Diana Sands (1934-1973)

Diana Sands (1934-1973)

Diana Sands, the first black actress to be cast in a major Broadway play without regard to color, was born in New York City in 1934 to Rudolph Thomas, a carpenter, and Shirley Sands, a milliner. Sands made her first stage debut in George Bernard Shaw’s Major...
Sarah A. Campbell (1823-1888)

Sarah A. Campbell (1823-1888)

Sarah A. Campbell, one of the first non-Native women in the Black Hills of South Dakota, accompanied Colonel George Armstrong Custer’s 1874 Expedition there as a cook, prospected for gold and silver, and was co-founder of the Custer Park Mining Company. Campbell...
Ralph Gardner-Chavis (1922- )

Ralph Gardner-Chavis (1922- )

Ralph Alexander Gardner, hard plastics pioneer and one of the scientists and technicians who worked on the Manhattan Project which developed the atomic bomb, was born December 3, 1922 in Cleveland, Ohio, son of Vivian and Clarence Gardner.  Gardner developed an early...
Jerry Rawlings (1947- 2020)

Jerry Rawlings (1947- 2020)

Jerry John Rawlings, former military and political leader in Ghana, was twice head of state, and twice toppled unstable Ghanaian governments. He was born in Accra on June 22, 1947 to Scottish pharmacist James Ramsay John and Ghanaian mother Victoria Agbotui although...
São Tomé Island

São Tomé Island

São Tomé, an African plantation society and slave trading post, lies in the Gulf of Guinea.  First discovered around 1470, São Tomé was not officially settled until the 1490s by Portuguese explorer Alvaro Caminha, who received the island as a land grant from the...