On This Day: Amelia Earhart's plane went down in the Pacific

June 29 (UPI) -- On this date in history:

In 1776, the Second Continental Congress formally adopted a resolution for independence from Britain.

In 1788, it was announced in the U.S. Congress that the new Constitution had been ratified by the required nine states, the ninth being New Hampshire.

In 1839, slaves being shipped to Cuba revolted and seized the ship Amistad, leading to an eventual end of the African slave market.

In 1881, U.S. President James Garfield was shot by Charles J. Guiteau, a mentally unstable lawyer and office-seeker. Garfield died Sept. 19 and was succeeded by Vice President Chester Arthur. Guiteau was convicted and hanged in 1882.

In 1900, the world's first rigid airship was demonstrated by Ferdinand Graf von Zeppelin in Germany.

In 1934, 6-year-old Shirley Temple signed a contract with Fox Film Corp. She went on to become one of the biggest movie stars of the era.

In 1937, U.S. aviator Amelia Earhart and navigator Frederick Noonan were reported lost over the Pacific Ocean. They were never found. In 1932, Earhart became the first woman to fly solo across the Atlantic Ocean and later that year was the first woman to fly solo non-stop from coast to coast in the United States.

In 1962, the first Walmart store opened -- in Rogers, Ark.

In 1964, the U.S. Civil Rights Act of 1964 became law with the signature of President Lyndon B. Johnson.

In 1976, North and South Vietnam reunited, forming the Socialist Republic of Vietnam.

In 1986, the U.S. Supreme Court endorsed numerical hiring goals for minorities, rejecting the Reagan administration view that affirmative action be limited to proven victims of race discrimination.

In 1990, a stampede in a pedestrian tunnel at the Muslim holy city of Mecca during the annual hajj killed 1,426 pilgrims.

In 1993, South African President F.W de Klerk and African National Congress leader Nelson Mandela announced that the country's first election open to all races would be April 27, 1994.

In 2000, Vicente Fox was elected president of Mexico.

Pilot Steve Fossett's Bud Lite Spirit of Freedom balloon crosses the south Australian coast July 3, 2002. Fossett was successful in his bid to complete the first solo circumnavigation of the world by balloon. File Photo by Trevor Collens/UPI

In 2002, American Steve Fossett completed the first round-the-world solo flight in a balloon, reaching Queensland in the Australian outback to finish a 13-day, 19,428-mile trip that began in Western Australia.

In 2009, India's ban on homosexuality, in effect since 1861, was overturned by New Delhi's highest court. On December 11, 2013, India's Supreme Court reinstated the ban, re-criminalizing homosexuality.

In 2013, in announcing an Affordable Care Act delay, U.S. officials said a mandate that larger employers provide health coverage for their workers, or pay penalties, would not be enforced until 2015.

In 2014, U.S. officials announced that security would be tightened for some flights headed to the United States from the Middle East and Europe because intelligence reports indicated an increased threat by terrorists.

In 2015, 62 people were killed in the Philippines when a crowded ferry carrying nearly 200 people abruptly capsized -- just minutes after it left port.

In 2016, Elie Wiesel, the Jewish author, Nobel laureate, academic and Holocaust survivor whose writings on unthinkable Nazi brutality brought the reality of the world's largest genocide into stark relief, died. He was 87.