THE DAY IN HISTORY · JULY 4

July 4 in history

What happened on July 4: 5 moments from the Maps of History atlases, in 1187, 1776, 1838, 1863 and 1946, each linked to the map that shows it.

1187 — Battle of Hattin

4 Jul 1187 — Saladin lures the army of Jerusalem onto a waterless plateau at the Horns of Hattin and destroys it. The True Cross is captured, and the kingdom is left almost undefended. It is the single worst day in Outremer’s history.

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1776

The Continental Congress adopts the Declaration of Independence. “We hold these truths to be self-evident…”

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1838 — Huskar Pit disaster

4 Jul 1838 — At this South Yorkshire colliery, a storm floods the ventilation drift. Twenty-six children drown; the youngest is seven years old. The outcry helps bring about the Mines Act of 1842.

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1863 — Siege of Vicksburg

4 Jul 1863 — The fortress on the bluffs surrenders with 30,000 men, a day after Pickett’s Charge. Grant’s campaign has included feints, five battles in eighteen days, and a 47-day siege. The surrender cuts the Confederacy in two.

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1946 — Kielce pogrom

4 Jul 1946 — A false rumor about a kidnapped child leads to a pogrom in Kielce. Soldiers, police and townspeople kill 42 Jews who had survived the Holocaust. In the following months some 90,000 to 100,000 Jews leave Poland, most for the American zone of Germany. Remember them.

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