Bridge over a canal collapses in Albion, New York and eighteen citizens perish

At the county fair in Albion, New York, a tightrope walker was performing on a rope slung between two building on either side of the Erie Canal that ran through the town.  More than five hundred people had gathered on the nearby Main Street Canal Bridge to watch.  The bridge collapsed, throwing scores of people into the canal.  Eighteen men, women, and children were drowned or crushed under falling masonry.  (By John Osborne)