TODAY IN HISTORY

Today is Saturday, July 4, the 186th day of 2020. There are 180 days left in the year. This is Independence Day.

Today’s Highlight in History:

On July 4, 1776, the Declaration of Independence was adopted by delegates to the Second Continental Congress in Philadelphia.

On this date:

■ In 1802, the United States Military

Academy officially opened at West Point,

New York.

■ In 1817, ground was broken for the Erie Canal in Rome, New York. The middle section of the waterway took three years to complete; the entire canal was finished in 1825.

■ In 1826, 50 years to the day after the Declaration of Independence was adopted, former presidents John Adams and Thomas Jefferson both died.

■ In 1831, the fifth president of the United States, James Monroe, died in New York City at age 73.

■ In 1939, Lou Gehrig of the New York

Yankees delivered his famous farewell speech in which he called himself “the luckiest man on the face of the earth.”

■ In 1946, the Philippines became independent of U.S. sovereignty.

■ In 1976, America celebrated its bicentennial with daylong festivities; President Gerald R. Ford made stops in Valley Forge, Pennsylvania, Independence Hall in Philadelphia and New York, where more than 200 ships paraded up the Hudson River in Operation Sail.

■ In 1987, Klaus Barbie, the former Gestapo chief known as the “Butcher of Lyon,” was convicted by a French court of crimes against humanity and sentenced to life in prison (he died in September 1991).

Today’s Birthdays: Actress Eva Marie Saint is 96. Actress Gina Lollobrigida is 93. Rhythm and blues singer Annette Beard (Martha and the Vandellas) is 77. Broadcast journalist Geraldo Rivera is 77. Rhythm and blues musician Ralph Johnson (Earth, Wind and Fire) is 69. Christian rock singer Michael Sweet is 57.Malia Obama is 22.