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

Events

300-1899

• 323 - Battle of Adrianople Constantine the Great defeats Licinius, who flees to Byzantium
• 533 - Battle of the Tenth Milestone: Byzantine general Belisarius defeats the Vandals near Carthage.
• 987 - Hugh Capet was crowned King of France, the first of the Capetian dynasty which ruled France till the French Revolution in 1792.
• 1250 - Louis IX of France is captured by Baibars' Mamluk army at the Battle of Fariskur while he is in Egypt conducting the Seventh Crusade; he later has to ransom himself.
• 1608 - Quebec City founded by Samuel de Champlain.
• 1754 - George Washington surrenders Fort Necessity to French forces during the French and Indian War. He is allowed to retain his colors and march out of the fort with full honors the following day.
• 1844 - The last pair of Great Auks is killed.
• 1863 - The final and bloodiest day of the battle of Gettysburg, and the fall of the besieged Vicksburg to U.S. Grant.
• 1866 - Austro-Prussian War decided at Battle of Königgratz, resulting in Prussia taking over as the prominent German nation from Austria.
• 1890 - Idaho is admitted as the 43rd U.S. state.

1900-1999

• 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).
• 1964 - President Lyndon B. Johnson signs the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which prohibits segregation in public places.
• 1970 - A British chartered jetliner crashes near Barcelona, Spain killing 112
• 1976 - Israeli commandos rescue 105 hostages at Entebbe Airport, Uganda.
• 1988 - United States Navy warship USS Vincennes shoots down Iran Air Flight 655 over the Persian Gulf, killing all 290 people aboard.

2000-2099

• 2001 - A Vladivostokavia Tupolev TU-154 jetliner crashes on approach to landing at Irkutsk, Russia killing 145
• 2004 - Official opening of Bangkok's subway system.

Births

1400-1899

• 1423 - King Louis XI of France (d. 1483)
• 1728 - Robert Adam, architect (d. 1792)
• 1854 - Leos Janacek, Czech composer (d. 1928)
• 1870 - Richard Bedford Bennett, eleventh Prime Minister of Canada (d. 1947)
• 1875 - Ferdinand Sauerbruch, surgeon (d. 1951)
• 1883 - Franz Kafka, writer (d. 1924)
• 1893 - Mississippi John Hurt (d. 1966)

1900-1999

• 1906 - George Sanders, actor (d. 1972)
• 1908 - M. F. K. Fisher, writer (d. 1992)
• 1909 - Stavros Spiros Niarchos , ship owner (d. 1996)
• 1913 - Dorothy Kilgallen, newspaper columnist, early television personality (d. 1965)
• 1927 - Ken Russell, director
• 1928 - Günter Bruno Fuchs , writer (d. 1977)
• 1934 - Manfred Bieler , writer
• 1935 - Harrison Schmitt, astronaut
• 1937 - Tom Stoppard, playwright
• 1940 - César Tovar, baseball player (d. 1994)
• 1946 - Leszek Miller, Prime Minister of Poland
• 1947 - Dave Barry, writer
• 1947 - Betty Buckley, actress
• 1949 - Jan Smithers, actress
• 1951 - Richard Hadlee, New Zealand cricketer
• 1953 - Linda Greenlese , New York nurse
• 1957 - Laura Branigan, singer (d. 2004)
• 1962 - Tom Cruise, actor
• 1964 - Joanne Harris, author
• 1964 - Yeardley Smith, actress
• 1966 - Moises Alou, Major League Baseball player
• 1969 - Kevin Hearn, keyboardist for Barenaked Ladies
• 1970 - Teemu Selänne, NHL hockey player
• 1976 - Andrea Barber, actress (Full House)

Deaths

1900-1999

• 1904 - Theodor Herzl, founder of the modern political zionism.
• 1914 - Joseph Chamberlain, British politician
• 1918 - Sultan Mehmed V of the Ottoman Empire
• 1933 - Hipólito Yrigoyen, President of Argentina (1916-1922, 1928-1930).
• 1935 - André Citroën, 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, French composer
• 1986 - Rudy Vallee, singer
• 1989 - Jim Backus, actor
• 1993 - Joe DeRita (a.k.a. "Curly Joe"), actor, comedian; member of the Three Stooges
• 1995 - Pancho Gonzales, tennis professional
• 1998 - Danielle Bunten Berry, a.k.a. Dan Bunten, software developer
• 1999 - Mark Sandman , musician and lead singer of Morphine (band) collapsed and died of a heart attack at a music festival outside Rome.

2000-2099

• 2000 - Kemal Sunal, Turkish actor
• 2001 - Mordecai Richler, author
• 2003 - Gaetano Alibrandi, papal diplomat and Apostolic Nuncio to the Republic of Ireland
• 2004 - Andrian Nikolayev, Soviet cosmonaut nº3 of USSR, Vostok 3

Holidays and observances

External links

• BBC: On This Day

July 2 - July 4 - June 3 - August 3 -- listing of all days