On July 2, 1776,

the Continental Congress passed a resolution saying that "these United Colonies are, and of right ought to be, free and independent States."

In 1809,

Shawnee leader Tecumseh began organizing an Indian Confederacy to resist the growing spread of white American settlers.

In 1881,

President James A. Garfield was shot by Charles J. Guiteau at the Washington railroad station; Garfield died the following September. (Guiteau was hanged in June 1882.)