Day In History

Marc talks about some of the lesser celebrated and remembered events that happened on this day in history, with a particular focus on Black, Native, women’s, and labor history.

February 17, 2017

This Day In History: Brownie McGhee & Aretha Franklin Day

February 16, 2017 - Segment 2 - We hosted our newest edition of This Day In History, our segment where we take a step back in time to highlight important events and people from this day.
August 5, 2015

July 31: This Day in History

July 31, 2015 - Segment 1 - On this day in history, Muslims conquered Iberia and Whitney Young of the Urban League was born.
August 3, 2015

July 30: This Day in History

July 30, 2015 - Segment 1 - Marc talks about what happened on this day in history, including the day the city of Baltimore was founded, the day President Lincoln issued an “eye-for-eye” order to shoot a rebel prisoner for every black prisoner shot, and the day Charles Mingus recorded his solo Piano Album ‘Mingus Plays Piano’.
August 3, 2015

July 29: This Day in History

July 29, 2015 - Segment 1 - On this day in history, radical union leader Mother Jones led a march of mill children to the doorstep of President Theodore Roosevelt to expose conditions that children as young as 4 or 5 experienced working in sweatshops.
July 28, 2015

July 28: This Day in History

July 28, 2015 - Segment 1 - On this day in history, Johann Sebastian Bach died and the 14th Amendment of the US Constitution was ratified today.
July 28, 2015

July 27: This Day In History

July 27, 2015 - Segment 1 - Today in history, Red Summer began in Chicago with whites attacking black people and their communities, the man who escaped John Brown's raid Osborne Perry Anderson was born, and the first permanent telegraph cable was finished from Ireland to Newfoundland.
July 27, 2015

July 24: This Day In History

July 24, 2015 - Segment 1 - Today in history, Ladybug Mecca of Digable Planets was born, Red Summer violence reached Washington DC, and the Scottsboro Boys were convicted of rapes they did not convict.
July 27, 2015

July 23: This Day In History

July 23, 2015 - Segment 1 - Today in history, Ethiopian Emperor Haile Selassie was born, the Eastern Cherokee Council held a meeting in discuss President Jackson’s proposal to turn their lands into what is now called Oklahoma, and one of the deadliest riots in US history broke out on 12th Street in Detroit.
July 27, 2015

July 22: This Day In History

July 22, 2015 - Segment 1 - Today in history, actor James Earl Jones received the National Medal of Arts, Palestinian cartoonist Naji Salim al-Ali was shot and killed in London, and the great George Clinton was born.
July 23, 2015

July 21: This Day in History

July 21, 2015 - Segment 1 - On this day in history, the National Association of Colored Women’s Clubs was founded and Yusuf Islam, formerly known as Cat Stevens, was born.
July 22, 2015

July 20: This Day in History

July 20, 2015 - Segment 1 - On this day in history, Frantz Fanon was born and Italian anarchist Carlo Giuliani was shot and killed by Italian military police during a protest in 2001.
July 21, 2015

July 17: This Day In History

July 17, 2015 - Segment 1 - Today in history, folk songwriter Bessie Jones passed away, Joan of Arc was burned at the stake, and Port Chicago Mutiny took place in Chicago, California.
July 17, 2015

July 16: This Day in History

July 16, 2015 - Segment 1 - On this day, the city of La Paz declared independence from Spain and Ida B. Wells was born.
July 17, 2015

July 15: This Day In History

July 15, 2015 - Segment 1 - Today in history, an 8-year-old Gladys Knight took first prize on Ted Mack's Amateur Hour television show, Napoleon's armies stumbled upon the Rosetta Stone, and The All Negro Comics were first published.
July 17, 2015

July 14: This Day in History

July 14, 2015 - Segment 1 - Today in history, Parisian revolutionaries stormed the Bastille, launching the French Revolution, and abolitionist William Still passed away.
July 13, 2015

July 13: This Day In History

July 13, 2015 - Segment 1 - Today in history, artist Frida Kahlo passed away, The Northwest Ordinance was signed laying the groundwork for the Westward expansion of the United States, and the New York Draft Riots broke out.
July 10, 2015

July 10: This Day in History

July 10, 2015 - Segment 1 - On this day in history, Wilson Pickett released "In the Midnight Hour," the Scopes Monkey Trial began, and London scientists traced human roots back to Africa.
July 10, 2015

July 9: This Day In History

July 9, 2015 - Segment 1 - Today in history, poet and essayist June Jordan was born in Harlem, the founder of the Congress of Racial Equality James Farmer passed away, and the Springhill Massacre occurred in Belfast, Northern Ireland.
July 10, 2015

July 8: This Day In History

July 8, 2015 - Segment 1 - Today in history, songwriter and bandleader Louis Jordan was born, hundreds of white men attacked Hamburg, South Carolina, and mathematician Dr. David Henry Blackwell passed away.
July 10, 2015

July 7: This Day in History

July 7, 2015 -Segment 1 - On this day in history, poet and writer Margaret Walker was born and Toussaint L’Ouverture presented the new constitution declaring Haitian independence.
July 9, 2015

July 6: This Day in History

July 6, 2015 - Segment 1 - On this day in history, the Great Railway Strike of 1877 was started in Baltimore and the first AK-47 came off an assembly line in 1947.
July 9, 2015

July 3: This Day in History

July 3, 2015 - Segment 1 - On this day in history,Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi was overthrown by a military coup d’etat after four days of protest calling for his resignation and Mississippi John Hurt was born.
July 7, 2015

July 2: This Day In History

July 2, 2015 - Segment 1 - Today in history, Medgar Evers was born in Mississippi, Independence Day is celebrated in Bahia, Brazil, and free black man Denmark Vessey was executed in Charleston.
July 5, 2015

July 1: This Day In History

July 1, 2015 - Segment 1 - Today in history, the composer, playwright and stage producer Robert Allen Cole was born, slavery ended in the Suriname and Netherland Antilles, and one million railroad workers began a month-long strike.
July 1, 2015

June 30: This Day in History

June 30, 2015 - Segment 1 - On this day in history, Lena Horne was born and President Harry S. Truman signed legislation declaring February 1st National Freedom Day in honor of the signing of the 13th Amendment.
June 29, 2015

June 29: This Day in History

June 29, 2015 - Segment 1 - On this day in history Kwame Touré was born and Malcolm X formed the Organization of Afro-American Unity.
June 26, 2015

June 26: This Day In History

June 26, 2015 - Segment 1 - Today in history, jazz musicians Clifford Brown and Richie Powell passed away, W.E.B. DuBois resigned from the NAACP, and the day the Supreme Court found gender-based sodomy laws to be unconstitutional.
June 26, 2015

June 25: This Day In History

June 25, 2015 - Segment 1 - Today in history, Michael Jackson passed away, Sierra Leone Founding Father Thomas Peters' birthday, and Marvin Gaye went Number 1 on the US singles chart with 'Got To Give It Up'.
June 26, 2015

June 24: This Day In History

June 24, 2015 - Segment 1 - Today in history, the saxophone was patented, the Reverend Samuel Worcester was arrested and convicted of living with the Cherokees, and the Buffalo Soldiers broke the back of the Spanish Army driving them from their entrenched positions at Las Guasimas, Cuba.
June 25, 2015

June 23: This Day in History

June 23, 2015 - Segment 1 - On this day in history, the first birth control pill, Envoid, was approved by the FDA, and the passing of Betty Shabazz.
June 25, 2015

June 22: This Day in History

June 22, 2015 - Segment 1 - On this day in history, Octavia Butler was born and Joe Lewis knocked out Max Schelling.
June 22, 2015

June 19: This Day In History

June 19, 2015 - Segment 1 - Today in history, we celebrate Juneteenth and "Lift Every Voice and Sing," President John F. Kennedy introduced the Civil Rights Act of 1963, and 50,000 people converged on Washington DC to support the Poor People’s Campaign.
June 22, 2015

June 18: This Day in History

June 18, 2015 - Segment 1 - On this day in history, the US declared war on Great Britain in 1812, the birth of Paul McCartney, and the federal government declared an eight hour day for federal workers.
June 17, 2015

June 17: This Day In History

June 17, 2015 - Segment 1 - Today in history, rapper Kendrick Lamar was born, Native people in the United States seemed to be winning the war against the American invasion, and the Tuskegee merchant and bus boycott began in Alabama.
June 16, 2015

June 16: This Day in History

June 16, 2015 - Segment 1 - On this day in history, Marie LeVeaux was born in New Orleans and George Stinney became the youngest person ever executed in the United States at the age of 14.
June 15, 2015

June 15: This Day In History

June 15, 2015 - Segment 1 - Today in history, a mob of 10,000 people in Duluth, Minnesota lynched three Black circus workers, Natalie Leota Henderson Hinderas was born, and economist William Arthur Lewis passed away.
June 12, 2015

June 12: This Day in History

June 12, 2015 - Segment 1 - On this day in history, Nelson Mandela was sentenced to life in prison for sabotage against the apartheid government of South Africa and Anne Frank received her first diary as a 13th birthday gift.
June 12, 2015

June 11: This Day in History

June 11, 2015 - Segment 1 - On this day in history, the IWW launched a strike in New Orleans against United Fruit and the Buddhist monk Thick Quang Duc set himself on fire to protest the dictatorial regime of South Vietnam.
June 12, 2015

June 10: This Day In History

June 10, 2015 - Segment 1 - Today in history, it's Abolition Day in French Guiana, Howlin Wolf was born in White Station, Mississippi, and a 75-day filibuster against the Civil Rights Act of 1964 ended.
June 11, 2015

June 9: This Day in History

June 9, 2015 - Segment 1 - On this day in history, the Tiananmen Square student protests began in China and writer Charles Dickens passed away.
June 11, 2015

June 8: This Day In History

June 8, 2015 - Segment 1 - Today in history, Muhammad died in Medina, the Supreme Court declared restaurants in Washington D.C. could not deny service to black patrons, and Apache leader Cochise was laid to rest.
June 11, 2015

June 5: This Day In History

June 5, 2015 - Segment 1 - Today in history, the Supreme Court of the United States issued three important decisions that undermined the legal foundations of segregation, Mexican general Pancho Villa was born, and Compton Mayor Doris Davis became the first African American woman to be mayor of a major city.
June 11, 2015

June 4: This Day In History

June 4, 2015 - Segment 1 - Today in history, academic and activist Angela Davis was acquitted of all charges against her, Haitian writer and political activist Jacques Roumain was born, and the United States refused to allow the MS St. Louis to land in Florida.
June 9, 2015

June 3: This Day In History

June 3, 2015 - Segment 1 - Today in history, Memphis Minnie was born in the Algiers community in New Orleans, African American woman composer Florence Price passed away, and the Zoot Suit Riots began in Los Angeles.
June 9, 2015

June 2: This Day In History

June 2, 2015 - Segment 1 - Today in history, Harriet Tubman led 150 Union soldiers under the command of Col. James Montgomery in the Combahee River Raid, The Snyder Act gave Native Americans the right to vote in 1924, and Cornell West was born in Tulsa, Oklahoma.
June 8, 2015

June 1: This Day in History

June 1, 2015 - Segment 1 - We look back at some of the events that happened on this day in history, including the burning of Black Wall Street in Tulsa, Oklahoma on this day in 1921.
June 4, 2015

May 29: This Day in History

May 29, 2015 - Segment 1 - Marc shares some of the events that happened on this day in history, including Sojourner Truth delivering her "Ain't I a Woman?" speech and a Quebec court upholding the "right" of Canadians to hold Native people as slaves.
June 2, 2015

May 28: This Day In History

May 28, 2015 - Segment 1 - Today in history, poet Maya Angelou passed away, Betty Shabazz was born, the Palestinian Liberation Organization was founded, and Parren Mitchell was elected.
June 1, 2015

May 27: This Day in History

May 27, 2015 - Segment 1 - Marc shares some of the events that happened on this day in history, including the birth of Lisa "Left Eye" Lopez of TLC and the day when, in 1968, Mexican American students who were part of the Chicano movement shut down schools in East LA demanding the release of the LA 13.
May 29, 2015

May 26: This Day In History

May 26, 2015 - Segment 1 - Today in history, the Supreme Court handed down its Dred Scott decision, White House seamstress Elizabeth Keckley passed away, and vaudeville singer and dancer Mamie Robinson Smith was born.