1777 - Vermont abolished slavery.
1867 - The first elevated urban railroad ("El") opened in New York City.
1881 - President James Garfield was shot by an assassin. He died in September.
Probably he died of infections caused by doctors using unsterilized instruments to probe his body for the bullet. Modern physicians reviewing his autopsy say that the wound would not have been fatal or disabling.
http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.h ... wanted=all" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
The assassin was psychotic. He was tried, found guilty, and hanged less than a year later.
1926 - The U.S. Army Air Corps was created.
1937 - Amelia Earhart and her navigator disappeared over the south Pacific.
1947 - A UFO crashed near Roswell, New Mexico. The government has been covering it up ever since.
1961 - Ernest Hemingway killed himself in a particularly gruesome manner.
1964 - President Lyndon Johnson signed the Civil Rights Bill.
- Jim
