1847 ~ New York and Boston were linked by telegraph wires.

1885 ~ Chichester Bell and Charles S. Tainter applied for a patent for the gramophone. It was granted on May 4, 1886. 

1905 ~ The battleship Potemkin succumbed to a mutiny on the Black Sea.

1918 ~ Two German pilots were saved by parachutes for the first time. 

1924 ~ Democrats offered Mrs. Leroy Springs for vice presidential nomination. She was the first woman considered for the job.

1940 ~ Robert Pershing Wadlow was measured by Dr. Cyril MacBryde and Dr. C. M. Charles. They recorded his height at 8' 11.1." He was only 22 at the time of his death on July 15, 1940.

1957 ~ More than 500 people were killed when Hurricane Audrey hit the coastal area of Louisiana and Texas.

1967 ~ The world's first cash dispenser was installed at Barclays Bank in Enfield, England. The device was invented by John Sheppard-Barron. The machine operated on a voucher system and the maximum withdrawal was $28.

1969 ~ Patrons at the Stonewall Inn, a gay bar in New York City's Greenwich Village, clashed with police. This incident is considered to be the birth of the homosexual rights movement.

1972 ~ Bobby Hull signed a 10-year hockey contract for $2,500,000. He became a player and coach of the Winnipeg Jets of the World Hockey Association.

1976 ~ Palestinian extremists hijacked an Air France plane in Greece. There were 246 passengers and 12 crew onboard. The plane eventually was taken to Entebbe, Uganda where Israeli commandos stormed it on July 4. The raid resulted in the deaths of seven pasengers.

1984 ~ The U.S. Supreme Court ruled that individual colleges could make their own TV package deals.

1985 ~ Officials decertified Route 66.

1986 ~  The World Court ruled that the U.S. had broken international law by aiding Nicaraguan rebels.

1992 ~ The body of kidnapped Exxon executive Sidney J. Reso was found buried in a makeshift grave in a state park in New Jersey. Arthur and Irene Seale were later convicted and sentenced to prison for the crime.

1998 ~ An English woman was impregnated with her dead husband's sperm after two-year legal battle over her right to the sperm.

1998 ~ In a live joint news conference in China U.S. President Clinton and President Jiang Zemin offered an uncensored airing of differences on human rights, freedom, trade and Tibet.

2002 ~  In the U.S., the Securities and Exchange Commission required companies with annual sales of more than $1.2 billion to submit sworn statements backing up the accuracy of their financial reports.

2005 ~ In Alaska's Denali National Park, a roughly 70-million year old dinosaur track was discovered. The track was form a three-toed Cretaceous period dinosaur.