*                   Today in Black History - May 29                   *

1910 - Ralph Metcalfe is born in Atlanta, Georgia.  He will become a world
        record holder in the 100-yard and 200-yard dashes and win a bronze
        medal in the 1932 Olympic Games and gold and silver medals in the
        1936 Games. He will also become a four-term congressman representing
        Illinois's 1st District.

1938 - Ronald Milner is born in Detroit, Michigan. He will become trained as
        a writer and will exhibit his skills as a playwright when he produces
        his first play , "Who's Got His Own" on Broadway in 1966. In 1969, he
        will help start "The Black Theater Movement," which will promote plays
        in which African Americans could represent their lives on stage. His
        works will include "What The Wine-Sellers Buy," "Jazz Set," "Don't
        Get God Started," and "Checkmates."

1944 - Maurice Bishop is born in Aruba and will be raised in Grenada. While
        attending college in England during the early 1960s, he will become
        involved in the Black Power Movement and be heavily influenced by
        Malcolm X, Martin Luther King, Jr. Kwame Nkrumah, and Walter Rodney,
        the Guyanese activist. After returning to Grenada in 1970, he will
        cofound a political organization, "Movement for Assemblies of the
        People." This organization will later merge with another political
        group, forming the "New Jewel Movement." After constant conflict with,
        and harassment by, Grenada's ruling regime, Bishop will become the
        minority leader in the Grenadian government in 1976. In 1979, Bishop
        will become the Prime Minister after leading a bloodless coup. He will
        develop close ties with Castro's Cuba and will obtain government
        funding from Cuba and the Soviet Union. These relationships will cause
        the United States to impose sanctions against Grenada which leading to
        internal turmoil in the Grenadian ruling party. After a party split,
        Bishop and his primary supporters will be executed in October of 1983.
        Using this event as an excuse to involve themselves in the politics
        of the region, the United States will invade Grenada and keep a
        "peacekeeping" mission on the island until 1985.

1950 - Maureen "Rebbie" Jackson is born in Gary, Indiana.  Rebbie will make
        her professional debut at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas with her siblings,
        the Jackson's.  In the late 70s, she will begin to consider a solo
        career.  Artists such as Betty Wright and Wanda Hutchinson of the
        Emotions will mentor her, but it will be her brother Michael who pens
        and produces her very first hit, "Centipede."  As the title track of
        Rebbie's 1984 debut, "Centipede," introduces the pop world to a Jackson
        most never knew existed.

1956 - La Toya Jackson is born in Gary, Indiana.  She will become a singer and
        one of the most controversial members of the Jackson family.  She will
        be referred to as "The Rebel With A Cause." She will cause a big stir,
        when she poses for Playboy Magazine. Her book, "La Toya: Growing Up in
        the Jackson Family," will be on the New York Times Best Seller List for
        nine weeks.  She will attract full capacity audiences in her performances
        all over the world.

1962 - Buck (John) O'Neil becomes the first African American coach in major-
        league baseball.  He accepts the job with the Chicago Cubs.  O'Neil had
        previously been a scout with the Cubs organization.  He had been a
        notable first baseman in Black baseball.

1965 - Ralph Boston sets a world record in the broad jump at 27 feet, 4-3/4 inches,
        at a meet held in Modesto, California.

1969 - Artist and art educator James v. Herring joins the ancestors in Washington,
        DC.  Herring organized the first American art gallery to be directed and
        controlled by African Americans on the Howard University campus in 1930,
        founded and directed the university's art department and, with Alonzo Aden,
        opened the famed Barnett-Aden Gallery in Washington, DC, in 1943.

1973 - Tom Bradley is elected the first African American mayor of Los Angeles,
        California.  Winning after a bitter defeat four years earlier by incumbent
        mayor Sam Yorty, Bradley, a Texas native and former Los Angeles Police
        Department veteran, will serve an unprecedented five terms.

1980 - Vernon E. Jordan Jr., President of the National Urban League, is critically
        injured in an attempted assassination in Fort Wayne, Indiana.

1999 - Olusegun Obasanjo becomes Nigeria's first civilian president in 15 years,
        after a series of military regimes.

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