What happened on 4 July?

13 events from the Ever-When timeline, ranked by how much they mattered.

1. 1776 American Declaration of Independence Thirteen colonies declare independence from Britain.
2. 1187 Battle of Hattin Saladin annihilates the kingdom of Jerusalem's army at the Horns of Hattin; capture of the True Cross and most of the Latin army.
3. 1855 Whitman's Leaves of Grass Walt Whitman's epic poetic collection — foundational American verse.
4. 2012 Higgs boson discovered CERN's Large Hadron Collider confirms the Higgs boson after a 50-year search.
5. 2024 2024 UK general election Labour wins a 411-seat landslide, ending fourteen years of Conservative government.
6. 1804 Born: Nathaniel Hawthorne American novelist; The Scarlet Letter.
7. 1997 Mars Rover Sojourner lands First successful Mars rover (Pathfinder mission).
8. 1879 Battle of Ulundi Reinforced and burning for redemption, Chelmsford forms a hollow square of 5,000 rifles and Gatling guns before the royal kraal and breaks the last Zulu army in half an hour — days
9. 1946 Philippines independence Independence from the United States after almost five decades of American rule.
10. 1976 Entebbe raid Israeli commandos fly 4,000 km to free hostages held in Uganda — a celebrated rescue operation.
11. 1954 End of rationing in Britain Wartime food rationing finally ends with the decontrol of meat in 1954.
12. 1782 Lord Shelburne's premiership Shelburne concludes the peace that recognises the United States, and is destroyed by it politically.
13. 1653 Barebones Parliament Cromwell's nominated assembly of 'godly men' — mocked after member Praise-God Barebone — attempts radical reform before dissolving itself within six months, clearing the way for th