On This Day, July 9: South Sudan declares independence and other events

July 9 (UPI) -- On this date in history:

• In 1850, U.S. President Zachary Taylor died suddenly of cholera. He was succeeded by Millard Fillmore.
• In 1868, the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution was ratified, guaranteeing African-Americans full citizenship and all people in the United States due process under the law.
• In 1877, the first Wimbledon tennis tournament was contested at the All-England Croquet and Lawn Tennis Club.
• In 1893, Chicago surgeon Dr. Daniel Hale Williams performed the first successful open-heart surgery.
• In 1943, U.S., Canadian and British forces invaded Sicily during World War II.
• In 1960, Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev threatened the United States with rockets if U.S. forces attempted to oust the communist government of Cuba.

• In 1982, a Pan Am Boeing 727 jetliner crashed in Kenner, La., shortly after takeoff from New Orleans, killing 154 people.
• In 1992, Democratic presidential hopeful Bill Clinton picked U.S. Sen. Al Gore, D-Tenn., as his running mate.
• In 1993, British and Russian scientists identify the remains of the last Russian czar's family found in a shallow grave in Yekaterinburg two years before.
• In 2004, a report by the U.S. Senate Select Committee on Intelligence accused the CIA and other intelligence agencies of producing false and misleading pre-war information about Iraq's weapons program.

• In 2006, a S7 Airlines Airbus from Moscow taking children to a vacation area in Siberia crashed, killing about 120 of the 203 people aboard.
• In 2011, after more than half a century of struggle and violence that claimed an estimated 2 million lives, the Republic of South Sudan declared its independence from Sudan and became Africa's 54th nation.
• In 2017, Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi declared victory over the Islamic State militant group in Mosul after months of fighting.
• In 2020, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that a large swath of eastern Oklahoma is still considered Muscogee (Creek) Nation reservation, meaning state prosecutors don't have authority to pursue cases against American Indians there.