Ella Jane Fitzgerald (April 25, 1917 – June 15, 1996)

"First Lady of Song" Ella Fitzgerald becomes the first Black
woman to win a Grammy at the Recording Academy’s inaugural
awards show on May 4, 1959.

During the event at the Beverly Hilton in Los Angeles, Fitzgerald
took home two of 28 awards for best jazz and female vocal
performances. “Ella Fitzgerald Sings the Irving Berlin Song
Book” bested performances by Doris Day, Eydie Gorme, Peggy
Lee and Keely Smith for best female vocal performance.

In contrast “Ella Fitzgerald Sings the Duke Ellington Song Book”
won for jazz performance.

That year, Count Basie became the first Black man to win a
Grammy, also taking home two awards, for best jazz group
performance and best performance by a dance band.

On April 25, 1950, the Boston Celtics made Chuck
Cooper an All-American forward from Duquesne
University, the first African American picked in
the NBA draft.      

     
With the selection, the first pick in the second round,
Cooper breaks the NBA’s color barrier and changes
the league for the better. Cooper died of cancer on 
February 5, 1984,

Cooper was inducted into the Naismith Memorial
Basketball Hall of Fame on September 9, 2019.

Charles Henry Cooper (September 29, 1926 – February 5, 1984)    
    
      

SANDY KOZEL

On April 15, 1947, Jackie Robinson, at age 28, became the first
African American player in Major League Baseball’s modern
era when he steps onto Ebbets Field in Brooklyn to compete
for the Brooklyn Dodgers. Robinson broke the color barrier
in a sport that had been segregated for more than 50 years.

Exactly 50 years later, on April 15, 1997, Jackie Robinson’s groundbreaking career was honored and his uniform number,
42, was retired from Major League Baseball by Commissioner
Bud Selig in a ceremony attended by over 50,000 fans at New
York City’s Shea Stadium.

1972
          

    
SANDY KOZEL
   

Thomas Jefferson (April 13 April 2], 1743 – July 4, 1826)

Future President Thomas Jefferson, drafter of the Declaration
of Independence and the nation’s preeminent political theorist, 
was born on April 13, 1743.

He was the third president of the United States from 1801 to
1809 and the nation’s first U.S. secretary of state under
George Washington.

(FOX NEWS) – Former U.S. Rep. Mia Love, R-Utah, died on Sunday
at the age of 49, according to her family. She lost her battle with
cancer.

Love, who was the daughter of Haitian immigrants and the first
black Republican woman elected to Congress in 2014, "passed
away peacefully" surrounded by family.

Love had been undergoing treatment for brain cancer, but her
daughter said earlier this month the former congresswoman’s
cancer was no longer responding to it.

Ludmya "Mia" Love (December 6, 1975 – March 23, 2025)