Today in History: Garfield and His Corvette?

I'm going to start putting some celebrity/ friend birthdays at the top of my Today in History posts! Happy July 2nd birthday to: Actress/Singer Ashley Tisdale who turns 28!; Well...Lindsay Lohan turns 27; Soccer player Alex Morgan who turns 24! Angel Pagan from the San Francisco Giants turns 32! (I'm hoping the Crazy Horse has a quick recovery from surgery and return from the DL); Journalist and television anchor, Erin Burnett turns 37! There are many more people who have birthdays today that I did not name, but here was a few notable ones!

In American history, these coming days are important, as the United States of America began to form in 1776. On this day in 1776, the Second Continental Congress assembled in Philadelphia for a near unanimous vote to adopt independence from Great Britain. Only New York refrained among the thirteen colonies. The Congress adopted Richard Henry Lee's resolution that declared the United Colonies are to be independent from Great Britain.

A depiction of Garfield's assaination

Yesterday, in 1893, was the beginning of the Battle of Gettysburg. Today in 1863, the bloody battle continues as Robert E. Lee's Confederate Army attacks General Meade's Army of Potomac (a major Union army) at Culp's Hill and Little Round Top.

Unlike the title, 20th United States President James A. Garfield did not own a Corvette. However, in the history of the United States, four presidents were successfully assassinated, Abraham Lincoln, James A. Garfield, William McKinley, and John F. Kennedy. On this day in 1881, President Garfield was heading for Baltimore for a short vacation, however when walking through Potomac Railroad Station, he was shot twice by attorney Charles Guiteau. The two bullets struck the president in the arm and pancreas. Many doctors attempted to remove the bullets with no luck. Famed scientist and Garfield's physician Alexander Graham Bell also failed tying to use an early version of a metal detector to find the second bullet. On September 19th, 1881, President Garfield died as a result of complications from the wounds caused by the bullets.

A few days ago on June 28th, I wrote about the first Corvette ever assembled, however, today in history on July 2nd, 1992, the 1 millionth Corvette was built. The Corvette built on this day in 1992 was an eight cylinder white LT1, while the original Corvette only had six cylinders. These improvements by Corvette were a result of the competing Ford Thunderbird, which was a huge hit when it debuted in 1955.

A 1992 Chevrolet Corvette