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What happened on July 5 in American history
July 5 is the 186th day of the year (the 187th in leap years). Patriot Compass has published 12 stories from July 5 spanning 1775 to 2016. Among them: in 1775, Congress sends King George a loyalty oath and a list of grievances; the delegates call it their olive branch; and in 1814, Scott's regulars break Riall's line at Chippawa; the British general had taken them for militia.
1775
Congress sends King George a loyalty oath and a list of grievances; the delegates call it their olive branch
Hancock and the full Congress sign the petition in Philadelphia, and envoys Richard Penn and Arthur Lee are bound for London with the appeal.
1814
Scott's regulars break Riall's line at Chippawa; the British general had taken them for militia
After 25 minutes of volley fire on open ground near the Niagara, the Right Division's lines collapse and American regulars prove they can stand against British veterans.
1852Member story · 1776 Club
Douglass tells a packed Rochester hall: the Fourth of July is "yours, not mine"
Speaking the day after Independence Day at Corinthian Hall, he calls slavery "the great sin and shame of America" before a mostly white crowd invited by the Ladies' Anti-Slavery Society.
1859
Captain Brooks claims a mid-Pacific atoll for the United States; he calls it the Middlebrook Islands
The sealing ship Gambia raised the flag under the Guano Islands Act, planting a U.S. claim a third of the way between Honolulu and Tokyo.
1865Member story · 1776 Club
McCulloch swears in Wood to lead the Secret Service; the new agency's only target is counterfeiters
Three months after Appomattox, Treasury stands up its first detective force to fight a flood of fake U.S. currency that has spread across the country since the war.
1915Member story · 1776 Club
Liberty Bell boards a westbound train; Philadelphia vows it will never leave home again
Souvenir hunters have already chipped away more than one percent of its weight; the bell is bound for San Francisco's Panama-Pacific Exposition, its first trip west of St. Louis.
1935Member story · 1776 Club
Roosevelt signs the Wagner Act; private workers now have the right to organize, bargain, and strike
The law creates a new federal board to police unfair labor practices and run union elections, replacing years of company-run "unions."
1950Member story · 1776 Club
Task Force Smith breaks at Osan; 540 Americans scatter before North Korean tanks their bazookas cannot stop
Lt. Col. Smith's men held a rainy hillside 25 miles south of Seoul for seven hours against a column of 5,000 before the line gave way.
1971Member story · 1776 Club
Nixon certifies the Twenty-sixth Amendment; 10 million young Americans can now vote
The states ratified it in roughly 100 days, faster than any prior amendment, closing the gap between the draft and the ballot box.
1984Member story · 1776 Club
Supreme Court rules 6-3: evidence from a bad warrant stands if officers trusted it in good faith
Justice White writes the majority; Brennan and Marshall dissent, warning the Fourth Amendment's guarantee now depends on police sincerity, not judicial rigor.
1994Member story · 1776 Club
Bezos quits Wall Street, incorporates a bookstore called Cadabra in his Bellevue garage
Web usage is climbing 2,300 percent a year; the 30-year-old typed the business plan during the drive out from New York.
2016Member story · 1776 Club
Juno fires its engine for 35 minutes and slips into orbit around Jupiter
After 2.8 billion kilometers and five years in flight, the solar-powered probe is the first of its kind to work this far from the sun.
Read the full July 5 edition →
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