What are the important events that happened on July 4? Here are historical events, facts, and some myths about this day.

July 4: Facts & Myths About This Day

July 4 is the 185^th day of the year 2025 in the Gregorian calendar. There are 180 days remaining until the end of this year. The day of the week is Friday.

Under the Julian calendar, this day is June 21, 2025 – a Friday. Both day of the week are the same but did you notice the difference with the Gregorian calendar?

When this day started, 486,552 hours has elapsed since midnight of January 1, 1970 – the Unix epoch.

Strange as it may, if we name this day after a polygon then it will be called ‘hectaoctacontapentagon’ day.

Cancer is the zodiac sign of a person born on this day. Ruby is the modern birthstone for this month. Ruby is the mystical birthstone from Tibetan origin that dates back over a thousand years.

According to the lunisolar Chinese calendar, there are 228 days remaining before the start of the next Chinese New Year.

The ancient Maya civilization believes that the end of the world will happen on December 21, 2012. There are now 4,578 days since this fabled cataclysmic event.

July 4: This Day In History

The Aphelion, the point in the year when the Earth is farthest from the Sun, occurs around this date.

July 4 Historical Events

• 1456 –
  The Siege of Nándorfehérvár (Belgrade) begins. (Part of the Ottoman wars in Europe)
• 1744 –
  The Treaty of Lancaster, in which the Iroquois ceded lands between the Allegheny Mountains and the Ohio River to the British colonies, is signed in Lancaster, Pennsylvania.
• 1802 –
  At West Point, New York the United States Military Academy opens.
• 1826 –
  Thomas Jefferson, third president of the United States, dies the same day as John Adams, second president of the United States, on the fiftieth anniversary of the adoption of the United States Declaration of Independence.
• 1878 –
  Thoroughbred horses Ten Broeck and Mollie McCarty run a match race, immortalized in the song Molly and Tenbrooks.
• 1892 –
  Western Samoa changes the International Date Line, so that year there were 367 days in this country, with two occurrences of Monday, July 4.
• 1946 –
  After 381 years of near-continuous colonial rule by various powers, the Philippines attains full independence from the United States.
• 1951 –
  A court in Czechoslovakia sentences American journalist William N. Oatis to ten years in prison on a charge of espionage.
• 1966 –
  President Lyndon B. Johnson signs the Freedom of Information Act into United States law. The act goes into effect the next year.
• 1976 –
  Israeli commandos raid Entebbe airport in Uganda, rescuing all but four of the passengers and crew of an Air France jetliner seized by Palestinian terrorists.

Who were born on July 4?

• 1804 –
  Nathaniel Hawthorne, American writer (d. 1864)
• 1905 –
  Irving Johnson, American adventurer (d. 1991)
• 1918 –
  Ann Landers, American advice columnist (d. 2002)
• 1918 –
  King Taufa'ahau Tupou IV of Tonga (d. 2006)
• 1924 –
  Eva Marie Saint, American actress
• 1927 –
  Neil Simon, American playwright
• 1937 –
  Thomas Nagel, American philosopher
• 1972 –
  Stephen Giles, Canadian canoer
• 1981 –
  Francisco Cruceta, Dominican baseball player
• 1983 –
  Mattia Serafini, Italian footballer

Who died on July 4?

• 1541 –
  Pedro de Alvarado, Spanish explorer (b. 1495)
• 1831 –
  James Monroe, 5th President of the United States (b. 1758)
• 1854 –
  Karl Friedrich Eichhorn, German jurist (b. 1781)
• 1934 –
  Maria Sklodowska-Curie, Nobel Prize in Chemistry and Physics (b. 1867)
• 1938 –
  Otto Bauer, Austrian Social Democratic politician (b. 1881)
• 1988 –
  Adrian Adonis, American professional wrestler (b. 1954)
• 1993 –
  Bona Arsenault, French Canadian politician and historian (b. 1903)
• 1995 –
  Eva Gabor, Hungarian actress (b. 1919)
• 2008 –
  Evelyn Keyes, American actress (b. 1916)
• 2011 –
  Otto von Habsburg, last crown prince of Austria-Hungary and MEP (1979–1999) (b. 1912)