Almanac - Wednesday February 21, 2024

She grew up in the United States but her family was deported for political reasons. She founded Britain's first major Black newspaper, the West Indian Gazette, in 1958, and played a central role in founding the Notting Hill Carnival, the second-largest annual carnival in the world.

1917 Tadd Dameron, American jazz pianist, composer ("If You Could See Me Now"; "Lady Bird"), arranger (Count Basie, Jimmie Lunceford, Dizzy Gillespie, Billy Eckstine) and bandleader, born in Cleveland, Ohio (d. 1965)

Nina Simone (1933-2003)

Robert Gabriel Mugabe (born February 21, 1924, Kutama, Southern Rhodesia [now Zimbabwe]), the first prime minister (1980–87) of the reconstituted state of Zimbabwe, formerly Rhodesia.

Feb 21, 1933 American jazz pianist, singer, songwriter, arranger, and civil rights activist (“Mississippi Goddam”; “To Be Young, Gifted, and Black”, “Feeling Good”; “Wild Is The Wind”), born in Tyron, North Carolina

Barbara Charline Jordan was born in Houston Texas’s Fifth Ward on February 21, 1936.

Feb 21, 1940 John Lewis, founder and chairman of SNCC, born

1969 Corey Harris, American blues and reggae guitarist (The Blues miniseries; From Mississippi to Mali), born in Denver, Colorado

1977 Rhiannon Giddens, American singer, fiddler, and banjo player (Carolina Chocolate Drops), and Pulitzer Prize-winning composer (Omar), born in Greensboro, North Carolina

1979 – Jordan Peele, American actor, comedian, director, producer, and screenwriter

On this day in Black History…

Otis Boykin patents the Electrical Resistor Feb 21, 1961

Otis Boykin, Inventor, patented the Electrical Resistor. U.S. 2,972,726 He is responsible for inventing the electrical device used in all guided missiles and IBM computers, plus 26 other electronic devices including a control unit for an artificial heart stimulator (pacemaker). Other inventions by Otis Boykin also included a burglarproof cash register and chemical air filter.

Feb 21, 1965 Malcolm X (39) assassinated in Audubon Ballroom at a rally of his organization. Three Blacks were later convicted of the crime and sentenced to life imprisonment.

Born on February 21, 1945 in Seattle to parents, Larry Gossett has been a dedicated public servant for over 40 years

Feb 21, 1987 African Americans in Tampa, Florida rebelled after an African American man was killed by a white police officer while in custody.

Eva Jessye choral director for the first Broadway production of Porgy and Bess died in Ann Arbor, Michigan Feb. 21, 1992.

Fred Jones Inventor of the Refrigerated Truck died on February 21, 1961 and was posthumously awarded the National Medal of Technology, one of the greatest honors an inventor could receive.

Also on this day in history…

1828 – Initial issue of the Cherokee Phoenix is the first periodical to use the Cherokee syllabary invented by Sequoyah.

1842 – John Greenough is granted the first U.S. patent for the sewing machine.

1848 – Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels publish The Communist Manifesto.

1874 – The Oakland Daily Tribune publishes its first edition.

1878 – The first telephone directory is issued in New Haven, Connecticut.

1885 – The newly completed Washington Monument is dedicated.

1925 – The New Yorker publishes its first issue.

1947 – In New York City, Edwin Land demonstrates the first "instant camera", the Polaroid Land Camera, to a meeting of the Optical Society of America.

1948 – NASCAR is incorporated.

1952 – The British government, under Winston Churchill, abolishes identity cards in the UK to "set the people free".

1952 – The Bengali Language Movement protests occur at the University of Dhaka in East Pakistan (now Bangladesh).

1958 – The CND symbol, aka peace symbol, commissioned by the Direct Action Committee in protest against the Atomic Weapons Research Establishment, is designed and completed by Gerald Holtom.

1972 – United States President Richard Nixon visits China to normalize Sino-American relations.

1974 – The last Israeli soldiers leave the west bank of the Suez Canal pursuant to a truce with Egypt.

1975 – Watergate scandal: Former United States Attorney General John N. Mitchell and former White House aides H. R. Haldeman and John Ehrlichman are sentenced to prison.

1994 – Aldrich Ames is arrested by the Federal Bureau of Investigation for selling national secrets to the Soviet Union in Arlington County, Virginia.

1995 – Steve Fossett lands in Leader, Saskatchewan, Canada becoming the first person to make a solo flight across the Pacific Ocean in a balloon.

Today’s birthdays also include….

1893 – Andrés Segovia, Spanish guitarist (d. 1987)

1903 – Anaïs Nin, French-American essayist and memoirist (d. 1977)

1907 – W. H. Auden, English-American poet, playwright, and composer (d. 1973)

1915 – Ann Sheridan, American actress and singer (d. 1967)

1917 – Tadd Dameron, American pianist and composer (d. 1965)

1925 – Sam Peckinpah, American director and screenwriter (d. 1984)

1927 – Erma Bombeck, American journalist and author (d. 1996)

1929 – Chespirito, Mexican actor, director, producer, and screenwriter (d. 2014)

1935 – Richard A. Lupoff, American author (d. 2020)

1936 – Barbara Jordan, American lawyer and politician (d

1943 – David Geffen, American businessman, co-founded DreamWorks and Geffen Records

1953 – Christine Ebersole, American actress and singer

1955 – Kelsey Grammer, American actor, singer, and producer

1958 – Mary Chapin Carpenter, American singer-songwriter and guitarist

1962 – Chuck Palahniuk, American novelist and journalist

1962 – David Foster Wallace, American novelist, short story writer, and essayist (d. 2008)

1979 – Jennifer Love Hewitt, American actress and producer

1987 – Elliot Page, Canadian actor