Today in History

• 1753 Jean-Pierre-Francois Blanchard, 1st balloon flights.
• 1804 Nathaniel Hawthorne, American author (The Scarlet Letter)
• 1807 Giuseppe Garibaldi, unifier of Italy.
• 1826 Stephen Foster, American composer, "Oh, Susanna"
• 1867 Stephen Mather, organizer of the US National Park Service.
• 1872 Calvin Coolidge, 30th President (1923-1929)
• 1878 George M. Cohan, American songwriter, playwright, producer.
• 1883 Rube Goldberg, made the easy outrageously difficult.
• 1900 Louis Armstrong, "Satchmo"
• 1902 George Murphy
• 1910 Gloria Stuart
• 1911 Mitch Miller
• 1918 Abigail Van Buren
• 1918 Ann Landers
• 1924 Eva Marie Saint
• 1927 Gina Lollobrigida
• 1927 Neil Simon
• 1930 George Steinbrenner
• 1943 Geraldo Rivera

• United States Independence Day
• 1054 Brightest known supernova starts shining, for 23 days.
• 1057 Crab Nebula supernova recorded by Chinese & Japanese astronomers.
• 1776 Future U.S. issues the Declaration of Independence from Britain
• 1802 US Military Academy officially opens at West Point, NY
• 1828 first US passenger railroad started, The Baltimore & Ohio
• 1845 Thoreau moves into his shack on Walden Pond.
• 1862 Lewis Carroll begins inventing "Alice in Wonderland" for his friend Alice Pleasance Liddell during a boating trip.
• 1876 1st public exhibition of electric light in San Francisco.
• 1882 Telegraph Hill Observatory opens.
• 1884 Statue of Liberty is presented to the United States, in Paris.
• 1894 Republic of Hawaii established.
• 1894 Elwood Haynes successfully tests one of the first US autos
• 1903 Pacific Cable (San Francisco, Hawaii, Guam, Phillipines) opens. President Roosevelt sends a message to the Phillipines, then a message around the world in 12 minutes.
• 1933 Work begins on the Oakland Bay Bridge.
• 1946 Philippines gains independence from US
• 1965 Mariner 4 flies past Mars, sends first close-up photos.
• 1967 Freedom of Information Act goes into effect
• 1976 Raid on Entebbe - Israel rescues 229 Air France passengers