Today in Black History - August 23

1826 - Edward A. Jones receives his B.A. degree from Amherst College. John Brown Russwurm is considered to be the first African American in America to graduate from college. Two years after entering Bowdoin College, he receives his baccalaureate degree on September 6, 1826.Edward A. Jones, the lesser known of the two, graduates just two weeks prior on this date in 1826 from Amherst College. Both men will receive their Masters Degrees, John in 1829 and Edward in 1830.

1833 - Great Britain frees 700,000 slaves in its colonies.

1892 - O.E. Brown, inventor, receives a patent for a horseshoe.

1900 - The National Negro Business League is formed in Boston, Massachusetts. Sponsored by Booker T. Washington, the organization is established to stimulate the development of African American businesses.

1908 - Fifty-two nurses, led by Martha M. Franklin, form the National Association of Colored Graduate Nurses.

1917 - A riot occurs in Houston, Texas, when the 24th Infantry seeks revenge on the city's white police after the brutal beating of two of the regiment's soldiers. After two hours of violence, 15 whites, including four policemen, will be killed and 12 more are injured. Four soldiers will die as a result of the violence. One hundred and eighteen soldiers will be charged in connection with the riots and 19 executed, most in almost total secrecy, in one of the most infamous court-martials ever involving African Americans.

1989 - An African American teenager named Yusef Hawkins is chased and beaten to death by a mob of 30 white youths from the neighborhood of Bensonhurst in Brooklyn, New York. The only provocation is that he is African American in an all-white neighborhood.

2003 - Bobby Bonds joins the ancestors at the age of 57 after succumbing to lung cancer. He was a former San Francisco Giants outfielder and father of Giants slugger Barry Bonds.

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