Sidney Poitier was born on 20 February 1927 in Miami. A Bahamian-American actor, director and diplomat, Poitier was the first Black man to win the Academy Award for Best Actor, for Lilies of the Field. Raised in the Bahamas, he moved to New York as a teenager, and broke through in films such as The Defiant Ones, Blackboard Jungle and A Raisin in the Sun. In 1967 he starred in In the Heat of the Night and Guess Who's Coming to Dinner. He directed comedies such as Stir Crazy. Poitier was an important figure in the civil rights era, and served as ambassador of the Bahamas to Japan. He received the Presidential Medal of Freedom.
Before and after
- 1927Uncertainty principle
- 1927Davisson–Germer experiment
- 1927Lemaitre proposes an expanding universe
- from c. 1927 to 1930Leonard Woolley excavates the Royal Cemetery of Ur
- 20 February 1927Birth of Sidney Poitier
- 6 March 1927Birth of Gabriel García Márquez
- 12 April 1927Shanghai massacre of 1927
- 16 April 1927Birth of Benedict XVI
- 7 May 1927Construction of San Francisco International Airport
More in Art, literature & culture
- 1923Construction of Forbidden City
- 1925Rise of Art Deco
- 1935Construction of Cà Mau Airport
- 21 September 1937Publication of The Hobbit
- 20 May 1940Construction of Auschwitz
- 15 January 1943Construction of The Pentagon
The era
This moment belongs to the Modern era (1914 CE to 1945 CE), world wars and a changing world. You can also browse everything in the 20th century.