* Today in Black History - April 8 * 1922 - Carmen McRae is born in the village of Harlem in New York City. She will study classical piano in her youth, even though singing was her first love. She will win an amateur contest at the Apollo Theater and begin her singing career. She will be influenced by Billie Holiday, who will become a lifelong friend and mentor. She will devote her albums and the majority of her nightclub acts to Lady Day's memory. Her association with jazz accordionist Matt Mathews will lead to her first solo recordings in 1953-1954. In her later years, McRae's original style will influence singers Betty Carter and Carol Sloane. Her best known recordings will be "Skyliner" (1956) and "Take Five" with Dave Brubeck (1961). She will also work in films and will appear in "Hotel" (1967) and "Jo Jo Dancer Your Life is Calling" (1986). She will receive six Grammy award nominations and the National Endowment for the Arts' National Jazz Masters Fellowship Award in 1994. She will join the ancestors on November 10, 1994. 1938 - Cornetist and bandleader Joe "King" Oliver joins the ancestors in Savannah, Georgia. He was considered one of the leading musicians of New Orleans-style jazz and served as a mentor to Louis Armstrong, who played with him in 1922 and 1923. 1953 - Louis "Sweet Lou" Dunbar is born in Houston, Texas. He will become a professional basketball player (for 27 years) with the Harlem Globetrotters. After his playing days, he will become the Director of Player Personnel. He will be the 25th person to receive the Globetrotter “Legends” Distinction, awarded on February 9, 2007 at Houston’s Toyota Center. He will also become a member of the National Basketball Retired Players Association (Legends of Basketball). 1974 - Hank Aaron of the Atlanta Braves hits his 715th home run against a pitch thrown by Los Angeles Dodger Al Downing at a home game in Fulton County Stadium. Aaron's home run breaks the long-standing home run record of Babe Ruth. 1975 - Frank Robinson, major league baseball's first African American manager, gets off to a winning start as his team, the Cleveland Indians, defeat the New York Yankees, 5-3. 1980 - State troopers are mobilized to stop racially motivated civil disturbances in Wrightsville, Georgia. Racial incidents are also reported in Chattanooga, Tennessee, Oceanside, California, Kokomo, Indiana, Wichita, Kansas, and Johnston County, North Carolina. 1987 - Los Angeles Dodgers general manager Al Campanis is fired for alleged racially biased comments about the managerial potential of African Americans. 1990 - Percy Julian, who helped create drugs to combat glaucoma and methods to mass produce cortisone, and agricultural scientist George Washington Carver are the first African American inventors admitted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame in the hall's 17-year history. 1992 - Tennis great Arthur Ashe announces at a New York news conference that he has AIDS. He contracted the virus from a transfusion needed for an earlier heart surgery. He will join the ancestors on February 6, 1993 of AIDS-related pneumonia at age 49. 2001 - Tiger Woods becomes the first golfer to hold all four major professional golf titles at one time when he wins the 2001 Masters tournament. ______________________________________________________________ Munirah Chronicle is edited by Mr. Rene' A. Perry "The TRUTH shall make you free" E-mail: <[log in to unmask]> Archives: http://listserv.icors.org/archives/Munirah.html http://blackagenda.com/cybercolonies/index.htm _____________________________________________________________ To SUBSCRIBE send E-mail to: <[log in to unmask]> In the E-mail body place: Subscribe Munirah Your FULL Name ______________________________________________________________ Munirah(TM) is a trademark of Information Man. Copyright 1997 - 2015, All Rights Reserved by the Information Man in association with The Black Agenda.