Firework celebrations for Independence Day touched off disaster in Denton, Maryland, when balls of candlewick and kerosene thrown during a picnic landed in the second storey of a store building.  The fire spread through the town and newspaper reports stated that the entire business section of the small town had burned to the ground.  No injuries were reported but score of people were described as homeless and destitute.  (By John Osborne) 

The prolonged hot weather in the mid-Atlantic states continued.  Recorded noon-time  temperatures reached 89 degees in Trenton, New Jersey, 93 degrees in Reading, Pennsylvania, and 90 degrees in Cincinatti, Ohio, for example.  Press reports mentioned numerous cases of heat prostration requiring hospitalization.  (By John Osborne)  

The provost guard in Wheeling, West Virginia were pursuing an escaped prisoner in the late evening when a shot fired from one of them struck two members nearby.  Captain John List, an elderly leading citizen was hit in the thigh and quickly bleed to death from a punctured artery.  Another was hit in the ankle.  (By John Osborne) 

At the White House, President Johnson received a delegation of Virginia businessmen who were petitioning to amend his amnesty proclamation to relieve the additional burdens on former Confederates worth more than $20,000.  Johnson told them that they knew "perfectly well it was the wealthy men of the South who dragooned the people into secession" and reminded them that treason had its consequences.  The restriction remained in force.  (By John Osborne)