Today in History: US Congress proclaims the Declaration of Independence from Great Britain

The following are some of the major events to have occurred on July 4:

1776 - US Congress proclaims the Declaration of Independence and independence from Great Britain. 

1803 - The Louisiana Purchase is announced to the American people by President Thomas Jefferson. 

1918 – New Sultan of Turkey proclaimed at Constantinople.

1934 – Marie Curie, Polish-French physicist and Nobel Prize winner, died.

1943 – Wladyslaw Sikorski, Polish statesman and prime minister, was killed in an air crash. He led Poland’s government in exile during World War Two.

1946 – Philippines gained independence from United States.

1976 – Israel launched a commando raid on Entebbe airport in Uganda to rescue 102 hostages held by Arab and West German hijackers of an Air France plane.

1994 – French President Francois Mitterrand became the first foreigner to address South Africa’s post-apartheid parliament.

1997 – The U.S. Pathfinder space probe landed on Mars.

2002 – Indian-born Dhani Bachmann is sworn in to the Swiss Guard, which has protected popes for nearly 500 years.

2003 – Barry White, veteran US soul singer, died. Best known for smoky ballads like “Can’t Get Enough of Your Love” and “You’re the First, The Last, My Everything”. He was 58.

2004 – Families of the victims of the 9/11 attacks joined New York City’s mayor to lay the granite cornerstone of the “Freedom Tower” skyscraper at the site of the destroyed World Trade Centre.

2007 – Alan Johnston, the BBC journalist held hostage in the Gaza Strip, was freed after a deal between the ruling Hamas and the al Qaeda-inspired clan that kidnapped him in March.

(Reuters)