• On July 4, 1776, more than a year after the first volleys of the American Revolution were fired at Lexington, Mass., the Second Continental Congress officially adopts the Declaration of Independence. Seven years later, with the signing of the Treaty of Paris with Britain, the United States formally became a free and independent nation.
• On July 2, 1839, early in the morning, Africans on the Cuban schooner Amistad rise up against their captors,…