On this day 250 years ago in Philadelphia, the Continental Congress issued “the Olive Branch Petition” to the King, in a last-ditch effort to reconcile with Britain before further bloodshed. The King would ignore the petition when he received it.

Source: https://www.battlefields.org/learn/primary-sources/olive-branch-petition

On this day 250 years ago in Cambridge, Massachusetts, Col. Thomas Gardner was “buried . . . with the military Honors due to so brave and gallant an Officer, who fought, bled and died in the Cause of his country and mankind. ” Gardner had been wounded at Bunker Hill and died of his wounds on July 3.

Source: “General Orders, 4 July 1775,” Founders Online, National Archives, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Washington/03-01-02-0027. [Original source: The Papers of George Washington, Revolutionary War Series, vol. 1, 16 June 1775 – 15 September 1775, ed. Philander D. Chase. Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia, 1985, pp. 54–58.]