The incomparable Glenn Close won her first Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Femal Actor in a Miniseries or Television Movie, for her portrayal of Eleanor of Aquitaine in Showtime's presentation of The Lion in Winter, the annual ceremony held February 5, 2005. She had been nominated twice before. To date she was won two SAG awards out of ten nominations.
I've seen this version of The Lion in Winter and Close deserved every award for her work. I'm shocked that Patrick Stewart was not even nominated for his performance as Henry II. The movie didn't receive any other nominations. Tragic. This version is awesome with powerful performances from all cast and crew.
Isaac R. Johnson, born ca. 1812 in New York, did not invent the bicycle frame, but he did perfect it. He became the first African American man to patent a new frame, which is still in use today.
Not much is known about Johnson other than what information was included on the patent paperwork, which he filed in April 1899. He was granted the patent in October 1899.
Lucy Higgs Nichols, born April 10, 1838 in Hardeman County, Tennessee, was a slave, but escaped in late June 1862 with her daughter Mona and several other slaves. She eventually arrived at the Union lines near Bolivar, Tennessee. Major Shadrack Hooper of the 23rd Indian Infantry Regiment reported Lucy joining their regiment and described her as having integrity, honesty, intelligence, always smiling, cheerful and kind, a willing washer woman, seamstress, nurse, cook, and singer, as well as a "rattling good forager".
Her daughter Mona died at the Siege of Vicksburg. After which she followed the Indiana 23rd Infantry when they were deployed to the war in Mississippi. She was present at every siege. She followed the Union army east in General Sherman's March to the Sea.
After the war, she was a free citizen of New Albany, Indiana. She worked for officers and nursed veterans back to health. Five years after the war, she developed measles and soldiers nursed her back to health. When she had a stroke years later, soldiers cared for her again.
She passed away in January 1915 and is buried in an unmarked grave at West Haven Cemetery in New Albany, Indiana.
Janet Jackson released her third solo album Control, February 4, 1986, a collaboration with Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis. It was her first album to top the Billboard 200 charts and generated seven singles, five of which peaked within the top 5 of the Billboard Hot 100 singles.
Control won a Grammy for Producer of the Year, Non-Classical for Jam and Lewis in 1987. It was nominated for Album of the Year, as well. Jackson was nominated for Best Female R&B Vocal Performance. What Have you Done for Me Lately was nominated for Best R&B Song.
Control received twelve nominations from the American Music Awards, a record-breaking, and won four of them. She won three Soul Train Music Awards and six Billboard Music Awards.
The Recording Industry Association of America certified Control as gold in April 1986. In June, it was certified platinum. In 1989, it was certified 5x platinum in October. It has sol over 10M copies world wide.
Crystal Bird Fauset, born June 27, 1893 in Princess Anne, Maryland, was the first female African American to elected as state legislator in the US. She was elected to the Pennsylvania House of Representatives in 1938, based in Philadelphia, receiving 7000 votes in an area 66% white at the time.
She received her BS in education from Teachers College, Columbia University in 1931. She helped establish the Institute of Race Relations at Swarthmore College in 1933. In 1935, she became assistant to the director of Philadelphia's Works Progress Administration, and ended a racial quota system for sewing jobs which helped increase black women's access to employment.
Fauset resigned from the state legislature to begin a new position as the assistant director of the education and recreation of the WPA, as well as its race relations advisor in Pennsylvania.
Jehu Jones, born September 4, 1786 in Charleston, South Carolina, is the first African American to be ordained a a Lutheran pastor.
After being involved in the Episcopal Church, he became a member of St. John's Lutheran Church in Charleston. His pastor Reverend John Bachman encouraged him to go to New York to be ordained by the New York Synod. In 1832, he went to Liberia to help freed slaves transition.
After his return he moved to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and the Pennsylvania ministry appointed him "to labor as a Missionary...among the colored people in Philadelphia..."
Jones founded St. Paul's Lutheran Church and on February 16, 1834, the congregation decided to build a church. Jones laid the cornerstone later in 1834.
On February 1, 1960, Ezell Blair Jr., David Richmond, Franklin McCain, and Joseph MacNeil, entered the Woolworth's store on South Elm Street in Greensboro, North Carolina. They purchased items from a desegregated counter, with no issues, and each ordered a cup of coffee and a donut from the lunch counter. They were refused service. A white waitress said, "We don't serve Negroes here". The men were also harassed by the African-American employees.
The A&T Four or the Greensboro Four, as they became to be known as, stayed until closing. The next day, over twenty black students showed up to sit at the counter. Again they were refused service, but they stayed and worked on homework from 11am - 3pm. They were harassed by the white customers, however, the local news was now alerted.
On February 3, more than 60 black students showed up, with about one third being female. The lunch counter still refused service and members of the local KKK were there. Woolworth's stated it would abide by its segregation policy.
February 4, over 300 people took part, including students from across the Greensboro area. Organizers agreed to expand the sit-ins to include the lunch counter at the S.H Kress & Co. store that day as well.
On February 5, 50 white men sat at the counter to protest the sit-ins, which now included white students. Police arrested three white patrons for yelling and swearing.
Saturday, February 6, over 1000 protestors and counter-protesters filled the store, until a bomb threat was phoned in, forcing the store to close.
The sit-ins continued, and the students began a boycott of stores with segregated lunch counters. Those stores saw a drop in revenue by a third, which led to them dropping their segregation policies.
