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(Barack Obama)
Feb. 5
1990- Columbia University graduate and Harvard University law student, Barack Obama, became the first African American president of the Harvard Law Review.
Feb. 6
1945- Native Jamaican and reggae legend Bob Marley was born in Saint Ann, Jamaica. The singer-songwriter, guitarist and musician soon went on to achieve international fame with songs, “One Love” and “I Shot the Sheriff.”
Feb. 7
1945- Irwin Mollison appointed judge of the U.S. Customs Court. He was the first African American appointed to the position in the federal judiciary.
Feb. 8
(Harry S. McAlpin)
1944- Harry S. McAlpin was accredited as the first African American journalist to attend a U.S. Presidential news press conference
Feb. 9
1995- Astronaut Bernard Harris became the first African American to perform an extra-vehicular activity, also known as a spacewalk, during the second trip of his two Space Shuttle flights.
Feb. 10
1989- Attorney Ronald Harmon Brown was elected national chairman of the Democratic Party, making him the first African American to do so. Brown was later appointed Secretary of Commerce under Bill Clinton’s administration in 1993.
Feb. 11
(Nelson Mandela)
1990- Iconic leader Nelson Mandela was released from Victor Verster prison. He gave a speech that day declaring his commitment to reconciliation and peace in racial ties to the white minority, but urged that the struggle of apartheid was not over.
