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 U.S. Army Air Corps was created.

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

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

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.

2007 — President George W. Bush commuted the sentence of former aide I. Lewis “Scooter” Libby, sparing him a 2½-year prison term in the CIA leak case.