Raymond Pace Alexander (1897–1974) was a civil rights leader, lawyer, and politician who was the first African-American judge appointed to the Pennsylvania courts of common pleas. In 1920, he became the first black graduate of the Wharton School of Business. He married in 1923; in 1927 his wife, Sadie, became the first black woman to earn a law degree from the University of Pennsylvania. After graduating from Harvard Law School in 1923, Alexander became one of the leading civil rights attorneys in Philadelphia. He represented black defendants in high-profile cases, including the Trenton Six, a group of black men arrested for murder in Trenton, New Jersey. Alexander also entered politics, unsuccessfully running for judge multiple times. He finally ran for, and won, a seat on the Philadelphia City Council in 1951. After serving two terms, Alexander was appointed as the first black judge to sit on the courts of common pleas, where he served until his death in 1974.

Read more: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raymond_Pace_Alexander

_______________________________ Today's selected anniversaries:

1791:

French playwright Olympe de Gouges published the Declaration of the Rights of Woman and of the Female Citizen, hoping to expose the failures of the French Revolution in the recognition of gender equality. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Declaration_of_the_Rights_of_Woman_and_of_the_Female_Citizen

1916:

Tanks (example pictured), the "secret weapons" of the British Army during the First World War, were first used in combat at the Battle of Flers–Courcelette in France. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Flers%E2%80%93Courcelette

1959:

Nikita Khrushchev began the first state visit by a Soviet leader to the United States. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/State_visit_by_Nikita_Khrushchev_to_the_United_States

2017:

A homemade bomb partially exploded on an eastbound District line train at Parsons Green tube station in West London, injuring 30 passengers. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parsons_Green_train_bombing

_____________________________ Wiktionary's word of the day:

democratic: 1. Pertaining to democracy; constructed upon or in line with the principle of government chosen by the people. 2. Exhibiting social equality; egalitarian. 3. (US, politics) Alternative letter-case form of Democratic (“of, pertaining to, or supporting the Democratic Party”) 4. (chiefly in the plural, dated) Synonym of democrat (“a supporter of democracy; an advocate of democratic politics (originally (historical) as opposed to the aristocrats in Revolutionary France)”) https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/democratic

___________________________ Wikiquote quote of the day:

The President cannot make clouds to rain and cannot make the corn to grow, he cannot make business good; although when these things occur, political parties do claim some credit for the good things that have happened in this way.   --William Howard Taft https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/William_Howard_Taft