Following its ratification by the necessary three-quarters of U.S.
states, the 14th Amendment, guaranteeing to African Americans citizenship and all its privileges, is officially adopted into the U.S. Constitution on this day in 1868.

Secretary of State William Seward certified adoption of the 14th Amendment to the Constitution. Photo courtesy of the Library
of Congress.

CAMILLE
BOHANNON

On this day in 1945, a U.S. Army bomber crashed into the 79th floor
of New York City’s Empire State Building, killing 14 people and
injuring 26 others. The freak accident was caused by heavy fog. The
B-25  Mitchell bomber, with two pilots and one passenger aboard,
was flying from New Bedford, Massachusetts, to LaGuardia Airport
in New York City.

A fire that was started by the crash and was put out in 40 minutes. It
is the only fire at such a height that has been successfully put out.

An elevator operator, Betty Lou Oliver, survived a fall of 75 floors, a
Guinness World Record for the longest fall survived in an elevator.

B-25 Mitchell like the one that crashed into the Empire State Building.

Russi Taylor (May 4, 1944 – July 26, 2019)

GLENDALE, Calif. (AP) – Russi Taylor, an actress who gave voice to Minnie
Mouse and others for more than three decades, has died.

Walt Disney Co. chairman Bob Iger announced Taylor’s death in a statement Saturday. He said Taylor died Friday at her home in Glendale, Calif. due to
complications from diabetes.

Taylor was married to the man who voiced Mickey Mouse opposite her,
Wayne Allwine, from 1991 until his death in 2009.

TIM MAGUIRE

On this day in 1996, a single homemade pipe bomb left in a knapsack exploded amid a crowd of spectators in Centennial Olympic Park,
near the main sites of the Olympic Games in Atlanta. The blast
caused by the crude device killed one person and injured 112
others.  

Eric Robert Rudolph, the Olympic Park Bomber.

On this day in 1775, the U.S. postal system is established by the Second Continental Congress, with Benjamin Franklin as its first postmaster
general. Franklin (1706-1790) put in place the foundation for many
aspects of today’s mail system.