Thomas Jennings was not only an abolitionist who fought for equal rights for all Americans, but he was also a brilliant inventor. Thomas Jennings invented the commercial dry-cleaning process he called “dry-scouring,” receiving a patent in 1821 and becoming the first African American to be granted a patent in the United States.
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Virginia’s own Viola Roberts Lampkin Brown hit the big 1-1-0 last week on October 4th, making her the first and only supercentenarian to reside in the southern state of the six in total still alive. Throughout her many, many years of defying the odds of human mortality, Viola has been blessed with a sizable family that includes eight grandchildren, eight great-grandchildren, three great-great-grandchildren and “more relatives and friends than she can count” according to ABC local affiliate WJLA.