July 02
1566
French astrologer, physician, and prophet Nostradamus died.
1881
President James Garfield was shot by Charles Guiteau; he died on Sept. 19.
1890
Congress passed the Sherman Antitrust Act.
1937
Amelia Earhart and her co-pilot Fred Noonan disappeared over the Pacific Ocean while attempting to fly around the world.
1964
President Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act of 1964 into law.
1976
In Gregg v. Georgia, the Supreme Court ruled that the death penalty was not inherently cruel or unusual.
1997
Actor James Stewart died in Beverly Hills, Calif.
2002
Steve Fossett became the first to circumnavigate the globe solo in a balloon.
Birthdays
Thurgood Marshall
1908–93, U.S. lawyer and Associate Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court (1967–91), born in Baltimore.
Thomas Cranmer
archbishop of Canterbury (1489)
Hermann Hesse
novelist and poet (1877)
Tyrone Guthrie
stage director, playwright (1900)
Hans Bethe
physicist (1906)
Medgar Evers
civil rights leader (1925)
Richard Petty
auto racing driver (1937)
Vicente Fox
president of Mexico (1942)
Ron Silver
actor (1946)
Jose Canseco
baseball player (1964)