On this Day in Black History

1804 - The formal ceremonies transferring the Louisiana Purchase from France to the U.S. took place in St. Louis.
1806 - The Dutch in Cape Town, South Africa surrendered to the British
1845 - Hallie Quinn Brown born
1849 - Missouri legislature votes for "popular sovereignty," a subterfuge to keep the federal government from interfering with slavery within the state.
1863 - Daniel Alexander Payne purchases Wilberforce University from the white Methodist Episcopal Church to found a black college for the African Methodist Episcopal Church.
1863 - Fifty-fourth Massachusetts Infantry organized
1867 - Lillian Wald born
1902 - The Boers of South Africa scored their last victory over the British, when they captured British General Methuen and 200 men.
1903 - Leon "Bix" Beiderbecke born
1913 - Harriet Tubman died
1955 - Bunny Debarge (Debarge) born
1956 - Enactment of the “Southern Manifesto"
1964 - Neneh Cherry born
1964 - Jasmine Guy born
1969 - James Earl Ray plead guilty to the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr.
1965 - Daisy Lampkin, founder of the National Council of Negro Women, died
1972 - First Black Political Convention
1979 - James Brown played at the Grand Ole Opry.
1989 - Doc Green (the Drifters) died
1997 - Lavern Baker died
1990 - Prosper Avril (Haitian President) was ousted 18 months after seizing power in a coup.