*              Today in Black History - October 21               *

1832 - Maria W. Stewart, an African American women's rights and
        abolitionist speaker, says in her farewell address "...for
        it's not the color of the skin that makes the man or woman,
        but the principle formed in the soul."

1865 - Jamaican National Hero, George William Gordon, is unfairly
        arrested and charged for complicity in what is now called the
        Morant Bay Rebellion.  George William Gordon was a free colored
        land owner.  Born to a slave mother and a planter father, who
        was attorney to several sugar estates in Jamaica, he was self-
        educated and became a landowner in St. Thomas.  Gordon had
        urged the people to protest against and to resist the oppressive
        and unjust conditions under which they were forced to live.  He
        is illegally tried by court martial and, in spite of a lack of
        evidence, convicted and sentenced to death.

1872 - John H. Conyers, Sr. becomes the first African American admitted
        to the United States Naval Academy.

1917 - John Birks ("Dizzy") Gillespie is born in Cheraw, South Carolina.
        He will, with Charlie Parker and Theolonious Monk, be the founder
        of the revolutionary bebop movement in the very early 1940's.
        His music accomplishments will include formation of the Dee Gee
        and Verve labels.  He will perform in clubs and concert halls in
        Harlem, Canada and Europe.  His music will earn him a Grammy
        Award in 1974 and 1980.

1950 - Ronald E. McNair is born in Lake City, South Carolina.  He will
        become an astronaut and the first African American astronaut to
        perish during a mission (Challenger - STS 41B, 51L disaster).

1950 - Earl Lloyd, becomes the first African American person to play
        in an NBA game (beating out Charles Cooper and Nat Clifton
        by one day).  He will later become the first African American
        NBA Assistant Coach and first African American NBA chief scout.

1969 - A bloodless coup occurs in Somalia (National Day).

1977 - The United States recalls William Bowdler, ambassador to South
        Africa, due to the country's apartheid policies.

1979 - The Black Fashion Museum is opened in Harlem by Lois Alexander
        to highlight the achievements and contributions of African
        Americans to fashion.

1980 - Valerie Thomas invents the illusion transmitter.

1989 - Bertram M. Lee and Peter C.B. Bynoe sign an agreement to purchase
        the National Basketball Association's Denver Nuggets for $54
        million.  They become the first African American owners of a
        professional basketball team.

1999 - Gaston T. Neal, a community activist and influential performance
        poet, who was best known for his work in the genre of the Black
        power movement and social change, joins the ancestors after a
        bout with lymphatic cancer, at his home in Washington, DC.

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