TODAY IN HISTORY: JULY 2

July 2 1776: American colonies declared independence
On this day in 1776, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, the Continental Congress adopted the Declaration of Independence, which proclaimed the independence of a new United States of America from Great Britain and its king. The declaration came 442 days after the first shots of the American Revolution were fired at Lexington and Concord in Massachusetts and marked an ideological expansion of the conflict that would eventually involve France’s intervention on behalf of the Americans.

The first major American opposition to British policy came in 1765 after Parliament passed the Stamp Act, a taxation measure designed to raise revenues for a standing British army in America. Under the banner of “no taxation without representation,” colonists convened the Stamp Act Congress in October 1765 to vocalize their opposition to the tax. With its enactment in November, most colonists called for a boycott of British goods, and some organized attacks on customhouses and homes of tax collectors.

After months of protest in the colonies, Parliament finally voted to repeal the Stamp Act in March 1766. Most colonists continued to quietly accept British rule until Parliament’s enactment of the Tea Act in 1773, a bill designed to save the faltering British East India Company by greatly lowering its tea tax and granting it a monopoly on the American tea trade. The low tax allowed the company to undercut even tea smuggled into America by Dutch traders, and many colonists viewed the act as another example of taxation tyranny.

In response, militant colonists in Massachusetts organized the “Boston Tea Party,” which saw British tea valued at some £18,000 dumped into Boston Harbor. Parliament, outraged by the Boston Tea Party and other blatant acts of destruction of British property, enacted the Coercive Acts, called the Intolerable Acts by the colonists, in 1774. The Coercive Acts closed Boston to merchant shipping, established formal British military rule in Massachusetts, made British officials immune to criminal prosecution in America and required colonists to quarter British troops.

In response, the colonists called the first Continental Congress to consider united American resistance to the British. With the other colonies watching intently, Massachusetts led the resistance to the British, forming a shadow revolutionary government and establishing militias to resist the increasing British military presence across the colony. In April 1775, Thomas Gage, the British governor of Massachusetts, ordered British troops to march to Concord, Massachusetts, where a Patriot arsenal was known to be located. On April 19, 1775, the British regulars encountered a group of American militiamen at Lexington, and the first shots of the American Revolution were fired. Initially, both the Americans and the British saw the conflict as a kind of civil war within the British empire. To King George III, it was a colonial rebellion, and to the Americans, it was a struggle for their rights as British citizens. However, Parliament remained unwilling to negotiate with the American rebels and instead hired Hessians, German mercenaries, to help the British army crush the rebellion.

In response to Britain’s continued opposition to reform, the Continental Congress began to pass measures abolishing British authority in the colonies. In January 1776, Thomas Paine published Common Sense, an influential political pamphlet that convincingly argued for American independence and sold more than 500,000 copies in just a few months. In the spring of 1776, support for independence swept the colonies, the Continental Congress called for states to form their own governments and a five-man committee was assigned to draft a declaration. The Declaration of Independence was largely the work of Virginian Thomas Jefferson. In justifying American independence, Jefferson drew generously from the political philosophy of John Locke, an advocate of natural rights, and from the work of other English theorists. The declaration features the immortal lines, “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.” It then goes on to present a long list of grievances that provided the rationale for rebellion. On July 2, 1776, the Continental Congress voted to approve a Virginia motion calling for separation from Britain. The dramatic words of this resolution were added to the closing of the Declaration of Independence.

Two days later, on July 4, the declaration was formally adopted by 12 colonies after minor revision. New York, the 13th colony, approved it on July 19. On August 2, the declaration was signed. The American War for Independence would last for five years. Yet to come were the Patriot triumphs at Saratoga, the bitter winter at Valley Forge, the intervention of the French and the final victory at Yorktown in 1781. In 1783, with the signing of the Treaty of Paris with Britain, the United States formally became a free and independent nation.

July 2 1942 - World War II: North Africa

British Commander-in-Chief (Middle East) Claude Auchinleck, acting on information obtained by Ultra, sends troops south to outflank General Erwin Rommel's PanzerArmee Afrika but hits them head-on instead. The ensuing tank battle last well into the night with Rommel's limited forces holding off the British through the use of 8.8cm FlaK 36 Guns used as anti-tank artillery.

July 2 1967

Egyptian and Israeli forced clash across the Suez Canal.

July 2 1990: Pilgrim stampede killed 1,400

A stampede of religious pilgrims in a pedestrian tunnel in Mecca left more than 1,400 people dead on this day in 1990. This was the most deadly of a series of incidents over 20 years affecting Muslims making the trip to Mecca.

To the followers of Islam, traveling to Mecca in Saudi Arabia is known as performing the Hajj. The pilgrimage is one of the five pillars of the religion and must be done at least once in a follower’s lifetime, if personal circumstances permit. More than 2 million people make the journey every year. Typically, pilgrims celebrate the feast of Al-Adha and visit the area’s many holy sites during their stay.

The large number of people involved in the hajj has often led to tragedy. In 1987, a confrontation between Iranians and Saudis during an anti-American demonstration resulted in 400 deaths. In addition, a ritual in Mina has been the scene of several tragic incidents. There, in a valley near the birthplace of Mohammed, there is a giant pillar representing the devil. The pilgrims throw stones at the pillar over a three-day period. In 1994, 270 people died when too many rushed forward for the stoning. In 1998, at least 110 people were killed in a similar situation and another 180 were seriously injured. In both 2001 and 2002, more than 30 people died at Mina and, in 2003, another 244 pilgrims were killed in a stampede there. In 2006, 363 were killed.

Stampedes have not been the only source of tragedy–a fire in a tent in Mina killed 340 people and injured more than 1,400 more in 1997. Two separate plane crashes carrying pilgrims back home from Saudi Arabia in 1991 killed 261 and 91 people respectively.

In the 1990 tragedy, organizational failures by law enforcement officials combined with the enormous size of the crowd resulted in 1,426 people being crushed or suffocated to death in a long tunnel. Safety measures were taken in the aftermath, but with only limited success.

July 2 1992: Chevrolet built 1 millionth Corvette

The 1 millionth Corvette, a white LT1 roadster with a red interior and a black roof–the same colors as the original 1953 model–rolled off the assembly line in Bowling Green, Kentucky on this day in 1992.

The Corvette, America’s first all-fiberglass-bodied sports car, made its splashy debut in January 1953 as part of General Motors’ traveling Motorama display at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel in New York City. It went into production the following June, with a base sticker price of $3,760 (around $30,000 in today’s dollars). Despite its sleek, aerodynamic exterior and the fanfare that announced its arrival, early sales of the Corvette were unimpressive. Many sports car enthusiasts scoffed at this American response to the flashy, high-performance European models, with its standard family-car components–including “Blue Flame” six-cylinder engines, two-speed Powerglide automatic transmissions and drum brakes from Chevrolet’s regular car line–and its lack of a stick-shift option.

By contrast, the Corvette’s primary American competitor, the Ford Thunderbird, was an immediate hit when it debuted in 1955, selling more than 14,000 that year (compared to just 700 Corvettes). Faced with the Thunderbird’s success, Chevrolet made significant improvements to the Corvette’s performance, including adding a V-8 engine in 1955. By 1961, the Corvette had become America’s favorite sports car. Annual production of the Corvette peaked at 53,807 in 1979; after that, yearly numbers dwindled due to increasing competition from foreign-made models.

The ceremony celebrating the production of the 1 millionth Corvette on July 2, 1992, featured a prominent appearance by Zora Arkus-Duntov, the Russian engineer and race car driver who was credited with turning Chevrolet’s “dream car” into a classic. Arkus-Duntov had seen the original Corvette prototype at the Waldorf-Astoria in 1953, while he was working for a British racing car company. Struck by the gulf between the car’s innovative design and its relatively lackluster engine, he applied for a job at Chevrolet. He subsequently spearheaded efforts to add ever more powerful engines to the Corvette, which jumped from 150-horsepower in 1953 to 283 by 1957.

Arkus-Duntov also introduced a fuel-injection system that later became standard on many vehicles, and the first four-wheel disc brakes to be used on a mass-produced American car. Wanting the Corvette to rise to the level of Porsche, Ferrari and Mercedes, Arkus-Duntov created the Corvette Grand Sport Program in 1963, bringing Corvette to the highest levels of international competition. Arkus-Duntov retired from GM in 1975; he died in 1996, at the age of 86.

Source: history.com