Well, this is a little long because it’s been a very busy day of the year! Skimming is, of course, acceptable! Welcome to today’s tidbits of history, July 2…

1505 After an encounter with a violent thunderstorm, Martin Luther declares that he will become a monk

1613 The first English expedition from Massachusetts against Acadia led by Samuel Argall.

1698 Thomas Savery patents the first steam engine

1776 NJ Jersey gives the right to vote to all adults who could show a net worth of 50 pounds

1776 Continental Congress resolves “these United Colonies are & of right ought to be Free & Independent States”

1776 At the Continental Congress, John Dickinson abstains from the votes that declare independence

1839 Slaves aboard a Spanish schooner La Amistad revolt to secure their freedom while being transported from one Cuban port to another

1843 An alligator falls from sky during a thunderstorm in Charleston, South Carolina

1850 Benjamin Lane patents gas mask with a breathing apparatus

1863 Battle of Gettysburg (2nd day)

1864 Statuary Hall in US Capitol forms

1865 One-time Methodist Reform Church minister William Booth and his wife Catherine found the Salvation Army (Army of the Salvation) as the East London Christian Mission

1867 1st US elevated railroad begins service, NYC. New York’s elevated trains went back to before the Brooklyn Bridge, before the Statue of Liberty, relics of a day when grandmother was a girl, and after a certain point they became deemed rustily creaking menaces to the public safety. … train made its final run on May 12, 1955. Wow.

1881 US President James Garfield shot by Charles J. Guiteau a disappointed office-seeker; Garfield died 79 days later

1890 Congress passes Sherman Antitrust Act

1894 Government obtains injunction against striking Pullman Workers

1900 First flight LZ-1, of a dirigible airship designed by Graf Ferdinand von Zeppelin, at Lake Constance near Friedrichshafen, Germany.

1901 Butch Cassidy & Sundance Kid rob train of $40,000 at Wagner, Montana

1915 Erich Muenter, an instructor in German at Cornell University, explodes a bomb in the US Senate reception room

1916 Lenin says Imperialism is caused by capitalism

1917 Riots in East St Louis Mo. They have been described as the worst case of labor-related violence in 20th-century American history, and among the worst race riots in U.S. history. There were between 40 and 200 deaths and extensive property damage.

1921 Warren G. Harding signs a joint congressional resolution declaring the official end of war with Germany

1928 The Jenkins Television Corporation (owned by Charles Jenkins) goes on air with W3XK, the first television broadcasting station in the USA

1932 FDR makes 1st presidential nominating conventional acceptance speech

1937 Amelia Earhart & Fred Noonan disappear over Pacific Ocean

1940 Hitler orders invasion of Britain (Operation Sealion)

1940 Lake Washington (Seattle) Floating bridge dedicated

1941 Nazi mass murder in Lvov/Lemberg (7,000 dead)

1947 Military coup discovered in France

1949 The State of Vietnam is internationally recognised, governing the southern half of Vietnam, with Bảo Đại as chief of state

1951 “Bob & Ray show” premieres on NBC radio. Comedians. They are on youtube, of course.

1951 Leidse astronomers discover radio signal out of Milky Way system

1955 “Lawrence Welk Show” premieres on ABC

1956 Elvis Presley records “Hound Dog” & “Don’t Be Cruel”

1956 US performs nuclear test at Enewetak (atmospheric tests)

1957 1st submarine designed to fire guided missiles launched, Grayback

1959 “Plan 9 From Outer Space”, one of the worse films ever, premieres. Aliens resurrect dead humans as zombies and vampires to stop humanity from creating the Solaranite (a sort of sun-driven bomb.

1962 Fidel Castro visits Moscow

1964 Grand jury indicts Beckwith in murder of Medger Evers

1964 US President Lyndon B. Johnson signs Civil Rights Act & Voting Rights Act into law

1968 An El Al Israeli airliner is hijacked and diverted to Algeria by three armed members of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP)

1969 Leslie West & Felix Pappalardi form rock group Mountain***

1970 The Prevention of Incitement to Hatred Act (Northern Ireland) is introduced; it proved difficult to secure convictions under its provisions and was seldom enforced. We have apparently decided not to prosecute “incitement to riot” here…

1971 USSR performs underground nuclear test

1973 Nation Black Network begins operation on radio

1976 Formal reunification of North & South Vietnam

1979 Susan B. Anthony dollar is issued, 1st US coin to honor a woman. It was a flop.

1980 Grateful Dead’s Bob Weir & Mickey Hart are arrested for incitement. They were alleged to have interfered with a drug-related arrest during a concert at the San Diego Sports Arena.

1986 US Supreme Court upholds affirmative action in 2 rulings. [How we got this way…] One case is: http://tinyurl.com/ybsw28xe

1990 Imelda Marcos & Adnan Khashoggi found not guilty of racketeering

1990 Panic in tunnel of Mecca: 1,426 pilgrims trampled to death

1991 Riot at Guns N’ Roses concert in St Louis. lead singer Axl Rose, in the middle of the chorus, pointed out a fan who was taking still pictures of the show, saying “…Hey, take that! Take that! Now, get that guy and take that!” When security was unable to deal with the person, Rose decided to confiscate the camera himself, saying “I’ll take it, god damn it!” and then jumped into the audience and tackled the person. After taking the camera, striking members of the audience and the security team, and being pulled out of the audience by crew members, Rose grabbed his microphone and said “Well, thanks to the lame-ass security, I’m going home!”, slammed his microphone on the stage and left. The mic sounded like a gunshot…

1991 Donald Trump proposes to Marla Maples and gives her a 7.5 carat diamond ring

1992 Braniff Airlines goes out of business

1993 Muslim fundamentalists in Sivas, Turkey, set hotel on fire, kill 36

1998 “Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets” the 2nd book in the series is published by Bloomsbury in the UK. A close look at Ms. Rowling’s sources of income suggests that she’s worth more than $1 billion, even allowing for a large margin of error.

2002 Steve Fossett becomes the first person to fly solo around the world nonstop in a balloon.

2012 GlaxoSmithKline settles the largest healthcare fraud case in history for US $3 Billion. For unlawful promotion of certain prescription drugs, its failure to report certain safety data, and its civil liability for alleged false price reporting practice

2014 Former French President Nicolas Sarkozy is criminally charged with corruption by French prosecutors

2016 Large lorry bomb in Baghdad kills at least 125 people and wounds 150, Islamic State claims responsibility

Bonus Video: Mountain, “Missippi Queen” While I used to get stoned or dance to it, these days it’s great housecleaning background music…