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| April 1 1950: Blood research pioneer Charles R. Drew dies. 1989: Bill White elected president of the National Baseball League. |
April 2 1984: Georgetown coach John Thompson becomes first black coach to win the NCAA basketball tournament. |
April 3 1826: Poet-orator James Madison Bell, author of the Emancipation Day poem "The Day and the War," born. 1990: Sarah Vaughan, jazz singer known as "The Divine One," dies. |
April 4 1968: Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. assassinated in Memphis, Tennessee. |
April 5 1951: Washington, D.C., Municipal Court of Appeals outlaws segregation in restaurants. |
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| April 6 DAYLIGHT SAVINGS TIME BEGINS 1909: Matthew A. Henson reaches North Pole, 45 minutes before Robert E. Peary. |
April 7 1885: Granville T. Woods patents apparatus for transmission of messages by electricity. 1959: Lorraine Hansberry wins New York Drama Critics Award (for A Raisin in the Sun). |
April 8 1974: Atlanta Braves slugger Hank Aaron hits 715th career home run, surpassing Babe Ruth as the game's all-time home-run leader. |
April 9 1898: Paul Robeson, actor, singer, activist, born. 1993: Civil rights champion Benjamin Chavis Jr. is elected head of the NAACP. |
April 10 1947: Brooklyn Dodger Jackie Robinson becomes first African American to play major league baseball. |
April 11 1899: Percy Julian, developer of physostigmine and synthetic cortisone, born. 1966: Emmett Ashford becomes first black umpire in the major leagues. |
April 12 1983: Harold Washington becomes first African American elected mayor of Chicago. |
| April 13 PALM SUNDAY 1950: Historian Carter G. Woodson, author of The Miseducation of the Negro, dies. 1997: Tiger Woods wins Masters Golf Tournament. |
April 14 1775: First abolitionist society in U.S. founded in Philadelphia. |
April 15 1964: Sidney Poitier becomes first black to win Academy Award for Best Actor for Lilies of the Field. |
April 16 PASSOVER BEGINS (SUNDOWN) 1862: Slavery abolished in the District of Columbia. |
April 17 1983: Alice Walker wins Pulitzer Prize for fiction for The Color Purple. 1990: Ralph David Abernathy, civil rights leader, dies. |
April 18 GOOD FRIDAY 1864: 200 black troops massacred by Confederates in Tennessee. 1887: Harlem Hospital founded. 1995: Margo Jefferson receives Pulitzer Prize for criticism. |
April 19 1972: Stationed in Germany, Major Gen. Frederic E. Davidson becomes first black to lead an Army division. |
| April 20 EASTER 1894: Dr. Lloyd A. Hall, pioneering food chemist, born. |
April 21 1966: Pvt. Milton L. Olive III awarded posthumously the Medal of Honor for valor in Vietnam. |
April 22 1922: Jazz bassist and composer Charles Mingus born. | April 23 PROFESSIONAL SECRETARIES DAY 1872: Charlotte E. Ray is first black woman to graduate from law school (Howard University). |
April 24 1944: United Negro College Fund incorporated. |
April 25 1918: Ella Fitzgerald, "First Lady of Song," born. |
April 26 1888: Sarah Boone patents ironing board. |
| April 27 1968: Dr. Vincent Porter becomes first African American certified in plastic surgery. |
April 28 1839: Cinque leads Amistad mutiny off the coast of Long Island, New York. |
April 29 1899: Edward Kennedy "Duke" Ellington, jazz musician and composer, born. |
April 30 1952: Dr. Louis T. Wright honored by American Cancer Society for his contributions to cancer research. |