history at a glance
TODAY is Sunday July 2 the 183rd day of the year. There are 182 days left in the year. Highlights in history on this date:
1776 – The Continental Congress adopts a resolution severing ties with the Kingdom of Great Britain although the wording of the formal Declaration of Independence is not approved until July 4. 1823 – Bahia Independence Day: The end of Portuguese rule in Brazil, with the final defeat of
the Portuguese crown loyalists in the province of Bahia. 1839 – Twenty miles off the coast of Cuba, 53 rebelling African slaves led by Joseph Cinqué
take over the slave ship Amistad. 1853 – The Russian Army crossed the Pruth river into the Danubian Principalities, Moldavia
and Wallachia—providing the spark that set off the Crimean War. 1871 – Victor Emmanuel II of Italy enters Rome after having conquered it from the Papal
States. 1881 – Charles J. Guiteau shoots and fatally wounds US President James Garfield (who would
die of complications from his wounds on September 19). 1897 – British-Italian engineer Guglielmo Marconi obtains a patent for radio in London. 1900 – The first Zeppelin flight takes place on Lake Constance near Friedrichshafen, Germany. 1921 – World War I: US President Warren G. Harding signs the Knox–Porter Resolution formally ending the war between the United States and Imperial Germany. 1934 – The Night of the Long Knives ends with the death of Ernst Röhm. 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. 1940 – Indian independence leader Subhas Chandra Bose is arrested and detained in Calcutta. 1964 – US President Lyndon B. Johnson signs the Civil Rights Act of 1964 meant to prohibit
segregation in public places. 1966 – The French military explodes a nuclear test bomb code-named Aldébaran in Moruroa,
their first nuclear test in the Pacific. 1976 – Fall of the Republic of Vietnam; Communist North Vietnam declares their union to form
the Socialist Republic of Vietnam. 1986 – Rodrigo Rojas and Carmen Gloria Quintana are burnt alive during a street demonstration against the dictatorship of General Augusto Pinochet in Chile. 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. 2001 – The AbioCor self-contained artificial heart is first implanted. 2002 – Steve Fossett becomes the first person to fly solo around the world nonstop in a balloon. 2005 – The Live 8 benefit concerts takes place in the G8 states and in South Africa. More than 1,000 musicians perform and are broadcast on 182 television networks and 2,000 radio networks. 2008 – Íngrid Betancourt, a member of the Chamber of Representatives of Colombia, is released from captivity after being held for six and a half years by FARC. 2010 – The South Kivu tank truck explosion in the Democratic Republic of the Congo kills at
least 230 people. 2013 – The International Astronomical Union names Pluto’s fourth and fifth moons, Kerberos
and Styx. 2013 – A magnitude 6.1 earthquake strikes Aceh, Indonesia, killing at least 42 people and
injuring 420 others. 2016 – An Australian federal election results in a one-seat majority for the incumbent government led by Malcolm Turnbull. Turnbull claimed victory on July 9, a week after the election.