826 – Thomas Jefferson, the
third president of the United States,
dies the same day as John Adams, the
second president of the United States,
on the fiftieth anniversary of the
adoption of the United States
Declaration of Independence. 1827 – Slavery is legally
abolished in New York State. 1831 – Samuel Francis Smith's
song, My Country, 'Tis of Thee
was first performed in public at a
children's Independence Day celebration
at Park Street Church in Boston. 1855 – In Brooklyn, the first
edition of Walt Whitman's book of
poems, titled Leaves of Grass,
is published. 1863 – In the American Civil
War, the Siege of Vicksburg ends as
Vicksburg surrenders to Ulysses S.
Grant's Union army after a 47 day long
siege. 1863- A Confederate Army is repulsed
at the Battle of Helena, Arkansas in
the American Civil War. 1886 – The people of France
offer the Statue of Liberty to the
people of the United States. 1910 – African-American boxer
Jack Johnson knocks out white boxer Jim
Jeffries in a heavyweight boxing match
sparking race riots across the United
States. 1939 – Lou Gehrig, recently
diagnosed with Amyotrophic lateral
sclerosis (later to be known as Lou
Gehrig's Disease), tells a crowd at
Yankee Stadium that he considers
himself "The luckiest man on the face
of the earth" as he announces his
retirement from major league
baseball. 1946--The Philippine, which had been
a U.S. colony since the
Spanish-American War of 1898, is given
full independence from the United
States. 1960- The 50-star flag of the United
States debuts in Philadelphia,
Pennsylvania. The addition of two new
stars was necessary due to the
admission to the Union of Alaska and
Hawaii in 1959. 1966 – President Lyndon B.
Johnson signs the Freedom of
Information Act into United States
law. 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. July 4
Births: 1804 – Nathaniel Hawthorne,
American writer (d. 1864) 1807 – Giuseppe Garibaldi,
Italian military and political figure
(d. 1882) 1816 – Hiram Walker, American
grocer and distiller (d. 1899) 1826 – Stephen Foster, American
songwriter (d. 1864) 1847 – James Anthony Bailey,
American circus impresario (d.
1906) 1854 – Bill Tilghman, American
gunslinger and peace officer (d.
1924) 1867 – Stephen Mather, American
entrepreneur and conservationist (d.
1930) 1868 – Henrietta Swan Leavitt,
American astronomer (d. 1921) 1872 – Calvin Coolidge, 30th
President of the United States (d.
1933) 1881 – Ulysses S. Grant III,
American soldier (d. 1968) 1882 – Louis B. Mayer, American
film producer (d. 1957) 1883 – Rube Goldberg, American
cartoonist (d. 1970) 1895 – Irving Caesar, American
lyricist and composer (d. 1996) 1898 – Dr. Pilar Barbosa,
Puerto Rican historian (d. 1997) 1898 – Gertrude Lawrence,
English-born actress (d. 1952) 1902 – Meyer Lansky,
Russian-born American gangster (d.
1983) 1902 – George Murphy, American
entertainer (d. 1992) 1904 – Angela Baddeley, English
actress (d. 1976) 1905 – Irving Johnson, American
adventurer (d. 1991) 1907 – Gordon Griffith,
American director (d. 1958) 1907 – Howard Taubman, American
music and theater critic (d. 1996) 1910 – Gloria Stuart, American
actress (d. 2010) 1911 – Mitch Miller, American
entertainer (d. 2010) 1916 – Iva Toguri D'Aquino,
American World War II figure (d.
2006) 1918 – Ann Landers, American
advice columnist (d. 2002) 1918 – Abigail Van Buren,
American advice columnist 1918 – Johnnie Parsons,
American race car driver (d. 1984) 1920 – Norm Drucker, American
basketball referee 1920 – Leona Helmsley, American
hotel operator and real estate investor
(d. 2007) 1924 – Eva Marie Saint,
American actress 1927 – Gina Lollobrigida,
Italian actress 1927 – Neil Simon, American
playwright 1928 – Chuck Tanner, American
baseball player (d. 2011) 1929 – Peter Angelos, majority
owner of the Baltimore Orioles baseball
team 1929 – Al Davis, American
businessman 1929 – Bill Tuttle, American
baseball player (d. 1998) 1930 – Frunzik Mkrtchyan,
Armenian actor (d. 1993) 1930 – George Steinbrenner,
American businessman (d. 2010) 1930 – Yuri Tyukalov, Soviet
Olympic rower 1931 – Stephen Boyd, Northern
Irish actor (d. 1977) 1931 – Sébastien
Japrisot, French author, film director
and screenwriter (d. 2003) 1932 – Aurèle
Vandendriessche, Belgian athlete 1934 – Colin Welland, English
actor 1935 – Paul Scoon, Governor
General of Grenada 1937 – Thomas Nagel, American
philosopher 1938 – Bill Withers, American
singer and songwriter 1942 – Hal Lanier, American
baseball player 1942 – Floyd Little, American
football player 1943 – Geraldo Rivera, American
reporter 1945 – Bruce French, American
actor 1946 – Tish Howard, American
model 1946 – Ron Kovic, American
peace activist 1946 – Michael Milken, American
financier 1946 – Ed O'Ross, American
actor 1948 – Ed Armbrister, baseball
player 1951 – Kathleen Kennedy
Townsend, American politician 1954 – Jim Beattie, American
baseball player 1954 – Morganna Roberts,
American entertainer 1962 – Pam Shriver, American
tennis player 1969 – Todd Marinovich,
American football player 1971 – Brendan Donnelly,
American baseball player 1972 – William Goldsmith,
American drummer (Sunny Day Real
Estate, Foo Fighters) 1826 – John Adams, 2nd
President of the United States (b.
1735) 1826 – Thomas Jefferson 3rd
President of the United States (b.
1743) 1831 – James Monroe, 5th
President of the United States (b.
1758) 1848 –
François-René de
Chateaubriand, French writer (b.
1768) 1850 – William Kirby, English
entomologist (b. 1759) 1854 – Karl Friedrich Eichhorn,
German jurist (b. 1781) 1857 – William L. Marcy,
American statesman (b. 1786) 1881 – Johan Vilhelm Snellman,
Finnish statesman (b. 1806) 1882 – Joseph Brackett,
American composer (b. 1797) 1891 – Hannibal Hamlin, U.S.
Vice President (b. 1809) 1901 – Johannes Schmidt, German
linguist (b. 1843) 1910 – Giovanni Schiaparelli,
Italian astronomer (b. 1835) 1916 – Alan Seeger, American
war poet (b. 1888) 1922 – Lothar von Richthofen,
German pilot (b. 1894) 1926 – Pier Giorgio Frassati,
Italian Saint (b. 1901) 1931 – Emanuele Filiberto, 2nd
Duke of Aosta, Italian aristocrat (b.
1869) 1931 – Buddie Petit, American
jazz musician (b. 1895) 1934 – Maria Sklodowska-Curie,
Nobel Prize in Chemistry and Physics
(b. 1867) 1938 – Otto Bauer, Austrian
Social Democratic politician (b.
1881) 1938 – Suzanne Lenglen, French
tennis player (b. 1899) 1941 – Antoni Lomnicki, Polish
mathematician (b. 1881) 1946 – Gerda Steinhoff,
Polish-born German concentration camp
overseer (b. 1922) 1948 – Monteiro Lobato,
Brazilian writer (b. 1882) 1963 – Bernard Freyberg, New
Zealander statesman (b. 1889) 1964 – Henry (Hank) Sylvern,
American radio personality (b.
1908) 1970 – Barnett Newman, American
artist (b. 1905) 1970 – Harold Stirling
Vanderbilt, American industrialist (b.
1884) 1971 – August Derleth, American
writer and editor (b. 1909) 1976 – Yonatan Netanyahu,
Israeli soldier and Entebbe rescue
commander (b. 1946) 1984 – Jimmie Spheeris,
American singer-songwriter (b.
1949) 1986 – Flor Peeters, Belgian
composer and organist (b. 1903) 1986 – Oscar Zariski, Russian
mathematician (b. 1899) 1988 – Adrian Adonis, American
professional wrestler (b. 1954) 1989 – Jack Haig, British actor
(b. 1913) 1991 – Victor Chang, Australian
physician (b. 1936) 1992 – Ástor Piazzolla,
Argentinian composer (b. 1921) 1993 – Bona Arsenault, French
Canadian politician and historian (b.
1903) 1994 – Joey Marella, American
professional wrestling referee (b.
1964) 1995 – Eva Gabor, Hungarian
actress (b. 1919) 1995 – Bob Ross, American
artist and television host (b.
1942) 1997 – Charles Kuralt, American
television presenter (b. 1934) 1997 – John Zachary Young,
English zoologist (b. 1907) 1999 – Leo Garel, American
artist and cartoonist (b. 1917) 2000 – Gustaw
Herling-Grudzinski, Polish writer (b.
1919) 2001 – Keenan Milton, American
skateboarder (b. 1974) 2002 – Benjamin O. Davis Jr.,
American Air Force general (b.
1912) 2002 – Mansoor Hekmat, Iranian
politician (b. 1951) 2002 – Winnifred Quick,
American Titanic survivor (b. 1904) 2003 – André Claveau,
French singer (b. 1915) 2003 – Barry White, American
singer (b. 1944) 2004 – Jean-Marie Auberson,
Swiss conductor (b. 1920) 2004 – Frank Robinson
(Xylophone Man), British street
entertainer (b. 1932) 2005 – Hank Stram, American
football coach (b. 1923) 2007 – Baris Akarsu, Turkish
rock musician (b. 1979) 2007 – Bill Pinkney, American
singer and performer (b. 1925) 2008 – Jesse Helms, American
politician (b. 1921) 2008 – Evelyn Keyes, American
actress (b. 1916) 2008 – Terrence Kiel, American
football player (b. 1980) 2008 – Charles Wheeler, British
journalist (b. 1923) 2009 – Brenda Joyce, American
actress (b. 1917) 2009 – Allen Klein, American
music executive (b. 1931) 2009 – Drake Levin, American
rock musician (b. 1946) 2009 – Steve McNair, American
football player (b. 1973) 2009 – Lasse Strömstedt,
Swedish writer (b. 1935) 2009 – Jean-Baptiste Tati
Loutard, Congolese politician (b.
1938) 2009 – Jim Chapin, American
drummer (b. 1919) 2010 – Mohammad Hussein
Fadlallah, Iraqi-born Lebanese Shiite
Muslim cleric and Hezbollah mentor (b.
1935) 2011 – Otto von Habsburg, last
crown prince of Austria-Hungary (b.
1912) On July 4, 1776, the
Second Continental Congress unanimously
adopted the Declaration
of Independence, announcing
the separation of the American colonies
from Great Britain. While the Constitution
provides the legal and governmental
framework for the United States, the
Declaration,
with the eloquent assertion written by
Thomas Jefferson, that "all Men are
created equal," is held in very high
regard by the American people. Citizens of Phlidelphia (the first U.S.
capital), in 1777, marked the first
anniversary of American independence with
a spontaneous celebration, which is
described in a letter
by John Adams to Abigail Adams.
However, observing Independence Day only
became a commonplace event after the
War of 1812.
Many regarded that war as America's Second
War of Independence, as it showed that the
U.S. could stand up to the British, but
only if Americans stood united against a
common foe. Soon, important publid events
such as groundbreaking ceremonies for the
Erie
Canal and the Baltimore
and Ohio Railroad were scheduled to
coincide with July 4th festivities. In 1859, the Banneker Institute of
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, which was an
abolitionist organization, urged African
Americans to celebrate Independence Day
while also bearing witness to the
inconsistencies between the ideals
espoused in the Declaration of
Independence and the practice of slavery
in America. Banneker's orator of the day,
Mr. Jacob C. White Jr., also promised his
audience a brighter future: Mr. Jacob C. White Jr., Introductory
Remarks, By the 1870s, the Fourth of July was
the most important secular holiday on the
calendar in the United States. Congress
passed a law creating Independence Day as
a federal holiday on June 28, 1870. In an
American
Life Histories: Manuscripts from the
Federal Writers' Project, 1936-1940
interview, Miss Nettie Spencer remembered
the Fourth as the "big event of the year.
Everyone in the countryside got together
on that day for the only time in the
year." She continued, "Rural
Life in the 1870s," Down in the South, the celebration was
much the same. Ninety-six-year-old Dr.
Samuel B. Lathan recalled the Independence
Day celebrations of his South Carolina
childhood: "Dr.
Samuel B. Lathan," Online
resources from the Library of Congress
about Independence Day: Learn a new Independence Day song
like "Huzza!
'Tis the Fourth of July!" from
Music
for the Nation: American Sheet Music,
1820-1860 & 1870-1885 or
"Up
With the Flag," available in
Historic
American Sheet Music, 1850-1920.
Search these collections on Fourth
of July. The Stanley Heirs Park was formed by
descendants of nineteenth-century
settlers who farmed and worked in the
West Virginia mines. Search
on the term Fourth of July in
Tending
the Commons: Folklife and Landscape in
Southern West Virginia to see
images of the Stanley Heirs celebrating
the Fourth. See, for example, Charles
Lilly playing the bass guitar, or
Larry
Gibson speaking with Mary
Hufford. "The
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