Check here all month for “fast facts” in celebration of Black History Month. On This Day In Black History…

February 15, 1804; The New Jersey Legislature approved a law calling for “gradual” emancipation of African Americans. In so doing, New Jersey became the last Northern state to outlaw slavery

• 1965; Nat King Cole (45), singer and pianist, died in Santa Monica, California
• 1964; Louis Armstrong’s “Hello Dolly” recording becomes his first and only number one record
• 1984; Sarah Roberts barred from white school in Boston. Her father, Benjamin Roberts, filed the first school integration suit on her behalf
• 1968; On this day Henry Lewis becomes the first African American to lead a symphony orchestra in the United States