Once Upon A Time – July 4 – 1776 – US Congress Proclaims Declaration Of Independence And Independence From Great Britain

1776 US Congress proclaims the Declaration of Independence and independence from Great Britain

1785 James Hutton, geologist, publicly reads an abstract of his theory of uniformitarianism for the first time at the meeting of the Royal Society of Edinburgh

1803 The Louisiana Purchase is announced to the American people by President Thomas Jefferson

1838 Huskar Colliery Mining Disaster in Silkstone England: mining pit floods drown 26 children, leads to 1842 ‘Mines and Collieries Act’ bans women and children working underground

1934 Hungarian physicist Leo Szilard patents the chain-reaction design for the atomic bomb

2017 North Korea tests first successful intercontinental ballistic missile into Sea of Japan

HISTORICAL EVENTS TODAY

TODAY IN FILM & TV

1970 Casey Kasem’s “American Top 40” debuts on LA radio

TODAY IN MUSIC

1831 “America (My Country ‘Tis of Thee)”, with lyric by Samuel Francis Smith, has 1st public performance at Park Street Church in Boston, Massachusetts

TODAY IN SPORT

1939 Lou Gehrig is first MLB player to have his number (4) retired on his “Appreciation Day” at Yankee Stadium, makes iconic “luckiest man” speech

MORE FACTS…

1941 Howard Florey and Norman Heatley meet for 1st time, 11 days later they successfully recreate penicillin

1892 Western Samoa changes the International Date Line, so that year there were 367 days in this country, with two occurrences of Monday, July 4

FAMOUS WEDDINGS

1925 American writer (“Gone With The Wind”) Margaret Mitchell (24) marries 2nd husband John Marsh (29)

1931 Irish writer (Ulysses) James Joyce and Nora Barnacle finally marry in London registry office after meeting in 1904.

1940 Actress Gertrude Lawrence (42) weds theater owner Richard Aldrich