born Nov. 9, 1731, Ellicott's Mills, Md.
died Oct. 25, 1806, Baltimore, Md., U.S.
American astronomer, compiler of almanacs, and inventor.
A free black who owned a farm near Baltimore, Banneker was largely self-educated in astronomy and mathematics. In 1761 he attracted attention by building a wooden clock that kept precise time. He began astronomical calculations about 1773, accurately predicted a solar eclipse in 1789, and published annually from 1791 to 1802 the Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, and Virginia Almanac and Ephemeris . (He sent an early copy of the almanac to Thomas Jefferson to counter a contention that blacks were intellectually inferior.) In 1790 he was appointed to the commission that surveyed the site for Washington, D.C. He also wrote essays denouncing slavery and war.