Record: 8-5 - Home: 2-3 - Road: 6-2
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1776: The Declaration of Independence adopted by the Second Continental Congress. Coincidentally, fifty years to the day later, the second President, John Adams, and third President, Thomas Jefferson, both die. Five more years, and again on July 4th, President #5, James Monroe passed away. Congress had voted to declare independence two days earlier, leading Adams to write, "The second day of July, 1776, will be the most memorable epoch in the history of America. I am apt to believe that it will be celebrated by succeeding generations as the great anniversary festival." LOLAdams.
- 1862: In a rowing boat travelling on the Isis from Folly Bridge, Oxford to Godstow for a picnic outing, 10-year-old Alice Liddell asks family frient Charles Dodgson to entertain her and her sisters, Edith and Lorina, with a story. As the Reverend Robinson Duckworth rowed the boat, Dodgson regaled the girls with fantastic stories of a girl, named Alice, and her adventures after she fell into a rabbit-hole. The story would grow into Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and its sequels.
- 1939: Lou Gehrig, recently diagnosed with Lou Gehrig's disease - really, what are the odds against that? - announces his retirement from major league baseball and tells a crowd at Yankee Stadium that he considers himself "The luckiest man on the face of the earth." Gehrig went on. "I have been in ballparks for seventeen years and have never received anything but kindness and encouragement from you fans... I might have been given a bad break, but I've got an awful lot to live for."
- Born today: Pauline Phillips, ("Dear Abby" advice columnist), Gina Lollobrigida, Bill Withers, Pam Shriver, and among baseball players, Vinnie Castilla, Hall of Famer Mickey Welch and former D-backs short-stop, and Jays reliever, Sergio Santos.