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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 and 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. (Full article...)

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Did you know ...

Klassische Philharmonie Bonn

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... that criminologist Herschel Prins found in 1993 that young black men at Broadmoor Hospital were often stereotyped as "big, black and dangerous"?
... that director Steve Kloves was reluctant to cast Beau Bridges as the brother of Jeff Bridges's character in The Fabulous Baker Boys because he thought it sounded like "a gimmick"?
... that Muhammad Sadiq's photographs were the first ever taken of the Islamic holy sites in Mecca and Medina?
... that RSS Panglima was the first ship of the Republic of Singapore Navy?
... that a resolution introduced into the Nebraska Legislature by Joni Albrecht praised Julie Schmit-Albin as "never one to let a public official waffle on pro-life legislation"?
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In the news

Emma Raducanu

British tennis player Emma Raducanu (pictured) wins the US Open, becoming the first qualifier to win a Grand Slam title.
In Gaelic football, Tyrone win the All-Ireland Senior Football Championship, defeating Mayo in the final.
The National Rally of Independents, led by Aziz Akhannouch wins the most seats in the Moroccan general election.
A prison fire in Tangerang, Indonesia, kills at least 46 inmates and injures 75 others.

On this day

September 15: Battle of Britain Day in the United Kingdom (1940)

British Mark I tank

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.
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.
1944 – World War II: American and Australian forces landed on the Japanese-occupied island of Morotai.
2017 – A homemade bomb partially exploded on an eastbound District line train at Parsons Green tube station in West London, injuring 30 passengers.

Edmé Boursault (d. 1701)
Charles-Amédée Kohler (d. 1874)
Signe Toly Anderson (b. 1941)

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Today's featured picture

The Cuban peso is the official currency of Cuba. Under the Spanish administration, the Banco Español de la Habana introduced Cuba's first issue of banknotes in 1857 in denominations of 50, 100, 300, 500 and 1,000 dollars. Beginning in 1872, fractional peso banknotes were issued in denominations of 5, 10, 20, 25 and 50 centavos, printed in strips of ten. This twenty-five-centavo banknote was issued in 1872, and now forms part of the National Numismatic Collection at the Smithsonian Institution.

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Banknote design credit: American Bank Note Company; photographed by Andrew Shiva

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