At her first recital, 12-year-old Nina Simone refused to start singing after her parents were moved from the front row to make room for whites
Las Vegas casino manager Carl Cohen became a local folk hero after he knocked the caps off Frank Sinatra’s front teeth
MS Selandia was one of the world’s first large transoceanic diesel-driven ships, and at her first appearance many people were confused because she was “smokeless”
Hattie McDaniel, the first African-American to win an Oscar for her role in ‘Gone with the Wind’, was requested to sit at a segregated table during the award ceremony