May 19, 1965 Patricia R. Harris is appointed ambassador to Luxembourg by President Lyndon Baines Johnson, becoming the first African-American woman to become a U.S. […]
Category: This Week in Black History
This Week in Black History
May 17, 1988 Patricia Era Bath, a co-founder of the King-Drew Medical Center Ophthalmology training program, secures a patent for laser technology for the removal […]
This Week in Black History
May 10, 1994 After more than 27 years as a political prisoner, Nelson Mandela is inaugurated as the first democratically elected president of South Africa, […]
This Week in Black History
April 25, 1944 Frederick Douglass Patterson, the president of Tuskegee Institute, with Mary McLeod Bethune and others, incorporates the United Negro College Fund in Washington, […]
This Week in Black History
April 13, 1964 Sydney Poitier, who died earlier this year, became the first African American to win the Academy Award for Best Actor, for his […]
This Week in Black History
April 13, 1997 Orange County native Eldrick “Tiger” Woods shoots a record-breaking18-under-par, beating the second-place finisher by 12 strokes and becoming the youngest (age 21) […]
This Week in Black History
April 2, 1855 Longtime activist John Mercer Langston, an abolitionist, attorney and diplomat, is elected clerk of an Ohio township, becoming the nation’s first African-American […]
This Week in Black History
March 28, 1966 Bill Russell is named head coach of the Boston Celtics, becoming the first African American to coach an NBA team. He would […]
This Week in Black History
March 20, 1948 Los Angeles actor James Baskett becomes the first Black man to receive an Academy Award when he wins an honorary Oscar for […]
This Week in Black History
March 5, 1770 Massachusetts sailor Crispus Attucks is shot to death by British Redcoats, reportedly becoming the first patriot killed in the cause of U.S. […]