JULY ACTIVITIES: http://www.geocities.com/chicky-ma-ma/july.html
Celebrate summer with your preschoolers. Paint some ladybug rocks, make an American flag, play with sand, or design a cloud... find creative ways to expand your curriculum with summer activities.

July is Save the Koala Month and Friday 25th July is Save the Koala Day 2003
AUSTRALIAN KOALA FOUNDATION: http://www.savethekoala.com/

July is the month of France's largest sporting event: le Tour de France, a 2000-mile cross-country bicycle race.

In 1984, President Ronald Reagan designated July as National Ice Cream Month and the third Sunday of the month as National Ice Cream Day.
BEN AND JERRYS: http://www.benjerry.com/
BombPop.Com:  http://www.bombpop.com/
Chocolate Chip Cookie Ice Cream Sandwich: http://www.verybestbaking.com/
Doc Wilson's Ice Cream Page: http://www.users.nwark.com/~piperw/icpage.htm
Easy Pumpkin Ice Cream: http://www.verybestbaking.com/
Edy's Grand Ice Cream: http://www.edys.com/main/index.asp?b=105
Fun Facts: http://www.brighams.com/ice_cream/facts.asp
Haagen Dazs Serving Ideas: http://www.haagen-dazs.com/
Hershey's Ice Cream: http://www.hersheyicecream.com/ 
History Of Ice Cream: http://www.heresthescoop.com/history.html
Ice Cream: http://www.preschooleducation.com/ticecream.shtml
Ice Cream Activities: http://www.perpetualpreschool.com/preschool_themes/ice_cream/ice_cream.htm
Ice Cream (Alliance) - Education Home Page: http://www.ice-cream.org/school/index.htm
Ice Cream Cones To Go: http://www.sesameworkshop.org/parents/activity/article/0,4117,100900,00.html
Ice Cream Game: http://alfy.lycos.com/Arcade/YoungKids/Icecream/index.asp
Ice Cream In A Bag: http://www.kidsdomain.com/craft/icecream.html
Ice Cream Machines: http://www.cgl.uwaterloo.ca/~smann/IceCream/machines.html
Ice Cream Making For Kids: http://makeicecream.com/sendicecream/icecreammakf.html
Ice Cream Man: http://www.streetplay.com/stories/icecream.htm 
Ice Cream Party: http://www.birthdaypartyideas.com/html/ice_cream_party.html
Ice Cream Poems: http://www.preschooleducation.com/sicecream.shtml
Ice Cream Recipes: http://www.cgl.uwaterloo.ca/~smann/IceCream/CGL.html
Ice Cream Recipes: http://makeicecream.com/sendicecream/recformakice.html
Ice Cream Scrap Book: http://www.cgl.uwaterloo.ca/~smann/IceCream/scrap.html
Ice Cream Songs: http://www.perpetualpreschool.com/preschool_themes/ice_cream/ice_cream_songs.htm
Ice Cream Theme: http://www.childfun.com/themes/icecream.shtml
Ice Cream Theme Unit: http://www.abcteach.com/Themeunits/IceCream/icecreamTOC.htm
The Joy Cone Kid's Page: http://www.joycone.com/joykids.html
July Is National Ice Cream Month!: http://www.easyfunschool.com/article1277.html
Mail A Meal Postcard: http://www.mailameal.com/icecream.html 
National Ice Cream Month Activites:
http://www.dltk-kids.com/crafts/summer/national_ice_cream_month.htm
Pierre Bear's Ice Cream Coloring Book: http://www.pierres.com/kids.shtml
Recipe Archive Ice Cream: http://www.ichef.com/ichef-recipes/Ice-cream/table-b.html
Tips On Using Ice Cream Makers: http://www.foodies.com/Tips/tips.html#makers
Turkey Hill Ice Cream Recipes: http://www.turkeyhill.com/recipes/ice-cream-recipes.asp
Virtual Ice Cream Cone: http://www.cybercones.com/
WE ALL SCREAM FOR ICE CREAM: http://www.riverdeep.net/current/2002/07/070102_icecream.jhtml
Ice and sugar combined to make sweet delicacies remained relegated to the ruling classes for ages. Your students will learn the fascinating history of ice cream--a perennial summer favorite--and find out just how many gallons of the sweet treat are consumed on U.S. soil each year. They will also visit with an ice cream flavor developer and taster, and get a chance to put their heads together to come up with a new flavor--and potentially win free ice cream.

Summer fun sites:
Earthcam Beach Web Cams: http://search.earthcam.com/kidsearch/kid_search_cam.php?cat=SCE&sub=B
This Earthcam page is a collection of links to beach cams from around the world. There are cams from the Italian Riviera, where rented beach umbrellas and chaise lounges are neatly arranged in rows.
Project Wipeout: http://www.hoag.org/ProjectWipout/ProjectWipeout.html
Project Wipeout is an educational beach safety program sponsored by Hoag Hospital of Newport Beach, California. Visit for water safety tips (Protect Yourself) and emergency instructions (Water Rescue Techniques.) Teachers and lifeguards can request a free Project Wipeout video by calling (949)574-6232.
Sand Castles: http://www.sandcastlecentral.com/
"We think the world would be a better place if more people were having fun in the sand. Seeing a completed work by a polished professional may make you think there is a certain amount of
magic involved... how do they make the sand stand like that? Well, here is your invitation to peek behind the wizard's curtain. All we ask in return is that you get out there and move some sand and make sure you have fun while you are at it." Tips are available online, as well as in a downloadable, printable PDF file. Links to other cool sand sculpture pages can be found in the Photos section.
Science of Surfing: http://www.discovery.com/news/features/surfing/surfing.html
"The last fifteen years have seen a dramatic change in our ability to predict when a good surfing swell will hit the coast, where it will break best and, roughly, how big it will be. Today, you don't have be a surf bum to ride good waves you just need access to accurate weather predictions." After learning which elements produce the best surf, try your hand at building the perfect wave (and taking a virtual surf on it) in this cool Discovery.com weather simulator. Next, surf on over to the Physics of Surfing to learn why surfing is like "running down the up escalator."
Sun Protection: http://sunprotection.org/
From the research department of L'Oréal cosmetics, Sun Protection starts with an excellent explanation of the short-and long-term effects of sun exposure. Next it delves into our
body's natural defenses (the production of melanin, the tanning pigment,) skin types, and sun solutions. If any of the scientific words stump you, you'll find a glossary link at the bottom of every page.
Beach Slider: http://www.surfnetkids.com/games/beach-sl.htm
Sun Safety Word Search: http://www.surfnetkids.com/games/sunscreen-ws.htm
Sun Protection Mix & Match: http://www.surfnetkids.com/games/sunscreen-mm.htm
SUMMER CYBER CAMP: http://www.worldbook.com/fun/wbla/camp/html/walk.html
Dare to enter the Mindbender Cave, where your students will apply logic to puzzling conundrums. Or hike along the Nature Walk to identify various flora and fauna in
your neighborhood. The Dining Hall offers kid-tested recipes, and the Craft Cabin offers hours of stimulating nature activities, such as stone sculptures, bamboo chimes, moccasins, shadow puppets, and more.
SUMMER THEME IDEAS: http://www.childfun.com/themes/summer.shtml
Seasonal fare addresses learning in the summer months, with vocabulary, nature walks, appropriate snacks, and science experiments.
SUMMER COLORING PAGES: http://www.coloring.ws/summer1.htm
Lots of sand castles and kites highlight the coloring pages available for printing at this site.
Apricot Summer Sundae: http://www.ichef.com/ichef-recipes/Desserts/29798.html
Baby Sister's Little Sister Summer Fill In Book: http://www.scholastic.com/annmartin/bsc/lib/littlesister1005.htm
Girls Of Summer: http://www.exploratorium.edu/baseball/girlsofsummer.html
Kids Games: http://www.gameskidsplay.net/
Slushies: http://www.kinderart.com/kitchen/slushies.shtml
Summer Fun: http://www.nt.net/~whogan/summer.htm
Summer Fun: http://www.eduplace.com/coming.html
Summer Fun On The Net: http://www.lalc.k12.ca.us/essay/7_18/funwebsites.html
Summer Reading For Kids 2002: http://www.vtnea.org/blist-16.htm
Summer Reading For Kids: Barnes and Nobles:
http://www.barnesandnoble.com/subjects/children/summer_reading_kids/index.asp
S ummer Reading Fun: http://www.ed.gov/americareads/summer.html
Summer Reading Lists: http://www.education-world.com/summer_reading/
Under The Sea And Summer Sun: http://www.angelfire.com/ga/prespecial/page78.html
Beach and Ocean: http://www.preschooleducation.com/beach.shtml
Heat Wavers: http://www.ctw.org/parents/activity/article/0,4117,7251,00.html
Hot Camps For Cool Kids: http://www.ctw.org/parents/advice/article/0,4125,88760,00.html
Summer Of Snuffy: http://www.ctw.org/sesame/stars/article/0,3005,94945,00.html
Summer Shower Games: http://www.ctw.org/parents/activity/article/0,4117,7385,00.html
Travel Boredom Busters: http://www.ctw.org/parents/advice/article/0,4125,759,00.html
A Charming Spice Girl Slumber Summer Party: http://www.boardmanweb.com/party/spice.htm
Beach In A Bag: http://www.kinderart.com/littles/beach.shtml
Bed In Summer: http://kididdles.com/mouseum/b046.html
Camping Catching Fireflies: http://www.kinderart.com/across/fireflies.shtml
Summer Poems: http://www.canteach.ca/elementary/songspoems6.html
Summer Things: http://www.cstone.net/~bry-back/actpag98.html
Active Vacations: http://www.ctw.org/parents/advice/article/0,4125,761,00.html
Beachy Keen: http://www.ctw.org/parents/advice/article/0,4125,638,00.html
Bert Sunbathes The Safe Way: http://www.ctw.org/preschool/printme/view/0,1155,59651,00.html
Fruity Tooty Smoothie: http://www.ctw.org/parents/activity/article/0,4117,58666,00.html
Piggyback Trips: http://www.ctw.org/parents/advice/article/0,4125,1088,00.html
Summer Reading Tips For Parents: http://www.ldonline.org/ld_indepth/parenting/readingtips.html
Great Vacations: http://www.ctw.org/parents/advice/article/0,4125,756,00.html
Pick Up And Go: http://www.ctw.org/parents/advice/article/0,4125,889,00.html
Safe Splashing: http://www.ctw.org/parents/advice/article/0,4125,1124,00.html
Strawberry Pizza: http://www.ctw.org/parents/advice/article/0,4125,962,00.html
Thrifty Tips For Nifty Trips: http://www.ctw.org/parents/advice/article/0,4125,803,00.html
Water Warning: http://www.ctw.org/parents/advice/article/0,4125,886,00.html
SUMMER COUNTING PRINTABLE: http://www.bry-backmanor.org/actpag205.html
For kindergarten children, here is a summer-themed counting page to download and print.
PBS: The American Experience - WayBack Summer Vacation:
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/kids/summer/
Kids Domain Summer Fun: http://www.kidsdomain.com/holiday/summer/index.html
Funroom: Summer: Index: http://www.funroom.com/summer/default.html
Summer Solstice: http://scienceworld.wolfram.com/astronomy/SummerSolstice.html
Summer Safety: http://outreach.missouri.ed u/newfront/summer/
Advice from University of Missouri Outreach and Extension
Summer: http://www.nuttinbutkids.com/summer.html
Summer Coloring Pages: http://www.kidsdomain.com/holiday/summer/color.html
Summer Crafts:
http://www.kidsdomain.com/craft/_summer.html
http://www.dltk-kids.com/crafts/summer/crafts.htm
Summer E-Cards: http://www.dltk-kids.com/crafts/summer/ecard.html
Summer Fun: http://www.angelfire.com/fl/preschoolfunzone/summerfun.html
Summer Reading: http://www.familyeducation.com/topic/front/0,1156,22-6514,00.html
Family Reading Activities: http://www.rif.org/fun/summer%20tips.htm
Fishing For Numbers: http://www.funschool.com/cgi-bin/ga?12_match1k,k
Math Baseball: http://www.funbrain.com/math/
Summer Activities: http://www.childfun.com/themes/summer.shtml
Summer Clip Art: http://www.kidsdomain.com/holiday/summer/clip.html
Summer Theme: http://preschoolrainbow.org/preschool-summer.htm
Beach Fun With Otty: http://www.kidsdomain.com/games/ours/underseaf/otty.htm
Fema Beach: http://www.fema.gov/kids/games/tsunami/index.htm
Free The Beach: http://www.funschool.com/cgi-bin/ga?cb1_ds1,36
Gone Fishing: http://www.kidsdomain.com/games/ours/underseaf/otty.htm
Splashin Fashion: http://disney.go.com/Kids/DisneyInteractive/dressariel/index.html
Summer Reading Plan: http://abcteach.com/MonthtoMonth/June/SummerReading.htm
Beach In A Bag: http://www.kinderart.com/littles/beach.htm 
Bed In Summer: http://kididdles.com/mouseum/b046.html 
Camping Catching Fireflies: http://www.kinderart.com/across/fireflies.htm 
Summer Poems: http://www.track0.com/canteach/elementary/songspoems6.html 
Summer Things: http://www.cstone.net/~bry-back/actpag98.html
Beach and Ocean: http://www.preschooleducation.com/beach.shtml 
Heat Wavers: http://www.ctw.org/parents/activity/article/0,4117,7251,00.html 
Summer Of Snuffy: http://www.ctw.org/sesame/stars/article/0,3005,94945,00.html Summer Shower Games: http://www.ctw.org/parents/activity/article/0,4117,7385,00.html Travel Boredom Busters: http://www.ctw.org/parents/advice/article/0,4125,759,00.html
Great Vacations: http://www.ctw.org/parents/advice/article/0,4125,756,00.html 
Pick Up And Go: http://www.ctw.org/parents/advice/article/0,4125,889,00.html 
Safe Splashing: http://www.ctw.org/parents/advice/article/0,4125,1124,00.html Strawberry Pizza: http://www.ctw.org/parents/advice/article/0,4125,962,00.html 
Thrifty Tips For Nifty Trips: http://www.ctw.org/parents/advice/article/0,4125,803,00.html 
Water Warning: http://www.ctw.org/parents/advice/article/0,4125,886,00.html
Active Vacations: http://www.ctw.org/parents/advice/article/0,4125,761,00.html 
Beachy Keen: http://www.ctw.org/parents/advice/article/0,4125,638,00.html 
Bert Sunbathes The Safe Way: http://www.ctw.org/preschool/printme/view/0,1155,59651,00.html 
Fruity Tooty Smoothie: http://www.ctw.org/parents/activity/article/0,4117,58666,00.html Piggyback Trips: http://www.ctw.org/parents/advice/article/0,4125,1088,00.html 
Summer Reading: http://www.educationworld.com/summer_reading/
Beachfront Dollhouse: http://www.ctw.org/parents/activity/article/0,4117,7580,00.html Ernie Goes Swimming: http://www.ctw.org/preschool/printme/view/0,1155,10395,00.html Footprint Alphabet: http://www.ctw.org/parents/activity/article/0,4117,7470,00.html 
I'll Be On Vacation: http://www.songs4teachers.com/endofyear2.pdf 
Summer File 1: http://millennium.fortunecity.com/plumpton/304/summer.txt 
Summer File 2: http://millennium.fortunecity.com/plumpton/304/summer2.txt 
Surf And Sun Fun: http://www.ctw.org/parents/activity/article/0,4117,7612,00.html
A Summer Day With Ted And Nina: http://www.deangeli.lapeer.org/Ted-Nina/Summer/summer.html 
Camping Games: http://www.corpcomm.net/~gnieboer/xtra_games.htm 
Combating The Summer Times Blues: http://www.ctw.org/parents/advice/article/0,4125,964,00.html 
Summer Friends: http://www.makingfriends.com/summer.htm#Summer 
Friends Summer Recipes: http://millennium.fortunecity.com/plumpton/304/summerrecipes.txt 
The Fisherman And His Wife: http://www.ipl.org/youth/StoryHour/Fisherman/fish.html
Summer: http://www.nuttinbutkids.com/summer.html 
Summer Coloring Pages: http://www.kidsdomain.com/holiday/summer/color.html Summer Crafts: http://www.kidsdomain.com/craft/_summer.html 
Summer Fun: http://www.angelfire.com/fl/preschoolfunzone/summerfun.html 
Summer Has Arrived: http://www.angelfire.com/mn/cozycottage/summer.html 
Summer Themes: http://members.xoom.com/Theme_ideas/summer.htm
July Internet Activities: http://www.activitiesforkids.com/summer/Julynotes.htm
Summer Calendar for July: http://www.activitiesforkids.com/summer/July.htm

Things to collect on a summer vacation  and what to do with them when you get home.

• Before you begin your trip, find a plain hat.  As you travel, collect buttons, patches, and other souvenirs that can be pinned, glued, or stitched to the cap at the end of each day or when you get home.  

• Before you leave home, purchase a polyester-blend T-shirt and trace it on cardboard.  Cut out the cardboard shape and slip it inside the T-shirt.  This will give a firm backing to draw against.  Draw highlights of each day onto the T-shirt with fabric crayons.  When you return hoe, follow the directions on the box of fabric crayons to set the art into the fabric.  Embellish the drawings with fabric paints, adding dates, places, and other information.  

• Purchase a laminated map of your travel destination.  Draw your route on the map with puff paint.  attach souvenirs.  Tape or glue postcards to the map, attach heavier items with brass fasteners, or punch hoes in the map and hang items with paper clips or string.  

• Purchase a clear plastic box frame.  Remove the lid.  For a background, glue a map of your travel location to the inside of the frame.  Add souvenirs such as ticket stubs, postcards, and photographs, then replace the lid and attach more items to the outside.  Hang your collection on a wall or place it on a desk. 

• Before your trip, purchase a plastic carrying case.  A you travel, pace all your great collectible items in it.  When you get home, open it and arrange your souvenirs on the shelves and in the bins of the case.  Make it your own by decorating with puff paint. 

July 1
Canada Day
CANADIAN FLAG PRINTABLE: http://www.kinderart.com/kindercolor/canadaflag.htm
Here are copies of the Canadian flag to print out and color--the maple leaf and side banners are red, while the background is white.
-1646: German philosopher Gottfried Leibnitz was born.
-1804: French novelist George Sand, a pseudonym for the woman Amandine Dupin, was born.
-1847: The first U.S. postage stamps were issued.
-1859: The first intercollegiate baseball game was played in Pittsfield, Mass. Amherst beat Williams, 66-32.
-1867: Canada was granted its independence by Great Britain. It consisted at the time of Nova Scotia, New Brunswick and future provinces of Ontario and Quebec.
-1872: Pioneer aviator Louis Bleriot was born.
-1874: The Philadelphia Zoological Society, the first U.S. zoo, opened to the public.
-1890: Actor Frank Morgan was born.
-1893: President Cleveland underwent secret surgery to remove a cancerous growth in his mouth. The operation did not become public knowledge until a newspaper article about
it was published on Sept. 22, 1917 -- nine years after Cleveland's death.
-1898: Teddy Roosevelt and his Rough Riders led the charge up Cuba's heavily-fortified San Juan Hill in a key Spanish-American War battle.
-1899: Actor Charles Laughton and composer Thomas Dorsey were born.
-1902: Film director William Wyler was born.
-1908: Cosmetics executive Estee Lauder was born.
-1915: Blues musician Willie Dixon was born.
-1916: Actress Olivia de Havilland was born. In the worst single day of casualties in British
military history, 20,000 soldiers were killed, 40,000 wounded in a massive offense against German forces in France's Somme River region during World War I.
-1931: Leslie Caron was born.
-1932: The Democrats nominated Franklin Delano Roosevelt for president. FDR eventually was elected to four consecutive terms.
-1934: Filmmaker Sydney Pollack and actress/writer Jean Marsh were born.
-1936: Actor Jamie Farr was born.
-1941: Choreographer Twyla Tharp was born. NBC broadcast the first FCC-sanctioned TV
commercial, a spot for Bulova watches shown during a Dodgers-Phillies game. It cost Bulova $9.
-1942: Actresses Karen Black and Genevieve Bujold were born.
-1945: Singer Deborah Harry was born.
-1946: The United States conducted its first post-war test of the atomic bomb, at Bikini Atoll in the Pacific.
-1952: Actor/comedian Dan Aykroyd was born.
-1961: Britain's Princess Diana was born.
-1962: Actor Andre Braugher was born.
-1967: Pamela Anderson Lee was born. One of the most prominent sex symbols of the 1990s, Anderson was responsible for the popular success of the syndicated television series "Baywatch." In its day, Baywatch was the most popular show in the world. Anderson's television success did not transfer well to the big screen. Despite mass publicity, including an appearance by Anderson at the Cannes Film Festival clad in a skintight cat suit, her first effort, Barb Wire, was both a critical and commercial failure. In 1998, Anderson returned to television as the
executive producer and star of V.I.P, in which she plays the owner of a bodyguard agency staffed exclusively by models. The series remains a success in syndication.
-1977: Liv Tyler was born.
-1979: Sony introduced the Walkman, known as the Sound-about, in U.S. stores. It sold for about $200.
-1990: The West and East German economies were united as the deutsche mark replaced the ost mark as currency in East Germany.
-1991: The Warsaw Pact ceased to exist.
-1994: The U.N. Security Council authorized a commission to investigate "acts of genocide" in Rwanda.
-1997: Hong Kong was returned to China after 99 years as a British territory.
-2002, Cannon fire and bombs from a U.S. Air Force AC-130 struck a town in southern Afghanistan, killing about 50 people, including members of a wedding party. U.S. officials
said the plane had been fired on. In a rare high altitude accident, a passenger airliner collided with a cargo plane over Germany, killing all 71 aboard.

July 2
-1788: It was announced in Congress that the new Constitution had been ratified by the required nine states, the ninth being New Hampshire.
-1839: African slaves being shipped to Cuba revolted and seized the ship Amistad, leading to eventual end of the African slave market.
-1877: German novelist Herman Hesse was born.
-1881: President James Garfield was shot by Charles Giteau. Garfield died Sept. 19.
-1900: The world's first rigid airship was demonstrated by Count Ferdinand Graf von Zeppelin in Germany.
-1903: King Olav V of Norway was born.
-1908: Former U.S. Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall was born. In 1935 he successfully
attacked segregation and discrimination in education when he participated in the desegregation of the University of Maryland Law School (where he had been denied admission because of race). Marshall became director of the NAACP's Legal Defense and Education Fund in 1939. A year earlier he had been admitted to practice before the U.S. Supreme Court, the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for the fourth, fifth, and eighth circuits, and the U.S. District Court for the Eastern
District of Louisiana. Justice Marshall had been born during Theodore Roosevelt's administration but lived to see African-Americans rise to positions of power and influence in America. To no small degree, the progress of black Americans toward equal opportunity turned upon the legal victories won by him. By his death, even in retirement, he had risen to the stature of mythic hero.
-1906: Singer/actor Ken Curtis was born.
-1917: As many as 75 blacks were killed in rioting in St. Louis.
-1922: Comedian Dan Rowan was born.
-1926: Civil rights activist Medgar Evers was born.
-1931: Imelda Marcos, wife of former Philippine President Fernando Marcos, was born.
-1932: Wendy's fast-food restaurant chain founder Dave Thomas was born.
-1937: Actress Polly Holliday and former race car driver Richard Petty, were born. American aviator Amelia Earhart and navigator Frederick Noonan were reported lost over the Pacific Ocean while attempting to make the first round-the-world flight at the equator. They were never found.
-1946: Actor/director Ron Silver was born.
-1952: Actress Cheryl Ladd was born.
-1961: Jimmy McNichol was born.
-1964: Baseball player Jose Canseco, first to hit 40 or more home runs and steal 40 or more bases in the same major league season, was born. President Johnson signed into law the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
-1974: President Nixon and Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev agreed during a meeting in Yalta on limitations on underground nuclear testing and on a lower ceiling for defense missiles.
-1986: The U.S. Supreme Court endorsed numerical hiring goals for minorities, rejecting the Reagan administration view that affirmative action be limited to proven victims of race discrimination.
-1990: A stampede in a pedestrian tunnel at the Moslem holy city of Mecca during the annual Haj killed 1,426 pilgrims.
-2000: Vincente Fox was elected president of Mexico.
-2001: Robert Tools became the first recipient in the world of the Abiocor, self contained artificial heart at Jewish Hospital in Louisville, Kentucky.
-2002: After five unsuccessful attempts, American Steve Fossett completed a round-the-world solo flight in a balloon, reaching Queensland in the Australian outback to finish a 19,428-mile trip that began June 19 in western Australia.

July 3
-1608: French explorer Samuel de Champlain founded the Canadian town of Quebec.
-1775: George Washington took command of the Continental Army at Cambridge, Mass.
-1863: The Union army under command of Gen. George Meade defeated Confederate forces commanded by Gen. Robert E. Lee at Gettysburg, Penn. The same day, Vicksburg, Miss.,
surrendered to Union troops led by Gen. Ulysses S. Grant.
-1878: Playwright and songwriter George M. Cohan was born. 
-1871: Welsh poet and writer William Henry Davies ("The Autobiography of a Super-Tramp") was born. 
-1883: Czech novelist Franz Kafka was born. 
-1906: Actor George Sanders was born. 
-1913: Journalist and columnist Dorothy Kilgallen was born. 
-1927: English filmmaker Ken Russell was born.
-1928: The first color television transmission was accomplished by John Logie Baird in London.
-1937: English playwright Tom Stoppard was born. 
-1947: Humorist Dave Barry and actress Betty Buckley were born.
-1951: Exiled Haitian dictator Jean-Claude "Baby Doc" Duvalier was born. 
-1956: Talk show host Montell Williams was born. 
-1957: Pop singer Laura Branigan was born. 
-1962: Actor Thomas Gibson ("Dharma & Greg") was born. Tom Cruise, actor, was born. Cruise set a 10-year deadline for himself in which to build an acting career. He left school and moved to New York, struggling through audition after audition before landing an appearance in 1981's "Endless Love", starring Brooke Shields, and a small role in the military school drama "Taps". Another early film, "Risky Business", grossed $65 million and immediately made Cruise a highly recognizable actor, thanks in no small part to a memorable scene of the young actor
dancing in his underwear. Cruise's A-list status was confirmed with the release of "Top Gun", the biggest-grossing film of 1986. Cruise followed up on the tremendous success with a string of both critically acclaimed and commercially successful films, including "The Color of Money", "Rain Man" and director Oliver Stone's "Born on the Fourth of July", for which Cruise received an Academy Award nomination and a Golden Globe for Best Actor.
-1963: Pop singer Taylor Dayne was born.
-1971: Rock star Jim Morrison, 27, was found dead in a bathtub in Paris of heart failure.
-1976: Israeli commandos raided the airport at Entebbe, Uganda, rescuing 103 hostages held by Arab terrorists.
-1986: President Reagan re-lit the Statue of Liberty's torch in New York Harbor after a $66 million restoration of the statue was completed during the 100th anniversary year of its dedication. Rudy Vallee, one of the nation's most popular singers in the 1920s and '30s, died at the age of 84.
-1988: Missiles fired from the USS Vincennes brought down an Iranian airliner in the Persian Gulf, killing all 290 people aboard.
-1992: The U.S. Air Force joined the international airlift of food, medical supplies to besieged residents of Sarajevo, Bosnia-Hercegovina.
-1993: exiled Haitian President Aristide and Lt. Gen. Raoul Cedras, who led the coup in 1991 that ousted him, announced an agreement that would put Aristide back in power by October. Cedras later broke the agreement.
-1996: Boris Yeltsin was re-elected president of Russia, defeating Gennadi Zyuganov in a runoff.
-2000: Blasts caused by suicide bombers in Chechnya killed at least 37 Russian soldiers.

July 4
The 4th of July is a national holiday in the U.S., marking the acceptance of the Declaration
of Independence. It was first celebrated on July 8, 1776. The Declaration of Independence was not finished until August of that year, however, July 4th became the accepted Independence
Day in the U.S. The 4th was not made a legal holiday until 1941. Two of the men who signed the Declaration of Independence died on July 4th. U.S. Presidents John Adams and Thomas Jefferson died 50 years after the signing, to the day. President James Monroe also died on the 4th, but in 1831.
*4th Of July: http://www.kidsdomain.com/holiday/july4/
*4th Of July Cards: http://www.123greetings.com/events/4july/
*4th Of July Fun: http://www.geocities.com/Heartland/Hollow/2366/
*4th Of July Graphics: http://rats2u.com/clipart/holidays/fourth_clipart.htm
*4th of July Lessons: http://www.lessonplanspage.com/4thOfJuly.htm
*4th of July Resource Page: http://www.teacherplanet.com/resource/independence.php
*4th Of July Theme: http://www.childfun.com/themes/fourth.shtml
*America The Beautiful (music): http://www.niehs.nih.gov/kids/lyrics/america.htm
*Activities and Crafts for July 4th: http://www.enchantedlearning.com/crafts/july4/
*The Betsy Ross Homepage: http://www.ushistory.org/betsy/index.html
*Billy Bear's 4th Of July: http://www.billybear4kids.com/holidays/july4/fun.htm
*Canada Day and Independence Day: http://www.kinderart.com/seasons/july.shtml#july
*A Capitol Fourth, Fireworks and Fun: http://www.pbs.org/capitolfourth/fireworks.html
Journey to Washington, D.C. for the fourth of July this year--virtually, of course. Students can choose their own music and create their own fireworks to light up the Washington skyline.
*Fireworks: http://hometown.aol.com/mshum/Fourth.html
Fireworks display with music
*Fireworks Safety: http://www.fireworksafety.com/
*Fourth Of July: http://www.123child.com/summer/forth.html
Red, white, and blue figures prominently in these patriotic activities and crafts. Students will design a torn paper flag, sort and count stars of various sizes, find and match identical Fourth of July stickers or pictures, create prints with potato star stamps, and more.
*Fourth Of July: http://www.preschoolbystormie.com/fourthjuly.htm
Scrub brushes, white glue, and handprints can all create artistic fireworks displays. Find out how at this site, along with other activities and songs to help your class celebrate the fourth.
*Fourth Of July Crafts Games and more: http://www.childfun.com/themes/fourth.shtml
From preschool up to second or third grade, here are some creative art projects to complete in the classroom for the Fourth of July, from wands, to salt jars, to star crowns and fireworks.
*General USA and Fourth of July Section: http://www.dltk-kids.com/usa/index.html
*God Bless America (music): http://www.niehs.nih.gov/kids/lyrics/america.htm
*How Fireworks Work: http://science.howstuffworks.com/fireworks.htm
*How To Celebrate Independence Day: http://www.party411.com/holidays-4july.html
*Independence Day on the Net: http://www.holidays.net/independence/index.htm
*Liberty Bell: http://www.ushistory.org/libertybell/index.html
*National Council on Fireworks Safety: http://www.fireworksafety.com/safety/
The National Council on Fireworks Safety has a safety tip slide show on viewing and purchasing legal fireworks. For an animated, interactive safety lesson, click on Classroom, where you'll also find a printable safety quiz. Although details on local ordinances are not included, you can learn about your state fireworks laws by clicking on State Laws. If you're in search of safety statistics the council provides a dozen PDF documents on the topic.
*Nova Online: Fireworks!: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/fireworks/
Start your tour with Name That Shell, where you'll learn to differentiate a dahlia from a peony (we're not talking gardening here.) Next is Anatomy of a Firework, which explains each firework component from the lift charge (gunpowder to hurl the firework shell) to the breaks (separate cardboard containers of stars.) The site concludes with an interactive science lesson about combustion titled On Fire. A Teachers Guide for grades five through twelve is also included.
* Parade Sticks: http://www.makingfriends.com/parade_sticks.htm
Even more fun than a parade is having a parade stick to wave around. Here are simple nstructions for creating your own red, white, and blue celebration sticks for the 4th of July.
*Patriotic Differences: http://www.bry-backmanor.org/actpag155.html
Discuss symbols of our country for the 4th of July, and then download and print copies of this activity sheet for your class. Tell them they will need to be super detectives to find the different one in each row.
*Pyrotechnics - The Art of Fire: http://cc.oulu.fi/~kempmp/pyro.html
Pyrotechnics is a combination of art and science. Finnish chemist Petri Pihko, began his chemical career at the age of ten. Chemicals for his kitchen laboratory were expensive and hard to find, so he formed a Chemistry Club. Today, as a graduate student, pyrotechnics is one of his hobbies. This site is a collection of all that he loves about fireworks. Petri also explans the physics of colored fireworks: http://cc.oulu.fi/~kempmp/colours.html.
*Stars And Stripes Sculpture: http://www.makingfriends.com/sculppaper.htm
Help younger students cut out stars for this project, and have strips ready in red, white, and blue. Show them how to fan fold their strips and then let them go at their paper sculptures with only their imaginations to limit them. For extra pizazz, shake on some glitter by glued areas, or use a paper punch to glue on dots.
*Surfing the Net with Kids:  Fireworks: http://www.surfnetkids.com/fireworks.htm
*Zambelli Desktop Dynamite: http://www.zambellifireworks.com/desktop.html
The Zambelli family tradition of fireworks began when Antonio Zambelli left Italy in 1893 to establish the Zambelli Fireworks Manufacturing Company in New Castle Pennsylvania. The Desktop Dynamite section of their commercial fireworks site offers free a fireworks Windows screensaver, a variety of fireworks photos for use as wallpaper, and a five question fireworks quiz.
-1872: President Calvin Coolidge was born.
-1930: George Steinbrenner, businessman and baseball executive, was born. Chairman of the Cleveland-based American Shipbuilding Co., he became the principal owner of the New York Yankees and served as club president. His pursuit of free agent players resulted in a World Series
championship but he was constantly involved in controversies with his players and managers, usually ending in their abrupt departure. He was suspended from baseball (1990--92) for conduct
detrimental to the game, but returned to manage the franchise, promising to keep a somewhat lower profile.

July 5
-1801: David Farragut, the first U.S. Navy admiral, was born. 
-1810: Showman P.T. Barnum was born.  Phineas Taylor Barnum was transformed from shopkeeper to showman when he discovered an elderly black woman, Joice Heth, who claimed to be George Washington's nurse. A promoter in Philadelphia had not had much financial success when he tried to present Heth as the president's 161-year old nurse. On August 6, 1835, Barnum paid $1,000 for the rights to exhibit Heth for 10 months. Under Barnum's management, Heth was promoted by sensational advertisements and toured the country telling her supposed memories of the president's childhood. Although Barnum is famous for developing the Barnum
and Bailey Circus, this business was something of a postscript to his career. He formed his first circus in 1871, at the age of 61, promoting it as "the greatest show on earth." He transformed the typically small, wagon-based show into a railroad-travelling, three-ring, electrically lit extravaganza. In 1881, he merged with his main competitor, James A. Bailey, to form
Barnum and Bailey's Circus, which became the most popular circus in the country.
-1853: British colonialist Cecil Rhodes, founder of Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe), was born. 
-1865: William Booth founded the Salvation Army in London. 
-1879: Dwight Davis, founder of the Davis Cup tennis tournament, was born. 
-1889: French writer and film director Jean Cocteau was born. 
-1902: Politician and diplomat Henry Cabot Lodge Jr. was born. 
-1934: Actress Katherine Helmond was born. 
-1935: President Roosevelt signed the National Labor Relations Act.
-1945: Gen. Douglas MacArthur announced the liberation of the Philippines as World War II approached its end. 
-1946: The bikini was introduced today inFrance.
-1948: Julie Nixon Eisenhower was born. 
-1951: Rock singer Huey Lewis was born.
-1975: Arthur Ashe became the first black man to win a Wimbledon singles title as he defeated Jimmy Connors.
-1982: The Penn Square Bank of Oklahoma was declared insolvent, touching off a bank crisis that affected much of the United States. 
-1991: BCCI, with $20 billion in assets, was seized by regulators in the United States, Cayman Islands, France, Great Britain, Luxembourg, Spain and Switzerland. 
-1994: The United States stopped accepting Haitian refugees and asked that other countries provide them with "safe havens."  Yasser Arafat took the oath as head of the new Palestinian National Authority. The swearing-in ceremony took place in Jericho on the West Bank. 
-1997: Martina Hingis, 16, of Switzerland became the youngest in 100 years to win the women's singles tennis championship at Wimbledon. 
-2000: President Clinton announced that Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak and Palestinian President Yasser Arafat had agreed to meet at Camp David to discuss peace.

July 6
-1946: Sylvester Stallone was born in New York City. Stallone reportedly wrote the screenplay
to "Rocky," the film that would make him a star, in just three days. "Rocky" won Academy Awards for Best Picture and Best Director (John G. Avildsen), and Stallone was nominated for
Best Actor and Best Original Screenplay. With the success of "Rocky" and its sequels (1979, 1982, 1985, and 1990), which he also directed, and the three "Rambo" movies in 1982, 1985,
and 1988, Stallone was firmly established as an action-film hero. While Stallone's attempts to break into comedy in films such as "Oscar" and "Stop! Or My Mom Will Shoot" have largely
failed to gain an audience among fans or critics, he scored action hits with "Cliffhanger" and "Demolition Man." More recently, he had less success with "The Specialist," "Judge Dredd," "Assassins," but earned critical buzz for his performance in the low-budget police drama "Cop Land."
-1958: Alaska became the 49th state. 
-1971: Death of Louis ("Satchmo ") Armstrong (71) in Corona, Queens, New York.
-1984: President Reagan, in a TV interview, said it was a "probability" that many young people now paying into Social Security "will never be able to receive as much as they're paying." 
-1992: A bomb exploded near the car carrying French President Mitterrand's wife during a visit to Kurdish settlements in northern Iraq. Mrs. Mitterrand was unhurt, but at least two other people were killed. 
-1993: The flooded Mississippi River was closed to barge traffic from Sioux City, Iowa, to St. Louis. 
-1994: A firestorm killed 14 firefighters near Glenwood Springs, Co., while fighting a forest fire.  President Clinton visited Latvia, becoming the first U.S. president to travel to the Baltic region. 
-1995: The prosecution in the O.J. Simpson double murder trial rested its case after presenting 58 witnesses and 488 exhibits during 92 days of testimony. 
-1996: The Libertarians nominated financial counseling author Harry Browne for president. 
-1997: The Mars Pathfinder deployed the remote-controlled Sojourner to explore the surface of Mars.  For the first time since it was founded in 1929, Mexico's Institutional Revolutionary Party failed to win a majority in voting for the lower house of Congress. 
-1999: First lady Hillary Rodham Clinton announced she was forming an exploratory committee to look into running for the U.S. Senate seat being vacated by Daniel Patrick Moynihan, D-N.Y. No first lady had ever before sought public office.  Ehud Barak was sworn in as prime minister of Israel.

July 7

-1846: U.S. Navy Commodore J.D. Sloat proclaimed the annexation of California by the United States.
-1860: Composer Gustav Mahler was born.
-1865: Four people convicted of conspiring with John Wilkes Booth in the assassination of President Lincoln were hanged in Washington.
-1887: Painter Marc Chagall was born.
-1898: President William McKinley signed a joint resolution of Congress authorizing the annexation of Hawaii by the United States.
-1899: Film director George Cukor was born.
-1902: Film director Vittorio DeSica was born.
-1906: Baseball pitcher Leroy "Satchel" Paige and zither player Anton Karras ("The Third Man") were born.
-1907: Science fiction author Robert Heinlein was born.
-1911: Composer Gian Carlo Menotti was born.
-1919: Chicago 7 defense lawyer William Kunstler was born.
-1921: Ezzard Charles, heavyweight boxing champion, was born.
-1924: Singer Mary Ford was born.
-1922: French fashion designer Pierre Cardin was born.
-1927: Bandleader Doc Severinsen was born.
-1928: Actor Vince Edwards and singer Mary Ford were born.
-1940: Former Beatle Ringo Starr was born. Starr replaced Pete Best as the Beatles' drummer, and following the group's break-up in 1970 embarked on a solo career with the albums Sentimental Journey", "Beaucoups of Blues", and "Ringo". He continued to record into the 1980s, with albums such as "Stop and Smell the Roses", then built up his All Starrs band, which toured in 1989, 1992, 1995, and 1997. His wry, deadpan humor was a major feature of the Beatles' films, and he continued as an actor as early as 1968. He later became more involved with
general show-business concerns, but joined the remaining Beatles in producing their anthology in 1995.
-1946: Mother Frances Xavier Cabrini (1850-1917) became the first American to be canonized.
-1949: Actor Shelley Duvall was born.
-1959: Bill Campbell was born.
-1973: President Nixon said he would not appear before the Senate Watergate Investigating Committee or give it access to White House files.
-1977: The first female cadets were permitted at West Point.
-1980: Figure skater Michelle Kwan was born.
-1981: Sandra Day O'Connor was chosen by President Reagan to become the first woman on the U.S. Supreme Court. She was unanimously approved by the Senate.
-1987: Lt. Col. Oliver North began six days of testimony before the congressional Iran-Contra committee.
-1994: 16 people died in Americus, Ga., when 21.1 inches of rain fell.
-1998: A Los Angeles jury convicted Mikail Markhasev, 19, of murder in the January 1997 shooting death of Ennis Cosby, son of entertainer Bill Cosby.
-1999: A Miami-Dade Co. jury held the leading tobacco companies liable for various illnesses of Florida smokers. The class-action lawsuit, filed in 1994, was the first of its kind to actually come to trial.
-2002: Lleyton Hewitt of Australia won the men's singles crown at Wimbledon with a 6-1, 6-3, 6-2 conquest of David Nalbandian of Argentina. The Williams sisters, who the day before had played for the women's singles title with Serena beating Venus, got together to capture women's
doubles, 6-2, 7-5, over Virginia Ruano Pascual of Spain and Paola Suarez of Argentina.

July 8
-1497: Portuguese navigator Vasco da Gama sailed from Lisbon on a voyage that would lead to discovery of a sea route to India around the southern tip of Africa.
-1776: Even though the Declaration of Independence was signed on July 4th, Independence Day, it was not until today that the document was first read in public in Philadelphia's
Independence Square. It took two more days to get copies sent on their way to the colonies and a month to get all of them signed.
-1835: This was the last day the Liberty Bell was heard ringing. It was ringing in Philadelphia for the recently deceased Chief Justice John Marshall when it cracked, never to be heard again.
-1838: Dirigible inventor Ferdinand von Zeppelin was born.
-1839: Oil magnate John D. Rockefeller was born.
-1853: Commodore Matthew Perry, representing the U.S. government, sailed into Tokyo Bay to begin negotiations that led to the United States becoming the first Western nation to establish diplomatic relations with Japan in two centuries.
-1857: French psychologist Alfred Binet was born.
-1908: Band leader Louis Jordan and Vice President Nelson Rockefeller were born.
-1910: White House journalist Sarah Newcomb McClendon was born.
-1913: Drama critic Walter Kerr was born.
-1914: Jazz singer Billy Eckstine was born.
-1931: TV executive Roone Arledge was born.
-1932: Singer Jerry Vale was born.
-1935: Steve Lawrence was born.
-1944: Actor Jeffrey Tambor was born.
-1946: Ballet dancer Cynthia Gregory was born.
-1948: Children's singer Raffi (Cavoukian) and actor Kim Darby were born.
-1949: Chef Wolfgang Puck was born.
-1950, Gen. Douglas MacArthur was named commander-in-chief of United Nations forces in Korea.
-1951: Anjelica Huston was born.
-1958: Kevin Bacon, actor, was born. He began his professional acting career off-Broadway in Alan Brown's "Forty Deuce", receiving an Obie award for his performance. His Broadway debut came in 1983, co-starring with Sean Penn and Val Kilmer in the John Byrne play, "Slab Boys".
Bacon was launched into mainstream stardom by his lead role in "Footloose". In the 1990s, he had notable roles in Oliver Stone's "JFK", "A Few Good Men", Ron Howard's "Apollo 13",
and in Barry Levinson's "Sleepers". Bacon received a Golden Globe nomination for his menacing role in "The River Wild" with Meryl Streep. Bacon was the subject of a curious bit of late 1990s pop culture. A trio of Pennsylvania college students concocted "Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon," an amusing parlor game in which participants must link any actor, living or dead, to Kevin Bacon in fewer than six links.
-1968: Billy Crudup was born.
-1969: The withdrawal of American troops from Vietnam began.
-1991: Yugoslav leaders signed an accord calling for an internationally observed cease-fire in Slovenia and Croatia. Iraq admitted to the United Nations that it had produced enriched uranium, but not enough to make nuclear weapons.
-1994: North Korean President Kim Il Sung died at age 82. He had led the country since its founding in 1948. O.J. Simpson was ordered to stand trial on two counts of first-degree murder in the slayings of his ex-wife and her friend.
-1996: Turkey chose, for the first time, a prime minister who belonged to an Islamic party. Later in the year, Necmettin Erbakan confirmed his desire to make Turkey less of a Western-affiliated nation when he refused the United States permission to use a Turkish military base to bomb Iraq.
-1997: NATO invited three Eastern European nations the Czech Republic, Hungary and Poland -- to join the organization.

July 9
-1819: Elias Howe, inventor of the sewing machine, was born. 
-1850: President Zachary Taylor died suddenly of cholera. He was succeeded by Millard Fillmore.
-1877: The first Wimbledon tennis tournament was staged at the All-England Croquet and Lawn Tennis Club.
-1887: Historian Samuel Eliot Morison was born. 
-1893: Chicago surgeon Dr. Daniel Hale Williams performed the first successful open-heart surgery.
-1896: William Jennings Bryan caused a sensation at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago with his "cross of gold" speech denouncing supporters of the gold standard. Bryan went on to win the party's nomination.
-1904: English romance novelist Barbara Cartland was born. 
-1927: Actor/singer Ed Ames was born. 
-1937: English artist David Hockney was born. 
-1938: Actors Brian Dennehy was born.
-1942: Richard Roundtree was born.
-1943: American, Canadian and British forces invaded Sicily during World War II.
-1947: Athlete-turned-actor O.J. Simpson was born. A two-time All-American halfback and Heisman Trophy winner at the University of Southern California, he joined the professional Buffalo Bills in 1969 but did not excel until the offense was tailored to showcase his running. He
topped 1,000 yards rushing five consecutive years and led the National Football League four times. In 1973 he became the first to rush for over 2,000 yards. After retiring from pro football, he moved on to a profitable career in television commercials and as a sportscaster. When his estranged wife Nicole and Ronald Goldman were murdered, Simpson was charged with the crime in a case that became a sensational media event. After a lengthy, televised trial, the jury found him not guilty. He subsequently lost a civil suit filed by the families of the victims. Also, Florence Blanchard, a nurse, was appointed lieutenant colonel in the Army, becoming the first woman to hold a permanent military rank in the U.S.
-1952: TV host/entertainer John Tesh was born.
-1955: Bill Haley and the Comets' "Rock Around the Clock" hit No.1 on Billboard magazine's best-seller records chart, marking what some consider the beginning of the rock 'n' roll era.
-1956: Actor Tom Hanks was born.  
-1957: Kelly McGillis was born. 
-1958: Jimmy Smits was born. 
-1960: Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev threatened the United States with rockets if American forces attempted to oust the communist government of Cuba.
-1976: Fred Savage was born. 
-1965: Singer/actress Courtney Love was born. 
-1943: American, Canadian and British forces invaded Sicily during World War II. 
-1955: Bill Haley and the Comets' "Rock Around the Clock" hit No.1 on Billboard magazine's best-seller records chart, marking what some consider the beginning of the rock 'n' roll era.  
-1960: Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev threatened the United States with rockets if American forces attempted to oust the communist government of Cuba. 
-1982: A Pan Am Boeing 727 jetliner crashed in Kenner, La., shortly after takeoff from New Orleans. 154 people died. 
-1990: Two veteran space shuttle commanders were grounded for violating flight safety rules. It marked the first time that astronauts assigned to flight crews had been grounded for other than medical reasons. 
-1992: Democratic presidential hopeful Bill Clinton picked Tennessee's Sen. Al Gore as his running mate.  The Mortgage Bankers Association of America and HSH Associates said fixed rates on conventional home loans dropped to their lowest levels in almost 19 years.  At least 15 people were injured when a 5.4 magnitude aftershock to the previous month's major earthquake hit the Big Bear, Calif., area.  Journalist Eric Sevareid died of stomach cancer at age 79. 
-1996: Former Colorado Gov. Richard Lamm said he wanted the presidential nomination of Ross Perot's Reform Party. He didn't get it. 
-1997: NBC was the lone holdout when the major networks agreed to implement a revised and expanded television ratings system.
-2002: The all-star baseball game ended in an 11-inning, 7-7 tie when Commissioner Bud Selig halted proceedings saying the teams had run out of pitchers.

July 10
-1509: Protestant theologian John Calvin was born. 
-1834: American painter James Whistler was born. 
-1842: Brewer Adolphus Busch was born.
-1850: Millard Fillmore ascended to the presidency of the United States upon the death of his predecessor Zachary Taylor. Fillmore was the last Whig president. Fillmore was the only president to marry his schoolteacher. Her maiden name was Abigail Powers. Fillmore was the first president who had a stepmother. During Fillmore's incumbency, a cooking stove was first installed in the White House. It is said that Millard himself walked over to the patent office to see how it worked and then instructed his chef. Fillmore's nickname was "The American Louis Philippe."
-1871: French novelist Marcel Proust was born.
-1875: Black educator Mary McLeod Bethune was born. 
-1890: Wyoming was admitted to the Union as the 44th state. 
-1891: A black jockey, "Monk" Overton, won six straight horse races at the Washington Park race track in Chicago. In 1907, another black jockey, Jimmy Lee, also won six straight races at
Churchill Downs in Louisville. Prior to 1907, only two other jockeys had equalled the achievements of Overton and Lee, the Englishmen Fred Archer and George Fordham.
-1915: Novelist Saul Bellow was born. 
-1920: TV news anchor/commentator David Brinkley was born. 
-1921: Boxer Jake LaMotta was born. 
-1923: Author Jean Kerr was born.
-1925: The so-called "Monkey Trial," in which John Scopes was accused of teaching evolution in school, a violation of state law, began in Dayton, Tenn., featuring a classic confrontation between William Jennings Bryan, the three-time presidential candidate and fundamentalist hero, and legendary defense attorney Clarence Darrow.
-1926: Actor Fred Gwynne was born. 
-1927: Former New York City Mayor David Dinkins was born.
-1938: Industrialist Howard Hughes and a crew of four flew around the world in 91 hours, setting a speed record. 
-1940: During World War II, the 114-day Battle of Britain began as Nazi forces began attacking southern England by air. By late October, Britain managed to repel the Luftwaffe, which suffered heavy losses.
-1943: Tennis star Arthur Ashe was born.
-1945: Actor Ron Glass was born. 
-1946: Actress Sue Lyon was born.
-1947: Folksinger Arlo Guthrie was born.
-1962: In 1962, the pioneer telecommunications satellite Telstar began relaying TV pictures between the United States and Europe.
-1985: Coca-Cola, besieged by consumers dissatisfied with the new Coke introduced in April, dusted off the old formula and dubbed it "Coke Classic." 
-1987: Greenpeace's "Rainbow Warrior" was sunk in the Aukland, N.Z., harbor by French agents in diving gear who planted a bomb. One person died in the blast.
-1991: President Bush lifted U.S. trade sanctions against South Africa, making it possible for the two nations to engage in trade.  In Moscow, Boris Yeltsin was inaugurated as the first freely elected president of the Russian republic. 
-1992: Former Panamanian dictator Manuel Noriega was sentenced to 40 years in prison for cocaine racketeering.  An Alaskan appeals court overturned the conviction of former Exxon Valdez Capt. Joseph Hazelwood in connection with the massive oil spill in Prince William Sound. 
-1993: President Clinton addressed the South Korean parliament.
-1994: Russian President Boris Yeltsin took part in the G7 leaders' annual political discussion for the first time.  Challenger Leonid Kuchma was elected president of Ukraine. 
-1995: Burmese pro-democracy dissident Daw Aung San Sun Kyi was freed from house arrest after six years.  The defense in the O. J. Simpson murder trial opened its case. 
-1997: The Senate approved George Tenet as director of the Central Intelligence Agency. 
-1999: The Democratic Republic of the Congo and five other African nations--all of which had troops in Congo--signed a cease-fire agreement in a bid to end that country's civil war.  The U.S. team won the Women's World Cup in soccer, defeating China in the final on penalty kicks. 
-2000: Gov. George W. Bush became the first Republican presidential candidate in many years to address the N.A.A.C.P.

July 11
-1274: Scottish King Robert the Bruce was born. 
-1767: John Quincy Adams, sixth president of the United States, was born. 
-1899: Author E.B. White was born. 
-1905: On July 11-13, The Niagara Movement (the forerunner of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), was established. Among its leaders are W.E.B. DuBois and William Monroe Trotter.
-1920: Actors Yul Brynner was born. 
-1931: Tab Hunter was born. 
-1936: Fashion designer Giorgio Armani was born. 
-1945: Blondie's Deborah Harry was born. 
-1952: Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower was nominated as the Republican presidential candidate, with Richard Nixon as his running mate. They were elected that November. 
-1953: Leon Spinks, who in 1978 won and then lost the heavyweight boxing title in fights with Muhammad Ali, was born.
-1955: The U.S. Air Force Academy in Colorado was dedicated with 300 cadets in its first class. 
-1956: Actress Sela Ward was born. 
-1967: "Talk Soup" host John Henson was born.
-1979: The abandoned United States space station Skylab made a spectacular return to Earth, burning up in the atmosphere and showering debris over the Indian Ocean and Australia.
-1985: Two explosions sank the Rainbow Warrior, flagship of the Greenpeace environmental activist group, in Auckland, New Zealand, killing a ship's photographer and launching an international uproar. France later acknowledged responsibility. 
-1991: Japan's prime minister agreed to pay the United States an additional $500 million requested for military expenses in the Persian Gulf War. 
-1993: The collapse of a river levee left Des Moines, Iowa, without any potable tap water. The water was not declared safe to drink until month's end. 
-1994: Haiti kicked human-rights monitors out of the country. 
-1995: The United States resumed diplomatic relations with Vietnam. 
-1996: The international court at The Hague handed down more indictments for Bosnian war crimes, including the political leader of Serbs within Bosnia, Radovan Karadzic. Karadazic resigned under international pressure but was rumored to continue wielding power from behind the scenes. 
-2000: peace talks between the Palestinians and the Israelis opened at Camp David, Md.

July 12

-1817: American icon, philosopher, and writer Henry David Thoreau was born in Concord, Massachusetts. One of his most famous works, "Walden, or Life in the Woods" recounts his experiences and thoughts while living secluded, in simplicity, and close to nature during the years
1845 to 1847.
NATURE WALK: http://www.kinderart.com/littles/shoji.shtml
Take your students on a summer nature walk, freely collecting leaves representative of different plants and trees. When you return to class, you will be arranging and ironing your collections between sheets of wax paper to make memory pieces to hang in your classroom.

July 13
-1787: The Northwest Territory outlawed slavery.
-1977: A 25-hour blackout hit the New York City area after lightning struck upstate power lines.

July 14
-1789: A huge crowd of Parisians captured the Bastille fortress, forcing King Louis XVI's troops to withdraw. Bastille Day is a French national holiday (akin to our 4th of July) celebrating the birth of the French republic and the end of royal rule.

July 15
-1870: The provinces of Manitoba and the Northwest Territories entered into the confederation of Canada.
-1918: The Second Battle of the Marne began during World War I.
-1951: Jesse Ventura (James George Janos), pro wrestler and governor of Minnesota, was born in Minneapolis, MN.  For 10 years Ventura was part of the American Wrestling Association and the World Wrestling Federation. While he was never the most talented wrestler, he won fans with his charisma and outspoken style. Ventura quit wrestling in 1986 when doctors discovered he had a pulmonary embolism.  In late 1997, Ventura decided to run for governor of Minnesota as a Reform Party candidate. On November 3, 1998, Jesse "The Body" Ventura was elected becoming the first Reform Party candidate ever elected to state or federal office.

July 16
-1918: Russia's Czar Nicholas II, his wife and their five children were executed by the Bolsheviks
-1942: Margaret Court, tennis player, was born in Albury, New South Wales, Australia. She was the winner of more Grand Slam events (66) than any other player: 10 Wimbledon (including the singles in 1963, 1965, 1970), 22 US, 13 French, and 21 Australian titles. In 1970 she became the second woman (after Maureen Connolly) to win all four major titles in one year. She retired in 1977.

July 17
-1674: English clergyman and author Isaac Watts was born. 
-1763: Financier John Jacob Astor was born. 
-1889: Mystery writer Erle Stanley Gardner was born. 
-1899: Actor James Cagney was born.  
-1904: Nobel Prize-winning Yiddish storyteller Isaac Bashevis Singer was born. 
-1912: TV personality Art Linkletter was born. 
-1917: Comedian Phyllis Diller was born. 
-1918: Russian Czar Nicholas II, his wife and their five children were executed by firing squad in the Ural Mountains of Siberia. 
-1934: Actor Donald Sutherland was born. 
-1935: Actress/singer Diahann Carroll was born. 
-1936: The Spanish Civil War began with an army revolt led by Gen. Francisco Franco.
-1942: Rock musician Spencer Davis was born. 
-1951: Actress Lucie Arnaz was born. 
-1952: Actor David Hasselhof was born. 
-1952: Singers Nicolette Larson and Phoebe Snow were born.
-1955: Arco, Idaho, a town of 1,300 people, became the first community in the world to receive all its light and power from atomic energy.  Disneyland opened in Anaheim, Calif. 
-1975: Three American and two Soviet spacemen linked their orbiting Apollo and Soyuz spacecraft for historic handshakes 140 miles above Earth. 
-1981: 111 people were killed and 200 injured when two suspended walkways collapsed at the Hyatt Regency hotel in Kansas City, Mo. 
-1986: Dallas-based LTV Corporation, $4 billion dollars in debt, declared the largest bankruptcy in U.S. history. 
-1990: An earthquake measuring 7.7 on the Ritcher scale hit the Philippines. It killed more than 1,600 and left more than 1,000 missing and feared dead, more than 3,000 injured and more than 1 million homeless. 
-1993: The Midwest flood knocked out the Bayview Bridge connecting Quincy, Ill., with West Quincy, Mo., the last remaining crossing over the Mississippi River for about 200 miles. 
-1994: Brazil beat Italy to win the first World Cup soccer championship ever held in the United States. 
-1996: TWA Flight 800, New York to Paris, crashed off the Long Island coast, killing all 230 people aboard. 
-1998: President Clinton became the first sitting U.S. president to be subpoenaed to appear before a grand jury as independent counsel Kenneth Starr continued his investigation into the Monica Lewinsky affair.  The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed at an all-time high of 9337.97, its 28th record finish in 1998. 
-1999: New York Rep. Michael Forbes switched from the Republican to the Democratic Party.

July 18
-1811: English novelist William Makepeace Thackeray was born.
-1834: Impressionist artist Edgar Degas was born in Paris, France.
-1906: Playwright Clifford Odets was born. 
-1911: Actor Hume Cronyn was born. 
-1913: Comedian Red Skelton was born. 
-1914: Actress Harriet Nelson was born. 
-1918: South African black leader Nelson Mandela was born. 
-1921: Astronaut-turned-Sen. John Glenn, D-Ohio, was born. 
-1929: Dick Button. ice skater, was born in Englewood, New Jersey, USA. He was five- time world champion (1948-52) and gold medal winner in the 1948 and 1952 Olympics. As an innovative competitor and as a commentator for ABC television, he was instrumental in popularizing the sport in the U. S.
-1936: A nephew of Oscar Mayer invented the "Weinermobile." 
-1938: Pilot Douglas Corrigan earned the nickname "Wrong Way" when he landed in Ireland instead of California after a flight from New York.
-1939: Journalist/author Hunter S. Thompson and pop singer Dion Di Mucci were born.
-1941: Actor James Brolin and singer Martha Reeves were born. 
-1947: Publisher Steve Forbes was born. 
-1969: A car driven by Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., plunged into a pond on Chappaquiddick Island, Mass., killing his passenger, Mary Jo Kopechne. 
-1954: Country singer Ricky Skaggs was born. 
-1961: Actress Elizabeth McGovern was born.  
-1972: Basketball star Anfernee "Penny" Hardaway was born.
-1984: A gunman opened fire at a McDonald's restaurant in San Ysidro, Calif., killing 21 people. 
-1991: The first Ibero-American Summit Conference opened in Guadalajara, Mexico.  The Yugoslav federal presidency began withdrawing troops from Slovenia. 
-1992: Youths rampaged for a second night in southwest England following the deaths of two young men on a stolen police motorcycle. 
-1994: a car bombing in Buenos Aires, Argentina, killed some 100 people in or near a building that housed Jewish organizations.

July 20
-1976: NASA's Viking 1 lander parachuted safely to the surface of Mars, revealing an alien world that continues to puzzle scientists and tempt explorers. FULL STORY at http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2001/ast20jul_1.htm?list559372

July 21
-1899: Ernest Hemingway, author, was born. In 1926, Hemingway published his first novel, The
Sun Also Rises, about a group of expatriates living in Europe, similar to Hemingway's own circle, which Gertrude Stein famously dubbed "the lost generation." The book was both commercially and critically successful, and brought Hemingway a certain measure of recognition in both Europe and his native America. With the publication of two short story collections, Men Without Womenand Winner Take Nothing, Hemingway earned a reputation as arguably the greatest living author of short fiction. In all, Hemingway wrote over 100 short stories during his lifetime, mostly during two main periods: 1923-27, when he wrote a number of stories set in Michigan and Italy during World War I and featuring a young protagonist named Nick Adams; and 1933-36, when he wrote about more mature characters and more exotic settings, such as Africa and the
Florida Keys. Some of his most famous short stories included "The Killers," "The Snows of Kilimanjaro," "A Clean Well-Lighted Place," and "The Short But Happy Life of Francis Macomber."

July 22
-1376: According to German legend, a piper -- having not been paid for ridding the town of Hamelin of its rats -- led the town's children away, never to be seen again.
-1587: British settlers landed on Roanoke Island just off the coast of Virginia. When they landed, they expected to find an already established settlement by a group that preceded them but there was no one. Several years later a third group of settlers arrived on the island only to find an empty settlement. To this day no one has ever figured out what ever happened to Roanoke's lost colony.
-1620: Dutch pilgrims started from Holland for the New World. Their ship -- called the "Speedhaven" -- set sail from Delfshaven, Holland. They landed in Massachusetts.
-1793: Alexander Mackenzie, the explorer of Canada, reached the Pacific.
-1822: Gregor Johann Mendel, Austrian monk and pioneering botanist was born.
-1849: Poet Emma Lazarus was born.
-1864: In the first battle of Atlanta, Confederate troops under Gen. John Hood were defeated by Union forces under Gen. William Sherman.
-1890: Matriarch Rose Kennedy was born.
-1893: American psychiatrist Karl Menninger was born.
-1898: Poet Stephen Vincent Benet and sculptor Alexander Calder were born.
-1916: A bomb hidden in a suitcase exploded during a Preparedness Day parade on San Francisco's Market Street, killing 10 people and wounding 40. The parade was organized by the city's Chamber of Commerce in support of America's possible entrance into World War I.
-1923: Former U.S. Sen. Robert Dole, R-Kan.was born.
-1928: Actor Orsen Bean was born.
-1931: R&B singer Keith Sweat was born.
-1932: Fashion designer Oscar De La Renta was born.
-1933: Wiley Post completed his first solo flight around the world. It took him seven days, 18 hours and 45 minutes.
-1934: Bank robber John Dillinger died in a hail of bullets from federal agents outside Chicago's Biograph Theater.
-1939: Actor Terrence Stamp was born.
-1940: "Jeopardy!" game show host Alex Trebek was born.
-1944: IMF was created at a conference which was held in Bretton Woods, New Hampshire. -1945: Actor/singer Bobby Sherman was born.
-1947: Comedian/actor Albert Brooks, actor Danny Glover, and rock musician Don Henley were born.
1949: Composer Alan Menken was born.
-1955: Actor Willem Dafoe was born.
-1965: Comedians John Leguizamo and David Spade were born.
-1983: The military government of Poland lifted martial law.
-1991: Milwaukee police arrested a man and declared him a suspect in the deaths of at least 15 people. His name was Jeffrey Dahmer.
- 1994: A federal judge ordered The Citadel, a state-financed military college in Charleston, S.C., to open its doors to women.
In 1995, Susan Smith, the Union, S.C., mother who had confessed to drowning her two young sons by allowing her car to roll into a lake with the boys locked inside, was convicted of first-degree murder. She was sentenced to life in prison.
-1999: The ashes of John F. Kennedy, Jr., his wife and her sister were buried at sea off the coast of Massachusetts. The three had died in a plane crash off Martha's Vineyard 6 days earlier. China outlawed the Falun Gong, or Buddhist Law, religious sect and began detaining thousands of its members.

July 23
-1829: William Burt of Mount Vernon, Mich., patented the "typographer," believed to be the first typewriter.
-1888: Detective novelist Raymond Chandler was born.
-1892: Ethiopian Emperor Haile Selassie was born.
-1893: Karl Menninger was born.
-1912: Actor Michael Wilding was born.
-1915: Broadway restaurateur Vincent Sardi Jr. was born.
-1925: Actress Gloria DeHaven was born.
-1936: Baseball pitcher Don Drysdale and U.S. Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy were born.
-1938: Actor Ronny Cox was born.
-1948: Radio talk show host Don Imus was born.
-1951: Actor Edie McClurg was born.
-1961: Woody Harrelson was born.
-1962: Eriq La Salle ("ER") was born.
-1967: One of the worst riots in U.S. history broke out on 12th Street in the heart of Detroit's predominantly African American inner city. By the time it was quelled four days later by 7,000 National Guard and U.S. Army troops, 43 people were dead, 342 injured.
-1973: Monica Lewinski was born. Watergate special prosecutor Archibald Cox served subpoenas on the White House after President Nixon refused to turn over tapes and documents.
-1982: TV star Vic Morrow and two child actors were killed when a helicopter disabled by special effects explosives crashed on the set of "The Twilight Zone" movie.
-1987: President Reagan named a 13-member national commission on AIDS.
-1990: President Bush nominated federal appeals Judge David Souter of New Hampshire to replace retiring U.S. Supreme Court Justice William Brennan.
-1991: The Soviet government applied for full membership to the IMF and World Bank after the Group of Seven recommended a limited "special association" for the USSR.
-1997: Suspected serial murderer Andrew Cunanan was found dead-apparently by his own hand-on a houseboat in Miami.
-1998: A second grand jury impaneled by independent counsel Kenneth Starr began hearing testimony about President Clinton's alleged affair with former White House intern Monica Lewinsky.
-1999: Air Force Col. Eileen Collins became the first woman to command a space shuttle flight with the launch of Columbia on a four-day mission. Minn. Gov. Jesse Ventura declared he would not be a Reform party candidate for president in 2000. Morocco's King Hassan II, an influential leader in the Arab world, died at age 70.

July 24
-1679: New Hampshire became a royal colony of the British crown.
-1783: Simon Bolivar, Died 1830. (Known as the Liberator) The national hero of Venezuela, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, and Bolivia, born in Caracas. Having traveled in Europe, he played the most prominent part in the wars of independence in N South America. In 1819, he proclaimed and became president of the vast Republic of Colombia (modern Colombia, Venezuela, and Ecuador), which was finally liberated in 1822.  He then took charge of the last campaigns of independence in Peru (1824). In 1826 he returned N to face growing political dissension. He resigned office (1830), and died on his way into exile.
-1802: French novelist Alexandre Dumas the Elder, author of "The Three Musketeers," was born.
-1847: After 17 months and many miles of travel, Brigham Young led 148 Mormon pioneers into Utah's Valley of the Great Salt Lake.
-1898: Aviation pioneer Amelia Earhart was born.
-1920: Feminist and former Rep. Bella Abzug, D-N.Y., was born.
-1936: Comedian Ruth Buzzi was born.
-1942: Actor Chris Sarandon was born.
-1947: Robert Hays was born.
-1951: Lynda Carter was born.
-1963: Basketball player Karl Malone was born.
-1969: Apollo-11 returned to Earth after the historic moon-landing mission.
-1970: Actress/singer Jennifer Lopez was born.
-1974: The U.S. Supreme Court ruled that President Nixon should surrender White House tapes for the criminal trials of his former associates.
-1982: Actress Anna Paquin was born.
-1987: The U.S.-escorted and re-flagged Kuwaiti oil tanker Bridgeton was damaged by an Iranian mine in the first such incident in the Persian Gulf.
-1989: The Exxon Corp. estimated that its cleanup of the Alaskan oil spill would cost $1.28 billion dollars.
-1995: A Palestinian suicide bomber killed himself and five others in a Tel Aviv suburb in Israel.
-1997: The same Scottish scientists who produced Dolly the cloned sheep announced they had cloned a sheep with human genes.
-1998: A gunman opened fire at the Capitol in Washington, D.C., killing two police officers and wounding a tourist. Police shot the gunman, who survived and was later charged with murder.

July 25
-1750: Revolutionary War Gen. Henry Knox was born. 
-1844: Artists Thomas Eakins was born. 
-1870:Maxfield Parrish was born. 
-1894: Walter Brennan, Died 1974. A Movie actor, he was born in Swampscott, Massachusetts, USA. He worked at various jobs while appearing in vaudeville and stock theater, and after serving in World War 1, entered Hollywood films as an extra and stuntman in 1923. Over the next 50 years, he appeared in over 100 films as an outstanding character actor, becoming the first actor to win three Oscars - for best supporting actor in Come and Get It (1936), Kentucky (1938), and The Westerner (1940). 
-1898: During the Spanish-American War, U.S. forces launched their invasion of Puerto Rico, the 108-mile-long, 40-mile-wide island that was one of Spain's two principal possessions in the Caribbean.
-1907: Jack Gilford was born. 
-1909: After asking from the cockpit Where is England?, French pilot Louis Bleriot took off from Les Baraques, France, and flew across the English Channel, landing in a field near Dover, England, 36 minutes later. He was the first person to fly a heavier-than-air machine across
the English Channel in what also was the world’s first international air-plane flight.
-1917: Mata Hari, archetype of the seductive female spy, was sentenced to death in France for spying on Germany's behalf. She was executed the following October. As an entertainer, she packed dance halls from Russia to America with her near-nude exotic Indian dances. She was
also a famous courtesan, and with the outbreak of World War I her catalog of lovers began to include high-ranking French officers. In February 1917, French authorities arrested her for espionage.
-1924: Actresses Estelle Getty was born. 
-1935: Barbara Harris was born. 
-1948: Folk singer/songwriter Steve Goodman was born. 
-1952: Puerto Rico became a self-governing U.S. commonwealth. 
1954: Walter Payton was born. He was an NFL superstar, who from 1975 until his retirement from football in 1987, played 184 straight games for Chicago. He rushed for a career total of 16,726 yards (still a league record) and 100 touchdowns. He was elected to the Hall of Fame in 1993.
-1955: Model/actress Iman was born. 
-1956: At 50 minutes to midnight, 45 miles south of Nantucket Island, the Italian ocean liner Andrea Doria and the Swedish ocean liner Stockholm collided in a heavy Atlantic fog. Fifty
-one passengers and crew were killed in the collision, which ripped a great hole in the broad side of the Italian vessel. Miraculously, 1,660 persons aboard the Andrea Doria were rescued before it sank the next morning. 
-1967: Actor Matt LeBlanc was born. 
-1972: Democratic vice presidential nominee Sen. Thomas Eagleton of Missouri disclosed he had undergone psychiatric treatment in the 1960s. Presidential nominee George McGovern replaced him on the ticket with Sargent Shriver.
-1978: Louise Brown was the world's first test-tube baby.  Her birth by Cesarean section shortly before midnight at Oldham General Hospital in England, made headlines around the world.  Louise is said to dislike the description of herself as a "test tube baby," yet she remains proud of her personal role in the advancement of medical science. She has declined numerous offers from newspapers and television journals to sell her story. Despite her extraordinary beginning, she has managed to lead an unassuming life. At the time of her 21st birthday in 1999, she was working in a Bristol nursery. Since Louise’s birth in 1978, over one million children have been born using similar IVF procedures.
-1982: Actor Brad Renfro was born.
-1986: Former Navy radioman Jerry Whitworth was convicted of selling U.S. military secrets to the Soviets through the John Walker spy ring. The government called it the most damaging espionage case since World War II. 
-1990: The Senate voted 96-0 to denounce Sen. Dave Durenberger, R-Minn., for ethics violations.  Eastern Airlines and 10 present and former managers were indicted on federal charges of faking maintenance records. 
-1991: The South African government admitted donating $35 billion in 1989 to support political parties opposing the South-West Africa People's Organization. 
-1992: The Summer Olympics opened in Barcelona, Spain. 
-1994: Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin and Jordan's King Hussein signed a declaration that ended the 46-year state of war between their two countries. 
-1997: Autumn Jackson, who claimed to be the out-of-wedlock daughter of Bill Cosby, was convicted of seeking to extort money from the entertainer by threatening to go to the tabloid newspapers with her story. Captured Khmer Rouge leader Pol Pot was sentenced to life imprisonment in a trial by his former comrades in Cambodia. 
-1999: Cyclist Lance Armstrong, having overcome cancer, became the first American on an American team to win the Tour de France. 
-2000: An Air France Concorde supersonic jet crashed on takeoff from Paris, killing all 113 people aboard. It was the first crash of a Concorde.

July 26
-1796: Artist George Catlin, painter of American Indian scenes, was born.
-1847: Liberia became a republic, and Africa's first sovereign, black-ruled democratic nation.
-1856: Playwright George Bernard Shaw was in Dublin, Ireland.
-1875: Carl Jung, founder of analytic psychology, was born.
-1894: Novelist Aldous Huxley was born.
-1895: Poet/author Robert Graves was born.
-1903: Tennessee Sen. Estes Kefauver, who led the 1950-51 Senate investigation of organized crime, was born.
-1906: Comedian Gracie Allen was born.
-1908: The Federal Bureau of Investigation was born when U.S. Attorney General Charles Bonaparte ordered a group of newly hired federal investigators to report to Chief Examiner Stanley W. Finch of the Department of Justice. It didn't become officially the FBI until 1935.
-1912: Actress Vivian Vance was born.
-1915: U.S. Marines landed in Haiti and the country became a de facto protectorate of the United States.
-1922: Actor Jason Robards and movie producer Blake Edwards, were born.
-1928: Filmmaker Stanley Kubrick was born.
-1929: Storyteller Jean Shepherd was born.
-1941: Gen. Douglas MacArthur was named commander of U.S. forces in the Philippines.
-1943: Mick Jagger was born. Jagger, leader of the Rollingstones, formed in the 60's, is known for his unconventional behavior on stage. The group's uninhibited lifestyle led to the cultivation
of the rebellious image which appealed to a generation of teenagers.
-1946: Actress Helen Mirren was born.
-1954: Tennis player Vitas Gerulaitis was born.
-1956: Egypt created a crisis by nationalizing the British and French-owned Suez Canal
-1959: Actor Kevin Spacey was born.
-1964: Sandra Bullock was born.
-1984:"The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson" became the first network television show to be broadcast in stereo.
-1991: Secretary of State James Baker became the first Western diplomat to address the Mongolian parliament.
-1992: Under pressure, Iraq backed down and agreed to allow a U.N. inspection team to look for documentation on weapons of mass destruction. Motown singer/songwriter Mary Wells died of cancer at age 49.
-1994: The House Banking Committee opened hearings into the Whitewater affair. The Senate Banking Committee did the same three days later. A dozen people were injured by a bomb blast near the Israeli embassy in London.
-1995: The Senate passed a bill that would end U.S participation in the arms embargo against the Bosnian government.
-2000: In a major victory for the recording industry, a federal judge ordered Napster to stop allowing the digital trading of copyrighted music over its Web site.

July 27
-1893: "Happy Birthday To You,", a four-line ditty, was written as a classroom greeting by two Kentucky teachers, Mildred J. Hill and Dr. Patty Smith. The melody was composed by Hill on this day.

July 29
-1030: Olaf II Haraldsson, Saint Olaf, who was the first effective king of all Norway, died. He conquered territory that had been part of Denmark and Sweden, pushed incessantly for the acceptance of Christianity, and created a religious code that is considered Norway's first national legislation.
-1099: Urban II died.  Following the lead set by Pope Gregory VII in ecclesiastical reform, Urban II enhanced the political power of the papacy and initiated the Crusade movement.
-1588: Off the coast of Gravelines, France, Spain's so-called "Invincible Armada" was defeated by an English naval force under the command of Lord Charles Howard and Sir Francis Drake.
-1871: Grigoriy Rasputin was born.
-1805: French historian Alexis de Tocqueville was born.
-1848: At the height of the Potato Famine in Ireland, an abortive nationalist revolt against English rule was crushed by a government police detachment in Tipperary.
-1869: Novelist Booth Tarkington was born.
-1883: Italian dictator Benito Mussolini was born.
-1885: Actress Theda Bara was born.
-1887: Composer Sigmund Romberg (The Student Prince, The Desert Song, Lover Come Back to Me, When I Grow Too Old to Dream) was born.
-1892: Actor William Powell was born.
-1900: Italian King Umberto I was shot to death by Gaetano Bresci, an Italian-born anarchist who resided in America before returning to his homeland to murder the king.
-1914: The first transcontinental telephone linkup was completed between San Francisco and New York City.
-1923: Richard Egan was born.
-1936: Former Labor Secretary Elizabeth Dole was born.
-1938: TV anchorman Peter Jennings was born.
-1941: Actor David Warner was born.
-1949: Former second lady Marilyn Tucker Quayle was born.
-1945: Documentary filmmaker Ken Burns was born.
-1957: President Dwight D. Eisenhower signed the National Aeronautics and Space Act. This act created the NASA program which took the United States from being earth-bound to landing on the moon in less than 12 years.
-1966: Country singer Martina McBride was born.
-1968: Pope Paul VI upheld the prohibition of all artificial means of birth control for Roman Catholics.
-1972: Actor Wil Wheaton ("Star Trek: The Next Generation") was born.
-1981: Prince Charles, heir to the British throne, married Lady Diana Spencer at St. Paul's Cathedral in London.
-1986: A jury ruled in favor of the U.S. Football League, agreeing that the National Football League illegally monopolized pro football. But the panel only awarded the USFL $1 in damages, effectively spelling the demise of the rival league.
-1991: The Federal Reserve sought a $200 million penalty against BCCI for violating U.S. banking laws. It was the largest fine in the Federal Reserve's history.
-1992: Former Secretary of Defense Clark Clifford and his law partner, Robert Altman, were indicted on charges of lying about their roles in the BCCI bank scandal.
-1993: The Senate Judiciary Committee unanimously approved Judge Ruth Bader Ginsburg's nomination to the U.S. Supreme Court. The Israeli Supreme Court overturned the conviction and
death sentence of retired U.S. autoworker John Demjanjuk, accused of being a Nazi death camp guard known as "Ivan the Terrible." Morihiro Hosokawa was chosen prime minister by the
majority political coalition in the Japanese Diet (parliament).
-1994: A doctor and his escort were shot to death outside an abortion clinic in Pensacola, Fla. The Senate approved the nomination of Federal Judge Stephen Breyer to the U.S. Supreme Court.
-1996: China conducted an underground atomic test but then declared a moratorium on such explosions.
-1998: President Clinton agreed to give videotaped testimony at the White House, which would be viewed by a federal grand jury investigating his alleged affair with former intern Monica Lewinsky. A costly 54-day strike by the United Auto Workers against General Motors ended. The walkout at two Flint, Mich., plants caused 27 other GM assembly plants to close.
-1999: A federal judge in Little Rock, Ark., fined President Clinton $89,000 for lying about his tionship with former White House intern Monica Lewinsky in his deposition in the Paula Jones sexual harassment case. A securities trader who'd suffered heavy losses killed 9 people and wounded 11 others in Atlanta before taking his own life. Police later found the bodies of his wife and two children at his home.

July 31
Harry Potter's Birthday
-1498: On his third voyage to the New World, Christopher Columbus discovered the island of Trinidad.
-1556: Ignatius of Loyola, founder of the Jesuit order of Roman Catholic missionaries and educators, died in Rome.
-1763: Author and jurist James Kent was born.
-1792: Director David Rittenhouse laid the cornerstone in Philadelphia for the United States Mint, the first building of the federal government.
-1837: Confederate Army guerrilla leader William Quantrill, whose wartime raid on Lawrence, Kan., left some 150 people dead, was born.
-1900: Pollster Elmo Burns Roper Jr. was born.
-1912: Economist Milton Friedman and former TV talk-show host and columnist Irv Kupcinet were born.
-1929: Actor Don Murray was born.
-1939: Actress France Nuyen was born.
-1944: Geraldine Chaplin was born.
-1946: Singer Gary Lewis was born.
-1951: Australian tennis player Evonne Goolagong was born.
-1958: Bill Berry, guitarist for the rock band R.E.M., was born.
-1962: Actor Wesley Snipes was born.
-1964: Ranger 7, an unmanned U.S. lunar probe, took the first close-up images of the moon.
-1966: Dean Cain ("Lois and Clark: The New Adventures of Superman") was born.
-1972: Sen. Thomas Eagleton, D-Mo., withdrew as the Democratic vice-presidential nominee, six days after disclosing previous hospitalization and psychiatric treatment.
-1974: Watergate figure John Ehrlichman was sentenced to 20 months in prison for his role in the break-in at the office of Daniel Ellsberg's psychiatrist. Ellsburg was the Pentagon consultant who leaked the "Pentagon Papers," documents about the war in Vietnam.
-1991: The Senate overturned a 43-year-old law and voted to allow women to fly military warplanes in combat.
-1992: All aboard were killed when a Thai Airways jetliner carrying more than 100 people, including 11 Americans, crashed in bad weather in Nepal.
-1995: The Walt Disney Co. announced it was buying Capital Cities/ABC for $19 billion.

Art Across the Planet
PROJECT BEGIN and END DATES: 6/09/06 to 7/28/06
NUMBER OF CLASSROOMS: 20
AGE RANGE: 10 to 12 years
TARGET AUDIENCE: Anyone
PROJECT SUMMARY:
-- Students will connect with another classroom or school of students in a foreign country and exchange artwork on which they have to draw or paint homes based on their excperiences with housing and information about the environment in the exchange area.
PROJECT LEVEL: Basic Project
CURRICULUM AREAS:
-- Arts; Social Studies; Science; Technology; International Relations; Multicultural Studies
TECHNOLOGIES USED:
-- Email, List server; Live Text Conference: IRC,Chat,IM; Desktop Document Sharing; Text: stories, essays, letters; Graphics: photo, draw, paint
COLLABORATION STYLES:
- - Information Exchange; Database Creation; Peer Feedback; Global Classroom
FULL PROJECT DESCRIPTION:
-- Establish a connetion with another classroom or school in a foreign country, use an encyclopedia to gather data on the foreign exchange area and discuss the relationships between the environment and natural resources for building homes. Using the limited data have students
create paintings or drawing of what they imagine housing would look like in the foreign school community. Once artwork is completed have students share their artwork with the class.
OBJECTIVES:
-- 1. Students will explore the relationship between environments and housing.
2. Students will use their imaginations to paint homes based on their experiences with housing information about the environment in the exchange area.
3. Practice drawing architectural structures from naturalistic observation.
REGISTRATION DATES: 6/09/06 to 7/28/06
REGISTRATION INSTRUCTIONS:
-- Please send all information to the above email address.
Week 1 Students research foreign exchange areas.
Week 2-5 Establish contact with students in foreign country via email.
Week 6 Create and compile drawings.
Week 7 Analyze drawings.
PROJECT EMAIL ADDRESS:
-- mailto:m.capers.40675@ttc.mailcrusier.com
PROJECT ANNOUNCEMENT POSTED BY:
Madlyn Capers mailto:m.capers.40675@ttc.mailcruiser.com (College Student)
Trident Technical College
Charleston, South Carolina, United States

The Chronicles of Travelin' Ted!
Project Begin & End Dates: 7/01/03 to 7/30/06
Project Summary:
The purpose of this exciting network learning project is to engage kindergarten through fourth grade students in the active study of geography, social studies, cultural awareness, with the added bonus of lots of practice in reading and language arts as well as practice building webpages for their state. They will virtually travel with Travelin' Ted who is a teddybear that will be sent from state t