1566, Clairvoyant Nostradamus has a heart attack and dies at age 62. You’d think he would have seen that coming…..
1776, the Continental Congress passed a resolution saying that “these United Colonies are, and of right, ought to be, Free and Independent States.”
1881, President James A. Garfield was shot by Charles J. Guiteau, a disappointed office-seeker, at the Washington railroad station. Garfield died two-and-a-half months later, on September 19th.
1908, Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall is born. He dies in 1993.
1926, the United States Army Air Corps was created.
1932, the term “New Deal” was introduced by Franklin D. Roosevelt in his speech accepting the Democratic nomination for the presidency.
1932, Wendy’s founder Dave Thomas is born. He dies in 2002.
1937, Pilot Amelia Earhart and navigator Fred Noonan disappear over the Pacific Ocean.
1947, an object crashed near Roswell, New Mexico. The Air Force insisted it was a weather balloon, but eyewitnesses speculated it might have been an alien spacecraft.
1961, Author Ernest Hemingway (A Farewell To Arms, The Old Man And The Sea, For Whom The Bell Tolls) dies at age 61.
1964, President Lyndon Johnson signed into law a civil rights act passed by Congress, prohibiting discrimination on the basis of race in public accommodations, voter registration, union membership, employment and publicly owned or operated facilities.
1969, Ralph Nader warns that loud rock music threatens to produce a nation of hearing-impaired people.
1971, The movie Shaft, starring Richard Roundtree, opens.
1976, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled the death penalty was not inherently cruel or unusual punishment.
1977, Author Vladimir Nabokov (Lolita) dies at age 78.
1979, The Susan B. Anthony dollar is issued.
1980, The movie Airplane!, starring Robert Hays, Julie Hagerty, Lloyd Bridges, Leslie Nielsen, Robert Stack, Peter Graves, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, and Barbara Billingsley, opens.
1993, Major League Baseball’s longest doubleheader ever was played. The San Diego Padres started playing the Phillies at Philadelphia at 4:35 p.m. There was a rain delay, and the game began again at 5:45 p.m. Then there were more rain delays. Game One finally ended at 1:03 a.m. Game Two began at 1:28 a.m., went into extra innings, and ended at 4:40 a.m.!
1996, seven years after they shot their parents to death in the family’s Beverly Hills mansion, Lyle and Erik Menendez were sentenced to life in prison without parole.
1997, The movie Men In Black, starring Tommy Lee Jones and Will Smith, opens.
1997, Actor James Stewart (Mr. Smith Goes To Washington, It’s A Wonderful Life, Rear Window, Vertigo) dies at age 89.
1998, The second book in the Harry Potter series, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, is published.
2001, Liverpool renames its airport Liverpool Lennon Airport in honor of John Lennon. A statue of Lennon is displayed in the airport, as is the “Imagine” lyric “Above Us Only Sky.”
2001, Vice President Dick Cheney returned to work, flashing an “OK” sign to reporters two days after receiving a new pacemaker.
2005 The Live 8 concerts take place in Philadelphia, London, Paris, Rome, Berlin, Moscow, Tokyo, Johannesburg, and Toronto, featuring acts such as Coldplay, Linkin Park, the Dave Matthews Band, theKillers, Madonna, Paul McCartney, Pink Floyd, Snoop Dogg, U2, Crosby Stills and Nash, event organizer Bob Geldof and many others.