Two hundred fifty years ago today, a dying man completed one of the most consequential horseback rides in American history. Caesar Rodney, a delegate to the Continental Congress from Delaware, arrived in Philadelphia on July 2, 1776, still caked with mud and wearing his boots and spurs, to cast the vote that would help birth a nation.
Rodney was in Dover tending to Loyalist activity in Sussex County on the night of July 1 when he received urgent word from fellow Delaware delegate Thomas McKean. McKean and delegate George Read were deadlocked on the vote for independence—one in favor, one against. The tie threatened to prevent Delaware from joining the other colonies in their historic decision.
Despite suffering from asthma and a facial cancer tumor that would claim his life eight years later, Rodney mounted his horse and rode seventy miles through a thunderstorm. He completed the journey in eighteen hours—six hours faster than the typical twenty-four-hour trip—stopping only to change horses. When he arrived in Philadelphia on July 2 just as voting began, he broke Delaware's deadlock with his vote for secession, making the thirteen colonies unanimous in their decision to declare independence from the British Empire.
Rodney and McKean had already led the effort on the floor of the Delaware Assembly to vote on June 15, 1776, to sever all ties with the British Empire. Rodney would go on to sign the Declaration of Independence on August 2. His dramatic midnight ride has been immortalized on the Delaware Quarter reverse, which depicts him racing to Philadelphia.
July 2 marks several other significant historical milestones. In 1777, Vermont became the first American state to abolish slavery. In 1976, North and South Vietnam united after being divided since 1954. In 2000, Vicente Fox was elected President of México, the first from an opposition party, ending the Institutional Revolutionary Party's seventy-one-year reign. In 2009, India's high court decriminalized homosexuality, striking down a one-hundred-fifty-year colonial ban against gay sex between consenting adults.
The date also holds cultural significance in music history. Fifty-five years ago today, in 1971, Brian May, Roger Taylor, John Deacon, and Freddie Mercury performed their first show together as Queen at Surrey College, England. Mercury suggested the band's name and illustrated their logo, which combined the members' zodiac signs and appeared on all Queen albums. The band would go on to produce stadium anthems including We Will Rock You and We Are the Champions, along with hits like Bohemian Rhapsody, Somebody to Love, and Another One Bites the Dust.
Today also marks the birthday of Larry David, who turns seventy-nine. The Brooklyn-raised comedian co-created Seinfeld and later wrote and starred in HBO's Curb Your Enthusiasm. His work on Seinfeld won him two Primetime Emmy Awards in 1993, for Outstanding Comedy Series and Outstanding Individual Achievement in Writing in a Comedy Series. David has been nominated for twenty-seven Primetime Emmy Awards throughout his career and was voted the twenty-third greatest comedy star ever in a 2004 British poll to select "The Comedian's Comedian."
Soccer star Alex Morgan celebrates her thirty-seventh birthday today. The forward has won two hundred twenty-four caps for the United States Women's National Team and scored one hundred twenty-three goals. She has won two World Cup titles and appeared on the cover of FIFA 2016 alongside Lionel Messi. At the 2019 FIFA Women's World Cup, Morgan scored five goals in the opening group game against Thailand to equal the World Cup single-game goals record set by Michelle Akers in 1991. In the tournament final, she won a penalty that was converted by teammate Megan Rapinoe to secure the fourth FIFA Women's World Cup for the United States.
On this date in 1980, the comedy film Airplane! premiered. Written and directed by David and Jerry Zucker, along with Jim Abrahams, the film starred Leslie Nielsen, Robert Stack, Lloyd Bridges, and Peter Graves. The fast-paced slapstick comedy, filled with visual and verbal puns and obscure humor, has since been marked for preservation by the United States National Film Registry at the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant."
Twenty-one years ago today, Live 8 Concerts took place in ten cities, including London, Philadelphia, Paris, Berlin, Johannesburg, Rome, and Moscow. The Bob Geldof-produced events were designed to pressure G8 countries to address poverty and debt in Africa. Hundreds of millions of people witnessed the concerts in person, on television, or online. Five days later, G8 leaders pledged to double levels of aid to poor nations from twenty-five billion dollars to fifty billion dollars by 2010. The all-star lineups included Pink Floyd, reunited with former bassist, vocalist, and lyricist Roger Waters for the first time in over twenty-four years, along with U2, Paul McCartney, Madonna, Chris Martin, Dave Matthews, Stevie Wonder, Will Smith, and Robin Williams.
