Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Podcast Notes
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1389 – Ottomans defeat Serbian army in the bloody Battle of Kosovo, opening the way for the Ottoman
conquest of Southeastern Europe (see Vidovdan).
1776 – American Revolutionary War: Thomas Hickey, Continental Army private and bodyguard to
General George Washington, is hanged for mutiny and sedition.
1778 – American Revolutionary War: Battle of Monmouth fought between the American Continental
Army under George Washington and the British Army led by Sir Henry Clinton.
1807 – Second British invasion of the Río de la Plata; John Whitelock lands at Ensenada on an attempt to
recapture Buenos Aires and is defeated by the fierce resistance of the locals.
1902 – The U.S. Congress passes the Spooner Act, authorizing President Theodore Roosevelt to acquire
rights from Colombia for the Panama Canal.
1914 – Franz Ferdinand, Archduke of Austria and his wife Sophie are assassinated in Sarajevo by young
Serbian nationalist Gavrilo Princip, the casus belli of World War I.
1919 – The Treaty of Versailles is signed in Paris, formally ending World War I between Belgium, Britain,
France, Italy, the United States and allies on the one side and Germany and Austria Hungary on the
other side.
1922 – The Irish Civil War begins with the shelling of the Four Courts in Dublin by Free State forces.
1997 – Mike Tyson vs Evander Holyfield II – Tyson is disqualified in the 3rd round for biting a piece from
Holyfield's ear.
2006 – The Republic of Montenegro is admitted as the 192nd Member of the United Nations by General
Assembly resolution 60/264.
Notable Births
1503 – Giovanni della Casa, Italian poet (d. 1556)
Notable Deaths
548 – Theodora, Byzantine empress
1836 – James Madison, 4th President of the United States (b. 1751)
2009 – Billy Mays, American television pitchman most famous for selling OxiClean on commercials (b.
1958)
1659 – At the Battle of Konotop the Ukrainian armies of Ivan Vyhovsky defeat the Russians, led by Prince
Trubetskoy.
1786 – Alexander Macdonell and over five hundred Roman Catholic highlanders leave Scotland to settle
in Glengarry County, Ontario.
1956 – The Federal-Aid Highway Act of 1956 is signed, officially creating the United States Interstate
Highway System.
1972 – The U.S. Supreme Court rules the death penalty could constitute "cruel and unusual
punishment".
2006 – Hamdan v. Rumsfeld: The U.S. Supreme Court rules that President George W. Bush's plan to try
Guantanamo Bay detainees in military tribunals violates U.S. and international law.
2007 – Two car bombs are found in the heart of London at Picadilly Circus.
Notable Births
1596 – Emperor Go-Mizunoo of Japan (d. 1680)
1863 – Wilbert Robinson, American baseball player and hall-of-famer (d. 1934)
Notable Deaths
1315 – Ramon Llull, Spanish philosopher (b. 1235)
2009 – Joe Bowman (marksman), American sharpshooter, Hollywood consultant, famed bootmaker &
master showman (b. 1925)
350 – Roman usurper Nepotianus, of the Constantinian dynasty, is defeated and killed by troops of the
usurper Magnentius, in Rome.
1688 – The Immortal Seven issue the Invitation to William, continuing the struggle for English
independence from Rome which would culminate in the Glorious Revolution.
1864 –Abraham Lincoln grants Yosemite Valley to California for "public use, resort and recreation".
1882 – Charles J. Guiteau is hanged in Washington, D.C. for the assassination of President James
Garfield.
1886 – The first transcontinental train trip across Canada departs from Montreal. It arrives in Port
Moody, British Columbia on July 4.
1905 – Albert Einstein publishes the article "On the Electrodynamics of Moving Bodies", in which he
introduces special relativity.
1934 – The Night of the Long Knives, Adolf Hitler's violent purge of his political rivals in Germany, takes
place.
1941 – World War II: Operation Barbarossa – Germany captures Lviv, Ukraine.
1944 – World War II: The Battle of Cherbourg ends with the fall of the strategically valuable port to
American forces.
1953 – The first Chevrolet Corvette rolls off the assembly line in Flint, Michigan.
1963 – Ciaculli massacre: A car bomb, intended for Mafia boss Salvatore Greco "Ciaschiteddu", kills
seven police and military officers near Palermo.
1971 – The crew of the Soviet Soyuz 11 spacecraft are killed when their air supply escapes through a
faulty valve.
1985 – Thirty-nine American hostages from a hijacked TWA jetliner are freed in Beirut after being held
for 17 days.
1986 –U.S. Supreme Court rules that states can outlaw homosexual acts between consenting adults.
1987 – The Royal Canadian Mint introduces the $1 coin, known as the Loonie.
1997 – The United Kingdom transfers sovereignty over Hong Kong to the People's Republic of China.
2007 – A car crashes into Glasgow International Airport in Scotland, in an attempted terrorist attack.
Notable Births
1807 – Friedrich Theodor von Vischer, German narrator, lyricist, and philosopher (d.1887)
1864 – Frederick Bligh Bond, English architect, illustrator, archaeologist and psychical researcher
Notable Deaths
350 – Nepotianus, Roman usurper
1785 – James Oglethorpe, English general and founder of the state of Georgia (b. 1696)
1966 – Giuseppe Farina, Italian Formula One champion. First person to win an Formula One
championship (b. 1906)
1520 – La Noche Triste: Joint Mexican Indian force led by Aztecs under Cuitláhuac defeat Spanish
Conquistadors under Hernán Cortés.
1690 – Glorious Revolution: Battle of the Boyne as reckoned under Julian calendar.
1770 – Lexell's Comet passed closer to the Earth than any other comet in recorded history
1863 – Keti Koti, Emancipation Day in Suriname, marking the abolition of slavery by the Netherlands.
1879 – Charles Taze Russell publishes the first edition of the religious magazine The Watchtower.
1898 – Spanish-American War: The Battle of San Juan Hill is fought in Santiago de Cuba.
1916 – World War I: First day on the Somme – On the first day of the Battle of the Somme 19,000
soldiers of the British Army are killed and 40,000 wounded.
1960 – Ghana becomes a Republic and Kwame Nkrumah becomes its first President as Queen Elizabeth
II of the United Kingdom ceases to be the Head of state.
1968 – The Nuclear non-proliferation treaty is signed in Washington, D.C., London and Moscow by sixty-
two countries.
1981 – The Wonderland Murders occurred in the early morning hours, allegedly masterminded by
businessman and drug dealer Eddie Nash.
1990 – German re-unification: East Germany accepts the Deutsche Mark as its currency, thus uniting the
economies of East and West Germany.
1997 – The People's Republic of China resumes sovereignty over the city-state of Hong Kong, ending 156
years of British colonial rule.
2007 – Smoking in England is banned in all public indoor spaces. The ban is also put into effect in
Australia.
Notable Births
1676 – Anthony Collins, English philosopher (d. 1729)
Notable Deaths
552 – Totila, king of the Ostrogoths
1971 – William Lawrence Bragg, English physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1890)
July 2nd
963 – The imperial army proclaims Nicephorus Phocas to be Emperor of the Romans on the plains
outside Cappadocian Caesarea.
1776 – The Continental Congress adopts a resolution severing ties with Great Britain although the
wording of the formal Declaration of Independence is not approved until July 4.
1839 – Twenty miles off the coast of Cuba, 53 rebelling African slaves led by Joseph Cinque take over the
slave ship Amistad.
1900 – The first zeppelin flight takes place on Lake Constance near Friedrichshafen, Germany.
1937 – Amelia Earhart and navigator Fred Noonan are last heard from over the Pacific Ocean while
attempting to make the first equatorial round-the-world flight.
1962 – The first Wal-Mart store opens for business in Rogers, Arkansas.
1964 – President Lyndon B. Johnson signs the Civil Rights Act of 1964 meant to prohibit segregation in
public places.
1976 – North and South Vietnam, divided since 1954, reunite to form the Socialist Republic of Vietnam.
2000 – Vicente Fox Quesada is elected the first President of México from an opposition party, the
Partido Acción Nacional, after more than 70 years of continuous rule by the Partido Revolucionario
Institucional.
2003 – Silvio Berlusconi, Prime Minister of Italy, insults German MP Martin Schulz by calling him a
"kapo" during a session of the European Parliament.
Notable Births
419 – Valentinian III, Roman Emperor (d. 455)
1862 – William Henry Bragg, English physicist, Nobel laureate (d. 1942)
1893 – Ralph Hancock, Welsh garden designer (Rockefeller Center) (d. 1950)
1927 – Gene Ray, Founder of the Time Cube website and proponent of Time Cube philosophy
Notable Deaths
1566 – Nostradamus, French astrologer (b. 1503)
987 – Hugh Capet is crowned King of France, the first of the Capetian dynasty that would rule France till
the French Revolution in 1792.
1754 – French and Indian War: George Washington surrenders Fort Necessity to French forces.
1775 – American Revolutionary War: George Washington takes command of the Continental Army at
Cambridge, Massachusetts.
1819 – The Bank of Savings in New York City, the first savings bank in the United States, opens.
1863 – U.S. Civil War: The final day of the Battle of Gettysburg culminates with Pickett's Charge.
1884 – Dow Jones and Company publishes its first stock average.
1886 – Karl Benz officially unveils the Benz Patent Motorwagen – the first purpose-built automobile.
1938 – President Franklin D. Roosevelt dedicates the Eternal Light Peace Memorial and lights the eternal
flame at Gettysburg Battlefield.
1981 – First mention in the New York Times of a disease that would later be called AIDS
2006 – Asteroid 2004 XP14 flies within 432,308 kilometres (268,624 mi) of Earth.
Notable Births
1728 – Robert Adam, Scottish architect (d. 1792)
Notable Deaths
1570 – Aonio Paleario, Italian humanist
2009 – John A. Keel, American Fortean, television scriptwriter, author of The Mothman Prophecies (b.
1930)
1187 – The Crusades: Battle of Hattin – Saladin defeats Guy of Lusignan, King of Jerusalem.
1744 – The Treaty of Lancaster, in which the Iriquois ceded lands between the Allegheny Mountains and
the Ohio River to the British colonies, is signed in Lancaster, Pennsylvania.
1776 – American Revolution: the United States Declaration of Independence is adopted by the Second
Continental Congress
1802 – At West Point, New York the United States Military Academy opens.
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.
1886 – The people of France offer the Statue of Liberty to the people of the United States.
1946 – After 381 years of near-continuous colonial rule by various powers, the Philippines attains full
independence from the United States.
1947 – The "Indian Independence Bill" is presented before British House of Commons, suggesting
bifurcation of British India into two sovereign countries – India and Pakistan.
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 Hawaii 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.
1969 – Two teens (one male, one female) are attacked at Blue Rock Springs in California. They are the
second (known) victims of the Zodiac Killer. The male survives.
1976 – Israeli commandos raid Entebbe airport in Uganda, rescuing all but four of the passengers and
crew of an Air France jetliner seized by Palestinian terrorists.
Notable Births
1330 – Ashikaga Yoshiakira, Japanese shogun (d. 1367)
Notable Deaths
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)