Today
1948
Today in History
John Pershing dies
On July 15, 1948, John Pershing died. Pershing had commanded the American Expeditionary Forces in World War I and later influenced a generation of officers who led the United States in World War II. His wartime command helped establish the United States as a decisive military power in Europe.
View the related personDaily moments from the American past
Browse the archive by month to see the people, decisions, and documents tied to each date.
Archive month
July
31 entries
July 1, 1896
Harriet Beecher Stowe dies
Harriet Beecher Stowe died on July 1, 1896, after becoming one of the most influential antislavery writers of the nineteenth century. Her 1852 novel *Uncle Tom's Cabin* reached a mass audience in the United States and abroad. The book intensified northern opposition to slavery and sharpened sectional conflict in the decade before the Civil War.
View the related personJuly 2, 1776
Congress votes for independence
On July 2, 1776, the Second Continental Congress voted for independence from Great Britain. The resolution approved the break that Richard Henry Lee had formally proposed in June. John Adams believed July 2 would be remembered as the decisive act, even though Congress adopted the Declaration's final text on July 4.
View the related eventJuly 3, 1863
Pickett's Charge fails at Gettysburg
On July 3, 1863, Confederate forces under George Pickett and supporting commands attacked the Union center at Gettysburg and were repulsed. The failed assault ended Lee's best chance to break the Army of the Potomac in Pennsylvania. Gettysburg became the turning point that stopped the Confederacy's northern invasion and strengthened Union momentum.
July 4, 1776
Declaration of Independence adopted
On July 4, 1776, the Continental Congress adopted the Declaration of Independence in Philadelphia. The delegates announced that the colonies were free and independent states and justified that act in the language of natural rights and government by consent. The Declaration became the moral charter of the American founding and the enduring statement of the revolution's political principles.
View the related eventJuly 5, 1796
Daniel Carroll dies
Daniel Carroll died on July 5, 1796. Daniel Carroll Jr. As one of Maryland's delegates at Philadelphia, Daniel helped move Maryland into the ratification struggle that created the new federal government in 1787 and 1788.
View the related personJuly 6, 1835
John Marshall dies
John Marshall died on July 6, 1835. John Marshall was an American statesman, jurist, and Founding Father who served as the fourth chief justice of the United States from 1801 until his death in 1835. Marshall's public record became attached to specific institutions, arguments, and events that extended beyond a single moment.
View the related personJuly 7, 1898
United States annexes Hawaii
On July 7, 1898, President William McKinley signed the Newlands Resolution annexing Hawaii. Strategic concerns, commercial interests, and the wider war with Spain helped drive the decision. Annexation extended American power across the Pacific and marked a major step in the nation's late-nineteenth-century expansion.
July 8, 1839
John D. Rockefeller is born
John D. Rockefeller was born on July 8, 1839. Rockefeller's Standard Oil became the most famous monopoly of the Gilded Age and a central target of the Sherman Antitrust Act.
View the related personJuly 9, 1850
Zachary Taylor dies
Zachary Taylor died on July 9, 1850. Zachary Taylor was an American military officer and politician who was the 12th president of the United States, serving from 1849 until his death in 1850. Taylor opposed the expansion of slavery into the Mexican Cession and increased the pressure that produced the Compromise of 1850 after his death.
View the related personJuly 10, 1856
Nikola Tesla is born
Nikola Tesla was born on July 10, 1856. Nikola Tesla was a Serbian-American engineer, futurist, and inventor. Nikola Tesla's work changed American technology, commerce, and the country's confidence in innovation.
View the related personJuly 11, 1767
John Quincy Adams is born
John Quincy Adams was born on July 11, 1767. John Quincy Adams was the sixth president of the United States, serving from 1825 to 1829. After leaving the presidency, Adams became one of the leading antislavery voices in Congress and defended the Amistad captives before the Supreme Court.
View the related personJuly 12, 1804
Alexander Hamilton dies
Alexander Hamilton died on July 12, 1804. Alexander Hamilton was an American military officer, statesman, and Founding Father who served as the first U.S. Hamilton's financial program created the First Bank of the United States, funded the national debt, and tied public credit to the authority of the new Constitution.
View the related personJuly 13, 1787
Northwest Ordinance is enacted
On July 13, 1787, the Confederation Congress enacted the Northwest Ordinance. The law created a process for territorial government and eventual statehood north of the Ohio River while banning slavery in the territory. It became one of the great legislative achievements of the founding era and a durable model for westward expansion.
July 14, 1913
Gerald Ford is born
Gerald Ford was born on July 14, 1913. Gerald Rudolph Ford Jr. Ford's pardon of Richard Nixon became one of the most contested exercises of presidential clemency in American history.
View the related personJuly 15, 1948
John Pershing dies
On July 15, 1948, John Pershing died. Pershing had commanded the American Expeditionary Forces in World War I and later influenced a generation of officers who led the United States in World War II. His wartime command helped establish the United States as a decisive military power in Europe.
View the related personJuly 16, 1787
Great Compromise is adopted at the Constitutional Convention
On July 16, 1787, convention delegates approved the Connecticut or Great Compromise. The agreement created a House based on population and a Senate with equal representation for each state. It broke a central deadlock at Philadelphia and made the Constitution's legislative structure possible.
View the related eventJuly 17, 1744
Elbridge Gerry is born
Elbridge Gerry was born on July 17, 1744. Elbridge Thomas Gerry was an American Founding Father, merchant, politician, and diplomat who, as a member of the Second Continental Congress, signed the Declaration of Independence and Articles of Confederation. As one of Massachusetts's delegates, Elbridge helped tie Massachusetts to the Declaration of Independence in 1776 and to the new republican order that followed.
View the related personJuly 18, 1947
Steve Forbes is born
Steve Forbes was born on July 18, 1947. Malcolm Stevenson Forbes Jr. Forbes made the flat tax a national issue in Republican presidential politics during the 1990s.
July 19, 1848
Seneca Falls Convention opens
On July 19, 1848, reformers opened the Seneca Falls Convention in New York. Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Lucretia Mott, and their allies argued that the principles of the Declaration should apply to women as well as men. The meeting launched the organized American movement for women's rights.
July 20, 1848
Declaration of Sentiments is approved at Seneca Falls
On July 20, 1848, the Seneca Falls Convention approved the Declaration of Sentiments. The document deliberately echoed the Declaration of Independence while demanding equal civil and political rights for women, including the vote. It provided a lasting constitutional language for the American suffrage movement.
July 21, 1899
Ernest Hemingway is born
Ernest Hemingway was born on July 21, 1899. Ernest Miller Hemingway was an American novelist, short-story writer and journalist. Hemingway's stripped-down prose style changed the sound of American fiction in the twentieth century.
View the related personJuly 22, 1730
Daniel Carroll is born
Daniel Carroll was born on July 22, 1730. Daniel Carroll Jr. As one of Maryland's delegates at Philadelphia, Daniel helped move Maryland into the ratification struggle that created the new federal government in 1787 and 1788.
View the related personJuly 23, 1793
Roger Sherman dies
Roger Sherman died on July 23, 1793. Roger Sherman was an early American politician, lawyer, and a Founding Father of the United States. Sherman helped devise the Connecticut Compromise, which gave the United States a House of Representatives by population and a Senate by state equality.
View the related personJuly 24, 1862
Martin Van Buren dies
Martin Van Buren died on July 24, 1862. Martin Van Buren was the 8th president of the United States, serving from 1837 to 1841. Van Buren helped build the Democratic Party into a disciplined national organization and later created the Independent Treasury.
View the related personJuly 25, 1898
U.S. troops land in Puerto Rico
On July 25, 1898, American troops landed in Puerto Rico during the Spanish-American War. The operation quickly shifted Spanish control of the island and extended U.S. military reach in the Caribbean. It helped define the new territorial questions the United States faced after 1898.
July 26, 1925
William Jennings Bryan dies
William Jennings Bryan died on July 26, 1925. William Jennings Bryan was an American lawyer, orator, and politician. Bryan's "Cross of Gold" speech made him the most famous spokesman for free silver and agrarian populism in the 1890s.
View the related personJuly 27, 1789
Department of Foreign Affairs is established
On July 27, 1789, Congress created the Department of Foreign Affairs, soon renamed the Department of State. The law gave the new federal government a permanent executive office for diplomacy and national administration. It was part of the first generation of statutes that turned the Constitution into working institutions.
July 28, 1746
Thomas Heyward Jr. is born
Thomas Heyward Jr. was born on July 28, 1746. As one of South Carolina's delegates, Thomas helped tie South Carolina to the Declaration of Independence in 1776 and to the new republican order that followed.
View the related personJuly 29, 1798
Melancton Smith dies
Melancton Smith died on July 29, 1798. Melancton Smith was a merchant, lawyer and a New York delegate to the Continental Congress. Smith became one of the most formidable Anti-Federalist voices in New York's ratifying convention.
View the related personJuly 30, 1619
House of Burgesses first meets in Virginia
On July 30, 1619, the first representative assembly in English America met at Jamestown. The House of Burgesses gave local settlers a voice in making laws for the colony. That early habit of self-government became one of the deepest roots of later American constitutionalism.
View the related eventJuly 31, 1875
Andrew Johnson dies
Andrew Johnson died on July 31, 1875. Andrew Johnson was the 17th president of the United States, serving from 1865 to 1869. Johnson's clash with Congress over Reconstruction led to the first presidential impeachment and to the Tenure of Office Act crisis.
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