Black American inventor, Willie H. Johnson, of Navasota, Texas, was issued a U.S. patent for "A Mechanism for Overcoming Dead Centers" which occur in machines when a shaft is driven by a crank (No. 554,223). The essential part of his invention consisted of a two-part or compound crank-rod of such construction that the members automatically locked together at the proper point in the stroke, so as to act as a single rod, and at other intervals of its travel would automatically unlocked, so that each member would act independently of the other. Either could act to carry the stroke past the top dead center of the other. Johnson secured a second patent in Oct 1898 for an improvement to his design (No. 612,345).

Barack Obama's Kenyan aunt has appeared at a court in Boston on a second attempt to gain political asylum in the United States. The immigration hearing for 57-year-old Zeituni Onyango has ended without an immediate decision on her asylum. The half-sister of Mr. Obama's father, Onyango had moved to the U.S. in 2000. Her first asylum application was rejected in 2004, and she was ordered to be deported, but continued living in public housing in Boston. Her immigration status became an issue during Mr. Obama's election campaign. He said at the time that he was not aware of his aunt being in the U.S. illegally.