This day in history...

On July 2, 1776 in Philadelphia, the 2nd Continental Congress formally adopts delegate Richard Henry Lee's resolution of independence from Great Britain. Although the New York delegation abstains, the vote is otherwise unanimous. The Congress is awaiting Thomas Jefferson's written declaration on the matter before going public with the vote.

On July 2, 1964 in a nationally televised ceremony, President Lyndon B. Johnson signs the Civil Rights Act. The legislation prohibits racial discrimination in employment and education, and bans segregation in all public spaces. In accordance with tradition, Johnson uses 75 different pens to sign the bill, which are then given out as momentos; the first pen he uses goes to Dr. Martin Luther King.


On July 2, 1881, only four months into his administration, President James Garfield is shot as he walks through a railroad waiting room in Washington. His assailant, Charles J. Guiteau, was a disgruntled and perhaps insane office seeker who had unsuccessfully sought an appointment to the U.S. consul in Paris. The president, shot in the back and the arm, hangs on to life for 80 days, finally passing away on September 19. Guiteau is convicted and hanged in June, 1882.

On July 2, 1937, the Lockheed aircraft carrying American aviator Amelia Earhart and navigator Frederick Noonan is reported missing near Howland Island in the Pacific. The pair were attempting to fly around the world when they lost their bearings over the Pacific. No trace of Earhart or Noonan was ever found.



On July 2, 1839, 53 Africans bound for Cuba and eventual slavery break out of the hold of the schooner Amistad and seize control of the vessel. They order their captors to return them to Africa, and at first the Cubans comply, but during the night veer off course and sail to the U.S. A lengthy, complicated court fight ensues (this was more than 30 years after the African slave trade was internationally banned) and after 2 years, the Supreme Court rules the Africans were illegally captured and sets them free.



More to come.....

 

By July 2, 1863, most of the 175,000 soldiers who will fight in the Battle of Gettysburg have arrived on the field, including George Meade, newly-appointed commanding General of the Union Army of the Potomac. General Robert E. Lee awakens to learn that the federals have formed a line of defense in what G'burg buffs now like to call "the fishhook" south of the town, a continuous line that wraps around the summit of Culp's Hill and Cemetery Hill and for about 2 miles down Cemetery Ridge. The Confederate line mirrors the Union's but on the exterior of the "fishhook", the outnumbered Rebs' line is about 5 miles long. Lee orders a mass attack en echelon, beginning in the north and working down the line. Three troop movements will dictate the day's action. First, General Dan Sickles, in command of the Federal III Corps at the extreme left (south), decides without orders to move his entire corps forward about a half mile, lengthening the Union line but leaving its geographic left anchor, a rocky hill called Little Round Top by the locals, uncovered. Second, the Confederate plan forces two divisions to march to the left for the final phase of the attack. The march route is not scouted in advance, and realizing his troops will be exposed, General James Longstreet orders a countermarch, retracing their steps and starting again on a road further west, but obscured from view. As a result, the Confederate attack is no longer coordinated; the attack on the left will start 3 hours late. Meanwhile, General Gouverneur K. Warren, chief engineer of the Union Army, scouts the left and is shocked to find Little Round Top unoccupied. He rides to the rear, where General George Sykes V Corps is in reserve, and reports his finding to the first senior officer he sees, a brigade commander named Colonel Strong Vincent. Rather than pass the word up the chain of command, Vincent takes the initiative, saving valuable minutes by double-timing his brigade up the hill on his own authority. They arrive literally minutes before the Confederates, and in perhaps the most storied engagement of the Civil War, successfully protect the Union left flank. (Vincent is mortally wounded in the defense; he receives a field promotion to Brigadier General on his deathbed.) Although the Confederates gain ground on both flanks, the Union line is unbroken, and even strengthened by troop movements over the course of the day's action.

 

On July 3, 1775, George Washington formally takes command of the Continental Army, encamped at Cambridge, Massachusetts. In agreeing to serve the American colonies in the war for independence, the wealthy Virginia planter declined to accept payment for his services beyond reimbursement of future expenses.


On July 3, 1988 in the Persian Gulf, the U.S. Navy cruiser Vincennes shoots down an Iranian passenger jet that it mistakes for a hostile Iranian fighter aircraft, killing all 290 people aboard. The attack comes near the end of the Iran-Iraq War, and the Vincennes, which is defending Kuwaiti oil tankers in the gulf, had moments before been attacked by Iranian gunboats. The Navy would blame crew error caused by psychological stress on men who were in combat for the first time. In 1996, the U.S. agreed to pay $62 million in damages to the families of the Iranians killed in the attack.


On July 3, 1886, German engineer Karl Benz unveils his Benz Patent Motorwagen, a 3-wheeled, 2-seat vehicle powered by an internal combustion engine. It is widely considered the first automobile.


On July 3, 1971, Jim Morrison, charismatic lead singer of The Doors, is found dead in the bathtub of the Paris apartment he shares with longtime girlfriend Pamela Courson. He was 27. No evidence of foul play is found, and because Courson told French authorities that Morrison had not been using drugs, no autopsy is conducted, and “heart failure” is cited as the cause of death. Two subsequent biographies, however, will attribute Morrison's death to an accidental overdose of heroin, the cause of Courson's own death 3 years later.

 

On July 3, 1863, Gen. Robert E. Lee awakens at Gettysburg planning to repeat the attack plan of the previous day. But a dawn counterattack at Culp's Hill by General Henry Slocum's Union XII Corps regains ground lost on July 2. Lee, now believing the Union line is strongest on the flanks, orders First Corps commander James Longstreet to attack the Union center on Cemetery Ridge with a division under General George Pickett (his are the only Confederate troops who have yet to engage at Gettysburg). Longstreet objects; he's scouted the Union positions and believes the center to be impregnable, but Lee is resolute. He gives Longstreet 6 brigades of A.P. Hill's Third Corps for support, and now Longstreet has more than 12,000 men for the assault. Around noon, the largest artillery barrage in the history of the North American continent begins, more than 170 Confederate guns attempting to break up the Union defenses on the ridge. The Union artillery offers only token resistance, saving ammunition for the assault they assume will follow. But the field quickly becomes so clouded from powder smoke that Confederate artillery commander Porter Alexander can't see that his guns are mostly off target. After two hours, the softening up barrage slackens, and Pickett marches his force onto the field. His men must march about a mile on open, sloping ground just to reach the stone wall where General Winfield S. Hancock's II Corps is in defense. The Union artillery peppers them at every step of the charge, and barely half of the attackers even come within musket range of the enemy. Still, a battalion under General Lewis Armstead (whose uncle commanded the defense of Ft. McHenry that inspired "The Star Spangled Banner") reaches the stone wall, and a brief but fierce hand-to-hand fight ensues. The point of engagement will soon come to be known as "The high water mark of the Confederacy." The attack is thrown back, Armstead is mortally wounded, and Pickett's Charge is over. More than 7,000 Confederates are dead or wounded, including all 3 of Pickett's brigade commanders; indeed, Pickett's Division has virtually ceased to exist. The failed charge ends the Battle of Gettysburg; the two armies would spend July 4 collecting the dead and wounded, and Lee orders the withdrawal after nightfall. Lee has lost nearly 40% of the Army of Northern Virginia's manpower (as many as 28,000 killed, wounded or captured) in 3 days; while he will continue to win occasional fights for the next 2 years, the ANV will never again be an offensive threat to the Union armies. Federal casualties at Gettysburg are about 23,000, but they have many more men at their disposal. Incredibly, only one civilian death is recorded at Gettysburg, a 20-year old woman killed in her home by a stray round. Several are wounded, including John Burns, a 69-year old War of 1812 vet who wandered onto the field to volunteer on the first day of battle. He survived his wounds and lived until 1872.

 

I don't know, but I would consider him the toughest sum'bitch of the 19th century.