This Day in History for Saturday, July 4, 2009
Information provided by Reference.com
Events
Events: 1776: The Continental Congress adopted the "Declaration of Independence."
Events: 1832: amp;quot;America," written by Dr Samuel Francis Smith, was sung in public for the first time, at the Park Street Church in Boston.
Events: 1845: Henry David Thoreau began his two-year simple living experiment at Walden Pond, near Concord, Massachusetts.
Events: 1848: The "Communist Manifesto" was published by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels.
Events: 1894: After seizing power, Judge Stanford B. Dole declared Hawaii a republic.
Events: 1946: The United States granted the Philippine Islands their independence.
Events: 1955: amp;quot;The Soupy Sales Show" premiered on TV.
Events: 1959: America's 49-star flag, honoring Alaskan statehood, was officially unfurled.
Events: 1960: The 50-star flag, to include Hawaii, made its debut, in Philadelphia.
Events: 1966: President Lyndon Johnson signed the Freedom of Information Act.
Events: 1970: Casey Kasem hosted "American Top 40" on the radio for the first time.
Events: 1976: The United States celebrates its bicentennial.
Events: 1997: NASA's Mars Pathfinder became the first U.S. spacecraft to land on Mars in more than two decades.
Events: 2003: Los Angeles Lakers guard Kobe Bryant was arrested on suspicion of sexual assault after a woman accused him of sexual misconduct. The case is later dismissed (September 1, 2004) and the charges dropped when the accuser says she will no longer cooperate.
Events: 2004: The cornerstone of the Freedom Tower is laid on the site of the World Trade Center in New York City.
Holidays
-- United States: Independence Day.
-- Feast day of The Martyrs of Dorchester, St. Andrew of Crete, St. Elizabeth of Portugal, St. Ulric of Augsburg, St. Bertha of Blangy, and St. Odo of Canterbury.
-- Wisconsin: Indian Rights Day.
Births
-- Nathaniel Hawthorne, American author.
-- Stephen Foster, American songwriter.
-- Calvin Coolidge, 30th President of the United States of America (1923-1929).
-- Rube Goldberg, American cartoonist.
-- Louis Armstrong (Satchmo), American jazz trumpeter and singer.
-- Mitch Miller, American musician, record company executive, producer, arranger.
-- Ann Landers (Esther Pauline Friedman) and Abigail Van Buren (Pauline Esther Friedman), American advice columnists.
-- Neil Simon, American award-winning playwright.
-- George Steinbrenner, American businessman and baseball executive.
-- Kirk Pengilly, Australian musician.