1940 – Jimmy Ellis
Former world heavyweight boxing champion Jimmy Ellis was born James Albert Ellis in Louisville, Kentucky. Ellis won the World Boxing Association title after beating Jerry Quarry in April 1968.
1868 – Impeachment of President Andrew Johnson
House of Representatives voted, 126 to 47, to impeach President Andrew Johnson.
1995 – Melvin Franklin
Bass Singer Melvin Franklin of The Temptations died at the age of 53 due to complications following a brain seizure in Los Angeles.
1965 – Constance Baker Motley elected Manhattan Borough President
Constance Baker Motley elected president of the Manhattan Borough, NYC; the highest elected office held by a Black woman in a major American city.
1929 – Elston Gene Howard
Baseball catcher Elston Gene Howard was born in St. Louis, Missouri. In 1965, Howard signed a US$70,000 contract with the NY Yankees and became the highest paid player in the history of baseball at that time.
1925 – Louis Stokes
Louis Stokes, former mayor of Detroit, Michigan, and member of the US House of Representatives, was born in Cleveland, Ohio. Stokes was the first African American elected to the House from Ohio.
1989 – DJ Jazzy Jeff and the Fresh Prince won the first rap Grammy for Parents Just Don’t Understand.
Activist and social reformer Francis Ellen Watkins Harper died in her home in Philadelphia. Harper founded the National Association of Colored Women in 1864.
1888 – Horace Pippin
In West Chester, Pennsylvania, African American painter Horace Pippin was born. Pippin is considered one of the major American painters of his period. One of his more significant works, John Brown Going to His Hanging, is owned by the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts.
1987 – African Americans in Tampa, Florida rebelled after an African American man was killed by a white police officer while in custody.
A group of 200 to 400 African Americans began rioting after starting a fire in a dumpster in the College Hill area of East Tampa. The unpleasant episode started the night after Melvin Eugene Hair, a mentally-handicapped black man was killed. He died after police used a carotid neck-hold on him. Less than 24 hours later, the attorney’s office released a report clearing police of racism in the December 1986 arrest of baseball star Dwight Gooden. These combined events brought about three nights of rioting.
1965 – Malcolm X.
On February 21, 1965, Malcolm X was assassinated, 11 months after his split from Elijah Muhammad’s Nation of Islam.
1961 – Otis Boykin patents the Electrical Resistor
1991 – African Americans win eight Grammys
African Americans win eight Grammys
1963 – Charles Barkley
Charles Wade Barkley, basketball player was born in Leeds, AL, on February 20, 1963
1936 – Nancy Wilson
Jazz singer and actress, Nancy Wilson was born in Chillicothe, Ohio
1929 – Writer Wallace Thurman’s play Harlem opens in NYC.
Writer Wallace Thurman‘s play Harlem opens in NYC. It is the first successful play by an African American playwright.
1927 – Sidney Poitier
On this day Sidney Poitier, who was the first African American to win an Academy Award in a starring role, was born in Miami, Fl.
