1712 - Twelve slaves were executed for starting a slave uprising in New York that killed nine whites.

1776 - The amended Declaration of Independence, prepared by Thomas Jefferson, was approved and signed by John Hancock, the President of the Continental Congress in America.

1802 - The U.S. Military Academy officially opened at West Point, NY.

1803 - The Louisiana Purchase was announced in newspapers. The property was purchased, by the U.S. from France, was for $15 million (or 3 cents an acre). The "Corps of Discovery," led by Meriwether Lewis and William Clark, began the exploration of the territory on May 14, 1804.

1817 - Construction began on the Erie Canal, to connect Lake Erie and the Hudson River.

1845 - American writer Henry David Thoreau began his two-year experiment in simple living at Walden Pond, near Concord, MA.

1848 - In Washington, DC, the cornerstone for the Washington Monument was laid.

1855 - The first edition of "Leaves of Grass," by Walt Whitman, was published in Brooklyn, NY.

1863 - The Confederate town of Vicksburg, MS, surrendered to General Ulysses S. Grant.

1884 - Bullfighting was introduced in the U.S. in Dodge City, KS.

1886 - The first rodeo in America was held at Prescott, AZ.

1892 - The first double-decked street car service was inaugurated in San Diego, CA.

1894 - After seizing power, Judge Stanford B. Dole declared Hawaii a republic.

1910 - Race riots broke out all over the United States after African-American Jack Johnson knocked out Jim Jeffries in a heavyweight boxing match.

1934 - Boxer Joe Louis won his first professional fight.

1934 - At Mount Rushmore, George Washington’s face was dedicated.

1939 - Lou Gehrig retired from major league baseball.

1946 - The Philippines achieved full independence for the first time in over four hundred years.

1955 - The first king cobra snakes born in captivity in the U.S. hatched at the Bronx Zoo in New York City.

1957 - The U.S. Postal Service issued the 4¢ Flag stamp.

1959 - The 49-star U.S. flag was debuted.

1960 - The 50-star U.S. flag made its debut in Philadelphia, PA.

1966 - U.S. President Johnson signed the Freedom of Information Act, which went into effect the following year.

1976 - The U.S. celebrated its Bicentennial.

1987 - Klaus Barbie, the former Gestapo chief known as the "Butcher of Lyon," was convicted by a French court of crimes against humanity and sentenced to life in prison.

1997 - The Mars Pathfinder, an unmanned spacecraft, landed on Mars. A rover named Sojourner was deployed to gather data about the surface of the planet.

1997 - Ferry service between Manhattan and Staten Island was made free of charge. Previously, the charge had ranged from 5 cents to 50 cents.

2004 - In New York, the cornerstone of the Freedom Tower was laid on the former World Trade Center site.

2005 - NASA’s Deep Impact spacecraft took pictures as a space probe smashed into the Tempel 1 comet. The mission was aimed at learning more about comets that formed from the leftover buidling blocks of the solar system. The Deep Impact mission launched on January 12, 2005.

Recipe courtesy Alton Brown

RIGA (Reuters) - Ready to give your soul for a loan in these difficult economic times? In Latvia, where the crisis has raged more than in the rest of the European Union, you can.

Such a deal is being offered by the Kontora loan company, whose public face is Viktor Mirosiichenko, 34.

Clients have to sign a contract, with the words "Agreement" in bold letters at the top. The client agrees to the collateral, "that is, my immortal soul."

Mirosiichenko said his company would not employ debt collectors to get its money back if people refused to repay, and promised no physical violence. Signatories only have to give their first name and do not show any documents.

"If they don’t give it back, what can you do? They won’t have a soul, that’s all," he told Reuters in a basement office, with one desk, a computer and three chairs.

Wearing sunglasses, a black suit and a white shirt with the words "Kontora" (office) emblazoned on it, he reaches into his pocket and lays out a sheaf of notes on the table to show that the business is serious and not a joke.

Latvia has been the EU nation worst hit by economic crisis.

Unemployment is soaring and banks have sharply reduced their lending, meaning that small companies offering easy loans in small amounts have become more popular.

Mirosiichenko said his company was basically trusting people to repay the small amounts they borrowed, which has so far been up to 250 lats ($500) for between 1 and 90 days at a hefty interest rate.

He said about 200 people had taken out loans over the two months the business was in operation.

ISTANBUL (Reuters) - What happens when you put a Muslim imam, a Christian priest, a rabbi and a Buddhist monk in a room with 10 atheists?

Turkish television station Kanal T hopes the answer is a ratings success as it prepares to launch a gameshow where spiritual guides from the four faiths will seek to convert a group of non-believers.

The prize for converts will be a pilgrimage to a holy site of their chosen religion – Mecca for Muslims, the Vatican for Christians, Jerusalem for Jews and Tibet for Buddhists.

But religious authorities in Muslim but secular Turkey are not amused by the twist on the popular reality game show format and the Religious Affairs Directorate is refusing to provide an imam for the show.

"Doing something like this for the sake of ratings is disrespectful to all religions. Religion should not be a subject for entertainment programs," High Board of Religious Affairs Chairman Hamza Aktan told state news agency Anatolian after news of the planned program emerged.

The makers of "Penitents Compete" are unrepentant and reject claims that the show, scheduled to begin broadcasting in September, will cheapen religion.

"We are giving the biggest prize in the world, the gift of belief in God," Kanal T chief executive Seyhan Soylu told Reuters.

"We don’t approve of anyone being an atheist. God is great and it doesn’t matter which religion you believe in. The important thing is to believe," Soylu said.

The project focuses attention on the issue of religious identity in European Union-candidate Turkey, where rights groups have raised concerns over freedom of religion for non-Muslim minorities.

Detractors of the ruling AK Party government, which is rooted in political Islam but officially secular, accuse it of having a hidden Islamist agenda, a charge it denies.

Some 200 people have so far applied to take part in the show and the 10 contestants will be chosen next month.

A team of theologians will ensure that the atheists are truly non-believers and are not just seeking fame or a free holiday.

And Jesus answered and spake unto them again by parables, and said,  The kingdom of heaven is like unto a certain king, which made a marriage for his son.  And sent forth his servants to call them that were bidden to the wedding: and they would not come.  Again, he sent forth other servants, saying, Tell them which are bidden, Behold, I have prepared my dinner: my oxen and my fatlings are killed, and all things are ready: come unto the marriage.  But they made light of it, and went their ways, one to his farm, another to his merchandise:  And the remnant took his servants, and entreated them spitefully, and slew them. But when the king heard thereof, he was wroth: and he sent forth his armies, and destroyed those murderers, and burned up their city. Then saith he to his servants, The wedding is ready, but they which were bidden were not worthy.  Go ye therefore into the highways, and as many as ye shall find, bid to the marriage.  So those servants went out into the highways, and gathered together all as many as they found, both bad and good: and the wedding was furnished with guests.  And when the king came in to see the guests, he saw there a man which had not on a wedding garment:  And he saith unto him, Friend, how camest thou in hither not having a wedding garment? And he was speechless.Then said the king to the servants, Bind him hand and foot, and take him away, and cast him into outer darkness; there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.  For many are called, but few are chosen.

1608 - The city of Quebec was founded by Samuel de Champlain.

1775 - U.S. Gen. George Washington took command of the Continental Army at Cambridge, MA.

1790 - In Paris, the marquis of Condorcet proposed granting civil rights to women.

1844 - Ambassador Caleb Cushing successfully negotiated a commercial treaty with China that opened five Chinese ports to U.S. merchants and protected the rights of American citizens in China.

1863 - The U.S. Civil War Battle of Gettysburg, PA, ended after three days. It was a major victory for the North as Confederate troops retreated.

1871 - The Denver and Rio Grande Western Railroad Company introduced the first narrow-gauge locomotive. It was called the "Montezuma."

1878 - John Wise flew the first dirigible in Lancaster, PA.

1880 - "Science" began publication. Thomas Edison had provided the principle funding.

1898 - During the Spanish American War, a fleet of Spanish ships in Cuba’s Santiago Harbor attempted to run a blockade of U.S. naval forces. Nearly all of the Spanish ships were destroyed in the battle that followed.

1901 - The Wild Bunch, led by Butch Cassidy, committed its last American robbery near Wagner, MT. They took $65,000 from a Great Northern train.

1903 - The first cable across the Pacific Ocean was spliced between Honolulu, Midway, Guam and Manila.

1912 - Rube Marquand of the New York Giants set a baseball pitching record when earned his 19th consecutive win.

1922 - "Fruit Garden and Home" magazine was introduced. It was later renamed "Better Homes and Gardens."

1924 - Clarence Birdseye founded the General Seafood Corp.

1930 - The U.S. Congress created the U.S. Veterans Administration.

1934 - U.S. Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) made its first payment to Lydia Losiger.

1937 - Del Mar race track opened in Del Mar, CA.

1939 - Chic Young’s comic strip character, "Blondie" was first heard on CBS radio.

1940 - Bud Abbott and Lou Costello debuted on NBC radio.

1944 - The U.S. First Army opened a general offensive to break out of the hedgerow area of Normandy, France.

1944 - During World War II, Soviet forces recaptured Minsk.

1945 - U.S. troops landed at Balikpapan and take Sepinggan airfield on Borneo in the Pacific.

1945 - The first civilian passenger car built since February 1942 was driven off the assembly line at the Ford Motor Company plant in Detroit, MI. Production had been diverted due to World War II.

1950 - U.S. carrier-based planes attacked airfields in the Pyongyang-Chinnampo area of North Korea in the first air-strike of the Korean War.

1954 - Food rationing ended in Great Britain almost nine years after the end of World War II.

1962 - Jackie Robinson became the first African American to be inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame.

1974 - The Threshold Test Ban Treaty was signed, prohibiting underground nuclear weapons tests with yields greater than 150 kilotons.

1976 - 103 hostages were rescued by an Israeli commando unit at the raid on Entebbe airport in Uganda. The hostages had been taken from an Air France jetliner.

1981 - The Associated Press ran its first story about two rare illnesses afflicting homosexual men. One of the diseases was later named AIDS.

1986 - U.S. President Reagan presided over a ceremony in New York Harbor that saw the relighting of the renovated Statue of Liberty.

1986 - Mikhail Baryshnikov became a U.S. citizen at Ellis Island, New York Harbor.

1988 - The USS Vincennes shot down an Iran Air jetliner over the Persian Gulf, killing all 290 people aboard. The jetliner was misidentified as an Iranian F-14 fighter.

1991 - U.S. President George Bush formally inaugurated the Mount Rushmore National Memorial in South Dakota.

BEIJING, CHINA (Worthy News)– The pastor of a major Chinese evangelical church and his wife have been sentenced to one year "re-education through labor" for "engaging in illegal religious activities," trial observers confirmed Wednesday, July 1.

Advocacy group China Aid Association (CAA) told Worthy News that Pastor Dou Shaowen and his wife Feng Lu of Rock (Panshi) Church in Zhengzhou city of  Henan province were sentenced to a labor camp.

However his wife has meanwhile been released to serve her sentence at home to care for her 12-year-old daughter, CAA added.  “She is required to report to the Public Security Bureau regularly, and could be sent to labor camp again if she is found ‘engaging in illegal religious activities’,” the group explained.

The couple plans to appeal the verdict. “Attorney Li Dunyong has traveled to Zhengzhou city to represent Pastor Dou and Feng Lu for the Administrative Review and Appeal,” the group said.

CHURCH RAID

Pastor Dou Shaowen and his wife Feng Lu were detained June 14, when several dozen security officials from broke into the church’s Sunday worship service,  Christians said. Officials allegedly forcibly photographed and videotaped the more than 100 Christians present, cut off the electricity and forced the Christians to leave.

"Finally, the authorities posted sealing tape from the Bureau of Religion, sealing off all the worship areas of Rock Church," CAA said.

Five other Christians,identified as  Li Zhemin, Wei Jianhua, Zhang Julin, Ma Jianbo and Li Cuiying were arrested with Pastor Dou and Feng Lu and sentenced to 15 days of administrative detention. They were reportedly also forced to pay fines of up to 900 Yuan each ($132).

The case comes amid a reported crackdown on unauthorized worship services in several parts of China, a Communist-run nation where authorities say Christians are free to gather within state-backed denominations.

CAA said it had urged its supporters to contact authorities and demand the release of the Christians. It said Zhengzhou’s  Mayor could be reached via phone: +86-371-12345, or e-mail: mayor@zhengzhou.gov.cn Zhengzhou Municipal Public Security Bureau could be reached via  +86-371-66228710, the group said.

LAHORE, PAKISTAN (Worthy News)– At least 13 people, including women and children, were injured Wednesday, July 1, when local Muslims set on fire some 100 Christian homes and churches east of the Pakistani city of Lahore,  Christian rights investigators said.

International Christian Concern (ICC) told Worthy News that its partners rushed to the scene in the city of Kasur South to help injured Christians trapped in the riots. ICC said the violence was sparked by "broadcasts from local mosques", although it was not immediately clear what was allegedly said.

The incident is similar to a February 1997 attack when thousands of Christian houses and churches were burned and hundreds of Christians were injured, ICC added.

"ICC partners received the news this morning and went immediately to the scene to help injured Christians transferred to Lahore, renting two mini vans for this purpose. So far 9 burned women and 4 children have been transferred to Lahore for further medical treatment," the group said in a statement.

ICC investigators said all of them were injured when Muslim mobs apparently threw acid on them. Local police reportedly arrived on the scene, but ICC said "the situation is out of control as thousands of Muslims have gathered for this purpose."

The group said it has urged its supporters around the world to contact their Pakistani embassies to ask them to protect the Christians in Kasur South.

Wednesday’s reported violence came amid several reported anti-Christian incidents in Punjab province, to which the city belongs.