http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history
July 3, 1863: Battle of Gettysburg ends
On the third day of the Battle of Gettysburg, Confederate General Robert E. Lee's last attempt at breaking the Union line ends in disastrous failure, bringing the most decisive battle of the American Civil War to an end.
In June 1863, following his masterful victory at the Battle of Chancellorsville, General Lee launched his second invasion of the Union in less than a year. He led his 75,000-man Army of Northern Virginia across the Potomac River, through Maryland, and into Pennsylvania, seeking to win a major battle on Northern soil that would further dispirit the Union war effort and induce Britain or France to intervene on the Confederacy's behalf. The 90,000-strong Army of the Potomac pursued the Confederates into Maryland, but its commander, General Joseph Hooker, was still stinging from his defeat at Chancellorsville and seemed reluctant to chase Lee further. Meanwhile, the Confederates divided their forces and investigated various targets, such as Harrisburg, the Pennsylvania capital.
On June 28, President Abraham Lincoln replaced Hooker with General George Meade, and Lee learned of the presence of the Army of the Potomac in Maryland. Lee ordered his army to concentrate in the vicinity of the crossroads town of Gettysburg and prepare to meet the Federal army. At the same time, Meade sent ahead part of his force into Pennsylvania but intended to make a stand at Pipe Creek in Maryland.
On July 1, a Confederate division under General Henry Heth marched into Gettysburg hoping to seize supplies but finding instead three brigades of Union cavalry. Thus began the Battle of Gettysburg, and Lee and Meade ordered their massive armies to converge on the impromptu battle site. The Union cavalrymen defiantly held the field against overwhelming numbers until the arrival of Federal reinforcements. Later, the Confederates were reinforced, and by mid-afternoon some 19,000 Federals faced 24,000 Confederates. Lee arrived to the battlefield soon afterward and ordered a general advance that forced the Union line back to Cemetery Hill, just south of the town.
During the night, the rest of Meade's force arrived, and by the morning Union General Winfield Hancock had formed a strong Union line. On July 2, against the Union left, General James Longstreet led the main Confederate attack, but it was not carried out until about 4 p.m., and the Federals had time to consolidate their positions. Thus began some of the heaviest fighting of the battle, and Union forces retained control of their strategic positions at heavy cost. After three hours, the battle ended, and the total number of dead at Gettysburg stood at 35,000.
On July 3, Lee, having failed on the right and the left, planned an assault on Meade's center. A 15,000-man strong column under General George Pickett was organized, and Lee ordered a massive bombardment of the Union positions. The 10,000 Federals answered the Confederate artillery onslaught, and for more than an hour the guns raged in the heaviest cannonade of the Civil War. At 3 p.m., Pickett led his force into no-man's-land and found that Lee's bombardment had failed. As Pickett's force attempted to cross the mile distance to Cemetery Ridge, Union artillery blew great holes in their lines. Meanwhile, Yankee infantry flanked the main body of "Pickett's charge" and began cutting down the Confederates. Only a few hundred Virginians reached the Union line, and within minutes they all were dead, dying, or captured. In less than an hour, more than 7,000 Confederate troops had been killed or wounded.
Both armies, exhausted, held their positions until the night of July 4, when Lee withdrew. The Army of the Potomac was too weak to pursue the Confederates, and Lee led his army out of the North, never to invade it again. The Battle of Gettysburg was the turning point in the Civil War, costing the Union 23,000 killed, wounded, or missing in action. The Confederates suffered some 25,000 casualties. On November 19, 1863, President Lincoln delivered his famous Gettysburg Address during the dedication of a new national cemetery at the site of the Battle of Gettysburg. The Civil War effectively ended with the surrender of General Lee's Army of Northern Virginia in April 1865.
That was the battle that turned the tide of the Civil War in favor of the North. From that point onwards, it can be argued, Union victory was more or less assured. But four score and seven years before that, there was another huge war that the world watched, as the American colonies fought for their independence from Great Britain. It was on this day in 1775 that General George Washington took command of the Continental Army. It would be a long and painful fight for independence, of course. But ultimately, it would also be a successful one. The link is the same one as above:
July 3, 1775: Washington takes command of Continental Army
On this day in 1775, George Washington rides out in front of the American troops gathered at Cambridge common in Massachusetts and draws his sword, formally taking command of the Continental Army. Washington, a prominent Virginia planter and veteran of the French and Indian War, had been appointed commander in chief by the Continental Congress two weeks before. In agreeing to serve the American colonies in their war for independence, he declined to accept payment for his services beyond reimbursement of future expenses.
George Washington was born in 1732 to a farm family in Westmoreland County, Virginia. His first direct military experience came as a lieutenant colonel in the Virginia colonial militia in 1754, when he led a small expedition against the French in the Ohio River Valley on behalf of the governor of Virginia, beginning a fight that resulted in disastrous defeat for first Washington and then British General Edward Braddock. This launched the Seven Years War, but Washington resigned from his military post and returned to a planter's life in Virginia, later taking a seat in Virginia's House of Burgesses. During the next two decades, Washington openly opposed escalating British taxation and repression of the American colonies. In 1774, he represented Virginia at the Continental Congress.
After the American Revolution erupted in 1775, Washington was nominated to be commander in chief of the newly established Continental Army. Some in the Continental Congress opposed his appointment, thinking other candidates were better equipped for the post, but he was ultimately chosen because, as a Virginian, his leadership helped bind the southern colonies more closely to the rebellion in New England. Despite his inexperienced and poorly equipped army of civilian soldiers, General Washington led an effective war of harassment against British forces in America, while encouraging the intervention of the French into the conflict on behalf of the colonists. On October 19, 1781, with the surrender of British General Charles Lord Cornwallis at Yorktown, Virginia, General Washington defeated one of the most powerful nations on earth.
After the war, the victorious general retired to his estate at Mount Vernon, but, in 1787, he heeded his nation's call and agreed to preside over the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The drafters created the office of president with him in mind, and, in February 1789, Washington was unanimously elected the first president of the United States. As president, Washington sought to unite the nation and protect the interests of the new republic at home and abroad. Of his presidency, he said, "I walk on untrodden ground. There is scarcely any part of my conduct which may not hereafter be drawn in precedent." He successfully implemented executive authority, making good use of brilliant politicians such as Alexander Hamilton and Thomas Jefferson in his cabinet, and quieted fears of presidential tyranny. In 1792, he was unanimously reelected but, four years later, refused a third term. He died in 1799.
It was on this day, a century and a half ago exactly, that the Civil War's most monumental battle, the turning point really, ended with Union victory. From that point onwards to the end of the war, Union victory was pretty much assured.
But that is not the only very significant historical event to have taken place on this day in history. Emperor Constantine defeated Licinius, who subsequently fled to Byzantium. During one of the Crusades, Louis IX was taken, and would eventually have to ransom himself. The city of Quebec was founded by Samuel de Champlain, 405 years ago. The Portuguese gave Tanger and Bombay to the British. This was a very important date in George Washington's life, as well. In 1754, he surrendered to the French on this date, in Fort Necessity. Twenty one years later on this day, he took command of the Continental Army. In Paris during the days of the French Revolution, the Marquis de Condorcet advocated granting women rights. Perry reached Japan, and the first letters sent from New York via the pony Express reached San Francisco. Idaho became a state. Early in the twentieth century, the Pope forbid the modernization of theology. Also early in the twentieth century, there were a series of shark attacks in New Jersey, and the first one happened to fall on this date. Lou Gehrig made his famous speech about being the luckiest man in the world. During World War II, the Soviets recaptured Minsk on this day, and in 1945, with the war in the Pacific still being waged, Detroit released it's first passenger vehicle in three years. The Soviet Union rejected the Marshall Plan on this date. Nine years after the end of World War II, food rationing in Great Britain ended. Adolfo Suarez became the premiere of Spain, not long after the days of Franco. And the first Associated Press articles ran a story about two (then) rare diseases that seemed to affect homosexual men, one of which ended up being AIDS.
Here's a more detailed look at events that transpired on this date throughout history:
324 - Battle of Adrianople Roman Emperor Constantine I defeats Co-Emperor Licinius, who flees to Byzantium.
683 - St Leo II ends his reign as Catholic Pope
987 - Hugo Capet crowned king of France
1090 - Battle at Hagenoorde: German emperor beats earl Egbert II
1187 - Crusaders enter Tiberias
1250 - Louis IX of France is captured by Baibars' Mamluk army at the Battle of Fariskur while he is in Egypt conducting the Seventh Crusade; he later has to ransom himself.
1428 - Treaty of Delft-between Jacoba of Bayern & Philip the Good
1608 - The city of Quebec was founded by Samuel de Champlain.
1630 - Emperor Ferdinand II opens German Parliament
1661 - Portugal gives Tanger and Bombay to English King Charles II
1720 - Sweden and Denmark sign peace treaty
1754 - George Washington surrenders to French, Ft Necessity (7 Years' War)
1767 - Pitcairn Island is discovered by Midshipman Robert Pitcairn on an expeditionary voyage commanded by Philip Carteret.
1767 - Norway's oldest newspaper still in print, Adresseavisen, is founded (first edition published this date).
1775 - U.S. Gen. George Washington took command of the Continental Army at Cambridge, MA.
1778 - British forces massacre 360 men, women & children in Wyoming, Pa
1778 - Prussia declares war on Austria
1790 - In Paris, the marquis of Condorcet proposed granting civil rights to women.
1806 - Michael Keens exhibits 1st cultivated strawberry
1814 - Americans capture Fort Erie Canada
1816 - French frigate "Medusa" runs aground off Cap Blanc. Gross incompetence kills 150 in calm seas
1819 - First savings bank in US (Bank of Savings in NYC) opens its doors
1839 - First state normal school in US opens, Lexington, Mass, with 3 students
1841 - John Couch Adams decides to determine position of an unknown planet by irregularities it causes in the motion of Uranus
1844 - The last pair of Great Auks is killed.
1844 - Ambassador Caleb Cushing successfully negotiated a commercial treaty with China that opened five Chinese ports to U.S. merchants and protected the rights of American citizens in China.
1848 - Slaves freed in Danish West Indies (now US Virgin Islands)
1849 - The French entered Rome in order to restore Pope Pius IX to power. This would prove a major obstacle to Italian unification.
1852 - Congress authorizes US's 2nd mint (San Francisco, California)
1853 - Commodore Matthew Perry reach Japan
1861 - Colonel Jackson receives his commission as brigadier general
1861 - Pony Express arrived in San Francisco with overland letters from New York
1861 - Martinsburg, VA - Confederate forces pull out before US advance
1863 - Battle of Donaldsonville, LA
1863 - The U.S. Civil War Battle of Gettysburg, PA, ended after three days. It was a major victory for the North as Confederate troops retreated.
1864 - Battle of Chattahoochie River, GA [until Jul 9]
1864 - Harpers Ferry, WV - Federals evacuate in face of Early's advance
1871 - Jesse James robs bank in Corydon, Iowa ($45,000)
1871 - The Denver and Rio Grande Western Railroad Company introduced the first narrow-gauge locomotive. It was called the "Montezuma."
1876 - Montenegro declares war on Turkey
1878 - John Wise flew the first dirigible in Lancaster, PA.
1880 - "Science" began publication. Thomas Edison had provided the principle funding.
1883 - Franz Kafka was born in Prague, then part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire.
1883 - SS Daphne sinks on Clyde River Scotland; 195 die
1884 - Dow Jones published it's 1st stock avg
1886 - 1st NY Tribune printing using 1st commercial linotype machine
1886 - In Germany, Karl Benz drives 1st automobile
1888 - NY Giant pitcher Rube Marquard ties record of 19 game win-streak
1890 - Idaho admitted as 43rd US state
1890 - King Leopold II gives Congo to Belgium
1890 - Idaho became the 43rd state in the United States.
1895 - Start of Sherlock Holmes "Adventure of Black Peter" (BG)
1898 - American troops captured deserted Wake Island
1898 - Dutch Automobile Club forms (KNAC)
1898 - Joshua Slocum completes 1st solo circumnavigation of the globe
1898 - During the Spanish American War, a fleet of Spanish ships in Cuba's Santiago Harbor attempted to run a blockade of U.S. naval forces. Nearly all of the Spanish ships were destroyed in the battle that followed.
1902 - Excelsior soccer team forms in Rotterdam
1903 - The first cable across the Pacific Ocean was spliced between Honolulu, Midway, Guam and Manila.
1905 - Marvin Hart KOs Jack Hart in 12 for heavyweight boxing title
1907 - Pope decree forbids modernization of theology
1911 - Ty Cobb hits in his 40th straight game. Does not get a hit next day
1912 - NY Giant pitcher Rube Marquard ties record of 19 game win-streak
1913 - Common tern banded in Maine; found dead in 1919 in Africa (1st bird known to have crossed the Atlantic)
1913 - Confederate veterans at the Great Reunion of 1913 reenact Pickett's Charge; upon reaching the high-water mark of the Confederacy they are met by the outstretched hands of friendship from Union survivors.
1915 - US military forces occupy Haiti, remain until 1934
1916 - First of 3 fatal shark attacks occurred near NJ shore (4 die)
1917 - Spontaneous demonstration at Tauride-palace Petrograd
1918 - SDAP'er Suze Groenweg elected 1st woman in Dutch parliament
1920 - 40th Wimbledon Mens Tennis: Bill Tilden beats Patterson (26 63 62 64)
1920 - Java Technical School Bandung opens
1920 - Royal Air Force holds an air display at Hendon, England
1922 - "Fruit Garden and Home" magazine was introduced. It was later renamed "Better Homes and Gardens."
1923 - Harbor strike in Hull/Grimsby/Cardiff/Bristol over to London
1924 - Clarence Birdseye founded the General Seafood Corp.
1925 - 38th Wimbledon Womens Tennis: Suzanne Lenglen beats Joan Fry (62 60)
1927 - 47th Wimbledon Mens Tennis: H Cochet beats Borotra (46 46 63 64 75)
1928 - First color TV broadcast in London (John Logic Baird)
1929 - Dunlop Latex Development Laboratories made foam rubber
1930 - The U.S. Congress created the U.S. Veterans Administration.
1931 - 51st Wimbledon Mens Tennis: Sid Wood Jr beats F X Shields (walkover)
1931 - Max Schmeling TKOs Young Stribling in 15 for heavyweight boxing title
1932 - 1st Sunday game at Fenway Park, Yanks beat Red Sox 13-2
1932 - John McGraw retires from baseball
1934 - FDIC pays off 1st insured depositors, Fon du Lac Bank, East Peoria IL
1934 - U.S. Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) made its first payment to Lydia Losiger, it's first insured depositors, Fon du Lac Bank, East Peoria IL
1936 - Jahangir Khan kills a sparrow while cricket bowling, Cambridge U v MCC
1937 - Del Mar race track opened in Del Mar, CA.
1938 - President Franklin Roosevelt dedicates the Eternal Light Peace Memorial and lights the eternal flame at Gettysburg Battlefield.
1939 - Chic Young’s comic strip character, "Blondie" was first heard on CBS radio.
1939 - Ernst Heinkel demonstrates 800-kph rocket plane to Hitler
1939 - Lou Gehrig day; Gehrig makes "luckiest man" speech
1940 - ARP-leader/ex-premier Colijn argues cooperation with Germany
1940 - British Royal Navy sunk the French fleet in North Africa
1940 - German occupiers forbid using Dutch royal names
1940 - Bud Abbott and Lou Costello debuted on NBC radio.
1942 - Germany troop march into Sebastopol
1942 - Hitler visits fieldmarshal Von Bocks headquarter/d into/d Ukraine
1943 - Liberator bombers sinks U-628
1944 - Oriole Park (minor league baseball stadium) burns down in Baltimore
1944 - US V-III-E Army corp opens assault on Coutances Cotentin
1944 - The U.S. First Army opened a general offensive to break out of the hedgerow area of Normandy, France.
1944 - During World War II, Soviet forces recaptured Minsk.
1945 - U.S. troops landed at Balikpapan and take Sepinggan airfield on Borneo in the Pacific.
1945 - The first civilian passenger car built since February 1942 was driven off the assembly line at the Ford Motor Company plant in Detroit, MI. Production had been diverted due to World War II.
1946 - First Dutch government of Beel forms
1947 - 252,288 people (record) pass through Grand Central Station, NYC
1947 - Cleveland Indians purchase Larry Dolby, the 1st black in AL
1947 - Soviet Union doesn't partake in Marshall Plan
1948 - 55th Wimbledon Womens Tennis: Louise Brough beats Doris Hart (63 86)
1948 - Kidnapper Caryl Chessman sentenced to death
1950 - First time US & North Korean forces clash in Korean War
1950 - Casey Stengel asks Joe DiMaggio to play 1st base (handles 13 chances)
1950 - U.S. carrier-based planes attacked airfields in the Pyongyang-Chinnampo area of North Korea in the first air-strike of the Korean War.
1952 - Puerto Rico's constitution approved by US Congress
1953 - 67th Wimbledon Mens Tennis: Vic Seixas beats Kurt Nielsen (97 63 64)
1954 - Food rationing ended in Great Britain almost nine years after the end of World War II.
1954 - "Wonderful Town" closes at Winter Garden Theater NYC after 559 perfs
1954 - 61st Wimbledon Womens Tennis: Maureen Connolly beats L Brough (62 75)
1954 - Food rationing ends in Britain
1958 - "Andy Williams Show" premieres on ABC (later on CBS & NBC)
1959 - 73rd Wimbledon Mens Tennis: Alex Olmedo beats Rod Laver (64 63 64)
1959 - 88th British Golf Open: Gary Player shoots a 284 at Muirfield Gullane
1962 - Algerian Revolution against French endsed. Algeria became independent (technically on July 5th) after 132 years of French rule.
1962 - Jackie Robinson became the first African American to be inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame.
1964 - 78th Wimbledon Mens Tennis: Roy Emerson beats Stolle (64 12-10 46 63)
1965 - 72nd Wimbledon Womens Tennis: Margaret Smith beats M Fraiser (64 75)
1965 - Phillies Dick Allen and Frank Thomas get into a fight during practice
1965 - USSR and Persia sign dam building & economic aid pact
1966 - Brave pitcher Tony Cloninger, is 1st NL to hit 2 grand slams in a game
1966 - Race riots in Omaha Nebraska
1967 - "News at 10" premieres on English TV
1968 - 41°F lowest temperature ever recorded in Cleveland in July
1968 - Cleve Indian Luis Tiant strikes out 19 Minnesota Twins
1969 - 78,000 attend Newport Jazz Festival, Newport, RI
1970 - 200,000 attend Atlanta Pop Festival
1970 - 77th Wimbledon Womens Tennis: Margaret Smith beats King (14-12 11-9)
1970 - British aircraft crashes at Barcelona, 112 killed
1970 - California Angels Clyde Wright no-hits Oakland A's, 8-0
1971 - 85th Wimbledon Mens Tennis: J Newcombe beats S Smith (63 57 26 64 64)
1973 - Brothers Jim & Gaylord Perry face each other for only time, Tigers beat Indians 5-4, as Gaylord loses
1973 - General Walters, serves as acting director of CIA
1974 - Pitching in major league-record 13th consecutive game for Dodgers
1974 - Soyuz 14 carries 2 cosmonauts to space station Salyut 3
1974 - Mike Marshall saves Tommy John's 4-1 win
1974 - The Threshold Test Ban Treaty was signed, prohibiting underground nuclear weapons tests with yields greater than 150 kilotons.
1976 - 90th Wimbledon Mens Tennis: Bjorn Borg beats Ilse Nastase (64 62 97)
1976 - Adolfo Suarez becomes premier of Spain
1976 - After 12 years, Brian Wilson performs with the Beach Boys
1976 - Israel launches rescue of 103 Air France crew & passengers being held at Entebbe Airport in Uganda by pro-Palestinian hijackers
1977 - Turkey: premier Ecevit goes off
1977 - The Senegalese Republican Movement (MRS) is founded.
1978 - Supreme Court rules 5-4, FCC had a right to reprimand NY radio station WBAI for broadcasting George Carlin's "Filthy Words"
1980 - 73,096 in Cleveland watch Indians beat Yankees 7-0
1981 - 88th Wimbledon Womens Tennis: Chris Evert beats H Mandlikova (62 62)
1981 - NYC transit fare rises from 60 cents to 75 cents, new brass Y-cut-out token
1981 - The Associated Press ran its first story about two rare illnesses afflicting homosexual men. One of the diseases was later named AIDS.
1982 - 89th Wimbledon Womens Tennis: M Navratilova beats C Evert (61 36 62)
1982 - Riot at building Stopera Amsterdam (damages Ÿ1 million)
1983 - 97th Wimbledon Mens Tennis: John McEnroe beats Chris Lewis (62 62 62)
1983 - Calvin Smith of US becomes fastest man alive (9.93 for 100m)
1983 - Rangers explode for 12 runs in 15th inning of a 16-4 win over the A's
1984 - Derek Underwood's maiden FC century after 22 yrs of trying
1984 - Dolphin rocket launched off San Clemente Island
1984 - Greenidge scores brilliant 214 off 241 balls to win Lord's Test
1984 - Supreme Court rules Jaycees may be forced to admit women as members
1985 - CBS announces a 21% stock buy-back to thwart Ted Turner's takeover
1986 - Kuwait's National Assembly (Majlis al Umma) dissolves
1986 - U.S. President Reagan presided over a ceremony in New York Harbor that saw the relighting of the renovated Statue of Liberty.
1986 - Mikhail Baryshnikov became a U.S. citizen at Ellis Island, New York Harbor.
1987 - 2 men became 1st hot-air balloon travelers to cross Atlantic
1987 - NY Met Darryl Strawberry threatens teammates Wally Backman & Lee Mazzilli for criticizing his play
1988 - A's Gene Nelson is 1st AL pitcher to steal a base since 1973
1988 - US Vincennes in Strait of Hormoez shoots Iran Airbus A300, kills 290 Baseball Player Darryl Strawberry
1988 - The Fatih Sultan Mehmet Bridge in Istanbul, Turkey is completed, providing the second connection between the continents of Europe and Asia over the Bosporus.
1989 - Peter Koech of Kenya sets 3k steeplechase rec (8:05.39) in Stockholm
1989 - Supreme Court rules states do not have to provide funds for abortions
1989 - The movie "Batman," set record of quickest $100 million (10 days)
1990 - Members of 2 Live Crew formally charged with obscenity in Florida
1991 - U.S. President George H.W. Bush formally inaugurated the Mount Rushmore National Memorial in South Dakota.
1991 - Gateway Board of Trustees approve a 20-year lease with Cleve Indians
1993 - 100th Wimbledon Womens Tennis: Steffi Graf beats J Novotna (76 16 64)
1993 - Boon completes 16th Test Cricket century, 101 at Trent Bridge
1994 - 108th Wimbledon Mens Tennis: P Sampras beats G Ivanisevic (76 76 60)
1994 - 30 die in 3 fatal auto accidents in Texas
1994 - Romania eliminates Argentina 3-2 in soccer world cup
1994 - The deadliest day in Texas traffic history, according to the Texas Department of Public Safety. Forty six people were killed in crashes.
1996 - Stone of Scone returned to Scotland.
1997 - Mississippi becomes first state to settle tobacco suit
2001 - A Vladivostok Avia Tupolev TU-154 jetliner crashes on approach to landing at Irkutsk, Russia killing 145 people.
2004 - Official opening of Bangkok's subway system.
2005 - The national law legalizing same-sex marriage takes effect in Spain.
2006 - Asteroid labeled as 2004 XP14 flies 432,308 km (268,624 miles) by Earth. 2009 - Mark II.5 Skytrain cars enter service in Metro Vancouver.
2012 - Truck bombing kills 25 people and wounds 40 in Diwaniyah, Iraq
2012 - Antonio Esfandiari wins a record $18.3 million in poker after winning the 2012 World Series of Poker $1,000,000 Buy-In
The following links are to web sites that were used to complete this blog entry:
http://www.historyorb.com/today/events.php
http://on-this-day.com/onthisday/thedays/alldays/jul03.htm
http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history
http://www.infoplease.com/dayinhistory
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