Did you know?

 

October, 3rd

 

The 1965 fight between Sonny Liston and Muhammad Ali is known throughout the world. For Liston it was a rematch with Ali. It proved to be the event that overshadowed the rest of his life. The fight was held in a small high school gym in Lewiston, Maine, before 1,254 paying customers. It was the smallest crowd ever for a world heavyweight championship bout, but it was telecast nationwide, and Liston lost by a knockout in the first round. The punch with which Ali knocked out Liston became known as "The Phantom Punch" because it was barely visible, even when it was shown in slow motion. Rumors that Liston threw away the fight as a way of repaying a debt to gamblers would taint Liston's reputation in the years ahead. However, no concrete evidence of these allegations were found...

 

 

October, 10th

 

Granville T. Woods, the "Black Edison"
It's hard to believe that a man who was forced to leave school at the age of ten could have patented over thirty-five electrical and mechanical inventions. Yet Granville T. Woods did just that, educating himself outside of school in practical skills for his future.
Born in Columbus, Ohio, in 1856 Granville Woods migrated to Missouri at age 16, where he worked as a fireman-engineer on the railroads. Later, he studied electrical and mechanical engineering and became the person most responsible for modernizing the railroad.
In 1884, he secured his first patent for a steam boiler furnace. Woods went on to patent more than thirty-five electrical and mechanical inventions, including an improved telephone transmitter, an electric car powered by overhead wires, a "third rail" system for an electric locomotive, an automatic airbrake system and his "Synchronous Multiplex Railway Telegraph" which allowed messages to be sent between moving trains. This system made rail travel much safer.

 

 

October, 17th

 

Augusta Savage (1892- 1962)
Augusta Savage was a world-famous African-American sculptor. Born in Florida, she had her first formal art training in New York City at Cooper Union, the school recommended to her by Solon Gorglum. While she studied, she supported herself by doing odd jobs, including clerking and working in laundries. In 1926 she exhibited her work at the Sesquicentennial Exposition in Philadelphia. That same year she was awarded a scholarship to study in Rome. However, she was unable to accept the award because she could not raise the money she would have needed to live there. Later, she did study in Europe.
When she returned to the United States, she exhibited her work at several important galleries. In addition to her own work, Augusta Savage taught art classes in Harlem. During the Depression, she helped African- American artists to enroll in the Works Progress Administration arts project. Throughout her career, she was an active spokesperson for African-American artists in the United States. She also was one of the principal organizers of the Harlem Artists Guild.

 

 

October, 31st

 

Matthew Henson (1866– 1955)
Henson was an American explorer who may have been the first to reach the Geographic North Pole with Robert Peary in 1909. However, some have estimated that Peary's party missed the pole by up to 30 km. Due to his being black and his status as Peary's employee, he never reached the same fame as Peary in an America where racist views were still common.
He wrote a book himself about his arctic exploration (A Negro Explorer at the North Pole) in 1912 and later in collaboration with Bradley Robinson his biography Dark Companion in 1947.
During their expeditions he and Peary fathered children with Inuit women two of whom were discovered by S. Allen Counter in a Greenland expedition when they were in their eighties.
On April 6, 1988 Henson was reinterred in Arlington National Cemetery near Peary's monument.

 

 

November, 20th

 

Estevanico: The Explorer
Estevanico (pronounced es-tay-vahn-EE-co), also called Estevan, Esteban, Estebanico, Black Stephen, and Stephen the Moor (1503?-1539) was a Muslim slave from northern Africa (Azamor, Morocco) who was one of the early explorers of the Southwestern United States.
Estevanico was the slave of Andrés Dorantes de Carranza, who took him on the Narváez expedition to Tampa Bay, Florida, in 1528. A series of hurricanes and fights with Native Americans killed many of the crew, and the pilot of the ship sailed to Mexico abandoning the men. The 250 to 300 stranded men hastily made 5 makeshift rafts on which they sailed west, hoping to reach a Spanish settlement in Mexico. Three rafts sank, but the two surviving rafts (carrying 80 men) landed at Galveston Island (off what is now Texas). Narvaez did not survive.
After a very cold winter with very little food, only 15 men survived. In spring, the men traveled west by land, walking along the Colorado River. By 1533, there were only four survivors, including Estevanico, Carranza, Cabeza de Vaca, and Alonso Castillo Maldonado. The men were enslaved by some Indian tribes along the way, and were helped by other tribes. They were the first non-natives to travel in this area of the southwestern North America.
The four men finally reached the Spanish settlement of Culiacan in early 1536 (8 years after being stranded in Florida). Later that year they reached Mexico City, where they were welcomed by the Viceroy Antonio de Mendoza.
Carranza then sold Estevanico to the Viceroy. The Viceroy sent Estevanico on an expedition in 1539 with the Franciscan Fray Marcos de Niza. Francisco de Coronado outfitted Estevanico for this trip to find the fabled seven cities of Cibola. On this trip, Estevanico was killed by Zuni Indians as he entered their pueblo (supposedly at the fabled city of Cíbola).
For more information on Estevanico go to www.estevanico.org

 

 

December, 5th

 

A man with dreams
Jessie Owens (1913- 1980)
"We all have dreams. But in order to make dreams come into reality, it takes an awful lot of determination, dedication, self-discipline, and effort".
The Berlin Olympics of 1936 were to be the crowning showcase of the National Socialist Government in Germany. They would prove on an international stage that Aryan supremacy was a living reality. The Nazi establishment carefully choreographed the Olympics to support their ideology. There was one thing, however, that they did not count on – a black man by the name of James Cleveland Owens.
Twenty-two-year-old American Jesse Owens didn't care much for Hitler's politics—or any politics for that matter. He just wanted to show off his immense skills and represent his country to the best of his abilities. Owens won four gold medals while breaking 11 Olympic records and defeating Germany's Lutz Lang in a very close long jump final. The German was the first to congratulate Owens when the long jump final was over.
While German officials denounced Owens, an overwhelming majority of the German fans treated him like a hero. In 1984, a street in Berlin was named in his honor.
In 1976, he was awarded the Medal of Freedom.

 

 

January, 2nd