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Our Nig by Harriet Wilson, the first novel published in the U.S. by an African American woman, was published on this date in 1859. It was lost for years until reprinted with a critical essay by African American scholar Henry Louis Gates, Jr. in 1983. 

George Washington Murray was elected to Congress from South Carolina on this date in 1895.

J. Ross patented the Bailing Press on this date in 1899. Patent No. 632,539.