On February 25, 1870, Hiram Rhoades Revels took his seat as the first elected African American member of the United States Senate. Of African American and Native American descent, Revels was born a free man in North Carolina, a slave state. His education included a Quaker school and Knox College. Revels was ordained as a minister of the African Methodist Church and traveled extensively. He was also prominent in education. In 1871, he would become president of Alcorn College, Mississippi's first college for African American students.
The first practical revolving-cylinder handgun was invented in 1831 by Samuel Colt of Hartford, Connecticut, and patented on February 25, 1836. The revolving-cylinder concept is said to have occurred to Colt while he was serving as a seaman and observed a similar principle in the workings of the ship's capstan. He carved a wooden model of the concept. Colt's idea was not an early success. When it was first introduced, many still preferred the flintlock musket or pistol.
