July 3

• July 3, 987
  Hugh Capet, Duke of the Franks, elected King of Franks in Senlis, succeeds to the French Throne founding Capetian royal line in France
• July 3, 1608
  City of Quebec is founded by French explorer Samuel de Champlain as a trading post in New France, present-day Canada
• July 3, 1754
  George Washington surrenders the small, circular Fort Necessity in southwestern Pennsylvania to the French, which marks the start of the French and Indian War between the French and their allies and the English and their allies in North America
• July 3, 1778
  The Wyoming Massacre occurs during the American Revolution in the Wyoming Valley of Pennsylvania as part of a British campaign against settlers in the frontier during the war, when 360 American settlers, including women and children, are killed
• July 3, 1790
  In Paris, the Marquis de Condorcet proposes granting civil rights to women
• July 3, 1844
  Ambassador Caleb Cushing successfully negotiates a commercial treaty with China that opens five Chinese ports to U.S. merchants and protects the rights of American citizens in China, the first treaty between China and the United States
• July 3, 1863
  On the third day of the Battle of Gettysburg, Confederate General George Pickett leads a 15,000-man column a mile toward USA positions at Cemetery Ridge, after an hour-long cannon bombardment, however USA artillery and infantry survive, and devastate the attacking force
• July 3, 1886
  Karl Benz, a German engineer, officially unveils the Benz Patent Motorwagen, the first purpose-built automobile propelled by an internal combustion engine
• July 3, 1918
  Mehmed VI becomes last Sultan of the Ottoman Empire
• July 3, 1944
  Soviet forces liberate Minsk from Germans and destroy much of the encircled forces of German Army Group Centre during Operation Bagration
• July 3, 1962
  Algerian War ends with the independence of Algeria after 132 years of French rule
• July 3, 1988
  290 civilians are killed after the USS Vincennes shoots down Iranian Airbus Flight #655
• July 3, 2013
  President of Egypt Mohamed Morsi is deposed by the military in a coup d'état amid mass protests, leading to widespread violence