This day in history

[July 02, 2010]  (AP)  Today is Friday, July 2, the 183rd day of 2010. There are 182 days left in the year.

Today's highlight in history:

On July 2, 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:

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 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.)

In 1890, President Benjamin Harrison signed into law the Sherman Antitrust Act.

In 1917, rioting erupted in East St. Louis, Ill. as white mobs attacked black residents; nearly 50 people, most of them black, are believed to have died in the violence.

In 1926, the United States Army Air Corps was created.

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 1980, President Jimmy Carter signed a proclamation reviving draft registration.

In 1990, more than 1,400 Muslim pilgrims were killed in a stampede inside a pedestrian tunnel in Saudi Arabia.

In 1994, a USAir DC-9 crashed in poor weather at Charlotte-Douglas International Airport in North Carolina, killing 37 of the 57 people aboard.

Ten years ago: Opposition candidate Vicente (vee-SEN'-tay) Fox won Mexico's presidential elections, ending the 71-year reign of the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI). France beat Italy 2-1 in the European Championship soccer final in Rotterdam, Netherlands.

Five years ago: Shasta Groene (GROH'-nee), an 8-year-old girl kidnapped six weeks earlier, was rescued at a restaurant in Coeur d'Alene, Idaho; the man with her, Joseph Edward Duncan III, was arrested and accused of kidnapping Shasta as well as killing members of her family. (Duncan later received three death sentences and multiple life sentences.) Egypt's top envoy to post-Saddam Hussein Iraq (Ihab al-Sherif) was kidnapped in Baghdad (al-Qaida later announced it had killed him). The marathon Live 8 concert rocked the globe and the Internet, focusing attention on African poverty. Venus Williams beat top-ranked Lindsay Davenport at Wimbledon 4-6, 7-6 (4), 9-7 for her fifth major title and her first in nearly four years. Hollywood screenwriter Ernest Lehman (LEE'-muhn) died in Los Angeles at age 89.

One year ago: Thousands of U.S. Marines poured into Taliban-controlled villages in southern Afghanistan in the first major operation under President Barack Obama's strategy to stabilize the country. North Korea test-fired two short-range missiles. The 35-nation International Atomic Energy Agency chose Japan's Yukiya Amano as its next head. Federal marshals took possession of disgraced financier Bernard Madoff's $7 million Manhattan penthouse, forcing Madoff's wife, Ruth, to move elsewhere.

Today's birthdays: Country singer Marvin Rainwater is 85. Former Philippine first lady Imelda Marcos is 81. Jazz musician Ahmad Jamal is 80. Actor Robert Ito is 79. Actress Polly Holliday is 73. Former White House chief of staff John H. Sununu is 71. Writer-director-comedian Larry David is 63. Luci Baines Johnson, daughter of President Lyndon B. Johnson, is 63. Actor Saul Rubinek is 62. Rock musician Roy Bittan (Bruce Springsteen & the E Street Band) is 61. Rock musician Gene Taylor is 58. Actress-model Jerry Hall is 54. Actor Jimmy McNichol is 49. Rock musician Dave Parsons (Bush) is 45. Actress Yancy Butler is 40. Contemporary Christian musician Melodee DeVevo (Casting Crowns) is 34. Actor Owain (OH'-wyn) Yeoman (TV: "The Mentalist") is 32. Race car driver Sam Hornish Jr. is 31. Singer Michelle Branch is 27. Actress Vanessa Lee Chester is 26. Figure skater Johnny Weir is 26. Actress-singer Ashley Tisdale is 25. Actress Lindsay Lohan (LOH'-uhn) is 24.

Thought for today: "No great man lives in vain. The history of the world is but the biography of great men." -- Thomas Carlyle, Scottish critic and historian (1795-1881)

[Associated Press]

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