The U.S. Senate confirms Eric Holder as U.S. Attorney General. He is the first African-American in the nation to hold the post.

Also, on this day in 1995, Dr. Bernard Harris Jr. becomes the first African-American to walk in space while involved in the deployment and retrieval mission of the Spartan 204 satellite. Harris is a veteran of two space flights and has logged more than 438 hours in space, according to NASA.