History Today
In 1776, the Continental Congress passed a resolution stating that “these United Colonies are, and ought to be, Free and Independent States.”
In 1881, President James A. Garfield was shot by Charles J. Guiteau at the Washington Railroad Station, and Garfield died the following September. (Guiteau was hanged in June 1882.)
In 1917, riots broke out in East St. Louis, Illinois, when white mobs attacked black residents, leaving at least 50 people, most of them black, dead, with as many as 200 believed to have died.
In 1937, aviator Amelia Earhart and navigator Fred Noonan went missing over the Pacific Ocean during the first attempted round-the-world flight along the equator.
In 1962, the first Walmart store opened in Rogers, Arkansas.
In 1964, President Lyndon B. Johnson signed into law a comprehensive civil rights bill passed by Congress that banned discrimination and segregation on the basis of race, color, sex, religion, or national origin.
In 1976, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled 7-2 in Gregg v. Georgia that the death penalty is not inherently cruel or unusual.
In 1979, the Susan B. Anthony dollar coin was released to the public.
In 1986, the Supreme Court in two cases upheld affirmative action as a remedy for past employment discrimination.
In 1990, more than 1,400 Muslim pilgrims were killed during a crowd stampede in a pedestrian tunnel near Mecca, Saudi Arabia.
In 2002, Steve Fossett became the first person to fly solo around the world nonstop in a hot air balloon.
In 2018, rescue divers in Thailand found 12 boys and their soccer coach alive after they were trapped by floodwaters while exploring a cave more than a week earlier.
In 2020, British socialite Ghislaine Maxwell was arrested in New Hampshire on charges that she lured at least three girls, one of them as young as 14, to be sexually abused by the late Jeffrey Epstein. (Maxwell was convicted on five of six charges.)
In 2022, the police chief of the Uvalde, Texas, school district resigned from his city council position following growing criticism over his response to a mass shooting that left 19 students and two teachers dead.
birthday
Former First Lady of the Philippines, Imelda Marcos, is 95 years old.
Actress Polly Holliday is 87 years old.
Horse racing Hall of Famer Richard Petty is 87 years old.
John H. Sununu, a former White House chief of staff and former governor of New Hampshire, is 85 years old.
Former Mexican President Vicente Fox is 82 years old.
Writer, director and comedian Larry David is 77 years old.
Rock musician Roy Bittan (Bruce Springsteen & the E Street Band) is 75 years old.
Actor Wendy Schaal is 70 years old.
Actor and model Jerry Hall is 68 years old.
Former baseball player Jose Canseco is 60 years old.
Racing driver Sam Hornish Jr. is 45 years old.
Former NHL centre Joe Thornton is 45 years old.
Singer Michelle Branch is 41 years old.
Actress Vanessa Lee Chester is 40 years old.
Figure skater Johnny Weir is 40 years old.
Actress and singer Ashley Tisdale is 39 years old.
Actress Lindsay Lohan is 38 years old.
Soccer player Alex Morgan is 35 years old.
Actress Margot Robbie is 34 years old.
Singer and rapper Saweetie is 31 years old.
U.S. Olympic gold medalist swimming coach Ryan Murphy is 29 years old.
