October 12 Peace Love Art Activism
BLACK HISTORY
TERRORISM
October 12, 1871: founded by former Confederate Army officers in December 1865, the Ku Klux Klan (KKK) operated as a secret vigilante group targeting black people and their allies with violent terrorism to resist Reconstruction and re-establish a system of white supremacy in the South.
KKK violence was so intense in South Carolina after the Civil War that United States Attorney General Amos Akerman and Army Major Lewis Merrill traveled there to investigate. In York County alone they found evidence of 11 murders and more than 600 whippings and other assaults. When local grand juries failed to take action, Akerman urged President Ulysses S. Grant to intervene, describing the counties as “under the domination of systematic and organized depravity.” Merrill said the situation was a “carnival of crime not paralleled in the history of any civilized community.”
On April 20, 1871, President Grant had signed the Ku Klux Klan Act, which made it a federal crime to deprive American citizens of their civil rights through racial terrorism. On October 12, 1871, President Grant warned nine South Carolina counties with prevalent KKK activity that martial law would be declared if the Klan did not disperse. The warning was ignored. (see Oct 17)
Booker T. Mixon
October 12, 1959: Booker T. Mixon was born in 1934 in Itta Bena. He was a World War II veteran, Mixon, his wife Earlene, and their two children moved from Chicago in 1959, where they lived after the war, to Clarksdale, Mississippi. After the family moved, Mixon worked hauling dirt and gravel for about 3 months for J.A. Childs of Greenwood, a white man.
On October 12, 1959, Mixon was discovered naked lying in near fatal condition on the side of the road in Marks, Mississippi. Sheriff’s Deputy Ben Collins of Quitman County found Mixon and called his case a “hit and run.” The flesh on Mixon’s abdomen and back had been torn from his body; witnesses said it appeared as though he had been dragged by a car.
Dr. Joseph Jones Jr., a black physician and surgeon from Clarksdale, reported that “[Mixon] had multiple abrasions and bruises on his face, head, abdomen, and legs… Furthermore, there were brain injuries and head fractures. I would say he could have been dragged by a car, perhaps, over some grass.” [Northeastern University article] (BH & Mixon, see Oct 23)
Jonny Gammage
October 12, 1995: Jonny Gammage, cousin and business partner of Pittsburgh Steelers football player Ray Seals, was detained during a traffic stop while driving Mr. Seals’s Jaguar in the working-class suburb of Brentwood on the morning of October 12, 1995. According to testimony, Lt. Milton Mullholland pulled Mr. Gammage over for tapping his breaks and called Officer John Votjas for backup. The officers later claimed that Mr. Gammage, who was 5’6″ and 165 pounds, pointed an object at the officers – which turned out to be a cell phone – and struggled. Mullholland and Votjas, along with Officer Michael Albert, Sgt. Keith Henderson, and Officer Sean Patterson, ultimately pinned Mr. Gammage face-down on the pavement; he asphyxiated and died after several minutes.
On November 27, 1995, Mulholland, Votjas were charged with third degree murder, and Albert was charged with involuntary manslaughter. The charges against Mullholland and Votjas, were later reduced to involuntary manslaughter. Henderson and Patterson were not charged in the incident.
Officer Votjas was acquitted by an all-white jury and, a year later, promoted to sergeant; Judge Joseph McCloskey dismissed charges against Mulholland and Albert after two trials resulted in mistrials. In January 1996, Brentwood police chief Wayne Babish, who had called for a complete investigation into Mr. Gammage’s death, was fired by the Brentwood City Council for failing to support the charged officers.
Multiple public protests were held in Pittsburgh and elsewhere, calling for “Justice for Jonny” and federal intervention. However, in 1999 the Department of Justice declined to file civil rights charges, stating that there was not enough evidence that unreasonable force had been used. (Fact Sheet on the Murder of Jonny Gammage) (see Oct 16)
Atatiana Jefferson
October 12, 2019: a white Fort Worth, TX police officer shot and killed Atatiana Jefferson, a 28-year-old black Texas woman. She had been playing video games with her 8-year-old nephew.
James Smith, a neighbor, told reporters that he got a call from his niece that both his neighbor’s front doors were open. He said this was unusual for Jefferson, and that he saw all the lights in the house were on. He said he called officers to the scene, but meant it only as a welfare check to make sure she was all right.
When the officer, outside, saw Jefferson inside he called out a warning and shot. (next B & S and AJ, see Oct 14)
October 12 Peace Love Art Activism
Pledge of Allegiance
October 12, 1892: during Columbus Day observances organized to coincide with the opening of the World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago, Illinois, the pledge of allegiance was recited for the first time. Francis Bellamy, a Christian Socialist, had initiated the movement for such a statement and having flags in all classrooms. His pledge was: I pledge allegiance to my Flag and the Republic for which it stands, one nation indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.
In 1923: the National Flag Conference called for the words “my Flag” to be changed to “the Flag of the United States,” so that new immigrants would not confuse loyalties between their birth countries and the United States. The words “of America” were added a year later. (see Pledge for expanded story)
October 12 Peace Love Art Activism
October 12 Music et al
Sugar Shack
October 12 – November 15, 1963, “Sugar Shack” by Jimmy Gilmer & the Fireballs #1 on the Billboard Hot 100.
see Robert A. Moog and Herbert A. Deutsch for more
October 12 – 16, 1964: Robert A. Moog and Herbert A. Deutsch [WW link] introduced and demonstrated their music synthesizer at the convention of the Audio Engineering Society in NYC. (TM, see April 9, 1965; CM, see April 27, 1965)
Cheap Thrills
October 12 – November 15, 1968: Big Brother and the Holding Company’s Cheap Thrills is the Billboard #1 album.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qA78eLqHLkM&index=3&list=PLUMhCEyoWEFvbaDwFRbFU6_0rOL2rsP9C
“I buried Paul”
October 12, 1969: a DJ on Detroit’s WKNR radio station received a phone call telling him that if you play The Beatles ‘Strawberry Fields Forever’ backwards, you hear John Lennon say the words “I buried Paul.” This started a worldwide rumor that Paul McCartney was dead. [2018 BBC article] (see Oct 20)
October 12 Peace Love Art Activism
Space Race/Space
October 12, 1964: Soviets V. M. Komarov, K. P. Feoktistov and B. B. Yegorov all flew on Voskhod 1, the first mission to send multiple men into space. [NASA article] (see February 20, 1965)
OSIRIS-REx mission
Small rocks and dust from an asteroid, outside a round sample collection device in a NASA lab.
Erika Blumenfeld & Joseph Aebersold/NASA
October 12, 2023: NASA shared its first glimpse of the black rocks and dust brought back from the Bennu asteroid (the bulk of the material remains locked inside a sample collection device that researchers needed to slowly disassemble).
The tiny amount of material analyzed to that point showed that Bennu (named after Bennu, the ancient Egyptian mythological bird associated with the Sun, creation, and rebirth) contained abundant water and carbon, adding to evidence that asteroids may have seeded the early Earth with ingredients needed for the emergence of life. [NPR article] (next Space, see January 19,, 2023; next OSIRIS-REx, see January 10, 2024)
October 12 Peace Love Art Activism
INDEPENDENCE DAY
October 12, 1968: Equatorial Guinea independent from Spain. [SAHistory article] (see June 4, 1970)
October 12 Peace Love Art Activism
Vietnam
Kent State Killings and Aftermath
October 12, 1970: President Nixon announced the pullout of 40,000 more American troops in Vietnam by Christmas. (NYT article) (Kent State, see January 4, 1979; Vietnam, Nov 9)
Race Revolts
October 12,1972: en route to the Gulf of Tonkin, a fight broke out involving more than 200 sailors aboard the United States Navy aircraft carrier USS Kitty Hawk; 40 persons were injured and 28 sailors arrested, all but one black. (NYT pdf) (Vietnam, see Oct 26; BH & RR see Nov 23)
WAR POWERS ACT
October 12, 1973: House approved joint conference committee’s resolution 238 – 123. (see Oct 24)
Watergate Scandal
October 12, 1973: following the October 10 resignation of vice president Sprio Agnew, Nixon nominated House Minority Leader Gerald R. Ford, R-Mich., to succeed Agnew as vice president. (see Watergate for expanded story)
October 12 Peace Love Art Activism
Crime and Punishment
October 12, 1984: The Comprehensive Crime Control Act of 1984 was enacted. It was signed into law by President Ronald Reagan. Among its constituent parts and provisions was the Armed Career Criminal Act. The ACCA provided sentence enhancements for felons who committed crimes with firearms, if convicted of certain crimes three or more times.
If a felon has been convicted more than twice of a “violent felony” or a “serious” drug crime, the Act provided a minimum sentence of fifteen years, instead of the ten-year maximum prescribed under the Gun Control Act. The Act provided for a maximum sentence of life imprisonment. [Slate article] (see Nov 12)
October 12 Peace Love Art Activism
Irish Troubles
October 12, 1984: The Provisional Irish Republican Army attempted to assassinate Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher and the British Cabinet in the Brighton hotel bombing. (see Troubles for expanded story)
October 12 Peace Love Art Activism
LGBTQ
see Matthew Shepard murder for more
October 12, 1998: Shepard died at Poudre Valley Hospital in Fort Collins, Colorado.
Alaska ban on gay marriage overruled
October 12, 2014: U.S. District Judge Timothy Burgess released his 25-page decision that struck down Alaska’s first-in-the-nation ban on gay marriages. Five gay couples had asked the state of Alaska to overturn a constitutional amendment approved by voters in 1998 that defined marriage as being between one man and one woman.
The lawsuit filed in May sought to bar enforcement of Alaska’s constitutional ban on same-sex marriage. It also called for barring enforcement of any state laws that refused to recognize gay marriages legally performed in other states or countries or that prevent unmarried gay couples from marrying.
Burgess had heard arguments the previous Friday afternoon and promised a quick decision. (NYT article) (see Oct 25)
October 12 Peace Love Art Activism
TERRORISM
USS Cole
October 12, 2000: in Aden, Yemen, the USS Cole was badly damaged by two Al-Qaeda suicide bombers, who place a small boat laden with explosives alongside the United States Navy destroyer, killing 17 crew members and wounding at least 39. [CNN article] (see Dec 19)
Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab
October 12, 2011: the trial of Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, accused of trying to blow up a commercial airliner with a bomb sewed into his underwear ended just a day after it had begun, when he abruptly announced that he would plead guilty to all of the federal counts against him.
He stated that “The Koran obliges every able Muslim to participate in jihad and fight in the way of Allah…I carried the device to avenge the killing of my Muslim brothers and sisters… Unfortunately, my actions make me guilty of a crime.” [NYT article] (Terrorism & Abdulmutallab, see February 16, 2012)
October 12 Peace Love Art Activism
Affordable Care Act
October 12, 2017:
- President Trump signed an executive order that cleared the way for potentially sweeping changes in health insurance, including sales of cheaper policies with fewer benefits and fewer protections for consumers than those mandated under the Affordable Care Act. But most of the changes will not come until federal agencies adopt regulations, after an opportunity for public comments — a process that could take months. [NYT article]
- a few hours later, Trump announced that he would scrap subsidies to health insurance companies that help pay out-of-pocket costs of low-income people. (see Oct 27).
October 12 Peace Love Art Activism
Sexual Abuse of Children
October 12, 2018: Pope Francis accepted the resignation of Washington Cardinal Donald Wuerl after he had become entangled in two major sexual abuse and cover-up scandals and lost the support of many in his flock.
Wuerl becames the most prominent head to roll in the scandal roiling the Catholic Church after his predecessor as Washington archbishop, Theodore McCarrick, was forced to resign as cardinal over allegations he sexually abused at least two minors and adult seminarians.
The decision came after months in which Wuerl initially downplayed the scandal, insisted on his own good record, but then progressively came to the conclusion that he could no longer lead the archdiocese. (next SAoC, see Oct 18; McCarrick, see February 16, 2019)