The first Black medical society, Medco-Chirurgical Society, was founded on this date in Washington, D.C.

Black jockey Isaac Murphy won his third Kentucky Derby on this date. He is the first person to win three Kentucky Derbies. Murphy won a record 44 percent of the races he entered in his career.

Publisher Christopher Perry begins the African American newspaper The Philadelphia Tribune on this day.

Inventor Granville T. Woods patented his telephone transmitter on this date.

Businessman T. Thomas Fortune fouds the New York Freeman in New York City. He will go on to found the New York Age in 1887 and to write several books.