Today is Friday, July 4, the 185th day of 2014. There are 180 days left in the year.
Highlights in history on this date:
1187 - The Arab forces of Sultan Saladin destroy a thirsty and exhausted Crusader army at Hattin in northern Palestine, leading to the Muslim conquest of Jerusalem.
1776 - American Declaration of Independence is approved by the Continental Congress in Philadelphia. The day is now Independence Day in the United States.
1779 - French forces take Grenada in West Indies from the British, who retake it four years later.
1824 - Turks capture island of Ispara in war with Greeks.
1862 - Lewis Carroll, an Oxford University student narrates a story to a group of friends during a boat trip. The story is later published as "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland."
1946 - Republic of the Philippines is founded after 47 years of U.S. rule.
1957 - V. Molotov, D.J. Shepilov and G.M. Malenkov are expelled from the leadership of the Soviet Communist Party after trying to remove Nikita Khrushchev.
1974 - Ethiopia's Emperor Haile Selassie agrees to military supervision of his government and speedup of democratic reforms.
1976 - Israeli commandos raid hijacked airliner in Entebbe, Uganda, and rescue 103 hostages. Four Israelis, seven hijackers and about 20 Ugandan soldiers are killed.
1987 - Klaus Barbie, a local Gestapo chief in World War II, is convicted of crimes against humanity in Lyon, France, and sentenced to life imprisonment.
1990 - Kremlin lifts 10-week ban on rail transport of foodstuffs into Lithuania, ending an effort to quell republic's independence movement.
1991 - Former Soviet Foreign Minister Eduard Shevardnadze renounces his membership in the Communist Party.
1993 - Abkhazian rebels seeking independence from Georgia advance within 15 kilometers (nine miles) of Sukhumi, and both sides report heavy casualties.
1994 - Tutsi rebels seize most of Kigali and another key city in Rwanda, ending the worst of the genocide by Hutu militants in those areas.
1997 - The U.S. spacecraft Pathfinder, carrying an explorer vehicle, lands on Mars. It is the first landing on Mars since 1976.
1999 - Pope John Paul II blesses a new church that Roman citizens had promised to build 55 years earlier. On June 4, 1944, Allied troops were poised to enter Rome, citizens prayed for deliverance and an hour later German troops withdrew from the city.
2000 - Angry over British authorities' decision to restrict traditional Protestant parades in Catholic areas of Northern Ireland, youths set vehicles on fire and police trade gunshots with Protestant protesters in Belfast.
2001- Congolese President Joseph Kabila and Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni meet for first face-to-face peace talks in Tanzania as part of an effort to end the three-year war in Congo.
2002 - An Egyptian immigrant armed with two handguns and a hunting knife fatally shoots two people and injures several others near the El Al Israel Airlines ticket counter at Los Angeles International Airport before being shot to death by a security guard.
2003 - Three suspected Muslim militants attack a Shiite mosque in Quetta, Pakistan, opening fire during Friday prayers and killing 53 people.
2004 - Indonesia's young democracy holds its first direct presidential election, coming six years after President Suharto's 32-year dictatorship was overthrown.
2005 - Two Albanians are shot and killed during celebrations of parliamentary elections in the Balkan country that had been criticized by election monitors as only partially meeting international standards.
2006 - North Korea test-fires a long-range missile and four shorter range missiles in an exercise the U.S. terms "a provocation" but not an immediate threat.
2007 - British Broadcasting Corp. reporter Alan Johnston is released after nearly four months in captivity in the Gaza Strip, where he was held by the shadowy, little-known militant group Army of Islam.
2008 - Italy grants Pompeii emergency status, a move that will allow authorities to appoint a special commissioner to oversee the site's preservation and management.
2009 - North Korea launches seven ballistic missiles into waters off its east coast in a show of military firepower that defies U.N. resolutions and draws global expressions of condemnation and concern.
2010 - Interim president Bronislaw Komorowski appears to have held off a last-minute surge from the identical twin brother of the late Polish president, who died in an April plane crash that shocked the country and forced an early election.
2011 - A belligerent Ratko Mladic repeatedly disobeys and shouts at judges during an arraignment at the Yugoslav war crimes tribunal. Finally, the former Serb is thrown out of the hearing and the court enters not guilty pleas on his behalf to 11 charges of masterminding the worst atrocities of the Bosnian war.
2012 - Pakistan's decision to end a seven-month blockade of NATO troops supplies is a rate bright spot in relations with the U.S., but disagreements over issues like American drone strikes and Islamabad's support for Taliban militants still hamper a relationship vital to stability in neighboring Afghanistan.
2013 — France says it has confirmed that the nerve gas sarin was used "multiple times in a localized way" in Syria, including at least once by the regime.
Today's Birthdays:
Nathaniel Hawthorne, U.S. author (1804-1882); Giuseppe Garibaldi, Italian soldier-statesman (1807-1882); Louis Armstrong, U.S. jazz musician (1900-1971); Neil Simon, U.S. playwright (1927--); Geraldo Rivera, TV personality/news correspondent (1943--); John Waite, singer (1955--).
Thought For Today:
If a man does not keep pace with his companions, perhaps it is because he hears a different drummer. Let him step to the music which he hears, however measured or far away — Henry David Thoreau (1817-1862).
News Topics: General news, Christianity, Militant groups, War and unrest, Music, Crime, Government and politics, Religion, Social affairs, Entertainment, Arts and entertainmentPeople, Places and Companies: Lewis Carroll, Eduard Shevardnadze, Pope John Paul II, Joseph Kabila, Yoweri Museveni, Alan Johnston, Bronislaw Komorowski, Ratko Mladic, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Louis Armstrong, Neil Simon, Geraldo Rivera, John Waite, Henry David Thoreau, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Uganda, Pakistan, United States, Israel, Italy, France, Middle East, East Africa, Central Africa, Africa, South Asia, Asia, North America, Western Europe, Europe
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