On This Day in History - July 3rd - Almanac

Today is Sunday, July 3, the 185th day of 2016 with 181 to follow.

The moon is waning. Morning stars are Neptune and Uranus. Evening stars are Venus, Mercury, Jupiter, Mars and Saturn.

Those born on this date are under the sign of Cancer. They include Welsh poet/writer William Henry Davies ("The Autobiography of a Super-Tramp") in 1871; actor/singer/composer George M. Cohan in 1878; Czech novelist Franz Kafka in 1883; actor George Sanders in 1906; journalist/columnist Dorothy Kilgallen in 1913; Jerry Gray, bandleader/arranger for Glenn Miller, in 1915; English filmmaker Ken Russell in 1927; jazz clarinetist Pete Fountain in 1930 (age 86); English playwright Tom Stoppard in 1937 (age 79); singer Fontella Bass in 1940; former Polish Prime Minister Jerzy Buzek in 1940, (age 76); celebrity attorney Gloria Allred in 1941 (age 75); humorist Dave Barry in 1947 (age 69); actor Betty Buckley in 1947 (age 69); overthrown Haitian dictator Jean-Claude "Baby Doc" Duvalier in 1951; talk show host Montel Williams in 1956 (age 60); pop singer Laura Branigan in 1957; actor Tom Cruise in 1962 (age 54); actor Thomas Gibson in 1962 (age 54); actor Yeardley Smith in 1964 (age 52); actor/singer Audra McDonald in 1970 (age 46); champion Formula 1 driver Sebastian Vettel in 1987 (age 29).

On this date in history:

In 1608, French explorer Samuel de Champlain founded the Canadian town of Quebec.

In 1775, George Washington took command of the Continental Army at Cambridge, Mass.

In 1863, the Union army under the command of Gen. George Meade defeated Confederate forces commanded by Gen. Robert E. Lee at Gettysburg, Pa.

In 1915, J.P. Morgan Jr., son of renowned banker and financier J. P. Morgan, was shot twice in the groin by Eric Muenter, a German professor at Harvard University. Morgan survived the would-be assassination attempt.

In 1971, rock star Jim Morrison, 27, was found dead of heart failure in a bathtub in Paris.

In 1986, Rudy Vallee, one of the United States' most popular singers in the 1920s and '30s, died at the age of 84.

In 1988, during the Iran-Iraq War, missiles fired from the USS Vincennes brought down an Iranian airliner in the Persian Gulf, killing all 290 people aboard. The United States said the ship's crew had incorrectly identified the jetliner, believing it was an attacking Iranian fighter jet. Years later, the United States agreed to pay millions of dollars in reparations for what it called "a terrible human tragedy."

In 1996, Boris Yeltsin was re-elected president of Russia, defeating Gennadi Zyuganov in a runoff.

In 2009, Sarah Palin, who became a national figure as the Republican candidate for vice president in 2008, announced she was resigning as governor of Alaska with 17 months to go in her term.

In 2010, at least 230 people were killed in an explosion sparked by a cigarette near an overturned oil tanker truck in the Republic of the Congo.

In 2012, actor Andy Griffith, most famous for his role as a wise, folksy sheriff in the long-running TV show that bore his name, died at his home in North Carolina. He was 86.

In 2013, the Egyptian military removed President Mohamed Morsi from office and announced it was suspending the constitution and planning new elections.

In 2014, the Dow Jones industrial average reached the 17,000 mark for the first time.

A thought for the day: "What is the essence of America? Finding and maintaining that perfect, delicate balance between freedom "to" and freedom "from." -- Marilyn vos Savant