WYBC celebrates Black History EVERYDAY!
Facts from www.blackfacts.com
July 1
1971 – Multiple Grammy Award winning musician Missy Elliot was born today.
1899 – The Father of Gospel Music, Thomas Dorsey, was born today in Villa Rica, GA.
July 2
1908 – Thurgood Marshall, the first African American Supreme Court Justice, was born today in Baltimore, Maryland.
1964 – Lyndon B. Johnson gave the “Radio and Television Address at the signing of the 1964 Civil Rights Act,” which is considered by many as one of the most important measures enacted by the U.S. Congress in the 20th Century.
July 3
1956 – TV talk show host Montel Williams was born today.
1962 – Jackie Robinson, the first African American baseball player in the major leagues, was named to the Baseball Hall of Fame today.
July 4
1827 – Slavery was abolished in New York State.
1900 – Louis Armstrong was born today.
July 5
1975 – Arthur Ashe makes history by becoming the first African American male to win the men’s single title at Wimbledon, defeating Jimmy Connors.
1899 – Anna Arnold Hedgeman, the first woman to serve in the cabinet of a New York City mayor, was born today.
July 6
1957 – The first Black woman tennis champion, Althea Gibson, wins the women’s Wimbledon singles tournament. Gibson is the first African American woman tennis champion.
2002 – Serena Williams triumphs over her sister Venus to win the Wimbledon Woman’s singles competition.
1971 – Henry Sampson, an African American inventor, invented the cellular phone.
July 7
1972 – Semi-professional basketball player Lisa Leslie was born today.
1915 – Famous writer Margret Walker was born today.
July 8
2001 – Venus Williams wins her second straight Wimbledon.
1965 – NAACP elects Roy Wilkins as their new executive director.
July 9
1947 – O.J. Simpson was born today.
1955 – E. Frederic Morrow was appointed as administrative aide to President Eisenhower, and became the first African American to hold an executive position on the White House staff.
July 10
1943 – Arthur Ashe, the first African American to win Wimbledon, was born today.
1927 – David Norman Dinkins, the first African American major of New York City, was born today. He served between 1989 – 1993.
July 11
1954 – First White Citizens Council was organized in Indianola, Mississippi.
1943 – Civil Rights activist WEB Dubois found the Niagara Movement.
July 12
1949 – F.M. Jones patents starter generator.
1937 – William “Bill” Cosby was born today.
July 13
1972 – Shirley Chisholm became the first African American Presidential nominee, with 151 votes from the delegates polled.
1965 – The first African American solicitor, Thurgood Marshall was appointed today.
July 14
1940 – Lady Bo, Bo Diddley’s orginial girl guitar player, and the first female guitarists in history to be hired by a major rock and roll musican was born today.
1885 – Sarah Goode invented the cabinet bed.
July 15
1929 – Guitarist and author, Francis Bebey was born today.
1822 – Philadelphia opens its public schools for African Americans.
July 16
1822 – Violette Johnson, who was the first African American woman to practice before the U.S. Supreme Court, was born today.
1991 – Miles Davis, jazz trumpeter, was named a Knight in the (French) Legion of Honor, one of the nation’s highest cultural honors.
July 17
1944 – Actress Diahnn Carrol was born today.
1794 – Richard Allen organized Philadelphia’s Bethel African Methodist Episcopal Church.
July 18
1967 – Actor Vin Diesel (born Mark Sinclair) was born today.
1863 – Sgt. William H. Carney won Congressional Medal of Honor for his bravery in the charge and became the first African American soldier to receive the coveted award.
July 19
1941 – President Roosevelt established a Fair Employment Practices Committee to monitor discrimination against Negroes in defense industries.
1925 – Entertainer and singer, Josephine Baker, makes her Paris debut.
July 20
1967 – More than one thousands persons attended the first Black Power Conference in Newark, New Jersey.
1868 – On July 20, 1868, the 14th Amendment, validating citizenship rights for all persons born or naturalized in the U.S. was ratified.
July 21
1864 – The first African American daily newspaper, The New Orleans Tribune, is published in bot English and French.
1896 – National Federation of African American Women and the Colored Women’s League, merged and created the National Association of Colored Women.
July 22
1963 — Floyd Patterson is defeated by Sony Liston and loses his world heavyweight title.
1861 – Emancipation Proclamation is read to the cabinet by Abraham Lincoln.
July 23
1984 – Vanessa Williams relinquishes her Miss America crown. She is replaced by Suzette Charles, the first runner up.
1868 – 14th Amendment validates citizenship for African Americans.
July 24
1921 – Jazz musician Billy Taylor was born today.
1964 – Barry Bonds was born today.
July 25
1953 – Walter Payton was born today.
2002 – African American publisher Earl G. Graves and Magic Johnson signed an agreement to purchase Pepsi-Cola of Washington, D.C., and became the largest minority controlled Pepsi-Cola franchise in the country.
July 26
2015 – Bobbi Brown died after spending months in a medically induced coma after being found unconscious in the bathtub of her home near Atlanta.
1948 – President Truman issued Executive Order No. 9981 directing “equality of treatment and opportunity” in the armed forces.
July 27
1880 – Inventor AP Abourne was awarded a patent for refining coconut oil.
1847 –Alexandre Pierre Dumas was born today.
July 28
1915 – 10,000 African Americans marked down Fifth Avenue in silent parade protesting lynching and racial indignities.
1868 – The 14th Amendment, making African Americans citizens, was passed today.
July 29
1918 – The National Liberty Congress of Colored Americans asked Congress to make lynching a federal crime.
1909 – Crime novelist Chester Himes was born today.
1885 – The first National Convention of Black Women was held in Boston, MA today.
July 30
1936 – Influential blues guitarist Buddy Guy was born today in Lettsworth, LA.
1866 – Edward Walker, son of abolitionist David Walker and Charles L. Mitchell electee to Massachusetts Assembly from Boston and became the first African Americans to sit in the Legislature of an American state in the post Civil War period.
July 31
1981 – Attorney Arnette R. Hubbard was installed as the first woman president of the National Bar Association.
1969 – National Guard mobilized in racial disturbances in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.
Facts from www.blackfacts.com
