April 1, 1950 - Charles R. Drew, who
developed techniques for
processing and preserving blood, died.
April 2, 1984 - Georgetown coach John
Thompson becomes first Black
coach to win NCAA basketball tournament.
April 3, 1826 - Poet-orator James Madison
Bell, author of the
Emancipation Day poem "The Day and the War",
born.
April 4, 1968 - Martin Luther King
assassinated.
April 5, 1951 - Washington, D.C. Municipal
Court of Appeals outlawed
segregation in restaurants.
April 6, 1909 - Matthew A. Henson reaches
the North Pole, 45 minutes
before Commandeer Peary.
April 7, 1885 - Granville T. Woods patents
apparatus for transmission
of messages by electricity.
April 8, 1974 - Atlanta Braves slugger Hank
Aaron hits 715 home run,
surpassing Babe Ruth as the game's all-time
home-run leader.
April 9, 1898 - Paul Robeson, actor, singer,
activist, born.
April 10, 1947 - Brooklyn Dodger Jackie
Robinson becomes first
African American to play major league
baseball.
April 11, 1966 - Emmett Ashford becomes
first Black umpire in the
major leagues.
April 12, 1983 - Harold Washington becomes
first African American
mayor of Chicago.
April 13, 1950 - Historian Carter G.
Woodson, author of The
Miseducation of the Negro, died.
April 14, 1775 - First abolitionist society
in U.S. is founded in
Philadelphia.
April 15, 1964 - Sidney Poitier becomes
first Black to win Academy
Award for Best Actor for Lilies of the
Field.
April 16, 1862 - Slavery abolished in the
District of Columbia.
April 17, 1983 - Alice Walker wins Pulitzer
Prize for fiction for The
Color Purple.
April 18, 1864 - More than 200 Black Union
troops massacred by
Confederate forces at Ft. Pillow, Tennessee.
April 19, 1972 - Stationed in Germany, Major
Gen. Frederic E.
Davidson becomes first Black to lead an army
division.
April 20, 1894 - Dr. Lloyd A. Hall,
pioneering food chemist, born.
April 21, 1966 - Pct. Milton L. Olive III
awarded the Medal of Honor
posthumously for valor in Vietnam.
April 22, 1922 - Jazz bassist and composer
Charles Mingus born.
April 23, 1895 - Clatonia Joaquin Dorticus
patents photographic print
wash.
April 24, 1944 - United Negro College Fund
Incorporated.
April 25, 1918 - Ella Fitzgerald, "First
Lady of Song", born.
April 26, 1888 - Sarah Boone patents ironing
board.
April 27, 1968 - Vincent Porter becomes
first African American
certified in plastic surgery.
April 28, 1839 - Cinque leads mutiny off the
coast of Long Island, NY.
April 29, 1899 - Duke Ellington, jazz
musician and composer, born.
April 30 1952 - Dr. Louis T. Wright honored
by American Cancer
Society for his contributions to cancer
research
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Attn: Black History Speakers!
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