July History
July 1: First vote on Declaration of Independence; 1776. First US Postage stamps go on sale; 1847. Lincoln signs Pacific Railway Act; 1862. Free delivery of mail begins in 49 cities; 1863. Battle of Gettysburg begins; 1863. Canada is formed via an act of British Parliament; 1867. Theodore Roosevelt and his rough riders charge San Juan Hill; 1898. First modern Olympic Games in USA opens in St. Louis; 1904. Bretton Woods conference begins; 1944. Dylan Carpowich (the author of this book) was born in Santa Cruz CA; 1986.
July 2: Continental Congress approves the Lee resolution resolving that “These United Colonies are and of right ought to be Free and Independent States.”; 1776.
July 3: Congress authorizes USA’s 2nd Mint in San Francisco California; 1852. The Pony Express arrives in San Francisco with a letter from New York; 1861. The Battle of Gettysburg ends; 1863.
July 4: USA proclaims declaration of Independence from Great Britain; 1776. West Point Military academy opens; 1802. Louisiana Purchase is announced; 1804. The Bear Flag of California is replaced with Old Glory on the Plaza in Sonoma CA ending a short rebellion against local Mexican rule; 1846. Alice and Wonderland is published; 1865. Statue of Liberty presented to USA in Paris; 1884. First organized rodeo in the USA held in Prescott Arizona; 1888.
July 5: Isaac Newton’s work Principia is published; 1687. US Secret Service begins operation within the Treasury Department; 1865.
July 6: Louis Pasteur administers the first anti-rabies vaccine; 1885. Magnus Hirschfeld establishes study of sexual science in Berlin (Considered to be the first “gay” psychologist he became interested in the subject when attended the Chicago World’s Fair in 1894, and was troubled by the trial of Oscar Wilde and Maude Allen in 1915, he promoted transgender rights and gay rights beginning a psychological study we are dealing with today in 2022.); 1919.
July 7: Quaisi-War with France, Congress rescinded a treaty with France in part because of what is known as the XYZ affair, the US sent diplomats to Paris and were unable to meet with Talleyrand, their report back that they met with diplomats X, Y, and Z. The French diplomats requested that the USA should pay France a large sum of money for France to rejoin a treaty of alliances, this came across as a bribe to Congress and the American People began becoming anti French. Congress established the Navy Department to prepare for a future war with France the following month; 1798.
July 8: New York City authorizes the American Colonies first police uniforms; 1693. First public reading of the Declaration of Independence in Philadelphia; 1776. US State Department issues first official US passport; 1796. Early US Passports were letters of recommendation and introduction by Benjamin Franklin and given to early US Diplomats and gentlemen, In 1795 a treaty of Algiers made it necessary for a document to be made to distinguish US vessels from British or French or other countries. Congress passed a law to get the State Department to get a document allowing passage together for Presidential approval. David Humphries was an American diplomat to Portugal who wrote his own passport and had it approved by the Washington Administration.
July 9: The Declaration of Independence is read to George Washington’s troops in New York City, they subsequently tear down a statue of King George, melt it, and turn it into bullets for the coming revolution; 1776. After raising the Bear Flag in Sonoma California on July 4th, the US Navy led by John B. Montgomery claims Yerba Buena (later renamed San Francisco) for the USA; 1846. The 14th Amendment is ratified; 1868.
July 10: Lady Godiva rides naked on horseback through Coventry to force her husband to lower taxes; 1040. Louis XVI declares war on Great Britain in support of the USA; 1778. Comte de Rochambeau arrives with 7,000 French troops at Newport Rhode Island, to join the American Revolution; 1780. Wyoming becomes 44th state, the first state to enter the union with an already legal right for woman’s suffrage which Wyoming passed in 1869 along with the right to own property and hold public office; 1890. Treaty of Versailles is personally presented to Congress by President Woodrow Wilson; 1919.
July 11: Vice President Aaron Burr shoots Alexander Hamilton in a duel, Hamilton will die the following day, New Jersey and New York bring murder charges against VP Aaron Burr but because he is Vice President arresting him becomes a constitutional issue and he is not arrested immediately, Aaron Burr believing he will be viewed a hero goes to Manhattan and instead is seen as the villain, he flees to Washington D.C to avoid the NYPD arresting him for murder; 1804.
July 12: US Forces led by General Hull invade Canada; 1812. Bobby Jones wins his 4th US Open; 1930. Congress passes the first minimum wage law; 1933.
July 13: Congress passes the Northwest ordinance establishing the procedure for turning territories into states; 1787. The ferry building in San Francisco opens; 1898.
July 14: The Bastille prison in Paris falls beginning a French Revolution this is also France’s national day; 1787. Alvin J. Fellows of New Haven Connecticut patents the tape measurer; 1868.
July 15: The Rosetta Stone is rediscovered in Egypt allowing for Egyptian hieroglyphs to be deciphered; 1799. Georgia becomes last confederate state to be re admitted; 1870. Boeing company formed by William Boeing in Seattle Washington; 1916. First airport hotel opens in Oakland California; 1929.
July 16: Bank of Stockholm issues Europes first banknote; 1661. Father & St. Junipero Serra founds Mission San Diego the first of 21 missions in California; 1769. The Residence Act of 1790 is signed establishing a site for a capital city of the United States of America to be along the Potomac River in Virginia/Maryland. The compromise between Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, and Alexander Hamilton agreed to this location if the Assumption bill was also passed which paid for the domestic debts incurred by the Revolutionary war. This was the first major compromise of the US Congress; 1790.
July 17: The US Congress passes a law allowing the Department of Treasury to issue paper money. This paper money known as demand notes would go into circulation a few weeks later with green ink. This earned these notes the nickname “greenbacks.” When the Union would later win the Civil War and switch to Legal Tender Notes and discontinue Demand Notes it would also be printed in green ink and feature early founding fathers and Union Heroes like Presidents Grant and Lincoln; 1861.
July 18: Ukrainian bacteriologist Wldemar Huffkine risk his life by testing a cholera vaccine on himself; 1892. Adolf Hitler publishes a book that becomes a bestseller in Germany; 1925.
July 19: Congress orders the Declaration of Independence engrossed on parchment; 1776. Edgar Degas is born in Paris; 1834. America’s first women’s rights convention is held in Seneca New York organized by Elizabeth Cady Stanton; 1848. The first US army flying school for African American cadets is dedicated in Tuskegee Alabama; 1941. Apollo 11 begins to orbit around the moon; 1969.
July 20: The first fee is charged to watch a baseball game; 1858. Sitting Bull surrenders; 1881. Hitler survives an assassination attempt by Claus Von Stauffenberg; 1944. Bob Dylan releases the single “Like a Rolling Stone”; 1965. Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin become the first people to walk on the moon; 1969.
July 21: The New York legislature approves funds to purchase land from 59th to 106th streets between fifth and eighth avenues effectively creating the beginning of the story of the creation of Central Park; 1853.
July 22: General William Tecumseh Sherman defeats the confederates in Atlanta Georgia; 1864.
July 23: Conference of Bretton Woods signed; 1944.
July 24: William Clark is willed the slave York who would accompany him on his voyage west and is one of the few slaves in American history to be known to carry a firearm; 1799. First public opinion poll is issued conducted by a Harrisburg PA newspaper showing. Clear lead for Andrew Jackson; 1824. Brigham Young and his mormons arrive in Salt Lake City Utah; 1847.
July 25: King Henry II of France is crowned; 1547. Writer Jack London sails to join the Klondike Gold Rush; 1897.
July 26: Giacamo Casanova is arrested in Venice; 1755. US Continental Congress creates the United States Post Office and makes Benjamin Franklin the first Postmaster General; 1775. Declaration of Potsdam: US, Britain and China demand the unconditional surrender of Japan; 1945. The plutonium core of the Fat Man Bomb is transferred to the island of Tinian for the bomb to be assembled; 1945. President Truman signs the National Security act of 1947 establishing the Department of Defense, Central Intelligence Agency, and joint Chiefs of Staff; 1947.
July 27: Wall Raleigh brings the first tobacco to England from Virginia; 1586. US Congress establishes the Department of Foreign Affairs now referred to the State Department; 1789. Vincent Van Gogh shoots himself and dies two days later; 1890. The Korean War ends; 1953.
July 28: Maximillien Robespierre is guillotined to a roar of the crowd in Paris; 1794. Metric system becomes a legal measurement system in the USA; 1866. William Seward announces the ratification of the 14th amendment and grants citizenship to ex slaves; 1868. US Senate ratifies United Nations Charter; 1945.
July 29: Henry Ford was born in Dearborn Michigan; 1863. The first volume of the Lord of the Rings is published; 1954.
July 30: Society of Freemasons opens first lodge in Boston; 1733. George Eastman shows the first color motion pictures to Thomas Edison; 1928. First FIFA World Cup Final in Uruguay, Uruguay beats Argentina 4-2; 1930. James Hoffa is last seen alive in Detroit Michigan; 1975.
July 31: Marquis de Lafayette is made major general of the Continental Army at 19 years old; 1777. The US Patent Office first opened its doors, Samual Hopkins receives the first patent for a method of producing potash, a type of fertilizer; 1790. First nighttime surgery is performed in Lviv, Poland/Ukraine because of kerosene street lighting and paraffin oil lamps invented by Ignacy Lukasiewicz; 1853.