bfCallback1747005891464({"Request":{"VirtualSiteSlug":"blackfacts","IsToday":true,"SearchType":"today","SearchResultType":"event"},"Results":[{"FadeSummary":false,"SummaryText":"Elton Clay Fax, a prolific African-American cartoonist, author, and illustrator, was born on October 9, 1909, in Baltimore, Maryland. His parents were Mark Oakland Fax, a clerk, and Willie Estelle Fax, a seamstress. Elton\u2019s younger brother, Mark, was a music prodigy who worked as a composer later in life. Elton attended Claflin College, a historically black college in South Carolina and then transferred to Syracuse University in New York where he earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts (BFA) degree in 1931. In 1929 he married Grace Elizabeth Turner, with whom he had three children.\nIn 1935 Fax returned to Claflin College to teach art. After one year, he left Claflin and began teaching with the federal government\u2019s Works Progress Administration (WPA) in New York City until 1940, at which point he became a freelancer. Fax\u2019s work gathered attention at several art showings, including a 1932 solo exhibition in Baltimore where two nude paintings stirred controversy; the Baltimore Art Museum in 1939; and the 1940 American Negro Exposition in Chicago, Illinois.\nSeveral black newspapers ran Susabelle, Fax\u2019s popular newspaper comic strip, starting in 1942. From 1949, Fax spent seven years delivering \u0026ldquo;chalk-talks,\u0026rdquo; stories accompanied by live illustrations. Fax and his family frequently traveled, living in Mexico from 1953 to 1956 and later visiting South America. During the following decades, Fax\u2019s travels took him around the world, particularly to Africa. In his visits to African nations, he delivered his famous \u0026ldquo;chalk-talks,\u0026rdquo; often on the topic of the American civil rights struggle.\nThroughout his career, Fax illustrated over thirty books and numerous magazine articles. He wrote extensively on black culture as well, publishing several books and regularly contributing essays to a variety of magazines and newspapers. West African Vignettes (1960), his first book, detailed his African travels; later, he wrote Through Black Eyes (1974) about his journeys in East Africa and the Soviet Union. Other notable books include Garvey","MaxDetailCharacters":0,"ImageUrl":"https://cdn.blackfacts.com/uploads/blackfacts/facts/www.blackpast.org/files/elton_c__fax.jpg","ImageHeight":281,"ImageWidth":226,"ImageOrientation":"portrait","HasImage":true,"CssClass":"","Layout":"","Rowspan":1,"Colspan":1,"Likes":0,"Shares":0,"ContentSourceId":"de2ecbf0-5aa4-45ce-bbf9-9a6ac45f6ac8","SourceName":"Black Past","ContentSourceRootUrl":"https://www.blackpast.org/","IsSponsored":false,"HasSmallSponsorLogo":false,"EffectiveDate":"1993-05-13T00:00:00","HasEffectiveDate":true,"Year":1993,"Month":5,"Day":13,"LastUpdatedDate":"2023-11-25T05:14:39.027","LastUpdatedBy":"ExtractionBotHub","IsEditable":false,"InsertAd":false,"Id":4581,"FactUId":"6e4c8978-89df-474c-9c0d-36817e3f4523","Slug":"fax-elton-1909-1993","FactType":"Event","Title":"Fax, Elton (1909-1993)","LocalFactUrl":"/fact/fax-elton-1909-1993","ResultCount":-1,"SearchType":"Today"},{"FadeSummary":false,"SummaryText":"Stevie Wonder is an internationally renowned singer, song writer and musician. He was born on May 13, 1950, in Saginaw, Michigan. His birth name was Steveland Hardaway Judkins and as a result of being born premature, he was kept in the incubator where an over exposure to oxygen caused him to lose his eyesight. The family moved to Detroit when Stevie was 4 years old. He was interested in music from an early age and taught himself to play several instruments, including the harmonica, piano, drums, keyboards, bass guitar and bongos, a few of them even before the age of 10. He also sang in his local church choir in Detroit.\nStevie was nothing short of a child prodigy, and at the age of 11, he was discovered by a Motown artist named Ronnie White. White arranged for Stevie to audition for Berry Gordy, the founder of Motown Records. Gordy was duly impressed, offered Stevie a recording contract and changed his stage name to \u0026ldquo;Little Stevie Wonder\u0026rdquo;. He\u00A0released his first album titled \u0026ldquo;12 Year Old Genius\u0026rdquo; in 1962. The song \u0026ldquo;Fingertips\u0026rdquo; was the biggest hit on this album. Over the next few years, Stevie studied classical piano and worked on improving his songwriting skills. He was a dedicated and successful artist, not solely due to his natural musical talent but also because of his dedication to his work.\nAs Stevie grew older and reached his twenties, he overhauled his music and his image by dropping the \u0026ldquo;Little\u0026rdquo; from his name and then re-negotiated his contract with Motown. The new contract gave him a much larger degree of control over his records and also greatly enhanced the royalty rate he received. This was a very unusual move for Gordy but he was sure that Stevie needed this independence in order to work. Sure enough, the 1970s brought him unprecedented success. He released one hit album after the other, including \u00A0\u0026ldquo;Talking Book\u0026rdquo; in 1972, \u0026ldquo;Innervisions\u0026rdquo; in 1973, \u0026ldquo;Fulfillingness\u2019 First Finale\u0026rdquo; in 1974 and \u0026ldquo;Songs in the Key of Life\u0026rdquo; in 1976. Just this decade alone earned him 15 Grammy Awards.\nThe 1980s was also a","MaxDetailCharacters":0,"ImageUrl":"https://cdn.blackfacts.com/uploads/blackfacts/facts/www.famousafricanamericans.org/images/stevie-wonder.jpg","ImageHeight":338,"ImageWidth":580,"ImageOrientation":"landscape","HasImage":true,"CssClass":"","Layout":"","Rowspan":1,"Colspan":1,"Likes":0,"Shares":0,"ContentSourceId":"73e45e4e-5e7c-4595-9ff3-d9df1f177307","SourceName":"Black History Resources","ContentSourceRootUrl":"https://www.internet4classrooms.com/black_history.htm","SponsorId":"c0ecc1a0-0e1a-48a4-8c15-e9affaab713b","IsSponsored":true,"SponsorName":"BARBinc","SmallSponsorLogoUrl":"24x24/barbinc-logo.png","SponsorUrl":"http://www.barbinc.com","HasSmallSponsorLogo":true,"EffectiveDate":"1950-05-13T00:00:00","HasEffectiveDate":true,"Year":1950,"Month":5,"Day":13,"LastUpdatedDate":"2023-11-25T05:14:39.027","LastUpdatedBy":"ExtractionBotHub","IsEditable":false,"InsertAd":false,"Id":5207,"FactUId":"0e32a51c-6f0f-491f-98d2-5316781212f9","Slug":"stevie-wonder-2","FactType":"Event","Title":"Stevie Wonder","LocalFactUrl":"/fact/stevie-wonder-2","ResultCount":-1,"SearchType":"Today"},{"FadeSummary":false,"SummaryText":"When James Lynch gave the speech that appears below, his great achievements lay in the future. Born in Baltimore in 1839, Lynch at the age of 24 went to South Carolina as one of the first A.M.E. missionaries to the freedmen and women. From 1866 to 1867, Lynch was editor of the Christian Recorder in Philadelphia, a leading newspaper for the supporters of Reconstruction. He resigned from the paper in 1867 to organize for the Republicans in Mississippi while working with the Freedman\u2019s Bureau. In 1871 Lynch was elected secretary of state of Mississippi, the first African American to hold that post.\nIn May 1865 Lynch delivered this speech at a meeting of the Young Mens Literary and Debating Society of Philadelphia. In it he challenges African Americans to work for racial unity.\nIt is strange, but true, that we have such men among us. First on the list stand those who set no value on the ability of their race and adopt the opinions respecting them that prejudiced white men hold. Among these we find those who prefer white men as religious instructors, as teachers, physicians and lawyers, because they are white. They are studious in disparaging their own color, and paying homage to a supposed native superiority of the whites.\nThen comes another class, who are always in the market for the white mans purchase. If they are flattered, feted or pecuniarily rewarded, they will kiss the hand of the oppressor and ally themselves with the enemies or disparagers of their race.\nAnother class is found in those who pride themselves on the color of their skins, feeling that a light complexion imparts superiority. It is questionable whether there is in existence a more contemptible feeling than this, for while it assumes superiority over the darker skin, it confesses inferiority to the lighter, or white, person. Certainly if A is superior and B is his inferior, then a white man, who has nothing else but white blood in his veins must be superior to A, and A is the inferior.*\nThose colored persons who hold this idea are holding to","MaxDetailCharacters":0,"ImageOrientation":"none","HasImage":false,"CssClass":"","Layout":"","Rowspan":1,"Colspan":1,"Likes":0,"Shares":0,"ContentSourceId":"de2ecbf0-5aa4-45ce-bbf9-9a6ac45f6ac8","SourceName":"Black Past","ContentSourceRootUrl":"https://www.blackpast.org/","IsSponsored":false,"HasSmallSponsorLogo":false,"EffectiveDate":"1865-05-13T00:00:00","HasEffectiveDate":true,"Year":1865,"Month":5,"Day":13,"LastUpdatedDate":"2023-11-25T05:14:39.027","LastUpdatedBy":"ExtractionBotHub","IsEditable":false,"InsertAd":false,"Id":5791,"FactUId":"01da21b9-33f0-49a3-9bbd-dafc5a2e4f5d","Slug":"1865-james-lynch-colored-men-standing-in-the-way-of-their-own-race","FactType":"Event","Title":"(1865) James Lynch, \u201CColored Men Standing in the Way of their Own Race\u201D","LocalFactUrl":"/fact/1865-james-lynch-colored-men-standing-in-the-way-of-their-own-race","ResultCount":-1,"SearchType":"Today"},{"FadeSummary":false,"SummaryText":"Cyrus McCormick , in full Cyrus Hall McCormick  (born February 15, 1809, Rockbridge county, Virginia, U.S.\u2014died May 13, 1884, Chicago, Illinois), American industrialist and inventor who is generally credited with the development (from 1831) of the mechanical reaper.\nMcCormick was the eldest son of Robert McCormick\u2014a farmer, blacksmith, and inventor. McCormick\u2019s education, in local schools, was limited. Reserved, determined, and serious-minded, he spent all of his time in his father\u2019s workshop.\nThe elder McCormick had invented several practical farm implements but, like other inventors in the United States and England, had failed in his attempt to build a successful reaping machine. In 1831 Cyrus, aged 22, tried his hand at building a  reaper. Resembling a two-wheeled, horse-drawn chariot, the machine consisted of a vibrating cutting blade, a reel to bring the grain within its reach, and a platform to receive the falling grain. The reaper embodied the principles essential to all subsequent grain-cutting machines.\nFor farmers in the early 19th century, harvesting required a large number of labourers, and, if they could be found, the cost of hiring them was high. When McCormick\u2019s reaper was tested on a neighbour\u2019s farm in 1831, it offered the hope that the yield of the farmer\u2019s fields would soon not be limited to the amount of labour available. The machine had defects, not the least of which was a clatter so loud that slaves were required to walk alongside to calm the frightened horses.\nMcCormick took out a patent in 1834, but his chief interest at that time was the family\u2019s iron foundry. When the foundry failed in the wake of the bank panic of 1837, leaving the family deeply in debt, McCormick turned to his still-unexploited reaper and improved it. He sold 2 reapers in 1841, 7 in 1842, 29 in 1843, and 50 the following year.\nAn 1844 visit to the prairie states in the Midwest convinced McCormick that the future of his reaper and of the world\u2019s wheat production lay in this vast fertile land rather than in the rocky,","MaxDetailCharacters":0,"ImageUrl":"https://cdn.blackfacts.com/uploads/blackfacts/facts/media1.britannica.com/eb-media/20/2420-004-5a4a3e14.jpg","ImageHeight":450,"ImageWidth":347,"ImageOrientation":"portrait","HasImage":true,"CssClass":"","Layout":"","Rowspan":1,"Colspan":1,"Likes":0,"Shares":0,"ContentSourceId":"80689a34-9b7c-4d3a-91f8-56cabb44f365","SourceName":"Brittanica","ContentSourceRootUrl":"https://www.britannica.com/search?query=black%20history","SponsorId":"0259fe31-15b2-475e-8f78-c20b48d0442b","IsSponsored":true,"SponsorName":"National Association of Black Accountants (NABA) Boston Metropolitan Chapter","SmallSponsorLogoUrl":"24x24/naba-logo.png","SponsorUrl":"https://www.nababoston.org/","HasSmallSponsorLogo":true,"EffectiveDate":"1884-05-13T00:00:00","HasEffectiveDate":true,"Year":1884,"Month":5,"Day":13,"LastUpdatedDate":"2023-11-25T05:14:39.027","LastUpdatedBy":"ExtractionBotHub","IsEditable":false,"InsertAd":false,"Id":10445,"FactUId":"66ccbb6b-3ab8-49ce-ae3b-c4b79da87a10","Slug":"cyrus-mccormick","FactType":"Event","Title":"Cyrus McCormick","LocalFactUrl":"/fact/cyrus-mccormick","ResultCount":-1,"SearchType":"Today"},{"FadeSummary":false,"SummaryText":"Rucker was born on May 13, 1966 in Charleston, South Carolina.","MaxDetailCharacters":0,"ImageUrl":"https://cdn.blackfacts.com/uploads/blackfacts/facts/www.famousafricanamericans.org/images/darius-rucker.jpg","ImageHeight":347,"ImageWidth":580,"ImageOrientation":"landscape","HasImage":true,"CssClass":"","Layout":"","Rowspan":1,"Colspan":1,"Likes":0,"Shares":0,"ContentSourceId":"73e45e4e-5e7c-4595-9ff3-d9df1f177307","SourceName":"Black History Resources","ContentSourceRootUrl":"https://www.internet4classrooms.com/black_history.htm","SponsorId":"9e027dc1-0367-446b-87cb-8aff0ebac676","IsSponsored":true,"SponsorName":"Concerned Black Men of Massachusetts","SmallSponsorLogoUrl":"24x24/cbmm-logo.jpg","SponsorUrl":"https://www.cbmm.net","HasSmallSponsorLogo":true,"EffectiveDate":"1966-05-13T00:00:00","HasEffectiveDate":true,"Year":1966,"Month":5,"Day":13,"LastUpdatedDate":"2023-11-25T05:14:39.027","IsEditable":false,"InsertAd":false,"Id":18364,"FactUId":"8052dd0d-11fa-4d86-9774-60737f103033","Slug":"darius-rucker--birthday","FactType":"Event","Title":"Darius Rucker - Birthday","LocalFactUrl":"/fact/darius-rucker--birthday","ResultCount":-1,"SearchType":"Today"},{"FadeSummary":false,"SummaryText":"Robertson Payton was born on May 13, 1925, in Norfolk, Virginia, to Bertha M.","MaxDetailCharacters":0,"ImageUrl":"https://cdn.blackfacts.com/uploads/blackfacts/facts/www.blackpast.org/files/carolyn_r__payton__first_woman_and_first_african_american_to_head_the_peace_corps.jpg","ImageHeight":395,"ImageWidth":282,"ImageOrientation":"portrait","HasImage":true,"CssClass":"","Layout":"","Rowspan":1,"Colspan":1,"Likes":0,"Shares":0,"ContentSourceId":"de2ecbf0-5aa4-45ce-bbf9-9a6ac45f6ac8","SourceName":"Black Past","ContentSourceRootUrl":"https://www.blackpast.org/","SponsorId":"aa57795e-8800-46a7-89eb-a946cfbd4ad8","IsSponsored":true,"SponsorName":"APEX Museum","SmallSponsorLogoUrl":"24x24/apex-logo.jpg","SponsorUrl":"https://www.apexmuseum.org ","HasSmallSponsorLogo":true,"EffectiveDate":"1925-05-13T00:00:00","HasEffectiveDate":true,"Year":1925,"Month":5,"Day":13,"LastUpdatedDate":"2023-11-25T05:14:39.027","IsEditable":false,"InsertAd":false,"Id":18442,"FactUId":"32a96692-d81b-4c56-8f55-2856265c20e1","Slug":"carolyn-l-robertson-payton-1925-2001--birthday","FactType":"Event","Title":"Carolyn L. Robertson Payton (1925\u20132001) - Birthday","LocalFactUrl":"/fact/carolyn-l-robertson-payton-1925-2001--birthday","ResultCount":-1,"SearchType":"Today"},{"FadeSummary":false,"SummaryText":"An activist, politician, and leader of her community, Sharon Sayles Belton was the first African American and first woman mayor of the city of Minneapolis, Minnesota. A St. Paul native, Belton was born on May 13, 1951.\u00A0 For most of her life she fought for racial equality, women, family and child care issues, youth development and neighborhood development. \nBelton, one of four daughters of Bill and Marian Sayles, moved to Minneapolis to live with her father after her parents\u2019 separation. In Minneapolis, Belton attended Central High School and volunteered at Mt. Sinai Hospital in her spare time but eventually accepted a paid position at the hospital as a nurse\u2019s aide.\u00A0 Belton received her Bachelor of Science in biology from Macalester College in 1973 and developed plans to become a pediatrician.\nThose plans were jettisoned when she began working as a parole officer for sexual assault offenders. Her work prompted her to call for tougher penalties for sexual predators. In 1978 Belton co-founded the Harriet Tubman Shelter for Battered Women in Minneapolis. She also got involved in community crime prevention programs and worked to reduce community-police tensions. \u00A0\nBelton, by this point an activist in the Minnesota Democratic Farmer-Labor (DFL) Party, was elected in 1983 to the Minneapolis City Council where she represented the 8th Ward.\u00A0 The following year she was a Minnesota delegate at the Democratic National Convention in San Francisco where she witnessed the nomination of Minnesota Senator Walter Mondale for President of the United States.\u00A0 In 1990 Belton was elected President of the Minneapolis City Council.\u00A0 Three years later she announced her candidacy for mayor.\u00A0 Belton won the election and served two terms as mayor from 1994 to 2000.\u00A0 Her achievements included a 16% reduction in the city\u2019s crime rate, and a successful campaign to revitalize downtown Minneapolis.\u00A0 By the end of the 1990s Minneapolis saw its first population increase since the 1940s.\u00A0 Belton was credited with reversing a fifty year economic","MaxDetailCharacters":0,"ImageUrl":"https://cdn.blackfacts.com/uploads/blackfacts/facts/www.blackpast.org/files/blackpast_images/belton_sharon.jpg","ImageHeight":382,"ImageWidth":250,"ImageOrientation":"portrait","HasImage":true,"CssClass":"","Layout":"","Rowspan":1,"Colspan":1,"Likes":0,"Shares":0,"ContentSourceId":"de2ecbf0-5aa4-45ce-bbf9-9a6ac45f6ac8","SourceName":"Black Past","ContentSourceRootUrl":"https://www.blackpast.org/","IsSponsored":false,"HasSmallSponsorLogo":false,"EffectiveDate":"1951-05-13T00:00:00","HasEffectiveDate":true,"Year":1951,"Month":5,"Day":13,"LastUpdatedDate":"2023-11-25T05:14:39.027","LastUpdatedBy":"ExtractionBotHub","IsEditable":false,"InsertAd":false,"Id":8084,"FactUId":"d2eb9fc1-0fd1-44a3-9222-e078088b585a","Slug":"belton-sharon-sayles-1951","FactType":"Event","Title":"Belton, Sharon Sayles (1951-  )","LocalFactUrl":"/fact/belton-sharon-sayles-1951","ResultCount":-1,"SearchType":"Today"},{"FadeSummary":false,"SummaryText":"Dolores Ib\u00E1rruri , pseudonym La Pasionaria (Spanish: \u0026ldquo;The Passionflower\u0026rdquo;)   (born Dec. 9, 1895, Gallarta, near Bilbao, Spain\u2014died  Nov. 12, 1989, Madrid), Spanish Communist leader, who earned a legendary reputation as an impassioned orator during the Spanish Civil War, coining the Republican battle cry, \u0026ldquo;No pasar\u00E1n! \u0026rdquo; (\u0026ldquo;They shall not pass!\u0026rdquo;).\nBorn the eighth of 11 children of a Viscayan miner, Ib\u00E1rruri was compelled by poverty to quit school at age 15 to work as a seamstress and later as a cook. Becoming radicalized, she published in 1918 an article in a newspaper called El Minero Vizcaino, using for the first time the pseudonym La Pasionaria. Two years later she joined the newly formed Spanish Communist Party. After a turbulent career, in which she was jailed several times for political activities, she emerged as one of the Communist deputies in the Republican parliament and, by the outbreak of the Civil War in 1936, had become a national figure. A sometimes violent radio and street orator, she made such famous exhortations as \u0026ldquo;It is better to die on your feet than to live on your knees\u0026rdquo; (July 1936).\nWith Francisco Franco\u2019s victory in 1939 she escaped by plane to the Soviet Union, where over the years she represented her party at Kremlin congresses, until Santiago Carrillo succeeded her as secretary-general in 1960. Though reputed to be an old-line Stalinist, she protested the Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia in 1968. She returned to Spain on May 13, 1977, some 18 months after Franco\u2019s death and 34 days after the Spanish government again legalized the Communist Party. She was reelected to her deputy seat in the Spanish parliament that year but later resigned because of ill heath. She remained honorary president of the Spanish Communist Party until her death. Throughout her career Ib\u00E1rruri almost always appeared dressed in black.\nShe married Juli\u00E1n Ruiz in 1915 and separated from him in the 1930s. Only two of her six children survived childhood; a son, Rub\u00E9n, was killed at Stalingrad as an officer in the Red","MaxDetailCharacters":0,"ImageUrl":"https://cdn.blackfacts.com/uploads/blackfacts/facts/media1.britannica.com/eb-media/38/10838-004-34a0c898.jpg","ImageHeight":300,"ImageWidth":245,"ImageOrientation":"portrait","HasImage":true,"CssClass":"","Layout":"","Rowspan":1,"Colspan":1,"Likes":0,"Shares":0,"ContentSourceId":"80689a34-9b7c-4d3a-91f8-56cabb44f365","SourceName":"Brittanica","ContentSourceRootUrl":"https://www.britannica.com/search?query=black%20history","SponsorId":"e1937d8b-561e-4826-8d6e-da76009d44da","IsSponsored":true,"SponsorName":"Christo Rey New York High School","SmallSponsorLogoUrl":"24x24/christorey-logo.jpg","SponsorUrl":"https://www.cristoreyny.org","HasSmallSponsorLogo":true,"EffectiveDate":"1977-05-13T00:00:00","HasEffectiveDate":true,"Year":1977,"Month":5,"Day":13,"LastUpdatedDate":"2023-11-25T05:14:39.027","LastUpdatedBy":"ExtractionBotHub","IsEditable":false,"InsertAd":false,"Id":9880,"FactUId":"2c82efc0-d9a1-43ad-b059-16e97f2b4352","Slug":"dolores-ib-rruri","FactType":"Event","Title":"Dolores Ib\u00E1rruri","LocalFactUrl":"/fact/dolores-ib-rruri","ResultCount":-1,"SearchType":"Today"},{"FadeSummary":false,"SummaryText":"Dates:\u00A0 May 13, 1914 -- April 12, 1981\nAlso Known As: Joe Louis\u00A0Barrow (born as), Joe Louis, the\u00A0Brown Bomber\u00A0\nHumble Beginnings\nJoe Louis\u00A0Barrow, the seventh of eight children, was born\u00A0on\u00A0May 13, 1914, to rural\u00A0Lafayette, Alabama\u00A0sharecroppers Munroe and Lillie Barrow.","MaxDetailCharacters":0,"ImageUrl":"https://cdn.blackfacts.com/uploads/blackfacts/facts/fthmb.tqn.com/itbb2u0zstxm1jhihu3bscex4ge-/2817x3478/filters-fill-auto-1-/about/joelouis-56a48db05f9b58b7d0d782c5.jpg","ImageHeight":1852,"ImageWidth":1500,"ImageOrientation":"portrait","HasImage":true,"CssClass":"","Layout":"","Rowspan":1,"Colspan":1,"Likes":0,"Shares":0,"ContentSourceId":"6982ddb9-33e1-469e-8344-2e6290cc3f69","SourceName":"ThoughtCo","ContentSourceRootUrl":"https://www.thoughtco.com/african-american-history-4133344","IsSponsored":false,"HasSmallSponsorLogo":false,"EffectiveDate":"1914-05-13T00:00:00","HasEffectiveDate":true,"Year":1914,"Month":5,"Day":13,"LastUpdatedDate":"2023-11-25T05:14:39.027","IsEditable":false,"InsertAd":false,"Id":18508,"FactUId":"b6be9ee5-92ac-406a-9e92-f943007a47ca","Slug":"joe-louis--the-world-heavyweight-champion--birthday","FactType":"Event","Title":"Joe Louis - The World Heavyweight Champion - Birthday","LocalFactUrl":"/fact/joe-louis--the-world-heavyweight-champion--birthday","ResultCount":-1,"SearchType":"Today"},{"FadeSummary":false,"SummaryText":"Occupation(s) \nStevland Hardaway Morris (born Stevland Hardaway Judkins; May 13, 1950),[1] known by his stage name Stevie Wonder, is an American musician, singer, songwriter, record producer, and multi-instrumentalist.","MaxDetailCharacters":0,"ImageUrl":"https://cdn.blackfacts.com/uploads/blackfacts/facts/upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/54/stevie_wonder_1973.jpg","ImageHeight":872,"ImageWidth":760,"ImageOrientation":"portrait","HasImage":true,"CssClass":"","Layout":"","Rowspan":1,"Colspan":1,"Likes":0,"Shares":0,"ContentSourceId":"6982ddb9-33e1-469e-8344-2e6290cc3f69","SourceName":"ThoughtCo","ContentSourceRootUrl":"https://www.thoughtco.com/african-american-history-4133344","IsSponsored":false,"HasSmallSponsorLogo":false,"EffectiveDate":"1950-05-13T00:00:00","HasEffectiveDate":true,"Year":1950,"Month":5,"Day":13,"LastUpdatedDate":"2023-11-25T05:14:39.027","IsEditable":false,"InsertAd":false,"Id":18519,"FactUId":"3f1203c7-6cc5-45cd-a361-46274713afc7","Slug":"stevie-wonder--birthday","FactType":"Event","Title":"Stevie Wonder - Birthday","LocalFactUrl":"/fact/stevie-wonder--birthday","ResultCount":-1,"SearchType":"Today"},{"FadeSummary":false,"SummaryText":"May 13, 1950\nApril 1, 2011 (aged 60)\n(William) Manning Marable,  (born May 13, 1950, Dayton, Ohio\u2014died April 1, 2011, New York, N.","MaxDetailCharacters":0,"ImageUrl":"https://cdn.blackfacts.com/uploads/blackfacts/facts/media1.britannica.com/eb-media/53/78753-004-905e0af3.jpg","ImageHeight":416,"ImageWidth":550,"ImageOrientation":"landscape","HasImage":true,"CssClass":"","Layout":"","Rowspan":1,"Colspan":1,"Likes":0,"Shares":0,"ContentSourceId":"80689a34-9b7c-4d3a-91f8-56cabb44f365","SourceName":"Brittanica","ContentSourceRootUrl":"https://www.britannica.com/search?query=black%20history","IsSponsored":false,"HasSmallSponsorLogo":false,"EffectiveDate":"1950-05-13T00:00:00","HasEffectiveDate":true,"Year":1950,"Month":5,"Day":13,"LastUpdatedDate":"2023-11-25T05:14:39.027","IsEditable":false,"InsertAd":false,"Id":18535,"FactUId":"8360ad3d-cb92-4967-9e55-3d3eca6d1fb5","Slug":"william-manning-marable--birthday","FactType":"Event","Title":"(William) Manning Marable - Birthday","LocalFactUrl":"/fact/william-manning-marable--birthday","ResultCount":-1,"SearchType":"Today"},{"FadeSummary":false,"SummaryText":"Jim Jones , byname of James Warren Jones   (born May 13, 1931, Crete, near Lynn, Indiana, U.","MaxDetailCharacters":0,"ImageUrl":"https://cdn.blackfacts.com/uploads/blackfacts/facts/media1.britannica.com/eb-media/02/65402-004-1397949c.jpg","ImageHeight":450,"ImageWidth":280,"ImageOrientation":"portrait","HasImage":true,"CssClass":"","Layout":"","Rowspan":1,"Colspan":1,"Likes":0,"Shares":0,"ContentSourceId":"80689a34-9b7c-4d3a-91f8-56cabb44f365","SourceName":"Brittanica","ContentSourceRootUrl":"https://www.britannica.com/search?query=black%20history","IsSponsored":false,"HasSmallSponsorLogo":false,"EffectiveDate":"1931-05-13T00:00:00","HasEffectiveDate":true,"Year":1931,"Month":5,"Day":13,"LastUpdatedDate":"2023-11-25T05:14:39.027","IsEditable":false,"InsertAd":false,"Id":18644,"FactUId":"18bf7256-6e59-4b23-8414-6b89e84f0df9","Slug":"jim-jones--birthday","FactType":"Event","Title":"Jim Jones - Birthday","LocalFactUrl":"/fact/jim-jones--birthday","ResultCount":-1,"SearchType":"Today"},{"FadeSummary":false,"SummaryText":"Joe Louis , byname of Joseph Louis Barrow, also called the Brown Bomber  (born May 13, 1914, Lafayette, Alabama, U.","MaxDetailCharacters":0,"ImageUrl":"https://cdn.blackfacts.com/uploads/blackfacts/facts/media1.britannica.com/eb-media/96/2196-004-8293a25e.jpg","ImageHeight":300,"ImageWidth":215,"ImageOrientation":"portrait","HasImage":true,"CssClass":"","Layout":"","Rowspan":1,"Colspan":1,"Likes":0,"Shares":0,"ContentSourceId":"80689a34-9b7c-4d3a-91f8-56cabb44f365","SourceName":"Brittanica","ContentSourceRootUrl":"https://www.britannica.com/search?query=black%20history","IsSponsored":false,"HasSmallSponsorLogo":false,"EffectiveDate":"1914-05-13T00:00:00","HasEffectiveDate":true,"Year":1914,"Month":5,"Day":13,"LastUpdatedDate":"2023-11-25T05:14:39.027","IsEditable":false,"InsertAd":false,"Id":18645,"FactUId":"cd46b33e-351c-418e-9f80-13d67332edb5","Slug":"joe-louis--birthday","FactType":"Event","Title":"Joe Louis - Birthday","LocalFactUrl":"/fact/joe-louis--birthday","ResultCount":-1,"SearchType":"Today"},{"FadeSummary":false,"SummaryText":"Songs like Isnt She Lovely, Superstition and You Are the Sunshine of My Life won Stevie Wonder more than 20 Grammy Awards and made him one of the most popular rhythm and blues musicians of the 1960s and 1970s. Wonder grew up in Detroit, singing in church choirs and listening to early Motown music. In 1961 he was discovered and signed by Berry Gordy to a Motown contract himself, taking the stage name of Little Stevie Wonder. (Wonders blindness led to inevitable comparisons with Ray Charles, at the time an R\u0026amp;B superstar.) Wonder went from wunderkind to groovy young man in the late 1960s, turning out cheerful and romantic pop hits along with protest songs about Vietnam and race relations while experimenting with funky, Moog-driven electronic sounds. From 1972-76 he released five albums that are regarded as his masterworks: Music of My Mind (1972), Talking Book (1972), Innervisions (1973), Fulfillingness First Finale (1974) and Songs in the Key of Life (1976). In the 1980s he reached elder statesman status, winning an Oscar for the pop tune I Just Called to Say I Love You (from the Gene Wilder movie The Woman in Red). He also emerged as a steady advocate for making the birthday of Martin Luther King, Jr. a national holiday. (It became one in 1986.) Wonders 2005 album A Time To Love won him six more Grammy nominations, and he win for Best Male Pop Vocal Performance (From the Bottom of My Heart). His other albums include The 12 Year Old Genius (his first album, 1963), For Once In My Life (1968), and the retrospective Original Musiquarium (1982). He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1989.\nStevie Wonder co-wrote the music for the tune \u0026ldquo;The Tears of a Clown,\u0026rdquo; a #1 single for Smokey Robinson and The Miracles in 1970\u2026 Wonder\u2019s birth name is the source of some confusion. His official site lists his birth name as Steveland Morris, but most sources agree his birth name was Steveland Judkins or Steveland Hardaway Judkins (his parents were Lula Hardaway and Calvin Judkins). Other sources spell","MaxDetailCharacters":0,"ImageOrientation":"none","HasImage":false,"CssClass":"","Layout":"","Rowspan":1,"Colspan":1,"Likes":0,"Shares":0,"ContentSourceId":"c996ac0a-d532-48f6-89c4-79eaf9e982f6","SourceName":"Fact Monster - Black History","ContentSourceRootUrl":"https://www.factmonster.com/black-history-month-activities-history-timeline-ideas-events-facts-quizzes","IsSponsored":false,"HasSmallSponsorLogo":false,"EffectiveDate":"1950-05-13T00:00:00","HasEffectiveDate":true,"Year":1950,"Month":5,"Day":13,"LastUpdatedDate":"2023-11-25T05:14:39.027","LastUpdatedBy":"ExtractionBotHub","IsEditable":false,"InsertAd":false,"Id":5820,"FactUId":"80799a99-dcb5-4a9a-a4c0-71d1936b9ef1","Slug":"stevie-wonder-1","FactType":"Event","Title":"Stevie Wonder","LocalFactUrl":"/fact/stevie-wonder-1","ResultCount":-1,"SearchType":"Today"},{"FadeSummary":false,"SummaryText":"Nathaniel Wells, a former slave, plantation owner, and businessman who lived during the 18th and 19th centuries, was also the first person of African ancestry to become a High Sheriff in England. Wells was born on September 10, 1779 on the island of St. Kitts in the Caribbean to William Wells, a wealthy merchant and plantation owner, and one of his lovers, a slave known only as Juggy.\u00A0 William\u2019s European wife had died shortly after his arrival in the West Indies and although he never married any of his slaves, it is recorded that he had relationships with several. Records show that he treated the women with whom he had relationships and his children well. Nathaniel was the oldest of at least six children all by various different mothers. \nIn 1783 William Wells freed his son and later sent him to school in England with aspirations that he might attend Oxford University. When his father died however, Wells inherited his lands and property, including the slaves, and chose not to attend university. In 1803 Wells moved to Bath, England and later purchased a plot of land (2,200 acres) near Chepstow. \nWells became active in local society. He became a Church Warden of St. Arvan\u2019s Church and a Justice of the Peace. Most notably Wells became a Deputy Lieutenant of the County of Monmouthshire and was appointed High Sherriff of Monmouthshire in 1818, a position in which he served until 1830.\nIn 1820 Wells was commissioned as a lieutenant in the Chepstow Troop of the Gloucestershire Yeomanry Cavalry. His commission makes him the second man of African ancestry to hold a commission in the armed forces of the Crown. During his military service Wells took part in the breaking of the picket lines during the coal miner\u2019s strikes in Wales in 1822. At the end of 1822, after the striking miners and iron workers had been broken by force, Wells resigned his commission.\nIn 1833 when slavery was abolished throughout the British Empire, Wells, along with many other plantation owners, illegally retained his slaves. The slave owners were","MaxDetailCharacters":0,"ImageUrl":"https://cdn.blackfacts.com/uploads/blackfacts/facts/www.blackpast.org/files/blackpast_images/piercefield_house.jpg","ImageHeight":234,"ImageWidth":350,"ImageOrientation":"landscape","HasImage":true,"CssClass":"","Layout":"","Rowspan":1,"Colspan":1,"Likes":0,"Shares":0,"ContentSourceId":"de2ecbf0-5aa4-45ce-bbf9-9a6ac45f6ac8","SourceName":"Black Past","ContentSourceRootUrl":"https://www.blackpast.org/","IsSponsored":false,"HasSmallSponsorLogo":false,"EffectiveDate":"1852-05-13T00:00:00","HasEffectiveDate":true,"Year":1852,"Month":5,"Day":13,"LastUpdatedDate":"2023-11-25T05:14:39.027","LastUpdatedBy":"ExtractionBotHub","IsEditable":false,"InsertAd":false,"Id":5144,"FactUId":"7028dd29-5ac1-493f-97e8-867d821c7832","Slug":"wells-nathaniel-1779-1852","FactType":"Event","Title":"Wells, Nathaniel (1779 \u2013 1852)","LocalFactUrl":"/fact/wells-nathaniel-1779-1852","ResultCount":-1,"SearchType":"Today"},{"FadeSummary":false,"SummaryText":"In the second notable appointment of an Australian Aborigine, the 69-year-old pastor Sir Douglas Nicholls, has been chosen as the Governor of South Australia.","MaxDetailCharacters":0,"ImageHeight":0,"ImageWidth":0,"ImageOrientation":"none","HasImage":false,"CssClass":"","Layout":"","Rowspan":1,"Colspan":1,"Likes":0,"Shares":0,"ContentSourceId":"00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000","SourceName":"Blackfacts.com","ContentSourceRootUrl":"https://blackfacts.com","IsSponsored":false,"HasSmallSponsorLogo":false,"EffectiveDate":"1976-05-13T00:00:00","HasEffectiveDate":true,"Year":1976,"Month":5,"Day":13,"LastUpdatedDate":"2023-11-25T05:14:39.027","IsEditable":false,"InsertAd":false,"Id":1383,"FactUId":"84014fca-4fb3-47c6-94b3-e2511d7b56bb","Slug":"australian-aborigine-governor","FactType":"Event","Title":"Australian Aborigine Governor","LocalFactUrl":"/fact/australian-aborigine-governor","ResultCount":-1,"SearchType":"Today"},{"FadeSummary":false,"SummaryText":"Singer Stevie Wonder born Steveland Judkins in Saginaw,Michigan.","MaxDetailCharacters":0,"ImageHeight":0,"ImageWidth":0,"ImageOrientation":"none","HasImage":false,"CssClass":"","Layout":"","Rowspan":1,"Colspan":1,"Likes":0,"Shares":0,"ContentSourceId":"00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000","SourceName":"Blackfacts.com","ContentSourceRootUrl":"https://blackfacts.com","IsSponsored":false,"HasSmallSponsorLogo":false,"EffectiveDate":"1950-05-13T00:00:00","HasEffectiveDate":true,"Year":1950,"Month":5,"Day":13,"LastUpdatedDate":"2023-11-25T05:14:39.027","IsEditable":false,"InsertAd":false,"Id":1678,"FactUId":"1748a6f5-224b-4879-934b-7d3460524bc9","Slug":"singer-stevie-wonder-born","FactType":"Event","Title":"Singer Stevie Wonder born","LocalFactUrl":"/fact/singer-stevie-wonder-born","ResultCount":-1,"SearchType":"Today"},{"FadeSummary":false,"SummaryText":"In Fayette, Mississippi on May 13,1969; James Charles Evers (1922-) was elected the first black mayor of a racially mixed Mississippi town. In June 1971, he became the first black in this century to seek the governors office.","MaxDetailCharacters":0,"ImageHeight":0,"ImageWidth":0,"ImageOrientation":"none","HasImage":false,"CssClass":"","Layout":"","Rowspan":1,"Colspan":1,"Likes":0,"Shares":0,"ContentSourceId":"00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000","SourceName":"Blackfacts.com","ContentSourceRootUrl":"https://blackfacts.com","IsSponsored":false,"HasSmallSponsorLogo":false,"EffectiveDate":"1969-05-13T00:00:00","HasEffectiveDate":true,"Year":1969,"Month":5,"Day":13,"LastUpdatedDate":"2023-11-25T05:14:39.027","IsEditable":false,"InsertAd":false,"Id":2260,"FactUId":"a30957e2-6f57-40a4-8ab7-166f1e8c1914","Slug":"government-local-mississippi","FactType":"Event","Title":"Government: local (Mississippi).","LocalFactUrl":"/fact/government-local-mississippi","ResultCount":-1,"SearchType":"Today"},{"FadeSummary":false,"SummaryText":"Robert Smalls and 12 fellow Afro-American seamen captured the Planter, a cotton steamer converted into a Confederate battleship. Smalls piloted the gunboat into\nUnion lines and presented the ship to the U.S. Navy at Charleston Harbor. Smalls was promoted to Captain during the Civil War","MaxDetailCharacters":0,"ImageHeight":0,"ImageWidth":0,"ImageOrientation":"none","HasImage":false,"CssClass":"","Layout":"","Rowspan":1,"Colspan":1,"Likes":0,"Shares":0,"ContentSourceId":"00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000","SourceName":"Blackfacts.com","ContentSourceRootUrl":"https://blackfacts.com","IsSponsored":false,"HasSmallSponsorLogo":false,"EffectiveDate":"1862-05-13T00:00:00","HasEffectiveDate":true,"Year":1862,"Month":5,"Day":13,"LastUpdatedDate":"2023-11-25T05:14:39.027","IsEditable":false,"InsertAd":false,"Id":2274,"FactUId":"d87f1db2-aa94-4f54-87fe-212d310f15e4","Slug":"heroic-union-seaman","FactType":"Event","Title":"Heroic union seaman","LocalFactUrl":"/fact/heroic-union-seaman","ResultCount":-1,"SearchType":"Today"},{"FadeSummary":false,"SummaryText":"Joseph Louis Barrow (Joe Louis) was born on this day.","MaxDetailCharacters":0,"ImageHeight":0,"ImageWidth":0,"ImageOrientation":"none","HasImage":false,"CssClass":"","Layout":"","Rowspan":1,"Colspan":1,"Likes":0,"Shares":0,"ContentSourceId":"00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000","SourceName":"Blackfacts.com","ContentSourceRootUrl":"https://blackfacts.com","IsSponsored":false,"HasSmallSponsorLogo":false,"EffectiveDate":"1914-05-13T00:00:00","HasEffectiveDate":true,"Year":1914,"Month":5,"Day":13,"LastUpdatedDate":"2023-11-25T05:14:39.027","IsEditable":false,"InsertAd":false,"Id":3594,"FactUId":"6b97a831-4fdb-4d75-b1fb-db4f2d105b31","Slug":"joseph-louis-barrow-joe-louis-was-born-on-this-day","FactType":"Event","Title":"Joseph Louis Barrow (\u0022Joe Louis\u0022) was born on this day.","LocalFactUrl":"/fact/joseph-louis-barrow-joe-louis-was-born-on-this-day","ResultCount":-1,"SearchType":"Today"},{"FadeSummary":false,"SummaryText":"Two white regiments and a Black regiment, the Sixty-second U.S.C.T., fought the last action of the civil war at Whites Ranch, Texas.","MaxDetailCharacters":0,"ImageHeight":0,"ImageWidth":0,"ImageOrientation":"none","HasImage":false,"CssClass":"","Layout":"","Rowspan":1,"Colspan":1,"Likes":0,"Shares":0,"ContentSourceId":"00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000","SourceName":"Blackfacts.com","ContentSourceRootUrl":"https://blackfacts.com","IsSponsored":false,"HasSmallSponsorLogo":false,"EffectiveDate":"1865-05-13T00:00:00","HasEffectiveDate":true,"Year":1865,"Month":5,"Day":13,"LastUpdatedDate":"2023-11-25T05:14:39.027","IsEditable":false,"InsertAd":false,"Id":3676,"FactUId":"72f8bc97-3c9c-4a18-9071-5c826ddb53e6","Slug":"two-white-regiments-and-a-black-regiment-the","FactType":"Event","Title":"Two white regiments and a Black regiment, the","LocalFactUrl":"/fact/two-white-regiments-and-a-black-regiment-the","ResultCount":-1,"SearchType":"Today"},{"FadeSummary":false,"SummaryText":"Robert Smalls was born in Beaufort, South Carolina, on April 5, 1839 and worked as a house slave until the age of 12. At that point his owner, John K. McKee, sent him to Charleston to work as a waiter, ship rigger, and sailor, with all earnings going to McKee. This arrangement continued until Smalls was 18 when he negotiated to keep all but $15 of his monthly pay, a deal which allowed Smalls to begin saving money. The savings that he accumulated were later used to purchase his wife and daughter from their owner for a sum of $800. Their son was born a few years later. \nIn 1861 Smalls was hired as a deckhand on the Confederate transport steamer Planter captained by General Roswell Ripley, the commander of the Second Military District of South Carolina. The Planter was assigned the job of delivering armaments to the Confederate forts. On May 13, 1862, the crew of the Planter went ashore for the evening, leaving Smalls to guard the ship and its contents. Smalls loaded the ship with his wife, children and 12 other slaves from the city and sailed it to the area of the harbor where Union ships had formed their blockade. This trip led the ship past five forts, all of which required the correct whistle signal to indicate they were a Confederate ship.\u00A0 Smalls eventually presented the Planter before Onward, a Union blockade ship and raised the white flag of surrender.\u00A0 He later turned over all charts, a Confederate naval code book, and armaments, as well as the Planter itself, over to the Union Navy. \nSmalls\u2019s feat is partly credited with persuading a reluctant President Abraham Lincoln to now consider allowing African Americans into the Union Army.\u00A0 Smalls went on a speaking tour across the\u00A0North\u00A0to describe the episode and to recruit black soldiers for the war effort.\u00A0 By late 1863 he returned to the war zone to pilot the Planter, now a Union war vessel.\u00A0 In\u00A0December 1863 he was promoted to Captain of the vessel, becoming the first African American to hold that rank in the history of the United States Navy.\u00A0\u00A0\u00A0\u00A0\nAfter","MaxDetailCharacters":0,"ImageUrl":"https://cdn.blackfacts.com/uploads/blackfacts/facts/www.blackpast.org/files/blackpast_images/smalls_robert.jpg","ImageHeight":470,"ImageWidth":350,"ImageOrientation":"portrait","HasImage":true,"CssClass":"","Layout":"","Rowspan":1,"Colspan":1,"Likes":0,"Shares":0,"ContentSourceId":"de2ecbf0-5aa4-45ce-bbf9-9a6ac45f6ac8","SourceName":"Black Past","ContentSourceRootUrl":"https://www.blackpast.org/","IsSponsored":false,"HasSmallSponsorLogo":false,"EffectiveDate":"1862-05-13T00:00:00","HasEffectiveDate":true,"Year":1862,"Month":5,"Day":13,"LastUpdatedDate":"2023-11-25T05:14:39.027","LastUpdatedBy":"ExtractionBotHub","IsEditable":false,"InsertAd":false,"Id":4431,"FactUId":"91307c5b-1d42-47e7-9538-ba9daa86ba99","Slug":"smalls-robert-1839-1915","FactType":"Event","Title":"Smalls, Robert (1839-1915)","LocalFactUrl":"/fact/smalls-robert-1839-1915","ResultCount":-1,"SearchType":"Today"}],"Uri":"https://widgets.blackfacts.com/widgets/150aad2e-9bd2-4e3a-b25e-b9ca552a53b5/today?callback=bfCallback1747005891464","SiteRoot":"https://blackfacts.com","ApiUsage":0,"Cached":true,"StartTime":"2025-05-13T22:35:48.6272578Z","Elapsed":"00:00:00.5307512"})