Singer Harry Belafonte Passes Away at Age 96

Singer, actor, and activist Harry Belafonte died Tuesday at his home in New York of congestive heart failure, his representative Paula Witt said in a statement Tuesday morning. Known as the "King of Calypso," Belafonte will be regarded as one of the most popular entertainers of the 20th century.

Belafonte was born Harold George Bellafaniti, Jr. in Harlem in 1927. His parents were both born in Jamaica, providing the young Belafonte a musical influence the whole world would eventually come to know. In fact, it was Jamaican folk songs that earned him prominence on the American music scene. A song...