WYBC celebrates Black History EVERYDAY!
Facts from www.blackfacts.com
August 1
1895 – Benjamin E. Mays, educator and former President of Morehouse College, was born on this day.
1899 – Blacks voted for the first time in a state election in the South, contributing to Republican sweep in Tennessee
1944 – Adam Clayton Powell elected first Black congressman
August 2
1924 – Writer James Baldwin was born on this day
1951 – While manning his machine gun during a surprise attack on his platoon on this day, private first class William Henry Thompson of Company M, 24th Infantry Regiment, became the first Black person to earn the Medal of Honor in the Korean conflict
1966 – The Charles R. Drew Postgraduate Medical School (later Charles R. Drew University of Medicine and Science) is chartered in Los Angeles. It is the only African American focused medical school west of the Mississippi
August 3
1957 – Archibald J. Carey, Chicago minister and attorney, appointed first Black chairman of President’s Committee on Government Employment Policy
August 4
1897 – Henry A Rucker appointed Collector of Internal Revenue for Georgia
1901 – Louis Armstrong was born in New Orleans, Louisiana
1931 – Dr. Daniel H. Williams, pioneer in surgery, died on this day.
1961 – Former President Barack Obama was born in Honolulu, Hawaii
August 5
1830 – James A Healy, first Black bishop in America, was born on this day.
1892 – Harriet Tubman receives a pension from Congress for her work as a nurse, spy, and scout during the Civil War
2011 –Hazel Johnson was the first African American woman to become a general in the U.S. Army
August 6
1861 –The congressional confiscation bill freed slaves who were forced to fight against the United States government, or to work in support of the rebellion
1965 –President Lyndon Johnson signs the Voting Rights Bill which authorized the suspension of literacy tests and the sending of federal examiners into South
August 7
1904 –First Black winner of Nobel Peace Prize was Ralph J Bunche, diplomat, born
1954 –Charles H. Mahoney was confirmed by the Senate and became the first Black to serve as a full delegate to the United Nations
August 8
1885 – African-American inventor, William C. Carter, patented an umbrella stand (U.S. patent#323,397).
1993 – Julian Dixon, elected to Congress representing California’s 28th District in 1978, was born
August 9
1963 –Whitney Houston actress & singer Born in East Orange, New Jersey
1995 –August 9th declared International Day of the World’s Indigenous Peoples
August 10
1854 – James Conway Farley, the first African American to achieve prominence in the photography industry, was born
1881 –The Coca-Cola Bottling Company agreed to pump $34 million into Black businesses and the Black community, ending a national boycott called by PUSH
August 11
1921 – Author of “Roots”, Alex Haley was born
1992 –Anthony Phills received U.S. patent #5,136,787 on August 11, 1992 for a “ruler template for computer keyboard.”
August 12
1922 – Washington DC home of Frederick Douglas is declared a national shrine
1923 – Ophelia DeVore-Mitchell, founder of two African American modeling schools, was born
August 13
1881 –The first African American nursing school opens at Spelman College in Atlanta, Ga
1953 – President Eisenhower established Government Contract Compliance Committee to supervise anti-discrimination regulations in government contracts
August 14
1883 –Biologist and pioneer of cell division, Ernest E. Just was born
1968 – Birthday of Academy Award winning actress Halle Berry
August 15
1931 –Spingarn Medal awarded to Richard B. Harrison for his Portrayal of the “Lawd” in The Green Pastures
1938 –Maxine Waters was born this day. Congresswoman Waters is a Democrat from California
August 16
1890 –Alexander Clark, journalist and lawyer, named minister to Liberia
1963 –On sale this day was a stamp designed to commemorate the one-hundreth anniversary of the Emancipation Proclamation. It was designed by George Olden which made him the first Black to design a U.S. postage stamp
August 17
1884 – Born in Puerto Rico of Black and Hispanic heritage, Roberto Clemente was the second baseball player to be featured on a stamp on this day
1887 – Marcus Garvey, the father of the Black Nationalist and pan African movements was born on this day in St. Ann’s Bay, Jamaica
1897 – WB Purvis patented the electric railway switch
August 18
1934 – Roberto Clemente born in Carolina, Puerto Rico
1963 – The first Black person admitted to the University of Mississippi, James Meredith, graduates from University of Mississippi
August 19
1791 – Benjamin Banneker published his first Almanac
1954 – Diplomat and first Black winner of Nobel Peace Prize, Ralph J Bunche, named undersecretary of the United Nations
1963 – NAACP Youth Council begins sit-ins at lunch counters
1993 –Robert C. Maynard, the first African American editor and owner of a major daily newspaper in the United States
August 20
1619 – First Black slaves were brought by the Dutch to the colony of Jamestown
1856 – Wilberforce University established in Ohio
1964 –President Johnson signed Economic Opportunity Act
August 21
1831 – Nat Turner began revolt in Southampton, VA
1904 – William Count Basie, jazz pianist, big band and orchestra leader, was born on this day in Red Bank NJ
1932 – Melvin Van Peebles, writer and dramatist, was born on this day.
1943 –Harriet M. West was the first Black woman major in the Women’s Army Corps (WAC)
August 22
1867 – Fisk University was established.
1996 – President Bill Clinton signed the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Act which ushered in the most sweeping changes in the welfare system since its adoption as part of the Social Security Act of 1935
August 23
1900 – National Negro Business League was founded.
1954 –Inventor Philip Emeagwali was born in Akure, Nigeria (He made the world’s fastest computer)
August 24
1854 –John V. DeGrasse, prominent physician, admitted to Massachusetts Medical Society
1950 – Chicago Atty. Edith Sampson was named the first Black representative (alternate delegate) in the U.S. delegation to the United Nations
August 25
1908 – National Association of Colored Nurses was founded.
1927 –First Black Wimbledon champion, Althea Gibson, born in South Carolina
1965–James M. Nabrit Jr. named ambassador and assigned to the UN delegation
August 26
1943 –William Dawson Elected Black Democratic Party vice presidential candidate
1946 –Singer and producer, Valerie Simpson Ashford, composer was born
August 27
1963 – W.E.B. DuBoise, editor author and civil rights leader, dies in Ghana.
August 28
1963 – Martin Luther King Jr. makes “I Have A Dream” speech at the Lincoln Memorial.
1968 – Rev. Channing E. Philips of Washington, D.C., became the first Black person nominated for president by a major national party. Philips was nominated as favorite son candidate by District of Columbia delegation at Democratic convention in Chicago and received 671/2 votes
1988 –Beah Richards wins an Emmy for outstanding guest performance in the comedy series Frank’s Place
August 29
1894 – Sociologist E. Franklin Fraiser was born
1958 – The “King of Pop” Michael Jackson was born
1979 – Sheridan Broadcasting Corp purchases Mutual Black Network. This was the first completely Black owned
radio network in the world.
August 30
1838 – The first African American magazine, Mirror of Freedom, begins publication in New York City
1901 – Roy Wilkins, 2nd Executive Director of the NAACP, was born on this day
August 31
1935 –in Beaumont, Texas, U.S., American professional baseball player and manager Frank Robinson was born. He was the first black manager in major league baseball
1979 – Donald McHenry named to succeed Andrew Young as UN ambassador
Facts from www.blackfacts.com