This Day in Quiztory

#OTD North Carolina Mutual Insurance Company, the first African American owned insurance company, was founded in Durham, North Carolina.

#OTD Jazz musician and bandleader Dizzy Gillespie was born in Cheraw, South Carolina. Recording artist Nicci Gilbert narrates.

#OTD The United States Air Force Officers Training School added the historical account of the Tuskegee Airmen fighter pilots to their curriculum.

#OTD The United States Navy began admitting African American women to serve via the WAVES program (Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Service), more than two years after the program was created.

#OTD Sprinters John Carlos and Tommie Smith were suspended by the United States Olympic Committee for their silent protest on the medal stand at the games in Mexico City.

#OTD The Black Panther Party For Self-Defense was founded 55 years ago by Huey P. Newton and Bobby Seale in Oakland, CA.

#OTD The Jackson 5 made their first national television appearance performing "I Want You Back" on The Hollywood Palace.

Happy 83rd birthday to gospel legend Shirley Caesar, born #OTD in Durham, North Carolina.

#OTD Anthropologist W. Montague Cobb, the first African American Ph. D. in anthropology, was born in Washington, D.C.

#OTD Inventor Granville T. Woods patented a telephone system apparatus which he called Telegraphony.

#OTD Rap group Run DMC called for a day of peace to quell gang violence in Los Angeles.

#OTD Author Toni Morrison, known for her novels "The Bluest Eye" and "Beloved" among others, was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature.

#OTD Activist Fannie Lou Hamer, a staunch advocate for voting and women's rights, was born in Montgomery County, Mississippi.

#OTD Politician Yvonne Brathwaite Burke, the first African American woman elected to Congress from the state of California, was born in Los Angeles.

#OTD The New Orleans Tribune became the first daily African American newspaper in the country.

#OTD The Jerry Rescue, the public rescue of William "Jerry" Henry after he was taken into custody by U.S. Marshals under the Fugitive Slave Act, occurred in Syracuse, New York.

#OTD James Meredith became the first African American student to enroll at the University of Mississippi

WGPR-TV, the country's first African American owned and operated television station, made it's debut out of Detroit, Michigan.

Blues singer Koko Taylor, sometimes referred to as the "Queen of the Blues," was born in Shelby County, TN.

#OTD Television host Don Cornelius, the man responsible for the iconic series Soul Train, was born in Chicago, Illinois.

#OTD Illinois congresswoman Cardiss Collins, a twenty plus year member of the U.S. House of Representatives, was born in St. Louis, Missouri.

Happy heavenly birthday, Ray Charles! Today we celebrate the music legend on what would be his 91st birthday.

#OTD The Emancipation Proclamation, a presidential proclamation by President Abraham Lincoln that changed the legal status under federal law of over three million African Americans from enslaved to free, was announced.

#OTD Olympic gold medalist Florence Griffith-Joyner died unexpectedly at the age of 38.

#OTD The groundbreaking television series "The Cosby Show" premiered on NBC.