On July 3, 1775, George Washington rides out in front of the American troops gathered at Cambridge common in Massachusetts and draws his sword, formally taking command of the Continental Army. Washington, a prominent Virginia planter and veteran of the French and Indian War, had been appointed commander in chief by the Continental Congress two […]

Idaho is admitted to the union on July 3, 1890.  Exploration of the North American continent mostly proceeded inward from the Atlantic and Pacific coasts and northward from Spanish Mexico. Therefore, the rugged territory that would become Idaho long remained untouched by Spanish, French, British and American trappers and explorers. Even as late as 1805, Idaho […]

On July 3, 1958, President Dwight D. Eisenhower signs the Rivers and Harbors Flood Control Bill, which allocates funds to improve flood-control and water-storage systems across the country. Eisenhower had sent back two earlier bills to Congress, but was pleased with the revisions included in Senate Bill 3910. The bill was introduced in the wake […]

Rolling Stones guitarist Brian Jones is found dead of an apparent accidental drowning on July 3, 1969. Two years later to the day, in 1971, Jim Morrison dies of heart failure in a Paris bathtub. For all the highly publicized brushes with the law that Mick Jagger and Keith Richards would have in the late […]

On July 3, 1989, Martha Ann Johnson gives a videotaped confession to police in Clayton County, Georgia, investigating the 1982 asphyxiation death of her 11-year-old daughter Jenny Ann Wright. The case had been re-opened after an investigation by the Atlanta Journal-Constitution raised suspicion around the mother. Three of Johnson’s other children had died between 1977 […]