1863 - President Abraham Lincoln issues Emancipation Proclamation

2005 - died Former U.S. Rep. Shirley Chisholm

Kwanzaa ends
Faith

1889 - First National Negro Catholic Congress held in Washington DC

1965 - Martin Luther King, Jr. calls for non-violent protests in Alabama voter registration drive

1624 - William Tucker first African- American child born in America.

1793 - born Lucretia Mott, abolitionist

1920 -
Andrew "Rube" Foster organizes the first Black baseball league - The Negro National League

1971 - Congressional African- American Caucus formed.

1986 -died Edward B. Plique, First African-American ring announcer

1931 - born
Choreographer Alvin Ailey

1943 - died George Washington Carver

1831 - The World Anti-Slavery Convention opens in London.

1966 - Harold Perry SVD ordained Catholic Bishop for New Orleans

1890 - William B. Purvis patents the  fountain pen

1903 - born
Zora Neale Hurston

1955 - Marian Anderson debuts at Metropolitan Opera

1811 - Charles Deslandes leads Louisiana slave revolt

1866 - Fisk University founded in Nashville.

1889 - born Beatrice Cannady Taylor, Civil Rights Leader

1864 - born George Washington Carver

1946 - died Countee Cullen

1904 - B Dolly Adams, jazz pianist

1985 - Reuben V. Anderson becomes first African American  appointed to Mississippi Supreme Court.

1948 - U.S. Supreme Court rules that African Americans have the right to study law at state schools.

1957 - Southern Christian Leadership Conference founded

1990 - L. Douglas Wilder becomes first African- American U.S. governor (Virginia) since Reconstruction.

1913 - Delta Sigma Theta Sorority Incorporated

1997 - Vernon Baker becomes the only living African American to receive the Medal of Honor for WWII

1916 - born Novelist John Oliver Killens

1940 - born
Civil rights leader and senator Julian Bond

1975 - William T. Coleman is named U.S. Secretary of Transportation.

1929 - born Martin Luther King, Jr.

1908 - Alpha Kappa Alpha, first African American sorority is founded.

1997 - Vernon J. Baker receives Medal of Honor

1776 - Continental Congress accepted enlistment of free Negroes

1978 - NASA names African-American astronauts: Maj. Frederick D. Gregory, Maj. Guion S. Bluford, and Dr. Ronald McNair.

1942 - born  Muhammad Ali

1856 - born
Dr. Daniel Hale Williams

1778 - First African Baptist Church organized in Savannah, GA

1969 - UCLA renames  social science buildings for  Ralph Bunche.

1893 - born
First African-American woman aviator, Bessie Coleman

1977 - Patricia Roberts Harris becomes first African-American woman to hold a Cabinet position.

2009 - Barack Obama is sworn in as the first African-American President of the United States of America

1936 - born Former Congressman Barbara Jordan

1793 - Benjamin Banneker designs Washington, DC

1949 - James Robert Gladden becomes first African- American  orthopedic surgeon.

1972 - died Alexander P. Tureaud, Sr.

1891 - Dr. Daniel Hale Williams founds Provident Hospital in Chicago

1964 - the 24th Amendment abolishes the poll tax, which had prevented African Americans from voting

1976 - died Paul Robeson

1865 - Congress passes 13th Amendment  abolishing slavery in America.

1851 - Sojourner Truth addresses the first African American Women's Rights Convention in Akron, Ohio.

1966 - Constance Baker Motley becomes first African-American woman judge

2005 - Condolezza Rice named Secretary of State

1954 - Dr. Theodore K. Lawless awarded Springarn Medal for research in skin-related diseases.

1961 - Leontyne Price made debut at Metropolitan Opera

1977 - Roots debuts

1787 - Free Africa Society organized in Philadelphia.

1944 - Matthew Henson, co-discoverer of the North Pole, receives medal from Congress

1926 - Violette Nealy Anderson becomes the first African-American female lawyer to argue a case before the U.S. Supreme Court.

1954 - born
Oprah Winfrey

1977 - Andrew Young appointed to United Nations

1844 - Richard Greener becomes first African American to graduate from Harvard University

1865 - 13th Amendment passed

1979 - Franklin Thomas named president of Ford Foundation.

2006 - died Coretta Scott King

1919 - born
Jackie Robinson

1986 - August Wilson's Fences, opens at Chicago's Goodman Theatre.

1902 - born Langston Hughes

1978 - Harriet Tubman African American Heritage Stamp issued

1807 - Congress bans foreign slave trade.

1956 - Autherine Lucy becomes first African- American student enrolled at the University of Alabama.

1913 - born
Rosa Parks

2005 - died Ossie Davis

1934 - born Hank Aaron

1867 - Robert Tanner Jackson becomes first African American to receive a degree in dentistry.

1993 - died Arthur Ashe

1883 - born Ragtime pianist and composer Eubie Blake

1926 - Negro History Week is established by Carter G. Woodson.

1968 - Three South Carolina State students killed during segregation protest in Orangeburg, S.C.

1944 - born
Pulitzer Prize winning author, Alice Walker

1964 - Arthur Ashe, Jr. becomes first African American on U.S. Davis Cup team.

1995 - Bernard Harris becomes first African-American astronaut to walk in space

1927 - born
Opera singer Leontyne Price

1989 - Ronald H. Brown is elected chairman of the Democratic National Committee.

2007 - Barack Obama announces his candidacy for President of the United States

1990 - after 27 years in prison, Nelson Mandela is released

1909 - NAACP founded in New York City.

1990 - Judge Allyson K. Duncan becomes first African-American woman appointed to N.C. appellate court

1970 - Joseph L. Searles becomes first African-American member of the New York Stock Exchange.

1760 - born
Richard Allen, founder of the African Methodist Episcopal Church

1817 - born
Frederick Douglass

1879 - B.K. Bruce of Mississippi becomes first African American to preside over U.S. Senate.

1965 - died
Nat King Cole

1968 Henry Lewis becomes first African-American conductor of a symphony orchestra

1874 - Frederick Douglass elected president of Freedman's Bank and Trust.

1923 - Bessie Smith records Down Hearted Blues

1902 - born Marion Anderson

1923 - Bessie Smith made her first recording

1688 - Quakers file first formal protest against slavery

1931 - born
Toni Morrison

1895 - died
Frederick Douglas

1927- born
Sidney Poitier

1934 - Four Saints in Three Acts, by Virgil Thompson and Gertrude Stein, first African- American-performed opera on Broadway.

1965 - died Malcolm X is assassinated in New York.

1989 - Col. Frederick Gregory was the first African American to command a space shuttle mission.

1868 - born W.E.B. Dubois

1811 - Rev. Daniel A. Payne becomes first African American to become a college president

1867 - Howard University is chartered by Congress

1853 - First African-American YMCA organized in Washington, D.C.

1991 - died Adrienne Mitchell, first African-American woman to die in combat (Persian Gulf War)

1965 - died Civil rights activist Jimmie Lee Jackson was shot by state police in Marion, Ala.

1872 - Charlotte Ray becomes first African- American woman lawyer graduate from Howard University Law School

1902 - born
Marian Anderson

1988 - Debi Thomas becomes first African-American figure skater to win an Olympic medal

1892 - born Sculptor Augusta Savage

1927 - born Harry Belafonte

1994 - Leonard S. Coleman, Jr. elected president of the National Baseball League.

1867 - Howard University chartered

1821 - Thomas L. Jennings becomes first African American to receive a patent

1865 - Freeman's Bureau established

1877 - born
Garrett A. Morgan

1932 - born
Miriam Makeba

1965 - Bill Russell of the Boston Celtics honored as NBA's most valuable player

1770 - Crispus Attucks becomes  first casualty of the American Revolution

1857 - U.S. Supreme Court issues Dred Scott decision.

1917 - born
Prima ballerina Janet Collins

1965 - U.S. Supreme Court upholds key provisions of the Voting Rights Act of 1965.

1977 - Henry L. Marsh III becomes first African American elected mayor of Richmond, Va.

1941 - Amistad mutineers freed by U.S. Supreme Court.

1913 - Harriet Tubman dies.

1959 - Lorraine Hansberry's "A Raisin In the Sun" opens at Barrymore Theater, New York, the first play by an African- American woman to premier on Broadway.

1971 - D Whitney Young

1932 - born Andrew Young

1955 - died Charlie Parker

1773 - Jean Baptiste Pointe Du Sable, African- American pioneer and explorer, founded Chicago.

1867 - Morehouse College founded

1933 - born
Quincy Jones

1965 - Montgomery bus boycott ends when municipal bus service is desegregated.

1977 - died
Fannie Lou Hammer

1947 - John Lee becomes first commissioned African American officer in the US Navy

1988 - Eugene Antonio Marino, first African- American archbishop, assigned to Atlanta.

1827 - Freedom's Journal published

1846 - Rebecca Cole, second African- American female physician in America, born.

1885 - William F. Cosgrove patents automatic stop plug for gas and oil pipes. 1890 - Charles B. Brooks patents street sweeper.

1919 - born
Nat King Cole

1806 - born Norbert Rillieux

1822 - The Phoenix Society, a literary and educational group, founded by African Americans in New York City.

1971 - Rev. Leon Sullivan elected to board of directors of General Motors.

1883 - John E. Matzeliger patents shoe-making machine

1912 - Carter Woodson receives doctorate from Harvard University.

1955 - died Walter White, NAACP leader

1965 - Martin Luther King leads Selma to Montgomery march

1492 - Alonzo Pietro sails with Christopher Columbus

1898 - J.W. Smith patents lawn sprinkler.

1965 - Civil Rights march from Selma to Montgomery

1810 - The New York African Society established

1873 - Slavery abolished in Puerto Rico.

1912 - born Dorothy I Height

1837 - Canada gives African American citizens the right to vote.

1843 - Explorer Jacob Dodson sets out in Search of the Northwest Passage.

1942 - born
Aretha Franklin

1872 - Thomas J. Martin patents fire extinguisher.

1911 - William H. Lewis becomes U.S. assistant attorney general.

1924 - born
Sara Vaughan

1969 - African American Academy of Arts & Letters organized

1870 - Jonathan S. Wright becomes first African- American state Supreme Court justice in South Carolina.

1898 - W.J. Ballow patents combined hat rack and table.

1918 - born Pearl Bailey

1974 -died Duke Ellington

1870 - Fifteenth Amendment ratified, guaranteeing voting rights to African Americans

1827 - Freedom's Journal is published in New York

1878 - born Jack Johnson

1988 - Toni Morrison wins Pulitzer Prize for Beloved.

1950 - Charles R. Drew, who developed techniques for processing and preserving blood, died.

1939 - born
Marvin Gaye

1984 - Georgetown coach John Thompson becomes first African American coach to win NCAA basketball tournament.

1826 - born Poet-orator James Madison Bell

1961 - born
Eddie Murphy

1928 - born
Maya Angelou

1968 - Martin Luther King assassinated.

1856 - born Booker T. Washington

1951 - Washington, D.C. Municipal Court of Appeals outlawed segregation in restaurants.

1905 - born
Researcher
Warrick Cardozo,

1909 - Matthew A. Henson reaches the North Pole, 45 minutes before Commandeer Peary.

1885 - Granville T. Woods patents apparatus for transmission of messages by electricity.

1915 - born Billie Holiday

1974 - Hank Aaron hits 715th  home run

1898 - Paul Robeson, actor, singer, activist, born.

1939 - Marian Anderson's historic concert at the Lincoln Memorial

1943 - born
Arthur Ashe

1947 - Brooklyn Dodger Jackie Robinson becomes first African American to play major league baseball.

1883 - Spelman College is founded

1966 - Emmett Ashford becomes first African- American umpire in the major leagues.

1966 - Emmett Ashford becomes first African-American major league umpire

1983 - Harold Washington becomes first African- American mayor of Chicago.

1924 - born
Artist John Biggers

1950 - died Historian Carter G. Woodson

1997 - Tiger Woods wins Masters

1775 - First abolitionist society in U.S. is founded in Philadelphia.

1964 - Sidney Poitier wins Oscar

1947 - Jackie Robinson plays in the Major League

1862 - Slavery abolished in the District of Columbia.

1947 - born
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar

1983 - Alice Walker wins Pulitzer Prize for fiction for The Color Purple.

1990 - died Ralph Abernathy

1864 - More than 200 African-American Union troops massacred by Confederate forces at Ft. Pillow, Tennessee.

1775 - African- American minutemen fought at Lexington

1947 - Jackie Robinson plays in the Majors

1972 - Major Gen. Frederic E. Davidson becomes first African American to lead an army division.

1875 - Fisk University is founded

1894 - Dr. Lloyd A. Hall, pioneering food chemist, born.

1914 - born
Lionel Hampton

1906 - born
Mary T. Washington

1966 - Pct. Milton L. Olive III awarded the Medal of Honor posthumously for valor in Vietnam.

1922 - Jazz bassist and composer Charles Mingus born.

1856 - born Granville T. Woods

1895 - Clatonia Joaquin Dorticus patents photographic print wash.

1944 - United Negro College Fund Incorporated.

1918 - born Ella Fitzgerald

1886 - born
Gertrude "Ma" Rainey

1888 - Sarah Boone patents ironing board.

1945 - born
August Wilson

1968 - Vincent Porter becomes first African American certified in plastic surgery.

1839 - Cinque leads mutiny off the coast of Long Island, NY

1899 - born Duke Ellington

1952 - Dr. Louis T. Wright honored by American Cancer Society for his contributions to cancer research.

1867 - First four students enter Howard University.

1950 - Gwendolyn Brooks wins Pulitzer

1844 - born
Elijah McCoy

1920 - Indianapolis ABCs defeat Chicago Giants in first Negro National League Game.

1933 - born
James Brown

1964 - Frederick O'Neal becomes first African American president of the Actor's Equity Association.

1978 - Ernest "Ducth" Morial elected frist African-American mayor of New Orleans.

1961 - "Freedom Riders" begin protesting segregation of interstate bus travel in the South.

1865 - born
Adam Clayton Powell, Sr.

1988 - Eugene Marino becomes first African American installed as a Roman Catholic archbishop in the U.S.

1787 - First African-American Masonic Lodge formed

1991 - The Smithsonian Institution approves the creation of the National African American Museum.

1878 - Joseph R. Winters patents first fire escape ladder.

1926 - Brotherhood of Sleeping car Porters founded

1983 - Lena Horne awarded the Springarm Medal for distinguished career in the field of entertainment.

1800 - born John Brown, abolitionist

1837 - born
PBS Pinchback

1950 - Boston Celtics select Chuck Cooper first African- American player drafted to play in the NBA.

1895 - Composer William Grant Still, the first African American to conduct a major American symphony orchestra, born.

1872 - born Matilda Arabella Evans, first African- American woman to practice medicine in South Carolina

1914 - born Joe Louis

1820 - U.S. Congress declares foreign slave trade an act of piracy, punishable by death.

1927 - William Harry Barnes becomes first African American certified by any American surgical board.

1929 - born
John Conyers, Jr.

1954 - U.S. Supreme Court declares segregation in public schools unconstitutional in Brown v. Board of Education decision.

1896 - Plessy vs. Ferguson, Supreme Court upholds the doctrine of "separate but equal" education and public accommodations.

1925 - born
Malcolm X

1961 - U.S. Marshals sent to Montgomery Ala, to restore order in the "Freedom Rider" disturbance.

1833 - African Americans enroll for the first time at Oberlin College, Ohio.

1948 - died Claude McKay

1900 - Sgt. William H. Carney becomes the first African American awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor for valor at Fort Wagner, S.C., 1863.

1854 - Lincoln University (Pa.)the first African American college, is founded.

1926 - born
Jazz trumpeter Miles Davis

1926 - born
Miles Davis

1961 - Marvin Cook named ambassador to Niger Republic; first African- American envoy named by Kennedy Administration to an African nation.

1919 -died  Madame C.J. Walker

1936 - born
Lou Gossett, Jr.

1851 - Sojourner Truth attends Women's Rights Convention

1901 - Granville T. Woods patents overhead conducting system for the electric railway.

1973 - Tom Bradley sworn in as first African-American mayor of Los Angeles

1903 - born Countee Cullen

1965 - Vivian Malone becomes the first African American to graduate from the University of Alabama.

1870 - Congress passes the first Enforcement Act, providing stiff penalties for those who deprive others of their civil rights.

Sojourner Truth begins her antislavery crusade

1962 - Ray Charles' "I Can't Stop Loving You" hits #1 on the Billboard chart

1971 - Samuel L. Gravely, Jr. becomes first African- American admiral in U.S. Navy.

1890 - L.H. Jones patents corn harvester.

1904 - born
Charles Drew

1665 - First African-American Baptist church in America founded

1922 - born
Samuel Gravely, first African-American Navy Admiral

1972 - Angela Davis acquitted of all murder and conspiracy charges.

1987 - Dr. Mae C. Jemison becomes first African- American woman astronaut.

1831 - First annual "People of Color" convention held in Philadelphia.

1869 - Dillard University chartered

1917 - born Gwendolyn Brooks

1943 - born Nikki Giovanni

1953 - Supreme Court ruling bans discrimination in Washington, D.C. restaurants.

1995 - Lincoln J. Ragsdale, pioneer fighter pilot of World War II, dies.

1854 - James Augustine Healy, first African American Roman Catholic bishop is ordained.

1895 - born
Hattie McDaniel

1912 - Joseph H. Dickson patents player piano.

1917 - born Lena Horne

1920 - born
Hazel Dorothy Scott

1963 - Medgar W. Evers, civil rights leader, assassinated in Jackson, Miss.

1967 - Thurgood Marshall nominated to the U.S. Supreme Court by President Lyndon Johnson.

1864 - Congress rules that African American soldiers must receive equal pay.

1877 - born
Henry Flipper, first African-American graduate of West Point

1913 - Dr. Effie O'Neal, first African American woman to hold an executive position in the American Medical Association, born.

1970 - Kenneth A. Gibson elected mayor of Newark, N.J., first African- American mayor of a major eastern U.S. city.

1775 - Minuteman Peter Salem fights in the Battle of Bunker Hill.

1871 - born
James Weldon Johnson

1972 - Frank Willis discovered Watergate break-in

1863 - The 54th Massachusetts Colored Infantry attacks Fort Wagner, S.C.

1958 - Dr. Jeanne Craig Sinkford becomes first African- American woman dean of Howard University Dental School

1966 - Samuel Nabrit becomes first African American on Atomic Energy Commisision

1865 - Slavery is abolished in Texas, creating Juneteenth - Freedom Day

1858 - born Charles W. Chestnut

1953 - Albert W. Dent of Dillard Universality elected president of the National Health Council.

1945 - Col. Benjamin O. Davis Jr. becomes first African American to command a U.S. Army Air Corps base.

1897 - William Barry patents the postmarking and canceling.

1937 - Joe Louis becomes Heavyweight Boxing Champion of the World

1940 - born  Wilma Rudolph, winner of three gold medals at the 1960 Summer Olympics

1896 - Booker T. Washington becomes firs African American to receive honorary degree from Harvard University

1964 - Carl T. Rowan appointed the Director of the United States Information Agency.

1941 - Franklin D. Roosevelt issues executive order establishing Fair Employment Practice Commission.

1975 - Samuel Blanton Rosser becomes first African- American certified in pediatric surgery.

1872 - born Paul Lawrence Dunbar

1991 - Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall announces his retirement.

1770 - Philadelphia School for African Americans opened by Quakers

1864 - Fugitive slave laws repealed by Congress.

1886 - Photographer James Van Der Zee born.

1917 - born
Lena Horne

1921 - Charles S. Gilping awarded Springarm Medal for his performance in Eugene O'Neill Emperor Jones

1889 - Frederick Douglass named U.S. Minister to Haiti.

1899 - born
Rev. Thomas Dorsey

1970 - National Office for African- American Catholics opened in Washington, DC

1872 - Elijah McCoy patents his first self-lubricating locomotive engine. The quality of his inventions helped coin the phrase "The Real McCoy".

1908 - born
Thurgood Marshall

1688 - The Quakers in Germantown, Pa., make the first formal protest against slavery.

1962 - Jackie Robinson inducted into Baseball Hall of Fame

1881 - Tuskegee Institute opens

1900 - born Trumpeter Louis "Satchmo" Armstrong

1892 - Andrew J. Beard patents rotary engine.

1957 - Althea Gibson wins women's singles title at Wimbledon, becoming first African American to win tennis's most prestigious award.

1971 - died Louis Armstrong

1948 - Cleveland Indians sign pitcher Leroy "Satchel" Paige.

1957 - Althea Gibson won women's singles tennis crown at Wimbledon

1943 - born Faye Wattleton, first African- American director of Planned Parenthood

1893 - Dr. Daniel Hale Williams performs first successful open-heart operation.

1875 - born Educator Mary McLeod Bethune, founder of

1905 - W.E.B. Dubois and William Monroe Trotter organize the Niagara Movement

1937 - born
Bill Cosby

1949 - Frederick M. Jones patents air-conditioning unit used in refrigerated trucks

1965 - Thurgood Marshall becomes first African American appointed U.S. Solicitor General.

1955 - George Washington Carver Monument, first national park honoring an African American, is dedicated

1867 - Maggie Lena Walker becomes first  African- American  president of a bank.

1929 - born
Francis Bebey

1862 - born Anti-lynching activist Ida B. Wells Barnett

1953 - Jesse D. Locker appointed U.S. Ambassador to Liberia

1958 - died
Billie Holiday

1899 - L.C. Bailey patents the folding bed

1925 - Paris debut of Josephine Baker

1960 - Wilma Rudolph set world record in Olympics

1950 - First U.S. victory in Korea won by African- American troops of the 24th Infantry Regiment.

1950 - Althea Gibson wins Wimbledon

1896 - Mary Church Terrell elected first president of the National Association of Colored Women.

1939 - Jane M. Bolin of New York City, appointed first African- American female judge.

1778 - Battle of Monmouth (NJ).

1868 - 14th Amendment validates citizenship for African Americans

1807 - born Shakespearean actor Ira Aldridge

1916 - 32 mine workers are saved thanks to Garrett Morgan's gas mask

1948 - President Harry S. Truman issues Executive Order 9981, ending segregation in the U.S. armed forces.

1880 - Alexander P. Ashbourne patents process for refining coconut oil.

1898 - born
Queen Mother Audley Moore

1868 - 14th Amendment granting African Americans full citizenship rights, becomes part of the Constitution.

1903 - Maggie Lena Walker becomes first African-American woman bank president

1895 - First National Conference of Colored Women Convention is held in Boston.

1921 - born
Whitney Young, Jr.

1874 - Patrick Francis Healy inaugurated as president of Georgetown University, Washington, DC

1879 - Mary Eliza Mahoney becomes the first African-American professional nurse in America

1924 - born James Baldwin

1800 - Gabriel Prosser leads slave revolt in Richmond, VA

1810 - born Abolitionist Robert Purvis

1961 - born
Barack H. Obama, first African-American president of the United States

1892 - Harriet Tubman receves pension from Congress for her work during the Civil War

1962 - Nelson Mandela imprisoned.

1894 - Joseph Lee patents kneading machine.

1904 - born
Ralph Bunche,

1865 - born
Polar explorer Matthew Henson

1936 - Jesse Owens wins fourth gold medal at Summer Olympics in Berlin.

1984 - Carl Lewis wins 4 Olympic gold medals

1989 - General Colin Powell  nominated Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff

1921 - born Alex Haley

1922 - Home of Frederick Douglass dedicated as a memorial

1924 - born
James Baldwin

1881 - First African-American nursing school opens at Spelman College

1959 - born
Magic Johnson

1966 - born
Halle Berry

1989 - The North Carolina African- American Repertory Company hosts the first National African American Theater Festival in Winston-Salem, NC.

1888 - Granville T. Woods patents electromechanical brake.

1922 - born Author Louis E. Lomax

1859 - Harriet Wilson's Our Nig is first novel published by an African-American writer.

1950 - Edith Sampson becomes first African-American representative to the United Nations

1954 - Dr. Ralph J. Bunche named undersecretary of the United Nations.

1619 - First Africans forcibly settled in America

1993 - Dr. David Satcher named director of the Centers for Disease Control.

1831 - Nat Turner leads slave revolt in Virginia.

1904 - born
Count Basie

1843 - Henry Highland Garnett calls for a general strike by slaves.

1917 - born
John Lee Hooker

1926 - Carter Woodson, historian, author, inaugurated Negro History Week and later produced of the Negro History Bulletin.

1950 - Judge Edith Sampson named first African-American delegate to the United Nations.

1908 - National Association of Colored Nurses founded.

1927 - born
Althea Gibson

1920 - 19th Amendment to the Constitution ratified, giving women the right to vote.

1963 - Martin Luther King delivers I Have a Dream speech during the march on Washington

1935 - Mary McLeod Bethune founds the National Council of Negro Women.

1963 - died
W.E.B. Dubois

1888 - Granville T. Woods patents railway telegraphy.

1920 - born Saxophonist Charlie "Bird" Parker

1983 - Lt. Col. Guion S. Bluford Jr. becomes the first African- American astronaut

1836 - Henry Blair patents cotton planter.

1891 - Halle T.D. Johnson becomes first woman to practice medicine in Alabama.

1958 - Frederick M. Jones patents control device for internal combustion engine.

1838 - Frederick Douglass escapes from slavery

1979 - Robert Maynard editor-publisher of the Oakland (California) Tribune, becomes the first African American to head a daily newspaper.

1848 - born
Lewis Latimer

1908 - born
Richard Wright

1962 - New Orleans Catholic schools integrated.

1848 - Frederick Douglass elected president of National African American Political Convention in Cleveland, Ohio.

1917 - born
Jacob Lawrence

1954 - Washington, D.C. and Baltimore, Md. public schools integrated.

1907 - born Negro Leagues baseball star Buck Leonard

1806 - born
Sarah Maps Douglass

1968 - Arthur Ashe Jr. wins the first U.S. Open Tennis Championship.

1855 - John Mercer Langston becomes first African American to hold elective office in the U.S.

1942 - born
Lola Falana

1959 - Edward Kennedy "Duke" Ellington wins Springarm Medal for his achievements in music.

1913 - born
Jesse Owens

1992 - Dr. Mae C. Jemison becomes first African-American woman to travel in space.

1886 - born  Literary critic Alain Locke

1921 - born  Constance Baker Motley

1963 - Four African- American girls killed in Birmingham church bombing.

1923 - First Catholic seminary for African-American priests dedicated in Bay St. Louis, Mississippi.

1925 - born
BB King

1861 - Hampton Institute founded

1983 - Vanessa Williams becomes first African- American woman named Miss America.

1895 - Booker T. Washington delivers famous Atlanta Exposition speech.

1951 - born
Neurosurgeon Benjamin Carson

1893 - Elbert R. Robinson patents electric highway trolley.

1830 - First National Convention for Free Men agrees to boycott slave-produced goods.

1815 - General Andrew Jackson honors courage of African- American troops who fought in Battle of New Orleans.

1980 - Gen. Colin Powell becomes Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff

1862 - Emancipation Proclamation

1915 - Xavier University in New Orleans opens

1950 - Ralph Bunche wins Nobel Prize

1926 - born
John Coltrane

1957 - Federal troops enforce court-ordered integration of Central High School in Little Rock, Ark.

1974 - Barbara Hancock becomes first African- American woman named a White House Fellow.

1962 - Sonny Liston knocks out Floyd Patterson to win heavyweight boxing championship.

1912 - W.C. Handy publishes "Memphis Blues"

1895 - National Baptist Convention organized.

1912 - W.C. Handy's Memphis Blues is published

1910 - The National Urban League founded in New York City.

1935 - born
Johnny Mathis

1962 - Under the protection of federal marshals, James Meredith enrolls as the first African-American student at University of Mississippi.

1903 - born
Virginia Powell, first African-American librarian

1986 - President Ronald Reagan appoints Edward J. Perkins ambassador to South Africa.

1956 - Nat King Cole becomes first African- American performer to host his own TV show.

1989 - Art Schell becomes first African-American coach of a a National Football League team

1847 - First African- American daily newspaper, The New Orleans Tribune, founded.

1872 - Booker T. Washington enters Hampton Institute, Virginia.

1917 - born Political activist Fannie Lou Hamer

1934 -born  Playwright-poet Amiri Baraka (LeRoi Jones)

1993 - Toni Morrison wins Nobel Prize.

1941 - born Rev. Jesse Jackson

1888 - O.B. Clare patents Trestle.

1929 - born
Ernest "Dutch" Morial

1899 - Isaac R. Johnson patents bicycle frame.

1901 - born
Frederick Douglas Patterson

1887 - Granville T. Woods patents telephone system and apparatus.

1904 - born Physician, author, educator, W. Montague Cobb

1579 - born Martin de Porres, the first African- American saint in the Roman Catholic Church

1964 - Martin Luther King, Jr. becomes youngest man ever to win Nobel Peace Prize.

1991 - Clarence Thomas confirmed as an associate justice of the U.S. Supreme Court

1995 - Million Man March held in Washington, D.C.

1888 - Capital Savings Bank of Washington, D.C., first bank for African Americans, organized.

1948 - born Playwright Ntozake Shange

1943 - Paul Robeson opens in Othello at the Shubert Theater in New York City.

1898 - The first African American-owned insurance company, North Carolina Mutual Life Insurance Company, founded.

1917 - born Trumpeter Dizzy Gillespie

1953 - Clarence S. Green becomes first African- American certified in neurological surgery.

1947 - The NAACP petitions the United States on racial conditions in the U.S.

1972 - died
Jackie Robinson

2005 - died
Rosa Parks

1911 - born Mahalia Jackson

1954 - Benjamin O. Davis Jr. becomes first African- American general in U.S. Air Force.

1798 - born
Levi Coffin

1981 - Edward M. McIntyre elected first African- American mayor of Augusta, Georgia

1949 - Alonzo G. Moron becomes first African- American president of Hampton Institute

1974 - Muhammad Ali becomes World Heavyweight Boxing Champ

1979 - Richard Arrington elected first African- American mayor of Birmingham, Alabama.

1900 - born Ethel Waters

1945 - first issue of Ebony
Magazine is published

1991 - Grambling State University founded

1991 - Judge Clarence Thomas is formally seated at the 106th associate justice of the U.S. Supreme Court.

1954 - Charles C. Diggs elected Michigan's first African- American congressman.

1981 - Thirman L. Milner elected mayor of Hartford, Connecticut, becoming first African- American mayor in New England

1879 - Thomas Elkins patents refrigeration apparatus.

1992 - Carol Moseley Braun becomes first African-American woman elected to US Senate

2008 - Barack Obama defeated John McCain in the general election with 365 electoral votes to McCain's 173

1926 - Negro History Week initiated by Carter G. Woodson

1968 - Shirley Chisolm of Brooklyn, N.Y., becomes the first African- American woman elected to Congress.

1901 - James Weldon Johnson and J. Rosamond Johnson compose "Lift Every Voice and Sing"

1973 - Coleman Young becomes first African-American mayor of Detroit

1909 - Knights of Peter Claver founded

1989 - L. Douglas Wilder is elected governor of Virginia, becoming the nation's first African- American governor since the Reconstruction.

1938 - Crystal Bird Faucet is elected state representative in Pennsylvania, becoming the first African- American woman to serve in a state legislature

1731 - born Mathematician, urban planner and inventor Benjamin Banneker

1983 - Wilson Goode elected Philadelphia's first African- American mayor.

1989 - Civil Rights Memorial is dedicated in Montgomery, Al.

1941 - Madame Lillian Evanto founds the National Negro Opera Company.

1894 - Albert C. Richardson patents casket-lowering device.

1930 - born
Benny Andrews

1915 - died Booker T. Washington

1955 - born
Condoleeza Rice

1881 - Payton Johnson patents swinging chair.

1966 - Bill Russell becomes first African-American coach of a professional basketball team

1873 - born
W.C. Handy

1981 - Pam Johnson named publisher of the Ithaca (NY) Journal, becoming the first African- American woman to head a daily newspaper.

1862 - died
Henriette Delille, foundress of the Sisters of the Holy Family

1980 - WHHM, the first African American-operated radio station, goes on the air at Howard University.

1787 - born Abolitionist and women's right activist Sojourner Truth

1900 - born
Howard Thurman

1865 - Howard Seminary (later Howard University) founded in Washington, D.C.

1893 - Granville T. Woods patents electric railway conduit.

1904 - born
Coleman Hawkins, jazz musician

1930 - Elijah Muhammed establishes the Nation of Islam.

1897 - A.J. Beard patents the "Jenny Coupler", still in use today to connect railroad cars. John L. Love patents pencil sharpener.

1868 - born Pianist Scott Joplin

1941 - born
Tina Turner

1949 - died
Bill "Bojangles" Rovinson

1975 - Suriname gains independence from the Netherlands

1970 - Charles Gordone becomes the first African American playwright to receive the Pulitzer Prize

1942 - born
Jimi Hendrix

1990 - Charles Johnson awarded National Book Award for fiction for Middle Passage.

1960 - died Novelist Richard Wright

1961 - Ernie Davis wins Heisman Trophy

1908 - born Adam Clayton Powell, Jr.

1897 - J.A. Sweeting patents cigarette-rolling device

1979 - born
Tiger Woods

1955 - Rosa Parks refuses to ride in the back of the bus

1970 - THE BLACK COLLEGIAN Magazine was launched.

1987 - Carrie Saxon Perry elected first African American woman mayor of a major U.S. city.

1784 - born
Phillis Wheatly

1884 - Granville T. Woods patents telephone transmitter.

1847 - Frederick Douglass publishes first issue of North Star.

1909 - The New York Amsterdam News is founded by James A. Anderson.

1931 - born
Rev. James Cleveland

1955 - Martin Luther King, Jr. organizes Birmingham bus boycott

1865 - 13th Amendment abolishes slavery

1932 - Richard B. Spikes patents automatic gearshift.

1936 - Richard Francis Jones becomes first African- American certified in urology.

1941 - Dorie Miller, U.S. Navy, shoots down four Japanese planes during attach on Pearl Harbor.

1925 - born Entertainer Sammy Davis Jr.

1872 - P.B.S. Pinchback of Louisiana becomes first African-American governor in U.S.

1950 - Dr. Ralph J. Bunche becomes first African American awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.

1926 - born
Will Mae "Big Mama" Thornton

1938 - born Jazz pianist McCoy Tyner

1899 George F. Grant patents golf tee.

1950- Jesse Leroy Brown becomes first African- American naval officer to die in combat.

1964 - Martin Luther King, Jr. wins Nobel Peace Prize

1944 - First African- American servicewomen sworn into the WAVES.

1829 - born John Mercer Langston, congressman and founder of Howard University Law Department

1915 - Jack Johnson becomes Heavyweight Boxing Champ

1883 - born William A. Hinton,  developer of the Hinton test to detect syphilis

1994 - Ruth J. Simmons named president of Smith College.

1976 - Andrew Young nominated by President Jimmy Carter to be U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations

1802 - born Teacher and minister Henry Adams

1865 - 13th Amendment abolishing slavery

1971 - Rev. Jesse Jackson founds Operation PUSH.

1875 - born  Educator Carter G. Woodson, "father of African American history", born.

1933 - born
Cicely Tyson

1860 - South Carolina secedes from the Union.

1911 - born Baseball legend Josh Gibson

1956 - Montgomery busses integrated

1883 - born
Arthur Mitchell, first African American elected to Congress

1943 - W.E. B. DuBois becomes the first African American elected to the National Institute of Arts and Letters.

1869 - born Madam C.J. Walker, businesswoman and first African- American woman millionaire

1832 - Charter granted to the Georgia Infirmary, the fist African American hospital.

1760 - Jupiter Hammon becomes first published African- American poet with his poem, "An Evening Thought"

1907 - born
Cab Callaway

1894 -born Jean Toomer

1966 - Dr. Maulana Karenga introduces Kwanzaa

First day of Kwanzaa
Umoja

1862 - African Methodist Episcopal Zion church founded in New Bern, North Carolina.

Second day of Kwanzaa
Kujichagulia

1905 - born Earl "FathaU" Hines, "Father of Modern Jazz Piano"

Third day of Kwanzaa
Ujima

1924 - born Author, sportswriter A.S. "Doc" Young

Fourth day of Kwanzaa
Ujamaa

1842 - born Congressman Josiah Walls

Fifth day of Kwanzaa
Nia

1930 - born Odetta, blues and folk singer

Sixth day of Kwanazz
Kuumba