Celebrating Black History Month: Pierre Caliste Landry, first African-American mayor elected in the U.S.

Pierre Caliste Landry, born April 19, 1841 in Louisiana, became the first African-American to be elected mayor in the United States.  He was elected as mayor of Donaldsonville, Louisiana in 1868. Landry was born into slavery on a sugar cane plantation in Ascension Parish.

At the end of the Civil War, Landry moved his family to Donaldsonville and was elected mayor during the Reconstruction Era in 1868.  He was elected to the Louisiana House of Representatives in 1872.  He was elected to the Louisiana State Senate in 1874 and served until 1880.

He passed away in December 1921.

"Murders in the Rue Morgue" first detective story published 1841

What is considered to be the first detective story, "Murders in the Rue Morgue" was published by the master of horror, Edgar Allan Poe, April 20, 1841.  The detective Monsieur C. Auguste Dupin, who solves a series of bizarre murders in Paris, is credited with inspiring great fictional detectives such as Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes and Dame Agatha Christie's Hercule Poirot.  Because Poe wrote the story, he is recognized by the Edgar Awards given annually by the Mystery Writers of America.

Poe's story has been brought to the screen numerous times.  Here is the trailer for the 1932 version starring Bela Lugosi.