WYBC celebrates Black History EVERYDAY!
Facts from www.blackfacts.com
March 1
1892 – The pastry fork was invented by a black woman, Ms. Anna M. Mangin
1924 – Harold (“Harry”) George Belafonte was born on this day
March 2
1888 – Capital Savings Bank of Washington, D.C., the first Black bank, opened in Washington, D.C. The Savings Bank of the Order of True Reformers
1972 – Dr. Jerome H. Holland was elected to the board of directors of the New York Stock Exchange on this day
March 3
1932 – African actress and singer Miriam Makeba born in Johannesburg, South Africa
1990 – Carole Gist crowned first black Miss USA
March 4
1897 – Willie Covan, one of the first successful tap dancers was born on this day
1954 – President Eisenhower named J. Earnest Wilkins of Chicago assistant secretary of labor
March 5
1897 – American Negro Academy founded on this day.
1981 – U.S. government granted Atlanta some $1 million to finance mental health and social programs in the wake of a mysterious series of abductions and slayings involving at least twenty two Black youths
March 6
1957 – Ghana became an independent state
2012 – Donald Payne, a Democrat, was the first African American elected to Congress from the State of New Jersey. Payne was born in Newark, New Jersey
March 7
1942 – First cadets graduated from flying school at Tuskegee
1964 – Wanda Sykes is an American actress; comedian, writer, and voice artist was born on this day.
March 8
1826 – Alexander Thomas Augusta, first African American faculty member of an American medical school, Howard University, is born free on this day.
1977 – Henry L. Marsh III elected 1st Black mayor of Richmond, VA.
March 9
1913 – Harriet Tubman, “engineer” of the Underground Railroad died on this day.
1987– Bow Wow was born on this day.
1999 – The U.S. Supreme Court declared Joseph Cinquez and his fellow mutineers free. In August 1839, in the most famous slave ship revolt in history, Cinquez, the son of an African king, and his Mendi followers had killed the captain and taken over the Spanish slaver the Amistad. The rebels were captured off Long Island, where they had been discovered floating in a “mysterious long black schooner “with tattered sails before trying to sail the Amistad back to Africa
March 10
1913 – Harriet Tubman was born on this day.
1981 – Samuel Eto’o, in full Samuel Eto’o Fils (born March 10, 1981, Nkon, Cameroon), Cameroonian professional football (soccer) player who is considered one of the greatest African footballers of all time
March 11
1874 – Frederick Douglass named president of the failing Freedmen’s Bank
1950 – Bobby McFerrin, born on this day.
March 12
1932 – Andrew Young, former US United Nations ambassador, former congressman and former mayor of Atlanta, born in New Orleans, Louisiana
1982 – Charles Fuller wins the Pulitzer Prize for A Soldier’s Play
March 13
1918 – James Rhoden, sculptor, was born on this day.
1957 – John Lee, first black commissioned officer in the U.S. Navy is assigned to duty
March 14
1933 – Quincy Jones, Music Impresario, was born on this day.
1960 – Kirby Puckett, a professional baseball player for the Minnesota Twins, was born on this day in 1960
March 15
1933 – Los Angeles Sentinel founded by Leon H. Washington
1933 – Spingarn Medal presented to YMCA secretary Max Yergan for his achievements as a missionary in South Africa, “representing the gift of cooperation…American Negroes may send back to their Motherland
March 16
1827 – First Black newspaper, Freedom’s Journal, published in New York City
1869 – Hiram R. Revels made his first speech in the Senate, opposing the readmission of Georgia without adequate safeguards for Black citizens. This was the first official speech by a Black in Congress
March 17
1891 – West Virginia State College is founded in Institute
1919 – Nathaniel Adams Cole was a world renowned Jazz musician, born on this day in Montgomery, Alabama
March 18
1941 – Wilson Pickett was born on this day in Prattville, Alabama.
1970– Queen Latifah, a New-Jersey born African-American whose real name is Dana Elaine Owens, was born on this day.
March 19
1619– Birthday of William Tucker, the first African child born in the colonies. Tucker was baptized in Jamestown, Virginia. There are unconfirmed reports that he lived to be 108 years old.
1930 – Ornette Coleman, saxophonist, was born on this day.
March 20
1852 – Uncle Tom’s Cabin, a novel by Harriet Beecher Stowe, published on this day in Boston, MA.
1984 – Spike Lee, filmmaker, born on this day.
March 21
1938 – Lois Jean Barron White, the first African American President of the National Parent Teacher Association (PTA) was born
1950 – Ron Oden is the first African American and the first openly gay man to hold the office of Mayor of Palm Springs, California. Born on March 21, 1950
March 22
1492 – Alonzo Pietro, explorer, sets sail with Christopher Columbus.
1943 – George Benson, Grammy award winning singer, was born on this day.
March 23
1942 – Politician, writer and activist Walter Rodney was born on this day.
1954 – National Basketball Association star, Moses “The Mailman” Malone is born in Petersburg, Virginia
March 24
1942 – Former professional football player, businessman, and diplomat, Sidney Williams was born on this day in 1942.
2002 – Halle Berry becomes the first black woman to win an Academy Award for Best Actress for her performance in the movie “Monster’s Ball”
March 25
1942 – Aretha Franklin, one of the most successful female recording artists of all time, was born on this day.
1967– Debi Thomas, the 1988 Olympic Bronze medalist in figure skating was born on this day.
March 26
1944 – Actress/Singer Diana Ross, of the Supremes singing group, was born in Detroit, Michigan
1950 – Teddy Pendergrass, singer, was born on this day.
March 27
1943 – Arthur Mitchell, first African American principal of the New York City Ballet Company and founder, Dance Theatre of Harlem was born
1969– Black Academy of Arts and Letters founded at Boston meeting
March 28
1925 – Ed Wilson, award winning sculptor, born on this day.
1925– Poet Countee Cullen wins Phi Beta Kappa honors at New York University
March 29
1945 – Basketball legend Walt Frazier was born in Atlanta, Georgia
1955 – Football star Earl Campbell was born in Tyler, Texas
March 30
1870 – 15th Amendment gave blacks the right to vote.
1964 – Tracy Chapman, an American singer-songwriter, was born on this day.
March 31
1960 – Laurian Rugambwa of Tanzania becomes the first black Roman Catholic Cardinal
1988 – Toni Morrison wins the Pulitzer Prize for her novel ‘Beloved’
Facts from www.blackfacts.com