JACKIE ROBINSON

Jackie Robinson was a professional baseball player who became the first black African American to play in Major League Baseball in the modern era. Robinson broke the baseball color line when he started at first base for the Brooklyn Dodgers on April 15, 1947. Robinson was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1962. After his death in 1972, Robinson was posthumously awarded the Congressional Gold Medal and Presidential Medal of Freedom in recognition of his achievements on and off the field. In 1997, Major League Baseball retired his uniform No. 42 across all major league teams, the first professional athlete in any sport to be so honored. MLB also adopted a new annual tradition called Jackie Robinson Day during which every player on every team wears No. 42.