“Hon. Joseph Haynes Rainey of S.C.” portrait. Courtesy of the Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division. Brady-Handy Photograph Collection.

Joseph Hayne Rainey was an American politician. He was the first black person to serve in the United States House of Representatives, the second black person to serve in the United States Congress and the first black presiding officer of the House of Representatives. Born into slavery in South Carolina, he was freed in the 1840s by his father purchasing the freedom of his entire family and himself.  He was also a Republican …  of the 1800’s

“I am contented to be what I am, so long as I have my rights.” -Joseph Rainey

Resource: wiki

1630 – Quadequine introduced popcorn to English colonists at their first Thanksgiving dinner.

1784 – “Empress of China”, a U.S. merchant ship, left New York City for the Far East.

1819 – Spain ceded Florida to the United States.

1855 – The U.S. Congress voted to appropriate $200,000 for continuance of the work on the Washington Monument. The next morning the resolution was tabled and it would be 21 years before the Congress would vote on funds again. Work was continued by the Know-Nothing Party in charge of the project.

1859 – U.S. President Buchanan approved the Act of February 22, 1859, which incorporated the Washington National Monument Society “for the purpose of completing the erection now in progress of a great National Monument to the memory of Washington at the seat of the Federal Government.”

1860 – Organized baseball’s first game was played in San Francisco, CA.

1865 – In the U.S., Tennessee adopted a new constitution that abolished slavery.

1879 – In Utica, NY, Frank W. Woolworth opened his first 5 and 10-cent store.

1885 – The Washington Monument was officially dedicated in Washington, DC. It opened to the public in 1889.

1892 – “Lady Windermere’s Fan”, by Oscar Wilde, was first performed.

1920 – The first dog race track to use an imitation rabbit opened in Emeryville, CA.

1923 – The first successful chinchilla farm opened in Los Angeles, CA. It was the first farm of its kind in the U.S.

1924 – U.S. President Calvin Coolidge delivered the first presidential radio broadcast from the White House.

1954 – ABC radio’s popular “Breakfast Club” program was simulcast on TV for the first time.

1969 – Barbara Jo Rubin became the first woman to win a U.S. thoroughbred horse race.

1973 – The U.S. and Communist China agreed to establish liaison offices.

1984 – The U.S. Census Bureau statistics showed that the state of Alaska was the fastest growing state of the decade with an increase in population of 19.2 percent.

1994 – The U.S. Justice Department charged Aldrich Ames and his wife with selling national secrets to the Soviet Union. Ames was later convicted to life in prison. Ames’ wife received a 5-year prison term.

1997 – Scottish scientist Ian Wilmut and colleagues announced that an adult sheep had been successfully cloned. Dolly was actually born on July 5, 1996. Dolly was the first mammal to have been successfully cloned from an adult cell.

2002 – In the Philippines, An MH-47E Chinook helicopter crashed into the ocean. All 10 men aboard were killed.

2010 – A copy of “Action Comics #1” sold at auction for $1 million. The comic featured the introduction of Superman.

2010 – Walmart announced it was acquiring the video streaming company Vudu, Inc.

on-this-day.com

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., with Malcolm X in March 1964. | Henry Griffin / AP

Birthday – Black nationalist and civil rights activist Malcolm X (1925-1965) was born in Omaha, Nebraska (as Malcolm Little). While in prison he adopted the Islamic religion and after his release in 1952, changed his name to Malcolm X and worked for the Nation of Islam. He later made a pilgrimage to Mecca and became an orthodox Muslim. He was assassinated while addressing a meeting in the Audubon Ballroom in Harlem on February 21, 1965.
Birthday – African American playwright Lorraine Hansberry (1930-1965) was born in Chicago, Illinois. She is best known for A Raisin in the Sun (1959) a play dealing with prejudice and black pride. The play was the first stage production written by a black woman to appear on Broadway. She died of cancer at the age of 34. A book of her writings entitled To Be Young, Gifted, and Black was published posthumously.

image from peoplesworld.org

“Dr. King and Rosa Parks inspired me to get in trouble. Good trouble.”

John Lewis in 1961 after being arrested in Jackson for using a “white” restroom