Associated Press
On July 2, 1937, aviator Amelia Earhart and navigator Fred Noonan disappeared over the Pacific Ocean while attempting to make the first around-the-world flight at the equator.
On this date in:
1776 The Continental Congress passed a resolution that “these United Colonies are, and of right, ought to be, Free and Independent States.”
1881 President James A. Garfield was fatally shot by Charles J. Guiteau at the Washington railroad station. (Garfield died on Sept. 19.)
1890 Congress passed the Sherman Antitrust Act.
1908 Thurgood Marshall, the first African-American Supreme Court justice, was born in Baltimore.
1932 Democrats nominated New York Gov. Franklin D. Roosevelt for president at their convention in Chicago.
1947 An object that the Army Air Force later said was a weather balloon crashed near Roswell, N.M. Eyewitness accounts gave rise to speculation it might have been an alien spacecraft.
1961 Author Ernest Hemingway, 61, shot himself to death at his home in Ketchum, Idaho.
1962 The first Walmart store (called Wal-Mart Discount City) was opened in Rogers, Ark., by Sam Walton and his brother, James.
1964 President Lyndon B. Johnson signed into law a sweeping civil rights bill.
1976 The Supreme Court ruled the death penalty was not inherently cruel or unusual.
2003 President George W. Bush promised to deal harshly with those who attack American troops in Iraq, saying “bring them on.”
2007 President George W. Bush commuted the sentence of former aide I. Lewis “Scooter” Libby, sparing him from a two-and-half-year prison term in the CIA leak case.
Today’s Birthdays:
Writer-director Larry David (“Curb Your Enthusiasm,” “Seinfeld”) turns 68 years old today.
Robert Ito, Actor (“Quincy”), 84
Polly Holliday, Actress (“Alice”), 78
Richard Petty, Auto racer, 78
John Sununu, Former White House chief of staff, 76
Luci Baines Johnson, Daughter of President Lyndon B. Johnson, 68
Roy Bittan, Rock musician (The E Street Band), 66
Jerry Hall, Actress, model, 59
Jimmy McNichol, Actor, singer, 54
Michelle Branch, Rock singer, 32
Ashley Tisdale, Actress (“High School Musical” movies), 30
Lindsay Lohan, Actress, 29
Figure skater Johnny Weir turns 31 years old today.