today in history

Nobel Peace Prize

In 1950, Ralph J. Bunche was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, becoming the first Black American to receive the award.

In 1964, Martin Luther King Jr. received his Nobel Peace Prize in Oslo, saying he accepted it “with an abiding faith in America and an audacious faith in the future of mankind.”

In 1994, Yasser Arafat, Shimon Peres and Yitzhak Rabin received the Nobel Peace Prize, pledging to pursue their mission of healing the anguished Middle East.

In 2007, former Vice President Al Gore accepted the Nobel Peace Prize with a call for humanity to rise up against a looming climate crisis and stop waging war on the environment.

Plane crash claims Otis Redding

In 1967, singer Otis Redding, 26, and six others were killed when their plane crashed into Wisconsin’s Lake Monona; trumpeter Ben Cauley, a member of the group the Bar-Kays, was the only survivor.

Kentucky admitted into the Confederacy

In 1861, the Confederacy admitted Kentucky as it recognized a pro-Southern shadow state government that was acting without the authority of the pro-Union government in Frankfort.

Richard Pryor dies after heart attack

In 2005, actor-comedian Richard Pryor died in Encino, California. Pryor had been ill for years with multiple sclerosis. Spanish-America War ends

In 1898, a treaty was signed in Paris officially ending the Spanish-American War.

Mandela memorial service

In 2013, South Africa held a memorial service for Nelson Mandela, during which U.S. President Barack Obama energized tens of thousands of spectators and nearly 100 visiting heads of state with a plea for the world to emulate “the last great liberator of the 20th century.”