Today in History

July 04, 2009 12:02 am

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Today is Saturday, July 4, the 185th day of 2009. There are 180 days left in the year. This is Independence Day.

Today's Highlight in History:

On July 4, 1776, the Continental Congress adopted the Declaration of Independence.

On this date:

In 1802, the U.S. Military Academy officially opened at West Point, N.Y.

In 1826, 50 years to the day after the Declaration of Independence was adopted, former presidents John Adams and Thomas Jefferson both died.

In 1831, the fifth president of the United States, James Monroe, died in New York City.

In 1872, the 30th president of the United States, Calvin Coolidge, was born in Plymouth, Vt.

In 1919, Jack Dempsey won the world heavyweight boxing title by defeating Jess Willard in Toledo, Ohio.

In 1939, baseball's "Iron Horse," Lou Gehrig, said farewell to his fans at New York's Yankee Stadium.

In 1959, America's 49-star flag, honoring Alaskan statehood, was officially unfurled.

In 1960, America's 50-star flag, honoring Hawaiian statehood, was officially unfurled.

In 1966, President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the Freedom of Information Act, which went into effect the following year.

In 1976, Israeli commandos raided Entebbe airport in Uganda, rescuing almost all of the passengers and crew of an Air France jetliner seized by pro-Palestinian hijackers.

Ten years ago: White supremacist Benjamin Nathaniel Smith shot himself to death as police closed in on him in southern Illinois, hours after he'd apparently shot and killed a Korean man outside a church in Bloomington, Ind.

Five years ago: A 20-ton slab of granite, inscribed to honor "the enduring spirit of freedom," was laid at the World Trade Center site as the cornerstone of the Freedom Tower skyscraper that will replace the destroyed twin towers. Defending the war in Iraq, President George W. Bush told a cheering crowd outside the West Virginia state capitol that America was safer because Saddam Hussein was in a prison cell.

One year ago: Former Sen. Jesse Helms, an unyielding champion of the conservative movement who'd spent three combative and sometimes caustic decades in Congress, died in Raleigh, N.C., at age 86.

Thought for Today: "If the American Revolution had produced nothing but the Declaration of Independence, it would have been worthwhile." — Samuel Eliot Morison, American historian (1887-1976).