@rh18bold:Today in History

Today is Friday, July 2, the 183rd day of 2010. There are 182 days left in the year.

On this date

In 1502, conflict between French and Spanish over partition of Naples breaks out in open warfare in Italy.

In 1644, Royalists suffer their first major defeat against the Parliamentarians under Oliver Cromwell at Marston Moor.

In 1657, Denmark attacks Sweden, already at war with Russia, Poland and Austria, but suffers a humiliating defeat the same winter.

In 1776, the rebel Continental Congress in British North America passed a resolution saying that "these United Colonies are, and of right ought to be, free and independent States."

In 1777, Vermont became the first American colony to abolish slavery.

In 1860, Russians found Vladivostok near Korean border.

In 1881, President James A. Garfield was shot by Charles J. Guiteau at the Washington railroad station; Garfield died the following September. (Guiteau was hanged in June 1882.)

In 1890, the Brussels Act is passed by international conference to eradicate African slave trade and liquor traffic with primitive peoples.

In 1917, rioting erupted in East St. Louis in southern Illinois as white mobs attacked black residents; nearly 50 people, most of them black, are believed to have died in the violence.

In 1926, the United States Army Air Corps was created.

In 1940, French government moves to Vichy.

In 1954, France evacuates southern part of Red River Delta in Indochina as part of the Final Declaration of the Geneva Conference signed by French, Vietnamese, Laotian and Cambodian representatives.

In 1964, President Lyndon B. Johnson signed into law a sweeping civil rights bill passed by Congress.

In 1976, North and South Vietnam are reunited officially after more than 20 years of war which followed Independence from France.

In 1989, tourists return to Tiananmen Square in China after military crackdown on a pro-democracy movement.

In 1990, a stampede in a pedestrian tunnel linking Mecca and a tent city leaves 1,400 pilgrims dead of suffocation or trampling.

In 1991, heavy fighting erupts in Slovenia with Yugoslav army using warplanes and artillery to help units trapped by Slovene forces.

In 1990, more than 1,400 Muslim pilgrims were killed in a stampede inside a pedestrian tunnel in Saudi Arabia.

In 1994, Colombian soccer player Andres Escobar is slain in Medellin for accidentally scoring a goal against his own team during a game against the United States.

Thought for Today

"No great man lives in vain. The history of the world is but the biography of great men." — Thomas Carlyle, Scottish critic and historian (1795-1881).