Edward Austin Johnson is elected to the New York State Legislature, thus becoming the first African American to serve in the state's legislative body.

Life-long educator and yoga instructor Rebecca Love is born in Buffalo, New York.

The famed Apollo Theater in New York City, where countless entertainers will have their careers launched, opens its doors for the first performance this year.

Father Ignatius Lissner and Elizabeth Williams (later Reverend Mother Theodore Williams) react to the Georgia legislature's attempt to prevent white nuns from teaching black children by forming the Franciscan Handmaids of the Most Pure Heart of Mary in Savannah, Georgia. The congregation later relocated to the Archdiocese of New York.

Dentist Dr. Daniel Collins is born

Journalist & Activist Evelyn Cunningham is born.

Tuskegee Airman Col. William Thompson is born in Pittsburg, Pennsylvania.

Dancer and nightclub performer Eloise Demaris Hughes is born in Mobile, Alabama.

Publisher of the Afro-American, John Murphy III is born in Baltimore, Maryland.

Former AKA Sorority President 1888">Julia Brogdon Purnell is born.

Ota Benga, a native of the Belgian Congo, takes his own life on this day. He had been brought to the United States in 1904 for the St. Louis Exposition, and was then placed in the monkey house in the Bronx Zoo in New York. During his years there, he was made to walk among the visitors, who would taunt and chase him, before being sent back to his cage at night. After constructing a crude bow and set of arrows which he fired at a harassing crowd, Benga was released, and was taken in by the Virginia Theological Seminary and College. He left the school and went to work in a tobacco factory, but growing homesick and despondent, he took his own life.

Retired Public Health Nurse Prudence Burns Burrell is born.

Black bookstore co-founder Julian Richardson was born on this date in Birmingham, Alabama. His bookstore was called Marcus Books and it was located in San Francisco. It is one of the nation's oldest Black bookstores. It was originally called Success Book Store, but the name was changed to Marcus Books in honor of Marcus Garvey. Richardson was honored as the Blackboard Bookseller of the Year in 1996 and has served as a mentor to other African American booksellers.

Rev. Shelvin Jerome Hall was born on this date in Yoakum, Texas.

Carter G. Woodson publishes the first issue of The Journal of Negro History. The journal has been published continuously since this date, changing its name in 2001 to The Journal of African American History.

Garrett Morgan and his brother saved the lives of trapped Cleveland Water Works workers on this date. Garrett used the gas mask he invented to save the workers' lives.

Archive founder Warren Marr II is born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

1930s WPA Black Renaissance artist, art therapist and art educator Georgette Powell is born on this date in Charleston, South Carolina.

Retired civil rights attorney and Municipal Judge Joseph D. Rouhlac is born in Selma, Alabama.

Civic activist and politician Wilhelmina Rolark is born in Portsmith, Virginia.

Businessman Henry G. Parks was born on this date in Atlanta, Georgia. Parks founded Parks Sausages Company. It became the first Black business to be traded publicly in 1969.

Union leader Frank Lumpkin is born in Washington, Georgia.

Civil rights lawyer Frankie Muse Freeman is born on this date in Danville, Virginia.

Civic Activist Hannah Thomas is born