Today:
1863 – The Battle of Gettysburg, a turning point in the American Civil War, began in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania.
1867 – The British North America Act took effect, creating the Dominion of Canada.
1903 – The first Tour de France bicycle race began.
1916 – The first day of the Battle of the Somme during World War I, which resulted in over 57,000 British casualties.
1931 – Wiley Post and Harold Gatty completed the first round-the-world flight in a single-engine plane.
1960 – Ghana became a republic and Kwame Nkrumah became its first president.
1963 – The United States Postal Service introduced ZIP codes.
1968 – The Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT) was signed by the United States, the United Kingdom, the Soviet Union, and other countries.
1991 – The Warsaw Pact, a military alliance of communist countries, was formally dissolved.
1997 – The United Kingdom transferred sovereignty over Hong Kong to China.
30 American Heritage Events: #1
Declaration of Independence (1776)
The thirteen colonies declared independence from Britain.