Person of Year

Tim Cook - Apple CEO

"I’m proud to be gay, and I consider being gay among the greatest gifts God has given me, " Apple CEO Tim Cook has said in a letter written for Bloomberg Businessweek,  while  publicly coming out as gay and declaring his support for equality.

Tim Cook, though the CEO of perhaps the most prominent company in the World today, has managed to  keep a low profile on his personal life. In the letter he  says that his decision to publicly acknowledge his sexuality was  intended to "bring comfort to anyone who feels alone" and to "inspire people to insist on their equality."

On Wednesday, October 29, 2014, Zambia’s Vice President, Guy Scott, has been appointed President of Zambia, hence becoming the first post independence African white head of state. He has replaced the late Zambian President Michael Chilufya Sata, following the death of the latter in London on October 28, 2014.

Although his appointment is temporary, the fact that he is white in an African democratic independent country make him a first. The only other white heads of state were either under apartheid in South Africa or during colonial times.

 August 25: Birthday of Athea Gibson, the first black to with a Grand Slam Title, the French Open.

Athea Gibson was born  on August 25, 1927, in Silver, South Carolina, from two cotton sharecropers parents.  She was an American tennis player and professional golfer. In 1956, she won the French Open, becoming the first black to win  a Grand Slam title and hence  cross the color line of international tennis. In both 1957 and 1958 , she won both the Wimbledon and the U.S. Nationals, the precursor of the U.S. Open. This won her the Associated Press Female Athlete of the Year. During her career,  she won 11 Grand Slam tournaments, including six doubles titles. She was  inducted into the International Tennis Hall of Fame and the International Women's Sports Hall of Fame. In the early 1960s she also became the first black player to compete on the women's professional golf tour. She died on  September 28, 2003.