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.

On this day in 1969, Apollo 11, the U.S. spacecraft that had taken the
first astronauts to the surface of the moon, safely returned to Earth and splashed down in the Pacific Ocean.

United States President Richard Nixon was in the central Pacific recovery area
to welcome the Apollo 11 astronauts aboard the USS Hornet, prime recovery
ship for the historic Apollo 11 lunar landing mission, on July 24, 1969. The
Apollo 11 astronauts are, from left, Neil Armstrong, Michael Collins and Buzz
Aldrin. They were quarantined after splashdown to ensure they did not bring
back any contamination from the moon.

   
 
TIM MAGUIRE
   

Armstrong became the first person to step onto the lunar surface. 

First footprint on the Moon (left) was that of astronaut Neil
Armstrong (right).

Astronaut Buzz Aldrin Jr. poses for a photograph beside the U.S. flag.
(Neil Armstrong/NASA via AP)

ROSS SIMPSON

Disneyland opened in Anaheim, CA. on this day in 1955. Walt Disney gave the opening day speech. Thousands of people attended the
event.

The world’s first parking meter, known as Park-O-Meter No. 1, is installed on
the southeast corner of what was then First Street and Robinson Avenue in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. 

The parking meter was the brainchild of Carl C. Magee (below), a lawyer and
newspaper publisher who moved to Oklahoma City from New Mexico in 1927.

Carlton Cole "Carl" Magee (January 1872 – February 1946)