16th 1806 - Norbert Rillieux, inventor of sugar refining, is born.
1827 - The 1st African-American college graduate, John
Russworm, and his associate, Reverand Samuel
Cornish, begin publication of the 1st African- American
newspaper, Freedom's Journal.
1960 - San Antonio, Texas becomes the 1st large southern
city to integrate lunch counters.
17th 1863 - Newly declared Republic of Texas abolishes the slave
Trade.
1898 - Blanche Kelso Bruce, the 1st African-American to
serve a full term in the Senate, dies.
1910 - Civil rights advocate and former director of the A.
Phillip Randolph Foundation, is born in West Chester,
PA. (d.5/16/1979)
1919 - Singer, stylist, Nat"King"Cole, is born in Montgomery,
Alabama.
18th 1809 - Gabriel de la Concepcion Valdes(Placido), poet, is
born in Havana, Cuba.
1895 - 200 African-Americans set sail from Savannah,
Georgia to Monrovia, Liberia to found a colony of freed
slaves.
1901 - William H. Johnson, painter, is born in Florence, S.C.
19th 1930 - Jazz saxophonist and innovator of a unique phrasing
style, Ornette Coleman is born, in Fort Worth, Texas.
20th 1883 - Enabling the mass production of shoes, Jan Matzeliger
invents and receives a patent for the shoe-lasting
machine.
1910 - Internationally known artist, Allan Rohan Crite, is born.
21st 1492 - Portuguese Pilot Alonzo Pietro sets sail with
Columbus.
1899 - British and French reach an accord about West Africa.
1902 - Blues composer and singer, Eddie James "Sun"
House is born.
1934 - Award winning actor, Al Freeman, Jr., is born.
1941 - Joe Louis knocks out Abe Simon for the Heavyweight
title.
1945 - Diva, Arnetta Corprew, is born.
1955 - Walter White, NAACP leader, dies in New York City.
1960 - Police kill 72 at Sharpeville, South Africa and outlaw
the African National Congress.
1975 - Ethiopia ends monarchy after 3000 yrs.
1985 - Tennis Great Arthur Ashe is inducted into the Tennis
Hall of Fame.
1990 - The African country of Namibia becomes independent
of South Africa, with Sam Nujoma as President.
22nd 1942 - Jazz guitar great, George Benson, is born in
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
1967 - The Alabama State Board of Education is ordered by
federal Court to begin desegregation of all schools.
23rd 1873 - Puerto Rico abolishes slavery.
1910 - The National Urban League is Founded.
1916 - Marcus Garvey arrives in New York from Jamaica.
24th 1837 - Canada gives Blacks the right to vote.
1912 - Dorothy Irene Height, 1st president of the National
Council of Negro Women, womens and family rights
advocate, is born.
1963 - Carl T. Rowan begins his appointment as Ambassador
to Finland.
1967 - On this day Dr. Martin Luther King publicly announces
his opposition to the Viet-Nam War.
2002 - Halle Berry becomes the 1st African-American woman
woman to win a best actress oscar. Denzel
Washington becmes only the second African-American
male to win best actor
25th 1887 - Samori, builder of the Wasulu Empire, signs the Treaty
of
1931 - Ida B. Wells-Barnett, journalist, anti-lynching activist,
and founding member of the NAACP, dies in Chicago,
Ill.
1931 - The Scottsboro Eight are arrested.
1942 - The "Queen of Soul", Aretha Franklin, is born.
1966 - The United States Supreme Court outlaws Poll Tax in
all elections.
26th 1872 - Thomas J. Martin, patented the fire extinguisher.
1937 - William Hastie is appointed the 1st African-Ameican
judge.
1962 - Arch Bishop Joseph Francis Rummel ordered all
Roman Catholic schools in New Orleans diocese to
end segregation of it's students.
27th 1924 - Sarah Vaughn, Jazz vocalist, musical legend, is born.
1934 - Arthur Mitchell, executive director of the Dance
Theatre of Harlem, is born.
1962 - Artist, sculptor and mentor, Augusta Savage, dies in
New York City.
28th 1799 - The State of New York abolishes slavery.
1870 - Jonathan S. Wright becomes the 1st African-
American state supreme Court justice in South
Carolina.
1909 - The Crazy Snake Uprising of Creek Indians and
Seminole Negroes, in Kansas, begins.
1918 - Singer, actor, Pearl Bailey, is born(d.1991).
1925 - Countee Cullen wins Phi Beta Kappa honors at New
York University.
1965 - Crystal Bird Fauset, the 1st African-American woman
to be elected to the State Legislature in Pennsylvania,
dies.
29th 1815 - Napoleon Bonaparte abolishes the trading of slaves in
the French empire.
1967 - Florida, Texas, Georgia, Alabama, Louisiana and
Mississippi are ordered to desegregate all school
grades by the Fall of 1967.
1972 - The 1st Black Community Survival Conference,
organized by the Black Panther Party, is held in
Oakland, California.
30th 1870 - The 15th amendment to the United States
Constitution goes into effect, giving "all, males,
regardless of race, color or previous condition of
servitude.
1963 - Capt. Edward J. Dwight becomes the 1st African-
American to train as an astronaut.
31st 1871 - Jack Johnson, the 1st African-American heavyweight
champion, is born.
1960 - Pope Pius XII appoints Laurian Rugmbwa of Tanzania
as the 1st African Cardinal of the Modern Era.
1988 - Toni Morrison is awarded the Pulitzer Prize for her
novel, Beloved.
