APRIL

April 1, 1950 - Charles R. Drew, who developed techniques for processing and preserving blood, died.

April 2, 1984 - Georgetown coach John Thompson becomes first Black coach to win NCAA basketball tournament.

April 3, 1826 - Poet-orator James Madison Bell, author of the Emancipation Day poem "The Day and the War", born.

April 4, 1968 - Martin Luther King assassinated.

April 5, 1951 - Washington, D.C. Municipal Court of Appeals outlawed segregation in restaurants.

April 6, 1909 - Matthew A. Henson reaches the North Pole, 45 minutes before Commandeer Peary.

April 7, 1885 - Granville T. Woods patents apparatus for transmission of messages by electricity.

April 8, 1974 - Atlanta Braves slugger Hank Aaron hits 715 home run, surpassing Babe Ruth as the game's all-time home-run leader.

April 9, 1898 - Paul Robeson, actor, singer, activist, born.

April 10, 1947 - Brooklyn Dodger Jackie Robinson becomes first African American to play major league baseball.

April 11, 1966 - Emmett Ashford becomes first Black umpire in the major leagues.

April 12, 1983 - Harold Washington becomes first African American mayor of Chicago.

April 13, 1950 - Historian Carter G. Woodson, author of The Miseducation of the Negro, died.

April 14, 1775 - First abolitionist society in U.S. is founded in Philadelphia.

April 15, 1964 - Sidney Poitier becomes first Black to win Academy Award for Best Actor for Lilies of the Field.

April 16, 1862 - Slavery abolished in the District of Columbia.

April 17, 1983 - Alice Walker wins Pulitzer Prize for fiction for The Color Purple.

April 18, 1864 - More than 200 Black Union troops massacred by Confederate forces at Ft. Pillow, Tennessee.

April 19, 1972 - Stationed in Germany, Major Gen. Frederic E. Davidson becomes first Black to lead an army division.

April 20, 1894 - Dr. Lloyd A. Hall, pioneering food chemist, born.

April 21, 1966 - Pct. Milton L. Olive III awarded the Medal of Honor posthumously for valor in Vietnam.

April 22, 1922 - Jazz bassist and composer Charles Mingus born.

April 23, 1895 - Clatonia Joaquin Dorticus patents photographic print wash.

April 24, 1944 - United Negro College Fund Incorporated.

April 25, 1918 - Ella Fitzgerald, "First Lady of Song", born.

April 26, 1888 - Sarah Boone patents ironing board.

April 27, 1968 - Vincent Porter becomes first African American certified in plastic surgery.

April 28, 1839 - Cinque leads mutiny off the coast of Long Island, NY.

April 29, 1899 - Duke Ellington, jazz musician and composer, born.

April 30 1952 - Dr. Louis T. Wright honored by American Cancer Society for his contributions to cancer research.