User:Jerrch

Master Juba (c. 1825 – 1852 or 1853) was an African-American dancer. He was one of the first black performers in the United States to play onstage for white audiences and the only one of the era to tour with a white minstrel group. He began his career in Manhattan's Five Points neighborhood and moved to minstrel shows in the mid-1840s. His act featured a sequence in which he imitated famous dancers, then closed by performing in his style. In 1848, he became a sensation in Britain for his dance style, but writers treated him as an exhibit on display. Juba's popularity faded and he died in 1852 or 1853, likely from overwork and malnutrition. He was largely forgotten by historians until a 1947 article by Marian Hannah Winter popularised his story. Juba's dancing style was percussive, varied in tempo and expressive. It likely incorporated European folk steps and African-derived steps used by plantation slaves. Juba was highly influential in the development of tap, jazz, and step-dancing styles. (Full article...)

February 8: Feast day of Saint Josephine Bakhita (Catholicism); Military Foundation Day in North Korea (1948)

Denis Sassou Nguesso

• 1601 – Robert Devereux, 2nd Earl of Essex, led a failed rebellion against Queen Elizabeth I of England.
• 1910 – William D. Boyce established the Boy Scouts of America, expanding the Scout Movement into the United States.
• 1965 – After taking evasive action to avoid a mid-air collision just after taking off from New York's John F. Kennedy International Airport, Eastern Air Lines Flight 663 crashed into the Atlantic Ocean, killing all 84 people on board.
• 1979 – Denis Sassou Nguesso (pictured) was chosen as the new President of the Republic of the Congo after Joachim Yhombi-Opango was forced from power.
• 1981 – Rhodesian Bush War: Zimbabwe African National Liberation Army cadres in Gwelo attacked Zimbabwe People's Revolutionary Army troops, killing over 60 of them and starting the 1981 Entumbane uprising.