Donna Brazile was born on this date in 1959. She is an African American author, educator, and political activist and strategist affiliated with the Democratic Party.
Brazile was born in New Orleans, LA, to Lionele and Jean Brazile, the third of nine children. She became interested in politics when at age nine a local candidate for office promised to build a neighborhood playground.
learn moreMichael P. Anderson was born on this date in 1959. He was an African American pilot and astronaut.
He was born on Christmas Day in Plattsburgh, New York, the son of Bobby and Barbara Anderson. His father was an Air Force serviceman and had a great influence on his son’s career choice. Young Anderson dreamed of the universe and space flight from the time he was a boy. He knew from an early age that he would become an astronaut. He got his first toy airplane at age 3.
learn more*Michelle Howard was born on this date in 1960. She is a Black Navy admiral. Michelle Janine Howard was born in March Air Reserve Base, California, U.S., the daughter of former U.S. Air Force master sergeant Nick Howard and his British wife, Phillipa. She graduated from Gateway High School in Aurora, Colorado, in 1978. She then graduated from the U.S. […]
learn moreOn this date in 1960, President Dwight Eisenhower signed the Civil Rights Act of 1960.
This was the first civil rights bill to be approved by Congress since Reconstruction. Though Eisenhower is not routinely linked to the civil rights issue, his contribution, including the 1957 Act, was important as it pushed the whole civil rights issue into the White House. At the time, politicians from the South were angry over what they saw as federal interference in state affairs. This bill became an act where as both parties were fighting for the “Black Vote.”
learn more*On this date in 1960, Senegal and French Sudan merged to form the Mali Federation, which became fully independent. Senegal was first colonized during the 15th century by major European powers; French, Dutch, Portuguese, and British. It is also the location of Goree Island, one of the first transport locations of the middle passage of slavery to the Americas. […]
learn more*Samia Nkrumah was born on this date in 1960. She is a Black politician and administrator. Samia Yaba Christina Nkrumah was born in Aburi in the Eastern Region of Ghana. The second child of Kwame Nkrumah, she was forced to leave Ghana with her mother and brothers on the day of the 1966 military coup that […]
learn more*On this date in 1960, Madagascar became an independent country from France, and Philibert Tsiranana became its first president. Seventy-six years after the Berlin Conference, the high point of white European competition for African territory was a process commonly known as the Scramble for Africa. The Malagasy Republic, proclaimed on October 14, 1958, became an autonomous state […]
learn moreOn this date in 1960, Somalia gained its independence from Britain.
Situated in the horn of East Africa, early on Somalia’s economy was based upon the nomadic herding of animals. From the time of America’s Reconstruction (1870s) until World War II (1942), Britain gained control over the Italian portions of Somalia. In 1887, Britain became concerned with keeping the route to India open through the Suez Canal, which was opened in 1869, and as a result, Britain proclaimed Somalia as a British protectorate and named it British Somaliland.
learn more*On this date in 1960, Burkina Faso gained independence from France. Starting in the early 1890s, during the white-European Berlin Conference, many white military officers attempted to claim parts of what is today Burkina Faso. These colonialists and their armies fought the local peoples; sometimes, they forged alliances with them and made treaties. The colonialist officers […]
learn more*On this date in 1960, Ivory Coast achieved its full independence from France, and Félix Houphouët-Boigny became the first president after the independence. Leading to the transfer of power, the Ivory Coast became a member state within the French Community on December 4, 1958. Students in the 1960s and 1970s began to organize into student activist groups, some of which opposed the Houphouet-Boigny […]
learn more*On this date in 1960 Chad gained its independence from France. The Republic of Chad is a large landlocked country in west central Africa, formerly a part of French Equatorial Africa.
learn more*The Central African Republic gained independence from France on this date in 1960. They are a landlocked country in Central Africa. Its bordered by Chad to the north, Sudan to the northeast, South Sudan to the southeast, DR Congo to the south, the Republic of the Congo to the southwest, and Cameroon to the west. Approximately 10,000 years ago, desertification forced hunter-gatherer societies south into the Sahel […]
learn more*On this date in 1960, Gabon gained its independence from France. Officially the Gabonese Republic they are a country on the west coast of Central Africa. Originally settled by Pygmy peoples, they were absorbed into the Bantu tribes as they migrated. By the 18th century, a Myeni-speaking kingdom known as the Kingdom of Orungu formed […]
learn more*On this date in 1960, Mali, Africa, gained independence from France. Following the withdrawal of Senegal from the federation in August 1960, the former Sudanese Republic became the Republic of Mali, with Modibo Keïta as president. Keïta, whose Sudanese Union-African Democratic Rally (US/RDA) party had dominated pre-independence politics (as a member of the African Democratic Rally), declared a […]
learn more*On this date in 1960, Gomillion v. Lightfoot, 364 U.S. 339 (1960), was argued at the United States Supreme Court. This decision found an electoral district with boundaries created to disenfranchise blacks violated the Fifteenth Amendment. In Tuskegee, Alabama, after the Civil Rights Act of 1957, activists had been slowly making progress in registering black voters, whose numbers on the rolls […]
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