16th 1901 - Hiram P. Revels dies in Aberdeen, Mississippi.
1920 - Zeta Phi Beta Sorority is founded.
1978 - Maj. Guion S. Buford, Jr., Maj. Frederick D.
Gregory, and Dr. Ronald E. McNair join NASA's
astronaut training program.
17th 1882 - Lewis Lattimer is assigned a patent for the
process of manufacturing carbons.
1942 - Muhammad Ali is born in Louisville, Kentucky.
1996 - Barbara Jordan, politician, lawyer and activist,
dies.
18th 1830 - David Walker publishes militant anti-slavery
pamplet, Walker's Appeal.
1858 - Daniel Hale Williams the 1st physician to perform
open heart surgery and founder of Provident
Hospital in Chicago, is born.
19th 1887 - Clementine Hunter, " The Black Grandma Moses",
is born in Natchitoches, LA.
1918 - John H. Johnson, founder of the Johnson
Publishing Company and publisher of African-
American magazines Digest '42, Ebony '45, Tan
'50 and Jet '51, is born.
20th 1788 - Andrew Bryan is ordained as the 1st Pastor of The
African Baptist Church, in Yamacraw, Savannah,
Georgia.
1947 - Josh Gibson, Negro Leagues star and National
Baseball Hall of Fame member, dies.
1986 - America celebrates the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther
Kings' birthday for the 1st time.
21st 1824 - Osai Tutu Kwamina defeats British at Assamaka,
Ashanti.
1964 - Carl T. Rowan is named director of the U.S.
Information Agency.
22nd 1793 - Benjamin Banneker, African-American
astronomer helped survey and plan the city of
Washington, D.C.
1871 - Justina Ford, 1st female African-American
physician in Denver, colorado, is born in
Knoxville, Illinois.
23rd 1964 -The 24th Amendment is ratified, abolishing the
Poll tax.
24th 1962 - Jackie Robinson becomes the 1st African-
American to be inducted into the Baseball Hall of
Fame.
1985 - Tom Bradley, 4 term mayor of Los Angeles,
receives the NAACP Spingarn Medal.
25th 1966 - Constance Baker Motley becomes the 1st
African- American woman to be appointed to a
federal judgeship.
26th 1863 - The 1st all African-American regiment in the
Union Army, The Massachusetts 54th, is
organized.
1944 - Angela Davis, political activist and educator, is
born in birmingham, Alabama.
1961 - Carl T. Rowan is appointed Deputy Assistant
Secretary for Public Affairs in the Johnson
Administration.
27th1972 - "Queen of Gospel Song", Mahalia Jackson, dies
in Evergreen, Park, Illinois, at the age of 60.
1972 - Shirley Chisholm, 1st African-American
congresswoman announces her candidacy for
president of the U. S.
28th1901 - Richard Barther, sculptor, is born in New
Orleans, LA.
1944 - Mattew Henson receives a joint medal from
Congress as co-discover of the North Pole.
1960 - Zora Neale Hurston, called the "most prominent
and prolific female African-American writer of the
'20s, '30s and '40s", dies in poverty, in Fort
Pierce, Florida.
29th1837 - Alexander Puskin, "The Father of Russian
Literature", dies.
1926 - Violette Neatley Anderson is the 1st African-
American woman admitted to practice before the
United States Supreme Court.
30th1844 - Richard Theodore Greener becomes the 1st
African-American to graduate from Harvard
University.
1970 - Joseph L. Searles III becomes the 1st African-
American proposed to hold a seat on the New
York Stock Exchange.
31st1865 - The 13th Amendment to the Constitution is
passed by the House of Representatives of the
United States Congress.
1919 - The 1st African-American baseball player to
play in the Major Leagues, Jackie Robinson, is born.
