Another busy day in New Jersey!

Today in New Jersey history:

July 2, 1776: New Jersey’s Provincial Congress adopted the state’s first constitution. William Livingston was chosen as the first governor under the new statute, which was the only one of the original state constitutions granting the right of suffrage to women, providing they were property owners.

 July 2. 1863: At the battle of Gettysburg, the Newark boys of New Jersey’s Artillery Battery B, deployed near the Peach Orchard, fired 1,342 rounds, more than any other Union artillery battery in the Civil War fired in a single day—and Battery B’s day started at 2:00 p.m. As the Union Third Army Corps retreated, Battery B successfully disengaged from advancing Rebels and managed to withdraw all six of its guns to Cemetery Ridge.
      New Jersey's 5th, 6th, 7th, 8th and 11th Infantry regiments were also involved in heavy action that day, from Plum Run through the Wheatfield to the north of the Peach Orchard, with the 11th staging an epic fighting withdrawal from the Emmitsburg Road to Cemetery Ridge.

July 2, 1912: The 258-foot semi-rigid airship Akron, piloted by its designer, Melvin Vaniman, took off from Atlantic City in an attempt to cross the Atlantic Ocean. As the Akron flew over Absecon Beach, it exploded and crashed into the water, killing all five crewmembers.

July 2, 1921: A heavyweight championship bout between Jack Dempsey and Georges Carpentier was held at Boyle’s Thirty Acres in Jersey City. Although the promoter originally wanted to stage the fight at the Polo Grounds in New York City, the opposition of the governor of New York to boxing led Mayor Frank Hague to offer a site in Jersey City. The venue, the largest wooden amphitheater ever built, was located near Montgomery Street on a plot of marshland owned by John P. Boyle. The well promoted fight was attended by 91,000 spectators and was the first million dollar gate in boxing history. Dempsey won in the fourth round. Other notable 1920s boxing matches were held at the venue, but it fell into disuse later in the decade as Yankee Stadium became the desired location for major fights, and was demolished in June, 1927.

July 2, 1921: The United States Senate, adamantly opposed to participation in the League of Nations, had refused to approve the Treaty of Versailles, extending America’s official involvement in World War I for years after the fighting had actually ceased. The war officially ended for the United States on this day in New Jersey when President Warren Harding, returning from a golf outing at the Somerset Hills Country Club, signed the Knox-Porter Joint Congressional Resolution declaring hostilities at an end at the home of New Jersey U.S. senator Joseph S. Frelinghuysen in Raritan Borough. The house is long gone, but a small monument marks the spot near the entrance to the Somerville Circle Shopping Center.

July 2, 1981: Bruce Springsteen was the opening act at Brendan Byrne Arena in the Meadowlands. The arena was subsequently renamed the Continental Airlines Arena. Pictures: Battery B's Gettysburg monument & Boyle's 30 Acres.