1836
Jul 4, Narcissa Prentiss Whitman and Eliza Hart Spaulding made a marker at South Pass Wyoming as the first European women to cross the continent.

1898
Jul 4, Gertrude Lawrence, English actress, was born.

1916
Jul 4, Tokyo Rose, (Iva Toguri D'Aquino), was born in Los Angeles. She did propaganda broadcasts against the U.S. from Japan during World War II.; imprisoned after the war, then received presidential pardon in 1977.

1920
Jul 4, Leona Helmsley, (wife of Harry), real estate billionaire, tax cheat, was born.

1954
Jul 4, Marilyn Sheppard (31 and pregnant) was killed at her home near Cleveland and her husband, Dr. Sam Sheppard (d.1970), was later accused, tried and jailed for the murder. Sam was released from jail in 1964. His story inspired the TV series "The Fugitive" and a film in 1993. DNA evidence in 1997 indicated a third person was involved. Cleveland’s chief prosecutor ruled in 1998 that the DNA samples were too old. A civil trial in Cleveland in 2000 rejected the claim of Sam Reese Sheppard that his father was innocent.

1987
Jul 4, Martina Navratilova won her eighth Wimbledon singles title as she defeated Steffi Graf.

1989
Jul 4, Drew Barrymore (b.1975), actress, attempted suicide.

1995
Jul 4, Actress Eva Gabor (b.1919), Hungarian-born actress, died in Los Angeles, Ca., of respiratory failure due to complications of food poisoning.

1998
Jul 4, In Finland in the annual Wife Carrying World Championships, 2 Estonian couples won top honors in the 278 yard course in Sonkajarvi.

2002
Jul 4, Winnifred Quick Van Tongerloo (98), one of the four known survivors of the Titanic sinking, died in East Lansing, Mich.

2008
Jul 4, In Pakistan a bomb exploded on a busy street in the southwestern city of Quetta, killing a 4-year old girl and wounding 11 other people.

2013
Jul 4, In Afghanistan roadside bombs killed 4 young girls in Helmand province. Lieutenant Islam Bibi, the most senior policewoman in volatile southern Helmand province, was shot dead on her way to work in Lashkar Gah. 2 schoolboys were killed when they triggered a roadside bomb in Paktika province. A NATO service member was killed in fighting in western Afghanistan.