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315,000 Years Ago
The earliest known humans emerge and live on the African continent.
All human beings today belong to the Homo sapiens species, and it is widely accepted amongst researchers, historians, and scientists, that all of human history began on the continent of Africa. The exact location in Africa is a topic of constant debate as remains have been found in various locations throughout the continent, such as Ethiopia, Kenya, and Morocco, though researchers suggest it was most likely in the Horn of Africa. The oldest known remains of our species to date has been found in Jebel Irhoud, Morocco and dated about 315,000 years ago.
250,000 Years Ago
Modern humans begin to disperse and migrate out of Africa.
Early modern humans expanded to Western Eurasia and Central, Western and Southern Africa from the time of their emergence. Evidence of migration out of Africa, via a partial skull, was discovered in the Apidima Cave in southern Greece and is dated more than 210,000 years old. There were several waves of migrations, many via northern Africa and the Arabian Peninsula about 130,000 YA (Years Ago), though most of these early waves appear to have mostly died out or retreated by 80,000 YA.
c. 200,000 - 130,000 Years Ago
Mitochondrial Eve, the most recent woman from whom all living humans descend, lives in Sub-Saharan Africa.
Mitochondrial Eve (the name alludes to the biblical Eve) is the matrilineal most recent common ancestor of all living humans. In other words, she is defined as the most recent woman from whom all living humans descend in an unbroken line purely through their mothers and through the mothers of those mothers, back until all lines converge on one woman. In 1987, geneticists compared the mitochondrial DNA (genetic information passed from mothers to their offspring) of people from different populations around the world and find that they all link in an unbroken line to Mitochondrial Eve. This does not mean that she was the first woman, nor the only living female of her time, nor the first member of a "new species." It only means that she is the most recent female ancestor to which all living humans are linked. She was believed to have lived in either East Africa or Botswana.
c. 10,000 BC - 6,000 BC
Due to a tilt in the Earth’s axis, the Sahara transforms from a humid region rich with grasslands and water, to an arid desert, prompting Saharan Africans to migrate to the Nile Valley.
The earliest Egyptians were indigenous Africans who were drawn to the Sahara when it was a humid region rich in grasslands and with plentiful water. There was a widespread Saharan Neolithic culture. However, during this same period (c. 10,000 - c. 6,000 BC), the Earth's axis tilted, causing the Saharan climate to slowly transform from humid to arid, prompting Saharan Africans to migrate to the Nile Valley to take advantage of its fertile floodplains.
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Home / Full timeline / Singer Billy Eckstine, popularly known as “Mr. B.,” died in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, at the age of seventy-eight.

Singer Billy Eckstine, popularly known as “Mr. B.,” died in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, at the age of seventy-eight.; ?> Singer Billy Eckstine, popularly known as “Mr. B.,” died in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, at the age of seventy-eight.

1993 (Mar 8)

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Singer Billy Eckstine, popularly known as "Mr. B.," died in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, at the age of seventy-eight. During the late 1940s and early 1950s, his rich baritone voice made him one of America's top vocalists and among the first to become a crossover star with white audiences. With his coolly casual look—a shirt with a rolled collar and a jacket loosely draped from his shoulders—Eckstine was also pop music's first Black male sex symbol. Born William Clarence Eckstein in Pittsburgh in 1914, he grew up in Washington, D.C., and attended Howard University. He started singing when he was about seven and drifted into it professionally during the 1930s. His first performances were with various amateur shows and dance bands that toured throughout the East and Midwest. In 1939, Eckstine joined Earl "Fatha" Hines's orchestra and taught himself to play the trombone and trumpet. But it was as a singer that he helped the band gain national fame with two hit records, "Jelly" and "Stormy Monday Blues." Eckstine left Hines in 1943 and spent a year as a solo act before pulling together his own band. It did much to popularize the new bebop style of jazz by featuring some of its greatest performers, including Miles Davis, Dizzy Gillespie, Charlie "Bird" Parker, Sarah Vaughan, Dexter Gordon, and Art Blakey. During the late 1940s, Eckstine turned once again to a solo singing career. He then sang one hit romantic ballad after another. Among his biggest successes were "Fools Rush In," "Everything I Have Is Yours," "Prisoner of Love," "My Foolish Heart," "Body and Soul," "I Apologize," "Blue Moon," and "Passing Strangers." By singing such love songs when a white woman might be listening, Eckstine challenged one of the biggest taboos of a segregated society. "We weren't supposed to sing about love," he later recalled. "We were supposed to sing about work or blues." Despite his popularity, Eckstine was rarely offered opportunities to work in movies or on television due to his race. And when he did make an appearance, he was told not to let his eyes rest on any of the white actresses watching him sing. So he spent the rest of his career entertaining enthusiastic audiences in major jazz dubs across the country.

References:

  •  • Hornsby, Alton. Chronology of African-American History: Significant Events and People from 1619 to the Present. Detroit: Gale Research, 1995.
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