History for July 2

History for July 2 - On-This-Day.com
Hermann Hesse 1877 - German poet, novelist, painter, Robert Sarnoff 1918 - Known for the TV series documentary "Victory at Sea", Medgar Evers 1925 - Civil rights activist from Mississippi


Dave Thomas 1932 - Founder for Wendy's Old Fashioned Hamburgers, Richard Petty 1937 - Auto racer, Lindsay Lohan 1986 - Actress

1881 - Charles J. Guiteau fatally wounded U.S. President James A. Garfield in Washington, DC. 


1937 - American aviation pioneer Amelia Earhart disappeared in the Central Pacific during an attempt to fly around the world at the equator. 


1947 - An object crashed near Roswell, NM. The U.S. Army Air Force insisted it was a weather balloon, but eyewitness accounts led to speculation that it might have been an alien spacecraft. 


1962 - Wal-Mart Discount City opened in Rogers, Arkansas. It was the first Walmart store. 


1964 - U.S. President Johnson signed the "Civil Rights Act of 1964" into law. The act made it illegal in the U.S. to discriminate against others because of their race. 


1976 - The U.S. Supreme Court ruled the death penalty was not inherently cruel or unusual. 


1979 - The U.S. Mint officially released the Susan B. Anthony coin in Rochester, NY. 


1998 - Cable News Network (CNN) retracted a story that alleged that U.S. commandos had used nerve gas to kill American defectors during the Vietnam War.