Collection: On This Day in Black History & Culture (December)
December
December 1, 1987: Carrie Saxon Perry begins her term as the mayor of Hartford, Conn., becoming first Black woman mayor of a major U.S. city.
December 2, 1884: Granville T. Woods patents telephone transmitter.
December 3, 1847: Frederick Douglass publishes the first issue of North Star.
December 4, 1909: The New York Amsterdam News is founded by James A. Anderson.
December 5, 1955: Martin Luther King, Jr. organizes Birmingham Bus Boycott, marking the beginning of the Civil Rights Movement.
December 6, 1932: Richard B. Spikes patents automatic gearshift. 1936 – Richard Francis Jones becomes first African American certified in urology.
December 7, 1941: Dorie Miller, U.S. Navy, shoots down four Japanese planes during attack on Pearl Harbor.
December 8, 1925: Entertainer Sammy Davis Jr. born.
December 9, 1872: P.B.S. Pinchback of Louisiana becomes first African American governor in U.S.
December 10, 1950: Dr. Ralph J. Bunche becomes first Black to be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.
December 11, 1938: Jazz pianist McCoy Tyner was born.
December 12, 1899: George F. Grant patents golf tree. 1950- Jesse Leroy Brown becomes first African American naval officer to die in combat. 1992 – President Bill Clinton’s Cabinet and White House appointments include five Black men and one Black woman.
December 13, 1944: First African American servicewomen sworn into the WAVES.
December 14, 1829: John Mercer Langston, congressman and founder of Howard University Law Department, born.
December 15, 1883: William A. Hinton, first African American on Harvard Medical School faculty and developer of the Hinton test to detect syphilis, born. 1994 – Ruth J. Simmons named president of Smith College.
December 16, 1976: Andrew Young nominated by President Jimmy Carter to be U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations.
December 17, 1802: Teacher and minister Henry Adams born.
December 18, 1971: Rev. Jesse Jackson founds Operation PUSH.
December 19, 1875: Educator Carter G. Woodson, “father of Black history”, born.
December 20, 1860: South Carolina secedes from the Union.
December 21, 1911: Baseball legend Josh Gibson born.
December 22, 1943: W.E. B. DuBois becomes the first African American elected to the National Institute of Arts and Letters.
December 23, 1869: Madam C.J. Walker, businesswoman and first African American woman millionaire, born.
December 24, 1832: Charter granted to the Georgia Infirmary, the first Black hospital.
December 25, 1760: Jupiter Hammon becomes first published Black poet with his poem, “An Evening Thought”.
December 26, 1894: Jean Toomer, author of Cane, born.
December 27, 1862: African Methodist Episcopal Zion church founded in New Bern, North Carolina.
December 28, 1905: Earl “Fatha” Hines, “Father of Modern Jazz Piano”, born.
December 29, 1924: Author, sportswriter A.S. “Doc” Young born.
December 30, 1842: Congressman Josiah Walls born.
December 31, 1930: Odetta, blues and folk singer, born.