This Day in History - July 3rd

Featured Historical Event for July 3rd The first savings bank in the United States The first savings bank in the U.S., called the Bank for Savings, opened on this day in 1819 in New York City. The earliest banks date back to ancient times when, as early as 2000 B.C., temples made loans from their treasuries.

Historical Events That Occurred on July 3rd

	First Sunday game at Fenway Park (1932)
	The first savings bank in the United States (1819)
	US President Ronald Reagan presides over the relighting of the renovated Statue of Liberty. (1986)
	First Strawberries (1806)
	American Revolutionary War: George Washington takes command of the Continental Army at Cambridge, Massachusetts. (1775)
	The last pair of Great Auks is killed. (1844)
	The New York Tribune becomes the first newspaper to use a linotype machine, eliminating typesetting by hand. (1886)
	A Vladivostokavia Tupolev TU-154 jetliner crashes on approach to landing at Irkutsk, Russia killing 145 people. (2001)
	Dow Jones published its 1st stock average. (1884)
	Idaho is admitted as the 43rd U.S. state. (1890)
	Spanish fleet, led by Pascual Cervera y Topete, destroyed by the U.S. Army in Santiago, Cuba during the Spanish-American War. (1898)
	U.S. Civil War: The final and bloodiest day of the Battle of Gettysburg. (1863)
	The first state normal school in the United States opens in Lexington, Massachusetts with 3 students. (1839)
	Congress establishes the United States's 2nd mint in San Francisco, California. (1852)
	US President Jimmy Carter signs the first directive for secret aid to the opponents of the pro-Soviet regime in Kabul. (1979)
	Austro-Prussian War is decided at the Battle of Königgratz, resulting in Prussia taking over as the prominent German nation from Austria. (1866)
	United States Navy warship USS Vincennes shoots down Iran Air Flight 655 over the Persian Gulf, killing all 290 people aboard. (1988)
	Battle of Ad Decimum: Byzantine general Belisarius defeats the Vandals near Carthage. (533)
	Pitcairn Island is discovered by Midshipman Robert Pitcairn on an expeditionary voyage commanded by Philip Carteret. (1767)
	The Senegalese Republican Movement (1977)
	Battle of Adrianople Constantine I defeats Licinius, who flees to Byzantium (324)
	Hugh Capet was crowned King of France, the first of the Capetian dynasty which ruled France till the French Revolution in 1792. (987)
	Official opening of Bangkok's subway system. (2004)
	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. (1250)
	Quebec City founded by Samuel de Champlain. (1608)
	67 Norway's oldest newspaper still in print, Adresseavisen, is founded (1767)
	Israeli commandos rescue 105 hostages at Entebbe Airport, Uganda during Operation Yonatan. (1976)
	Slaves are freed in the Danish West Indies (1848)
	Harlan Fiske Stone is sworn in as the 12th Chief Justice of the United States. (1941)
	French and Indian War: George Washington surrenders Fort Necessity to French forces. (1754)
	First color television broadcast in London. (1928)
	President Lyndon B. Johnson signs the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which prohibits segregation in public places. (1964)
	The Algerian War of Independence against the French ends. (1962)
	Puerto Rico's Constitution is approved by the Congress of the United States. (1952)
	Prussia declares war on Austria. (1778)
	A British Dan-Air De Havilland Comet chartered jetliner crashes into mountains north of Barcelona, Spain killing 112 people. (1970)
	The national law legalizing same-sex marriage takes effect in Spain. (2005)
	American Revolutionary War: British forces massacre 360 men, women & children in the Wyoming Valley massacre. (1778)
	World record for a steam railway locomotive is set in England, by the Mallard, which reaches a speed of 203 km/h (1938)

Holidays on July 3rd

	Start of the Dog Days
	Feast day of Saint Thomas

Notable People Born on July 3rd

	Kevin Hearn, Canadian keyboardist (1969)
	John Clare, British poet (1793)
	Johnny Terris, Canadian-born actor and director (1973)
	Betty Buckley, American actress (1947)
	M. F. K. Fisher, American writer (1908)
	Giorgio Vasari, Italian painter and architect (1511)
	Ken Russell, British director (1927)
	Leszek Miller, Prime Minister of Poland (1946)
	Sanma Akashiya, Japanese television performer and actor (1955)
	Tom Cruise, American actor (1962)
	Alan Autry, American football player, actor, and politician (1952)
	George Sanders, Russian-born actor (1906)
	James Hahn, American politician (1950)
	Laura Branigan, American singer (1957)
	Pedro Romeiras, Portuguese dancer (1961)
	Alfred Korzybski, Polish linguist (1879)
	César Tovar, Venezuelan Major League Baseball player (1940)
	Dorothy Kilgallen, American columnist and television personality (1913)
	Tim Smith, English singer (1960)
	Carlos Kleiber, Austrian conductor (1930)
	Dave Barry, American writer (1947)
	Samuel Huntington, Continental Congress president and signer of the U.S. Declaration of Independence (1731)
	Vince Clarke, British songwriter (1960)
	Emperor Go-Tsuchimikado of Japan (1442)
	Robert Adam, Scottish architect (1728)
	Edward Young, English poet (1683)
	Teemu Selänne, Finnish hockey player (1970)
	Franz Kafka, Czech writer (1883)
	Moises Alou, baseball player (1966)
	Sir Robert Rich, 4th Baronet, British cavalry officer (1685)
	Claude Fauchet, French historian (1530)
	John Singleton Copley, American painter (1738)
	Johnnie Wilder, Jr., American singer (1949)
	Leos Janacek, Czech composer (1854)
	Michel Polnareff, French pop songwriter and singer (1944)
	Roland Mark Schoeman, South African swimmer (1980)
	Richard Bedford Bennett, eleventh Prime Minister of Canada (1870)
	Ferdinand Sauerbruch, German surgeon (1875)
	Susan Peters, American actress (1921)
	Julie Burchill, British journalist and author (1959)
	Joanne Harris, British author (1964)
	Andrea Barber, American actress (1976)
	Leopold I, Prince of Anhalt-Dessau, Prussian field marshal (1676)
	Tom Stoppard, Czech-born playwright (1937)
	Shawnee Smith, American actress (1970)
	Jan Smithers, American actress (1949)
	Mississippi John Hurt, American musician (1893)
	Richard Hadlee, New Zealand cricketer (1951)
	King Louis XI of France (1423)
	Samuel de Champlain, French explorer (1567)
	László Kovács, Hungarian politician and diplomat (1939)
	Harrison Schmitt, astronaut (1935)
	Yeardley Smith, American actress (1964)

Notable People That Died on July 3rd

	William Jones, Welsh mathematician (1749)
	Antonio de Ulloa, Spanish general and governor of Louisiana (1795)
	Louis-Georges de Bréquigny, French historian (1795)
	Maria de' Medici, wife of Henry IV of France (1642)
	Aonio Paleario, Italian humanist (1570)
	Francis Willughby, English biologist (1672)
	Jim Morrison, American singer (1971)
	Sultan Mehmed V of the Ottoman Empire (1918)
	Kemal Sunal, Turkish actor (2000)
	Andrian Nikolayev, cosmonaut (2004)
	Hipólito Yrigoyen, President of Argentina (1933)
	Danielle Bunten Berry, American software developer (1998)
	Jean-Baptiste L. Romé de l'Isle, French chemist (1790)
	Louis Franchet d'Espèrey, French general (1942)
	Brian Jones, English musician (1969)
	Gaetano Alibrandi, papal diplomat (2003)
	Gaylord Nelson, U.S. Senator from Wisconsin (2005)
	Theodor Herzl, Austrian Zionist (1904)
	Mordecai Richler, Canadian author (2001)
	Sophia Alekseyevna, regent of Russia (1704)
	Pancho Gonzales, American tennis player (1995)
	André Citroën, French automobile pioneer (1935)
	George Hull Ward, American general (1863)
	Louis Durey, French composer (1979)
	Mark Sandman, American musician (1999)
	Alexander M. Volkov, Russian novelist and mathematician (1977)
	Jim Backus, American actor (1989)
	Alberto Lattuada, Italian film director (2005)
	Rudy Vallee, American singer (1986)
	St. Leo II, pope (683)
	Joseph Chamberlain, British politician (1914)
	Lew Hoad, Australian tennis player (1994)
	Joe DeRita, American actor and comedian (1993)