This Day in History: 0000-07-04

4 Jul – Seljuk Turks under Saladin destroyed a Crusader army in the Battle of Hattin, in Galilee near the Sea of Tiberias (1187).
4-22 Jul – Hungarian troops led by John Hunyadi (1406-1456) besieged and conquered Belgrade in Serbia, destroying an Ottoman army under Mehmet II (1456).
4 Jul – US Declaration of Independence signed and American independence celebrated (1776).
4 Jul – The Confederate stronghold at Vicksburg, the “Gibraltar of the South,” surrendered to Union General Ulysses S. Grant (1863).