1776- the Continental Congress, Philadelphia, PA, having a quorum, voted to adopt  a resolution introduced June 7, 1776, by Richard Henry Lee of Virginia: “Resolved, That these United Colonies are, and of right ought to be, free and independent States, that they are absolved from all allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain is, and ought to be, totally dissolved. That it is expedient forthwith to take the most effectual measures for forming foreign Alliances. That a plan of confederation be prepared and transmitted to the respective Colonies for their consideration and approbation.” This resolution prepared the way for signature and adoption, July 4,1776, of the Declaration of Independence.
http://www.stratfordhall.org/rh-letter2.htm
http://lcweb2.loc.gov/ammem/bdsds/lee.html
    1777- slavery emancipations was enacted into law by Vermont: “ No male person born in this country or brought from over sea, ought to be holden by law, to serve any person as a servant, slave or apprentice, after he arrives to the age of twenty-one years, nor female, in like manner, after she arrives to the age of eighteen years, unless they are bound by their own consent, after they arrive to such age, or bound by law, for the payment of debts, damages, fines, costs, or the like.”
    1778- Cyrus Griffin of Virginia, the president of the Congress, announced that the Constitution had been ratified by the required nine states (the ninth being New Hampshire June 21, 1788), and a committee was appointed to make preparations for the change of government.
http://cyrusgriffin.com/
    1822-Perhaps one of the events that slowed those advocating freedom was the ceremony and significance of the hanging of Denmark Vesey.  He was the planner of what would have been the biggest slave revolt in US history.  Denmark Vesey was executed at Charleston, SC.  He had been born around 1767, probably in the West Indies, where he was sold at around age 14 to Joseph Vesey, captain of a slave ship.  He purchased his freedom in 1800.  In 1818 Vesey and others began to plot an uprising, he held secret meetings, collected disguises and firearms and chose a date in June, 1822. But authorities were warned, and police and the military were out in full force.  Over the next two months, 130 blacks were taken into custody, 35, including Vesey, were hanged and 31 were exiled.  As a result of the plot, Southern legislatures passed more rigorous slave codes.http://www.theatlantic.com/issues/1861jun/higgin.htm
    1833 - An unusually large New England tornado, one half to three quarters of a mile wide, went from Salem Pond to Norton Pond, VT, and then into Canada. It "prostrated" nearly everything in its path.
    1843 - An alligator reportedly fell from the sky onto Anson Street in Charleston, SC, during a thunderstorm.
    1863-The second day of the battle of Gettysburg. Both armies faced each other in a parallel line one mile apart. General Longstreet basically holds back, disagreeing with General Lee orders, as Longstreet waits.  Lee sends in his best, his right hand fighting force, the price of the South,  J.E.B.Stuart. The delay by Longstreet changes the course of the battle.  The time gives the Federal troops time to organize and position themselves. In his book, Longstreet says these reports are incorrect, especially about specific orders to attack. This battle was never planned, but was stumbled into as General Lee was on his way for a surprise attack on Washington, D.C. Several generals died this day in battle, and Longstreet has his version of what happened.
http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/today/jul02.html
http://www.nps.gov/gett/getttour/day2.htm
http://johnsmilitaryhistory.tripod.com/gett2.html
http://www.pekin.net/pekin108/edison/projects/jon.htm
http://home.sprynet.com/~carlreed/HuntDay2.html
http://www.civilwarhome.com/longstreetgettysburg2.htm
http://www.geocities.com/Pentagon/Quarters/2471/Gettypictures.html
    1864-Congress established the National Statuary Hall, formerly the Hall of the United Sates House of Representatives in the Capital at Washington, DC.  Each state was invited to contribute marble or bronze statues of its most distinguished citizens. http://www.virtualology.com/hallofusa/nationalstatuaryhall/
http://dmla.clan.lib.nv.us/docs/dmla/press/2002/03-11.htm
    1881 - Only four months into his administration, President James A. Garfield is shot as he walks through a railroad waiting room in Washington, D.C. On September 19, 1881, after 80 days, President Garfield died of blood poisoning. Vice President Chester A. Arthur serving as acting president was sworn in as president.
    1890—The Sherman Act was enacted by Congress.  Also known as the Antitrust law, it was “ an act to protect trade and commerce against unlawful restraints and monopolies. “ It provided that “every contract combination in the form of trust or otherwise, or conspiracy, in restraint of trade or commerce among the several states, or with foreign nations, is hereby declared to be illegal.”
http://www.usdoj.gov/atr/foia/divisionmanual/ch2.htm
http://www.infoplease.com/ce6/history/A0844878.html
The census recorded a population of 62,947,714.  The center of population was placed at 20 miles east of Columbus, Indiana.  The melting pot character of New York City was reflected in statistics revealing that there were half as many Italian New Yorkers as Neapolitans in Italy, as many German New Yorkers as Germans in Hamburg, twice as many Irish New Yorkers as Dubliners, and two and half-half times as many Jews as were living in Warsaw. It would not be until shortly after the turn of the century that immigration laws would slow down the mix.
    1881- President James A. Garfield was shot as he entered the railway station at Washington. DC. He died Sept 19, 1881, never having recovered from the wound. The assassin, Charles J. Guiteau, was hanged June 30, 1882. (bottom half of: http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/today/jul02.html )
    1904-Jean Rene Lacoste, tennis player and clothier born at Paris, France. Lacoste, known as the Crocodile, was one quarter of the great French tennis players in the 1920's known as the Four Musketeers.  He won Wimbledon and the US championship twice each, the French Open three times and was ranked No. 1 in the world in 1926-27.  He designed the first shirt specifically for tennis, a loose-fitting cotton polo shirt that soon became the standard. He adorned the Lacoste shirt with a small crocodile, the first apparel logo. Died at St. Jean-de-Luz, France, October 12, 1996http://www.tennisfame.org/enshrinees/jean_lacoste.html
    1905-birthday of bandleader, saxophonist Harland Leonard, Kansas City, MO http://www.umkc.edu/orgs/kcjazz/jazzfolk/leonh_00.htm
http://www.umkc.edu/orgs/kcjazz/jazzfolk/leonh_02.htm http://www.jass.com/tom/next/lists/harlan.html
    1908-birthday of Thurgood Marshall, the first African-American on the U.S. Supreme Court, born at Baltimore, MD.  For more than 20 years, he served a director-counsel of the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund.  He experienced his greatest legal victory May 17,1954, when the Supreme Court decision on Brown v Board of Education declared an end to the “separate but equal” system of racial segregation in public schools in 21 states.  Marshall argued 32 cases before the Supreme Court winning 29 of them, before becoming a member of the high court himself.  Nominated by President Lyndon Johnson, he began his 24-year career on the high court. Oct 2, 1967, becoming a voice of dissent in an increasingly conservative court. Marshall announced his retirement June 27, 1991, and he died January 24, 1993, a t Washington,DC.
http://www.ai.mit.edu/~isbell/HFh/black/events_and_
people/html/001.thurgood_marshall.html
    1917-W.E. B. Dubois, Marcus Garvey, and James Weldon Johnson of the NAACP, led a silent march down Fifth Avenue at New York, following the previous day Saint Louis race riots ( reported in yesterday's A Day in American History )  Between 20 and 75 blacks were killed, and hundreds more were injured.
    1921-Jack Dempsey successfully defended his heavyweight championship against French contender George Carpentier. The challenger staggered Dempsey in the second round, but the “Manassa Mauler” recovered and knocked out Carpentier in the fifth round.  The fight grossed $1,789,238, boxing's first million-dollar gate, as 80,000 fans took their seats in a specially-built outdoor arena in Jersey City, NJ.     1930-PianistAhmad Jamal (Fritz Jones ) birthday http://www.portsmouthnh.com/jazznight/ahmadjamal.html
http://www.jazzine.com/artists/ahmad_jamal.phtml
    1939-birthday of singer Paul Williams, Birmingham, AL
http://members.aol.com/maaalumni/index.html
http://www.angelfire.com/stars/classictemptations/index.html
    1941—Gene Krupa Band with Roy Eldridge record “ Rockin' Chair.” (Hoagy Charmichael first wrote and sang this, and Jack Teagarden later had a hit in the late 1920's. It later became his signature song.)
    1943-First Lieutenant Charles Hall of Brazil, In, became the first Army pilot who was African-American to shoot down an Axis airplane in World War II when she shot down a German FockeWulf 190 over Sicily.  He was flying a Warhawk as part of a fighter squadron escorting bombers. The squadron commander was Lieutenant Colonel Benjamin Oliver Davis, Jr., who later became the first Africa-American general of the Air Force.
http://www.nasm.si.edu/features/blackwings/hdetail/detail_story.cfm?id=44
http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=6947
http://www.redstone.army.mil/history/integrate/chron3b.htm   
    1944- impresario Norman Granz presented the first Jazz at the Philharmonic concert at the Philharmonic Auditorium in Los Angeles. The series, which later toured the US and Canada, presented the best mainstream jazz artists, both in individual sets, and in an all-star jam session. The success of Jazz at the Philharmonic proved, as Granz said, that there was "money to be made in good jazz." Granz later formed Verve, one of the leading jazz labels of the 1950's and '60s.
    1945 - The submarine USS Barb fires rockets on Kaihyo Island, off the east coast of Karafuto (Sakhalin) Island. It is the first American underwater craft to fire rockets in shore bombardment. Meanwhile, Japanese sources report that only 200,000 people remain in Tokyo. All others have been evacuated to safer areas. The Japanese claim that some 5 million civilians have been killed or wounded by American fire-bombs.
    1947 - 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. 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.
    1947 - An object crashed near Roswell, N.M. The Army Air Force later insisted it was a weather balloon, but eyewitness accounts gave rise to speculation it might have been an alien spacecraft.
    1951--Top Hits
Too Young - Nat King Cole

mister and Mississippi - Patti Page
On Top of Old Smokey - The Weavers (vocal: Terry Gilkyson)
I Want to Be with You Always - Lefty Frizzell
    1955- "The Lawrence Welk Show" premiered on television, lasting for nearly three decades. By high school best friend Warren Luening played trumpet in the show, who is today a well-known professional studio, move, and television musician. He is mentioned often in movie titles and CD ROMs for his solo's and performance
http://207.168.179.75/jazzography/gallery/Warren_Luening.html
http://www.trumpetguild.org/news/99aa.htm
http://www.flyingpisanos.com/Photos.htm
http://www.musicweb-uk.com/pisanos.html
http://www.artistdirect.com/music/artist/appears/0,,460884,00.html
http://music.barnesandnoble.com/search/product.asp?ean=13431486824
http://music.barnesandnoble.com/search/product.asp?ean=13431463320
http://music.barnesandnoble.com/search/product.asp?ean=11105954020
http://www.artistdirect.com/store/artist/album/0,,1080878,00.html
http://www.zvuki.ru/A/P/23263
http://www.planetjoy.co.jp/kazumatsui/soundtrack16b.html
http://www.artistdirect.com/store/artist/album/0,,192577,00.html http://www.rhino.com/features/tracks/78254trx.html http://www.cdnow.com/pagename=/RP/CDN/FIND/album.html
/itemid=1356803/f rom=sr163463-2
http://www.stp.uh.edu/vol64/146/shobiz/shobiz-index.html
http://www.artistdirect.com/store/artist/album/0,,203866,00.html
    1956 - Elvis Presley recorded "Hound Dog" and "Don't Be Cruel" and “Anyway You Want Me “ for his new record label home, RCA Victor in New York. It's the first session to feature the Jordainaries, a vocal harmony quartet.
    1957-"The Andy Williams Show" premiered   Mike Post was hired as musical director "in order to appeal to a younger audience; he introduced the practice of prerecording band arrangements rather than recording them during the taping of the show." In 1976, Williams hosted "Andy," a syndicated show.    
    1959--Top Hits
Personality - Lloyd Price
Lonely Boy - Paul Anka
Lipstick on Your Collar - Connie Francis
The Battle of New Orleans - Johnny Horton
    1961—Roger Maris hits 29^th and 30^th home run en route to 61 homers.
    1962-Jimi Hendrix was honorably discharged from the 101st Airborne Paratroopers, after breaking his ankle during his 26th and final parachute jump.
    1963 In one of baseball's most memorable pitching duels, Giants' Juan Marichal and Braves' Warren Spahn both hurl 15 scoreless innings before Willie Mays ends the marathon with a homer off Spahnie in the bottom of the 16th giving San Francisco a 1- 0 win.
    1964- President Lyndon Johnson signed the Voting Rights Acts into law, prohibiting discrimination on the basis of race in public accommodations, in publicly owned or operated facilities, in employment and union membership, and in the registration of voters.  The bill included Title VI, which allowed for the cutoff of federal funding in areas where the discrimination persisted.  
    1966- Temperature at Philadelphia, PA soared to 104
    1966-Frank Sinatra's version of "Strangers in the Night" displaced The Beatles' "Paperback Writer" at the top of the Billboard Hot 100. It was also a UK #1. Sinatra's recording would win him a Grammy Award for Best Male Pop Vocal Performance and Record of the Year, despite the fact that Frank often said he didn't really like the song.
    1967--Top Hits
Windy - The Association
Little Bit o' Soul - The Music Explosion
San Francisco (Be Sure to Wear Flowers in Your Hair) - Scott McKenzie
All the Time - Jack Greene   
    1969- Reds pitcher Jerry Arrigo ties a major league mark when he hits his third Brave in the second inning of 9-4 victory. Braves tie the record hitting five batters in one game.
    1975--Top Hits
Love Will Keep Us Together - The Captain & Tennille
When Will I Be Loved - Linda Ronstadt
Wildfire - Michael Murphey
Tryin' to Beat the Morning Home - T.G. Sheppard
    1976- Brian Wilson, rehabilitated from drug and other problems, joined the Beach Boys on stage in Oakland, California for the first time in 12 years. He performed with the group again the following night, and the event was recorded for an NBC television special.
    1983--Top Hits
Flashdance...What a Feeling - Irene Cara
Electric Avenue - Eddy Grant
Every Breath You Take - The Police
Love is on a Roll - Don Williams
    1985- Astro hurler Joe Niekro notches his 200th career victory. The Niekro brothers (Joe & Phil) will join the Gaylords (Jim & Gaylord) as the only brothers to win at least 200 games per pitcher.
    1988 - Twenty-six cities in the eastern U.S. reported record low temperatures for the date. The morning low of 47 degrees at Roanoke, VA, broke the July record set the previous day.
    1988- Michael Jackson became the first artist to have five number one singles from one album when "Dirty Diana" went to the top of the Billboard Hot 100. The other four chart-toppers from "Bad" were "I Just Can't Stop Loving You," "Bad," "The Way You Make Me Feel" and "Man in the Mirror."  
    1989--Thunderstorms produced 158 reports of large hail or damaging winds. Evening storms in northeast Texas produced softball size hail which causes more than $5 million damage at Allen and wind gusts to 90 mph at Dallas which injured 8 persons and caused $7 million damage.
     1991--Top Hits
Rush, Rush - Paula Abdul
Unbelievable - EMF
Power of Love/Love Power - Luther Vandross
The Thunder Rolls - Garth Brooks
    1992- A cold July day as Saranac Lake, NY drops to 30, East Haven, VT to 29, West Charleston ,VT 30
    1994-Andrews Escobar, 27 a defender on Colombia's 1994 World Cup soccer team, was shot 12 times and killed by an unknown assailant in Medellin, Colombia.  The shooting occurred ten days after Escobar had scored an “own goal,” kicking the ball into his own net in a 2-1 opening round upset loss to the United States. Witnesses aid the shooter shouted, “ Goal! Goal!” as he fired each shot.
    1994 -Heavy rains from the remains of Tropical Storm Alberto produces major flooding across northern and central Georgia. Three day rains exceeded 15 inches at Atlanta., GA, 21.10 inches at Americus, GA. Numerous road closures and bridge washouts. 30 people were killed and 50,000 were forced from their homes as 800,000 acres were flooded. Total damage exceeded $750 million
    1997 - "Men in Black" opened in the U.S. It's a fun-filled sci-fi tale about a secret organization that's been keeping track of extra-terrestrial aliens on Earth for over 40 years. This organization so secret that when you retire, your memory of it is erased! Agents Kay (Tommy Lee Jones) and Jay (Will Smith) expose a plot by intergalactic terrorist Edgar (Vincent D'Onofrio) who has beamed (or whatever) to Earth to assassinate two ambassadors from opposing galaxies. Complex, but hilarious, but action packed. Audiences beamed (or whatever) to theatres the first weekend, spending $51.07 million on the movie.
    2002 -Fifty-three major league players hit a record 62 home runs breaking the mark of 57 established on April 7, 2000. The barrage includes record-tying dozen hit at Chicago's Comiskey Park by the White Sox and the Tigers, the same two teams which set the major league record for homers in a game with 12 at Tiger Stadium in 1995.