Charles Hamilton Houston died on April 22, 1950 in Washington DC at age 54.  Hamilton was a distinguished attorney who served as Dean of the Howard University Law School.    Houston was often referred to as the “The Man Who Killed Jim Crow”  because of his actions as the NAACP Litigation Director in tearing down Jim Crow Laws.  Houston was born on September 3, 1895 in Washington DC.

Founders Library, Howard University

 

More Events On This Day

2016

More than 170 countries signed the Paris Agreement on climate change, a landmark treaty that sought to control and reduce greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere; it took effect in November 2016.Is climate change real?

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2004

American football player Pat Tillman, who had left his lucrative NFL career to enlist in the army following the September 11 attacks, died in Afghanistan; although initial reports claimed he was killed by enemy forces, it was eventually revealed that he had died in a friendly-fire incident.

1994

Former U.S. president Richard M. Nixon, who was the first American president to resign from office, died.Take our U.S. presidents quiz

© Dennis Brack—Black Star/PNI

1983

The German magazine Stern created a sensation when it announced the discovery of the Hitler Diaries, 60 volumes of journals reportedly written by Adolf Hitler; however, they were quickly determined to be forgeries.How much do you know about Adolf Hitler?

dpa dena/picture-alliance/dpa/AP Images

1937

American actor Jack Nicholson—one of the most prominent motion-picture actors of his generation, especially noted for his versatile portrayals of unconventional, alienated outsiders—was born.Sort fact from fiction in our quiz about movie actors

© Long Road Productions; photograph from a private collection

1915

During World War I, German forces introduced the systematized use of chemical warfare when they released chlorine gas along a 4-mile (6-km) front at the Second Battle of Ypres.Take our quiz about wartime Germany

Image Asset Managemen/World History Archive/age fotostock

1904

American theoretical physicist and science administrator J. Robert Oppenheimer, who served as director of the Los Alamos laboratory in New Mexico during development of the atomic bomb, was born.Watch U.S. B-29 Superfortress Enola Gay drop a nuclear bomb on Hiroshima in 1945

Courtesy of the Los Alamos National Laboratory, New Mexico

1889

At noon, by federal decree, white settlers were allowed into Indian Territory, sparking a land rush involving tens of thousands in what became Oklahoma Territory.Test your knowledge of U.S. history

Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.

1870

Vladimir Ilich Lenin—who founded the Bolshevik political faction (1912–17), inspired and led the Bolshevik Revolution (1917), headed (1917–24) the Soviet state, and founded the organization known as the Comintern (Communist International)—was born.Sort fact from fiction in our Russia quiz

Tass/Sovfoto

1864

The U.S. Congress passed the Coinage Act of 1864, which led to “In God We Trust” being printed on U.S. coins; the phrase was eventually added to all of the country's currency.Take our quiz about the history of currency

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1724

German philosopher Immanuel Kant was born in Königsberg, Prussia (now Kaliningrad, Russia).Take our Philosophy 101 quiz

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1500

Portuguese explorer Pedro Álvares Cabral, while on a voyage tracing Vasco da Gama's 1497–99 water route to India, sighted the mainland of South America near the present-day city of Pôrto Seguro, Brazil.Sort fact from fiction in our quiz about European exploration

The Granger Collection, NYC

1370

Construction began on the Bastille, the medieval fortress that came to symbolize French despotism.Test your knowledge of French history

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1073

Gregory VII (later canonized) was elected by acclamation to succeed Alexander II as pope.