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• 993 - Saint Ulrich of Augsburg canonized.
• 1054 - A supernova is observed by the Chinese and Amerindians near the star ζ Tauri. For several months it remains bright enough to be seen during the day. Its remnants form the Crab Nebula.
• 1187 - Saladin defeats Guy of Lusignan, King of Jerusalem, at the Battle of Hattin.
• 1776 - American Revolutionary War: The Continental CongressThe Continental Congress was the federal legislature of the Thirteen Colonies and later of the United States from 1774 to 1789, a period that included the American Revolutionary War and the Articles of Confederation. There were two Continental Congresses. approves a Declaration of IndependenceThe Declaration of Independence is a document in which the Thirteen Colonies declared themselves independent of the Kingdom of Great Britain and explained their justifications for doing so. It was ratified by the Continental Congress on July 4, 1776; this from the Kingdom of Great BritainThe United Kingdom of Great Britain was created by the merger of the Kingdoms of Scotland and England in 1707 (see Act of Union 1707). A single parliament and government, based in Westminster in London, ran the entire kingdom. They had shared a monarch si forming the United States of AmericaThe United States of America also referred to as the United States U. America ¹ or the States is a federal republic in central North America, stretching from the Atlantic in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west. It shares land borders with Canada in.
• 1802Events March 16 West Point is established. March 25/ 27 Treaty of Amiens between France and United Kingdom ends the War of the Second Coalition. March 28 H. Olbers discovers the asteroid Pallas. May 19 Napoleon Bonaparte establishes the French legion d'ho - At West Point, New YorkNew York is a state in the northeastern United States whose U. postal abbreviation is NY . It is sometimes called New York State when there is need to distinguish it from New York City. History See: History of New York New York was one of the thirteen col the United States Military AcademyAlternate meanings: West Point (disambiguation). The United States Military Academy also known as West Point and USMA is a U. military academy and former Army fort. It is located in West Point, New York, on the west bank of the Hudson River about 50 miles opens.
• 1803 - The Louisiana Purchase is announced to the American people.
• 1817 - At Rome, New York, construction on the Erie Canal begins.
• 1826 - Fiftieth anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, on which John Adams and Thomas Jefferson, two of America's Founding Fathers, died. ( Luther Martin, another Founding Father would die a few days later, on July 8, 1826.)
• 1838 - The Iowa Territory is organized.
• 1837 - Grand Junction Railway, world's first long-distance railway, opens between Birmingham and Liverpool.
• 1840 - The Cunard Line's 700 ton wooden paddlewheel steamer RMS Britannia departs from Liverpool bound for Halifax, Nova Scotia on the first transatlantic passenger cruise.
• 1845 - Near Concord, Massachusetts, Henry David Thoreau embarks on a two-year experiment in simple living at Walden Pond (see Walden).
• 1855 - In Brooklyn, New York, the first edition of Walt Whitman's book of poems titled Leaves of Grass is published.
• 1859 - Franco-Piedmontese War : The Battle of Magenta.
• 1862 - Charles Lutwidge Dodgson ( Lewis Carroll) goes on a boating picnic with Alice Liddell, who asks to be entertained with a story. This story would grow into Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and its sequels.
• 1863 - American Civil War: Battle of Vicksburg - Ulysses S. Grant and the Union Army capture the Confederate city Vicksburg, Mississippi after the town surrendered. The siege lasted 47 days.
• 1865 - Alice's Adventures in Wonderland is published.
• 1881 - In Alabama, the Tuskegee Institute opens.
• 1894 - The short-lived Republic of Hawaii is proclaimed by Sanford B. Dole.
• 1910 - African-American boxer Jack Johnson knocks out white boxer Jim Jeffries in a heavyweight boxing match sparking race riots across the United States.
• 1918 - Ottoman sultan Mehmed VI ascends to the throne.
• 1918 - Bolsheviks kill Tsar Nicholas II of Russia and his family ( Julian calendar date).
• 1927 - Initial flight of the Lockheed Vega.
• 1934 - Joe Louis wins his first professional boxing match.
• 1934 - Leo Szilard patents the chain-reaction design for the atomic bomb.
• 1939 - Lou Gehrig, recently diagnosed with Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, tells a crowd at Yankee Stadium that he considered himself "The luckiest man on the face of the earth" as he announces his retirement from major league baseball.
• 1941 - Mass murder of Polish scientists and writers, committed by Nazi Germans in captured Polish city of Lvov.
• 1946 - After over 400 years, the Philippines achieves full independence.
• 1950 - First broadcast by Radio Free Europe
• 1959 - With the admission of Alaska as the 49th U.S. state earlier in the year, the 49-star flag of the United States debuts in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
• 1960 - Due to the post-Independence Day admission of Hawaii as the 50th U.S. state on August 21, 1959, the 50-star flag of the United States debuts in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania almost ten and a half months later (see Flag Act).
• 1966 - President Lyndon B. Johnson signs the Freedom of Information Act into United States law. The act goes into effect the next year.
• 1976 - Israeli commandos raid Entebbe airport in Uganda, rescuing most of the passengers and crew of an Air France jetliner seized by pro-Palestinian hijackers.
• 1987 - In France, former Gestapo chief Klaus Barbie (aka the "Butcher of Lyon") is convicted of crimes against humanity and is sentenced to life imprisonment.
• 1990 - On 214th anniversary of the United States Declaration of Independence, is the second Die Hard movie to open in theaters, starring Bruce Willis.
• 1997 - NASA's Pathfinder space probe lands on the surface of Mars.
• 1998 - Lin "Spit" Newborn and Daniel Shersty are murdered by neonazis in the desert just outside Las Vegas, Nevada, USA.
• 2002 - Three people are shot at the El Al check-in booth at Los Angeles International Airport. The gunman is shot and killed by a security officer.
• 2002 - A Prestige Airlines cargo Boeing 707 crashes just short of the runway in Bangui, Central African Republic killing 25
• 2004 - The cornerstone of the Freedom Tower is lain on the site of the World Trade Center in New York City. (This was largely a symbolic event; actual construction would not start for several weeks)