July 3

Events324 - Battle of Adrianople Constantine I defeats Licinius, who flees to Byzantium.987 - Hugh Capet was crowned King of France, the first of the Capetian dynasty which ruled France till the French Revolution in 1792.1250 - 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.1608 - Quebec City founded by Samuel de Champlain.1754 - French and Indian War: George Washington surrenders Fort Necessity to French forces. 1767 - Pitcairn Island is discovered by Midshipman Robert Pitcairn on an expeditionary voyage commanded by Philip Carteret. 1767 - Norway's oldest newspaper still in print, Adresseavisen, is founded (first edition published this date).1775 - American Revolutionary War: George Washington takes command of the Continental Army at Cambridge, Massachusetts.1778 - American Revolutionary War: British forces massacre 360 men, women & children in the Wyoming Valley massacre. 1778 - Prussia declares war on Austria.1819 - The first savings bank in the United States (The Bank of Savings in New York City) opens.1839 - The first state normal school in the United States, the forerunner to today's Framingham State College, opens in Lexington, Massachusetts with 3 students.1844 - The last pair of Great Auks is killed.1848 - Slaves are freed in the Danish West Indies (now U.S. Virgin Islands) by Peter von Scholten.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 establishes the United States's 2nd mint in San Francisco, California.1863 - U.S. Civil War: The final day of the Battle of Gettysburg culminates with Pickett's Charge.1866 - Austro-Prussian War is decided at the Battle of Königgratz, resulting in Prussia taking over as the prominent German nation from Austria.1884 - Dow Jones published its 1st stock average.1886 - The New York Tribune becomes the first newspaper to use a linotype machine, eliminating typesetting by hand.1890 - Idaho is admitted as the 43rd U.S. state.1898 - Spanish fleet, led by Pascual Cervera y Topete, destroyed by the U.S. Navy in Santiago, Cuba during the Spanish-American War.1928 - First color television broadcast in London.1938 - World speed record for a steam railway locomotive is set in England, by the Mallard, which reaches a speed of 126 mph.(203 km/h)1944 - World War II: Minsk was liberated from Nazi control by Soviet troops during Operation Bagration. 1952 - Puerto Rico's Constitution is approved by the Congress of the United States.1962 - The Algerian War of Independence against the French ends. 1970 - A British Dan-Air De Havilland Comet chartered jetliner crashes into mountains north of Barcelona, Spain killing 113 people.1976 - Israeli commandos rescue 105 hostages at Entebbe Airport, Uganda during Operation Yonatan.1977 - The Senegalese Republican Movement (MRS) is founded.1979 - US President Jimmy Carter signs the first directive for secret aid to the opponents of the pro-Soviet regime in Kabul. 1986 - US President Ronald Reagan presides over the relighting of the renovated Statue of Liberty.1988 - United States Navy warship USS Vincennes shoots down Iran Air Flight 655 over the Persian Gulf, killing all 290 people aboard.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 - Fitzgerald Inquiry released in Queensland.1994 - The deadliest day in Texas traffic history, according to the Texas Department of Public Safety. Forty six people were killed in crashes.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.2007 - Ghana introduces new Ghanaian cedi currency.
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