1776 – The Second Continental Congress, assembled in Philadelphia, formally adopted a resolution for independence from Great Britain.
1809 – Shawnee Chief Tecumseh called on all Native Americans to unite and resist further encroachment by Whites on their lands.
1867 – New York City’s first elevated railroad officially opened for business. Commuters soon called the mode of transportation the El.
1881 – Only 4 months into office, President James A. Garfield was shot as he walked through a railroad waiting room in Washington, D.C. Vice President Chester A. Arthur served as acting president until Garfield died on September 19, 1881.
1900 – Count Ferdinand Graf von Zeppelin demonstrated the world’s first rigid airship over Germany’s Lake Constance.
1908 – Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall, 1967 – 1991, was born in Baltimore, MD.
1921 – The first prize fight offering a million-dollar gate was broadcast on radio. Jack Dempsey knocked out Georges Carpentier in the fourth round of the bout in Jersey City, NJ.
Dempsey
Carpentier
1937 – Aviator Amelia Earhart and her navigator, Fred Noonan, were reported missing near Howland Island in the North – Central Pacific Ocean.
1964 – President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act of 1964 into law, making against the law to discriminate against people because of their race.
Chief Writing Wolf 