Race riot, East St. Louis, Illinois. One Black killed.

The assault of the Louisiana Colored Volunteers on the Confederate breastworks at Port Hudson was the first major battle in which Negro Troops took part.

Bruce Cockburn , (born May 27, 1945, Ottawa, Ontario), Canadian singer, songwriter, guitarist, and activist best known for music blending folk, rock, pop, and jazz, and lyrics that typically addressed spiritual themes and global issues from a politically charged perspective. Often considered a “songwriter’s songwriter,” Cockburn’s songs have been recorded by more than 20 musicians—including American musicians Judy Collins, k.d. lang, Jimmy Buffett, Chet Atkins, and Jerry Garcia, as well as Canadian artists Anne Murray and the Barenaked Ladies.

Cockburn was raised on a farm near Pembroke, west of Ottawa, Ontario, and in Ottawa itself. He began playing clarinet and trumpet before becoming obsessed with an old guitar he found in his grandmother’s attic when he was in his teens. He took lessons with Ottawa music store owner Hank Simms and studied theory and composition independently in high school before busking on the streets of Paris, France. Starting in 1964 Cockburn studied theory, composition, and arranging at the Berklee College of Music in Boston, Massachusetts. During this period, he was introduced to the urban folk music revival and jazz, two styles that would influence his work in the mid-1970s; however, he dropped out in 1966 and returned to Ottawa.

Upon his return he played in a succession of rock bands, including The Esquires, The Children, and The Flying Circus. The latter changed its name to Olivus and had some success as a live band, opening for American musicians Wilson Pickett and Jimi Hendrix, American folk rock band the Lovin’ Spoonful, and British rock band Cream. Cockburn performed solo in coffeehouses and at the Mariposa Folk Festival in 1967 and 1969, while serving also as a member of the folk-rock band 3’s a Crowd when it was revived for a Canadian Broadcasting Corporation television series in 1968.

Cockburn partnered with Canadian music promoter Bernie Finkelstein in the music-publishing firm Golden Mountain Music and released his self-titled debut record album, Bruce Cockburn (1970). The

Frank Thomas was one of the biggest baseball stars of the 1990s. He was born on May 27, 1968 in Columbus, Georgia and attended Columbus High School. He was the fifth of six children born to Frank and Charlie Mae Thomas. He was very close to his family, and being one of the youngest siblings, he was pampered with attention and affection. When Thomas was 10, his little sister Pamela died of leukemia, which affected him a great deal.

At school, he excelled at both football and baseball, and knew that he wanted to be a professional baseball player by the age of 12. His parents never pressured him to make that decision, nor could they conceive of him being a sports star, as they belonged to an ordinary middle class background. Thomas, however, had made up his mind and worked single mindedly to achieve it. He won a scholarship to The Brookstone School, a private college preparatory institution in his hometown. After spending three years there, he returned to the public school system as he wanted to play against the more competitive athletes there. As a high school sophomore, he was a dominant hitter and helped his team to win a state championship. His impressive performance continued all throughout his high school years; it was not just limited to baseball, but included football and basketball as well.

Much to everyone’s surprise, Thomas was not selected in the 1986 amateur draft. He was shocked and upset, and instead decided to accept a football scholarship at Auburn University. Once there, he proved himself to the baseball coach and joined the baseball team. He turned entirely from football to baseball, and had an exceptional batting average. He hoped to be selected in the 1988 Summer Olympics team, but yet again he failed to make the final squad. Finally, however, in 1989, he was selected for the 1989 squad by the Chicago White Sox, and in 1990 he was moved to the major leagues. Right off the bat, he maintained an outstanding average, and finished his first full season with the Sox as the third in line for the

Actor Louis Gossett, Jr. was born in Brooklyn, NY. Gossett won an Academy Award for his role in the movie An Officer and a Gentleman.

In ill-conceived assault on Port Hudson, La., two Louisiana regiments (First and Third Native Guards) made six gallant but unsuccessful charges on rebel fortification. A Black captain, Andre Cailloux, was hero of the day.

Kingston, the capital of Jamaica, was founded in July 1692 when an earthquake destroyed the nearby city of Port Royal. The most recent census puts its population at 937,700. Today Kingston is the center of trade, manufacturing, and shipping for the entire nation of Jamaica.  

Before the 1692 earthquake, Port Royal, founded in 1518 by the Spanish on a spit of land off what is now Kingston Harbor, and captured by the English in 1655, was the major city in the area. The earthquake and tsunami killed nearly two thousand of the town’s six thousand people.  Most of the survivors moved inland to the other side of the harbor and founded Kingston.  

Kingston was the largest town in Jamaica by 1716, and due to its deepwater harbor it was also the center of trade for the entire British colony.  In 1775 Sir Charles Knowles, the British governor of the Colony, moved all government offices from nearby Spanish Town to Kingston.  Three years later Kingston had a population of 26,478, which included 16,659 enslaved people. Slavery existed in Jamaica until 1833. Kingston was declared the official capital of the Colony of Jamaica in 1872.

In 1907 Kingston was struck by an earthquake that killed over 800 people and destroyed nearly all of the buildings in the center of the city.  That quake led to a three-story height restriction on all central business district structures and the requirement that they be built in reinforced concrete.  

In 1914, two young Jamaicans, Marcus Garvey and his wife Amy Ashwood Garvey, founded the Universal Negro Improvement Association in the Kingston Market section of the city. Although Garvey left Jamaica two years later for the United States where he settled in New York, New York, the Kingston-born UNIA eventually became the largest organization in the world composed of people of African ancestry.

By the 1930s Kingston residents formed a trade union movement that eventually became the driving force in the Jamaican independence campaign. In 1948 the city became the site of the Mona Campus of the

Dorie MIller, a messman is awarded the Navy cross for his heroic deeds at Pearl Harbor

Ernest Green graduated from Little Rocks Central High School with six hundred white classmates.

Death of Ezzard Charles (53,), former heavyweight boxing champion, in Chicago.