#TodayInHistory – July 3

July 3 – Some important events on this day.

324 👉🏼 Battle of Adrianople: Roman Emperor Constantine I defeats his co-emperor Licinius, who flees to Byzantium
1187 👉🏼 Battle of Horns of Hattin: Saladin, Sultan of Egypt and Syria, destroys Jerusalem’s crusader army

1250 👉🏼 Louis IX of France is captured by Baibars’ Mamluk army at the Battle of Fariskur while he is in Egypt conducting the Seventh Crusade. He later has to ransom himself.
King Louis IX of France was a zealous Christian man who reigned with an iron hand in matters of religion. It comes as no surprise then that he decided his role as a Christian outweighed his role as King of France and he embarked on the Seventh Crusade.
The crusade was a six-year disaster. At the Battle of Al Mansurah, his army was destroyed, and at the following Battle of Fariskur, he himself was captured by the Egyptians. After a month of captivity he was ransomed for 400,000 dinars and allowed to leave, provided the French gave up all their claims in Egypt.
The disaster of this crusade did not dim his hopes of taking back the holy land: instead he launched another crusade in 1267. Shortly after landing at Carthage however dysentery broke out in the camp and Louis himself died of the disease in 1270.

1863 👉🏼 Battle of Gettysburg, largest battle ever fought on the American continent, ends in a major victory for the Union during the US Civil War
1884 👉🏼 Dow Jones publishes its 1st stock index, the Dow Jones Transportation Average
1913 👉🏼 Common tern banded in Maine; found dead in 1919 in Africa (1st bird known to have crossed the Atlantic)

1922 👉🏼 Intergovernmental Conference on Identity Certificates for Russian Refugees, convened by Fridtjof Nansen in Geneva, creates the Nansen passports (for stateless persons).
Fridtjof Nansen was Norwegian explorer, scientist, diplomat and humanitarian who was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1922 for his work on behalf of the displaced victims of the First World War and related conflicts.

1986 👉🏼 US President Reagan presides over relighting of renovated Statue of Liberty
1987 👉🏼 2 men became 1st hot-air balloon travelers to cross Atlantic
1970 👉🏼 200,000 attend Atlanta Pop Festival
1996 👉🏼 UK House of Commons announces that the Stone of Scone, aka the Stone of Destiny, used in the coronation of Scottish (and subsequently English and British monarchs), will be returned to Scotland after 700 years in Westminster Abbey