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President Vicente Ramón Guerrero Saldaña (August 20, 1782 – February 14, 1831) was a military officer from 1810–1821 and a statesman who became the nation’s second president in 1829. He was one of the leading generals who fought against Spain during the Mexican War of Independence. He lived alongside Indigenous peoples in Tlaltelulco and could speak Spanish and Indigenous languages.

He abolished slavery in Mexico. He was deposed during a rebellion led by his Vice President, Anastasio Bustamante.

He was born in Tixtla. He was the son of María Guadalupe Rodríguez Saldaña and Juan Pedro Guerrero. He worked for his father’s prosperous mule-driven freight business, which provided him the opportunity to travel across Mexico. His travels exposed him to emerging ideas of independence and dissent against Spanish rule.

His ethnic origins have been a subject of debate, with some historians suggesting he was of mixed Indigenous heritage. No portraits of him were made during his lifetime, and those made posthumously may be unreliable. Fellow insurgent described him as a “young man with bronzed or tanned skin, tall and strong, with an aquiline nose, bright, light-colored eyes, and prominent sideburns.” The indigenous people often supported him.

Jeffery Lamar Williams (August 16, 1991) known professionally as Young Thug, is a rapper, singer, and songwriter. He is considered to be an influential figure of his generation. He released a series of independent mixtapes beginning in 2011 with I Came from Nothing. He signed with Gucci Mane’s 1017 Records, and he released his label debut mixtape 1017 Thug to critical praise.

He received mainstream recognition in 2014 with the singles “Stoner” and “Danny Glover” in addition to appearances on several singles, including T.I.’s “About the Money”, Tyga’s “Hookah”, and Rich Gang’s “Lifestyle”. He collaborated on the mixtape Rich Gang: Tha Tour Pt. 1. He released several mixtapes, including Barter 6 and two installments of his Slime Season series. He issued commercial mixtapes I’m Up, Slime Season 3, and Jeffery. He featured on the worldwide hit “Havana” by Cuban pop singer Camila Cabello, which became his first #1 single on the Billboard Hot 100. He released a compilation album titled Slime Language on his label, YSL Records. He won the Grammy Award for Song of the Year for his contributions to Childish Gambino’s “This Is America”.

His debut studio album, So Much Fun, debuted at #1 on the US Billboard 200 and included the Billboard Hot 100 top-twenty singles “The London” and “Hot”. His single “Go Crazy” from the collaborative mixtape Slime & B peaked at #3 on the Hot 100, becoming his first top-ten single as a lead artist. He reached number 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 for the second time in his career with his feature alongside M.I.A. on Travis Scott’s single “Franchise.” He released the compilation album Slime Language 2, which debuted at number 1 on the Billboard 200. He would reach number 1 on the Hot 100 a third time for his feature on Drake’s “Way 2 Sexy”. His second studio album, Punk, was released on October 15, 2021. It debuted at number 1 on the Billboard 200, becoming his third number 1 album and his second chart-topping project. His third studio album, Business is Business, was released while he was in jail.

Terence T. Crutcher (August 16, 1976 - September 16, 2016) was shot and killed by Tulsa Police Officer Betty Shelby. The circumstances of the shooting would become the source of a police investigation and a separate Civil Rights investigation by the Department of Justice. A trial resulted in Shelby’s acquittal, and a series of protests ensued.

He was born in Tulsa to Joey and Leanna Crutcher. He had four children: three daughters and a son, whom he lived with at the time of his death. He was passionate about music, singing in a local church choir, and majoring in music at Tulsa Community College. Many of his friends and neighbors described him as a family man who was focused on his children and his dream of becoming a gospel singer.

Officer Shelby was responding to a call from passing drivers reporting that a car was abandoned in the middle of the road. According to Shelby, he was non-compliant when directed by police officers. Shelby believed he reached into his car for what she thought was maybe a weapon. The video from a helicopter and a police car’s dashboard camera showed Crutcher with his hands up during some of the events before being stunned with a Taser and shot.

He died immediately from the shootings. The District Attorney for Tulsa County filed charges against Officer Shelby for manslaughter. She was arrested but remained on paid leave during the trial. Her defense attorneys argued that he was non-compliant, reached into his SUV, and had doses of PCP in his bloodstream, according to the Oklahoma Medical Examiner’s office. The prosecution argued that none of his actions warranted lethal force.

Christian Emeka Okoye (August 16, 1961) is a former football running back for the Kansas City Chiefs. Nicknamed the “Nigerian Nightmare,” he was known for his powerful running style and ability to break tackles. His six seasons in the NFL saw an NFL rushing title, first-team All-Pro honors, second-team All-Pro honors, two Pro Bowl appearances, and three playoff appearances. He ended his NFL career due to multiple injuries. He was inducted into the Kansas City Chiefs Hall of Fame.

He arrived in the US at age 21 and did not play football until age 23, when he joined the squad at Azusa Pacific University. He excelled in track and field, winning seven college titles in the shot put, discus, and hammer throw. The first time he attended a football game, he thought it was boring.

Angela Evelyn Bassett Vance (August 16, 1958) is an actress, director, producer, and activist. She is known for her biographical film roles, most notably her performance as Tina Turner in the biopic What’s Love Got to Do with It, for which she was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actress and won the Golden Globe Award for Best Actress – Motion Picture Comedy or Musical. She has portrayed real-life figures: Betty Shabazz in both Malcolm X and Panther; Katherine Jackson in The Jacksons: An American Dream; Voletta Wallace in Notorious; and Coretta Scott King in Betty & Coretta. Her other notable film roles include Reva Styles in Boyz n the Hood, Bernie Harris in Waiting to Exhale, Rachel Constantine in Contact, Lynne Jacobs in Olympus Has Fallen. London Has Fallen, and Queen Ramonda in Black Panther and Avengers: Endgame.

She was born in New York City, the daughter of a social worker, Betty Jane (née Gilbert), a civil servant, and Daniel Benjamin Bassett, a preacher’s son.

She began her film career in the 1980s, after earning a BA and MA from Yale University. She earned nominations for her roles in films such as The Score, Akeelah and the Bee, Meet the Browns, and Jumping the Broom, and won awards for her performances in How Stella Got Her Groove Back and Music of the Heart, among others. Her performance as Rosa Parks in the film The Rosa Parks Story earned her her first Primetime Emmy Award nomination.

Dr. Helene Dorris Gayle (August 16, 1955) is a physician, academic, and non-profit administrator. She was president of Spelman College until 2024. She was CEO of the Chicago Community Trust. She was the director of the international humanitarian organization CARE and spent much of her career in public health research, particularly in epidemiology, at the CDC.

She was born in Buffalo to Jacob Gayle and Marietta Gayle. She attended Barnard College and graduated with honors, earning a BA in psychology. She earned an MD from the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine and an MPH from the Johns Hopkins University School of Hygiene and Public Health. She is board-certified in pediatrics and completed a residency in pediatric medicine at Children’s National Medical Center. She completed a second residency in preventive medicine at the CDC.

She served as the AIDS coordinator and chief of the HIV/AIDS Division at the US Agency for International Development. She was appointed as the first director of the National Center on HIV, TB, and STD Prevention. She was named an Assistant Surgeon General and Rear Admiral in the US Public Health Service.

She directed the HIV, TB, and Reproductive Health Program at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

She was president and CEO of McKinsey Social Initiative.

She is recognized internationally as an expert on health, global development, and humanitarian issues. She has been named one of Forbes’ “100 Most Powerful Women,” one of Nonprofit Times’ “Power and Influence Top 50,” and one of Chicago Magazine’s “Chicago’s 50 Most Powerful Women.” Media outlets like The New York Times, The Washington Post, ForbesWoman, Glamour, O Magazine, National Public Radio, and CNN have featured her.

Runoko Rashidi (Ronnie Ross, also known as Ronald Lamar; August 16, 1954 – August 2, 2021) was a historian, essayist, author, and public lecturer based in Los Angeles.

He was a writer and speaker who lectured on ancient Egypt, his belief in an African presence in prehistoric America, Africans in antiquity, and the African presence in Asia and other parts of the world.

He was the author of Introduction to the Study of African Classical Civilizations (1993) and the editor of Unchained African Voices, a collection of poetry and prose by death row inmates at California’s San Quentin State Prison. He is the author or editor of 18 books, including The African Presence in Early Asia (1985, 1988, 1995), co-authored with Ivan Van Sertima; Black Star: The African Presence in Early Europe (2012); and African Star over Asia: The Black Presence in the East (2013).

James “J.T.” Warren Taylor (August 16, 1953) is a singer and actor who achieved worldwide fame as the lead singer of Kool & the Gang (1979-88).

His tenure as lead singer was the most successful era in the band’s history, with the albums Ladies’ Night, Celebrate!, and Emergency, and hit singles including “Ladies’ Night”, the US #1 “Celebration”, “Get Down on It”, “Joanna”, “Misled”, and “Cherish”.

Ge left the group to begin a solo career and has released four solo albums, but has reunited with the band a few times for concerts and recorded one last album with them in 1996.

He was born in Laurens, South Carolina, and grew up in Hackensack, New Jersey. He was a teacher and nightclub singer, having first joined a band at the age of 13. In 1978, he played with Milton Galfas, Christopher Galfas, and Eleton Johns in Full Force. He left Full Force when Christopher Galfas brought him to his brother’s House of Music studio to audition for Kool & the Gang.

In 1989, he released his first solo album, titled Master of the Game, which produced several hits, including the album’s first single “All I Want Is Forever”, a duet with Regina Belle. The single “The Promised Land” was included on the soundtrack of Ghostbusters II. In 1991, he released his second solo album, Feel the Need, which garnered the hits “Long Hot Summer Night” and “Heart to Heart”, a duet with Stephanie Mills. 1993 saw the release of the singer’s third solo album, Baby I’m Back, followed by his fourth solo album in 2000 titled A Brand New Me.

Harold Mills (August 16, 1953) is a boat racing pioneer and award-winning driver. Born in Seattle, he spent nine years in Houston as a child. He returned to Seattle and grew up a fan of boat racing.

From the late 1970s through 1985, he raced his craft on the local hydroplane circuit. He won his first race in 1985, the Jim Spinner Memorial Regatta at Lake Sammamish outside Redmond, Washington. He retired from driving for the next four years, preferring to promote the sport as an organizer. In 1989, he returned to boat racing as a partner on a 7-liter boat team; he continued racing through the 1990s. In 2000, he won 23 of 26 races he entered, driving a 2.5-liter modified hydroplane he called “Fast Freddy.”

He won more than 100 races in his career. In 2001, he moved up to the Unlimited class as the first African American to pilot a turbine-powered unlimited hydroplane. In 2002, he received the Association for Diversity In Motorsports Trailblazer Award.

He is the first African American man to race at Seattle’s Seafair (2004) as well as the first-ever Black hydroplane national champion of the American Power Boat Racing Association. Some of his many distinctions include National High Point Champion, George Babcock Driver of the Year, Neal Yapachino Driver of the Day, Sportsman of the Year, and the City of Seattle Achievement Award from Mayor Paul Schell in 2001. In 2004, he was honored by the Black Heritage Society of Washington State for his accomplishments.

Reginald VelJohnson (Reginald Vel Johnson; August 16, 1952) is an actor. He is known for playing policeman characters such as Carl Winslow on Family Matters and LAPD Sgt. Al Powell in the films Die Hard and Die Hard 2. He played an air traffic controller, Bob Abbot, in Air Collision.

He was born in Queens, the son of Eva, a nurse’s aide, and Dan, a hospital attendant. He attended Benjamin N. Cardozo High School, where he was a classmate of George Tenet. He earned a BFA in theater from New York University, where he worked with the Black/Hispanic Shakespeare Company.

He is known for playing police officers in films and on television. His early career included a brief appearance in Ghostbusters and an appearance in Crocodile Dundee. He played a police officer in Turner & Hooch. He played an ambulance driver in Remo Williams: The Adventure Begins.

He had his breakthrough role as Sgt. Al Powell in Die Hard. He reprised the character in the sequel Die Hard 2. He portrayed Sgt. Powell in the GameCube video game title, Die Hard: Vendetta.

He has mostly done voice and guest-star work. He has made guest appearances in several TV shows, including The Equalizer, Diagnosis: Murder, Twice in a Lifetime, Will & Grace, Monk, CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, Eve, Crossing Jordan, The Parkers, That’s So Raven, and Bones. He had a minor role in Like Mike.

He appeared in the short films Reverse, Nerve Endings, and Time Upon A Once. The following year, he appeared as the “Sgt. Al Powell” character from the Die Hard series in an episode of Chuck. He started a recurring role as Principal Strickland on I’m in the Band and Funnyordie.com’s Just 3 Boyz. He has appeared in The Formula.

Ketty Lester (born Revoyda Frierson; August 16, 1934) is a singer and actress known for her hit single “Love Letters”, which reached the top 5 of the charts in the US and the UK. She is known for her role in the television series Little House on the Prairie.

She was born Revoyda Frierson in Hope, Arkansas. Her parents were farmers who had 15 children. As a young child, she first sang in her church, and later in school choirs. She won a scholarship to study music at San Francisco State College. She began performing under the name “Ketty Lester” in the city’s Purple Onion Club. She toured Europe and South America as a singer with Cab Calloway’s orchestra.

She appeared as a contestant on You Bet Your Life, hosted by Groucho Marx.

She recorded her first single, “Queen for a Day”, for the Everest label. In 1961, they released her single “Love Letters” b/w “I’m a Fool to Want You”. She recorded an album of Christian music entitled I Saw Him in 1984.

By the early 1970s, she had given up commercial singing and turned to acting. She was reportedly offered the role that Diahann Carroll played in Julia and appeared in a variety of movies, including Uptight (1968), Blacula (1972), Uptown Saturday Night (1974), and The Prisoner of Second Avenue (1975).

Pastor Dr. Wyatt Tee Walker (August 16, 1928 - January 23, 2018) a civil rights leader, pastor, and theologian, was born in Brockton, Massachusetts to John Wise and Maude Pinn Walker. He earned a BS in Chemistry and Physics from Virginia Union University. He married Theresa Ann Walker (1950). The couple had four children. He received his Master of Divinity from Virginia Union’s Graduate School of Religion.

He became the pastor of Gillfield Baptist Church in Petersburg. He served as president of the NAACP and as director of the state’s CORE. He founded the Petersburg Improvement Association. He became a member of the SCLC. He rose in the organization; King appointed him executive director of the SCLC and his chief of staff.

His civil rights participation reached beyond his administrative duties. He was arrested in Birmingham for participating in a Freedom Ride. He helped organize the 1963 March on Washington.

He relocated to New York City to become pastor of Canaan Baptist Church of Christ in Harlem. The congregation grew from 800 to 3,000. He served as an Urban Affairs Specialist to New York Governor Nelson A. Rockefeller. He earned a D.Min from Colgate-Rochester Divinity School. He released his first of several books: Somebody’s Calling My Name: Black Sacred Music and Social Change.

He became a part of the anti-apartheid movement. He became a member of the American Committee on Africa, where he co-founded the Religious Action Network. He served as chair of the Central Harlem Local Development Corporation.

Private First Class William Henry Thompson (August 16, 1927 – August 6, 1950) was an Army soldier and a posthumous recipient of the US military’s highest decoration, the Medal of Honor, for his actions in the Korean War.

Born to a single mother in an impoverished neighborhood in Brooklyn, he entered the Army in 1945 and served tours in Alaska and Japan. At the outbreak of the Korean War, he was a machine gunner of the 24th Infantry Regiment, a de facto segregated unit.

During the Battle of Masan in August 1950, he was part of a unit conducting an offensive along the Pusan Perimeter. When North Korean troops attacked his company and caused many men to panic and scatter, he stood his ground, refusing orders to evacuate despite being wounded, and covered the retreat of his platoon until a grenade killed him. For his actions, he was awarded the Medal of Honor, one of only two African Americans to be so honored in the war.

Dr. Louis Emanuel Lomax (August 16, 1922 – July 30, 1970) was a journalist and author. He was the first African American television journalist.

He was born in Valdosta, Georgia. His parents were Emanuel C. Smith and Sarah Louise Lomax. His first wife was Betty Frank (1958–61), his second wife was Wanda Kay (1961–67), and his third wife was Robinette Kirk (1968–70).

He attended Paine College, where he became editor of the student newspaper before he graduated. He pursued graduate studies at American University, where he earned an MA, and at Yale University, where he earned a Ph.D.

He began his journalism career at the Afro-American and the Chicago Defender. These two newspapers focused on news that interested African American readers. He became the first African American television journalist when he joined WNTA-TV in New York.

He told his colleague Mike Wallace about the Nation of Islam. He and Wallace produced a five-part documentary about the organization, The Hate That Hate Produced. The program was the first time most white people heard about the Nation and its leader, Elijah Muhammad, as well as its charismatic spokesman, Malcolm X.

He became a freelance writer, and his articles were published in publications such as Harper’s, Life, Pageant, The Nation, and The New Leader. His subjects included the Civil Rights Movement, the Nation of Islam, and the Black Panther Party. He was awarded the Anisfield-Wolf Book Award for his book, The Reluctant African.

Karl Evanzz, a staff writer for The Washington Post, wrote in his 1992 book The Judas Factor: The Plot to Kill Malcolm X that he was working on a documentary concerning the role played by the FBI in the death of Malcolm X and that Lomax’s death may have been connected to that project.

Albert George Hibbler (August 16, 1915 – April 24, 2001) was a baritone vocalist who sang with Duke Ellington’s orchestra before having several pop hits as a solo artist. He is seen as a bridge between R&B and traditional pop music.

He was born in Tyro, Mississippi, and was blind from birth. He moved to Little Rock, where he attended the Arkansas School for the Blind and joined the school choir. He began working as a blues singer in local bands, failing his first audition for Duke Ellington. He was given his start with Dub Jenkins and his Playmates; he was a popular Memphis saxophonist and bandleader. He joined a band led by Jay McShann and, the following year, Ellington’s orchestra.

He stayed with Ellington for almost eight years and featured on a range of Ellington standards, including “Do Nothin’ Til You Hear From Me”, which reached #6 on the Billboard pop chart (#1 for eight weeks on the “Harlem Hit Parade”), “I Ain’t Got Nothin’ But the Blues,” and “I’m Just a Lucky So-and-So”. He won the Esquire New Star Award and the Down Beat Award for Best Band Vocalist.

He recorded with various bands, including those of Johnny Hodges and Count Basie, and released an LP titled Al Hibbler Favorites. He released a more successful album, Al Hibbler Sings Duke Ellington. His biggest hit was “Unchained Melody”, which reached #3 on the US pop chart, sold over one million copies, and was awarded a gold disc. His version reached number 2 in the UK Singles Chart, becoming his only chart hit in the UK. Its success led to network appearances, including a live jazz club remote on Monitor. Other hits were “He”, “11th Hour Melody”, and “Never Turn Back”. “After the Lights Go Down Low” was his last top-ten hit.

Wallace Henry Thurman (August 16, 1902 – December 22, 1934) was a novelist active during the Harlem Renaissance. He wrote essays, worked as an editor, and published short-lived newspapers and literary journals. He was known for his novel The Blacker the Berry: A Novel of Negro Life.

He began grade school at age six in Boise, but his poor health led to a two-year absence from school, during which he returned to his grandmother in Salt Lake City. He lived in Chicago (1910-14). He finished grammar school in Omaha. He suffered from persistent heart attacks. While living in Pasadena, he caught influenza during the worldwide Influenza Pandemic. He recovered and returned to Salt Lake City, where he finished high school.

He was a voracious reader. He enjoyed the works of Plato, Aristotle, Shakespeare, Havelock Ellis, Flaubert, Charles Baudelaire, and many others. He wrote his first novel at the age of 10. He attended the University of Utah as a pre-medical student. He transferred to USC but left without earning a degree.

He met and befriended the writer Arna Bontemps and became a reporter and columnist for an African American-owned newspaper. He started a magazine, Outlet.

He moved to Harlem. He worked as a ghostwriter, publisher, and editor, and wrote novels, plays, and articles. He became the editor of The Messenger, a socialist journal addressed to African Americans. There, he was the first to publish Langston Hughes’s adult-themed stories. He left the journal to become the editor of World Tomorrow. He collaborated in founding the literary magazine Fire!!. Among its contributors were Hughes, Zora Neale Hurston, Richard Bruce Nugent, Aaron Douglas, and Gwendolyn B. Bennett.

He was asked to edit a magazine called Harlem: A Forum of Negro Life; its contributors included Alain Locke, George Schuyler, and Alice Dunbar-Nelson. He became a reader for a major New York publishing company, the first African American to work in such a position.

He wrote a play, Harlem, which debuted on Broadway.

The Jaybird-Woodpecker War was between two political factions in Fort Bend County, Texas. African Americans comprised 80% of the county’s population and dominated politics. That domination was reflected in the election of Walter Moses Burton in 1869 as the nation’s first Black county sheriff. Black men held more than 50% of the county offices. Whites owned 80% of the county’s land, leaving the vast majority of Black residents as sharecroppers.

The Jaybirds, who represented 90% of the county’s white population, decided to rid the county of the Republicans who had dominated county government since the late 1860s. The Woodpeckers were about 40 white and Black county officials or former county officials, along with their Black supporters. The Jaybirds and Woodpeckers got their names from a local Black man who sang about them.

On August 2, 1888, Jaybird leader J.M. Shamblin was killed. Jaybird Henry Frost was seriously wounded. The Jaybirds warned the African Americans to leave the county within 10 hours. On the day of the election, which Texas Rangers supervised to minimize violence, the Woodpeckers were all elected or reelected. Woodpecker tax assessor Kyle Terry killed Democrat L.E. Gibson. Terry was killed by Volney Gibson, his brother, and a group of Jaybirds.

On August 16, 1889, the “Battle of Richmond” commenced with gunshots exchanged between Woodpecker members J.W. Parker and W.T. Wade and Jaybird members Guilf and Volney Gibson. County Sheriff Tom Garvey, a Woodpecker, and seven other men were killed. The Woodpeckers retreated to the courthouse and left the Jaybirds in possession of the town.

The Jaybird Democratic Organization restored white supremacy in the county by using a whites-only ballot (1889-53) in the Democratic primaries. Black voters were disfranchised.