One hundred years ago today -- August 26, 1920 -- Secretary of State Bainbridge Colby certified that the 19th Amendment had become a part of the U.S. Constitution. It didn't bring the right to vote to most women of color, though.
Haruo Shimizu survived the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and gave a harrowing narrative of that day to Bill Floyd, an American soldier stationed in post-war Japan. Floyd's family recently donated his papers, including the manuscript, to the Library.
Some of the origins of Juneteenth can be traced to the front porch of a plantation house in Limestone County, Texas, where a slaveowner told his 150 enslaved workers that they were free on June 19, 1865.
The Library of Congress celebrates its 220th birthday on April 24, 2020. It was begun with a $5,000 appropriation to buy 740 books and three maps on this date in 1800. It is now the largest library in world history.