On March 17, 1992, white South Africans vote overwhelmingly
in a referendum to end minority rule, by a margin of 68.7
percent to 31.2 percent. Thus ended the turbulent period
called apartheid, a racial segregation policy that separated
the minority white population by designating areas and
activities prohibited to Black people.

Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela (18 July 1918 – 5 December 2013)

March 16, 1751, James Madison, drafter of the Constitution,
recorder of the Constitutional Convention, author of the
Federalist Papers and fourth president of the United States,
was born on a plantation in Virginia.       

Madison first distinguished himself as a student at the College
of New Jersey (now Princeton University), where he successfully completed a four-year course of study in two years and, in 1769,
helped found the American Whig Society, the second literary and
debate society at Princeton (and the world), to rival the previously established Cliosophic Society.

After retiring from official political positions, Madison served
Thomas Jefferson’s beloved University of Virginia first as a
member of the board of visitors and then as rector. In 1938,
the State Teachers College at Harrisonburg, Virginia, was
renamed in Madison’s honor as Madison College; in 1976,
it became James Madison University.

The constitutional convention in Virginia. 

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.

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

Hiram Rhodes Revels bust by Edmond’s Bob Willis.

  
BRIAN THOMAS

Michael Jeffrey Jordan was born at in Brooklyn, New York
City. He is 62 years old today.

As former professional basketball player MJ played 15 seasons
in the National Basketball Association between 1984 and 2003,
winning six NBA championships with the Chicago Bulls.

He was integral in popularizing basketball and the NBA around
the world in the 1980s and 1990s, becoming a global cultural
icon.

His profile on the NBA website states, "By acclamation, Michael
Jordan is the greatest basketball player of all time."

Abraham Lincoln was born into poverty in a log cabin
in Kentucky on February 12, 1809.

He served as President of the United States from 1861
until his assassination in 1865.