Most people have heard about famous inventions like the light bulb, the cotton gin and the iPhone. But there are countless other, often overlooked inventions that make our daily lives easier. Among the creative innovators behind these devices are African American inventors.

Improved Ironing Board, Invented by Sarah Boone in 1892

The ironing board is a product that’s used possibly just as much as it’s overlooked. In the late 19th century, it was improved upon by Sarah Boone, an African American woman who was born enslaved. One of the first Black women in U.S. history to receive a patent, she expanded upon the original ironing board, which was essentially a horizontal wooden block originally patented in 1858. With Boone’s 1892 additions, the board featured a narrower and curved design, making it easier to iron garments, particularly women’s clothing. Boone’s design would morph into the modern ironing board that we use today.

Home Security System, Co-Invented by Mary Van Brittan Brown in 1966

Before security systems became a fixture in homes, an African American nurse Mary Van Brittan Brown, devised an early security unit for her own home. She spent many nights at home alone in Queens, New York while her husband was away, and felt unsafe with high rates of crime in her neighborhood. On top of that, police were unreliable and unresponsive. So she created a device that would help put her mind at ease.

In 1966, Brown invented a system that used a camera that could slide into and look through four peepholes in her front door. The camera’s view would then appear on a monitor in her home so she could survey any potentially unwanted guests.

She added other features to the system, including a microphone to speak to anyone at the door, a button to unlock the door, and a button to contact the police. She and her husband took out a patent for the system in the same year, and they were awarded the patent three years later in 1969. Home security systems commonly used today took various elements from her design.

The Three-Light Traffic Signal, Invented by Garrett Morgan in 1923

With only an elementary school education, Black inventor (and son of an enslaved parent), Garrett Morgan came up with several significant inventions, including an improved sewing machine and the gas mask. However, one of Morgan’s most influential inventions was the improved traffic light. Morgan’s was one of the first three-light systems that were invented in the 1920s, resulting in widespread adoption of the traffic lights we take for granted today.

Thanks to the successes of his other inventions, Morgan bought and car and, as a motorist, he witnessed a severe car accident at an intersection in his city of Cleveland, Ohio. In response, he decided to expand on the current traffic light by adding a “yield” component, warning oncoming drivers of an impending stop. He took out the patent for the creation in 1923, and it was granted to him the following year.

Refrigerated Trucks, Invented by Frederick McKinley Jones in 1940

If your refrigerator has any produce from your local grocery store, then you can credit African American inventor Frederick McKinley Jones. Jones took out more than 60 patents throughout his life, including a patent for the roof-mounted cooling system that’s used to refrigerate goods on trucks during extended transportation in the mid-1930s. He received a patent for his invention in 1940, and co-founded the U.S. Thermo Control Company, later known as Thermo King. The company was critical during World War II, helping to preserve blood, food and supplies during the war.

International Women’s Day

March 8, A Unique Date All Over the World

March is Women’s History Month. Nevertheless, international Women’s Day is celebrated on March 8 every year by women’s groups around the world. It is also celebrated at the United Nation (UN), and in many countries, it is a national holiday. When women from all continents, often divided by national borders and by ethnic, linguistic, cultural, economic and political differences, come together to celebrate their Day, they can see, if they look back, that it is a tradition representing at least 90 years of struggle for equality, justice, peace and development.

Women who made history

International Women’s Day is the story of ordinary women who made history. It has its roots in the struggle led by women for centuries to participate in society on an equal footing with men. In Greek antiquity, Lysistrata launched a « sex strike » against men to end war. During the French Revolution, Parisian women demanding « liberty, equality, fraternity » marched on Versailles to demand women’s suffrage.

The idea of ​​an International Women’s Day emerged at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries, a period characterized in the industrialized world by expansion and effervescence, explosive population growth and the emergence of radical ideologies.

Chronological landmarks

1909 – In accordance with a declaration by the American Socialist Party, the first National Women’s Day was observed throughout the United States on February 28. Women continued to celebrate this day on the last Sunday of February until 1913.

1910 – The Socialist International meeting in Copenhagen established an international Women’s Day to honor the movement for women’s rights and to help achieve universal suffrage for women. The proposal was unanimously approved by the conference which included more than 100 women from 17 countries, including the first three women elected to the Finnish Parliament. No specific date has been set for this celebration.

1911 – Following the decision taken in Copenhagen the previous year, International Women’s Day was celebrated for the first time, on March 19, in Germany, Austria, Denmark and Switzerland, where more than one million women and men attended rallies. In addition to the right to vote and hold public office, they demanded the right to work, to vocational training, and an end to discrimination in the workplace.

Less than a week later, on March 25, the tragic fire at the Triangle workshop in New York claimed the lives of more than 140 workers, mostly Italian and Jewish immigrants. This event had a strong influence on labor law in the United States, and the working conditions that led to this disaster were discussed during subsequent celebrations of International Women’s Day.

1913-1914 – As part of the pacifist movement fermenting on the eve of World War I, Russian women celebrated their first International Women’s Day on the last Sunday of February 1913. In other European countries, the 8 March or a day or two from that date, women held rallies either to protest against the war or to express their solidarity with their sisters.

1917 – With two million Russian soldiers killed in the war, Russian women again chose the last Sunday in February to strike for ‘bread and peace’. The political leaders protested against the date chosen for this strike, but the women ignored it. The rest is in the history books: four days later the Tsar was forced to abdicate, and the Provisional Government granted women the right to vote. This historic Sunday fell on February 23 in the Julian calendar then in use in Russia, but March 8 in the Georgian calendar used elsewhere.

Since these years, International Women’s Day has taken on a new global dimension in both developed and developing countries. The burgeoning women’s movement, which had been bolstered by four United Nations-sponsored world conferences on women, helped make the observance of the Day the rallying point for coordinated efforts to demand the realization women’s rights and their participation in the political and economic process. Increasingly, International Women’s Day is a time to reflect on progress, call for change, and celebrate acts of courage and determination by ordinary women who have played an extraordinary role in the history of human rights.

George Crum “The inventor of French Fries”

George Crum was born as George Speck in 1822 in Saratoga Lake, New York, the son of a Huron Native-American mother and an African-American father who worked as a jockey. He worked for a while as a mountain guide and trapper in the Adirondack Mountains in New York.

In 1853 he became the head chef at the Cary Moon’s Lake House in Lake Saratoga, New York and on one evening set out preparing the evening dinner for the guests. He intended to make French fries but a guest complained that they were too thick. Annoyed, he prepared another batch and sliced the potatoes extremely thin. After deep frying them in oil he found them very thin and very crisp and after adding salt found that the guests loved them. George began preparing the potatoes this way and they would soon become known as potato chips.

In 1860 George decided to open his own restaurant on Malta Avenue in Saratoga Lake. He featured potato chips as appetizers on each table. The restaurant was very successful and operated for 30 years, closing in 1890. Unfortunately, he never patented the potato chip, nor sought to market them outside of his restaurant. A few years after he retired, however, potato chips were mass marketed by others and would eventually become a six billion dollar a year industry.