TODAY IN HISTORY
On July 2, 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.)
Also on this date
In 1566, French astrologer, physician and professed prophesier Nostradamus died in Salon.
In 1776, the Continental Congress passed a resolution saying that “these United Colonies are, and of right ought to be, free and independent States.”
In 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.
In 1937, aviator Amelia Earhart and navigator Fred Noonan disappeared over the Pacific Ocean while attempting to make the first roundthe-world flight along the equator.
In 1961, author Ernest Hemingway shot himself to death at his home in Ketchum, Idaho.
In 1964, President Lyndon B. Johnson signed into law a sweeping civil rights bill passed by Congress.
In 1976, the U.S. Supreme Court, in Gregg v. Georgia, ruled 7-2 the death penalty was not inherently cruel or unusual.
In 1986, ruling in a pair of cases, the Supreme Court upheld affirmative action as a remedy for past job discrimination.
In 1987, 18 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.
In 2018, rescue divers in Thailand found 12 boys and their soccer coach, who had been trapped by flooding as they explored a cave more than a week earlier.
Ten years ago: Gen. David Petraeus arrived in Afghanistan to assume command of U.S. and NATO forces after his predecessor, Gen. Stanley McChrystal, was fired for intemperate remarks he’d made about Obama administration figures in Rolling Stone magazine.
Five years ago: Trying to close the books on the worst offshore oil spill in U.S. history, BP agreed to provide billions of dollars in new money to five Gulf Coast states in a deal the company said would bring its full obligations to an estimated $53.8 billion.
One year ago: Fire erupted at a Jim Beam warehouse in Kentucky that was filled with about 45,000 barrels of aging bourbon; the warehouse and bourbon were a total loss and the bourbon leaked into nearby creeks and rivers.