July 16
1991- In Paris, jazz musician Miles Davis was named the Knight in the French Legion of Honor one of that nation’s highest cultural honors.
July 17
1959- Iconic blues singer Billie Holiday died in New York City from complications tied to cirrhosis of the liver.
July 18
1964- A race riot in Harlem spread to the Bedford-Stuyvesant section of Brooklyn after 15 year-old James Powel was shot and killed in front of his friends by police Lieutenant Thomas Gilligan.
July 19
1979- Patricia R. Harris was named U.S. Secretary of Health, Education and Welfare.
July 20
1967- More than one thousand people attended the first Black Power Conference in Newark, New Jersey.
July 21
1951- William H. Thompson became the first African American to receive the Congressional Medal of Honor since the Spanish American War when he was awarded the honor posthumously.
