Al Gore & Steve Schmidt Argued That the Founding Fathers Saw the Kind of Threat That Trump Poses As Far Back As 1776

American Declaration of Independence

An image of the iconic "We the People" wording of the Constitution.

The American Bill of Rights (picture that I took of a copy of the Bill of Rights, not the original)

Independence Hall in Philadelphia, PA

"Our constitution, written by our founders, is intended to protect us against a threat identical to Donald Trump.” 

~ Former Vice President Al Gore, speech during San Francisco Climate Week, April 2025

It feels a bit bizarre right now. The United States is about to celebrate the 250th anniversary of independence, or the birth of the nation.

Yet, we now have a government that looks and feels more tyrannical than the one which that the rebels/patriots declared independence from in the first place a quarter of a millennium ago. Indeed, much of the language used in describing tyrants in the Declaration of Independence seems to fit our current president with astonishing and eerie accuracy.

In fact, the Founding Fathers seem to have predicted that an all-American, homegrown tyrant would be inevitable at some point in our history. Indeed, the provisions which they wrote to try to prevent one - and to try and get rid of one if such a tyrant did gain power - betrayed this seeming vision of a potentially dangerous future. 

Now here we are. We have a filthy rich and incompetent man-child in charge, with a false sense of entitlement and an insatiable appetite for both displays of appreciation to honor his own greatness and attempts to forever grab more power and more power and more power. To those ends, this man has basically acted as if the Constitutional restrictions on the office of the president and the traditional balance of powers between the branches of government are merely suggestions, as opposed to laws with consequences for violating them. In short, he seems to rule as if he were immune from any kind of checks and balances on his power and actions. 

Steve Schmidt, who has become quite a vocal critic of Trumpism and the Mindless MAGA Moron cult, recently wrote an interesting piece. In it, he suggests that the Founding Fathers saw the threat of someone like Trump as far back as 1776.

That is why they broke free from one tyrants and then tried to design a system of government to minimize the risks of falling under another untrustworthy tyrant. Reflecting on some of the words of the Declaration of Independence, Schmidt writes:

Overgrown rich men will be improper to be trusted.  

This sentence escapes the confines of its own time.

Not trusting "overgrown rich men" with tremendous power? 

What a concept, eh?

If only we remembered our history before giving away so much of our power - and our country - to men like Donald Trump and Elon Musk.

Schmidt continues:

The founders understood something that modern America has forgotten.  

Liberty isn’t threatened first by foreign armies. It’s threatened by concentrations of power. By fortunes that become governments. By wealth that purchases obedience. By ambition unrestrained by virtue.  

They knew that republics die when public office becomes private property.  

Look around.  

The overgrown rich men have smashed through every restraint they once denounced.

We live in a strange age. If our society was perhaps a bit too gullible and believed in government officials too much in the 1950's and early 1960's, during an age of conformity, we seem to have gone to another extreme altogether these days. But this one feels more extreme, and it is fixated on cynicism.

Yet, many people themselves seem also to prove that there really is something to the Dunning-Kruger effect. Because these people are cynical about the wrong things, while conveniently turning a blind eye to a hell of a lot of things which they should be paying attention to and expressing extreme cynicism towards. 

Like the blatant corruption of the Trump administration, the naked grab for power and the raw violations of the Constitution and the rule of law which they have made so routine as to effectively normalize them.

Yes, on some level, I can understand laughing off dire warnings when they seem overblown. But by now, if you fail to see tyranny and dictatorial leanings in Trump's governing style, you simply are either not paying attention, not being honest, or not being objective. Or, frankly, perhaps you are just too stupid to see it.

The criminality, frankly, of this administration is off the charts. We have seen controversies and violations of norms and even laws with other presidential administrations of the past. But this administration makes things like Watergate and the Iran Contra Scandal and Whitewater and Enron look like amateur hour. This current administration so systematically goes to the most brutal extremes in blatant corruption and criminal conduct and presidential overreach that it can figuratively make your head spin. 

Again, here is what Schmidt says:

They’ve knocked down parts of the White House to satisfy vanity. They’ve vandalized the National Mall in service of spectacle. They’ve treated the public treasury as though it were their inheritance. They’ve sold public lands held in trust for generations. They’ve replaced public service with self-enrichment. They’ve desecrated nearly every understanding of liberty, while mocking the sacrifices that preserved it.  

They’ve transformed patriotism into branding. Citizenship into consumption. Government into grievance — and they’ve demanded applause while doing it.  

This isn’t merely corruption. It’s desecration.

Yes, this current version of patriotism feels like it is designed specifically as a test to see whether or not you are on board with Dear Leader President Donald Trump. It feels like a test of sorts. And you can bet that they mean to follow up on that test. If you fail, they will go to whatever lengths they can to get back at you. After all, this man campaigned, at least in part, on vengeance against his political opponents. And he has also made a point of cutting funding to blue states which did not vote for him. The fact that this has been done in a breathtakingly petty manner only serves as a distraction, because it makes all of this feel unreal.

Unfortunately, all of this really is happening. 

As Schmidt tells us, it should serve as a warning. This feels like a cycle, with some clear patterns repeating. Schmidt continues:

Their warning has reached us.  

The question is whether we will finally listen.  

The Republic has never belonged to overgrown rich men.  

It belongs to free citizens — if they can keep it.

Indeed. 

Let us remember that while all of this may feel new to us, the issues most certainly are not. What we are seeing is abuse of power, tyranny, undermining average citizens in favor of a new, ruling elite class. Elites who do not apparently appreciate that there are documents which legally limit their power, and which they are wiping their feet on.

We are no powerless, even if it sometimes feels hopeless. To that end, we can do worse than turn to those in 1776 who also famously fought a real struggle to rid themselves of tyrannical rule. 

It is time for us to remember the lessons from our own history. 

Below are the links to the Steve Schmidt piece which got me on this topic, as well as an article about Al Gore's speech, when he warned that Trump poses exactly that kind of threat that the Founding Fathers were warning the country about. The two articles seemed related in some ways, and so I kind of used them both, to a degree. Take a look for yourself:

1776 saw Trump coming Steve Schmidt Jun 26, 2026 June 26, 1776.  A broadsheet circulated through the streets of Philadelphia. It was a warning. It was a demand. It was an argument about power before America had become America.

https://steveschmidt.substack.com/p/1776-saw-trump-coming?utm_source=post-email-title&publication_id=836444&post_id=203701699&utm_campaign=email-post-title&isFreemail=true&r=k1e0a&triedRedirect=true&utm_medium=email

1776 saw Trump coming - The Warning with Steve Schmidt

Al Gore Attacks Trump in Fiery Speech, Says He Sees Parallels to Early Nazi Germany for This Reason "Our constitution, written by our founders, is intended to protect us against a threat identical to Donald Trump,” the former vice president said in a pointed speech at San Francisco Climate Week Meredith Kile Wed, 23 April 2025 at 4:39 pm GMT-4

https://sg.news.yahoo.com/al-gore-attacks-trump-fiery-203945768.html

Al Gore Attacks Trump in Fiery Speech, Says He Sees Parallels to Early Nazi Germany for This Reason - Yahoo News Singapore

July 3rd: This Day in History

 

Once again, it should be reiterated, that this does not pretend to be a very extensive history of what happened on this day (nor is it the most original - the links can be found down below). If you know something that I am missing, by all means, shoot me an email or leave a comment, and let me know!

http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history 

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.

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:

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. 

On this day in 1608 , the city of Québec was founded by Samuel de Champlain. On this day in 1775 during the American Revolutionary War of Independence, General George Washington took command of the Continental Army at Cambridge, Massachusetts. In 1778 on this day, Iroquois loyal to the British cause during the American Revolutionary War massacred 360 men, women & children in Wyoming, Pennsylvania. In Paris on this day in 1790 during the French Revolution, the Marquis of Condorcet proposed granting civil rights to women. In 1861 on this day, the Pony Express arrived in San Francisco with overland letters from New York. On this day in 1863 during the American Civil War, the Battle of Gettysburg (in Pennsylvania) ended after three days. It was the bloodiest battle of the war, and ultimately a major victory for the North as Confederate troops retreated. On this day in 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. However, almost the entire fleet of Spanish ships were destroyed in the ensuing sea battle that followed. On this day in 1942 during World War II, German troops marched into Sebastopol, in Crimea. The Soviet Union opted to reject the Marshall Plan on this day in 1947. On this day in 1989, the movie "Batman" starring Michael Keeton (as Bruce Wayne/Batman), Jack Nicholson (as the Joker) and Kim Basinger (as Vicky Vale) set a new record for movies with the quickest $100 million, achieved in just 10 days.

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

Some pictures of Québec City over the years:

⚜ ⚜ ⚜ 

⚜ Statue of Samuel de Champlain in Québec ⚜

• On this day in 1608 , the city of Québec 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).

Equestrian statue of George Washington near his headquarters at Morristown, New Jersey.

• On this day in 1775 during the American Revolutionary War of Independence, General George Washington took command of the Continental Army at Cambridge, Massachusetts. 

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.

George Washington takes command of Continental Army by HISTORY.com Editors  Published: November 13, 2009  Last Updated: May 28, 2025:

https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/july-3/washington-takes-command-of-continental-army

• In 1778 on this day, Iroquois loyal to the British cause during the American Revolutionary War massacred 360 men, women & children in Wyoming, Pennsylvania.

1778 - Prussia declares war on Austria

Le Drapeau Tricolore (Tricour Flag) which was a product of the French Revolution, and which remains the national flag of France to this day.

• In Paris on this day in 1790 during the French Revolution, 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

Stamp commemorating 100 years since the Pony Express

• In 1861 on this day, the 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

A statue in Flemington, New Jersey, honoring veterans of the American Civil War.

An American Civil War era cannon

• On this day in 1863 during the American Civil War, the Battle of Gettysburg (in Pennsylvania) ended after three days. It was the bloodiest battle of the war, and ultimately a major victory for the North as Confederate troops retreated.  

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.

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

• On this day in 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. However, almost the entire fleet of Spanish ships were destroyed in the ensuing sea 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 - Kuyper government forms in Holland

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

Franklin D. Roosevelt Memorial in Washington, D.C.

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.

• On this day in 1942 during World War II, German troops marched into Sebastopol, in Crimea.

• 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

The flag of the USSR (Soviet Union)

• The Soviet Union opted to reject the Marshall Plan on this day in 1947.

1948 - Kidnapper Caryl Chessman sentenced to death

• 1950 - First time US & North Korean forces clash in Korean War



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

Jul 3, 1957: Khrushchev consolidates his power

Nikita Khrushchev takes control in the Soviet Union by orchestrating the ouster of his most serious opponents from positions of authority in the Soviet government. Khrushchev's action delighted the United States, which viewed him as a more moderate figure in the communist government of Russia.  

Khrushchev had been jockeying for ultimate control in the Soviet Union since the death of long-time Russian dictator Joseph Stalin in March 1953. Following Stalin's demise, the Soviet Union was ruled by a 10-member presidium. Khrushchev was only one member of this presidium, but during the following four years he moved steadily to seize total control. In June 1957, Khrushchev survived an attempt by his political opponents to remove him from the government. In July, he had his revenge. Since 1953, he had worked tirelessly to gain allies in the Soviet military and to gain control of the all-important Communist Party apparatus. On July 3, 1957, his years of work paid off as he used his important political connections and alliances to remove the three main challengers to his authority. Vyacheslav Molotov, Georgi M. Malenkov, and Lazar Kaganovich were voted off the presidium and relegated to minor government positions. Khrushchev then reigned supreme, and ruled the Soviet Union until his own ouster in 1964.  

In the United States, the news of Khrushchev's "housecleaning" was greeted with optimism. Malenkov and Molotov, in particular, had been viewed as communist "hard-liners" in the Stalinist mold. Khrushchev, on the other hand, was seen as a "moderate" who might be receptive to a more amenable relationship with the United States. In the coming years, U.S. officials were often disappointed with the newest Soviet leader, who seemed to vacillate between warm words about "peaceful coexistence" between the United States and the Soviet Union and aggressive talk about "burying" the capitalist system. Khrushchev's power began seriously to wane in 1962. Many Soviet officials characterized his behavior as "cowardly" during the October 1962 missile crisis in Cuba and he was pushed from power in 1964. Leonid Brezhnev succeeded Nikita Khrushchev.

This Day In History: July 3 1957:  Khrushchev consolidates his power

https://loki.editorial.aetnd.com/this-day-in-history/khrushchev-consolidates-his-power

Flag of Algeria

• 1962 - Algerian Revolution against French ended. 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.


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 - British aircraft crashes at Barcelona, 112 killed



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"


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)


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

• On this day in 1989, the movie "Batman" starring Michael Keeton (as Bruce Wayne/Batman), Jack Nickolson (as the Joker) and Kim Basinger (as Vicky Vale) set a new record for movies with the quickest $100 million, achieved in just 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

Trump Recently Warned That Americans Might Have a ‘Problem’ if They ‘Don’t Respect the President’

This is a picture of a magnet that was being sold at Strand's Book Store in New York City a few years ago. No, I did not buy it, but I liked it and took a picture, which I am sharing here now. 

You see a headline like this, and you just know that it can be interpreted in several ways. 

Surely, one of the ways is very convenient to those who still support this president. Trump supporters will say that there was no implicit or direct threat in this recent statement by Trump, about how Americans could have a "problem" if they "don't respect the president." Perhaps the think that this man is a philosopher, talking generally about how the nation cannot be run without sufficient respect for the leadership in Washington.

For full transparency, here is all of what Trump said about respecting the president, and the circumstances in which he said it, according to a description in a recent article by Morning Honey staff (see link below):

While speaking at the Faith and Freedom Coalition’s policy conference in Washington, D.C., the 80-year-old argued that people must show deep respect toward the president. However, these remarks have quickly come back to haunt him, sparking intense anger and mockery across social media.

During his address at the conference, the president claimed that a past lack of respect for leadership damaged public service recruitment.   

Addressing the crowd, he said, per Indy100, “If you go back a year and a half, two years ago, you could not get anybody to join the army, the navy, the air force, the Marines, the Coast Guard, the space force – you couldn’t get anyone to join. We couldn’t get policemen and women, we couldn’t get firemen and women – anything with a uniform because they were ashamed of our country because we had people who were not respected.”

He then firmly added, “You have to respect the president. If you don’t respect the president, you’re going to have a problem. They had no respect.”

So yeah, Trump fans would look at that and say that Trump is talking generally about the issue of a lack of respect towards a president and the country more generally. And they likely would suggest that he has a point here.

Except that Trump himself has been one of the worst offenders of disrespecting presidents....unless he is the sitting president. When it has been anyone else, he shows a complete lack of respect, even when he himself is out of office. He claimed that Biden was the worst president in American history, doing more damage than the next ten worst presidents in history. Also, he routinely referred to Biden as "Sleepy Joe" and then showed a remarkable lack of class by urging people not to feel sorry for Biden after he had been diagnosed with cancer. 

Obviously, he attacked Obama relentlessly, dismissing the Obama White House as failed leadership and repeatedly indicating that they would soon launch a war against Iran as a "Wag the Dog" diversion tactic. Also, it was Trump who stirred up the whole birther controversy. All of that was before Trump himself had ever gotten into the Oval Office. So much for respecting the president, eh?

Rather ironic, is it not?

Even after Obama's presidency ended, Trump has obviously kept up the attacks. It has reached such a point that some feel that he is fixated with Obama, and trying to undermine any and all of Obama's accomplishments, whether or not they were best for the country. Let's also not forget that Trump had a social media post depicting the Obamas as monkey, which drew worldwide condemnation for being racist. 

Even a president belonging to the same party was not spared. Infamously, he suggested while referring to Bush that any president who started a disastrous war in the Middle East without grounds and while lying about it should be impeached and removed from office.

Again, quite ironic, no?

Let us not forget other times when Trump has been outrageously disrespectful with other prominent politicians. Remember his feud with John McCain? That they had differences and were political rivals might seem normal. But Trump, who remember dodged the draft during the Vietnam War, criticized war hero John McCain for being captured and becoming a Prisoner of War (POW) during that war. Even after McCain died, Trump showed astonishing levels of pettiness and a complete lack of respect by turning his back on a Navy ship - and all of those in service aboard that ship - simply because it was named after John McCain. That showed a lack of class to the service men and women, as well as to McCain's family and friends. And, frankly, the entire nation, as that certainly felt beneath the dignity of the office of President of the United States. 

However, it felt that Trump had a bit of an undertone of an implicit threat when he said that Americans needed to respect their president. That he was promising his opponents would find trouble if they were too vocal in their opposition to him.

Let's remember that one of the things that this man was clear about while campaigning was that he would seek revenge on his political opponents. And while he has demonstrably gone back on many of his campaign promises (during both terms), that was clearly one which he fully intended to keep. 

So to me, it feels like he is attempting to threaten Americans who might criticize him too much, or show what he feels is a lack of respect.

It's funny that he himself feels so entitled to respect while simultaneously feeling exempt from having to show any respect to anything or anyone else. 

Most people cannot have it both ways. But it seems like, once again, Donald Trump is the exception to that rule. Or at least feels himself to be an exception to that rule. 

Here's the thing: respect is earned. And at the risk of becoming one of those who Trump clamps down on in seeking revenge against, I for one feel that this particular president has done absolutely nothing worth respecting.

Nothing at all. 

So it is rich for this man to be demanding respect, since he never shows any respect. Even saying something like that towards his boss - the American people - is disrespectful and betrays his false sense of entitlement. Then again, some of the major things which he has time and again illustrated in abundance is a lack of respect towards historical presidential protocols and the rule of law. This is a man who infamously suggested that parts of the Constitution might need to be suspended, after all.

Again, nothing at all worth respecting there.

What depths this country is plunging to with this particular president. Unreal.

The link to the article I used in writing this particular blog entry, and from which I obtained the quotes used above, as right here. Take a look:

Trump warns Americans could have a ‘problem’ if they ‘don’t respect the president’ Story by Morning Honey Staff • June 30, 2026:

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/trump-warns-americans-could-have-a-problem-if-they-don-t-respect-the-president/ar-AA26Tz9Q?ocid=entnewsntp&pc=U531&cvid=6a449c4c95b34769924a71eba178b20b&ei=13

Trump warns Americans could have a ‘problem’ if they ‘don’t respect the president’

Almost Nobody Is Buying Donald Trump's Threats Regarding Communism

When I was a kid, the world felt like it had not changed all that much in something like forty years. It was still the post-war world, dominated by the Cold War. And while McCarthyism might have been long gone, fears and even paranoia over the communist threat and the Soviet Union was still very much on people's minds. Ronald Reagan even had an advertisement warning about the "Russian bear" which still posed a threat, and that certainly contributed to getting him re-elected in 1984.

But that was then, and this is now.

The year 1984 was over 40 years ago. For those of us who can remember that year, it hardly seems possible that it actually was that long ago. But the calendar does not lie.

It becomes a bit easier to believe when you think about all of the things that have taken place since. Chernobyl and the withdrawal of Soviet troops from Afghanistan. The Berlin Wall coming down, and mostly peaceful revolutions sweeping through eastern Europe. Germany reuniting. The Warsaw Pact being disbanded. Finally, the Soviet Union being dissolved. 

And most people would agree, the threat of Soviet communism basically ending along with the Cold War. It is a relic of the past, a bygone age that is now relegated to the history books.

Except, apparently, in the mind of Donald Trump. Recently, he tweeted about how in his mind, communism still poses the greatest threat to the United States. More than anything else, even 9/11. 

Somebody forgot to tell him that old-style communist regimes have gone the way of the dinosaur, for the most part. Except maybe for Cuba and maybe North Korea, arguably. Most certainly, we cannot regard China as a communist country anymore these days. And remember, the Soviet Union ceased to exist in 1991, and the Cold War ended well before that. So the threat sure feels severely outdated. Trump's concerns seem to betray how out of touch he is with modern realities.

To him, apparently, the biggest threat to the United States is still communism. Yes, even in 2026. 

And now, communism apparently has taken over the Democrats. 

Because, of course the Democrats - or should I refer to them as he does when showing off his iconic wit, the "Dumbocrats" - embody everything evil. After all, they are opposed to Trump and his policies, and that is something that Trump clearly cannot tolerate. Any kind of opposition is automatically "low IQ" and stupid and evil and now, yes, communist.

Yet, most people are not buying it. Apparently, many conservatives even are not buying it.

Maybe it's time for Trump to jump into the 21st century? 

Just saying.

What a moron. 

Donald Trump's communism threat backfires as Fox News viewers brand him 'stupid' Story by Jorge Solis, Chiara Fiorillo • June 30, 2026:

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/donald-trump-s-communism-threat-backfires-as-fox-news-viewers-brand-him-stupid/ar-AA26TgaD?ocid=entnewsntp&pc=U531&cvid=6a4477b9803446539e47372fe67682bb&ei=13

Donald Trump's communism threat backfires as Fox News viewers brand him 'stupid'

July 2nd: This Day in History

   

Once again, it should be reiterated, that this does not pretend to be a very extensive history of what happened on this day (nor is it the most original - the links can be found down below). If you know something that I am missing, by all means, shoot me an email or leave a comment, and let me know!

http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history 

Very interesting day in history, filled with significant dates sprinkled throughout history, particularly American history.

Nostradamus died on this date. Cromwell's Parliamentary army won an important and very convincing victory. King James II disbanded Parliament. De Sade (the man from whom we get the term "sadist") shouted from the Bastille that prisoners were being slaughtered. The Second Continental Congress approved independence. The Battle of Gettysburg was decided in favor of the Union, and turned the tide of that war. A century later, the spirit of civil rights that Abraham Lincoln advocated during the Civil War was finally legally fulfilled, when Lyndon Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act and Voting Rights Act, ending legalized Jim Crow segregation in the United States (particularly in the South). President Garfield was fatally shot. The Sherman Anti Trust Act was passed. In Germany, the first successful flight of a zeppelin was on this date. Amelia Earhardt disappeared on this date, while trying to fly around the world. Hitler ordered the invasion of England (Operation Sealion). This was the dater of the infamous crash in Roswell, New Mexico. North and South Vietnam were formally reunited. Elvis Presly recorded "Hound Dog". The Castros (Fidel and Raul) visited Moscow. The US Supreme Court reversed a former decision, and proclaimed that the death penalty was not "cruel and unusual". Susan B. Anthony coins became the first American coins to honor a woman. There was a stampede at Mecca that killed over 1,400 people. Vincente Fox Quesada of the opposition party was elected President of Mexico, ending seventy years of rule by the PRI. An oil tanker explosion in the Democratic Republic of the Congo killed well over two hundred.

On this day in 311, St Militiades began his reign as Catholic Pope. In 626 on this day, in fear of assassination, Li Shimin ambushed and killed his rival brothers Li Yuanji and Li Jiancheng in the Incident at Xuanwu Gate. On September 4, Shimin's father abdicated in his favour and Shimin became Emperor Taizong of Tang, Emperor of China. In China on this day in 706, Emperor Zhongzong of Tang had the remains of Emperor Gaozong of Tang, his wife and recently-deceased ruling empress Wu Zetian, her son Li Xian, her grandson Li Chongrun, and granddaughter Li Xianhui all interred in a new tomb complex outside Chang'an known as the Qianling Mausoleum, located on Mount Liang. The imperial army proclaimed Nicephorus Phocas to be Emperor of the Romans on the plains outside Cappadocian Caesarea on this day in 963. On this day in 1566, French astrologer, physician, and prophet Nostradamus died. The first English expedition from Massachusetts against Acadia, which was led by Samuel Argall, left on this day in 1613. In 1644 on this day, Lord Oliver Cromwell's Parliamentary forces crushed the Royalists at the Battle of Marston Moor near York, England. Marshall Saxe led the French forces to victory over an Anglo-Dutch force under the Duke of Cumberland at the Battle of Lauffeld on this day in 1747.

On this day in 1787 in Paris on the eve of the French Revolution, the Marquis De Sade shouted from the Bastille that prisoners were being slaughtered inside of the walls of the prison. This day in 1863 marked the second day of the Battle of Gettysburg of the American Civil War. It was the bloodiest battle of the war. In 1890 on this day, the U.S. Congress passed the Sherman Antitrust Act. On this day in 1932, future American President Franklin Delano Roosevelt made the first presidential nominating conventional acceptance speech for a major party. Adolf Hitler ordered the invasion of England (Operation Sealion) on this day in 1940 during World War II.

Here's a more detailed look at events that transpired on this date throughout history:


• On this day in 311, St Militiades began his reign as Catholic Pope.

• In 626 on this day, in fear of assassination, Li Shimin ambushed and killed his rival brothers Li Yuanji and Li Jiancheng in the Incident at Xuanwu Gate. On September 4, Shimin's father abdicated in his favour and Shimin became Emperor Taizong of Tang, Emperor of China.

• In China on this day in 706, Emperor Zhongzong of Tang had the remains of Emperor Gaozong of Tang, his wife and recently-deceased ruling empress Wu Zetian, her son Li Xian, her grandson Li Chongrun, and granddaughter Li Xianhui all interred in a new tomb complex outside Chang'an known as the Qianling Mausoleum, located on Mount Liang.

• The imperial army proclaimed Nicephorus Phocas to be Emperor of the Romans on the plains outside Cappadocian Caesarea on this day in 963.

1140 - Hartbert becomes bishop of Utrecht

1214 - Battle of La Roche-aux-Moines (Angers), part of King John of England attempt to reclaim Normandy from France

1298 - Battle on Hasenbuhl (Gollheim) between German kings Adolf of Nassau and Albrecht I of Austria   Albrecht I defeated and killed Adolf of Nassua near Worms, Germany.

1555 - Turgut Reis sacks the Italian city of Paola.

1561 - Menas, Emperor of Ethiopia, defeats a revolt in Emfraz.

• On this day in 1566, French astrologer, physician, and prophet Nostradamus died.

1576 - Muitende Spanish soldiers conquer Zierik Sea

1578 - Martin Frobisher sights Baffin Island.

1582 - Battle of Yamazaki: Toyotomi Hideyoshi defeats Akechi Mitsuhide.

1600 - Battle at Newport: Earl Mauritius van Nassau beats Spanish Army

• The first English expedition from Massachusetts against Acadia, which was led by Samuel Argall, left on this day in 1613.

1625 - The Spanish army took Breda, Spain, after nearly a year of siege.

English Lord Protector Oliver Cromwell

• In 1644 on this day, Lord Oliver Cromwell's Parliamentary forces crushed the Royalists at the Battle of Marston Moor near York, England.

1679 - Europeans first visit Minnesota and see headwaters of Mississippi in an expedition led by Daniel Greysolon de Du Luth.

1681 - Earl of Shaftesbury arrested for high-treason

1687 - King James II disbands English parliament

1698 - Thomas Savery patents the first steam engine

• Marshall Saxe led the French forces to victory over an Anglo-Dutch force under the Duke of Cumberland at the Battle of Lauffeld on this day in 1747.

• 1776 - NJ gave all adults who could show a net worth of 50 pounds right to vote

Independence Hall in Philadelphia, PA

• 1776 - Richard Henry Lee’s resolution that the American colonies "are, and of right ought to be, free and independent States" was adopted by the Continental Congress.

This seemed worthy of mentioning, as well: today also marks the date that the Second Continental Congress voted in favor of independence (same link as above):

July 2, 1776: Congress votes for independence    

On this day in 1776, the Second Continental Congress, assembled in Philadelphia, formally adopts Richard Henry Lee's resolution for independence from Great Britain. The vote is unanimous, with only New York abstaining.  

The resolution had originally been presented to Congress on June 7, but it soon became clear that New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland and South Carolina were as yet unwilling to declare independence, though they would likely be ready to vote in favor of a break with England in due course. Thus, Congress agreed to delay the vote on Lees Resolution until July 1. In the intervening period, Congress appointed a committee to draft a formal declaration of independence. Its members were John Adams of Massachusetts, Benjamin Franklin of Pennsylvania, Roger Sherman of Connecticut, Robert R. Livingston of New York and Thomas Jefferson of Virginia. Thomas Jefferson, well-known to be the best writer of the group, was selected to be the primary author of the document, which was presented to Congress for review on June 28, 1776.  

On July 1, 1776, debate on the Lee Resolution resumed as planned, with a majority of the delegates favoring the resolution. Congress thought it of the utmost importance that independence be unanimously proclaimed. To ensure this, they delayed the final vote until July 2, when 12 colonial delegations voted in favor of it, with the New York delegates abstaining, unsure of how their constituents would wish them to vote. John Adams wrote that July 2 would be celebrated as the most memorable epoch in the history of America. Instead, the day has been largely forgotten in favor of July 4, when Jeffersons edited Declaration of Independence was adopted.   

1777 - Vermont becomes first American colony to abolish slavery 

• On this day in 1787 in Paris on the eve of the French Revolution, the Marquis De Sade shouted from the Bastille that prisoners were being slaughtered inside of the walls of the prison.

1794 - Second Battle of Seneffe: France-Austria

1808 - Simon Fraser completes his trip down Fraser R, BC, lands at Musqueam

Chief Tecumseh urged Native Americans to unite against the encroaching white culture on this day in 1809.

Jul 2, 1809: Chief Tecumseh urges Indians to unite against whites 

Alarmed by the growing encroachment of whites squatting on Native American lands, the Shawnee Chief Tecumseh calls on all Indians to unite and resist.  

Born around 1768 near Springfield, Ohio, Tecumseh early won notice as a brave warrior. He fought in battles between the Shawnee and the white Kentuckians, who were invading the Ohio River Valley territory. After the Americans won several important battles in the mid-1790s, Tecumseh reluctantly relocated westward but remained an implacable foe of the white men and their ways.  

By the early 19th century, many Shawnee and other Ohio Valley Indians were becoming increasingly dependent on trading with the Americans for guns, cloth, and metal goods. Tecumseh spoke out against such dependence and called for a return to traditional Indian ways. He was even more alarmed by the continuing encroachment of white settlers illegally settling on the already diminished government-recognized land holdings of the Shawnee and other tribes. The American government, however, was reluctant to take action against its own citizens to protect the rights of the Ohio Valley Indians.  

On this day in 1809, Tecumseh began a concerted campaign to persuade the Indians of the Old Northwest and Deep South to unite and resist. Together, Tecumseh argued, the various tribes had enough strength to stop the whites from taking further land. Heartened by this message of hope, Indians from as far away as Florida and Minnesota heeded Tecumseh's call. By 1810, he had organized the Ohio Valley Confederacy, which united Indians from the Shawnee, Potawatomi, Kickapoo, Winnebago, Menominee, Ottawa, and Wyandot nations.  

For several years, Tecumseh's Indian Confederacy successfully delayed further white settlement in the region. In 1811, however, the future president William Henry Harrison led an attack on the confederacy's base on the Tippecanoe River. At the time, Tecumseh was in the South attempting to convince more tribes to join his movement. Although the battle of Tippecanoe was close, Harrison finally won out and destroyed much of Tecumseh's army.  

When the War of 1812 began the following year, Tecumseh immediately marshaled what remained of his army to aid the British. Commissioned a brigadier general, he proved an effective ally and played a key role in the British capture of Detroit and other battles. When the tide of war turned in the American favor, Tecumseh's fortunes went down with those of the British. On October 5, 1813, he was killed during Battle of the Thames. His Ohio Valley Confederacy and vision of Indian unity died with him.

1823 - Bahia Independence Day: the end of Portuguese rule in Brazil, with the final defeat of the Portuguese crown loyalists in the province of Bahia.

1843 - An alligator falls from sky during a Charleston SC thunderstorm

1847 - Envelope bearing 1st US 10 cent stamps, still exists today

Statue of Garibaldi

• 1849 - Garibaldi in Rome begins hunger strike

1850 - Benjamin J. Lane patents gas mask with a breathing apparatus

1850 - Prussia agreed to pull out of Schlewig and Holstein, Germany.

1857 - New York City’s first elevated railroad officially opened for business.

1858 - Czar Alexander II partially emancipated the serfs working on Russian imperial lands.

1861 - Battle of Hoke's Run, WV - small Union victory

Statue of Abraham Lincoln outside of the New York Historical Society

1862 - Lincoln signs act granting land for state agricultural colleges

A statue in Flemington, New Jersey, honoring veterans of the American Civil War.

• This day in 1863 marked the second day of the Battle of Gettysburg of the American Civil War. It was the bloodiest battle of the war. 

Jul 2, 1863: Fighting continues at the Battle of Gettysburg

On this day in 1863, during the second day of the Battle of Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, Confederate General Robert E. Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia attacks General George G. Meade's Army of the Potomac at both Culp's Hill and Little Round Top, but fails to move the Yankees from their positions.  

On the north end of the line, or the Union's right flank, Confederates from General Richard Ewell's corps struggled up Culp's Hill, which was steep and heavily wooded, before being turned back by heavy Union fire. But the most significant action was on the south end of the Union line. General James Longstreet's corps launched an attack against the Yankees, but only after a delay that allowed additional Union troops to arrive and position themselves along Cemetery Ridge. Many people later blamed Longstreet for the Confederates' eventual defeat. Still, the Confederates had a chance to destroy the Union left flank when General Daniel Sickles moved his corps, against Meade's orders, from their position on the ridge to open ground around the Peach Orchard. This move separated Sickles' force from the rest of the Union army, and Longstreet attacked. Although the Confederates were able to take the Peach Orchard, they were repulsed by Yankee opposition at Little Round Top. Some of the fiercest fighting took place on this day, and both armies suffered heavy casualties.  

Lee's army regrouped that evening and planned for one last assault against the Union center on July 3: the infamous Pickett's Charge.

1863 - R Morgan's: Burksville, KY to Salineville, OH [->JUL 26]

1864 - Gen Early and Confederate forces reach Winchester en route to Wash DC

1864 - Statuary Hall in US Capitol forms

1865 - William Booth founds Salvation Army (Army of the Salvation)

1867 - First US elevated railroad begins service, NYC

1870 - Jules Joseph d'Anethan is elected the tenth Prime Minister of Belgium.

1881 - Charles J. Guiteau, a disappointed office-seeker, shot and fatally wounded American President James A. Garfield in Washington, DC. Garfield died on Sept. 19.

Jul 2, 1881: President Garfield is shot  

On this day in 1881, President James A. Garfield, who had been in office just under four months, is shot by an assassin. Garfield lingered for 80 days before dying of complications from the shooting.  

Garfield's assassin was an attorney and political office-seeker named Charles Guiteau. He was a relative stranger to the president and his administration in an era when federal positions were doled out on a "who you know" basis. When his requests for an appointment were ignored, a furious Guiteau stalked the president, vowing revenge.  

On the morning of July 2, 1881, Garfield headed for the Baltimore and Potomac Railroad station on his way to a short vacation. As he walked through the station toward the waiting train, Guiteau stepped behind the president and fired two shots. The first bullet grazed Garfield's arm; the second lodged below his pancreas. Doctors made several unsuccessful attempts to remove the bullet while Garfield lay in his White House bedroom, awake and in pain. Alexander Graham Bell, who was one of Garfield's physicians, tried to use an early version of a metal detector to find the second bullet, but also failed.  

Historical accounts vary as to the exact cause of Garfield's death. Some believe that the physicians' treatments—which included the administration of quinine, morphine, brandy and calomel and feeding him through the rectum--may have hastened his demise. Others insist Garfield died from an already advanced case of heart disease. By early September, Garfield, who was recuperating at a seaside retreat in New Jersey, appeared to be recovering. He died on September 19. Autopsy reports at the time said that pressure from the festering internal wound had created an aneurism that was the likely cause of death. Upon Garfield's demise, Vice President Chester A. Arthur became the nation's 20th president. Guiteau was deemed sane by a jury, convicted of murder and hung on June 30, 1882.  

Garfield's spine is kept as a historical artifact by the National Museum of Health and Medicine in Washington, D.C.

1885 - Canada's North-west Insurrection ends with surrender of Big Bear

• In 1890 on this day, the U.S. Congress passed the Sherman Antitrust Act.

1894 - Government obtains injunction against striking Pullman Workers

1900 - Count Ferdinand von Zeppelin 1st airship LZ-1, flies

1900 - Sibelius' "Finlandia," premieres in Helsinki

• 1900 - First zeppelin flight takes place on Lake Constance near Friedrichshafen, Germany.

1901 - Butch Cassidy & Sundance Kid rob train of $40,000 at Wagner Montana

1902 - John J McGraw becomes manager of NY Giants (stays for 30 years)

1903 - AL/NL batting champ Ed Delahanty, disappears, found dead days later

1903 - Pitcher Jack Doscher, 1 son of a major leaguer debuts with Cubs

1906 - Yanks win by forfeit, for their 1st time

1916 - Lenin says Imperialism is caused by capitalism

1916 - Russian offensive in Armenia

1917 - Riots in East St Louis Mo

On this day in 1917 during the Great War (now better known as World War I), Greece declared war on the Central Powers.

Jul 2, 1917: Greece declares war on Central Powers

On this day in 1917, several weeks after King Constantine I abdicates his throne in Athens under pressure from the Allies, Greece declares war on the Central Powers, ending three years of neutrality by entering World War I alongside Britain, France, Russia and Italy.  

Constantine, educated in Germany and married to a sister of Kaiser Wilhelm II, was naturally sympathetic to the Germans when World War I broke out in the summer of 1914, refusing to honor Greece's obligation to support Serbia, its ally during the two Balkan Wars in 1912-13. Despite pressure from his own pro-Allied government, including Prime Minister Eleutherios Venizelos, and British and French promises of territorial gains in Turkey, Constantine maintained Greece's neutrality for the first three years of the war, although he did allow British and French forces to disembark at Salonika in late 1914 in a plan to aid Serbia against Austro-Hungarian and Bulgarian forces.  

By the end of 1915, with Allied operations bogged down in Salonika and failing spectacularly in the Dardanelles, Constantine was even less inclined to support the Entente, believing Germany clearly had the upper hand in the war. He dismissed Venizelos in October 1915, substituting him with a series of premiers who basically served as royal puppets. Meanwhile, civil war threatened in Greece, as Constantine desperately sought promises of naval, military and financial assistance from Germany, which he did not receive. After losing their patience with Constantine, the Allies finally sent an ultimatum demanding his abdication on June 11, 1917; the same day, British forces blockaded Greece and the French landed their troops at Piraeus, on the Isthmus of Corinth, in blatant disregard of Greek neutrality. The following day, Constantine abdicated in favor of his second son, Alexander.  

On June 26, Alexander reinstated Venizelos, who returned from exile in Crete, where he had established a provisional Greek government with Allied support. With a pro-Allied prime minister firmly in place, Greece moved to the brink of entering World War I. On July 1, Alexander Kerensky, the Russian commander in chief and leader of the provisional Russian government after the fall of Czar Nicholas II the previous March, ordered a major offensive on the Eastern Front, despite the turmoil within Russia and the exhausted state of Kerensky's army. The offensive would end in disastrous losses for the Russians, but at the time it seemed like a fortuitous turn of events for the Allies, in that it would help to sap German resources. The following day, Greece declared war on the Central Powers.  

The new king, Alexander, stated the case for war dramatically in his official coronation address on August 4: "Greece has to defend her territory against barbarous aggressors. But if in the trials of the past Greece has been able, thanks to the civilizing strength of the morale of the race, to have overcome the conquerors and to rise free amidst the ruins, today it is quite a different matter. The present cataclysm will decide the definite fate of Hellenism, which, if lost, will never be restored." Over the next 18 months, some 5,000 Greek soldiers would die on the battlefields of World War I. 

1921 - 41st Wimbledon Mens Tennis: B Tilden beats B Norton (46 26 61 60 75)

1921 - Jack Dempsey KOs George S Carpentier in 4 for heavyweight boxing title 1st million dollar gate ($1.7m) boxing match (Dempsey KOs Carpentier)

1926 - The U.S. Congress established the US Army Air Corps; Distinguish Flying Cross authorized

1927 - 40th Wimbledon Womens Tennis: Helen Moody beats L de Alvarez (62 64)

1927 - Earthquake hits Palestine

1928 - British parliament accept female sufferage

1932 - 52nd Wimbledon Mens Tennis: Ellsworth Vines beats H Austin (64 62 60)

Franklin D. Roosevelt Memorial in Washington, D.C.

• On this day in 1932, future American President Franklin Delano Roosevelt made the first presidential nominating conventional acceptance speech for a major party.

1933 - Carl Hubbell shuts-out Cards 1-0 in 18 innings without a walk

1934 - General Lazaro Cardenas elected president of Mexico

1935 - Great Britain boxers beat US team in 1st intl Golden Gloves

1937 - American aviation pioneer Amelia Earhart disappeared in the Central Pacific during an attempt to fly around the world at the equator.

1937 - 57th Wimbledon Mens Tennis: Don Budge beats G von Cramm (63 64 62)

1938 - 51st Wimbledon Womens Tennis: Helen Moody beats Helen Jacobs (64 60)

1939 - At Mount Rushmore, Theodore Roosevelt's face was dedicated.

1940 - Dutch PM Colijn publishes "Borders of 2 Worlds" (German victory)

• Adolf Hitler ordered the invasion of England (Operation Sealion) on this day in 1940 during World War II.

1940 - Lake Washington (Seattle) Floating bridge dedicated

1940 - PM Churchill meets gen-mjr B Montgomery

1940 - Indian independence leader Subhas Chandra Bose is arrested and detained in Calcutta.

1941 - DiMaggio breaks Willie Keeler's 44 game hitting streak (45th of 56)

1941 - Earthquake hits Palestine

1941 - Nazi mass murder in Lvov/Lemberg (7,000 dead)

1941 - Noel Coward's "Blithe Spirit," premieres in London 1943 - Gulf of Biskaje: Liberator bombers sinks U-126

1943 - Indians score 12 runs in 4th inning & beat Yankees 12-0

1943 - Lt Charles Hall, becomes first black pilot to shoot down Nazi plane

1944 - Marshal von Kluge replaces General von Rundstedt

1944 - American bombers, as part of Operation Gardening, dropped land mines, leaflets and bombs on German-occupied Budapest.

Jul 2, 1944: American bombers deluge Budapest, in more ways than one

On this day in 1944, as part of Operation Gardening, the British and American strategy to lay mines in the Danube River by dropping them from the air, American aircraft also drop bombs and leaflets on German-occupied Budapest.  

Hungarian oil refineries and storage tanks, important to the German war machine, were destroyed by the American air raid. Along with this fire from the sky, leaflets threatening "punishment" for those responsible for the deportation of Hungarian Jews to the gas chambers at Auschwitz were also dropped on Budapest. The U.S. government wanted the SS and Hitler to know it was watching. Admiral Miklas Horthy, regent and virtual dictator of Hungary, vehemently anticommunist and afraid of Russian domination, had aligned his country with Hitler, despite the fact that he little admired him. But he, too, demanded that the deportations cease, especially since special pleas had begun pouring in from around the world upon the testimonies of four escaped Auschwitz prisoners about the atrocities there. Hitler, fearing a Hungarian rebellion, stopped the deportations on July 8. Horthy would eventually try to extricate himself from the war altogether—only to be kidnapped by Hitler's agents and consequently forced to abdicate.  

One day after the deportations stopped, a Swedish businessman, Raoul Wallenberg, having convinced the Swedish Foreign Ministry to send him to the Hungarian capital on a diplomatic passport, arrived in Budapest with 630 visas for Hungarian Jews, prepared to take them to Sweden to save them from further deportations.

1946 - Dutch Beel government forms

1946 - Harbor workers end strike at Rotterdam & Amsterdam

1947 - Military coup discovered in France

1947 - An object crashed near Roswell, NM. The U.S. Army Air Force insisted it was a weather balloon, but eyewitness accounts led to speculation that it might have been an alien spacecraft.

The flag of the USSR (Soviet Union)

The Soviet Union rejected the Marshall Plan on this day in 1947, citing concerns over what they perceived as American "economic imperialism" and feared being compromised. 

Jul 2, 1947: Soviet Union rejects Marshall Plan assistance

Soviet Foreign Minister V. M. Molotov walks out of a meeting with representatives of the British and French governments, signaling the Soviet Union's rejection of the Marshall Plan. Molotov's action indicated that Cold War frictions between the United States and Russia were intensifying.  

On June 4, 1947, Secretary of State George C. Marshall gave a speech in which he announced that the United States was willing to offer economic assistance to the war-torn nations of Europe to help in their recovery. The Marshall Plan, as this program came to be known, eventually provided billions of dollars to European nations and helped stave off economic disaster in many of them. The Soviet reaction to Marshall's speech was a stony silence. However, Foreign Minister Molotov agreed to a meeting on June 27 with his British and French counterparts to discuss the European reaction to the American offer.  

Molotov immediately made clear the Soviet objections to the Marshall Plan. First, it would include economic assistance to Germany, and the Russians could not tolerate such aid to the enemy that had so recently devastated the Soviet Union. Second, Molotov was adamant in demanding that the Soviet Union have complete control and freedom of action over any Marshall Plan funds Germany might receive. Finally, the Foreign Minister wanted to know precisely how much money the United States would give to each nation. When it became clear that the French and British representatives did not share his objections, Molotov stormed out of the meeting on July 2. In the following weeks, the Soviet Union pressured its Eastern European allies to reject all Marshall Plan assistance. That pressure was successful and none of the Soviet satellites participated in the Marshall Plan. The Soviet press claimed that the American program was "a plan for interference in the domestic affairs of other countries." The United States ignored the Soviet action and, in 1948, officially established the Marshall Plan and began providing funds to other European nations.  

Publicly, U.S. officials argued that the Soviet stance was another indication that Russia intended to isolate Eastern Europe from the West and enforce its communist and totalitarian doctrines in that region. From the Soviet perspective, however, its refusal to participate in the Marshall Plan indicated its desire to remain free from American "economic imperialism" and domination.

1948 - 62nd Wimbledon Mens Tennis: Falkenburg beats Bromwich (75 06 62 36 75)

1949 - "High Button Shoes" closes at Century Theater NYC after 727 perfs

1949 - "Red Barber's Clubhouse" sports show premieres on CBS (later NBC) TV

 1949 - 56th Wimbledon Womens Tennis: L Brough beats M duPont (10-8 16 10-8)

1950 - Indian Bob Feller, wins his 200th game, 5-3 over Detroit

1950 - Kinkaku-ji in Kyoto, Japan burns down.

1950 - Henri Queuille is elected the seventh Prime Minister of the Fourth French Republic.

1951 - Bill Veeck buys St Louis Browns from Bill & Charlie DeWitt

1951 - Bob and Ray show premieres on NBC radio

1951 - Hugo Yarnold stumps 6 at Dundee, Worcester v Scotland

1951 - Island advisor of Curacao installed

1951 - Leidse astronomers discover radio signal out of Milky Way system

1952 - Princess Beatrice opens miniature city of Madurodam

1954 - 68th Wimbledon Mens Tennis: J Drobny beats K Rosewall (13-11 46 62 97)

1954 - Denis Compton scores 278 in 290 minutes v Pakistan

1955 - "7th Heaven" closes at ANTA Theater NYC after 44 performances

1955 - "Almost Crazy" closes at Longacre Theater NYC after 16 performances

1955 - "Lawrence Welk Show" premieres on ABC

1955 - 62nd Wimbledon Womens Tennis: Louise Brough beats B Fleitz (75 86)

1956 - Elvis Presley records "Hound Dog" and "Don't Be Cruel"

1956 - US performs nuclear test at Enwetak (atmospheric tests)

1957 - First submarine designed to fire guided missiles launched, Grayback

1957 - Pope Pius XII publishes encyclical Le pelerinage De Lourdes

1958 - US performs atmospheric nuclear test at Bikini Island

1959 - "Plan 9 From Outer Space," one of the worse films ever, premieres

1960 - "Once Upon a Mattress" closes at Alvin Theater NYC after 460 perfs

1961 - Maris hits 29th and 30th en route to 61 homers

1962 - Cubans minister of Foreign affairs Raul Castro arrives in Moscow

1962 - Fidel Castro visits Moscow

1963 - Giant Willie Mays' HR in 16th inning gives them a 1-0 win over Braves

1963 - Juan Marichal (Giants) beats Warren Spahn (Braves), 1-0 in 16 innings

    

1964 - Cilla Black records Beatle's "Its For You," McCartney plays piano

1964 - Grand jury indicts Beckwith in murder of Medger Evers

Bust of American President Lyndon B. Johnson

1964 - U.S. President Lyndon Baines Johnson signed the "Civil Rights Act of 1964" and Voting Rights Act into law. The act made it illegal in the U.S. to discriminate against others because of their race.

July 2, 1964: Johnson signs Civil Rights Act  

On this day in 1964, U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson signs into law the historic Civil Rights Act in a nationally televised ceremony at the White House.  

In the landmark 1954 case Brown v. Board of Education, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that racial segregation in schools was unconstitutional. The 10 years that followed saw great strides for the African-American civil rights movement, as non-violent demonstrations won thousands of supporters to the cause. Memorable landmarks in the struggle included the Montgomery bus boycott in 1955--sparked by the refusal of Alabama resident Rosa Parks to give up her seat on a city bus to a white woman--and Martin Luther King, Jr.'s famous "I have a dream" speech at a rally of hundreds of thousands in Washington, D.C., in 1963.  

As the strength of the civil rights movement grew, John F. Kennedy made passage of a new civil rights bill one of the platforms of his successful 1960 presidential campaign. As Kennedy's vice president, Johnson served as chairman of the President's Committee on Equal Employment Opportunities. After Kennedy was assassinated in November 1963, Johnson vowed to carry out his proposals for civil rights reform.  

The Civil Rights Act fought tough opposition in the House and a lengthy, heated debate in the Senate before being approved in July 1964. For the signing of the historic legislation, Johnson invited hundreds of guests to a televised ceremony in the White House's East Room. After using more than 75 pens to sign the bill, he gave them away as mementoes of the historic occasion, according to tradition. One of the first pens went to King, leader of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC), who called it one of his most cherished possessions. Johnson gave two more to Senators Hubert Humphrey and Everett McKinley Dirksen, the Democratic and Republican managers of the bill in the Senate.  

The most sweeping civil rights legislation passed by Congress since the post-Civil War Reconstruction era, the Civil Rights Act prohibited racial discrimination in employment and education and outlawed racial segregation in public places such as schools, buses, parks and swimming pools. In addition, the bill laid important groundwork for a number of other pieces of legislation--including the Voting Rights Act of 1965, which set strict rules for protecting the right of African Americans to vote--that have since been used to enforce equal rights for women as well as all minorities.  

1965 - 79th Wimbledon Mens Tennis: Roy Emerson beats Fred Stolle (62 64 64)

1966 - First France nuclear explosion on Mururoa atoll

1966 - 73rd Wimbledon Womens Tennis: Billie J King beats Frasier (63 36 61)

1966 - France performs nuclear test at Muruora Island

1967 - The U.S. Marine Corps launched Operation Buffalo in response to the North Vietnamese Army's efforts to seize the Marine base at Con Thien.

1967 - 22nd US Women's Open Golf Championship won by Catherine Lacoste

1967 - Catherine Lacoste becomes youngest (22), 1st foreigner (France) & 1st amateur to US Women's open golf tournament

1969 - Ireland bowl out WI for 25 at Londonderry, win by 9 wkts

1969 - Leslie West & Felix Pappalardi form rock group Mountain

1970 - First Boeing 747 to land in Amsterdam & Brussels

1970 - NY Yankees Horace Clarke breaks up a no-hitter in the 9th for 3rd time in 28 days

1971 - 78th Wimbledon Womens Tennis: Evonne Goolagong beats M Smith (64 61)

1971 - USSR performs underground nuclear test

1972 - "Fiddler on the Roof" closes at Imperial Theater NYC after 3242 perfs

1972 - 27th US Women's Open Golf Championship won by Susie Maxwell Berning

1972 - Bob Seagren pole vaults world record 5.63m

1972 - India and Pakistan sign peace accord

1973 - James R Schlesinger, ends term as 9th director of CIA

1973 - Nation Black Network begins operation on radio

1974 - Fernando Mameda of Portugal sets record for 10,000 m (27:13.81)

1976 - 83rd Wimbledon Womens Tennis: Chris Evert beats E Goolagong (63 46 86)

1976 -  In Gregg v. Georgia, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the death penalty was not inherently cruel or unusual.

1976 - North Vietnam and South Vietnam were formally reunited.

1977 - 91st Wimbledon Mens Tennis: Bjorn Borg beats Connors (36 62 61 57 64)

1978 - Pitcher Ron Guidry sets Yankee record of 13-0 start

1979 - Susan B Anthony dollar is issued, became the first US coin to honor a woman

1979 - The U.S. Mint officially released the Susan B. Anthony coin in Rochester, NY.

1980 - U.S. President Jimmy Carter reinstated draft registration for males 18 years of age.

1980 - Grateful Dead's Bob Weir and Mickey Hart are arrested for incitement

1980 - Julie Marie Bryan, 18, of Georgia, crowned America's Young Woman of Yr

1981 - Soyuz T-6 returned to Earth.

1982 - Larry Walters using lawn chair & 42 helium balloons, rose to 16,000'

1982 - Soyuz T-6 returns to Earth

1983 - 90th Wimbledon Womens Tennis: M Navratilova beats A Jaeger (60 63)

1985 - Andrei Gromyko appointed president of USSR

1985 - European Space Agency launches Giotto (Halley's Comet Flyby)

1985 - General Motors announced that it was installing electronic road maps as an option in some of its higher-priced cars.

1986 - After 14 wins, Roger Clemens suffer his first loss of year

Flag of Chile

1986 - General strike against Pinochet regime in Chile

1986 - Supreme Court upholds affirmative action in 2 rulings

1987 - Jim Eisenreich, comeback after nervous disorder in 1984

1987 - Nilde Iotti is named as the first female President of the Italian Chamber of Deputies.

1988 - 95th Wimbledon Womens Tennis: Steffi Graf beats Navratilova (57 62 61)

1990 - Imelda Marcos & Adnan Khashoggi found not guilty of racketeering

1990 - Panic in tunnel of Mecca: 1,426 pilgrims trampled to death

1991 - Riot at Guns N' Roses concert in St Louis

1992 - Braniff Airlines goes out of business

1993 - Boat sinks at Bocaue Philippines, 325 die

1993 - F-28 crashes at Sorong Irian Barat, 41 die

1993 - Kansas Royals rename stadium Ewing Kaufman Stadium after founder

1993 - Moslem fundamentalists in Sivas Turkey, set hotel on fire, kill 36

1993 - NY Met Anthony Young loses a record 25th straight game (goes to 27)

1993 - Pope John Paul II hospitalized for Cat Scan test

1994 - 101st Wimbledon Womens Tennis: C Martinez beats Navratilova (64 36 63)

1994 - 37 dies in US Air DC-9 crash in NC

1994 - John Wayne Bobbitt & Kristina Elliot arrested for domestic battery

1994 - Richard Johnson takes 10-45 for Middlesex against Derbyshire

1994 - US Air DC-9 crash in NC, 37 killed

1995 - "Rose Tattoo" closes at Circle in the Square NYC after 80 perfs

1995 - Thailand: Banharn Silpa-Archa's party wins election

1995 - "Forbes" magazine reported that Microsoft's chairman, Bill Gates, was the worth $12.9 billion, making him the world's richest man. In 1999, he was worth about $77 billion.

1997 - Actor James Stewart died in Beverly Hills, Calif. 2002 Steve Fossett became the first to circumnavigate the globe solo in a balloon.

1998 - Cable News Network (CNN) retracted a story that alleged that U.S. commandos had used nerve gas to kill American defectors during the Vietnam War.

2000 - In Mexico, Vicente Fox Quesada of the Partido Acción Nacional (National Action Party, or PAN) defeated Francisco Labastida Ochoa of the Partido Revolucionario Institucional.(Institutional Revolutionary Party, or PRI) in the presidential election. The PRI had controlled the presidency in Mexico since the party was founded in 1929, or over seventy years.

2001 - AbioCor self contained artificial heart created.

2002 - Steve Fossett becomes the first person to fly solo around the world nonstop in a balloon.

2003 - Silvio Berlusconi, Prime Minister of Italy, insults German MP Martin Schulz by calling him a "kapo" during a session of the European Parliament.

2004 - ASEAN Regional Forum accepts Pakistan as its 24th member.¨

2008 - Ingrid Betancourt and 14 other FARC hostages are rescued by the Colombian armed forces.

2010 - Oil tanker truck explosion in South Kivu, the Democratic Republic of the Congo kills at least 230 people

2012 - GlaxoSmithKline settle the largest healthcare fraud case in history for US$3 Billion \

2012 - Monsoon rain in East India kills at least 79 people and leaves 2.2 million homeless

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/jul02.htm

http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history

http://www.infoplease.com/dayinhistory