Today in History | History

Today’s Highlight in History:

On July 2, 1776, the Continental Congress handed a decision saying that “these United Colonies are, and of proper must be, free and impartial States.”

In 1867, New York’s first elevated rail line, a single monitor between Battery Place and Greenwich Street, went into operation.

In 1881, President James A. Garfield was shot by Charles J. Guiteau on the Washington railroad station; Garfield died the next September. (Guiteau was hanged in June 1882.)

In 1917, rioting erupted in East St. Louis, Illinois, as white mobs attacked Black residents; almost 50 individuals, principally Blacks, are believed to have died in the violence.

In 1937, aviator Amelia Earhart and navigator Fred Noonan disappeared over the Pacific Ocean whereas trying to make the primary round-the-world flight alongside the equator.

In 1961, creator Ernest Hemingway shot himself to dying at his house in Ketchum, Idaho.

In 1963, President John F. Kennedy met Pope Paul VI on the Vatican, the primary assembly between a Catholic U.S. chief govt and the pinnacle of the Roman Catholic Church.

In 1964, President Lyndon B. Johnson signed into legislation a sweeping civil rights invoice handed by Congress.

In 1976, the U.S. Supreme Court, in Gregg v. Georgia, dominated 7-2 the dying penalty was not inherently merciless or uncommon.

In 1982, Larry Walters of San Pedro, California, used a garden chair outfitted with 45 helium-filled climate balloons to rise to an altitude of 16,000 toes; he landed eight miles away in Long Beach.

In 1986, ruling in a pair of instances, the Supreme Court upheld affirmative motion as a treatment for previous job discrimination.

In 1990, greater than 1,400 Muslim pilgrims had been killed in a stampede inside a pedestrian tunnel close to Mecca, Saudi Arabia.

In 2018, rescue divers in Thailand discovered 12 boys and their soccer coach, who had been trapped by flooding as they explored a cave greater than per week earlier.

Ten Years Ago: Petra Kvitova beat Maria Sharapova 6-3, 6-4 to turn into the primary left-handed lady to win the Wimbledon title since Martina Navratilova in 1990.

Five Years Ago: Hillary Clinton was voluntarily interviewed for 3 1/2 hours by the FBI on the company’s Washington headquarters about her use of a non-public electronic mail server as secretary of state. Holocaust survivor and Nobel laureate Elie Wiesel (EL’-ee vee-ZEHL’), 87, died in New York. Oscar-winning director Michael Cimino, 77, died in Beverly Hills, California.

One yr in the past: The authorities stated employers added 4.8 million jobs in June, and the unemployment charge fell to 11.1%, nonetheless a Depression-era degree, because the job market improved for a second straight month. The coronavirus an infection curve rose in 40 of the 50 states heading into the July Fourth vacation weekend. An announcement posted on his Twitter account revealed that former GOP presidential candidate Herman Cain was being handled for the coronavirus at an Atlanta-area hospital, lower than two weeks after attending President Donald Trump’s marketing campaign rally in Tulsa, Oklahoma. (Cain died on July 30 of issues from the virus.) Five of the 9 casinos in Atlantic City, New Jersey, reopened amid the pandemic. British socialite Ghislaine Maxwell was arrested in New Hampshire on expenses that she had helped lure at the least three women – one as younger as 14 – to be sexually abused by the late financier Jeffrey Epstein.

Today’s Birthdays: Former Philippine first woman Imelda Marcos is 92. Jazz musician Ahmad Jamal is 91. Actor Robert Ito is 90. Actor Polly Holliday is 84. Racing Hall of Famer Richard Petty is 84. Former White House chief of workers and former New Hampshire governor John H. Sununu is 82. Former Mexican President Vicente Fox is 79. Writer-director-comedian Larry David is 74. Luci Baines Johnson, daughter of President Lyndon B. Johnson, is 74. Actor Saul Rubinek is 73. Rock musician Roy Bittan (Bruce Springsteen & the E Street Band) is 72. Actor Wendy Schaal is 67. Actor-model Jerry Hall is 65. Actor Jimmy McNichol is 60. Country singer Guy Penrod is 58. Rock musician Dave Parsons (Bush) is 56. Actor Yancy Butler is 51. Contemporary Christian musician Melodee DeVevo (Casting Crowns) is 45. Actor Owain (OH’-wyn) Yeoman is 43. Race automobile driver Sam Hornish Jr. is 42. NHL heart Joe Thornton is 42. Singer Michelle Branch is 38. Actor Vanessa Lee Chester is 37. Figure skater Johnny Weir is 37. Actor Nelson Franklin is 36. Actor-singer Ashley Tisdale is 36. Actor Lindsay Lohan (LOH’-uhn) is 35. Actor Margot Robbie is 31.