#OTD North Carolina Mutual Insurance Company, the first African American owned insurance company, was founded in Durham, North Carolina.

#OTD Jazz musician and bandleader Dizzy Gillespie was born in Cheraw, South Carolina. Recording artist Nicci Gilbert narrates.

#OTD The United States Air Force Officers Training School added the historical account of the Tuskegee Airmen fighter pilots to their curriculum.

#OTD The United States Navy began admitting African American women to serve via the WAVES program (Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Service), more than two years after the program was created.

#OTD Sprinters John Carlos and Tommie Smith were suspended by the United States Olympic Committee for their silent protest on the medal stand at the games in Mexico City.

#OTD The Black Panther Party For Self-Defense was founded 55 years ago by Huey P. Newton and Bobby Seale in Oakland, CA.

#OTD The Jackson 5 made their first national television appearance performing "I Want You Back" on The Hollywood Palace.

Happy 83rd birthday to gospel legend Shirley Caesar, born #OTD in Durham, North Carolina.

#OTD Anthropologist W. Montague Cobb, the first African American Ph.D. in anthropology, was born in Washington, D.C.

#OTD Inventor Granville T. Woods patented a telephone system apparatus which he called Telegraphony.