Today is Saturday, July 2, the 183rd day of 2022. 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 1917, rioting erupted in East St. Louis, Illinois, as white mobs attacked Black residents; nearly 50 people, mostly Blacks, are believed to have died in the violence.

In 1964, President Lyndon B. Johnson signed into law a sweeping civil rights bill passed by Congress.

In 1976, the U.S. Supreme Court, in Gregg v. Georgia, ruled 7-2 that the death penalty was not inherently cruel or unusual.

In 1979, the Susan B. Anthony dollar coin was released to the public.

In 1986, ruling in a pair of cases, the Supreme Court upheld affirmative action as a remedy for past job discrimination.

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

In 1997, Academy Award-winning actor James Stewart died in Beverly Hills, California, at age 89.

In 2018, rescue divers in Thailand found 12 boys and their soccer coach, who had been trapped by flooding as they explored a cave more than a week earlier.

Today’s Birthdays: Former Philippine first lady Imelda Marcos is 93. Actor Polly Holliday is 85. Racing Hall of Famer Richard Petty is 85. Former White House chief of staff and former New Hampshire governor John H. Sununu is 83. Writer-director-comedian Larry David is 75. Luci Baines Johnson, daughter of President Lyndon B. Johnson, is 75. Actor-model Jerry Hall is 66. Actor Jimmy McNichol is 61. NHL center Joe Thornton is 43. Figure skater Johnny Weir is 38. Actor Lindsay Lohan is 36.