This is your morning Open Thread. Pour your favorite beverage and review the past and comment on the future.
Find the past “On This Day in History” here.
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July 7 is the 188th day of the year (189th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. There are 177 days remaining until the end of the year.
The terms 7th July, July 7th, and 7/7 (pronounced “Seven-seven”) have been widely used in the Western media as a shorthand for the 7 July 2005 bombings on London’s transport system. In China, this term is used to denote the Battle of Lugou Bridge started on July 7, 1937, marking the beginning of the Second Sino-Japanese War.
On this day in 1898, U.S. President William McKinley signs the Newlands Resolution annexing Hawaii as a territory of the United States.
In 1898 President of the United States William McKinley signed the treaty of annexation for Hawaii, but it failed in the senate after the 38,000 signatures of the Ku’e Petitions were submitted. After the failure Hawaii was annexed by means of joint resolution called the Newlands Resolution.
The Territory of Hawaii, or Hawaii Territory, was a United States organized incorporated territory that existed from July 7, 1898, until August 21, 1959, when its territory, with the exception of Johnston Atoll, was admitted to the Union as the fiftieth U.S. state, the State of Hawaii.
The U.S. Congress passed the Newlands Resolution which annexed the former Kingdom of Hawaii and later Republic of Hawaii to the United States. Hawaii’s territorial history includes a period from 1941 to 1944 – during World War II – when the islands were placed under martial law. Civilian government was dissolved and a military governor was appointed.
On 7 July 1898, McKinley signed the Newlands Resolution (named after Congressman Francis Newlands) which officially annexed Hawaii to the United States. A formal ceremony was held on the steps of ‘Iolani Palace where the Hawaiian flag was lowered and the American flag raised. Dole was appointed Hawaii’s first territorial governor.
The Newlands Resolution said, “Whereas, the Government of the Republic of Hawaii having, in due form, signified its consent, in the manner provided by its constitution, to cede absolutely and without reserve to the United States of America, all rights of sovereignty of whatsoever kind in and over the Hawaiian Islands and their dependencies, and also to cede and transfer to the United States, the absolute fee and ownership of all public, Government, or Crown lands, public buildings or edifices, ports, harbors, military equipment, and all other public property of every kind and description belonging to the Government of the Hawaiian Islands, together with every right and appurtenance thereunto appertaining: Therefore, Resolved by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That said cession is accepted, ratified, and confirmed, and that the said Hawaiian Islands and their dependencies be, and they are hereby, annexed as a part of the territory of the United States and are subject to the sovereign dominion thereof, and that all and singular the property and rights hereinbefore mentioned are vested in the United States of America.”
The Newlands Resolution established a five-member commission to study which laws were needed in Hawaii. The commission included: Territorial Governor Sanford B. Dole (R-Hawaii Territory), Senators Shelby M. Cullom (R-IL) and John T. Morgan (D-AL), Representative Robert R. Hitt (R-IL) and former Hawaii Chief Justice and later Territorial Governor Walter F. Frear (R-Hawaii Territory). The commission’s final report was submitted to Congress for a debate which lasted over a year. Congress raised objections that establishing an elected territorial government in Hawaii would lead to the admission of a state with a non-white majority.
1124 – Tyre falls to the Crusaders
1456 – A retrial verdict acquits Joan of Arc of heresy 25 years after her death.
1520 – Spanish conquistadores defeat a larger Aztec army at the Battle of Otumba.
1534 – European colonization of the Americas: first known exchange between Europeans and natives of the Gulf of St. Lawrence in New Brunswick.
1543 – French troops invade Luxembourg.
1575 – Raid of the Redeswire, the last major battle between England and Scotland.
1585 – The Treaty of Nemours abolishes tolerance to Protestants in France.
1770 – The Battle of Larga between the Russian Empire and the Ottoman Empire takes place.
1777 – American Revolutionary War: Battle of Hubbardton.
1798 – Quasi-War: the U.S. Congress rescinds treaties with France sparking the “war”.
1807 – Napoleonic Wars: the Peace of Tilsit between France, Prussia and Russia ends the Fourth Coalition.
1846 – Mexican-American War: American troops occupy Monterey and Yerba Buena, thus beginning the U.S. conquest of California.
1863 – United States begins its first military draft; exemptions cost $300.
1865 – American Civil War: four conspirators in the assassination of President Abraham Lincoln are hanged.
1892 – Katipunan: the Revolutionary Philippine Brotherhood is established, contributing to the fall of the Spanish Empire in Asia.
1898 – U.S. President William McKinley signs the Newlands Resolution annexing Hawaii as a territory of the United States.
1915 – World War I: end of First Battle of the Isonzo.
1915 – An International Railway trolley with an extreme overload of 157 passengers crashes near Queenston, Ontario, killing 15.
1928 – Sliced bread is sold for the first time by the Chillicothe Baking Company of Chillicothe, Missouri.
1930 – Industrialist Henry J. Kaiser begins construction of the Boulder Dam (now known as Hoover Dam).
1937 – Sino-Japanese War: Battle of Lugou Bridge – Japanese forces invade Beijing, China.
1941 – World War II: U.S. forces land in Iceland, taking over from an earlier British occupation.
1941 – World War II: Beirut is occupied by Free France and British troops.
1944 – World War II: Largest Banzai charge of the Pacific War at the Battle of Saipan.
1946 – Mother Frances Xavier Cabrini becomes the first American to be canonized.
1946 – Howard Hughes nearly dies when his XF-11 spy plane prototype crashes in a Beverly Hills neighborhood.
1952 – The ocean liner SS United States passes Bishop’s Rock on her maiden voyage, breaking the transatlantic speed record to become the fastest passenger ship in the world.
1953 – Ernesto “Che” Guevara sets out on a trip through Bolivia, Peru, Ecuador, Panama, Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Honduras, and El Salvador.
1954 – Elvis Presley made his radio debut when WHBQ Memphis played his first recording for Sun Records, “That’s All Right.”
1958 – U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower signs the Alaska Statehood Act into law.
1959 – Venus occults the star Regulus. This rare event is used to determine the diameter of Venus and the structure of the Venusian atmosphere.
1967 – Beginning of the civil war in Biafra.
1978 – The Solomon Islands become independent from the United Kingdom.
1980 – Institution of sharia in Iran.
1980 – During the Lebanese civil war, 83 Tiger militants are killed during what will be known as the Safra massacre.
1983 – Cold War: Samantha Smith, a U.S. schoolgirl, flies to the Soviet Union at the invitation of Secretary General Yuri Andropov.
1985 – Boris Becker becomes the youngest player ever to win Wimbledon at age 17
1991 – Yugoslav Wars: the Brioni Agreement ends the ten-day independence war in Slovenia against the rest of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia.
2002 – A scandal breaks out in the United Kingdom when news reports accuse MI6 of sheltering Abu Qatada, the supposed European Al Qaeda leader.
2005 – A series of four explosions occurs on London’s transport system killing 56 people including four alleged suicide bombers and injuring over 700 others.
2011 – Roof of a stand in De Grolsch Veste Stadium in Enschede which was under construction collapsed, killing two and injuring 14.
2012 – At least 171 people are killed in a flash flood in the Krasnodar Krai region of Russia.
2013 – A De Havilland Otter air taxi crashes in Soldotna, Alaska, killing 10 people.
* Christian Feast Day:
* Aethelburg of Faremoutiers
* Illidius
* Job of Maniava (Ukrainian Orthodox Church)
* Willibald (Roman Catholic Church)
*July 7 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics)
* Independence Day, celebrates the independence of Solomon Islands from the United Kingdom in 1978.
* Ivan Kupala Day (Belarus, Poland, Russia, Ukraine)
* Saba Saba Day (Tanzania)
* Tanabata (Japan)
* Unity Factory Day (Yemen)
* San Fermines Bulls run (Pamplona, Spain)