February 1 - What is now known as Black History Month, was first celebrated on this date as Negro History Week by Carter G. Woodson. It became a month long celebration in 1976.
February 2 - Today in 1914, artist William Ellisworth is born in Washington, North Carolina. Educated at Syracuse University, he was a student of Florida artist Augusta Savage. His works were exhibited at Atlanta University, the Whitney Museum, the Two Centuries of Black American Art exhibit, Fisk University, Hampton University, the North Carolina Museum of Art and private collectors.
February 3 - Six time All-Star Bill White was named president of National League IN 1989. Former Saint Louis Cardinals first baseman Bill White is named president of the National League. He is the first African American to head a major sports league. On February 3, 1903; Jackson became the first Negro Heavyweight Champion, The Negro Baseball League founded IN 1920.
February 4 - Today in 1986, a stamp of Sojourner Truth is issued by the U.S. Postal Service.
February 5 - Henry "Home Run King" Aaron, baseball superstar was born in 1934.
February 6 - Robert Lewis Douglas founder and coach of the Rens, is inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame in 1972. Tennis player Arthur Ashe dies. Ashe was the first African American to win at Wimbledon in 1993.
February 7 - Negro History week originated by Carter G.Woodson is observed for the first time in 1926.
February 8 - Leon Spinks defeated Muhammad Ali for heavyweight boxing championship. Ali regained the title on September 15 and became the person to win the title three times in 1978. Figure skater Debi Thomas became the first African American to win the Women's Singles of the U.S. National Figure Skating Championship competition, was a pre-med student at Stanford University in 1986.
February 9 - Baseball Hall of Fame inducts Leroy "Satchel" Paige in 1979.
February 10 - 1946 Georgia-born Jackie Robinson -- major league baseball's first black player -- married Rachel Isum.
February 11 - today in 1996, Penn's Baccalaureate Speaker was the Right Reverend Barbara Clementine Harris, a Philadelphian who was the first woman ever to become a bishop in the Anglican Communion.
February 12 - Birthday of William Felton Russell, better known as "Bill" Russel, he was player-coach of the Boston Celtics basketball team in 1968 and 1969. Russell was born in Monroe, Louisiana in 1934.
February 13 - The first Black professional basketball team "The Renaissance" organized 1923.
February 14 - today in 1867, Morehouse College organized in Augusta, Georgia. The institution was later moved to Atlanta.
February 15 - today in 1848, Sarah Roberts barred from white school in Boston. Her father, Benjamin Roberts, filed the first school integration suit on her behalf.
February 16 - Joe Frazier knocked out Jimmy Ellis in the second round of their New York fight and became the world heavyweight boxing champion in 1970.
February 17 - James Nathaniel Brown, 63, Pro Football Hall of Fame Fullback, Born February 17, 1936 in St. Simons Island, GA, Michael Jeffrey Jordon, Basketball player, former minor league baseball player, Born New York, New York, February 17, 1963.
February 18 - today in 1913, the Delta Sigma Theta Sorority was incorporated at Howard University.
February 19 - Vonetta Flowers became the first black gold medalist in the history of the Winter Olympic Games. She and partner Jull Brakken won the inagural women's two-person bobsled event in 2000.
February 20 - Charles Wade Barkley, basketball player, born Leeds, AL, February 20, 1963.
February 21 - today in 1987, African Americans in Tampa, Florida rebelled after an African American man was killed by a white police officer while in custody.
February 22 - Julius Winfield( "Dr.J") Erving, former basketball player, born Roosevelt, NY, Feb 22, 1950.
February 23 - Baseball catcher Elston Gene Howard was born in St. Louis, Missouri. In 1965, Howard signed a $70,000 contract with the NY Yankees and became the highest paid player in the history of baseball at the time in 1929.
February 24 - Former world heavyweight boxing champion Jimmy Ellis was born James Albert Ellis in Louisville, Kentucky in 1940. Ellis won the World Boxing Association title after beating Jerry Quarry in April 1968.
February 25 - Muhammad Ali defeated Sonny Liston for world heavyweight boxing championship in 1964. Boxer Mike Tyson becomes the undisputed Heavyweight Champion of the World by defeating challenger Frank Bruno of England in 1989.
February 26 - Theodore "Georgia Deacon" Flowers wins middleweight boxing title in 1926. On this day, the Kentucky boxer known to all as Cassius Clay, changed his name to Muhammad Ali as he accepted Islam and rejected Christianity. "I believe in the religion of Islam. I believe in Allah and in peace...I'm not a Christian anymore." In 1964.
February 27 - Figure skater Debi Thomas becomes the first African American to win a medal (bronze) at the winter Olympic Games in 1988.
February 28 - In 1932, Richard Spikes invents the automatic gear shift.