Today is Friday, July 3, the 184th day of 2026. On this day in 1863, the Civil War Battle of Gettysburg in Pennsylvania ended in a major victory for the North as Confederate troops failed to breach Union positions during an assault known as Pickett’s Charge.
Other Notable Events
In 1775, Gen. George Washington took command of the Continental Army at Cambridge, Massachusetts. In 1944, during World War II, Soviet forces recaptured Minsk from the Germans. In 1950, the first carrier strikes of the Korean War took place as the USS Valley Forge and the HMS Triumph sent fighter planes against North Korean targets.
In 1971, singer Jim Morrison of The Doors died in Paris at age 27. In 1979, Dan White, convicted of voluntary manslaughter in the shooting deaths of San Francisco Mayor George Moscone and Supervisor Harvey Milk, was sentenced to seven years and eight months in prison.
In 1986, President Ronald Reagan presided over a gala ceremony in New York Harbor that saw the relighting of the renovated Statue of Liberty. In 1988, the USS Vincennes shot down an Iran Air jetliner over the Persian Gulf, killing all 290 people aboard.
In 2011, Novak Djokovic won his first Wimbledon, beating defending champion Rafael Nadal. In 2012, Andy Griffith, who made homespun American Southern wisdom his trademark as the wise sheriff in “The Andy Griffith Show,” died at his North Carolina home. He was 86.
Original reporting: Texarkana Gazette — read the source article.
