TODAY IN HISTORY

TODAY’S HIGHLIGHT

1776

The Declaration of Independence was adopted by delegates to the Second Continental Congress in Philadelphia.

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1802

The United States Military Academy officially opened at West Point, New York.

1817

Ground was broken for the Erie Canal in Rome, New York. The middle section of the waterway took three years to complete; the entire canal was finished in 1825.

1826

50 years to the day after the Declaration of Independence was adopted, former presidents John Adams and Thomas Jefferson both died.

1831

The fifth president of the United States, James Monroe, died in New York City at age 73.

1872

The 30th president of the United States, Calvin Coolidge, was born in Plymouth, Vermont.

1910

In what was billed as “The Fight of the Century,” Black world heavyweight boxing champion Jack Johnson defeated white former champ James J. Jeffries in Reno, Nevada.

1939

Lou Gehrig of the New York Yankees delivered his famous farewell speech in which he called himself “the luckiest man on the face of the earth.”

1946

The Philippines became independent of U.S. sovereignty.

1976

America celebrated its bicentennial with daylong festivities; President Gerald R. Ford made stops in Valley Forge, Pennsylvania, Independence Hall in Philadelphia and New York, where more than 200 ships paraded up the Hudson River in Operation Sail.

1987

Klaus Barbie, the former Gestapo chief known as the “Butcher of Lyon,” was convicted by a French court of crimes against humanity and sentenced to life in prison (He died in September 1991.).

1995

The space shuttle Atlantis and the Russian space station Mir parted after spending five days in orbit docked together.

2013

Egypt’s interim president, Adly Mansour, was sworn in following the ouster of Mohammed Morsi, the Islamist leader overthrown by the military after just one year in office.

2010

Gen. David Petraeus formally assumed command of the 130,000-strong international force in Afghanistan, declaring “we are in this to win.” Interim Polish President Bronislaw Komorowski held off a last-minute election surge from Jaroslaw Kaczynski, the identical twin brother of the late president, Lech Kaczynski, who’d died in an April plane crash. Rafael Nadal swept Tomas Berdych in straight sets, 6-3, 7-5, 6-4, to win his second Wimbledon title and eighth Grand Slam championship.