1097 – The Crusaders defeated the Turks at Dorylaeum.
1841 – The Erie Railroad rolled out its first passenger train.
1859 – Charles Blondin became the first person to cross Niagara Falls on a tightrope.
1894 – Korea declared independence from China and asked for Japanese aid.
1908 – A meteor explosion in Siberia knocked down trees in a 40-mile radius and struck people unconscious some 40 miles away.
1912 – Belgian workers went on strike to demand universal suffrage.
1913 – Fighting broke out between Bulgaria and Greece and Spain. It was the beginning of the Second Balkan War.
1915 – During World War I, the Second Battle Artois ended when the French failed to take Vimy Ridge.
1921 – U.S. President Warren G. Harding appointed former President William Howard Taft chief justice of the United States.
1922 – Irish rebels in London assassinate Sir Henry Wilson, the British deputy for Northern Ireland.
1930 – France pulled its troops out of Germany’s Rhineland.
1934 – Adolf Hitler purged the Nazi Party by destroying the SA and bringing to power the SS in the “Night of the Long Knives.”
1935 – Fascists caused an uproar at the League of Nations when Haile Selassie of Ethiopia speaks.
1936 – Margaret Mitchell’s book, “Gone with the Wind,” was published.
1950 – U.S. President Harry Truman ordered U.S. troops into Korea and authorizes the draft.
1951 – On orders from Washington, General Matthew Ridgeway broadcasts that the United Nations was willing to discuss an armistice with North Korea.
1953 – The first Corvette rolled off the Chevrolet assembly line in Flint, MI. It sold for $3,250.
1955 – The U.S. began funding West Germany’s rearmament.
1957 – The American occupation headquarters in Japan was dissolved.
1958 – The U.S. Congress passed a law authorizing the admission of Alaska as the 49th state in the Union.
1960 – The Katanga province seceded from Congo (upon Congo’s independence from Belgium).
1964 – The last of U.N. troops left Congo after a four-year effort to bring stability to the country.
1970 – The Cincinnati Reds moved to their new home at Riverfront Stadium.
1971 – The U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the government could not prevent the Washington Post or the New York Times from publishing the Pentagon Papers.
1971 – The Soviet spacecraft Soyuz 11 returned to Earth. The three cosmonauts were found dead inside.
1971 – The 26th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution was ratified when Ohio became the 38th state to approve it. The amendment lowered the minimum voting age to 18.
1974 – Russian ballet dancer Mikhail Baryshnikov defected in Toronto, Canada.
1974 – The July 4th scene from the Steven Spielberg movie “Jaws” was filmed.
1977 – U.S. President Jimmy Carter announced his opposition to the B-1 bomber.
1986 – The U.S. Supreme Court ruled 5-4 that states could outlaw homosexual acts between consenting adults.
1998 – Officials confirmed that the remains of a Vietnam War serviceman buried in the Tomb of the Unknowns at Arlington National Cemetery were identified as those of Air Force pilot Michael J. Blassie.
2000 – U.S. President Clinton signed the E-Signature bill to give the same legal validity to an electronic signature as a signature in pen and ink.
2004 – The international Cassini spacecraft entered Saturn’s orbit. The craft had been on a nearly seven-year journey.
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