Fur trader Peter Pond kills a rival in a duel somewhere in the North West Territories of Canada.

Continental Congress adjourns for summer recess and agrees to reassemble on September 5.

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The Continental Congress formally rejects Britain’s Conciliatory Resolution to bring a peaceful end to the Rebellion. Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, and John Adams write a scathing report rejecting the document, and then send it back to England.

Massachusetts Militia under Major Benjamin Tupper attack Nantasket Point. They kill 7 Royal Marines, wound 5, and take 33 prisoners of war.

The Second Continental Congress agrees that services of Gilbert du Motier, Marquis de Lafayette “be accepted, and that, in consideration of his zeal, illustrious family and connexions, he have the rank and commission of major-general of the United States.”

Captain James Cook’s ship, Resolution, returns home to England, sailing into Spithead, Portsmouth following a three-year voyage across the Southern Hemisphere.

General Washington appoints William Tudor as the first Judge Advocate General of the Continental Army.

In today’s Virginia Gazette, printer Alexander Purdy publishes portions of letters written in London in May that reveal that King George and Catherine the Great have been in correspondence about supplying “40,000 Russian Bears [mercenaries] to tear us to pieces.”

The Second Continental Congress passes legislation establishing a hospital “for an army consisting of 20,000 men.”

British Major Connolly abandons the Pittsburgh garrison and sets his troops on a march to reinforce Lord Dunmore at Williamsburg.

Greek Orthodox Cleric Cyril V of Constantinople dies on Mount Athos. He was about 70 years old.

The Maryland Convention signs the Association of Freemen, a document that expresses hope for reconciliation with Great Britain.

The Second Continental Congress establishes the United States Post Office and names Benjamin Franklin as the first United States Postmaster General. Franklin is now responsible for establishing a postal system in the United States.

Carlton, Johnson, and Brant devise a plan in which 1,600 Mohawk warriors will raid New England on behalf of the British. Carlton employs at least 50 Indians as his own personal scouts.

Guy Carlton, British Colonial Governor of Quebec, meets with Guy Johnson, the superintendent of the northern district of the Indian Department, along with Mohawk War Chief Joseph Brant.

Lord North sends a letter to King George: “Lord North submits to His Majesty that the war [in the Colonies] has grown to such a height, that it must be treated as a foreign war.”

Patriot leaders in Charleston, South Carolina borrow a local sloop, the Commerce, and commence refitting it for raids on British powder magazines.

Dr. Benjamin Church is appointed the first Surgeon General of the new Continental Army.