Date in year · 1951 · The 1950s

October 20, 1951

On October 20, 1951, the "Johnny Bright incident" occurs during a football game between the Drake Bulldogs and Oklahoma A&M Aggies. Jóannes Eidesgaard, Tony Danza, Michael Freedman would arrive in the same year.

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Year

1951

1950s

Around 1951

The year in brief

1951 (MCMLI) was a common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar, the 1951st year of the Common Era (CE) and Anno Domini (AD) designations, the 951st year of the 2nd millennium, the 51st year of the 20th century, and the 2nd year of the 1950s decade.

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What happened

On October 20, 1951

  1. 1951 The "Johnny Bright incident" occurs during a football game between the Drake Bulldogs and Oklahoma A&M Aggies.

    1951 on-field assault during an American college football game

    The Johnny Bright incident was a violent on-field assault against African-American player Johnny Bright by Wilbanks Smith, a white opposing player during an American college football game held on October 20, 1951, in Stillwater, Oklahoma. The game was significant in itself as it marked the first time that an African-American athlete with a national profile and of critical importance to the success of his team, the Drake Bulldogs, had played against Oklahoma A&M College at Oklahoma A&M's Lewis Field. Bright's injury also highlighted the racial tensions of the times and assumed notoriety when it was captured in what was later to become both a widely disseminated and eventually Pulitzer Prize–winning photo sequence.

Elsewhere that year

Other moments from 1951

The class of 1951

Others born in 1951

Jóannes Eidesgaard 1951– Faroese educator and politician, Prime Minister of the Faroe Islands
Tony Danza 1951– American actor and producer
Michael Freedman 1951– American mathematician and academic
Bob Varsha 1951– American sportscaster
Steve Vickers 1951– Canadian ice hockey player
Soledad Gallego-Díaz 1951– Spanish journalist (died 2026)

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