-1054 Brightest known super-nova (Crab Nebula) starts shining (23 days)
-1827 Slavery abolished in NY
-1862 Lewis Carroll creates Alice in Wonderland for Alice P Liddell
-1865 1st edition of "Alice in Wonderland" is published
-1874 Social Democratic Workmen's Party of North America formed
-1946 Philippines gains independence from US
-1963 South Vietnamese officers plot coup
-1966 LBJ signs Freedom of Information Act
-1967 Freedom of Information Act goes into effect
-1969 "Give Peace a Chance" by Plastic Ono Band is released in the UK
-1987 Klaus Barbie, the former Nazi Gestapo chief of German-occupied Lyons, was found guilty of crimes against humanity and sentenced to life imprisonment, France's highest punishment.
-1988 US navy shoots down Iranian civilian jetliner over Gulf, kills 290
-1999 Around 50,000 march to Roosevelt Roads Base in Ceiba to demand that the US Navy leaves Vieques.
-1999 White supremacist Benjamin Nathaniel Smith shot himself to death.
-2001 Princeton: Steps taken to improve salaries for low-wage workers:
President's discretionary fund to help close gap
-2002 Six protesters wearing identical T-shirts and carrying signs denouncing the proposed Yucca Mountain storage facility were joined Wednesday by members of the Indigo Girls, the B-52s and Midnight Oil.
-2002 GEORGETOWN, Guyana (AP) - Police opened fire on demonstrators who broke into the presidential compound Wednesday, killing two people and wounding six others during a protest timed to coincide with the start of a Caribbean summit.
-2002 TOKYO - Anti-nuclear campaigners this week stepped up their bid to block a planned shipment of nuclear material from Japan to Britain, saying the cargo could be vulnerable to theft or attack.
-2004 The drag queens and gender bending lesbians will once again hop on a Ferry Boat in Cherry Grove, Fire Island at around 12:30 PM, to 'invade' the Pines, where almost three decades ago a man wearing drag was refused service at a restaurant there.
-2004 North County Forum is having their 2nd annual Alternative Independence Day and Activist Fair on Friday, July 4, at the Palomar UU Fellowship in Vista. We need some groups to bring food to sell. Being an "alternative" 4th, we don't allow hot dogs, hamburgers, coke, or other symbols of US Empire. Last year we had only Middle Eastern food. This year we want food and drink from countries that opposed the war, especially France. Info: Contact Dick Eiden, NCForum (at) aol.com
www.activistsandiego.org/newsletter/asdnewsletter184.html

More traffic fatalities occur on July 4 than any other day of the year. July 3 is the second worst day for crash deaths.