1753,	Jean Pierre Blanchard, French balloonist. Blanchard had originally tried to build a flying machine, but gave up and resorted to ballooning instead. He made the first flight across the Channel in January 1785. During another flight, he tested the parachute by dropping one harnessed to a dog. He later made several successful parachute jumps and demonstrated his balloons in Europe and North America.
1753,	Jean-Pierre-Francois Blanchard, first balloon flights in England, US.
1804,	Nathaniel Hawthorne.
1807,	Giuseppe Garibaldi, Italian patriot. Garibaldi and his Redshirts fought to make Italy a single, unified nation. In 1860 he recaptured Naples and Sardinia for the new Italian kingdom.
1826,	Stephen Foster, American composer, "Oh, Susanna."
1872,	Calvin Coolidge, 30th President from (1923 - 1929).
1872,	John Calvin Coolidge, 30th President of the United States.
1878,	George M. Cohan, "Yankee Doodle Dandy".
1883,	Rube Goldberg, made the easy outrageously difficult.
1900,	Louis Armstrong, "Satchmo."
1920,	Sisters Ann Landers and Abigail Van Buren, advice givers.
1924,	Eva Marie Saint, actress.
1927,	Neil Simon, director, producer.
1928,	Gina Lolabrigida, actress.
1943,	Geraldo Rivera, talk show host.
1966,	George Steinbrenner, owner of "The Yankees".

      Events On This Day In History...

1054,	Brightest known super-nova starts shining, for 23 days.
1776,	Independence Day for the United States: the American Congress voted for independence from Britain. The Declaration of Independence was later signed by Thomas Jefferson.
1817,	Construction of the Erie Canal began this day.
1826,	Death of John Adams, second US President, and Thomas Jefferson, third US President. They had both wanted to live until the 50th anniversary of the Declaration. Jefferson died at one p.m., Adams a few hours later.
1829,	The first regular horse-drawn bus service began in London, between Marylebone Road and Bank.
1831,	Death of James Monroe, 5th President of the United States.
1840,	The paddle steamer Britannia set sail from Liverpool to begin the Cunard Line’s first Atlantic crossing. The voyage took just over 14 days.
1845,	Birth in Dublin of Thomas John Barnardo, philanthropist and founder of the famous Dr Barnardo’s homes for some of London’s many destitute children. (In fact, he was not a medical doctor.)
1845,	Thoreau moves into his shack on Walden Pond.
1848,	Publication of The Communist Manifesto.
1863,	Boise, Idaho founded (now capital of Idaho.)
1873,	Aquarium opens in Woodward Gardens.
1876,	First public exhibiton of electric light in San Francisco.
1892,	James Keir Hardie became the first Socialist to win a seat in the British Parliament when he stood in the general election for Holytown, Lanarkshire.
1894,	Elwood Haynes successfully tests one of the first US autos.
1903,	Pacific Cable (San Francisco, Hawaii, Guam, Phillipines) opens. President Roosevelt sends message to the Phillipines, then a message around the World in 12 minutes, almost as fast as the internet.
1904,	Construction began on the 40-mile-long Panama Canal.
1910,	‘The Great White Hope’ John Jeffries came out of retirement to try to win the world heavyweight title in Reno from Jack Johnson, the first black champion. Jeffries’ nose was broken in the 15th round and the fight was stopped, leading to racial violence in many parts of the US.
1919,	Jack Dempsey, the ‘Manassa Mauler’, beat Jess Willard, world heavyweight boxing champion for the previous four years. Willard was down seven times in the first round, which should have ended the fight, but the referee let it continue until the fourth.
1933,	Work begins on the Oakland Bay Bridge.
1946,	Manuel Roxas became the first President of the Philippines as the US granted the islands their independence.
1969,	The 30-year-old Ann Jones of Britain beat Billie-Jean King for the Wimbledon women’s singles champion. It was her 14th attempt.

      And Don't Forget...

Independence Day. Are fireworks legal where YOU live?

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