| 1775 |
|
George Washington takes command of the Continental Army. |
| 1790 |
|
In Paris, the Marquis of Condorcet proposes granting civil rights to women. |
| 1844 |
|
American ambassador Caleb Cushing successfully negotiates a commercial treaty with China. |
| 1863 |
|
Confederate forces attack the center of the Union line at Gettysburg, but fail to break it. |
| 1878 |
|
John Wise flies the first dirigible in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. |
| 1901 |
|
The Wild Bunch, led by Butch Cassidy, commits its last American robbery near Wagner, Montana, taking $65,000 from a Great Northern train. |
| 1903 |
|
The first cable across the Pacific Ocean is spliced between Honolulu, Midway, Guam and Manila. |
| 1916 |
|
The Battle of the Somme begins. More than 100,000 men are killed in the first day. |
| 1944 |
|
The U.S. First Army opens a general offensive to break out of the hedgerow area of Normandy, France. |
| 1945 |
|
U.S. troops land at Balikpapan and take Sepinggan airfield on Borneo in the Pacific. |
| 1950 |
|
U.S. carrier-based planes attack airfields in the Pyongyang-Chinnampo area of North Korea in the first air-strike of the Korean War. |
| 1954 |
|
Food rationing ends in Great Britain almost nine years after the end of World War II. |
| 1962 |
|
Jackie Robinson becomes the first African American to be inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame. |
| 1967 |
|
North Vietnamese soldiers attack South Vietnam’s only producing coal mine at Nong Son. |
|
Born on July 3 |
| 1683 |
|
Edward Young, English poet, dramatist and literary critic (Night Thoughts). |
| 1844 |
|
Dankmar Adler, architect and engineer. |
| 1871 |
|
William Henry Davies, Welsh poet. |
| 1878 |
|
George M. Cohan, American entertainer and songwriter. |
| 1883 |
|
Franz Kafka, Prague-born German novelist (The Metamorphosis, The Trail). |
| 1908 |
|
M.F.K. Fisher, food witer. |
| 1912 |
|
Elizabeth Taylor, novelist and short story writer. |
| 1921 |
|
Francois-Arnold Reichenbach, documentary filmmaker. |
| 1937 |
|
Tom Stoppard, British playwright (Rosencrantz and Gilderstern are Dead). |