One of our most consistently popular articles has been “Things that happened on January 1st,” and since apparently the internet just loves reading content in the form of lists, we present for you the next installment of the “Things that happened….” series. Sure, July 4th might be America’s independence day, but there sure are a lot of things that happened before and after 7/4/1776.
- 1054 – The Chinese, the Arabs and possibly Amerindians (the who?) observe a supernova near the star Tauri. It was bright enough to be seen during the day for several months.
- 1634 – The city of Trois-Rivières is founded in New France. It would later become Quebec.
Coat of arms of Trois-Rivières
- 1636 – Roger Williams establishes the city of Providence, Rhode Island
- 1776 – The second continental congress adopts the United States Declaration of Independence
Yeah, America!
- 1778 – Kaskaskia is captured by George Clark and his men during the Illinois campaign of the American Revolutionary War. The population of Kaskaskia as determined by the 2000 census was 9.
- 1802 – The United States Military Academy opens at West Point, New York
- 1803 – The Louisiana Purchase is announced.
- 1817 – Construction begins on the Erie Canal at Rome, New York. It would take 15 years to complete the 360+ mile canal.
- 1827 – New York State abolishes slavery.
- 1837 – The world’s first long-distance railway, Grand Junction Railway between Birmingham and Liverpool is opened. Today it is part of the West Coast Main Line, a railway system between London and Scotland.
- 1840 – The first transatlantic crossing with a scheduled end (as opposed to simply “whenever you get there”) takes place aboard the Cunard Line’s RMS Britannia, a 700 ton wooden paddle steamer.
- 1845 – Henry David Thoreau embarks on his two year experiment in simple and solitary living at Walden Pond near Concord, Massachusetts.
Walden Pond
- Walt Whitman’s seminal work, Leaves of Grass, is published in Brooklyn.
Walt Whitman in 1887. Check out that beard.
- 1862 – 10-year-old Alice Liddell is told a story by Lewis Carroll. The story would eventually become Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland when it would be published in November, 1865.
Cover of the 1898 printing of "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland"
- 1863 – After 47 days of fighting, the siege of Vicksburg, Mississippi during the American Civil War ends. The town would not recognize Independence Day for almost eighty years following the battle.
- 1881 – The Tuskegee Institute opens in Tuskegee, Alabama
The Tuskegee Institute in 1916
- 1886 – France offers the Statue of Liberty to the United States.
As a lighthouse, the flames inside the statue's torch were the cause of death for hundreds of birds each night.
- 1892 - Western Samoa changes the location of the International Date Line such that the country recognizes 367 days per year.
- 1894 – Sanford B. Dole, relative of the pineapple magnate, proclaims the Republic of Hawaii.
- 1934 – The nuclear chain-reaction design for the atomic bomb is patented by Hungarian physicist, Leo Szilard, who would go on to later work on the Manhattan Project.
- 1939 – After being diagnosed with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, Lou Gehrig announces his retirement from baseball at Yankee Stadium. After a presentation by Babe Ruth, Gehrig addressed the crowd: –
“Fans, for the past two weeks you have been reading about the bad break I got. Yet today I consider myself the luckiest man on the face of the earth. I have been in ballparks for seventeen years and have never received anything but kindness and encouragement from you fans.
–
“Look at these grand men. Which of you wouldn’t consider it the highlight of his career just to associate with them for even one day? Sure, I’m lucky. Who wouldn’t consider it an honor to have known Jacob Ruppert? Also, the builder of baseball’s greatest empire, Ed Barrow? To have spent six years with that wonderful little fellow, Miller Huggins? Then to have spent the next nine years with that outstanding leader, that smart student of psychology, the best manager in baseball today, Joe McCarthy? Sure, I’m lucky.
–
“When the New York Giants, a team you would give your right arm to beat, and vice versa, sends you a gift — that’s something. When everybody down to the groundskeepers and those boys in white coats remember you with trophies — that’s something. When you have a wonderful mother-in-law who takes sides with you in squabbles with her own daughter — that’s something. When you have a father and a mother who work all their lives so that you can have an education and build your body — it’s a blessing. When you have a wife who has been a tower of strength and shown more courage than you dreamed existed — that’s the finest I know.
–
“So I close in saying that I might have been given a bad break, but I’ve got an awful lot to live for. Thank you.”
- 1946 – The Philippines attains full independence from the United States after 381 years of colonial rule.
- 1947 – The Indian Independence Bill is passed by the British House of Commons, leading to British India being split into today’s India and Pakistan.
- 1959 – The 49-star-flag is debuted in Philadelphia after Alaska is admitted as the 49th U.S. state.
Congressmen celebrate Alaska's new statehood
- 1960 – Ten months after its admission as the 50th U.S. state on August 21st, 1959, the 50-star flag is debuted once again in Philadelphia.
- 1966 – The Freedom of Information Act is signed into law by President Lyndon B. Johnson.
- 1969 – The Zodiac Killer attacks his first two victims in Blue Rock Springs, California. One survives.
- 1976 – In 53 minutes, Israeli commandos rescue 102 hostages from a hijacked Air France flight from Israel to Paris who were being held in Entebbe Airport in Uganda.
- 1976 – On the other side of the globe, America celebrates its bicentennial.
- Among other things, New Jersey offers a Bicentennial Lottery where the winner would receive $1,776 a week for 20 years ($1,847,040, all before taxes)
- NASA paints an American flag and the official bicentennial logo on the side of its massive vehicle assembly building. Each star on the flag is six feet across, the blue background behind the stars is the size of a regulation basketball court, and each stripe is as wide as a road lane
NASA's Vehicle Assembly Building in 1976. The bicentennial logo (the star on the right) wasn't replaced with the NASA logo until 1998.
- 1987 – World War II Gestapo chief Klaus Barbie is convicted of crimes against humanity.
- 1997 - NASA’s Pathfinder lands on Mars
The surface of Mars upon Pathfinder's landing in 1997
- 2004 – The cornerstone is laid on the former World Trade Center site in New York City for One World Trade Center (no longer “Freedom Tower” — it’s official!)
- 2006 – North Korea fires six test missiles — four short-range, one medium-range, and one long-range, which is rumored to have failed mid-air above the Sea of Japan.
- 2009 – After 8 years of closure, the crown of the Statue of LIberty re-opens for guests.
