Events July 3 1976 - Brian Wilson rejoined The Beach Boys, who were appearing at Angels Stadium in Anaheim, CA (before 74,000 fans). Wilson had been out of the group’s road tour schedule for 12 years. 1976 - 103 hostages were rescued by an Israeli commando unit in a raid on Entebbe airport in Uganda. 106 hostages had been taken from a hijacked Air France airliner on its way to Paris from Tel Aviv. Seven pro-Palestinian guerrilla hijackers, 20 Ugandan soldiers and 3 hostages were killed in the raid. 1982 - Pete Rose of the Philadelphia Phillies connected for hit #3,786. It moved Rose into second place in the career-hits column of the record books. Rose was second only to Ty Cobb whose major-league record was 4,191 hits. Rose was 41 years old at the time. Three years later he surpassed Cobb’s mark. 1985 - Kevin Curren whipped #1-seeded John McEnroe at the Wimbledon tennis championships. McEnroe had been attempting to become the first American to earn three consecutive men’s titles at Wimbledon. 1986 - Mikhail Baryshnikov, considered by many to be the world’s greatest ballet dancer, became a U.S. citizen in ceremonies at Ellis Island, New York Harbor. 1988 - U.S. President Ronald Reagan issued a statement to the world, and an apology to the Iranian people, “I am saddened to report that it appears that in a proper defensive action by the USS Vincennes this morning in the Persian Gulf, an Iranian airliner was shot down over the Strait of Hormuz ... We greatly regret any loss of life ...” (290 died when the Vincennes fired upon Iran Air Flight 655, mistaking the plane for a hostile F-14 fighter plane.) 1996 - “Earth, take a good look. It could be your last.” Independence Day was shown for the first time to U.S. audiences. Gigantic alien spacecraft are parked in orbit around the Earth, getting set to attack major points around the globe. The weirdos from outer space wipe out New York, Los Angeles, and Washington just for practice. Survivors come up with a plan to fight back ... and just do manage to save the planet. The movie was a blockbuster, doing $50.23 million in its debut weekend. How could it miss with a star-studded cast including Will Smith, Bill Pullman, Jeff Goldblum, Mary McDonnell, Judd Hirsch, Robert Loggia, Randy Quaid, Margaret Colin, James Rebhorn and Harvey Fierstein!
Posted on: Thu, 03 Jul 2014 14:24:21 +0000
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