Feb. 1, 1926 What is now known as Black History Month was first celebrated on this date as Negro History Week by Carter G. Woodson. It became a month-long celebration in 1976.

Feb. 2, 1948 President Truman sent Congress a special message urging the adoption of a Civil Rights program, including the creation of a fair employment practices commission.

Feb. 3, 1920 The Negro Baseball League was founded.

Feb. 4, 1913 Rosa Parks (born Rosa Louise McCauley) was born on this day.

Feb. 5, 1962 A suit seeking to bar Englewood, NJ from maintaining "racial segregated" elementary schools was filed in U.S. District Court.

Feb. 6, 1867 Robert Tanner Jackson became the first African American to receive a degree in dentistry.

Feb. 7, 1926 Negro History Week, originated by Carter G. Woodson, was observed for the first time.

Feb. 8, 1986 Oprah Winfrey became the first African American woman to host a nationally syndicated talk show.

Feb. 9, 1971 Leroy "Satchel" Paige was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame.

Feb. 10, 1964 After 12 days of debate and voting on 125 amendments, the U.S. House of Representatives passed the Civil Rights Act of 1964 by a vote of 290-130.

Feb. 11, 1990 Nelson Mandela was released from a South African prison after being detained for 27 years as political prisoner.

Feb. 12, 1909 The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) was founded. The call for the organizational meeting was issued on the 100th anniversary of Abraham Lincoln's birth by 47 whites and six blacks.

Feb. 13, 1923 The first black professional basketball team, "The Renaissance," was organized.

Feb. 14, 1936 National Negro Congress organized a Chicago meeting attended by 817 delegates representing more than 500 organizations.

Feb. 15, 1968 Henry Lewis became the first black to lead a symphony orchestra in the United States.

Feb. 16, 1951 New York City Council passed a bill prohibiting racial discrimination in city-assisted housing developments.

Feb. 17, 1870 Congress passed a resolution readmitting Mississippi on the condition that it would never change its constitution to disenfranchise blacks.

Feb. 18, 1931 Toni Morrison (born Chloe Anthony Wofford), who won the Pulitzer Prize for her novel Beloved, was born on this day in Lorain, Ohio.

Feb. 19, 1919 Pan-African Congress, organized by W.E.B. DuBois, met at the Grand Hotel, Paris. There were 57 delegates, 16 from the United States and 14 from Africa as well as others from 16 countries and colonies.

Feb. 20, 1895 Death of Frederick Douglass. Douglass was the leading black spokesman for almost 50 years. He was a major abolitionist, lecturer and editor.

Feb. 21, 1895 North Carolina Legislature, dominated by black Republicans and white Populists, adjourned for the day to mark the death of Frederick Douglass.

Feb 22, 1979 Frank E. Peterson, Jr. was named the first black general in the Marine Corps.

Feb. 23, 1965 Constance Baker Motley was elected Manhattan Borough president, the highest elective office held by a black woman in a major American city.

Feb. 24, 1864 Rebecca Lee became the first black woman to receive an M.D. degree.

Feb. 25, 1870 Hirman R. Revels of Mississippi was sworn in as first black U.S. Senator and first black Representative in Congress.

Feb. 26, 1869 Fifteenth Amendment guaranteeing the right to vote was sent to the states for ratification.

Feb. 27, 1988 Figure skater Debi Thomas became the first African American to win a medal (bronze) at the winter Olympic Games.

Feb. 28, 1859 Arkansas legislature required free blacks to choose between exile and enslavement.

Source: Wisconsin NC