150 years ago today, the 15th Amendment was certified as duly ratified and part of the United States Constitution, guaranteeing all men the right to vote regardless of race. It was the crucial first step in a long war that saw court battles striking down state regulations for many more decades that sought to deny voting rights to blacks. It would be fifty more years until women were granted the same rights. (1870)

MORE Good News on this Date in History:

• Vincent van Gogh, the Dutch Impressionist artist, was born (1853)
• The Queensboro Bridge in New York City—also known as the 59th Street Bridge designated as a National Historic Civil Engineering Landmark—which includes a pedestrian walkway and bicycle path linking Manhattan and Queens, opened (1909)
• Albert Einstein announced his revised Unified Field Theory (1953)
• The Yonge Street subway line opened in Toronto—the first subway in Canada (1954)
• The first Gay Rights Parade was held in Michigan (1979)
• Vincent van Gogh’s Sunflowers sold for a record $39.7 million (coincidentally, on the anniversary of his 1853 birth), despite the painter only selling a single canvas during his lifetime (1987)
• Myanmar’s first democratically-elected president in more than 50 years was sworn in, after the National League of Democracy, led by Aung San Suu Kyi, won the November general election (2016)

Happy 75th Birthday to Eric Clapton, the blues-rock musician, singer, and songwriter that Rolling Stone magazine named the second greatest guitar player of all-time.

The British rocker, born in 1945, was a founding member of the Yardbirds, Derek and the Dominos, and Cream and produced hits like “Layla,” “Crossroads,” and “Let It Rain.“ He survived heroin addiction to launch a successful solo career and open his own recovery center for addicts in Antigua, called the Crossroads Centre.

Happy 52nd Birthday to Celine Dion, who sang the theme from the film Titanic, “My Heart Will Go On.” After hearing her voice, the music manager Rene Angelil mortgaged his house to produce her debut album. The French-Canadian pop artist became his wife and they sold over 200 million albums. (1968)And, on this day in 1967, Michael Cooper photographed the cover for the Beatles masterpiece, Sgt. Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band. British ‘pop’ artist Peter Blake and his wife were hired by art director Robert Fraser to create more than 70 life-sized cut-out figures of Beatle heroes for the famous collage, including Edgar Allen Poe, Fred Astaire, Carl Jung, Lenny Bruce, Dylan Thomas, Karl Marx, H.G. Wells, Laurel and Hardy, Lewis Caroll, Tony Curtis, one-time Beatle bassist, Stuart Sutcliffe, and — at George’s request — a number of Indian gurus. WATCH a video about the photo shoot below with tantalizing details…

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