Historical Events this day in History - per Wikipedia

July 3

• 324 – Battle of Adrianople Constantine I defeats Licinius, who flees to Byzantium.
• 987 – Hugh Capet is crowned King of France, the first of the Capetian dynasty that would rule France till the French Revolution in 1792.
• 1608 – Québec City is founded by Samuel de Champlain.
• 1754 – French and Indian War: George Washington surrenders Fort Necessity to French forces.
• 1767 – Pitcairn Island is discovered by Midshipman Robert Pitcairn on an expeditionary voyage commanded by Philip Carteret.
• 1767 – Norway's oldest newspaper still in print, Adresseavisen, is founded and the first edition is published.
• 1775 – American Revolutionary War: George Washington takes command of the Continental Army at Cambridge, Massachusetts.
• 1778 – American Revolutionary War: British forces kill 360 people in the Wyoming Valley massacre.
• 1819 – The Bank of Savings in New York City, the first savings bank in the United States, opens.
• 1839 – The first state normal school in the United States, the forerunner to today's Framingham State College, opens in Lexington, Massachusetts with 3 students.
• 1844 – The last pair of Great Auks is killed.
• 1848 – Slaves are freed in the Danish West Indies (now U.S. Virgin Islands) by Peter von Scholten in the culmination of a year-long plot by enslaved Africans.
• 1849 – The French enter Rome in order to restore Pope Pius IX to power. This would prove a major obstacle to Italian unification.
• 1852 – Congress establishes the United States' 2nd mint in San Francisco, California.
• 1863 – American Civil War: The final day of the Battle of Gettysburg culminates with Pickett's Charge.
• 1866 – Austro-Prussian War is decided at the Battle of Königgratz, resulting in Prussia taking over as the prominent German nation from Austria.
• 1884 – Dow Jones and Company publishes its first stock average.
• 1886 – Karl Benz officially unveils the Benz Patent Motorwagen – the first purpose-built automobile.
• 1886 – The New York Tribune becomes the first newspaper to use a linotype machine, eliminating typesetting by hand.
• 1890 – Idaho is admitted as the 43rd U.S. state.
• 1898 – Spanish-American War: The Spanish fleet, led by Pascual Cervera y Topete, is destroyed by the U.S. Navy in Santiago, Cuba.
• 1913 – Confederate veterans at the Great Reunion of 1913 reenact Pickett's Charge; upon reaching the high-water mark of the Confederacy they are met by the outstretched hands of friendship fromUnion survivors.
• 1938 – World speed record for a steam railway locomotive is set in England, by the Mallard, which reaches a speed of 126 miles per hour (203 km/h).
• 1938 – President Franklin D. Roosevelt dedicates the Eternal Light Peace Memorial and lights the eternal flame at Gettysburg Battlefield.
• 1940 – World War II: the French fleet of the Atlantic based at Mers el Kébir, is bombarded by the British fleet, coming from Gibraltar, causing the loss of three battleships: Dunkerque, Provence andBretagne. One thousand two hundred sailors perish.
• 1944 – World War II: Minsk is liberated from Nazi control by Soviet troops during Operation Bagration.
• 1952 – The Constitution of Puerto Rico is approved by the Congress of the United States.
• 1952 – The SS United States sets sail on her maiden voyage to Southampton. During the voyage, the ship takes the Blue Riband away from the RMS Queen Mary.
• 1962 – The Algerian War of Independence against the French ends.
• 1969 – The biggest explosion in the history of rocketry occurs when the Soviet N-1 rocket explodes and subsequently destroys its launchpad.
• 1970 – The Troubles: the "Falls Curfew" begins in Belfast, Northern Ireland.
• 1970 – A British Dan-Air De Havilland Comet chartered jetliner crashes into mountains north of Barcelona, Spain killing 113 people.
• 1979 – U.S. President Jimmy Carter signs the first directive for secret aid to the opponents of the pro-Soviet regime in Kabul.
• 1988 – United States Navy warship USS Vincennes shoots down Iran Air Flight 655 over the Persian Gulf, killing all 290 people aboard.
• 1988 – The Fatih Sultan Mehmet Bridge in Istanbul, Turkey is completed, providing the second connection between the continents of Europe and Asia over the Bosporus.
• 1994 – The deadliest day in Texas traffic history, according to the Texas Department of Public Safety. Forty-six people are killed in crashes.
• 1996 – Stone of Scone is returned to Scotland.
• 2001 – A Vladivostok Avia Tupolev Tu-154 jetliner crashes on approach to landing at Irkutsk, Russia killing 145 people.
• 2005 – Same-sex marriage in Spain becomes legal.
• 2006 – Valencia metro accident leaves 43 dead in Valencia, Spain.