Updated July 4, 2014, 9:28 am
On July 4, 1976, the United States celebrated its Bicentential. In 1776, the Continental Congress adopted the Declaration of Independence.
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On July 4, 1872, Calvin Coolidge, the 30th president of the United States, was born. Following his death on Jan. 5, 1933, his obituary appeared in The Times.
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On This Date
| 1802 | The U.S. Military Academy opened at West Point, N.Y. |
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| 1804 | Author Nathaniel Hawthorne was born in Salem, Mass. |
| 1826 | Death claimed the second and third presidents of the United States: John Adams died at age 90 in Braintree, Mass., while Thomas Jefferson died at 83 at Monticello, his home near Charlottesville, Va. |
| 1831 | James Monroe, the fifth president of the United States, died at age 73 in New York City. |
| 1845 | American writer Henry David Thoreau began a two-year experiment in simple living at Walden Pond near Concord, Mass. |
| 1872 | Calvin Coolidge, the 30th president of the United States, was born in Plymouth, Vt. |
| 1939 | Baseball player Lou Gehrig, afflicted with a fatal illness, bid a tearful farewell at Yankee Stadium in New York, telling fans, "Today, I consider myself the luckiest man on the face of the Earth." |
| 1946 | The Philippines became independent. |
| 1958 | Karol Wojtyla, the future Pope John Paul II, was appointed auxilliary bishop of Krakow in his native Poland. |
| 1966 | President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the Freedom of Information Act into law. |
| 1976 | Israeli commandos raided Entebbe airport in Uganda, rescuing almost all of the passengers and crew of an Air France jetliner seized by pro-Palestinian hijackers. |
| 1987 | Former Getaspo chief Klaus Barbie was convicted by a French court of crimes against humanity and sentenced to life in prison. |
| 2010 | Gen. David Petraeus formally assumed command of the 130,000-strong international force in Afghanistan. |
Historic Birthdays
Calvin Coolidge
7/4/1872 - 1/5/1933
American 30th president of the U.S.Go to obituary »
| 55 |
Jean-Pierre Blanchard 7/4/1753 - 3/7/1809 French balloonist; made first English Channel aerial crossing |
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| 59 |
Nathaniel Hawthorne 7/4/1804 - 5/19/1864 American novelist and short story writer |
| 74 |
Giuseppe Garibaldi 7/4/1807 - 6/2/1882 Italian patriot |
| 81 |
E. R. Squibb 7/4/1819 - 10/25/1900 American pharmaceutical manufacturer |
| 37 |
Stephen Foster 7/4/1826 - 1/13/1864 American composer of minstrel and romantic songs |
| 87 |
Rube Goldberg 7/4/1883 - 12/7/1970 American satirical cartoonist |
| 72 |
Louis B. Mayer 7/4/1885 - 10/29/1957 Russian-born American movie executive |
| 54 |
Gertrude Lawrence 7/4/1898 - 9/6/1952 English musical comedy actress |
| 80 |
Meyer Lansky 7/4/1902 - 1/15/1983 American crime syndicate chief |
| 89 |
George Murphy 7/4/1902 - 5/3/1992 American actor and politician |
| 70 |
Lionel Trilling 7/4/1905 - 11/5/1975 American literary critic and teacher |
