Hank Aaron on this day in 1975, hit a home run for the Atlanta Braves, surpassing Babe Ruth’s long-standing record.
On this day in 1867, St. Augustine’s University was established in Raleigh, North Carolina.
Adam Clayton Powell became the first Black person elected to the U.S. House of Representatives from Harlem, New York City in 1944.
Ronald H. Brown, the first Black person to lead a major political party, the Democratic National Committee, was born in 1941.
On this day in 1960, the African nation Dahomey, renamed the Republic of Benin, proclaimed self-rule from France.
Henrietta Lacks was born on this day in 1920. She was a Black woman whose cells were taken before she died in 1951 and were reproduced outside the body. Dubbed HeLa cells, they eventually became one of the important cell lines for research that has led to major medical breakthroughs such as the discovery of the polio vaccine.
Blacks voted on this day in 1867 in Tennessee for the first time in state elections. This led to a Republican Party take-over of the state.
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