On this day in 1964, U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act, perhaps the most important U.S. law on civil rights since Reconstruction (1865–77) and a hallmark of the American civil rights movement.

American businessman Sam Walton opened the first Walmart (then known as Wal-Mart) store, in Rogers, Arkansas; it was the start of what would become the largest retail sales chain in the United States. 1962. 

The airplane piloted by American aviator Amelia Earhart disappeared over the central Pacific Ocean during her attempt to fly around the world. 1937.

Patrice Lumumba, the first prime minister of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (1960), was born in Onalua, Belgian Congo. 1925.

A slave rebellion occurred on the ship Amistad, and in their trial the following year the mutineers, who were deemed to be kidnap victims rather than merchandise, were acquitted—a victory for American abolitionism. 1839.