Plenty else to celebrate Monday it seems:
July 2nd Celebrated (and Not So Celebrated) History1881
At the Baltimore and Potomac Railroad Station in Washington, D.C., Charles J. Guiteau shoots President James A. Garfield in the back. The President would die a long and painful death months later.
1938
Amelia Earhart and her navigator Frederick Noonan disappeared over the Pacific Ocean near Howland Island in her attempt to fly around the world.
1962
Sam Walton opens the first Wal-Mart store in Rogers, Arkansas.
1964
Lyndon B. Johns signs the 1964 Civil Rights Act outlawing discrimination on the basis of race, color, religion, sex or national origin.
1979
The U.S. issues the Susan B. Anthony coin. The one-dollar coin is the first to honor a woman on its face.
July 2nd Celebrated (and Not So Celebrated) BirthdaysThurgood Marshall – 1908
The grandson of a slave, ThurgoodMarshall became the first African American Supreme Court Justice. Leading up to his nomination, Marshall prevailed in Brown v. Board of Education resulting in the end of school segregation. He was named Chief Counsel to the NAACP where the attorney was legal counsel for civil rights cases. President John F. Kennedy appointed Marshall to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit followed by a 1965 appointment by President Lyndon Johnson to the office of U.S. Solicitor General. In 1967, he was nominated to the Supreme Court.
Medgar Evers – 1925
World War II veteran and civil rights activist, Medgar Evers, is most noted for his efforts to desegregate the University of Mississippi. He was murdered by Byron De La Beckwith in 1963.
Richard Petty – 1937
Known as The King in the NASCAR world, Richard Petty began racing when he was 21 years old. Petty, along with Dale Earnhardt and Jimmie Johnson, has won the NASCAR championship seven times. He was inducted into the NASCAR Hall of Fame in 2010.