July 4

• July 4, 1054
  The Chinese and Arabian observers document a bright supernova, the remnants of which form the Crab Nebula
• July 4, 1187
  Army of Saladin defeat Crusader forces and kill the majority of the Crusaders in the Battle of Hattin, becoming the eminent military power in the Holy Land
• July 4, 1415
  Angelo Correr becomes Pope Gregory XII
• July 4, 1610
  The Polish Lithuanian Commonwealth army under Polish nobleman Stanisław Żółkiewski defeats combined Russian-Swedish forces at the Battle of Klushino near Smolensk and conquers Tsardom of Russia
• July 4, 1653
  Barebone's Parliament, an assembly entirely nominated by Oliver Cromwell, goes into session in England
• July 4, 1776
  In Philadelphia the Continental Congress, convention of thirteen British colonies, adopts the Declaration of Independence, proclaiming the independence of the United States of America from Great Britain and its king
• July 4, 1779
  A French fleet occupies Grenada
• July 4, 1817
  Construction on Erie Canal, connecting Lake Erie with the Hudson, begins with ground-breaking in Utica, New York, USA
• July 4, 1828
  Ground-breaking ceremony for construction of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, the first US railway, is held
• July 4, 1845
  American writer Henry David Thoreau begins his 26 month experiment in simple living in natural surroundings at Walden Pond, near Concord, Massachusetts
• July 4, 1848
  The Cornerstone of the Washington Monument in Washington, D.C. is laid by President Polk
• July 4, 1852
  Frederick Douglass, an African-American social reformer, delivers his speech "The Meaning of July Fourth for the Negro" for the Independence Day celebration in Rochester, New York
• July 4, 1855
  American poet and journalist Walt Whitman publishes his book "Leaves of Grass"
• July 4, 1868
  In Japan the last Tokugawa armies are defeated by Imperial "Kangun" troops at the Battle at Ueno
• July 4, 1881
  Tuskegee University in Alabama, founded by former slave Booker T. Washington as a major center for African-American higher education, enrolls 30 students
• July 4, 1883
  One of the first Wild West shows is performed in North Platte, Nebraska, and is organized by Buffalo Bill, who takes the show on the road the following year
• July 4, 1884
  The Statue of Liberty, 225-ton statue created by the French sculptor Frédéric Auguste Bartholdi, is presented to the United States in ceremonies at Paris as a gift from France in commemoration of 100 years of American independence
• July 4, 1898
  The French liner "La Bourgogne" collides with bark Cromartyshire, and 560 people die
• July 4, 1902
  President Theodore Roosevelt offers pardon and amnesty to all Filipinos who participated in the Philippine-American War marking the official end of the conflict
• July 4, 1942
  Forces of Germany, Romania, and Italy end the Siege of Sevastopol, the last Soviet port in the Crimea on the Black Sea, and take control of the city after intense bombardment
• July 4, 1946
  The Philippines gain independence from the United States
• July 4, 1987
  German Klaus Barbie, "Butcher of Lyon" convicted by a French court to life imprisonment for crimes against humanity
• July 4, 1997
  Mars Pathfinder, an American spacecraft carrying wheeled robotic Mars rover, lands on Mars
• July 4, 2012
  CERN announces the discovery of a new particle with properties consistent with the Higgs boson, an elementary particle in the Standard Model of particle physics, after experiments at the Large Hadron Collider