Hiram Rhodes Revels (September 27, 1827 – January 16, 1901)

On this day in 1870 Hiram Rhodes Revels, a Republican from
Natchez, Mississippi, was sworn into the U.S. Senate, becoming
the first African American ever to sit in Congress.

During the Civil War, Revels, a college-educated minister, helped
form African American army regiments for the Union cause,
started a school for freed men, and served as a chaplain for the
Union army. Posted to Mississippi, Revels remained in the
former Confederate state after the war and entered into
Reconstruction-era Southern politics.

Hiram Revels taking the oath of office.

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From Cape Canaveral, Florida, John Herschel Glenn Jr (above).
was successfully launched into space aboard the Friendship 7
spacecraft (above) on the first orbital flight by an American
astronaut. 

Glenn, a decorated lieutenant colonel in the U.S. Marine Corps,
was among the seven men chosen by the National Aeronautics
and Space Administration (NASA) in 1959 to become the first
American astronauts.

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TIM MAGUIRE

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The First AFL-NFL World Championship Game in professional 
football, known retroactively as Super Bowl I and referred to as
the Super Bowl, was played on January 15, 1967 at the Los
Angeles Memorial Coliseum in Los Angeles, California. The
National Football League (NFL) champion Green Bay Packers
defeated the American Football League (AFL) champion Kansas
City Chiefs by the score of 35–10.

   

Green Bay Packers Hall of Fame quarterback Bart Starr (15) drops
back to pass during Super Bowl I.

Kansas City Chiefs Hall of Fame quarterback Len Dawson (16) fires
a pass during Super Bowl I.

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February 1, 1884: The first portion, or fascicle, of the Oxford
English Dictionary (OED), considered the most comprehensive
and accurate dictionary of the English language, was published.

Today, the OED is the definitive authority on the meaning,
pronunciation and history
of over half a million English words, past and present. 

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