[CrimsonTide4]

FEBRUARY 17, 2002

1870
Congress passed resolution readmitting Mississippi on condition that it would never change its constitution to disenfranchise Blacks.

1891
A. C. Richardson, a black inventor,
invented the churn, patent #466,470

1902
Opera singer Marian Anderson was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Anderson was entered in the New York Philharmonic Competition at age 17 by her music teacher, and placed first over 299 other singers. Awarded a Rosenwald Fellowship in 1930, Anderson went to Europe for a year of study. She returned briefly to the United States but went back to Europe in 1933 to debut in Berlin and again, in 1935, in Austria. In 1933, Anderson performed 142 concerts in Norway, Sweden, Denmark and Finland. On Easter Sunday in 1939, Anderson performed an open air recital at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C. The performance was scheduled for the concert hall controlled by the Daughters of the American Revolution but was cancelled when the DAR refeused to allow Anderson to sing there. In 1955, Anderson signed with New York's Metropolitan Opera Company.

1918
Birthday of Rep. Charles A. Hayes, D-Illinois, who was born in Cairo, Illinois. In 1989, Hayes was re-elected to a fourth term in the House of Representatives. He was first elected Sept. 12, 1983.

1936
James Nathaniel Brown, 63, Pro Football Hall of Fame Fullback, Born February 17, 1936 in St. Simons Island, GA

1938
On this day Mary Frances Berry, who will become the first woman to serve as a chancellor of a major research university, is born in Nashville, Tenn.

1942
Huey Newton, founder of the Black Panthers, born.

1963
Michael Jeffrey Jordan, 39, Basketball player, former minor league baseball player, Born New York, New York, February 17, 1963

1967
Ronald DeVoe, 35, Singer of Bell Biv DeVoe and New Edition was born Boston, MA, February 17, 1967.

1973
The Navy frigate USS Jesse L. Brown was commissioned. The ship was named for Ensign Jesse L. Brown, the first African American naval aviator killed in combat over Korea.

1982
Jazz Pianist Thelonious Monk dies

1997
Virginia House of Delegates votes unanimously to retire the state song, "Carry me back to old virginia," a tune which glorifies slavery.