On This Day: 4 July

Chinese and Arab astronomers (independently) record the violent explosion of a star – a supernova – that was visible for 23 days and for almost two years at night. The Crab Nebula is believed to be a remnant of this event. Rock paintings suggest that Native Americans also witnessed it, but curiously no records survive in Europe		1054
Saladin defeats the Crusaders at the Battle of Tiberias		1187
Providence, Rhode Island, is founded by English puritan Roger Williams		1636
The Barebones Parliament begins sitting		1653
Nine whites are killed during a slave uprising in New York		1712
The US Declaration of Independence is adopted by the Second Continental Congress		1776
The US Military Academy opens at West Point, with ten cadets		1802
Work begins on the construction of the Erie Canal		1817
John Adams and Thomas Jefferson – second and third presidents of the United States – both die on the fiftieth anniversary of the adoption of the United States Declaration of Independence		1826
Don Miguel assumes the title King of Portugal		1828
The first London bus, operated by George Shillibeer, runs from Marylebone Road to the Bank of England for a fare of 1/–		1829
Baptist minister Samuel Francis Smith writes My Country, 'Tis of Thee (which he entitled America) for the 4 July festivities in Boston, Massachusetts – sung to the tune used in the UK since at least 1744 for God Save the King		1831
The Grand Junction Railway – the world's first long–distance railway – opens between Birmingham and Liverpool		1837
Cunard's first steamship – Britannia – sails from Liverpool to Halifax and Boston		1840
Henry David Thoreau moves into a small cabin on Walden Pond in Concord, Massachusetts. Walden, his account of his two years there, would become a touchstone of the environmental movement		1845
The Communist Manifesto is published		1848
Amelia Jenkins Bloomer first wears the eponymous legwear, in Connecticut		1853
The first edition of Walt Whitman's book of poems, Leaves of Grass, is published In Brooklyn		1855
Lewis Carroll tells Alice Liddell a story that would grow into Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and its sequels		1862
In the American Civil War: Vicksburg, Mississippi surrenders to Union forces under Ulysses S. Grant after 47 days of siege. One hundred and fifty miles up the Mississippi River, a Confederate army is repulsed at the Battle of Helena, Arkansas		1863
The Army of Northern Virginia withdraws from the battlefield after losing the Battle of Gettysburg, signalling an end to the Confederate invasion of Union territory		1863
British troops capture Ulundi, capital of Zululand, and burn it to the ground, ending the Anglo–Zulu war and forcing King Cetshwayo to flee		1879
Statue of Liberty presented to the USA by the people of France		1883
The first scheduled Canadian transcontinental train arrives in Port Moody, British Columbia		1886
The first Socialist MP: James Kier Hardy elected at Holytown, Lanarkshire		1892
549 lives are lost when the French ocean liner La Bourgogne, en route from New York to Le Havre, collides in fog with the British sailing ship Cromartyshire and sinks off the coast of Sable Island, off Nova Scotia. 48% of the crew survive, but only 13% of the passengers		1898
Construction of the Panama Canal begins		1904
Jack Johnson knocks out Jim Jeffries in a heavyweight boxing match, sparking race riots across the United States		1910
Jack Dempsey takes the world heavyweight title from Jess Willard		1919
Hungarian–born physicist Leo Szilard (working in England since fleeing Germany the previous year) patents the chain–reaction design that would later be used in the atomic bomb		1934
Germany: Hanna Reitsch makes the first successful flight in a helicopter		1937
Lou Gehrig, in his 17^th season with the New York Yankees and recently diagnosed with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (motor neurone disease), informs a crowd at Yankee Stadium that he considers himself "the luckiest man on the face of the earth", then announces his retirement from major league baseball		1939
The Great Choral Synagogue in German–occupied Riga (Latvia) is burnt with 300 Jews locked in the basement; and in Lviv (now in Ukraine, then in Poland), Nazi troops massacre 25 university academics along with their families		1941
The Battle of Kursk – the largest full–scale battle in history, and the largest tank battle ever – begins in the village of Prokhorovka, in the extreme west of Russia		1943
General Władysław Sikorski, commander–in–chief of the Polish Army and Prime Minister of the Polish government–in–exile, is one of sixteen fatalities when an RAF B–24 Liberator bomber crashes into the sea off Gibraltar in an apparent accident, moments after take–off; only the pilot survives		1943
The Philippines gains full independence from the USA, ending 381 years of near–continuous colonial rule by various powers		1946
The Indian Independence Bill is presented before the House of Commons, proposing the independence of British India as two sovereign countries: India and Pakistan		1947
Radio Free Europe – sponsored by the US government, and broadcasting to eastern Europe – begins broadcasting		1950
William Shockley announces the invention of the junction transistor		1951
A new version of the US flag, with 50 stars, makes its debut in Philadelphia – over ten months after the admission of Hawaii as the 50^th state		1960
The Soviet nuclear–powered submarine K–19 suffers a complete loss of coolant to its reactor, on its maiden voyage; the crew are able to effect repairs, but 22 of them would die of radiation poisoning over the following two years		1961
Yachtsman Alec Rose, aged 59, receives a hero's welcome as he sails into Portsmouth in his 36–ft ketch Lively Lady, after a 354–day round–the–world trip		1968
Israeli commandos storm the terminal building at Entebbe, the airport of Kampala, to rescue 103 hostages held by pro–Palestinian militants. All seven hi–jackers, 20 Ugandan soldiers and three hostages are killed		1976
Tommy Docherty is sacked as manager of Manchester United after a scandal involving the wife of club physiotherapist Laurie Brown		1977
Algerian leader Ben Bella released after fourteen years in jail		1979
Dog licences are abolished in the UK		1984
Ruth Lawrence, aged 13, is awarded a starred first in Mathematics at Oxford University – the only student to attain that grade this year, the youngest British person ever to earn a first–class degree, and Oxford's youngest known graduate. She went on to have a career in academia		1985
Kigali, capital city of Rwanda, is captured by the Rwandan Patriotic Front, ending the genocide in the city		1994
John Major is re–elected leader of the Conservative Party, defeating a challenge by John Redwood		1995
Five trekkers – two British, one US, one German and one Norwegian – kidnapped by Kashmiri separatists		1995
Tim Henman, first Briton since Roger Taylor in 1973 to reach the men's singles quarter–final at Wimbledon, loses in straight sets to Todd Martin		1996
Pathfinder lands on Mars – the first spacecraft to do so since Viking 2 in 1976		1997
David Beckham and Victoria Adams ('Posh Spice') marry in Dublin		1999
Scientists reveal that almost 200 couples have had babies of the sex they chose for purely social reasons, at a Virginia clinic		2001
The cornerstone of the Freedom Tower is laid on the World Trade Center site in New York City		2004
NASA's robotic probe successfully collides with the comet Tempel 1		2005
Comedian David Walliams swims the English Channel, becoming one of the 50 fastest people to do so and raising an estimated £500,000 for Comic Relief		2006
The crown of the Statue of Liberty re–opens to the public, after years of closure due to security concerns following the September 11 attacks		2009
CERN announces the discovery of particles consistent with the Higgs boson at the Large Hadron Collider		2012

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On This Day: 4 July