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On July 4, 1776, the Continental Congress adopted the Declaration of Independence.
In 1802 the U.S. Military Academy opened at West Point, N.Y.
In 1826 the second and third presidents of the U.S., John Adams and Thomas Jefferson, died.
In 1831 James Monroe, the fifth U.S. president, died.
In 1863 Union troops under Gen. Ulysses S. Grant defeated Confederate forces at Vicksburg, Miss., ending a 14-month siege.
In 1872 Calvin Coolidge, the 30th U.S. president, was born in Plymouth, Vt.
In 1900 Jazz great Louis Armstrong was born in New Orleans.
In 1939 in a farewell speech to fans in Yankee Stadium, baseball great Lou Gehrig called himself ”the luckiest man on the face of the Earth.”
