Music et al, Peace Love Art and Activism, Today in history

October 7 Peace Love Art Activism

October 7, 2015 Woodstock Whisperer 1 Comment

October 7 Peace Love Art Activism

FEMINISM

Voting Rights

October 7, 1918: National Women’s Party picketed with banners in front of U.S. Capitol and Senate Office Building. Pickets arrested daily and released without charges. Throughout rest of Oct. and Nov., pickets harassed by unruly crowds and manhandled by police. (see Dec 2)

Women in service academies

October 7, 1975: President Ford approved a public law granting women entrance into Army, Navy, and Air Force academies for the first time beginning in the fall of 1976. [Women’s Memorial article] (see Oct 15)

October 7 Peace Love Art Activism

The Red Scare, McCarthyism, and the Cold War

October 7, 1949: less than five months after Great Britain, the United States, and France established the Federal Republic of Germany in West Germany, the Democratic Republic of Germany was proclaimed within the Soviet occupation zone. The West criticized the Republic as an un-autonomous Soviet creation, (see Nov 2)

Windscale nuclear reactor (UK)

October 7, 1957: a fire in the graphite-core reactor in Cumbria results in a limited release of radioactivity (INES Level 5). The sale of milk from nearby farms was banned for a month. The reactor could not be salvaged and was buried in concrete. A second reactor on the site is also shut down and the site decontaminated. Subsequently part of the site is renamed Sellafield and new nuclear reactors are built. (NYT article) (see Dec 17)

Cuban Missile Crisis

October 7, 1962: Cuban President Osvaldo Dorticós spoke at the UN General Assembly: “If … we are attacked, we will defend ourselves. I repeat, we have sufficient means with which to defend ourselves; we have indeed our inevitable weapons, the weapons, which we would have preferred not to acquire, and which we do not wish to employ.” (see Cuban Missile Crisis for expanded story)

Nuclear test ban treaty

October 7, 1963: President John F. Kennedy signed the documents of ratification for a nuclear test ban treaty with Britain and the Soviet Union. (CW, see Nov 18; NN, see January 29, 1964)

October 7 Peace Love Art Activism

October 7 Music et al

Howl

October 7, 1955: Allen Ginsberg read his poem “Howl” for the first time to an audience at the Six Gallery in San Francisco. “Howl” is considered to be one of the great works of American literature.

It came to be associated with the group of writers known as the Beat Generation, which included Jack Kerouac and William S. Burroughs. (see November 1, 1956)

WNEW-FM

October 7, 1967: WNEW-FM’s Pete Fornatelle interviewed Rosko regarding his Oct 2 resignation from WOR-FM. [see Oct 29]

see John Can Stay for more

October 7, 1975: the NY State Supreme Court voted to reverse John’s deportation order. Judge Irving Kaufman wrote “The courts will not condone selective deportation based upon secret political grounds…Lennon’s four-year battle to remain in our country is testimony to his faith in this American dream.” (see April 24, 1976)

October 7 Peace Love Art Activism

BLACK HISTORY

Freedom Day

October 7, 1963: in what would be known as “Freedom Day,” about 350 blacks line up to register to vote at the Dallas County (Alabama) Courthouse. Registrars go as slowly as possible and take a two-hour lunch break. Few manage to register, most of those are denied, but the protest is considered a huge victory by civil rights advocates. [SNCC article] (see Oct 8)

United States versus Cecil Price et al.

October 7, 1967: trial in the case of United States versus Cecil Price et al. began in the Meridian courtroom of Judge William Cox. Chief Prosecutor John Doar and other government attorneys had reason to be concerned about Cox. Cox, appointed as an effort to appease powerful Judiciary Committee Chairman (and former roommate of Cox at Ole Miss) Senator James Eastland, had been a constant source of problems for Justice Department lawyers (especially John Doar) who were seeking to enforce civil rights laws in Mississippi. In one incident, Judge Cox referred to a group of African Americans set to testify in a voting rights case as “a bunch of chimpanzees.”

A jury of seven white men and five white women, ranging in ages from 34 to 67, was selected. Defense attorneys exercised peremptory challenges against all seventeen potential black jurors. A white man, who admitted under questioning by Robert Hauberg, the U.S. Attorney for Mississippi, that he had been a member of the KKK “a couple of years ago,” was challenged for cause. Judge Cox denied the challenge. (Wikipedia entry) (see Oct 20)

Emmett Till

October 7, 2008: President Bush signed the Emmett Till Unsolved Civil Rights Crime Act of 2007 It tasked theJustice Department’s Civil Rights Division and the FBI with reviewing, investigating and assessing for prosecutive merit more than 100 unsolved civil rights era homicides. (BH, see Nov 4; ET, see Emmett Till)

October 7 Peace Love Art Activism

1964 World Series

October 7 – 15 , 1964: World Series St. Louis Cardinals against N Y Yankees, Cardinals defeated the Yankees in seven games. It was the last Yankee World Series appearance until 1976. [MLB article]

October 7 Peace Love Art ActivismOperation Enduring Freedom

War in Afghanistan

October 7, 2001: the armed forces of the US, the UK, Australia, and the Afghan United Front launched Operation Enduring Freedom in Afghanistan. (next Afghanistan-related, see Oct 22; War, see April 14, 2021)

October 7 Peace Love Art Activism

Sexual Abuse of Children

October 7, 2002: a commission appointed by Cardinal Bernard F. Law to help prevent sexual abuse by priests recommended that the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Boston compile a registry of accused priests and pass information about them to employers. The commission also recommended monitoring accused priests after they were removed from their jobs and reporting information about their work, living situations and any new complaints of abuse to an independent review board of lay experts. (see Nov 3)

October 7 Peace Love Art Activism

Iraq War II

October 7, 2004: a CIA report concluded that Saddam Hussein did not possess stockpiles of illicit weapons at the time of the U.S. invasion in March 2003 and had not begun any program to produce them. [CNN, 10/7/04] (see January 12, 2005)

October 7 Peace Love Art Activism

Music et al, Peace Love Art and Activism, Today in history

October 6 Peace Love Art Activism

October 6, 2015 Woodstock Whisperer Leave a comment

October 6 Peace Love Art Activism

US Labor History

“The Jazz Singer”

October 6, 1927: “The Jazz Singer” – the first feature-length sound film in the US – opened in New York City. Within three years, 22,000 theater jobs for musicians who accompanied silent films were lost, while only a few hundred jobs for musicians performing on soundtracks were created by the new technology. (see Nov 21)

UAW

October 6, 1976: the UAW ended a 3-week strike against Ford Motor Co. when the company agreed to a contract that included more vacation days and better retirement and unemployment benefits. (see January 28, 1977)

Feminism

October 6, 1986: female flight attendants won an 18-year lawsuit against United Airlines, which had fired them for getting married. The lawsuit was resolved when a U.S. district court approved the reinstatement of 475 attendants and $37 million back-pay settlement for 1,725 flight attendants. (United Airlines, Inc. v. McDonald, 432 U.S. 385 (1977)) (next Feminism, see Nov 1; Labor, see February 2, 1987)

October 6 Peace Love Art Activism

Vietnam

October 6, 1955: Ngô Đình Diệm announced the referendum would be held on 23 October. The election was open to men and women aged 18 or over, and the government arranged to have a polling station set up for every 1,000 registered voters, The poll was contested by Bảo Đại, who had spent much of his time in France and advocated a monarchy, and Diệm, who ran on a republican platform. (see Oct 23)

Nuclear/Chemical News

October 6, 1961: the Soviet Union above-ground nuclear test. 4 megaton. President Kennedy, speaking on civil defense, advised American families to build bomb shelters to protect them from atomic fallout in the event of a nuclear exchange with the Soviet Union. [2009 Politico article] (see Oct 23, 1961)

Films about living in fallout shelter

October 6 Peace Love Art Activism

1965 World Series

October 6 – 14, 1965, World Series: LA Dodgers against the Minnesota Twins. LA in 7 games. [Foxsports article]

October 6 Peace Love Art Activism

LSD

October 6, 1966: a new federal law made possession of LSD illegal. (see Oct 20)

October 6 Peace Love Art Activism

Cultural Milestone

October 6, 1967: after many young people left the Haight-Ashbury at the end of a tumultuous, those remaining in the Haight wanted to commemorate the conclusion of the event.

A mock funeral entitled “The Death of the Hippie” ceremony was staged on October 6, 1967, and organizer Mary Kasper explained: We wanted to signal that this was the end of it, to stay where you are, bring the revolution to where you live and don’t come here because it’s over and done with. [2017 Retronewser article] (see Oct 17)

October 6 Peace Love Art Activism

Arab-Israeli War of 1973

October 6, 1973: the fourth and largest Arab–Israeli conflict begins, as Egyptian and Syrian forces attack Israeli forces in the Sinai Peninsula and Golan Heights on Yom Kippur. [2017 Aljazeera article]

October 6 Peace Love Art Activism

Irish Troubles

October 6, 1981: Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, James Prior, announced a number of changes in prison policy, one of which would allowed prisoners to wear their civilian clothes at all times. This was one of the five key demands that had been made at the start of the hunger strike. Prior also announced other changes: free association would be allowed in neighboring wings of each H-Block, in the exercise areas and in recreation rooms; an increase in the number of visits each prisoner would be entitled to..(see Troubles for expanded story)

October 6 Peace Love Art Activism

LGBTQ

Matthew Shepard murder

October 6, 1998: Matthew Shepard met Aaron McKinney and Russell Henderson for the first time at the Fireside Lounge in Laramie, Wyoming. It was decided that McKinney and Henderson would give Shepard a ride home. McKinney and Henderson subsequently drove the car to a remote, rural area and proceeded to rob, pistol-whip, and torture Shepard, tying him to a fence and leaving him to die. According to their court testimony, McKinney and Henderson also discovered his address and intended to steal from his home. Still tied to the fence, Shepard, who was still alive but in a coma, was discovered 18 hours later by Aaron Kreifels, a cyclist who initially mistook Shepard for a scarecrow. (see Shepard for expanded story)

Melissa Ethridge, “Scarecrow”

Showers of your crimson blood
Seep into a nation calling up a flood
Of narrow minds who legislate
Thinly veiled intolerance
Bigotry and hateBut they tortured and burned you
They beat you and they tied you
They left you cold and breathing
For love they crucified youI can’t forget hard as I try
This silhouette against the skyScarecrow crying
Waiting to die wondering why
Scarecrow trying
Angels will hold carry your soul awayThis was our brother
This was our son
This shepherd young and mild

This unassuming one
We all gasp this can’t happen here
We’re all much too civilized
Where can these monsters hideBut they are knocking on our front door
They’re rocking in our cradles
They’re preaching in our churches
And eating at our tablesI search my soul
My heart and in my mind
To try and find forgiveness
This is someone child
With pain unreconciled
Filled up with father’s hate
Mother’s neglect
I can forgive But I will not forgetScarecrow crying
Waiting to die wondering why
Scarecrow trying
Rising above all in the name of love

Elton John, American Triangle

Seen him playing in his backyard
Young boy just starting out
So much history in this landscape
So much confusion, so much doubtBeen there drinking on that front porch
Angry kids, mean and dumb
Looks like a painting, that blue skyline
God hates fags where we come from’Western skies’ don’t make it right
‘Home of the brave’ don’t make no sense
I’ve seen a scarecrow wrapped in wireLeft to die on a high ridge fenceIt’s a cold, cold wind

It’s a cold, cold wind
It’s a cold wind blowing, WyomingSee two coyotes run down a deer
Hate what we don’t understand
You pioneers give us your children
But it’s your blood that stains their handsSomewhere that road forks up ahead
To ignorance and innocence
Three lives drift on different winds
Two lives ruined, one life spent

Same-sex marriage

October 6, 2014: the US Supreme Court let stand an appeals court rulings allowing same-sex marriage in five states. The development cleared the way for same-sex marriages in Indiana, Oklahoma, Utah, Virginia and Wisconsin. Gay and lesbian couples started getting married in those states within hours. (see Oct 8)

October 6 Peace Love Art Activism

BLACK HISTORY

October 6, 2009: Beth Humphrey, a white woman from Hammond, Louisiana, called Keith Bardwell, a justice of the peace in Tangipahoa Parish, to ask him to sign a license for her to marry Terence McKay, an African American man. Bardwell’s wife informed Humphrey that he would not sign a marriage license for an interracial couple. Bardwell, a justice of the peace for over 30 years, later estimated he had denied marriage licenses to four interracial couples during the previous two and a half years.

After his refusal was publicized and generated controversy, Bardwell defended his actions, insisting in interviews that he is “not a racist” and claiming he denied marriage licenses out of concern for the problems that would face an interracial couple’s children. He said he “does not believe in mixing races in that way” and believes “there is a problem with both groups [of whites and African Americans] accepting a child from such a marriage. I think those children suffer and I won’t help put them through it.”

Humphrey expressed shock at Bardwell’s views: “That was one thing that made this so unbelievable. It’s not something you expect in this day and age.” Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal called for an investigation and disciplinary action by a state commission that reviews the conduct of lawyers and judges in Louisiana. The ACLU, Center for Constitutional Rights, and local NAACP called on Bardwell to resign from his position, which he did on November 3. (see Oct 10)

SEPARATION OF CHURCH AND STATE

October 6, 2014: the Supreme Court refused to hear the appeal of John Freshwater, an Ohio science teacher, who was fired for teaching creationism instead of evolution. Freshwater taught eighth-grade science at Mount Vernon Middle School until 2011, when the Board of Education removed him after it was revealed that he decorated his science classroom with Bible verses, attacked the theory of evolution, and gave extra credit for attending creationist films. (2010 NYT article) (see Dec 1)

Crime and Punishment

Overcrowding

October 6, 2015: according to federal law enforcement officials the Justice Department prepared to release roughly 6,000 inmates from federal prison as part of an effort to ease overcrowding and roll back the harsh penalties given to nonviolent drug dealers in the 1980s and ’90s.

The release was scheduled to occur from Oct. 30 to Nov. 2, and would be one of the largest one-time discharges of inmates from federal prisons in American history, said the officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they did not want to be identified discussing matters that had not been publicly announced by the Justice Department. (see Nov 24)

DEATH PENALTY

October 6, 2015: District Judge Jeffrey Sherlock blocked Montana from using a particular drug in lethal injections, effectively halting executions in the state until an adequate substitute can be found or lawmakers change the law.

The barbiturate pentobarbital does not meet the state law’s standards for executions, Sherlock said. He stressed that his ruling was not on whether the death penalty was constitutional or whether the drug’s use constituted cruel and unusual punishment, but only whether the drug satisfied the law.

“Scrupulous adherence to statutory mandates is especially important here given the gravity of the death penalty,” Sherlock said in his order. [CBS News story] (see January 12, 2016)

October 6 Peace Love Art Activism

Sexual Abuse of Children

October 6, 2016: the Archdiocese of New York announced the establishment of an independent program that would allow victims of sexual abuse by members of the clergy to apply for compensation from the church, even for abuse claims that are decades old. [NYT article] (see March 1, 2017)

October 6 Peace Love Art Activism

Women’s Health

October 6, 2017: President Donald Trump’s administration issued a new rule that allowed all employers to opt out of including birth control in their health insurance plans for any moral or religious reason, rolling back the Obama-era requirement that guaranteed contraception coverage at no cost to 62 million women.

Requiring insurance plans to cover birth control imposes a “substantial burden” to the free exercise of religion guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution, and could promote “risky sexual behavior” among adolescents, the administration told reporters. [NYT article] (see Oct 24)

October 6 Peace Love Art Activism

Nuclear/Chemical News & ICAN

October 6, 2017: The Nobel Committee awarded the 2017 Peace Prize to The International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons [ICAN]. The committee stated: “for its work to draw attention to the catastrophic humanitarian consequences of any use of nuclear weapons and for its ground-breaking efforts to achieve a treaty-based prohibition of such weapons” as the reason for selecting ICAN for this award. [NPR story] (Nuclear, see Oct 13; ICAN, see Nov 30)

Environmental Issues

October 6, 2021: the Biden administration announced that it would restore climate change protections to the nation’s bedrock environmental law, the National Environmental Policy Act, which former President Donald J. Trump had weakened in an effort to speed the approval of projects like mines, pipelines, dams and highways.

The proposed changes would require the federal government to evaluate the climate change impacts of major new projects as part of the permitting process. They come as Congress is weighing a plan to spend trillions of dollars on infrastructure improvements across the United States. [NYT article] (next EI, see Nov 2)

October 6 Peace Love Art Activism

Cannabis

October 6, 2022: President Biden pardoned thousands of people convicted of marijuana possession under federal law and said his administration would review whether marijuana should still be in the same legal category as drugs like heroin and LSD.

The pardons cleared everyone convicted on federal charges of simple possession since it became a crime in the 1970s. Officials said full data was not available but noted that about 6,500 people were convicted of simple possession between 1992 and 2021, not counting legal permanent residents. The pardons also affected people who were convicted under District of Columbia drug laws; officials estimated that number to be in the thousands.

The pardons would not apply to people convicted of selling or distributing marijuana. [NYT article] (next Cannabis, see Nov 8 or see CAC for larger chronology)

October 6 Peace Love Art Activism

Lynching, Music et al, Peace Love Art and Activism, Today in history

October 5 Peace Love Art Activism

October 5, 2015 Woodstock Whisperer Leave a comment

October 5 Peace Love Art Activism

Native Americans

Tecumseh

October 5, 1813: during the War of 1812, General William Harrison’s American army defeated a combined British and Indian force at the Battle of the Thames near Ontario, Canada. The leader of the Indian forces was Tecumseh, the Shawnee chief who organized inter-tribal resistance to the encroachment of white settlers on Indian lands. He was killed in the fighting. Tecumseh’s death marked the end of Indian resistance east of the Mississippi River and soon after most of the depleted tribes were forced west. (see March 3, 1819)

Chief Joseph

October 5, 1877: Chief Joseph of the Nez Perce Indians surrendered to U.S. General Nelson A. Miles in the Bear Paw mountains of Montana, declaring, “Hear me, my chiefs: My heart is sick and sad. From where the sun now stands, I will fight no more forever.”

Earlier in the year, the U.S. government broke a land treaty with the Nez Perce, forcing the group out of their homeland in Wallowa Valley in the Northwest for relocation in Idaho. In the midst of their journey, Chief Joseph learned that three young Nez Perce warriors, enraged at the loss of their homeland, had massacred a band of white settlers. Fearing retaliation by the U.S. Army, the chief began one of the great retreats in American military history.

For more than three months, Chief Joseph led fewer than 300 Nez Perce Indians toward the Canadian border, covering a distance of more than 1,000 miles as the Nez Perce outmaneuvered and battled more than 2,000 pursuing U.S. soldiers. During the long retreat, he treated prisoners humanely and won the admiration of whites by purchasing supplies along the way rather than stealing them. Finally, only 40 miles short of his Canadian goal, Chief Joseph was cornered by the U.S. Army, and his people were forcibly relocated to a barren reservation in Indian Territory. (see November 1, 1879)

Nicole Aunapu Mann

October 5, 2022: NASA’s Nicole Aunapu Mann became the first Native American woman ever to travel to Earth’s orbit. Mann served served as mission commander. NASA explained that Mann, a former US Marine Corps pilot, can be thought of as the crew’s quarterback.

It was her first trip to space since joining NASA’s astronaut corps in 2013. [CNN article] (next NA, see Nov 11)

October 5 Peace Love Art Activism

BLACK HISTORY

White terrorist vigilantism

October 5, 1920: four black men were killed in Macclenny, Florida, following the death of a prominent young white local farmer named John Harvey. According to news reports at the time, Harvey was shot and killed at a turpentine camp near MacClenny on October 4, 1920. The suspected shooter, a young black man named Jim Givens, fled immediately afterward and mobs of armed white men formed to pursue him. Givens’s brother and two other black men connected to him were questioned and jailed during the search, though there was no evidence or accusation that they had been involved in the killing of Harvey.

Those three men – Fulton Smith, Ray Field, and Ben Givens – were held in the Baker County Jail late into the night until, around 1:00 a.m. on October 5, a mob of about 50 white men overtook the jail and seized the men from their cells. The mob forced the men to the outskirts of town, where they were tied to trees and shot to death. A fourth lynching victim, Sam Duncan, was found shot to death nearby later in the day. Also with no alleged ties to the killing of John Harvey, Duncan was thought to be an unfortunate soul who had encountered a mob seeking Jim Givens and been killed simply for being a black man.

Three days later, the Chicago Defender, a Northern black newspaper, reported that most of the black community of Macclenny had deserted the area in fear of further violent attacks while whites posses continued to search for Jim Givens. [EJI article] (next BH & next Lynching, see Nov 2 or see AL2 for expanded chronology)

School Desegregation

October 5, 1957: early in the morning a series of dynamite explosions severely damaged the Clinton High School building [Clinton, TN] An estimated 75 to 100 sticks of dynamite had been placed in three locations in the building. No one was injured.

Clinton High School did not reopen until 1960. (BH, see Oct 10; SD, see February 20, 1958)

Laquan McDonald

October 5, 2018: Chicago police Officer Jason Van Dyke was found guilty of second-degree murder in the 2014 shooting of 17-year-old Laquan McDonald.

Van Dyke, who was also found guilty of 16 counts of aggravated battery with a firearm. He was found not guilty of official misconduct. Van Dyke’s bond was revoked and sentencing was scheduled for October 31. He left the courtroom with an officer. (B & S, see Oct 25; McDonald, see Nov 27)

October 5 Peace Love Art Activism

Technological Milestone

Televised presidential address

October 5, 1947: President Harry Truman made the first-ever televised presidential address from the White House, asking Americans to cut back on their use of grain in order to help starving Europeans. In 1947, television was still in its infancy and the number of TV sets in U.S. homes only numbered in the thousands. (see Oct 14)

Space Race

October 5, 1957: the Soviet daily newspaper Pravda mentioned Sputnik in a short piece at the bottom of page one. When bold headlines and major stories run in British and American newspapers, the U.S.S.R. realized that the Sputnik program was a huge propaganda tool. (see Nov 3)

October 5 Peace Love Art Activism

see October 5 Music et al for more

see Wynonie Harris for more

October 5, 1948: Wynonie Harris’s “Good Rockin’ Tonight” hits #1 on the R&B chart. (see March 31, 1949)

“Love Me Do“/”P.S. I Love You“

October 5, 1962: Beatles released first single, “Love Me Do“/”P.S. I Love You” in the UK. (see Oct 27)

Otis Redding

October 5, 1966: Otis Redding released Complete & Unbelievable: The Otis Redding Dictionary of Soul album, his fifth.

Jimi Hendrix

October 5, 1966: Jimi Hendrix, Mitch Mitchell and Noel Redding played together for the first time. (see Dec 26)

Waiting for the Sun

October 5 – 11, 1968: The Doors’ Waiting for the Sun returned to the Billboard #1 album position.

October 5 Peace Love Activism

World Series

Pirates v Yankees

October 5 – 13, 1960: the 1960 World Series [Pittsburgh Pirates (NL) vs. NY Yankees (AL)] is notable for the Game 7, ninth-inning home run hit by Bill Mazeroski, which won the game for the Pirates 10–9. [ESPN article]

Orioles v Dodgers

October 5 – 9, 1966: Baltimore Orioles against the defending champion Los Angeles Dodgers, with the Orioles sweeping the Series in four games to capture their first championship in franchise history. [Baltimore Sun article]

October 5 Peace Love Art Activism

JFK Assassination

October 5, 1966: the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals reversed the murder conviction of Jack Ruby, who was sentenced to death in for the slaying of Lee Harvey Oswald, assassin of President Kennedy. (NYT article) (see January 3, 1967)

October 5 Peace Love Art Activism

Nuclear/Chemical News

Fermi Station

October 5, 1966: The Fermi Nuclear Generating Station, less than 40 miles from Detroit, suffered a partial fuel meltdown, although no radioactive material was released. It operated for another nine years before being deactivated. [LAT article] (see January 27, 1967)

Korea

October 5, 2019: the first negotiations in eight months between the Trump administration and North Korea aimed at breaking the logjam over dismantling the North’s nuclear program broke down only hours after they began in Stockholm, the North Koreans said.

“The negotiation did not live up to our expectations and broke down,” the chief North Korean negotiator, Kim Myong-gil, said, according to Yonhap, the South Korean news agency. Mr. Kim added that the United States had arrived “empty-handed” and had “not discarded its old stance and attitude.” (next N/C N, see Dec 13)

October 5 Peace Love Art Activism

Vietnam & Weather Underground

October 5, 1969: the Haymarket Police Statue in Chicago was bombed; Weathermen claim credit for the bombing in their book, Prairie Fire. [NYT article] (see Oct 8 – 11)

October 5 Peace Love Art Activism

Iran–Contra Affair

October 5, 1986: Eugene Hasenfus is captured by troops of the Sandinista regime in Nicaragua after the plane in which he is flying is shot down; two others on the plane die in the crash. Under questioning, Hasenfus confessed that he was shipping military supplies into Nicaragua for use by the Contras, an anti-Sandinista force that had been created and funded by the United States. Most dramatically, he claimed that operation was really run by the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). (see Nov 3)

October 5 Peace Love Art Activism

FREE SPEECH

October 5, 1990: Cincinnati jurors took about two hours to acquit the Contemporary Arts Center and its director, Dennis Barrie, of the charge of pandering obscenity for showing sexually explicit photographs that were part of Mapplethorpe’s traveling retrospective, ”The Perfect Moment.” The acquittal was resounding because it took place in a city that has tough laws and a record of vigorously prosecuting obscenity. [NYT article] (see June 22, 1992)

October 5 Peace Love Art Activism

CLINTON IMPEACHMENT

October 5, 1998: on a 21-16 vote, the House Judiciary Committee recommends a full impeachment inquiry. (see CI for expanded story)

October 5 Peace Love Art Activism

US Labor History

California supermarket janitors

October 5, 2004: some 2,100 supermarket janitors in California, mostly from Mexico, win a $22.4 million settlement over unpaid overtime. Many said they worked 70 or more hours a week, often seven nights a week from 10 p.m. to 9 a.m. Cleaner Jesus Lopez told the New York Times he only had three days off in five years. (see March 23, 2005)

Occupy Wall Street

October 5, 2011: thousands of union workers joined protesters marching through the Financial District, resulting in about 200 arrests later in the same evening when dozens of protesters stormed barricades blocking them from Wall Street and the Stock Exchange. Police responded with pepper spray and penned the protesters in with orange netting. (NYT article) (see Oct 25)

October 5 Peace Love Art Activism

LGBTQ

October 5, 2020: the US Supreme Court declined to hear an appeal in the case of former Kentucky clerk Kim Davis, who was jailed in 2015 after refusing to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples, after gay marriage became legal.

Although Supreme court justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito said they agreed with the decision not to hear the case, they said it was a “stark reminder of the consequences” of the court’s 2015 Obergefell v Hodges decision. Davis, they claimed, “may have been one of the first victims of this court’s cavalier treatment of religion in its Obergefell decision” and warned: “She will not be the last.”

LGBTQ campaigners and legal experts told of their fears and outrage regarding Thomas and Alito’s “appalling” attack on the 2015 landmark decision enabling same-sex couples to marry. [Guardian article] (next LGBTQ, see Oct 21)

October 5 Peace Love Art Activism

Immigration History

October 5, 2023: President Joe Biden said that he doesn’t believe border walls work, even as his administration said it will waive 26 laws to build additional border barriers in the Rio Grande Valley amid heightened political pressure over migration.

According to a notice posted to the Federal Register on October 4, construction of the wall would be paid for using already appropriated funds earmarked specifically for physical border barriers. The administration was under a deadline to use them or lose them. But the move comes at a time when a new surge of migrants is straining federal and local resources and placing heavy political pressure on the Biden administration to address a sprawling crisis, and the notice cited “high illegal entry.” [CNN article] (next IH, see Oct 16)