Facts

1984: Musician and entertainer Michael Jackson wins 8 Grammy Awards. His album, “Thriller” remains one of the top-grossing albums of all time.

1869: Congress adopted the 15th Amendment, making it illegal for the US to deny the right to vote based on “race, color or previous condition of servitude.”

1928: Singer “Fats” Domino was born in New Orleans, Louisiana. He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1986.

1864: After graduating from New England Female Medical College, Rebecca Lee Crumpler becomes the first black woman to receive an M.D.

1965: Constance Baker Motley is elected Manhattan Borough president, the highest elective office held by a Black woman in a major American city.

1989: DJ Jazzy Jeff and the Fresh Prince win the first Rap Grammy for the hit single “Parents Just Don’t Understand.”

On February 21, 1965, former Nation of Islam leader and influential Black Civil Rights activist Malcolm X was assassinated in New York City.

1940: Soul singer William “Smokey” Robinson born in Detroit, Michigan. Smokey was an original member of Motown’s first vocal group, The Miracles.

On this day, Toni Morrison was born in Lorain, Ohio in 1931. She went on to win the Pulitzer Prize for her novel “Beloved.”

Today is the birthdate of wildly successful Basketball player and lucrative business man, Michael Jeffrey Jordan. Born in Brooklyn, New York in 1963.

1970: Joe Frazier knocked out Jimmy Ellis in the second round of their New York fight and became the world heavyweight boxing champion.

1964: Louis Armstrong’s “Hello Dolly” recording becomes his first and only number one record.