July 3


July 3rd is the 184th day of the year (185th in leap years) in the Gregorian
Calendar, with 181 days remaining.

Events

   * 323 - Battle of Adrianople Constantine the Great defeats Licinius, who
     flees to Byzantium
   * 1608 - Quebec City founded by Samuel de Champlain.
   * 1844 - The last pair of Great Auks is killed.
   * 1866 - Austro-Prussian War decided at Battle of Kšniggratz, resulting
     in Prussia taking over as the prominent German nation from Austria.
   * 1890 - Idaho is admitted as the 43rd U.S. state.
   * 1898 - First solo circumnavigation of the globe completed by Joshua
     Slocum from Briar Island Nova Scotia
   * 1938 - World record for a steam railway locomotive is set in England,
     by the "Mallard", which reaches a speed of 203 km/h (126 mph).
   * 1962 - Algeria becomes independent after 132 years of French rule.
   * 1964 - President Lyndon Johnson signs the Civil Rights Act of 1964,
     which prohibits segregation in public places.
   * 1988 - USS Vincennes shoots down an Iran Air jetliner over the Persian
     Gulf, killing all 290 people aboard.

Births

   * 1854 - Leos Janacek, Czech composer (+ 1928)
   * 1870 - Richard Bedford Bennett, eleventh Prime Minister of Canada (+
     1947)
   * 1875 - Ferdinand Sauerbruch, surgeon (+ 1951)
   * 1883 - Franz Kafka, writer (+ 1924)
   * 1893 - Mississippi John Hurt (+ 1966)
   * 1906 - George Sanders, actor (+ 1972)
   * 1909 - Stavros Spiros Niarchos, ship owner (+ 1996)
   * 1913 - Dorothy Kilgallen, newspaper columnist, early television
     personality (+ 1965)
   * 1927 - Ken Russell, director: Altered States, Gothic, Tommy
   * 1928 - Gźnter Bruno Fuchs, writer (+ 1977)
   * 1934 - Manfred Bieler, writer
   * 1935 - Harrison Schmitt, astronaut
   * 1937 - Tom Stoppard, playwright: The Real Thing, Rosencrantz and
     Guildenstern Are Dead,, screenwriter: Billy Bathgate, Shakespeare in
     Love
   * 1947 - Betty Buckley, actress
   * 1951 - Richard Hadlee, New Zealand cricketer
   * 1962 - Tom Cruise, actor: Mission Impossible, Jerry Maguire, Eyes Wide
     Shut, Magnolia
   * 1964 - Joanne Harris, author

Deaths

   * 1914 - Joseph Chamberlain, British politician
   * 1918 - Sultan Mehmed V of the Ottoman Empire
   * 1935 - AndrŽ Citro‘n, automobile pioneer
   * 1969 - Brian Jones, rock and roll musician, member of the Rolling
     Stones found dead in his swimming pool. He had probably died the
     previous night.
   * 1971 - Jim Morrison, singer - The Doors
   * 1979 - Louis Durey, composer, member of Les Six
   * 1986 - Rudy Vallee, singer
   * 1989 - Jim Backus, actor
   * 1995 - Pancho Gonzales, tennis professional
   * 1998 - Danielle Bunten Berry, a.k.a. Dan Bunten, software developer
   * 2001 - Mordecai Richler, author