Every day, I am listing a few important dates from world history with scant details–but a list of sources.
- 1821: Thomas L. Jennings became the first African-American man to be awarded a patent. (Source: This Day in History calendar, ISBN 978-1-7282-8404-0)
- 1873: The passing of the first Comstock Act criminalized the involvement of the United States Post Office in transporting “obscene” and abortion-related matter. (Source: On This Day in History Sh!t Went Down Number 2 by James Fell, ISBN 978-1-989351-82-6)
- 1887: Helen Keller met her teacher Anne Sullivan. (Source: DK’s On This Day: A History of the World in 366 Days, ISBN 978-0-7440-2917-8)
- 1965: Seretse Goitsebeng Maphiri Khama became the first prime minister of Bechuanaland. A year later, Bechuanaland became the independent country Botswana, and Khama became the first president of it. Khama’s interracial marriage to his British wife Ruth was the subject of the 2016 movie A United Kingdom. (Source: Black History for Every Day of the Year by Yinka and Kemi Olusoga, ISBN 979-8-89303-093-8)
- 1991: Rodney King was severely beaten by cops during his arrest after a high-speed chase. (Source: On This Day in History Sh!t Went Down by James Fell, ISBN 978-0-593-72408-8)
I’m including a video to a somewhat-recent CNN story about the Rodney King video.
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