This Day in History: July 3

On this day, July 3 …

2003: The U.S. puts a $25 million bounty on Saddam Hussein and $15 million apiece for his two sons, Odai and Qusai.

Also on this day:

• 1775: Gen. George Washington takes command of the Continental Army at Cambridge, Mass.
• 1863: The three-day Battle of Gettysburg in Pennsylvania ends in a major Civil War victory for the North as Confederate troops fail to breach Union positions during an assault known as Pickett's Charge.
• 1884: Dow Jones & Co. publishes its first stock average. 

• 1971: Jim Morrison, lead singer of the Doors, dies in Paris at age 27.
• 1976: Israel launches its mission to rescue 106 passengers and Air France crew members being held at Entebbe Airport in Uganda by pro-Palestinian hijackers; the commandos succeed in rescuing all but four of the hostages.
• 1979: Dan White, convicted of voluntary manslaughter in the shooting deaths of San Francisco Mayor George Moscone and Supervisor Harvey Milk, is sentenced to seven years and eight months in prison. (He would serve five years.)
• 1987: British millionaire Richard Branson and Per Lindstrand become the first hot-air balloon travelers to cross the Atlantic, parachuting into the sea as their craft goes down off the Scottish coast.

• 2009: In a surprise announcement, Sarah Palin says she will resign as Alaska governor, effective July 26, 2009. 
• 2013: Egypt's first democratically elected president, Mohammed Morsi, is overthrown by the military after just one year by the same kind of Arab Spring uprising that had brought the Islamist leader to power.
• 2018: Seattle becomes the first major U.S. city to ban plastic straws and utensils.