April 1, 1950 – Charles R. Drew, who developed techniques for processing and preserving blood, died.
April 2, 1984 – Georgetown coach John Thompson becomes first Black coach to win NCAA basketball tournament.
April 3, 1826 – Poet-orator James Madison Bell, author of the Emancipation Day poem “The Day and the War”, born.
April 4, 1968 – Martin Luther King assassinated.
April 5, 1951 – Washington, D.C. Municipal Court of Appeals outlawed segregation in restaurants.
April 6, 1909 – Matthew A. Henson reaches the North Pole, 45 minutes before Commandeer Peary.
April 7, 1885 – Granville T. Woods patents apparatus for transmission of messages by electricity.
April 8, 1974 – Atlanta Braves slugger Hank Aaron hits 715 home run, surpassing Babe Ruth as the game’s all-time home-run leader.
April 9, 1898 – Paul Robeson, actor, singer, activist, born.
April 10, 1947 – Brooklyn Dodger Jackie Robinson becomes first African American to play major league baseball.
April 11, 1966 – Emmett Ashford becomes first Black umpire in the major leagues.
April 12, 1983 – Harold Washington becomes first African American mayor of Chicago.
April 13, 1950 – Historian Carter G. Woodson, author of The Miseducation of the Negro, died.
April 14, 1775 – First abolitionist society in U.S. is founded in Philadelphia.
April 15, 1964 – Sidney Poitier becomes first Black to win Academy Award for Best Actor for Lilies of the Field.
April 16, 1862 – Slavery abolished in the District of Columbia.
April 17, 1983 – Alice Walker wins Pulitzer Prize for fiction for The Color Purple.
April 18, 1864 – More than 200 Black Union troops massacred by Confederate forces at Ft. Pillow, Tennessee.
April 19, 1972 – Stationed in Germany, Major Gen. Frederic E. Davidson becomes first Black to lead an army division.
April 20, 1894 – Dr. Lloyd A. Hall, pioneering food chemist, born.
April 21, 1966 – Pct. Milton L. Olive III awarded the Medal of Honor posthumously for valor in Vietnam.
April 22, 1922 – Jazz bassist and composer Charles Mingus born.
April 23, 1895 – Clatonia Joaquin Dorticus patents photographic print wash.
April 24, 1944 – United Negro College Fund Incorporated.
April 25, 1918 – Ella Fitzgerald, “First Lady of Song”, born.
April 26, 1888 – Sarah Boone patents ironing board.
April 27, 1968 – Vincent Porter becomes first African American certified in plastic surgery.
April 28, 1839 – Cinque leads mutiny off the coast of Long Island, NY.
April 29, 1899 – Duke Ellington, jazz musician and composer, born.
April 30 1952 – Dr. Louis T. Wright honored by American Cancer Society for his contributions to cancer research.