On this Day in Black History

1789 - The first Congress of the United States met in New York and declared that the U.S. Constitution was in effect.
1837 - The state of Illinois granted a city charter to Chicago.
1837 - Weekly Advocate changed its name to the Colored American, the second major Black newspaper.
1877 - Garrett A. Morgan born
1897 - Willie Covan born
1901 - Term of George H. White, last of post-Reconstruction congressmen, ended at noon.
1922 - Bert Williams died
1932 - Zensi Miriam Makeba born
1944 - Bobby Womack born
1954 - President Eisenhower named J. Earnest Wilkins of Chicago assistant secretary of labor.
1955 - Charlie Parker played at Birdland in what would be his last public performance.
1960 - Mykelti Williamson born
1968 - Martin Luther King, Jr. announced plans for Poor People's Campaign.
1979 - Randy Jackson was seriously injured in a car crash and almost died in the emergency room when a nurse inadvertently injects him with methadone.
1993 - Bobbi Kristina Houston Brown born
1993 - Patti LaBelle received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
2002 - Doreen Waddell was killed after attempting to run across the A27 in Brighton, England after being caught shoplifting.