KRLemmons Uncategorized

September 18 African American Historical Events

* Today in Black History – September 18 *

1850 – Congress passes the Fugitive Slave Act, a part of the
Compromise of 1850, which allows slave owners to reclaim
slaves who had escaped to other states. The act also
offers federal officers a fee for captured slaves.

1895 – Booker T. Washington makes a speech at the Cotton States
and International Exposition in Atlanta, Georgia. Known
as the “Atlanta Compromise” speech, Washington advocates
acceptance of a subordinate role for African Americans,
espouses peaceful coexistence with white Southerners,
and calls agitation over the question of social equality
“the extremist folly.” The speech, which reportedly
leaves some African American listeners in tears and will
incur the wrath of W.E.B. Du Bois and others, secures
Washington’s reputation among whites as a successor to
Frederick Douglass.

1905 – Eddie Anderson is born in Oakland, California. He will
become an actor and will be best known for his role on
of ‘Rochester’ on “The Jack Benny Show.”

1945 – 1000 white students walk out of three Gary, Indiana
schools to protest integration. There were similar
disturbances in Chicago, Illinois and other Northern and
Western metropolitan areas.

1948 – Dr. Ralph J. Bunche is confirmed by the United Nations
Security Council as acting United Nations’ mediator in
Palestine.

1951 – Dr. Benjamin Solomon Carson, Sr., neurosurgeon, is born
in Detroit, Michigan. He will graduate from the
University of Michigan Medical School in 1977 and will
become the first African American neurosurgery resident
at the Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, Maryland.
He will receive the American Black Achievement Award
from Ebony and the Paul Harris Fellow Award from Rotary
International. He will become best known for his
separation of Siamese twins in 1989.

1962 – Rwanda, Burundi, Jamaica & Trinidad-Tobago are admitted
(105th-108th countries) to the United Nations.

1964 – Holly Robinson (Peete) , actress (“21 Jump Street”,
“Hanging with Mr. Cooper”), is born.

1967 – Ricky Bell, rhythm-and-blues singer, (Bell Biv Devoe and
New Edition), is born.

1970 – Rock guitarist Jimi (James Marshall) Hendrix joins the
ancestors at age 27 after aspirating on his own vomit
in London. Contrary to many news accounts, he did not
succumb to a drug overdose. No trace of drugs was found
in his body. A self-taught musician who blended rock,
jazz, and blues with British avant-garde rock, Hendrix
redefined the use of the electric guitar. His musical
career deeply influenced modern musicians. His songs,
“Purple Haze” and “Foxy Lady” will become anthems for a
generation at war in Vietnam.

1972 – Art Williams becomes the first African American National
League umpire (Los Angeles vs. San Diego).

1980 – Cosmonaut Arnaldo Tamayo-Mendez, a Cuban, becomes the
first person of African descent sent on a mission in
space (Soyuz 38).

1990 – Atlanta, Georgia is selected as the site of the XXV
Olympiad Summer Games. Mayor Maynard H. Jackson says
the 1996 Summer Games will be the “single biggest
continuous infusion of economic development to Atlanta
in the history of the city under any circumstances.”
It is the second time the city to host the games, is
led by an African American mayor.

1999 – Sammy Sosa of the Chicago Cubs becomes the first player
in major league baseball history to reach 60 homers in
a season twice.

Information retrieved from the Munirah Chronicle and is edited by Rene’ A. Perry.Sa

KRLemmons African American History

September 13 African American Historical Events

* Today in Black History – September 13 *

1663 – The first known slave revolt in the thirteen American
colonies is planned in Gloucester County, Virginia.
The conspirators, both white servants and African
American slaves, are betrayed by fellow indentured
servants.

1867 – Gen. E.R.S. Canby orders South Carolina courts to
impanel African American jurors.

1881 – Louis Latimer patents an electric lamp with a carbon
filament.

1886 – Alain Leroy Locke is born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
He will graduate from Harvard University in 1907 with a
degree in philosophy and become the first African
American Rhodes scholar, studying at Oxford University
from 1907-10 and the University of Berlin from 1910-11.
He will receive his Ph.D. in philosophy from Harvard in
1918. For almost 40 years, until retirement in 1953 as
head of the department of philosophy, Locke will teach
at Howard University, Washington, DC. He will be best
known for his involvement with the Harlem Renaissance,
although his work and influence extend well beyond.
Through “The New Negro”, published in 1925, Locke
popularized and most adequately defined the Renaissance
as a movement in Black arts and letters. He will join
the ancestors on June 9, 1954.

1915 – The first historically black and Catholic university for
African Americans in the United States, Xavier
University, is founded by Blessed Katherine Drexel and
the religious order she established, the “Sisters of
the Blessed Sacrament,” in New Orleans, Louisiana.

1948 – Nell Ruth Hardy is born in Birmingham, Alabama. She will
be better known as Nell Carter and become a Broadway
sensation as a singer and actress in Broadway’s
“Bubbling Brown Sugar”, “Ain’t Misbehavin’ “(for which
she will win a Tony), and for five seasons in
television’s “Gimme a Break”. She will join the ancestors
on January 23, 2003 after succumbing to heart disease
complicated by diabetes and obesity.

1962 – Mississippi Governor Ross R. Barnett defies the federal
government in an impassioned speech on statewide radio-
television hookup, saying he would “interpose” the
authority of the state between the University of
Mississippi and federal judges who had ordered the
admission of James H. Meredith. Barnett says, “There is
no case in history where the Caucasian race has survived
social integration.” He promises to go to jail, if
necessary, to prevent integration at the state
university. His defiance set the stage for the gravest
federal/state crisis since the Civil War.

1962 – President John F. Kennedy denounces the burning of
churches in Georgia and supports voter registration
drives in the South.

1965 – Willie Mays hits his 500th career home run.

1967 – Michael Johnson is born in Dallas, Texas. He will become
a world class sprinter, Olympic athlete, and the first
person to break 44 (43.65) seconds for the 400-meter run.
At the Atlanta Olympics, he also will become the first
man to win the double gold in the 400 ad 200 meters.

1971 – Two hundred troopers and officers storm the Attica
Correctional Facility in upstate New York under orders
from Governor Nelson Rockefeller. Thirty-three
convicts and ten guards are killed. Later investigations
show that nine of the ten guards were killed by the
storming party. This riot will focus national attention
on corrections departments nationwide and the practice
of imprisonment in the United States. A National
Conference on Corrections will be convened in December,
1971 resulting in the formation of the National
Institute of Corrections in 1974.

1971 – Frank Robinson hits his 500th career home run.

1972 – Two African Americans, Johnny Ford of Tuskegee and A.J.
Cooper of Prichard, are elected mayors in Alabama.

1979 – South Africa grants Venda independence (Not recognized
outside of South Africa). Venda is a homeland situated
in the north eastern part of the Transvaal Province of
South Africa.

1981 – Isabel Sanford wins an Emmy award as best comedic actress
for “The Jeffersons”.

1989 – Archbishop Desmond Tutu leads huge crowds of singing and
dancing people through central Cape Town in the biggest
anti-apartheid protest march in South Africa for 30
years.

1996 – Rap artist Tupac Shakur joins the ancestors six days after
being the target of a drive-by shooting in Las Vegas at
the age of 25.

1998 – Sammy Sosa of the Chicago Cubs hits his 61st and 62nd home
runs of the season, passing Roger Maris’ record and
pulling into a tie with St. Louis Cardinals’ Mark McGwire
in this years home run derby.

Information retrieved from the Munirah Chronicle and is edited by Rene’ A. Perry.

KRLemmons African American History

September 12 African American Historical Events

* Today in Black History – September 12 *

1913 – James Cleveland Owens is born in Oakville, Alabama. He
will be better known as Jesse Owens, one of the greatest
track and field stars in history. Owens will achieve
fame at the 1936 Summer Olympic Games in Berlin, where
he will win four gold medals, dispelling Hitler’s notion
of the superior Aryan race and the inferiority of Black
athletes. Among his honors will be the Medal of Freedom,
presented to him by President Gerald Ford in 1976. He will
join the ancestors on March 31, 1980.

1935 – Richard Hunt is born in Chicago, Illinois. A graduate of
the Art Institute of Chicago, he will later study in
Europe and be considered one of the leading sculptors in
the United States. His work will be shown extensively
in the United States and abroad and his sculptures will
be collected by the National Museum of American Art, the
Whitney Museum of American Art, the Metropolitan Museum
of Art, and the Museum of the Twentieth Century in
Vienna. On April 29, 2009, he will be awarded the Lifetime
Achievement Award by the International Sculpture Center.
His web site is http://www.RichardHunt.us.

1944 – Barry White is born in Galveston, Texas. He will become a
singer and songwriter. Some of his hits will be “I’m
Gonna Love You Just A Little More Baby”, “Can’t Get
Enough Of Your Love Babe”, and “Love’s Theme [with Love
Unlimited Orchestra]. He will join the ancestors on July
4, 2003 from complications of high blood pressure and
kidney disease.

1947 – The first African American baseball player in the major
leagues, Jackie Robinson, is named National League Rookie
of the Year.

1956 – African American students are barred from entering a Clay,
Kentucky elementary school. They will enter the school
under National Guard protection on September 17.

1958 – The United States Supreme Court orders a Little Rock,
Arkansas high school to admit African American students.

1964 – Ralph Boston of the United States, sets the long jump
record at 27′ 4”.

1974 – The beginning of court-ordered busing to achieve racial
integration in Boston’s public schools is marred by
violence in South Boston.

1974 – Eugene A. Marino, SSJ, is consecrated as the first
African American Roman Catholic auxiliary bishop in the
United States. He assumes his duties as auxiliary bishop
of Washington, DC.

1974 – Haile Selassie is deposed by military leaders after fifty-
eight years as the ruling monarch of Ethiopia.

1977 – Black South African student and civil rights leader Steven
Biko joins the ancestors after succumbing to severe
physical abuse while in police detention, triggering an
international outcry.

1980 – Lillian Randolph joins the ancestors at the age of 65. She
had been a film actress and had starred on television on
the “Amos ‘n’ Andy Show” and in the mini-series “Roots”.

1984 – Michael Jordan signs a seven-year contract to play
basketball with the Chicago Bulls. ‘Air’ Jordan will
become an NBA star for the Bulls and help make the team a
dominant force in the NBA.

1984 – Dwight Gooden, of the New York Mets, sets a rookie
strikeout record by striking out his 251st batter of the
season. He also leads the Mets to a 2-0 shutout over the
Pittsburgh Pirates.

1986 – The National Council of Negro Women sponsors its first
Black Family Reunion at the National Mall in Washington,
DC. The reunion, which will grow to encompass dozens of
cities and attract over one million people annually, is
held to celebrate and applaud the traditional values,
history, and culture of the African American family.

1989 – David Dinkins, Manhattan borough president, wins the New
York City’s Democratic mayoral primary, defeating
incumbent Mayor Ed Koch and two other candidates on his
way to becoming the city’s first African American mayor.

1992 – Mae C. Jemison becomes the first woman of color to go into
space when she travels on the space shuttle Endeavour.

1998 – Sammy Sosa of the Chicago Cubs becomes the fourth major
league baseball player to hit 60 home runs in a single
season.

1999 – Serena and Venus Williams (sisters) take home the U.S.
Open Women’s Doubles Championship trophy. After losing
the first set, they bounce back to win the remaining two
sets against Chandra Rubin of the U.S. and Sandrine
Testud of France. The Williams sisters are the first
African Americans to win a U.S. Open Doubles
Championship.

2000 – James Perkins becomes the first African American mayor of
Selma, Alabama, defeating long-time mayor Joe Smitherman
with 60% of the vote. Smitherman had been mayor for
thirty six years. He was the mayor of Selma in 1965 when
sheriff’s deputies and state troopers attacked hundreds
of voting rights marchers on Selma’s Edmund Pettus
Bridge in what became known as “Bloody Sunday.”

Information retrieved from the Munirah Chronicle and is edited by Rene’ A. Perry.

KRLemmons African American History

September 18 African American Historical Events

Today in Black History – September 18 *

1850 – Congress passes the Fugitive Slave Act, a part of the
Compromise of 1850, which allows slave owners to reclaim
slaves who had escaped to other states. The act also
offers federal officers a fee for captured slaves.

1895 – Booker T. Washington makes a speech at the Cotton States
and International Exposition in Atlanta, Georgia. Known
as the “Atlanta Compromise” speech, Washington advocates
acceptance of a subordinate role for African Americans,
espouses peaceful coexistence with white Southerners,
and calls agitation over the question of social equality
“the extremist folly.” The speech, which reportedly
leaves some African American listeners in tears and will
incur the wrath of W.E.B. Du Bois and others, secures
Washington’s reputation among whites as a successor to
Frederick Douglass.

1905 – Eddie Anderson is born in Oakland, California. He will
become an actor and will be best known for his role on
of ‘Rochester’ on “The Jack Benny Show.”

1945 – 1000 white students walk out of three Gary, Indiana
schools to protest integration. There were similar
disturbances in Chicago, Illinois and other Northern and
Western metropolitan areas.

1948 – Dr. Ralph J. Bunche is confirmed by the United Nations
Security Council as acting United Nations’ mediator in
Palestine.

1951 – Dr. Benjamin Solomon Carson, Sr., neurosurgeon, is born
in Detroit, Michigan. He will graduate from the
University of Michigan Medical School in 1977 and will
become the first African American neurosurgery resident
at the Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, Maryland.
He will receive the American Black Achievement Award
from Ebony and the Paul Harris Fellow Award from Rotary
International. He will become best known for his
separation of Siamese twins in 1989.

1962 – Rwanda, Burundi, Jamaica & Trinidad-Tobago are admitted
(105th-108th countries) to the United Nations.

1964 – Holly Robinson (Peete) , actress (“21 Jump Street”,
“Hanging with Mr. Cooper”), is born.

1967 – Ricky Bell, rhythm-and-blues singer, (Bell Biv Devoe and
New Edition), is born.

1970 – Rock guitarist Jimi (James Marshall) Hendrix joins the
ancestors at age 27 after aspirating on his own vomit
in London. Contrary to many news accounts, he did not
succumb to a drug overdose. No trace of drugs was found
in his body. A self-taught musician who blended rock,
jazz, and blues with British avant-garde rock, Hendrix
redefined the use of the electric guitar. His musical
career deeply influenced modern musicians. His songs,
“Purple Haze” and “Foxy Lady” will become anthems for a
generation at war in Vietnam.

1972 – Art Williams becomes the first African American National
League umpire (Los Angeles vs. San Diego).

1980 – Cosmonaut Arnaldo Tamayo-Mendez, a Cuban, becomes the
first person of African descent sent on a mission in
space (Soyuz 38).

1990 – Atlanta, Georgia is selected as the site of the XXV
Olympiad Summer Games. Mayor Maynard H. Jackson says
the 1996 Summer Games will be the “single biggest
continuous infusion of economic development to Atlanta
in the history of the city under any circumstances.”
It is the second time the city to host the games, is
led by an African American mayor.

1999 – Sammy Sosa of the Chicago Cubs becomes the first player
in major league baseball history to reach 60 homers in
a season twice.

Information retrieved from the Munirah Chronicle and is edited by Rene’ A. Perry.

KRLemmons African American History

September 13 African American Historical Events

Today in Black History – September 13 *

1663 – The first known slave revolt in the thirteen American
colonies is planned in Gloucester County, Virginia.
The conspirators, both white servants and African
American slaves, are betrayed by fellow indentured
servants.

1867 – Gen. E.R.S. Canby orders South Carolina courts to
impanel African American jurors.

1881 – Louis Latimer patents an electric lamp with a carbon
filament.

1886 – Alain Leroy Locke is born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
He will graduate from Harvard University in 1907 with a
degree in philosophy and become the first African
American Rhodes scholar, studying at Oxford University
from 1907-10 and the University of Berlin from 1910-11.
He will receive his Ph.D. in philosophy from Harvard in
1918. For almost 40 years, until retirement in 1953 as
head of the department of philosophy, Locke will teach
at Howard University, Washington, DC. He will be best
known for his involvement with the Harlem Renaissance,
although his work and influence extend well beyond.
Through “The New Negro”, published in 1925, Locke
popularized and most adequately defined the Renaissance
as a movement in Black arts and letters. He will join
the ancestors on June 9, 1954.

1915 – The first historically black and Catholic university for
African Americans in the United States, Xavier
University, is founded by Blessed Katherine Drexel and
the religious order she established, the “Sisters of
the Blessed Sacrament,” in New Orleans, Louisiana.

1948 – Nell Ruth Hardy is born in Birmingham, Alabama. She will
be better known as Nell Carter and become a Broadway
sensation as a singer and actress in Broadway’s
“Bubbling Brown Sugar”, “Ain’t Misbehavin’ “(for which
she will win a Tony), and for five seasons in
television’s “Gimme a Break”. She will join the ancestors
on January 23, 2003 after succumbing to heart disease
complicated by diabetes and obesity.

1962 – Mississippi Governor Ross R. Barnett defies the federal
government in an impassioned speech on statewide radio-
television hookup, saying he would “interpose” the
authority of the state between the University of
Mississippi and federal judges who had ordered the
admission of James H. Meredith. Barnett says, “There is
no case in history where the Caucasian race has survived
social integration.” He promises to go to jail, if
necessary, to prevent integration at the state
university. His defiance set the stage for the gravest
federal/state crisis since the Civil War.

1962 – President John F. Kennedy denounces the burning of
churches in Georgia and supports voter registration
drives in the South.

1965 – Willie Mays hits his 500th career home run.

1967 – Michael Johnson is born in Dallas, Texas. He will become
a world class sprinter, Olympic athlete, and the first
person to break 44 (43.65) seconds for the 400-meter run.
At the Atlanta Olympics, he also will become the first
man to win the double gold in the 400 ad 200 meters.

1971 – Two hundred troopers and officers storm the Attica
Correctional Facility in upstate New York under orders
from Governor Nelson Rockefeller. Thirty-three
convicts and ten guards are killed. Later investigations
show that nine of the ten guards were killed by the
storming party. This riot will focus national attention
on corrections departments nationwide and the practice
of imprisonment in the United States. A National
Conference on Corrections will be convened in December,
1971 resulting in the formation of the National
Institute of Corrections in 1974.

1971 – Frank Robinson hits his 500th career home run.

1972 – Two African Americans, Johnny Ford of Tuskegee and A.J.
Cooper of Prichard, are elected mayors in Alabama.

1979 – South Africa grants Venda independence (Not recognized
outside of South Africa). Venda is a homeland situated
in the north eastern part of the Transvaal Province of
South Africa.

1981 – Isabel Sanford wins an Emmy award as best comedic actress
for “The Jeffersons”.

1989 – Archbishop Desmond Tutu leads huge crowds of singing and
dancing people through central Cape Town in the biggest
anti-apartheid protest march in South Africa for 30
years.

1996 – Rap artist Tupac Shakur joins the ancestors six days after
being the target of a drive-by shooting in Las Vegas at
the age of 25.

1998 – Sammy Sosa of the Chicago Cubs hits his 61st and 62nd home
runs of the season, passing Roger Maris’ record and
pulling into a tie with St. Louis Cardinals’ Mark McGwire
in this years home run derby.

Information retrieved from the Munirah Chronicle and is edited by Rene’ A. Perry.

KRLemmons African American History

September 12 African American Historical Events

Today in Black History – September 12 *

1913 – James Cleveland Owens is born in Oakville, Alabama. He
will be better known as Jesse Owens, one of the greatest
track and field stars in history. Owens will achieve
fame at the 1936 Summer Olympic Games in Berlin, where
he will win four gold medals, dispelling Hitler’s notion
of the superior Aryan race and the inferiority of Black
athletes. Among his honors will be the Medal of Freedom,
presented to him by President Gerald Ford in 1976. He will
join the ancestors on March 31, 1980.

1935 – Richard Hunt is born in Chicago, Illinois. A graduate of
the Art Institute of Chicago, he will later study in
Europe and be considered one of the leading sculptors in
the United States. His work will be shown extensively
in the United States and abroad and his sculptures will
be collected by the National Museum of American Art, the
Whitney Museum of American Art, the Metropolitan Museum
of Art, and the Museum of the Twentieth Century in
Vienna. On April 29, 2009, he will be awarded the Lifetime
Achievement Award by the International Sculpture Center.
His web site is http://www.RichardHunt.us.

1944 – Barry White is born in Galveston, Texas. He will become a
singer and songwriter. Some of his hits will be “I’m
Gonna Love You Just A Little More Baby”, “Can’t Get
Enough Of Your Love Babe”, and “Love’s Theme [with Love
Unlimited Orchestra]. He will join the ancestors on July
4, 2003 from complications of high blood pressure and
kidney disease.

1947 – The first African American baseball player in the major
leagues, Jackie Robinson, is named National League Rookie
of the Year.

1956 – African American students are barred from entering a Clay,
Kentucky elementary school. They will enter the school
under National Guard protection on September 17.

1958 – The United States Supreme Court orders a Little Rock,
Arkansas high school to admit African American students.

1964 – Ralph Boston of the United States, sets the long jump
record at 27′ 4”.

1974 – The beginning of court-ordered busing to achieve racial
integration in Boston’s public schools is marred by
violence in South Boston.

1974 – Eugene A. Marino, SSJ, is consecrated as the first
African American Roman Catholic auxiliary bishop in the
United States. He assumes his duties as auxiliary bishop
of Washington, DC.

1974 – Haile Selassie is deposed by military leaders after fifty-
eight years as the ruling monarch of Ethiopia.

1977 – Black South African student and civil rights leader Steven
Biko joins the ancestors after succumbing to severe
physical abuse while in police detention, triggering an
international outcry.

1980 – Lillian Randolph joins the ancestors at the age of 65. She
had been a film actress and had starred on television on
the “Amos ‘n’ Andy Show” and in the mini-series “Roots”.

1984 – Michael Jordan signs a seven-year contract to play
basketball with the Chicago Bulls. ‘Air’ Jordan will
become an NBA star for the Bulls and help make the team a
dominant force in the NBA.

1984 – Dwight Gooden, of the New York Mets, sets a rookie
strikeout record by striking out his 251st batter of the
season. He also leads the Mets to a 2-0 shutout over the
Pittsburgh Pirates.

1986 – The National Council of Negro Women sponsors its first
Black Family Reunion at the National Mall in Washington,
DC. The reunion, which will grow to encompass dozens of
cities and attract over one million people annually, is
held to celebrate and applaud the traditional values,
history, and culture of the African American family.

1989 – David Dinkins, Manhattan borough president, wins the New
York City’s Democratic mayoral primary, defeating
incumbent Mayor Ed Koch and two other candidates on his
way to becoming the city’s first African American mayor.

1992 – Mae C. Jemison becomes the first woman of color to go into
space when she travels on the space shuttle Endeavour.

1998 – Sammy Sosa of the Chicago Cubs becomes the fourth major
league baseball player to hit 60 home runs in a single
season.

1999 – Serena and Venus Williams (sisters) take home the U.S.
Open Women’s Doubles Championship trophy. After losing
the first set, they bounce back to win the remaining two
sets against Chandra Rubin of the U.S. and Sandrine
Testud of France. The Williams sisters are the first
African Americans to win a U.S. Open Doubles
Championship.

2000 – James Perkins becomes the first African American mayor of
Selma, Alabama, defeating long-time mayor Joe Smitherman
with 60% of the vote. Smitherman had been mayor for
thirty six years. He was the mayor of Selma in 1965 when
sheriff’s deputies and state troopers attacked hundreds
of voting rights marchers on Selma’s Edmund Pettus
Bridge in what became known as “Bloody Sunday.”

Information retrieved from the Munirah Chronicle and is edited by Rene’ A. Perry.

KRLemmons African American History

September 18 African American Historical Events

Today in Black History – September 18          *

1850 – Congress passes the Fugitive Slave Act, a part of the
Compromise of 1850, which allows slave owners to reclaim
slaves who had escaped to other states. The act also
offers federal officers a fee for captured slaves.

1895 – Booker T. Washington makes a speech at the Cotton States
and International Exposition in Atlanta, Georgia. Known
as the “Atlanta Compromise” speech, Washington advocates
acceptance of a subordinate role for African Americans,
espouses peaceful coexistence with white Southerners,
and calls agitation over the question of social equality
“the extremist folly.”  The speech, which reportedly
leaves some African American listeners in tears and will
incur the wrath of W.E.B. Du Bois and others, secures
Washington’s reputation among whites as a successor to
Frederick Douglass.

1905 – Eddie Anderson is born in Oakland, California. He will
become an actor and will be best known for his role on
of ‘Rochester’ on “The Jack Benny Show.”

1945 – 1000 white students walk out of three Gary, Indiana
schools to protest integration.  There were similar
disturbances in Chicago, Illinois and other Northern and
Western metropolitan areas.

1948 – Dr. Ralph J. Bunche is confirmed by the United Nations
Security Council as acting United Nations’ mediator in
Palestine.

1951 – Dr. Benjamin Solomon Carson, Sr., neurosurgeon, is born
in Detroit, Michigan.  He will graduate from the
University of Michigan Medical School in 1977 and will
become the first African American neurosurgery resident
at the Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, Maryland.
He will receive the American Black Achievement Award
from Ebony and the Paul Harris Fellow Award from Rotary
International. He will become best known for his
separation of Siamese twins in 1989.

1962 – Rwanda, Burundi, Jamaica & Trinidad-Tobago are admitted
(105th-108th countries) to the United Nations.

1964 – Holly Robinson (Peete) , actress (“21 Jump Street”,
“Hanging with Mr. Cooper”), is born.

1967 – Ricky Bell, rhythm-and-blues singer, (Bell Biv Devoe and
New Edition), is born.

1970 – Rock guitarist Jimi (James Marshall) Hendrix joins the
ancestors at age 27 after aspirating on his own vomit
in London.  Contrary to many news accounts, he did not
succumb to a drug overdose. No trace of drugs was found
in his body. A self-taught musician who blended rock,
jazz, and blues with British avant-garde rock, Hendrix
redefined the use of the electric guitar.  His musical
career deeply influenced modern musicians. His songs,
“Purple Haze” and “Foxy Lady” will become anthems for a
generation at war in Vietnam.

1972 – Art Williams becomes the first African American National
League umpire (Los Angeles vs. San Diego).

1980 – Cosmonaut Arnaldo Tamayo-Mendez, a Cuban, becomes the
first person of African descent sent on a mission in
space (Soyuz 38).

1990 – Atlanta, Georgia is selected as the site of the XXV
Olympiad Summer Games.  Mayor Maynard H. Jackson says
the 1996 Summer Games will be the “single biggest
continuous infusion of economic development to Atlanta
in the history of the city under any circumstances.”
It is the second time the city to host the games, is
led by an African American mayor.

1999 – Sammy Sosa of the Chicago Cubs becomes the first player
in major league baseball history to reach 60 homers in
a season twice.

Information retrieved from the Munirah Chronicle and is edited by Rene’ A. Perry.