GOOD MORNING – TODAY IS SATURDAY, July 4, the 185th day of 2015 with 180 to follow. Sunrise in the Boston area is @ 5:11 and sunset is @ 8:25. The moon is waxing. The morning stars are stars are Neptune & Uranus. The evening stars are Jupiter, Mars, Mercury, Saturn & Venus.
ON THIS DAY IN:
1776 – The Continental Congress adopted the “Declaration of Independence.”
1802 – The United States Military Academy officially opened at West Point, New York.
1817 – Construction began on the Erie Canal, to connect Lake Erie and the Hudson River.
1832 – “America,” written by Dr Samuel Francis Smith, was sung in public for the first time, at the Park Street Church in Boston.
1845 – Henry David Thoreau began his two-year simple living experiment at Walden Pond, near Concord, Massachusetts.
1848 – The “Communist Manifesto” was published by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels.
1894 – After seizing power, Judge Stanford B. Dole declared Hawaii a republic.
1946 – The United States granted the Philippine Islands their independence.
1955 – “The Soupy Sales Show” premiered on TV.
1959 – America’s 49-star flag, honoring Alaskan statehood, was officially unfurled.
1960 – The 50-star flag, to include Hawaii, made its debut, in Philadelphia.
1966 – President Lyndon Johnson signed the Freedom of Information Act.
1970 – Casey Kasem hosted “American Top 40” on the radio for the first time.
1976 – The United States celebrates its bicentennial.
1997 – NASA’s Mars Pathfinder became the first U.S. spacecraft to land on Mars in more than two decades.
2003 – Los Angeles Lakers guard Kobe Bryant was arrested on suspicion of sexual assault after a woman accused him of sexual misconduct. The case is later dismissed (September 1, 2004) and the charges dropped when the accuser says she will no longer cooperate.
2004 – The cornerstone of the Freedom Tower is laid on the site of the World Trade Center inNew York City.