#TodayInHistory – July 2

July 2 – Some important events on this day.

626 👉🏼 Incident at Xuanwu Gate: in fear of assassination, Li Shimin ambushes and kills his rival brothers Li Yuanji and Li Jiancheng
1505 👉🏼 After an encounter with a violent thunderstorm, Martin Luther declares that he will become a monk
1776 👉🏼 Continental Congress resolves “these United Colonies are and of right ought to be Free and Independent States”
1816 👉🏼 French frigate “La Méduse” runs aground under incompetent leadership of aristocrat Viscount of Chaumareys, forcing evacuation of 400 passengers. 150 men, 1 woman are left on “la Machine,” a poorly provisioned raft. 13 days later only 15 survivors remain due to starvation, riots, madness, suicide, and cannibalism
1823 👉🏼 Bahia Independence Day: the end of Portuguese rule in Brazil, with the final defeat of the Portuguese crown loyalists in the province of Bahia
1839 👉🏼 Slaves aboard a Spanish schooner La Amistad revolt to secure their freedom while being transported from one Cuban port to another

1843 👉🏼 An alligator falls from sky during a thunderstorm in Charleston, South Carolina.

1964 👉🏼 US President Lyndon B. Johnson signs Civil Rights Act and Voting Rights Act into law
1990 👉🏼 1,426 pilgrims trampled to death after a panic in a tunnel in Mecca, Saudi Arabia
1997 👉🏼 “Men in Black” premieres in theaters
2003 👉🏼 Silvio Berlusconi, Prime Minister of Italy, insults German MP Martin Schulz by calling him a “kapo” during a session of the European Parliament.
2010 👉🏼 Oil tanker truck explosion in South Kivu, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, kills at least 230 people