Following its ratification by the requisite three-fourths of the states, the 15th Amendment, granting African-American men the right to vote, is formally adopted into the U.S. Constitution. Passed by Congress the year before, the amendment reads, “the right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude.” The next day after it was adopted, Thomas Peterson-Mundy of Perth Amboy, New Jersey (below), became the firstAfrican American to vote under the authority of the 15th Amendment.
Thomas Mundy Peterson (October 6, 1824 – February 4, 1904)
Roman Emperor Julius Caesar was assassinated by high ranking Roman Senators on this day in 44 B.C.The day is known as the "Ides of March."
Site of Julius Caesar stabbing found in Rome.
On this day in 1965, President Lyndon B. Johnson addressed a joint session of Congress in Washington, during which he urged the passing of the Voting Rights Act.
President Lyndon Baines Johnson signs the Voting Rights Act of 1965.
On this day in 2005,World come CEO Bernie Ebbers (center) was convicted of corporate fraud. He is currently serving a 25-year sentence at the Oakdale Federal Correctional Institution in Louisiana
In Montreal on this day in 1964, Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor were married.
The Lerner and Loewe musical "My Fair Lady" opened on Broadway on this day in 1956.
Russia’s Bolshevik Revolution took place on this day in 1917. The provisional government of Alexander Kerensky was overthrown by forces led by Vladimir Ilyich Lenin.
Hillary Rodham Clinton made history as the first president’s wife to win public office on this day in 2000. The state of New York elected her to the U.S. Senate (New York).
A Florida election official tries to discern a voter’s intentions.
Hanging Chads: As the Florida Recount Implodes, the Supreme Court Decides Bush v. Gore on this day in the 2000 Presidential election. election. Bush narrowly won the election having 271 electoral votes compared to Al Gores’s 266 electoral votes.
This election was between the republican George W. Bush (left) and the democratic-incumbent vice president Albert Arnold Gore.
The middle section of the Tacoma Narrows Bridge in Washington state collapsed during a windstorm on this day in 1940.
The Tacoma Narrows Bridge as it looks today.
On this day in 1991, Magic Johnson (standing) announced that he had tested positive for the virus that causes AIDS, and that he was retiring from playing basketball. He had been with the Los Angeles Lakers since 1979.
Earvin "Magic" Johnson Jr. turned 58 in August.
Roberta Joan "Joni" Mitchell is 74 today.
The Canadian singer-songwriter and painter Joni Mitchell is called by Rolling Stone, "one of the greatest songwriters ever".
Since 2015, there have been conflicting reports about her current health after she had suffered a brain aneurysm.
Mitchell made her first public appearance following the aneurysm when she attended a Chick Corea concert in Los Angeles in August 2016.
On this day in 1945 a B-29 bomber, known as the Enola Gay, dropped the first atomic bomb on an inhabited area. The bomb named "Little Boy" was dropped over the center of Hiroshima, Japan. An estimated 140,000 people were killed.
Pictured is a mockup of "Little Boy," the atomic bomb that was dropped that morning on Hiroshima.
Pope Paul VI (Giovanni Battista Enrico Antonio Maria Montini) (September 26, 1897 – August 6, 1978)
Sir Alexander Fleming (August 6, 1881 – March 11, 1955)
Scottish biologist, pharmacologist, and botanist Alexander Fleming shared the 1945 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for helping to discover the antibiotic substance penicillin in 1928. His discovery marked the start of modes antibiotics, which changed the medical world forever. He worked in shipping before going to medical school at the recommendation of his brother.
