October 21, 1950 Ronald Ervin McNair, physicist and NASA astronaut, was born in Lake City, South Carolina. McNair earned his Bachelor of Arts degree in physics, magna cum laude, from North Carolina A&T State University in 1971. In 1976, he earned his Ph. D. in physics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Archive | October 21, 2011
October 21st in African American History – John Birks “Dizzy” Gillespie
October 21, 1917 John Birks “Dizzy” Gillespie, jazz trumpeter, bandleader, and composer, was born in Cheraw, South Carolina. By the age of 12, Gillespie had taught himself to play the piano, trombone, and trumpet and he took his first professional job at 18. Together with Charlie Parker, Gillespie was a major figure in the development […]