July 4th
 

1776 ~ The Continental Congress adopted the Declaration of Independence.

1855 ~ The first edition of Walt Whitman's book of poems Leaves of Grass was published.

1885 ~ Birthday of Louis B. Mayer, Movie Executive (one of the M’s in MGM).

1934 ~ Death of Marie Curie, Polish-born scientist, recipient of he Nobel Prize in Physics 1903.

1971 ~ Birthday of Koko, the sign-language gorilla.

1976 ~ The U.S. celebrated its Bicentennial.

1976 ~ Israeli commandos rescued 100 hostages at Entebbe Airport, Uganda.

1982 ~ Birthday of Hannah Harper, Porn Actress.

2006 ~ North Korea tested four short-range, one medium-range, and a long-range missle over the Sea of Japan.

2009 ~ The Statue of Liberty's crown reopened to the public after being closed for eight years.

July 5th
 

1810 ~ Birthday of Phineas Taylor "P. T." Barnum, Circus Owner.

1853 ~ Birthday of Cecil Rhodes, South African Politician.

1911 ~ Birthday of Georges Pompidou, President of France.

1937 ~ Spam was introduced the Hormel Foods Corporation.

1948 ~ British National Health Service (NHS) Act enacted.

1951 ~ William Shockley invented the junction transistor.

1972 ~ Birthday of Letha Weapons, Porn Actress.

1975 ~ Arthur Ashe becomes the first black man to win the Wimbledon singles' championship.

1989 ~ Oliver North received a $150,000 fine and a suspended prison term for his part in the Iran-Contra affair.

1996 ~ Birthday of Dolly the sheep, first cloned mammal.

1810 ~ Birthday of Phineas Taylor "P. T." Barnum, Circus Owner.

Saint Phineas, the Patron Saint of Oral Sex.

"There's a sucker born every minute."

Oh....that was goooood....well played.

Danke.

July 6th
 

1935 ~ Birthday of Tenzin Gyatso, 14th and current Dalai Lama.

1946 ~ Birthday of Sylvester Stallone, Actor, The Italian Stallion.

1957 ~ Althea Gibson became the first black tennis player to win a Wimbledon singles title.

1964 ~ A Hard Day's Night, the first Beatles film, premiered.

1971 ~ Death of Louis Armstrong, Jazz Musician.

1973 ~ Death of Otto Klemperer, German Conductor.

1974 ~ The radio program A Prairie Home Companion was first broadcast.

1989 ~ The Piper Alpha drilling platform in the North Sea was destroyed by explosions and fires killing 167 oil workers.

1997 ~ The rover Sojourner rolled onto the Martian landscape to begin inspecting soil and rocks.

1998 ~ Death of Roy Rogers, Cowboy Actor & Singer.

July 7th
 

1860 ~ Birthday of Gustav Mahler, Austrian Composer.

1887 ~ Birthday of Marc Chagall, Russian-born Painter.

1898 ~ The U.S. annexed Hawaii as a territory.

1907 ~ Birthday of Robert Heinlein, Science Fiction Writer.

1930 ~ Death of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Scottish Writer.

1940 ~ Birthday of Ringo Starr, Beatle.

1947 ~ The Roswell UFO incident.

1980 ~ Sharia law established in Iran.

1981 ~ President Reagan nominated Sandra Day O'Connor to become the first female justice on the Supreme Court.

2005 ~ Terrorist bombings in London killed 52 victims and four suicide bombers.

July 8th
 

1822 ~ Death of Percy Shelley, English poet.

1882 ~ Birthday of Percy Grainger, Australian Composer.

1889 ~ The first issue of the Wall Street Journal published.

1950 ~ General Douglas MacArthur was named commander-in-chief of UN forces in Korea.

1983 ~ Birthday of Elizabeth Del Mar, Porn Actress.

1986 ~ Kurt Waldheim was inaugurated as president of Austria despite a controversy over his alleged ties to Nazi war crimes.

1994 ~ Death of Kim Il-sung, North Korean despot.

1997 ~ The Czech Republic, Hungary, and Poland were invited to join NATO.

1997 ~ Mayo Clinic researchers warned that the dieting-drug "fen-phen" could cause severe heart and lung damage.

2011 ~ The final mission of the U.S. Space Shuttle program, Atlantis was launched as STS-135.

July 9th
 

1896 ~ William Jennings Bryan delivered his “Cross of Gold” speech.

1879 ~ Birthday of Ottorino Respighi, Italian composer (Pines of Rome, Ancient Airs and Dances).

1900 ~ Queen Victoria gave royal assent to an act creating the Commonwealth of Australia, uniting separate colonies under one federal government.

1911 ~ Birthday of John A. Wheeler, American physicist (coined the terms black hole and wormhole).

1916 ~ Birthday of Edward Heath, P.M. of the UK

1974 ~ Death of Earl Warren, Governor of California, Chief Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court.

1995 ~ The Grateful Dead played their last concert, at Soldier Field in Chicago.

1997 ~ Mike Tyson's boxing license was suspended and he was fined $3 million for biting Evander Holyfield's ear in a televised match.

2001 ~ The Big Bang Theory of the origin of the universe received substantial support.

2011 ~ South Sudan gained independence from Sudan.

July 10th
 

1856 ~ Birthday of Nikola Tesla, Croatian physicist.

1917 ~ Birthday of Reg Smythe, British cartoonist (Andy Capp).

1925 ~ The "Monkey Trial" of John Scopes began in Dayton, Tennessee.

1940 ~ The Luftwaffe began the Battle of Britain.

1962 ~ The world's first active communications satellite, Telstar, and first privately sponsored space launch.

1985 ~ The Greenpeace Rainbow Warrior was sunk in Auckland Harbor by French agents.

1989 ~ Death of Mel Blanc, Voice Actor ( Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, Porky Pig, Sylvester the Cat, Beaky Buzzard, Tweety Bird, Foghorn Leghorn, Yosemite Sam, Wile E. Coyote, Barney Rubble, Mr. Spacely).

1997 ~ Scientists reported their DNA analysis findings which support the Out of Africa hypothesis of human evolution.

2002 ~ At a Sotheby's auction, Peter Paul Rubens' painting The Massacre of the Innocents was sold for $76.2 million.

2003 ~ Death of Lord Shawcross, U.K. chief prosecutor at the Nuremberg Trials.

July 11th
 

1798 ~ The U.S. Marine Corps was re-created by an act of Congress.

1859 ~ Charles Dickens' "A Tale Of Two Cities" was published.

1899 ~ Birthday of E. B. White, American Writer. (Stuart Little, Charlotte's Web, The Trumpet of the Swan.)

1914 ~ Babe Ruth made his major league debut with the Boston Red Sox.

1920 ~ Birthday of Yul Brynner, Russian-born actor.

1937 ~ Death of George Gershwin, American Composer.

1977 ~ The Gay News and its editor Denis Lemon were found guilty of blasphemous libel.

1994 ~ Death of Savannah, Porn Star.

1979 ~ Skylab deorbited.

1989 ~ Death of Sir Laurence Olivier, Actor.

July 12th
 

1536 ~ Death of Erasmus, Dutch Writer & Philosopher.

1690 ~ William of Orange's army won the Battle of the Boyne.

1730 ~ Birthday of Josiah Wedgwood, English Potter.

1773 ~ Death of Johann Joachim Quantz, German Flutist & Composer.

1862 ~ Medal of Honor authorized by the U.S. Congress.

1943~ Birthday of Christine McVie, British singer, musician, & songwriter (Fleetwood Mac).

1943 ~ Turning point of CITADEL (Battle of Kursk).

1962~ The Rolling Stones perform their first public concert.

1984 ~ Walter Mondale named Geraldine Ferraro his Vice Presidential running mate.

1990~ Russian republic president Boris Yeltsin resigned from the Communist Party.

Seems hard to believe it's been 22 years since Boris Yeltsin did that. jseal, thanks for posting these little tidbits. Lots of interesting stuff. :thumbs:

July 13th
 

100 BC ~ Birthday of Julius Caesar, Soldier & Politician.

1837 ~ Queen Victoria moved into Buckingham Palace – the first monarch to live there.

1908 ~ Women first included in modern Olympic competition.

1923 ~ The first Hollywood Sign was dedicated. It read "HOLLYWOODLAND".

1940 ~ Birthday of Patrick Stewart, English actor (Star Trek: The Next Generation).

1955 ~ Ruth Ellis became the last woman in England to be executed.

1960 ~ John F. Kennedy won the Democratic presidential nomination at the party's convention in Los Angeles.

1973 ~ Alexander Butterfield revealed the existence of the Nixon tapes to the special Senate committee investigating the Watergate break in.

1977 ~ A 25-hour blackout hit New York City.

1985 ~ Live Aid, an international rock concert in London, Philadelphia, Moscow and Sydney, Australia, was held to raise money for Africa's starving people.

July 14th
 

1789 ~ Citizens of Paris stormed the Bastille. Generally recognized as the beginning of the French Revolution.

1798 ~ The Sedition Act made it a federal crime to write, publish, or utter false or malicious statements about the U.S. government.

1862 ~ Birthday of Gustav Klimt, Austrian Painter & Graphic Artist.

1881 ~ Billy the Kid was shot and killed by Sheriff Pat Garrett.

1912 ~ Birthday of Woody Guthrie, American folk singer.

1913 ~ Birthday of Gerald Ford, U.S. President.

1965 ~ Mariner 4 flyby of Mars took the first close-up photos of another planet.

1995 ~ The MP3 digital audio encoding format was named.

2000 ~ A Florida jury ordered five major tobacco companies to pay smokers $145 billion in punitive damages. (The verdict was later overturned by the Florida Supreme Court.).

2007 ~ Russia withdrew from the Treaty on Conventional Armed Forces in Europe.