On July 10, 1893, trailblazing physician Daniel Hale Williams
successfully performed one of the world’s first open-heart
surgeries at Provident Hospital in Chicago. Not only is he a
pioneer of the procedure; he is one of just three African
American physicians practicing in Chicago at a time when
many white-run hospitals refused to treat Black patients—
much less hire Black doctors.

Born in Hollidaysburg, Pennsylvania on January 18, 1856,
Williams worked as a shoemaker’s apprentice and a barber
before graduating from Chicago Medical College in 1883.

Dr. Williams opened Provident Hospital in Chicago,
Illinois, which is known to be the first Black-owned
hospital in the nation.

On July 6, 1957, Althea Gibson claimed the women’s singles
tennis title at Wimbledon and became the first African
American to win a championship at London’s All England
Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club.

Althea Neale Gibson
(August 25, 1927 – September 28, 2003)

Gibson survived a heart attack, but died
shortly after from complications following
respiratory and bladder infections.

SANDY KOZEL

On July 5, 1975, Arthur Ashe defeated the heavily favored Jimmy Connors to became the first African-American male ever to win Wimbledon, the most coveted championship in tennis.

Arthur Robert Ashe Jr.
(July 10, 1943 – February 6, 1993)

In what is now known as Juneteenth, on June 19, 1865, Union
soldiers arrived in Galveston, Texas with news that the Civil
War is over and slavery in the United States is abolished.

A mix of June and 19th, Juneteenth has become a day to
commemorate the end of slavery in America.

Despite the fact that President Abraham Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation was issued more than two years earlier on January
1, 1863, a lack of Union troops in the rebel state of Texas made
the order difficult to enforce.

Some historians blame the lapse in time on poor communication
in that era, while others believe Texan slave-owners purposely
withheld the information.

Abraham Lincoln 
(February 12, 1809 – April 15, 1865)

Henry Ossian Flipper (March 21, 1856 – April 26, 1940)

Flipper, born into slavery in Thomasville, Georgia, became the
first African American cadet to graduate from the United States
Military Academy at West Point, New New York on June 14, 1877.

After losing his commission in the Army, Henry Flipper
worked throughout Mexico and Latin America as an
assistant to the Secretary of the Interior. He retired
to Atlanta in 1931 and died of natural causes.

The United States Military Academy—the first military school
in America—was founded by Congress in 1802 for the purpose
of educating and training young men in the theory and practice
of military science.