On July 3, 1775, George Washington formally takes command of the Continental Army, encamped at Cambridge, Massachusetts. In agreeing to serve the American colonies in the war for independence, the wealthy Virginia planter declined to accept payment for his services beyond reimbursement of future expenses.
On July 3, 1988 in the Persian Gulf, the U.S. Navy cruiser
Vincennes shoots down an Iranian passenger jet that it mistakes for a hostile Iranian fighter aircraft, killing all 290 people aboard. The attack comes near the end of the Iran-Iraq War, and the
Vincennes, which is defending Kuwaiti oil tankers in the gulf, had moments before been attacked by Iranian gunboats. The Navy would blame crew error caused by psychological stress on men who were in combat for the first time. In 1996, the U.S. agreed to pay $62 million in damages to the families of the Iranians killed in the attack.
On July 3, 1886, German engineer Karl Benz unveils his Benz Patent Motorwagen, a 3-wheeled, 2-seat vehicle powered by an internal combustion engine. It is widely considered the first automobile.
On July 3, 1971, Jim Morrison, charismatic lead singer of The Doors, is found dead in the bathtub of the Paris apartment he shares with longtime girlfriend Pamela Courson. He was 27. No evidence of foul play is found, and because Courson told French authorities that Morrison had not been using drugs, no autopsy is conducted, and “heart failure” is cited as the cause of death. Two subsequent biographies, however, will attribute Morrison's death to an accidental overdose of heroin, the cause of Courson's own death 3 years later.
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