Today in history

On July 4, 1776, the Continental Congress adopted the Declaration of Independence.

In 1802 the U.S. Military Academy opened at West Point, N.Y.

In 1826 the nation's second and third presidents, John Adams and Thomas Jefferson, died.

In 1831 the fifth U.S. president, James Monroe, died in NewYork.

In1845 author Henry David Thoreau began his 2-year experiment in simple living at Walden Pond near Concord, Mass.

In 1927 playwright Neil Simon was born in NewYork.

In1939, in a farewell speech to fans in Yankee Stadium, ailing baseball great Lou Gehrig called himself “the luckiest man on the face of the Earth.”

In 1976 Israeli commandos raiding Entebbe airport in Uganda completed their rescue of almost all of the passengers and crew of an Air France jetliner seized by pro-Palestinian hijackers.

In 1980 North Michigan Avenue was jammed with people attending the first Taste of Chicago.

In 1987 Klaus Barbie, the Gestapo chief known as the “Butcher of Lyon,” was convicted in France of crimes against humanity and sentenced to life in prison.

In 1994 Rwandan Tutsi rebels seized control of most of their country's capital, Kigali, from the Hutu-led government.

In 1995 British Prime Minister John Major won reelection as Conservative Party leader. Also in 1995 , actress Eva Gabor died in Los Angeles; shewas 74.

In 1997 NASA's Pathfinder spacecraft landed on Mars, inaugurating a new era in the search for life on the Red Planet.

In2003 Los Angeles Lakers guard Kobe Bryant was arrested on suspicion of sexual assault after a woman accused him of sexual misconduct at a hotel near Vail, Colo. (Prosecutors later dropped a criminal charge against Bryant because the woman did not want to go ahead with a trial.) Also in 2003 singer Barry White died in Los Angeles; he was 58.

In 2004 a 20-ton slab of granite, inscribed to honor “the enduring spirit of freedom,” was laid at the World Trade Center site as the cornerstone of the future Freedom Tower skyscraper.