This Day in History
July 3

Copyright © 2006-2024 Ken Polsson
internet e-mail: ken@kpolsson.com
URL: http://kpolsson.com/thisday/
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What happened in history on this day: July 3?

On July 3 in ...

  • 683 - Saint Leo II ends his reign as Catholic Pope.
  • 1423 - Birth of Louis XI king of France (1461-83).
  • 1567 - Birth of Samuel de Champlain explorer (Lake Champlain).
  • 1608 - City of Québec founded by French explorer Samuel de Champlain.
  • 1731 - Birth of Samuel Huntington (Governor-Connecticut), Continental Congress president.
  • 1738 - Birth of John Singleton Copley Massachusetts, finest colonial American artist.
  • 1754 - George Washington surrenders to French, Fort Necessity (7 Years' War).
  • 1775 - George Washington takes command of the Continental Army as commander-in-chief at Cambridge, Massachusetts.
  • 1778 - British forces massacre 360 men, women and children in Wyoming, Pennsylvania.
  • 1806 - Michael Keens exhibits first cultivated strawberry.
  • 1814 - Americans capture Fort Erie, Canada.
  • 1839 - First state normal school in US opens, Lexington, Massachusetts, with three students.
  • 1841 - John Couch Adams decides to determine the position of an unknown planet by irregularities it causes in the motion of Uranus.
  • 1854 - Birth of Leos Janácek Hukvaldy in Moravia; composer (Foster Suite).
  • 1861 - Birth of Peter Jackson; heavyweight, boxing hall of famer.
  • 1863 - On the third day of the Battle of Gettysburg, Confederate General George Pickett leads a 15,000-man column a mile toward USA positions at Cemetery Ridge, after an hour-long cannon bombardment. But USA artillery and infantry survive, and devastate the attacking force, killing or wounding 7,000 within an hour.
  • 1870 - Birth of Richard B Bennett; 11th Canadian Prime Minister (Conservative, 1930-35).
  • 1874 - Birth of Apirana Turupa Ngata in Kawaka, New Zealand; Maori political/cultural leader.
  • 1883 - Birth of Alfred Korzybski in Poland; scientist (Science and Sanity).
  • 1883 - Birth of Franz Kafka in Prague, Bohemia, Austro-Hungarian Empire; author (Metamorphosis, Trial, Amerika) (dies 1924).
  • 1884 - The Customer's Afternoon Letter first publishes Charles Dow's American stock average, containing eleven railroad and industrial stocks: Chicago & North Western, Delaware Lackawanna & Western, Lake Shore, Louisville & Nashville, Missouri Pacific, New York Central, Northern Pacific pfd., Pacific Mail, St. Paul, Union Pacific, and Western Union.
  • 1886 - The New York Tribune becomes the first newspaper to use a linotype machine, eliminating hand typesetting.
  • 1886 - Karl Benz officially unveils the Benz Patent Motorwagen, the first purpose-built automobile.
  • 1888 - New York Giants' pitcher Rube Marquard ties record of 19 game win-streak.
  • 1890 - Idaho is admitted to the USA as 43rd state.
  • 1898 - (9:00 AM) Spanish warships attempt to escape Santiago Bay, Cuba; American fleet destroys them one by one: flagship Infanta Maria Teresa, armored cruisers Almirante Oquendo, Vizcaya, and Cristobal Colon, and destroyers Furor and Pluton. Death of 323 and 115 wounded of 2227 Spanish, death of one and two wounded Americans.
  • 1900 - Birth of John Mason Brown in Louisville, Kentucky, USA; critic (Tonight on Broadway).
  • 1906 - Birth of Francis Steegmuller; US biographer (Cocteau).
  • 1906 - Birth of George Sanders in Russia; actor (All About Eve - Academy Award 1950).
  • 1909 - Birth of Earl L Butz; US Secretary of Agriculture (1971-76).
  • 1909 - Birth of Stavros Spyros Niarchos in Athens, Greece; shipping tycoon, founder of Niarchos Ltd, first oil supertankers (dies 1996).
  • 1913 - Birth of Dorothy Kilgallen in Chicago, Illinois, USA; columnist (What's My Line?).
  • 1913 - A common tern bird is banded in Maine; it is found dead in 1919 in Africa (first bird confirmed to have crossed the Atlantic).
  • 1914 - Birth of George Bruns in Oregon, USA; Disney songwriter/composer (Sleeping Beauty, Babes in Toyland, The Sword in the Stone, "The Ballad of Davy Crockett", theme of Zorro, "Yo Ho"), named Disney Legend 2001.
  • 1920 - Birth of Louise Allbritton in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, USA; actress (Celia - Stage Door, Got a Secret).
  • 1920 - Royal Air Force holds an air display at Hendon, England.
  • 1927 - Birth of Ken Russell in England; director (Crimes of Passion).
  • 1928 - London, England, sees its first color television broadcast.
  • 1930 - Birth of Carlos Kleiber in Berlin, Germany; conductor (Bavarian State Orchestra 1968).
  • 1930 - Birth of Pete Fountain in New Orleans, USA; jazz clarinetist (Lawrence Welk Show 1957-59).
  • 1932 - First Sunday game at Fenway Park, New York Yankees beat Boston Red Sox 13-2.
  • 1934 - C Jackson discovers asteroid #1367 Nongoma.
  • 1934 - FDIC pays off first insured depositors, Fon du Lac Bank, East Peoria, Illinois.
  • 1935 - Birth of Harrison H "Jack" Schmitt in Santa Rita, New Mexico, USA; astronaut (Apollo 17).
  • 1937 - Birth of Tom Stoppard; playwright (Rosencrantz and Guildenstern - 1968 Tony).
  • 1938 - The world speed record for a steam railway locomotive is set in England, by the Mallard, which reaches a speed of 203 km/h (126 mph).
  • 1939 - Birth of Jay Tarses in Baltimore, Maryland, USA; actor/writer (Open All Night, Duck Factory).
  • 1939 - Ernst Heinkel demonstrates 800-kph rocket plane to German leader Adolf Hitler.
  • 1939 - Lou Gehrig day; baseball player Gehrig makes "luckiest man" speech.
  • 1939 - The Japanese army launches a powerful surprise attack against Soviet forces at Bain-Tsagan Mountain.
  • 1940 - Birth of Fontella Bass in Saint Louis, Missouri, USA; vocalist ("Rescue Me").
  • 1940 - Birth of Lance Larson; American 100m freestyle swimmer (Olympic-silver-1960).
  • 1940 - A British naval group arrives at Oran and Mers-el-Kebir in Algeria, requesting the surrender of the French fleet. The French refuse, and the British ships open fire. Battleship Bretagne blows up, Dunquerque is run aground, battleship Provence is beached, and torpedo cruiser Magador explodes. 1300 French sailors die.
  • 1941 - Death of Friedrich Karl Akel by execution by the Soviet NKVD; was Estonia State Elder 192, 3-time Foreign Minister, ambassador, on National Council 1938-40, opthalmologist, representative on International Olympic Committee 1927-32.
  • 1943 - Birth of Norman E Thagard in Marianna, Florida, USA; MD/astronaut (STS 7, 51-B, 30, 42).
  • 1944 - Oriole Park (minor league baseball stadium) burns down in Baltimore, Maryland.
  • 1945 - Birth of Iain MacDonald-Smith in England; yachtsman (Olympic-gold-1968).
  • 1945 - Birth of Michael Cole in Madison, Wisconsin, USA; actor (Pete - The Mod Squad).
  • 1945 - Birth of Mike Corby; guitarist (The Babys).
  • 1947 - 252,288 people (record) pass through Grand Central Station, New York City.
  • 1947 - Birth of Betty Buckley in Big Springs, Texas, USA; actress (Abby - Eight is Enough, 1776, Cats).
  • 1948 - Birth of Paul Berrere; rocker (Little Feat - "Truck Stop Girl").
  • 1949 - Birth of Jan Smithers in North Hollywood, California, USA; actress (Bailey - WKRP).
  • 1950 - First time US and North Korean forces clash in the Korean War.
  • 1951 - Birth of Jean-Claude Duvalier; deposed Haitian president-for-life.
  • 1951 - Birth of Richard Hadlee in Christchurch, New Zealand; leading cricket bowler.
  • 1952 - Birth of Alan Autry; NFL player (Green Bay Packers) / actor (The Heat of the Night).
  • 1957 - Birth of Laura Branigan; singer ("Gloria") (dies 2004).
  • 1958 - ABC-TV premieres The Andy Williams Show.
  • 1959 - Birth of Stoyan Deltchev in Bulgaria; horizontal bar gymnist (Olympic-gold-1980).
  • 1961 - Birth of Vince Clarke in England; rocker (Yaz - "Situation", "Only You").
  • 1962 - Algerian Revolution against French ends (Algeria gains independence on July 5).
  • 1962 - Birth of Tom Cruise in Syracuse, New York, USA; actor (Risky Business, Color of Money, Rainman).
  • 1965 - Philadelphia Phillies' Dick Allen and Frank Thomas get into a fight during practice.
  • 1966 - Atlanta Braves' pitcher Tony Cloninger is first National League player to hit two grand slams in a game.
  • 1966 - Race riots in Omaha, Nebraska, USA.
  • 1967 - South Africa mint strikes first Kruggerand gold coins. Each coin contains a full ounce of gold, 0.9170 fineness, with weight 33.9305 grams.
  • 1967 - News at 10 premieres on English TV.
  • 1968 - Birth of Jeff Phillips in Westwood, New Jersey, USA; actor (Hart Jessup - Guiding Light).
  • 1968 - Cleveland Indians' Luis Tiant strikes out 19 Minnesota Twins players.
  • 1969 - 78,000 attend Newport Jazz Festival, Newport, Rhode Island.
  • 1969 - Death of Brian Jones at age 25 by drowning; founder of the Rolling Stones.
  • 1970 - 200,000 attend Atlanta Pop Festival.
  • 1970 - California Angels' Clyde Wright no-hits Oakland Athletics, 8-0.
  • 1970 - L Chernykh discovers asteroid #3702.
  • 1971 - Death of James Douglas Morrison AKA Jim Morrison at age 27, found dead in a bathtub in Paris, France; lead singer and lyricist (The Doors).
  • 1971 - Death of Dorothy A. Kabis, US Treasurer.
  • 1973 - Brothers Jim and Gaylord Perry face each other for only time, Detroit Tigers beat Cleveland Indians 5-4, as Gaylord loses.
  • 1975 - Birth of Keri Houlihan in Pennsylvania; actress (Molly - Our House).
  • 1978 - Amazon Cooperation Treaty (ACT) signed.
  • 1978 - Death of James Daly at age 59 of heart failure; actor (Foreign Intrigue TV show, Medical Center TV show).
  • 1979 - U.S. President Jimmy Carter signs the first directive for secret aid to the opponents of the pro-Soviet regime in Kabul.
  • 1979 - The German government votes to remove the statute of limitations for murder, thus making possible the continued prosecution of German war criminals.
  • 1981 - Ross Martin, actor (Mr Lucky, Wild Wild West), dies at age 61.
  • 1982 - Martina Navratilova defeats Chris Evert Lloyd at Wimbeldon.
  • 1983 - In Costa Rica, a magnitude 6.7 earthquake occurs.
  • 1983 - Calvin Smith of US becomes fastest man alive (9.93 seconds for 100 metre dash).
  • 1983 - John McEnroe regains men's singles title at Wimbledon.
  • 1984 - Dolphin rocket launched off San Clemente Island.
  • 1984 - US Supreme Court rules Jaycees may be forced to admit women as members.
  • 1985 - Universal releases the film Back to the Future to theaters.
  • 1985 - CBS announces a 21 percent stock buy-back to thwart Ted Turner's takeover.
  • 1985 - In the New Britian region, a magnitude 7.4 earthquake occurs.
  • 1986 - US President Ronald Reagan presides over relighting of renovated Statue of Liberty.
  • 1986 - Death of Rudy Vallee at age 84; singer ("Vagabond Dreams").
  • 1987 - Two men become first hot-air balloon travelers to cross Atlantic.
  • 1987 - Greater Manchester Police recover the body of 16-year-old Pauline Reade from Saddleworth Moor after her killers Ian Brady and Myra Hindley help them in their search - almost exactly 24 years since Pauline was last seen alive.
  • 1987 - In the Soviet Union, Vladimir Nikolayev is sentenced to death for cannibalism.
  • 1988 - Spink-Taisei in Tokyo sells a British 1847 Victoria Gothic, Plain Edge gold crown pattern graded AU (one of two known) for the equivalent of US$210,000, a record for a UK coin.
  • 1988 - The Fatih Sultan Mehmet Bridge in Istanbul, Turkey is completed, providing the second connection between the continents of Europe and Asia over the Bosporus.
  • 1988 - US navy ship USS Vincennes in the Straits of Hormuz shoots down Iran Air Flight 655 Airbus 300 civilian jetliner flying to Dubai, killing all 290 on board.
  • 1989 - Jim Backus, American actor (Mr. Magoo, Gilligan's Island), dies at age 76 of pneumonia (born 1913).
  • 1989 - Peter Koech of Kenya sets 3k steeplechase record (8:05.39) in Stockholm, Sweden.
  • 1989 - US Supreme Court rules states do not have to provide funds for abortions.
  • 1989 - The movie Batman sets record of quickest US$100 million (10 days).
  • 1991 - TriStar releases the film Terminator 2: Judgment Day to theaters.
  • 1993 - The NBC TV network airs the last episode of Almost Home.
  • 1993 - Death of Joe DeRita AKA Joseph Wardell of complications of diabetes at age 83; actor (Curly - The Three Stooges (1958-)).
  • 1996 - Fox releases the film Independence Day to theaters.
  • 1997 - The ABC TV network airs the last show of the series Vital Signs.
  • 1998 - Death of Danielle Bunten Berry, American software developer (born 1949).
  • 1999 - In Weirs Beach, New Hampshire, USA, over six hours Billy Mitchell plays a "perfect" game of the arcade game Pac-Man, achieving the highest score that the game allows: 3,333,360. This can only be accomplished by guiding Pac-Man to eat every dot, fruit, and ghost in all 256 levels without dying.
  • 2001 - A Vladivostokavia Tupolev Tu-154 jetliner crashes on approach to landing at Irkutsk, Russia, killing 145.
  • 2002 - Sony releases the film Men in Black II to theaters.
  • 2006 - The asteroid labeled as 2004 XP14 flies within 432,308 km (268,624 miles) of Earth.
  • 2007 - Torrential rains cause the onset of the 2007 Sudan floods, the worst in the Sudan's history.
  • 2007 - South Korea passes legislation of deregulation to remove bureaucratic barriers in its securities industry.
  • 2007 - Paramount releases the film Transformers to theaters.
  • 2007 - In Islamabad, Pakistan, the army begins a seige on the Lal Masjid (Red Mosque), where thousands of Islamist extremists reside. In the day's clashes, at least 16 are killed, thousands surrender, hundreds continue resistance. Cleric Abdul Aziz is captured.
  • 2007 - Ghana redenominates its currency at 1 Ghana cedi for 10,000 old cedi, and issues new coins denominated 1, 5, 10, 20, and 50 new pesewas and 1 Ghana cedi.
  • 2007 - Death of Claude Pompidou, wife of President of France Georges Pompidou (born 1912).
  • 2007 - Death of Boots Randolph, American saxophone player (born 1927).
  • 2008 - The NBA's Seattle SuperSonics basketball team announces they will move to Oklahoma City next season.
  • 2009 - World Health Organization head Margaret Chan says that the spread of the Influenza A H1N1 virus pandemic worldwide is now unstoppable.
  • 2009 - Brothers Daniel and Henrik Sedin re-sign with the NHL's Vancouver Canucks for five-year deals worth US$30.5 million each.
  • 2010 - Spain beats Paraguay with a lone goal in the quarter-finals of soccer's 2010 World Cup, to advance to the semi-finals for the first time.
  • 2010 - Rosa Otunbayeva, former foreign minister, is sworn in as interim president of the republic of Kyrgyzstan.
  • 2010 - Mohammed Oudeh (AKA Abu Daoud), the self-confessed mastermind behind the 1972 Munich Olympics massacre, dies of kidney failure in hospital in Damascus, Syria, at age 73.
  • 2010 - American Serena Williams defeats Russian 21st seed Vera Zvonareva 6-3, 6-2, to win a fourth women's singles tennis Wimbledon and 13th Grand Slam title.
  • 2013 - Universal releases the film Despicable Me 2 to theaters.
  • 2013 - Death of Radu Vasile, Prime Minister of Romania (born 1942).
  • 2013 - Amid mass protests across Egypt, President Mohamed Morsi is deposed in a military coup d'état.
  • 2016 - Boards of directors of National Bank of Abu Dhabi and First Gulf Bank agree to merger, creating bank with US$175 billion in assets.
  • 2019 - An airstrike by Field Marshal Khalifa Haftar's Libyan National Army hits the Tajoura Detention Center outside Tripoli, Libya, while hundreds of people are inside the facility, killing at least 53 of them and injuring 130 others.
  • 2020 - Prench President Emmanuel Macron replaces Prime Minister Edouard Philippe with Jean Castex.
  • 2021 - Over 130 wildfires, fuelled by lightning strikes, burn through Western Canada following a record-breaking heatwave in North America that results in over 600 deaths.

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