On July 10, the area entered the history books when the mercury climbed to a blistering 134 degrees Fahrenheit (57 degrees Celsius) at Furnace Creek, California, breaking the record for the highest temperature ever recorded.
Carl Stokes, the first black mayor of a major American city: Black History Month. View full sizePlain Dealer file photoCarl Stokes, shown in 1968 in downtown Cleveland, focused many of his efforts as mayor on improving city services and helping Cleveland's poorest residents.
Richard T. Greener, First Black Harvard Alum, Diploma Discovered In Condemned Chicago House. An abandoned home near 75th and Sangamon, on Chicago's South Side, was the unlikely hiding place for an important piece of black history -- the papers of Richard Theodore Greener, Harvard's first African-American alumnus.