1854 _ First African American college chartered


By an act of the Pennsylvania legislature, Ashmun Institute, the first college founded solely for African American students, is officially chartered.

Established in the rolling farmlands of southern Chester County, Pennsylvania, Ashmun Institute was named after Jehudi Ashmun, the U.S. agent who helped reorganize and preserve the struggling African-American colony in Africa that later grew into the independent nation of Liberia. The Ashmun Institute, chartered to give theological, classical, and scientific training to African Americans, opened on January 1, 1857, and John Pym Carter served as the college’s first president. In 1866, the institution was renamed Lincoln University.

READ MORE: Black History Milestones

READ MORE: Black History Milestones

Citation Information

Article Title

First African American college chartered

AuthorHistory.com Editors

Website Name

HISTORY

URL

https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/first-african-american-college-chartered

Access Date

April 29, 2022

Publisher

A&E Television Networks

Last Updated

April 27, 2020

Original Published Date

February 9, 2010

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1289 – Qala’un, the Sultan of Egypt, captured Tripoli.

1429 – Joan of Arc led Orleans, France, to victory over Britain.

1661 – The Chinese Ming dynasty occupied Taiwan.

1672 – King Louis XIV of France invaded the Netherlands.

1813 – Rubber was patented by J.F. Hummel.

1852 – The first edition of Peter Roget’s Thesaurus was published.

1858 – Austrian troops invaded Piedmont.

1861 – The Maryland House of Delegates voted against seceding from Union.

1861 – New Orleans fell to Union forces during the Civil War.

1864 – Theta Xi was founded in Troy, New York.

1879 – In Cleveland, OH, electric arc lights were used for the first time.

1913 – Gideon Sundback patented an all-purpose zipper.

1916 – Irish nationalists surrendered to British authorities in Dublin.

1918 – Germany’s Western Front offensive ended in World War I.

1924 – An open revolt broke out in Santa Clara, Cuba.

1927 – Construction of the Spirit of St. Louis was completed for Lindbergh.

1941 – The Boston Bees agreed to change their name to the Braves.

1945 – The German Army in Italy surrendered unconditionally to the Allies.

1945 – In a bunker in Berlin, Adolf Hitler and Eva Braun were married. Hitler designated Admiral Karl Doenitz his successor.

1945 – The Nazi death camp, Dachau, was liberated.

1946 – Twenty-eight former Japanese leaders were indicted in Tokyo as war criminals.

1952 – IBM President Thomas J. Watson, Jr., informed his company’s stockholders that IBM was building “the most advanced, most flexible high-speed computer in the world.” The computer was unveiled April 7, 1953, as the IBM 701 Electronic Data Processing Machine.

1954 – Ernest Borgnine made his network television debut in “Night Visitor” on NBC-TV.

1961 – ABC’s “Wide World of Sports” premiered.

1974 – Phil Donahue’s TV show, “Donahue” moved to Chicago, IL.

1974 – U.S. President Nixon announced he was releasing edited transcripts of secretly made White House tape recordings related to the Watergate scandal.

1975 – The U.S. embassy in Vietnam was evacuated as North Vietnamese forces fought their way into Saigon.

1981 – Steve Carlton, of the Philadelphia Phillies, became the first left-handed pitcher in the major leagues to get 3,000 career strikeouts.

1984 – In California, the Diablo Canyon nuclear reactor went online after a long delay due to protests.

1985 – Billy Martin was brought back, for the fourth time, to the position of manager for the New York Yankees.

1986 – Roger Clemens of the Boston Red Sox set a major-league baseball record by striking out 20 Seattle Mariner batters.

1988 – The Baltimore Orioles set a new major league baseball record by losing their first 21 games of the season.

1988 – Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev promised more religious freedom.

1990 – The destruction of the Berlin Wall began.

1992 – Exxon executive Sidney Reso was kidnapped outside his Morris Township, NJ, home by Arthur Seale. Seale was a former Exxon security official. Reso died while in captivity.

1992 – Rioting began after a jury decision to acquit four Los Angeles policemen in the Rodney King beating trial. 54 people were killed in 3 days.

1994 – Israel and the PLO signed an agreement in Paris which granted Palestinians broad authority to set taxes, control trade and regulate banks under self-rule in the Gaza Strip and Jericho.

1996 – Former CIA Director William Colby was missing and presumed drowned after an apparent boating accident in Maryland. Colby’s body was later recovered.

1997 – Staff Sgt. Delmar Simpson, a drill instructor at Aberdeen Proving Ground in Maryland, was convicted of raping six female trainees. He was sentenced to 25 years in prison and was dishonorably discharged.

1997 – Astronaut Jerry Linenger and cosmonaut Vasily Tsibliyev went on the first U.S.-Russian space walk.

1998 – The U.S., Canada and Mexico end tariffs on $1 billion in NAFTA trade.

1998 – Brazil announced a plan to protect a large area of Amazon forest. The area was about the size of Colorado.

2002 – Kelsey Grammer and his production company, Grammnet Inc., were ordered to pay more than $2 million in unpaid commissions to his former talent agency.

2003 – Mr. T (Laurence Tureaud) filed a lawsuit against Best Buy Co. Inc., that claimed the store did not have permission to use his likeness in a print ad.

2009 – NATO expelled two Russian diplomats from NATO headquarters in Brussels over a spy scandal in Estonia. Russia’s Foreign Ministry criticized the expulsions.

2015 – The White Sox beat the Baltimore Orioles 8-2 at Camden Yards. The game was played without a crowd present due to the ongoing riots and protests in Baltimore. This was the first time a Major League Baseball game was played in front of an empty house.

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