Today In History

Today is Monday, July 2, the 183rd day of 2018. There are 182 days left in the year.

TODAY’S HIGHLIGHT

› 1937: Aviator Amelia Earhart and navigator Fred Noonan disappeared over the Pacific Ocean while attempting to make the first round-the-world flight along the equator.

ON THIS DATE

› 1776: The Continental Congress passed a resolution saying that “these United Colonies are, and of right ought to be, free and independent States.”

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

› 1881: President James A. Garfield was shot by Charles J. Guiteau at the Washington railroad station; Garfield died the following September. (Guiteau was hanged in June 1882.)

› 1892: The Populist Party (also known as the People’s Party) opened its first national convention in Omaha, Nebraska.

› 1917: Rioting erupted in East St. Louis, Illinois, as white mobs attacked black residents; nearly 50 people, mostly blacks, are believed to have died in the violence.

› 1926: The United States Army Air Corps was created.

› 1955: “The Lawrence Welk Show” premiered on ABC-TV under its original title, “The Dodge Dancing Party.”

› 1961: Author Ernest Hemingway shot himself to death at his home in Ketchum, Idaho.

› 1964: President Lyndon B. Johnson signed into law a sweeping civil rights bill passed by Congress.

› 1977: Russian-American author Vladimir Nabokov, 78, died in Montreux, Switzerland.

› 1987: Eighteen Mexican immigrants were found dead inside a locked boxcar near Sierra Blanca, Texas, in what authorities called a botched smuggling attempt; a 19th man survived.

› 1997: Academy Award-winning actor James Stewart died in Beverly Hills, California, at age 89.

› 2008: Colombian military spies tricked leftist rebels into freeing 15 hostages: Ex-presidential candidate Ingrid Betancourt, three U.S. military contractors, and 11 Colombian policemen and soldiers. Police in Randolph, Vt., unearthed the body of 12-year-old Brooke Bennett from a makeshift grave, ending a weeklong search.

› 2013: The Obama administration unexpectedly announced a oneyear delay, until after the 2014 elections, in a central requirement of the health care law that medium and large companies provide coverage for their workers or face fines.

TODAY’S BIRTHDAYS

Former Philippine first lady Imelda Marcos is

89. Jazz musician Ahmad Jamal is 88. Actress Polly Holliday is 81. Racing Hall of Famer Richard Petty is 81. Former White House chief of staff John H. Sununu is 79. Former Mexican President Vicente Fox is 76. Writer-director-comedian Larry David is 71. Luci Baines Johnson, daughter of President Lyndon B. Johnson, is 71. Actor Saul Rubinek is 70. Rock musician Roy Bittan (Bruce Springsteen & the E Street Band) is 69. Rock musician Gene Taylor is

66. Actress Wendy Schaal is 64. Actress-model Jerry Hall is 62. Actor Jimmy McNichol is 57. Country singer Guy Penrod is 55. Rock musician Dave Parsons (Bush) is 53. Actress Yancy Butler is 48. Contemporary Christian musician Melodee DeVevo (Casting Crowns) is 42. Singer Michelle Branch is 35. Actress Vanessa Lee Chester is 34. Figure skater Johnny Weir is 34. Actor Nelson Franklin is 33. Actress-singer Ashley Tisdale is 33. Actress Lindsay Lohan is

32. Actress Margot Robbie is 28.