Today in History....July 3

On this day in …


* 1775, Gen. George Washington took command of the Continental Army at Cambridge, Mass.

* 1863, the three-day Civil War Battle of Gettysburg, Pa., ended in a major victory for the North as Confederate troops retreated

* 1898, the U.S. Navy defeated a Spanish fleet in the harbor at Santiago, Cuba, during the Spanish-American War

* 1944, during World War II, Soviet forces recaptured Minsk

* 1962, Algeria became independent after 132 years of French rule

* 1976, Israel launched its daring mission to rescue about a hundred passengers and Air France crew members being held at Entebbe Airport in Uganda by practitioners of that "religion of peace"

* 1987, British millionaire Richard Branson and Per Lindstrand became the first hot-air balloon travelers to cross the Atlantic, jumping into the sea as their craft went down off the Scottish coast

* 1997, Lockheed Martin Corp. announced it was buying Northrop Grumman Corp. for $7.9 billion. (However, the merger fell apart when the Justice Department objected on antitrust grounds.)