This Week in History

1898 July 1 | Capture of San Juan Hill Club member Colonel Theodore Roosevelt and “the Rough Riders” capture Kettle and San Juan Hills in Cuba during the Spanish-American War. Theodore Roosevelt is posthumously awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor in 2001 by our Club’s honorary member President George W. Bush. 1776 July 2 | Continental Congress Approves Independence The Continental Congress approves a resolution of independence prompting John Adams to write to his wife that “The Second day of July 1776 will be the most memorable epoch in the history of America.” The Declaration of Independence is officially adopted on July 3rd and signed on the 4th of July. 1863 July 3 | On the third day of the Battle at Gettysburg, Confederate General George Pickett is ordered by General Robert E. Lee to charge against Major General ’s Union positions on Cemetery Ridge. The Confederates are repulsed with heavy casualties. Lee is forced to surrender and retreat back to Virginia. President Lincoln returns to the battlefield in November to dedicate the new national cemetery and there delivers his Gettysburg Address. 1866 July 4 | Initial Idea for the Metropolitan Museum of Art Founding member Ambassador John Jay, while at a 4th of July dinner in Paris, states “it is time for the American people to lay the foundations of a National Institution and Gallery of Art,” leading to an organizational meeting at our Club and the establishment of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in 1870. The museum opens in 1872. 1801 July 5 | Admiral David G. Farragut Honorary member Admiral David G. Farragut is born in Virginia. Farragut remains loyal to the Union and serves with great honor during the Civil War. At the Battle of Mobile Bay, he famously orders “Damn the torpedoes, go ahead full speed,” and the battle is won. Farragut’s statue stands proudly in Madison Square Park near 26th Street and Fifth Avenue. 1981 July 7 | Justice Sandra Day O’Connor Honorary member President Ronald Reagan nominates Sandra Day O’Connor to be the first female justice of the Supreme Court. Justice O’Connor serves on the court until retiring in 2006 and is awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest civilian honor in the United States, in 2009. Justice O’Connor is elected an honorary member of the in 2004.