July 1, 1863 - The Battle
of Gettysburg began. It was a major and pivotal battle of the
Civil War. It was at the site of the battle that President Abraham Lincoln
gave his famous "Gettysburg Address”.
July 1, 1916 - The Coca Cola Company
introduced its iconic rounded bottle.
July 1, 1948 - Idlewild
Airport, now JFK Airport, opened.
July 1, 1963 - The ZIP code
was introduced. It stands for Zone Improvement Plan Code.
July 2, 1964 - President
Lyndon B. Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act into law.
July 3, 1962 - Jackie
Robinson was named to the Baseball Hall of Fame. Robinson broke the color
barrier in baseball.
July 4, 1776 - The
Continental Congress, meeting in what came to be called Independence
Hall, adopted the Declaration of Independence.
July 4, 1826 - On the 50th
anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, former Presidents John
Adams and Thomas Jefferson died. They had both contributed to the
writing of the Declaration.
July 4, 1900 - Jazz legend Louis
Armstrong, nicked-name "Satchmo," was born.
July 4, 1903 - The first
TransPacific cable was completed. It reached from San Francisco to
Manila. President Theodore Roosevelt sent the first message.
July 6, 1775 - Congress issued
the "Declaration of the Causes and Necessity of Taking up Arms"
against the British.
July 6, 1854 - The newly
formed Republican Party gathered in opposition to slavery. The first
candidate for President was John Charles Fremont. He lost to
James Buchanan. Fremont and his wife, Jessie, were outspoken against
slavery. The second nominee, Abraham Lincoln, won in 1860 and
again four years later.
July 6, 1957 - Althea
Gibson won the women's singles at Wimbledon, the first African-American to
do so.
July 6, 1976 - The United
States Naval Academy admitted women for the first
time. Eighty-one women were inducted.
July 8, 1776 - The first
public reading of the Declaration of Independence was given at the State
House in Philadelphia. The Liberty Bell was rung for the first time.
July 9, 1776 - The
Declaration of Independence was read aloud in Manhattan on
Bowling Green. Afterwards, some of the colonists tore down the statue of King
George III. Parts of it were sent to a foundry in Connecticut to be made into
bullets.
July 9, 1778 - Congress
approved the Articles of Confederation, five years before the Peace
Treaty with England.
July 10, 1870 - Mary McLeod
Bethune was born. A child of enslaved parents, she became an educator and
civil rights activist. She founded a school for African-Americans, now called
the Bethune-Cookman University. It is in South Carolina.
July 11, 1804 - Vice President
Aaron Burr mortally wounded former Secretary of the Treasury Alexander
Hamilton in a duel, with pistols, in Weehawken, NJ as dueling was illegal
in New York. They had battled politically for years. Hamilton died the
next day.
His widow, Elizabeth,
was one of the founders of the Orphan Asylum Society now named Graham
Windham. The OAS was founded in 1806. She served the OAS for
almost 50 years. She lived to be 97 and was a remarkable woman.
July 11, 1905 - The Niagara
Movement, the forerunner to the NAACP, was organized.
July 13, 1960 - Then Senator
John F. Kennedy was nominated for President by the Democratic Party. He was
elected the following November.
July 13, 1965 - Thurgood
Marshall, the future Supreme Court Justice, became the first
African-American appointed to be Solicitor General of the United
States
July 15, 1775 - Olive
Branch Petition was sent to King George III to end the armed tension in the
American Colonies.
July 18, 1921 - Future
astronaut and Senator, John Glenn, was born.
July 19, 1848 - A Women's
Rights Convention was held in Seneca Falls, New York. Women did not get the
right to vote until 1920. This was the beginning of the Women's Rights
movement. The Anti-slavery movement was assisted by
the Convention.
July 20, 1969 - At 9:56pm
(earth time!) astronaut Neil Armstrong became the first person to
step on the moon's surface, having traveled there on Apollo 11.
July 21, 1775 - New York
patriots observed a day of "Fasting & Devotion".
July 24, 1897 - Aviator Amelia
Earhart was born. She set numerous aviation records. She disappeared in a
flight over the Pacific Ocean in 1937. Some believe she was on a spying mission
for the government. Others believe she survived and lived on an island in the
Pacific Ocean and died a few years later.
July 26, 1788 - New York
State ratified the United States Constitution.
July 26, 1948 - President Harry
S. Truman signed an Executive Order stating that there should be "equality
of treatment and opportunity without regard to race, color, religion or
national origin" in the United States Armed Forces.
July 28, 1868 - The 14th
Amendment to the United States Constitution went into effect. It
granted African-Americans full citizenship rights.
July 30, 1941 - President Franklin D.
Roosevelt signed the law which established the WAVES: Women
Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Service during World War II.
July 31, 1777 - The Marquis de
Lafayette was appointed a Major General in the Continental Army. He served
under George Washington and alongside Alexander Hamilton, the future Secretary
of the Treasury. When he was later imprisoned during the French Revolution, his
son came here and lived with the Hamilton family. Hamilton translated as he
spoke French, although not very well according to other French soldiers!
July 31, 1921 - Former Urban
League President, Whitney Young, Jr. was born.