Black History Timeline

1801

War in Sierre Leone (ends 1807).



1803  

April 7. Toussaint dies in captivity at Fort de Joux.



1804

January 1. Haiti becomes a free independent republic. Haiti was the richest colony in the world in the 1700s.

January 5. In Ohio the ‘Black Laws’ are passed. These are put in place to restrict the legal rights of free blacks.



Shehu (teacher) Uthman Dan Fodio of Sokoto ruled until 1817.



1806

March 17. Norbert Rillieux, (inventor and Egyptologist) is born.



October 9. Benjamin Banneker dies.



1807

March 25. International Slave Trade was abolished.



1808

January 1. The federal law prohibiting the importation of African slaves is implemented.



1810

The Afro-American Insurance Company is established by three African American men.



1811

Paul Cuffe, (an African American nationalist) starts transporting African-Americans back to Africa.



1815

Fulani Emirs declared a jihad against the Hausa state of Gobir.



The British take control of Cape Colony and increase British immigration in South Africa.



1818

February 17. Frederick Douglass is born.

The timeline for Frederick Douglass



Shaka Zulu unifies the Nguni people and sets up an army.



1819

January 8. Joseph Hunger Dickenson invents the record player arm.



1820

January 6. The first organized emigration to Africa begins and 86 freed slaves leave New York for Sierra Leone.



1821

March 3. Thomas L. Jennings is the first African-American to be given a patent in the United States.



Thomas L Jennings  Patents the technique to ‘dry- scour’ clothes.



1822

African Americans settlers found Monrovia, (capital of Liberia).



The American Colonization Society (ACS) was formed to send free African-Americans to Africa.



1823

October 9. Mary Ann Shadd is born. She was the publisher of Canada's first antislavery newspaper, ‘The Provincial Freeman’ and the first woman in North American to publish and edit a newspaper.



1827

John Parker, the ‘Underground Railroad Conductor’ is born.

March 16. The first Black newspaper, ‘Freedom's Journal’ is published in New York City.



1828

September 22. Shaka Zulu is assassinated.

Find out more

EVERYTHING AFRICAN

1829

September.  The militant antislavery pamphlet, ‘An Appeal to the Colored People of the World’ was put into circulation in the South by David Walker's.



September 20-24. The first ‘National Negro Convention’ met in Philadelphia.



1830-1834

Henry Blair patents the mechanical seed planter and mechanical corn harvester in 1830.



1831

August 21-22. The Nat Turner revolt ends in Southampton County, Virginia.

November 11. Nat Turner is hanged in Jerusalem, Virginia.



1832

Augustus Jackson invents ice cream. 

1836

January 8. Fannie M Jackson (first Black woman college graduate in the US) is born.

1837

March 23. African-Americans win the right to vote in Canada.



1839

June 27. The slaves on the Spanish ship, ‘Amistad’, took it over and sailed it to Montauk, Long Island. The Supreme Court later granted them their freedom.



February 2. Edmond Berger patents the spark plug.

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Frederick Douglass escapes from slavery.



1841

November 25. Thirty-five ‘Amistad’ survivors returned to Africa.



William A. Liedesdorff from the Virgin Islands becomes the first African American millionaire.



1844

January 30. Richard Theodore Greener becomes the first African American to graduate from Harvard University.



1845



J. Hawkins patents the Gridiron.



1846



Norbett Rillieux patents the sugar refining system. 



1847

July 26. The first republic is set up by freed slaves.



December 3. Frederick Doudlass and Martin R.Delaney establish the North Star, (an anti slavery paper).



1848

Lewis Temple patents the toggle harpoon.



1849

July. Harriet Tubman escaped from slavery. She led over 300 slaves to freedom.

 

1850

Emperor Tewodros II led his people into battle against Egyptian intruders.



James Forten patents sailing apparatus. 



1851

January 25. Sojourner Truth gives her ‘Aren’t I a Woman’ speech at the first Black Women's Rights Convention in Akron Ohio.

The white Boer republics of Orange Free State and Transvaal are established, c.1950’s.



1851

March 20. Uncle Tom's Cabin, (by Harriet Beecher Stowe) is published in Boston.



1853

April 20. Harriet Tubman starts the Underground Railroad.



July 6. William Wells Brown published the first novel by a Black American called ‘Clotel’.



1855

Ethiopian Emperor Tewodros II unifies Ethiopia and teaches Menelik.



1856

April 5. Booker Taliaferro Washington (Educator) is born.



April 23. Granville T. Woods (Inventor) is born.



1857

March 6. The Dred Scott decision of the Supreme Court refused to acknowledge that blacks were citizens of the United States.



March 27. Spike Lee, (Filmmaker) is born.



1862

May 21. Mary Patterson becomes the first black woman in the U.S. to earn an M.A degree, (at Oberlin College).



1863

January 1. Abraham Lincoln issues the Emancipation Proclamation. This freed all slaves in states.



William Brown published ‘The Black Man: His Antecedents, His Genius, & His Achievements’.

April 30. Sarah Thompson Garnet becomes the first African American female principal in the New York.



1864

July 21. The first daily Black newspaper, ‘The New Orleans Tribune’, is published.



During the Berlin Conference of 1884-85 European countries plot the complete colonialization of Africa.



1865

December 18. The Thirteenth Amendment (outlawing slavery) was passed.



1866

Edward G. Walker and Charles L. Mitchell were the first African-Americans to sit in an American legislature, (in Massachusetts).

1867

February 14. Morehouse College is established in Augusta, Georgia.



December 23. The first African American millionaire Madame C.J. Walker (Sarah Breedlove) is born on a Mississippi River plantation in Delta, LA.



1868

July 6. The South Carolina House became the first and only legislature to have an African American majority, (87 blacks to 40 whites).



July 28. The Fourteenth Amendment was passed. It made African-Americans citizens of the United States.



1869

January 13. National convention of Black leaders met in Washington, D.C. Fredrick Douglass was elected president.



The British and other Ethiopians surround Emperor Tewrodos II; he commits suicide.



1870

March 30. The15th Amendment gave voting rights for all male U.S. citizens.



Thomas M. Peterson is the first African American to vote.



1871

May 23. L. Bell patents the locomotive smoke stack.



June 20. The Ku Klux Klan trials begin.



1872

February 27. Charlotte Ray (first African American lawyer in the U.S) graduates from Howard Law School.



February 1. Jonathan Jasper Wright becomes the first African American in a major judicial post, (South Carolina Supreme Court).



July 12. Elijah McCoy patents the automatic lubrication system (for railroad and heavy machinery).

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Thomas J.Martin patents the fire extinguisher



1874

July 31. Father Patrick Francis Healey becomes the first African American man to earn a PhD (from University of Louvain in Belgium) and he becomes President of Georgetown University.

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1875

March 1. The Civil Rights Bill bans discrimination in places of public accommodation. The Supreme Court later overturned the bill (1883).



July 10. Mary McLeod Bethune, (educator and civil rights leader), is born in Mayesville, South Carolina.

Interviews with Mary McLeod Bethune

Photo's Of Mary McLeod Bethune and her Family

Mary McLeod Bethune- Life story

Mary McLeod sound files

December 19. Carter G.Woodson (founder of Black History Month) is born.

Carter G. Woodson timeline

November 30. Alexander P. Ashbourne patents the biscuit cutter. 



1876

July 25. Thomas Carrington patents the range oven (stove). 



November 7. Edward A. Bouchet earns his Ph.D. degree in physics at Yale University and he becomes the first African American to receive a doctorate at an American University.



1877

March 4. Garrett A. Morgan (Scientist/Inventor) is born.

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1878

May 7. J.W. Winters patents the fire escape ladder.



December 10. O. Dorsey patents the door knob and stop.



1879

August 1. Mary Eliza Mahoney becomes the first African American to graduate from a nursing school (at the ‘New England Hospital for Women and Children’).



The Zulus defeat the British in ‘The Battle of Isandlwana’.



Dr. Felkin (a European) is present at a caesarean operation by Banyoro surgeons in Uganda.



 1879-1880, about six thousand African Americans leave Louisiana and Mississippi counties for Kansas.



1880

November 2. P. Johnson patents the eye protector.



US Census of 1880

Total population: 50,155,783

African American population: 6,580,793 (13.1%)



Elbert R. Robinson patents the electric railway trolley c.1880



Ellen Elgin patents the clothes wringer c.1880



1881

April 11. Spelman College, (the first college for black women in the U.S.), is founded by Sophia B. Packard and Harriet E. Giles.



July 4. Booker T Washington opened Tuskegee Institute.



August 13. The first African American nursing school opens at Spelman College in Atlanta, Georgia.



British and Ottoman troops gain control of Egypt and Sudan.



W.S. Campbell patents the self-setting animal trap.



1882

The British take over of Egypt.



1883

November 26. Sojourner Truth dies.



December 15. William A.Hinton is born. He invented the Hinton test for diagnosing syphilis.



H.H. Reynolds patents the window ventilator for railroad cars.



Jan Matzelinger patents the automatic shoe making machine.



1884

August 19. Sarah Boone patents the ironing board.



December 2. Granville Woods patents the telephone, (more superior to Alexander Bell’s).



Granville Woods patents the steam boiler/radiator. He also invented third rail (Subway). 



J. W. Reed patents the dough kneader and roller.



M.C. Harney   patents the lantern/lamp. 



February 5. W. Johnson patents the egg beater.

 

1885

July 29. The First National Convention of Black Women held in Boston, Massachusetts.



April 7. L.S. Burridge and N.R. Marsham patent the typewriter.



Mohammed-Ahmed, (a Sudanese) triumphs over the Anglo-Arab army.



March 30. O. E. Brown patents the horse shoe. 



Sara E. Goode patents the cabinet bed. 

1886

Menelik moves the Ethiopian capital to Addis Ababa.



Frederick Douglass travels to Africa.



March 3. Robert Flemming Jr. invents the guitar.



1887

August 16. Granville T Woods patents the electromechanical brake.



August 17. Marcus Garvey was born (32 Market St., St. Ann's Bay).

Marcus Garvey links

Marcus Garvey: Full Speech and Video



Marcus Garvey: Look for Me in the Whirlwind- PBS Documentary

 

Marcus Garvey web site





Hear Marcus Garvey Speak About African unity

National Heroes

Ethiopians defeat a small army of Italians near Dogali.



October 11. Alexander Miles patents the elevator and also the safety device for elevators.



W.A. Martin invents the lock.



Granville T Woods patents the multiplex telegraph system.



J. Robinson patents the dinner pail.



1888

A. B. Blackburn patents the spring seat for chairs.



Granville Woods patents the trolley car. 



O.B. Clare patents the rail tresle.



1889

Menelik II becomes the new Emperor and he makes a treaty with Italy.



May 19. F.J. Loudin patents the key chain.



June 11. Brody & Surgwar patents the folding chair.



1890

January 7. W.B. Purvis patents he fountain pen. 



March 17. C.B. Brook patents the street sweeper.



November 11. D. McCree patents the portable fire escape.



1891

The first African American Hospital (Provident Hospital) is established in Chicago, Illinois.



February 17. A.C. Richardson patents the churn.



1892

A.L. Lewis patents the window cleaner.  

  

Anna M. Mangin patents the pastry fork.



June 7. G.T. Sampson patents the clothes drier. 



L. F. Brown patents the bridle bit.



J.H. White patents the convertible sofa.



1893

Dr. Daniel Hale Williams performed the first open heart surgery.



June 11. Thomas W. Stewart patents the mop. 



June 27. Phillip Downing patents the letter drop mailbox.



1894

November 3. A.C. Richardson patents the casket-lowering device.



April 10. G.W. Murray patents the cultivator and marker.



April 10. G.W. Murray patents the combined furrow opener and stalk-knocker, planter and fertilizer distributor.



June 5. G.W. Murray patents the cotton chopper.



July 14. John Standard patents the refrigerator.

R.P. Scott patents the corn silker.



1895

September 18. Booker T. Washington makes his ‘Atlanta Compromise’ speech at the Cotton States International Exposition in Atlanta, Georgia.



February 20. Frederick Douglass dies.



October 6. W.D. Davis patents riding saddles.

 

November 15. J.H. White patents the lemon squeezer.

1896

April 15. Booker T. Washington gains an honorary degree.



August 4. W.S. Grant patents the curtain rod support.



Ethiopia defeats the Italian army.



H. Grenon patents the razor stropping device.



J. H. Hunter patents the portable weighing scales.



George Washington Carver invents peanut butter. He also invented 300 products from peanuts, 118 products from the sweet potato and 75 from the pecan. 



1897

October 7. Elijah Muhammad is born.

February 2. Alfred L. Cralle patents the ice cream scooper.



February 27. Walter B. Purvis patents the hand stamp.



May 4. J.S. Smith patents the lawn sprinkler. 



August 3. Lloyd P. Ray patents the dust pan. 



November 23. J.L. Love patents the pencil sharpener.



December 28. C.V. Richey patents the fire escape bracket.



T. Elkins invents the toilet. 



G.W. Kelley patents the steam table.

 

J.A. Sweeting patents the cigarette roller. 



Andrew Beard patents the automatic car coupling device for trains.



R.A. Butler patents the train alarm. 



1898

October 11. C.O. Baliff patents the shampoo headrest.



November 15. Lydia O. Newman patents the hair brush. 



A.E. Long and A.A. Jones   patents the caps for bottles and jars.

         

A.L. Rickman patents galoshes, (rubber overshoe).



C. W. Allen patents the self-leveling table.



J. A. Joyce patents the ore bucket.



W. H. Ballow  patents the combined hat rack and table.



1899

April 4. B.F. Jackson patents the gas burner.



May 30. G. Cook patents the automatic fishing device.



June 18. W.H. Richardson patents the baby buggy.    

   

July 18. L.C. Bailey patents the folding bed. 



October 10. L.R Johnson patents the bicycle frame.



December 12. G. F. Grant patents the golf tee.



B. F. Cargill patents the invalid cot.



J. H. Robinson patents lifesaving guards for street cars.



J. Ross patents the bailing press.



W. F. Burr patents the railway switching device.



1900

January 30. John Parker, Underground Railroad Conductor dies.



February 20. J.F. Pickering patents the air ship.