JULY 2, 1996

"I think there's a real need to shake up the Department of Defense, and a real question as to whether William J. Perry is the right man to be secretary of defense,"

-- Sen. Arlen Specter (R-Pennsylvania)


| CNNfn Almanac | AllPolitics Campaignland |

  • Today, sentencing is scheduled for Lyle and Erik Menendez in Los Angeles. The brothers were found guilty in the double-murder of their parents.

  • A summit on church burnings and hate crimes, with attorneys general from the South, church and community leaders, law enforcement officials and insurance company representatives is scheduled in Washington today.

  • The Defense Department holds a press briefing to release results of the 1995 Sexual Harassment in the military survey.

  • The Commerce Department releases May new home sales today.

  • On Wednesday, July 3, voters cast ballots for Russian President Boris Yeltsin or challenger Communist leader Gennady Zyuganov in presidential runoff elections.

  • On Thursday, July 4, Defense Secretary U. S. spends the Fourth of July with American GIs in Bosnia. Entertainment will include the Gin Blossoms.

  • Friday, July 5, is the 25th Annual Smithville Fiddlers' Jamboree. A competition for amateur bluegrass musicians that draws contestants from many states.

  • On Saturday, July 6, first lady Hillary Clinton travels to and plans to meet with the Slovakian president.

  • On Sunday, July 7, is the start of the 11th International

  • Conference on AIDS to be held in Vancouver, British Columbia through July 12.

  • 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 Garfield was shot by Charles J. Guiteau at the Washington railroad station; Garfield died the following September.

  • In 1890, Congress passed the Sherman Antitrust Act.

  • In 1892, the Populist Party, also known as the People's Party, opened its first national convention, in Omaha, Nebraska.

  • In 1894, the federal government issued an injunction against striking railroad workers.

  • In 1926, the United States Army Air Corps was created.

  • In 1937, aviator Amelia Earhart and navigator Fred Noonan disappeared over the Pacific Ocean while attempting to make the first round-the-world flight at the equator.

  • In 1955, "The Lawrence Welk Show" premiered on the ABC television network.

  • In 1961, author Ernest Hemingway shot himself to death at his home in Ketchum, Idaho.

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

  • In 1976, the Supreme Court ruled the death penalty was not inherently cruel or unusual.

  • In 1984, former Soviet Foreign Minister Andrei Gromyko died in Moscow at age 79.

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

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

  • In 1995, in Denver, representatives of 34 countries ended an economic summit by endorsing an open-market zone throughout the Western Hemisphere -- excluding Cuba.

The militia movement in the U.S. has been highlighted recently with the Montana Freemen scenario and Monday's arrest of 12 militia members charged with plotting to bomb government buildings in Arizona. To learn more about who and what some of these militia groups are, check out the Militia Watchdog which page provides information, facts and links related to militia movements.

  • State Independence Day is celebrated in Brazil today.

  • The Netherlands Antilles celebrate Flag Day today.

  • Today is Unity Day in Zambia.

  • The Great Spangled Butterfly Days event begins today in Michigan to celebrate the diversity of the state's butterflies.

  • Thurogood Marshall, the first African-American on the U.S. Supreme Court, was born on this day in 1908 in Baltimore, Maryland. He died in 1993.

  • Today former Philippine first lady Imelda Marcos is 67. Actress Polly Holliday is 59. Former White House chief of staff John Sununu is 57. Actor Ron Silver is 50. Luci Baines Johnson Turpin, daughter of President Johnson, is 49. Actress Cheryl Ladd is 45.


Sources: Associated Press,
Chase's Calendar of Events 1996, J.P. Morgan


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