WYBC celebrates Black History EVERYDAY!
Facts from www.blackfacts.com
January 1
1997 – Kofi Annan of Ghana becomes first black secretary of United Nations.
1960 – Cameroon gains independence
1956 – Sudan proclaimed independent.
1863 – President Lincoln signed Emancipation Proclamation
January 2
1968 – Cuba Gooding Jr, actor born in Bronx NY
1965 – Voter registration drive, led by Martin Luther King Jr., started in Selma, Alabama.
1954 – Oprah Winfrey was born in Kosciusko, Mississippi. She went on to become a celebrated talk show hostess, actress, movie producer and business woman.
January 3
1997 – Bryant Gumble resigns after 15 years as host of NBC’s Today Show
1989 – The Arsenio Hall Show premieres. It is the first regularly scheduled nightly talk show to star an African American.
1947 – United States Population: 150,697,361. Black population: 15,042,286 (10 per cent).
1621 – First African American, William Tucker, born
January 4
1971 – Congressional Black Caucus organized.
1920 – first black baseball league, National Negro Baseball League organized
January 5
1943 – George Washington Carver Day
1875 – President Grant sent federal troops to Vicksburg, Mississippi.
January 6
1832 – New England Anti-Slavery Society organized at African Baptist Church on Boston’s Beacon Hill.
1773 – Massachusetts slaves petitioned the legislature for freedom. There is a record of eight freedom petitions during the Revolutionary War period.
January 7
2002 – Shirley Franklin is sworn in as the first African American Mayor of Atlanta and the only African American female mayor of a major American city.
1955 – Marian Anderson made debut at Metropolitan Opera House as Alrica in Verdi’s Masked Ball. She was the first Black singer in the company’s history.
1890 – W.B. Purvis patented the fountain pen
January 8
1912 – African National Congress founded
1867 – Legislation giving the suffrage to Blacks in the District of Columbia was passed over President Andrew Johnson’s veto.
1815 – The Battle of New Orleans, the last battle of the War of 1812, was fought. Black troops, the Battlaion of Free Men of Color and a Battalion from Santa Domingo supported Andrew Jackson in the campaign against the British.
January 9
1989 – Time, Inc. agrees to sell NYT Cable for $420 million, to a group led by J. Bruce Llewellyn, the largest cable TV acquisition by an African American
1866 – Fisk University established. Rust College (Miss.) and Lincoln (Mo.) were also founded in 1866.
January 10
1957 – Southern Christian Leadership Conference founded
1925 – Drummer, Max Roach, born
1866 – Georgia Equal Rights Association organized.
January 11
1971 – Mary J. Blige born
January 12
1952 – University of Tennessee admitted first Black student.
1948 – U.S. Supreme Court decision (Sipuel v. Oklahoma State Board of Regents) said an state must afford Blacks “an opportunity to commence the study of law at a state institution at the same time as [other] citizens.”
1944 – Joe Frazier, 55, former boxer,born Beaufort, SC
January 13
1999 – Michael Jordan announces his second retirement from the NBA.
1997 – WWII veteran Vernon Baker is awarded the Medal of Honor at age 77
1966 – Robert Weaver beacme the first Black appointed to a presidential cabinet when President Lyndon B. Johnson named him to head the newly created Departmentof Housing and Urban Development.
1953 – Don Barksdale becomes first Black person to play in an NBA All-Star Game
January 14
1990 – In Richmond, Virginia former Lt. Governor Lawrence Douglas Wilder took office as the first popularly elected African American governor of an American state.
1948 – Carl Weathers, 51, actor born in New Orleans
January 15
1929 – Activist and civil rights leader, Martin Luther King Jr was born
1865 – Black division, under command of Maj. Gen. Charles Paine, participated in Fort Fisher (N.C.) expedition which closed Confederate’s last major port.
January 16
2003 – Richard Parsons, chief executive, is tapped to be the next chairman of AOL Time Warner.
1986 – On January 16, 1986, a bronze bust of Martin Luther King, Jr. is the first of any black American placed in the Capitol. The first national Martin Luther King, Jr. holiday is celebrated on January 20.
1978 – January 16, 1978 – NASA names Black astronauts: Maj. Frederick D. Gregory, Maj. Guion S. Bluford, and Dr. Ronald McNair.
1974 – Muhammad Ali named the Associated Press Athlete of the Year
January 17
1966 – Martin Luther King Jr. opened campaign in Chicago
1942 – Boxing champion, Muhammad Ali was born
1931 – James Earl Jones born in Tate County, MS
January 18
1981 – Grant Fuhr, goalie for the world champion Edmonton Oilers, is picked in the first round of the National Hockey League draft to become the first Black professional hockey player
1975 – “The Jeffersons” premiered on television, one of the first sitcoms about an African-American family.
January 19
1969 – UCLA renames its social science buildings to honor alumnus Ralph Bunche.
1918 – John H Johnson, publisher of “Ebony Magazine” and “Jet” was born, 1918
January 20
2001 – Colin Luther Powell is sworn in by President George W. Bush as Secretary of State. He is the first black secretary of state in U.S. history.
1997 – On this day in 1997, former major league outfielder Curt Flood, who challenged baseball’s reserve system and made possible today’s megasalaries, dies at age 59.
1993 – “ON THE PULSE OF MORNING” by Maya Angelou delivered at the Presidential Inaguration Ceremony
1986 – Today the first national Martin Luther King Jr holiday was celebrated.
January 21
1971 – Twelve Black congressman boycotted Richard Nixon’s State of the Union message because of his “consistent refusal” to respond to the petitions of Black Americans.
January 22
1948 – George Foreman, two-time heavyweight boxing champion, was born in Marshall, TX. In a 1973 Kingston, Jamaica bout, he defeated Joe Frazier to receive the haveyweight championship. Foreman kept the title for 22 months until losing it to Muhammad Ali.
1931 – Sam Cook, Father of Soul Music, born.
January 23
1977 – ABC-TV begins televising the Alex Haley inspired miniseries Roots
1964 – The 24th Amendment to the US Constitution is ratified. It abolishes poll tax, which was used as a means of preventing african americans from voting
1821 – Minister Lott Cary left the United States leading a group of freed slaves, most of whom were members of the American Colonization Society, to colonize a small portion of West Africa. This area became known as the Republic of Liberia in 1847.
January 24
1993 – First Black Supreme Court Justice, Thurgood Marshall, dies
1977 – Howard T Ward becomes Georgia’s first Black Superior Court Judge
1962 – Jackie Robinson was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame.
1949 – Birthday of Aaron Neville, singer
January 25
1980 – Black Entertainment Television (BET) – first black owned company to be listed on the NYSE, begins broadcasting from Washington, DC
1972 – Congresswoman Shirley Chisholm begins her campaign for President of the U.S.
1966 – Constance Baker Motley – becomes the first african american woman to be appointed to a federal judgeship
January 26
1990 – Elaine Weddington Steward was named assistant general manager of the Boston Red Sox, making her the first Black woman executive of a professional baseball organization.
1958 – Birthday of Anita Baker, Grammy award winning singer.
1948 – Executive Order 9981, to end segregation in US Armed Forces is signed by President Harry Truman
1944 – Angela Davis was born
1863 – War Department authorized Massachusetts governor to recruit Black troops. The Fifty-fourths Massachusetts Volunteers was first Black regiment recruited in North.
January 27
1973 – Joseph Lowze named auxiliary Bishop of Mississippi
January 28
1997 – At South Africa’s Truth Commission, police confessed to the 1977 murder of Steve Biko.
1986 – On this day in 1986 astronaut Ronald McNair died in the space shuttle Challenger disaster. Surviving him are his wife Cheryl McNair and children.
January 29
1997 – Louis E Martin, presidential adviser known as the “godfather of black politics” dies in Orange, Calif
1991 – Nelson Mandela and Chief Mangosuthu Buthelezi held the first talks for almost 30 years between predominantly Zulu Inkatha and the ethnically mixed African National Congress.
1954 – Oprah Winfrey Born.
January 30
1979 – Franklin Thomas named president of the Ford Foundation
1927 – Harlem Globetrotters formed
January 31
1988 – Washington Redskins quarterback Doug Williams, the first African American quarterback to play in a Super Bowl game, is named MVP in Super Bowl XXII.
1962 – Samuel L Gravely becomes first Black person to command a U.S. warship.
1931 – Baseball Hall of Famer Ernie Banks was born in Dallas, TX.
1919 – Jackie Robinson – the first African American to play major league baseball is born.
Facts from www.blackfacts.com
