Hiram Revels (1822-1901) of Mississippi became the first black senator on February 25, 1870.
He completed the term begun by Jefferson Davis, who had resigned to become the president of the Confederacy.
Aside from Blanche K. Bruce, who represented Mississippi from 1875 to 1881, there were no other black senators until 1966, when Edward Brooke, a Republican from Massachusetts, took office.
Silent-picture actress Norma Talmadge (1897-1957) started the tradition when she accidentally stumbled onto a freshly laid cement sidewalk in front of the theater in 1927.
The first black U.S. general was Benjamin O. Davis, Sr. (1877-1970). He was promoted to the rank of brigadier general in the U.S. Army in 1940.
Carl B. Stokes (b. 1927) was the first black mayor. He was the great-grandson of a slave and was mayor of Cleveland from 1967 to 1971.
Airplanes were first used by the U.S. armed forces unsuccessfully in 1916 against Pancho Villa in Mexico. In 1917, the First Aero Squadron, the first air unit, fought in World War I.
To assess voters’ preferences in the 1824 presidential election, citizens were asked whom they preferred. This was the first public opinion poll. The results, published in the Harrisburg Pennsylvanian on July 24, 1824, gave Andrew Jackson a commanding lead over John Quincy Adams and all others. However, Adams won the election.
The first zoo in the United States was the Philadelphia Zoological Gardens, which opened in 1874. In 1938, it became the site of the first children’s zoo. Founded and operated by the Zoological Society of Philadelphia, the Philadelphia Zoo currently houses more than 1,400 specimens of over 400 species.