On this date

1775 — Gen. George Washington took command of the Continental Army at Cambridge, Massachusetts. 1890 — Idaho became the 43rd state of the Union. 1913 — During a 50th anniversary reunion at Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, Civil War veterans re-enacted Pickett’s Charge, which ended with embraces and handshakes between the former enemies. 1938 — President Franklin D. Roosevelt marked the 75th anniversary of the Battle of Gettysburg by dedicating the Eternal Light Peace Memorial. 1944 — During World War II, Soviet forces recaptured Minsk from the Germans. 1950 — The first carrier strikes of the Korean War took place as the USS Valley Forge and the HMS Triumph sent fighter planes against North Korean targets. 1956 — Washington officials approved Rome’s first branch post office, in West Rome, Congressman Henderson Lanham announced. 1962 — French President Charles de Gaulle signed an agreement recognizing Algeria as an independent state after 132 years of French rule. 1976 — Israel launched its daring mission to rescue 106 passengers and Air France crew members being held at Entebbe Airport in Uganda by pro-Palestinian hijackers; the commandos succeeded in rescuing all but four of the hostages. 1987 — British millionaire Richard Branson and Per Lindstrand became the first hot-air balloon travelers to cross the Atlantic, parachuting into the sea as their craft went down off the Scottish coast. 1988 — The USS Vincennes shot down an Iran Air jetliner over the Persian Gulf, killing all 290 people aboard. 1992 — The first U.S. Air Force C-130 transport planes from Operation Provide Promise arrived in the besieged Bosnian capital of Sarajevo.