January 15, 1964: the Los Angeles Whisky a Go Go opened. The club’s opening night featured Johnny Rivers as the headlining act. The club quickly became famous for its music (rock ‘n’ roll), dancing (the patrons on the floor and the go-go dancers inside elevated glass cages) and the Hollywood celebrities it attracted.
The Whisky played an important role in many musical careers, especially for bands based in southern California. The Byrds, Alice Cooper, Buffalo Springfield, Smokestack Lightning, and Love were regulars, and The Doors were the house band for a while – until the debut of the “Oedipal section” of “The End” got them fired. (see Whisky a Go Go for more) (see August 13, 1965)
January 15 Music et al
Acid Test
January 15, 1966: Portland, Oregon Acid Test. From Searching for the Sound – Phil Lesh (pages 72-73) “There was one more out-of-town tryout for us, the Beaver Hall Test in Portland. The Test itself has receded into the mists of antiquity, except for the vague memory of playing in an upstairs warehouse with concrete pillars everywhere and bare lath and wiring on the walls. What mattered about the Portland Acid Test was the journey toward it.
It began as our first trip together on Further, Kesey’s fabled bus. Bobby and I had day-tripped on the bus to see the Beatles at the Cow Palace earlier that year, but for the majority of the band it was a first. Leaving Palo Alto as early as possible, by midafternoon or so, we were halfway up the Central Valley bound for Shasta and points north, and then: Catastrophe! The bus breaks down! Never let it be said that the show did not go on! What to do?
We rent a U-Haul truck; we strip the bus and cram all of us — the band, the Pranksters — and everything else into the truck. I jump into the shotgun seat up front, and we cruise off into the darkening storm of the worst blizzard in years: over the Siskiyou Mountains in the dead of night. Neal pressing ever onward, the rhythm of the falling snow sweeping through the headlights, sliding in and out of synch with the music piped into the cockpit by means of our patented two-way distort-o-phonic communication system, set up so that those in the back could also hear Neal’s multiple personalities conversing with one another. If ever the magic of the open road was distilled into a single experience, it was, for me, that night sitting next to Neal, hurtling into the dazzling play of light and shade on the whirling snow with his voice turning every sentence into a poem, all sensory input synched up (or sometimes not, and that’s good too) with the rhythm of the wipers and whatever music happened to randomly penetrate our awareness.
Upon our return from Portland, all the scuttlebutt was ablaze with the plans for the “Big One”; the Trips Festival, to take place in San Francisco’s Longshoreman’s Hall.” (see Jan 17)
And from Owsley “Bear” Stanley: Portland acid test was either on Dec 18 ’65, or Jan 15 ’66. There were two which I didn’t go to after my “initiation” at the Dec 11 Muir Beach event, one was in Palo Alto and the other one was in Portland. There were two before that also. Only one other one did I miss, the first one in LA in late Feb in Northridge. So I missed a total of five of the AT’s. The Dead were always the centerpiece of the Acid tests, the real reason for its existence, and it could not have taken place without them. The band at the time rated their participation above any other activity in importance.
January 15 Music et al
The Rolling Stones
January 15, 1967: The Rolling Stones appeared on The Ed Sullivan Show. At Ed Sullivan’s request, the band changed the lyrics of “Let’s Spend the Night Together” to “Let’s spend some time together.” (more from the ultimateclassicrock site)
January 15 Music et al
Notorious Byrd Brothers
January 15, 1968: Byrds released Notorious Byrd Brothers album.
Richie Unterberger from AllMusic dot com writes: The recording sessions for the Byrds’ fifth album, The Notorious Byrd Brothers, were conducted in the midst of internal turmoil that found them reduced to a duo by the time the record was completed. That wasn’t evident from listening to the results, which showed the group continuing to expand the parameters of their eclecticism while retaining their hallmark guitar jangle and harmonies. With assistance from producer Gary Usher, they took more chances in the studio, enhancing the spacy quality of tracks like “Natural Harmony” and Goffin & King’s “Wasn’t Born to Follow” with electronic phasing. Washes of Moog synthesizer formed the eerie backdrop for “Space Odyssey,” and the songs were craftily and unobtrusively linked with segues and fades. But the Byrds did not bury the essential strengths of their tunes in effects: “Goin’ Back” (also written by Goffin & King) was a magnificent and melodic cover with the expected tasteful 12-string guitar runs that should have been a big hit. “Tribal Gathering” has some of the band’s most effervescent harmonies; “Draft Morning” is a subtle and effective reflection of the horrors of the Vietnam War; and “Old John Robertson” looks forward to the country-rock that would soon dominate their repertoire.
January 15 Music et al
January 15, 1969: with George Harrison still not with the band, all four Beatles met to discuss their future, Harrison was in a commanding position, following a series of dismal sessions at Twickenham Film Studios, and was able to set down his terms for returning to the group. During the five-hour meeting he made it clear that he would leave the group unless the idea of a live show before an audience was dropped. (see Jan 30)
January 15, 1909: San Francisco police arrested Goldman and Ben Reitman just before they were about to hold a meeting. Police charged them with rout—the assembly of two or more persons at a meeting where measures are advocated where if they were actually carried out would lead to a riot.
Police also arrested William Buwalda for his protest of their arrest. (see Goldman for expanded information)
January 15 Peace Art Love Activism
Environmental Issues
January 15, 1919: fiery hot molasses flooded the streets of Boston killing 21 people and injuring scores of others. The molasses burst from a huge tank at the United States Industrial Alcohol Company building in the heart of the city. (NYT article) (see May 11, 1934)
January 15 Peace Art Love Activism
Religion and Public Education
Separation of church and State
January 15, 1927: the Tennessee Supreme Court ruled that the Butler law (forbid the teaching of evolution) was constitutional. However, it overturned Scopes’ verdicton a technicality, ruling that his fine should have been set by the jury hearing the case instead of by Judge Raulston. The justices declared in their ruling that “[n]othing is to be gained by prolonging the life of this bizarre case.” (Butler Act, see May 17, 1967; Separation, see see February 5, 1953)
Champaign, IL
In 1940: in Champaign, IL, interested members of various Protestant, Catholic, and Jewish faiths formed an association named the Champaign Council on Religious Education. This association obtained permission from the Champaign Board of Education to offer voluntary religious education classes for public school students from grades four to nine. These weekly 30- and 45-minute classes were led by clergy and lay members of the association in public school classrooms during school hours. (see 1944 below)
Released time
In 1942: “Released time” participation reached 1.5 million students in 46 states. Some districts held the classes in the public school buildings.
James McCollum
In 1944: Vashti McCollum’s son, James McCollum, then a fourth grader enrolled in the Champaign public schools, came home with a parental consent form for his attendance at “voluntary” religion classes during the school day. The form allowed choice between Catholic, Protestant, and Jewish instruction. She permitted James’s participation.
Cold War/Religion
In 1945: in the postwar era, Americans flock to church in record numbers, swelling the growth of traditional denominations — Methodists, Baptists, Disciples of Christ, Lutherans and Presbyterians. Church building booms; Bible sales skyrocketed. Amid the prosperity, the United States and the Soviet Union face off in the Cold War, a spiritual struggle that pits Christian America against “godless communism.” (Religion, see July 1945; CW, see Feb 4)
January 15 Peace Art Love Activism
BLACK HISTORY
President Truman & civil rights
January 15, 1947: President Truman, condemning “a tendency in this country” toward revival of bigotry and intolerance, called for legislation to implement the Bill of Rights and protect the civil rights of citizens in those local areas from which Federal enforcement agencies have been excluded. (BH, see Feb 17; C on CR, see May 1)
Viola Liuzzo car for sale…a “crowd-getter”
January 15, 1966: on March 25, 1965, terrorists had assassinated civil rights volunteers Viola Liuzzo and Leroy Moton while they were driving. On this date, the Birmingham News newspaper published an ad offering Liuzzo’s bullet-ridden car for sale. Asking $3,500, the ad read, “Do you need a crowd-getter? I have a 1963 Oldsmobile two-door in which Mrs. Viola Liuzzo was killed. Bullet holes and everything intact. Ideal to bring in crowds.” (BH, see Jan 31; see VIfor expanded chronology)
Brown v. Board of Education
In 1972, a federal court ordered the Board of Education of Oklahoma City Schools to adopt a busing program to desegregate the city’s public schools in compliance with the United States Supreme Court’s desegregation decision in Brown v. Board of Education. The school board complied for five years and then filed a motion to lift the order. The federal court found that integration had been achieved, granted the motion, and ended the busing program.
In 1984, the school board adopted a new student assignment plan that significantly reduced busing and re-segregated Oklahoma City schools. Local parents of African American students initiated litigation challenging the new assignment plan and asking for reinstatement of the 1972 busing decree. In 1989, the United States Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit re-instituted the decree, and the school board appealed to the United States Supreme Court.
On January 15, 1991, the Court declared in a 5-3 decision written by Chief Justice William Rehnquist that federal desegregation injunctions were intended to be temporary. Despite troubling evidence that Oklahoma City schools were re-segregating under the district’s new plan, the Court sent the case back to the lower federal court for assessment under a less stringent standard, which ultimately permitted the school board to proceed with the new plan. Justice Thurgood Marshall, joined by Justices Harry Blackmun and John Paul Stevens, argued in dissent that a desegregation decree should not be lifted when doing so recreates segregated “conditions likely to inflict the stigmatic injury condemned in Brown.” (NYT article) (BH see Mar 3; SD, see March 31, 1992)
January 15 Peace Art Love Activism
FREE SPEECH
On March 8, 1949 authorities had arrested Irving Feiner after speaking to a crowd of 75 or 80 people in Syracuse, New York. Feiner, a college student, had been standing on a large wooden box on the sidewalk, addressing a crowd through a loud-speaker system attached to an automobile. He made derogatory remarks about President Harry S. Truman, the American Legion, the Mayor of Syracuse, and other local political officials. Feiner urged that they rise up in arms and fight for equal rights.
On January 15, 1951 in Feiner v. New York, in a 6–3 decision delivered by Chief Justice Fred Vinson, the US Supreme Court upheld Feiner’s arrest.
Focusing on the “rise up in arms and fight for their rights” part of Feiner’s speech, the court found that Feiner’s First Amendment rights were not violated, because his arrest came when the police thought that a riot might occur. The court found that the police did not attempt to suppress Feiner’s message based on its content, but rather on the reaction of the crowd. The court reaffirmed the fact that a speaker cannot be arrested for the content of his speech. The court also reaffirmed that the police must not be used as an instrument to silence unpopular views, but must be used to silence a speaker who is trying to incite a riot.
New York won, the Chief Justice wrote, because by law, Feiner’s actions created an imminent threat: the police arrested him because the police wanted to protect the city government and the people of New York. (see June 4)
January 15, 1961: Motown Records signed The Supremes. Their first release will be ” I Want a Guy.”
Rock Venues
January 15, 1964: the Los Angeles Whiskey a Go Go opened. The club’s opening night featured Johnny Rivers as the headlining act. The club quickly became famous for its music (rock ‘n’ roll), dancing (the patrons on the floor and the go-go dancers inside elevated glass cages) and the Hollywood celebrities it attracted. The Whisky played an important role in many musical careers, especially for bands based in southern California. The Byrds, Alice Cooper, Buffalo Springfield, Smokestack Lightning, and Love were regulars, and The Doors were the house band for a while – until the debut of the “Oedipal section” of “The End” got them fired. (see Whisky a Go Go for more) (see August 13, 1965)
LSD
January 15, 1966: Portland, Oregon Acid Test. (see Jan 17)
The Rolling Stones
January 15, 1967: The Rolling Stones appeared on The Ed Sullivan Show. At Ed Sullivan’s request, the band changed the lyrics of “Let’s Spend the Night Together” to “Let’s spend some time together”.
Byrds
January 15, 1968: Byrds released Notorious Byrd Brothers album.
January 15, 1969: all four Beatles met to discuss their future, Harrison was in a commanding position, following a series of dismal sessions at Twickenham Film Studios, and was able to set down his terms for returning to the group. During the five-hour meeting he made it clear that he would leave the group unless the idea of a live show before an audience was dropped. (see Jan 30)
January 15 Peace Art Love Activism
Vietnam
JFK: no troops fighting in Vietnam
January 15, 1962: asked at a news conference if U.S. troops are fighting in Vietnam, President Kennedy answered “No.” He was technically correct, but U.S. soldiers were serving as combat advisers with the South Vietnamese army, and U.S. pilots were flying missions with the South Vietnamese Air Force. While acting in this advisory capacity, some soldiers invariably got wounded, and press correspondents based in Saigon were beginning to see casualties from the “support” missions and ask questions. (see Jan 18)
… & Feminism
January 15, 1968: Jeannette Rankin, a renowned pacifist, made history as the first woman elected to Congress in 1916. At age 87, Rankin made one final push for peace by leading an anti-Vietnam War march: the Jeannette Rankin Brigade — a demonstration of thousands of women in Washington, D.C.
Some marchers were unhappy with the Brigade’s image of mourning wives and mothers. A group of between 200 to 500 women wearing “miniskirts and high boots,” called the Radical Women’s Group, tried to commandeer the microphones. They alleged that Coretta Scott King had been coerced into giving peaceful speeches to appeal to “church women” in the march.
The splinter group invited the marchers to a staged funeral procession of “traditional womanhood” at Arlington National Cemetery. They paraded a dummy in “feminine getup” with “blonde curls,” to a funeral dirge “lamenting woman’s traditional role which encourages men to develop aggression and militarism to prove their masculinity. (V, see Jan 16, F, see Sept 7)
Peace talks stumble forward
January 15, 1973: citing “progress” in the Paris peace negotiations between National Security Advisor Henry Kissinger and Le Duc Tho of North Vietnam, President Richard Nixon halted the most concentrated bombing of the war, as well as mining, shelling, and all other offensive action against North Vietnam. The cessation of direct attacks against North Vietnam did not extend to South Vietnam, where the fighting continued as both sides jockeyed for control of territory before the anticipated cease-fire. (see Jan 22)
January 15 Peace Art Love Activism
Clarence Earl Gideon
January 15, 1963: theGideon v. Cochran case was argued at the US Supreme Court. Abe Fortas was assigned to represent Gideon. Bruce Jacob, the Assistant Florida Attorney General, was assigned to argue against Gideon. Fortas argued that a common man with no training in law could not go up against a trained lawyer and win, and that “you cannot have a fair trial without counsel.” Jacob argued that the issue at hand was a state issue, not federal; the practice of only appointing counsel under “special circumstances” in non-capital cases sufficed; that thousands of convictions would have to be thrown out if it were changed; and that Florida had followed for 21 years “in good faith” the 1942 Supreme Court ruling in Betts v. Brady. The case’s original title, Gideon v. Cochran, was changed to Gideon v. Wainwright after Louie L. Wainwright replaced H. G. Cochran as the director of the Florida Division of Corrections. (see Gideon for expanded chronology)
January 15 Peace Art Love Activism
Super Bowl
January 15, 1968: first Super Bowl...Packers vs. Chiefs. Packers 35, Chiefs 10.
January 15 Peace Art Love Activism
Feminism
NY Radical Women
January 15, 1968: Members of the New York Radical Women led an protest event, a “burial of traditional womanhood.” held in Arlington National Cemetery. (see Vietnam above)
National Press Club
January 15, 1971: National Press Club, Washington, DC, voted to admit women to membership after excluding women from membership since the club’s founding. (see January 25, 1971)
Equal Rights Amendment
January 15, 2020: Virginia became the 38th state to approve the Equal Rights Amendment, a symbolic victory for those who for generations had been pushing for a constitutional guarantee of legal rights regardless of sex.
Virginia’s decision did not seal the amendment’s addition to the United States Constitution. A deadline for three-quarters, or 38, of the 50 states to approve the E.R.A. expired in 1982, so the future of the measure was uncertain, and experts said the issue would likely be tied up in the courts and in the political sphere for years. [NYT article] (next Feminism, see Feb 6)
January 15 Peace Art Love Activism
Native Americans
January 15, 1972: Russell C Means, director of the Cleveland American Indian Center, said the symbol used by the Cleveland Indians was “racist, degrading and demeaning” to the American Indian and that he would file a lawsuit to halt use of the symbol. (NYT article) (see Oct 31)
January 15 Peace Art Love Activism
United Farm Workers
January 15, 1974, César E. Chávez awarded the Martin Luther King Jr. Nonviolent Peace Prize by Coretta Scott King. (see June 5, 1975)
January 15 Peace Art Love Activism
Sara Jane Moore
January 15, 1976: Sara Jane Moore was sentenced to life in prison by Federal district judge Samuel Conti who said that Moore would not have tried to kill President Ford here on Sept. 22 “if we had in this country any effective capital punishment law.” Conti called Moore “a product of a permissive society.” (NYT article) (see alsoLynette Squeaky Frommeand/or Oliver W Sipple) (see February 5, 1979)
January 15 Peace Art Love Activism
Student Rights & Fourth Amendment
January 15, 1985: New Jersey v. T.L.O. (1985)Students have a reduced expectation of privacy in school. A teacher accused “T.L.O.” of smoking in the bathroom. When she denied the allegation, the principal searched her purse and found cigarettes and marijuana paraphernalia. A family court declared T.L.O. a delinquent. The Supreme Court ruled that her rights were not violated since students have reduced expectations of privacy in school. (SR, see July 7, 1986; 4th, see Mar 27)
January 15 Peace Art Love Activism
IRAQ
IRAQ War I
January 15, 1991: The UN deadline for the withdrawal of Iraqi forces from occupied Kuwait expired, preparing the way for the start of Operation Desert Storm. (see Jan 16)
Iraq War II
January 15, 2005: a military court sentenced Army Specialist Charles Graner Jr. to 10 years behind bars for physically and sexually mistreating Iraqis at Abu Ghraib prison. (IW II, see Mar 3; mistreatment, see March 20, 2015)
January 15, 2001: Wikipedia, the free web-based encyclopedia, made its debut. (see Oct 23)
January 15 Peace Art Love Activism
Westboro Baptist Church
January 15, 2006: members of the Westboro Baptist Church (Topeka, Kansas) protested a memorial for Sago Mine disaster victims, claiming that the mining accident was God’s revenge against America for its tolerance of homosexuality. (see March 2, 2011)
January 15 Peace Art Love Activism
Capt Chesley Sullenberger
January 15, 2009: US Airways Capt Chesley Sullenberger guided a jetliner disabled by a bird strike just after takeoff from New York’s LaGuardia Airport to a safe landing in the Hudson River. All 155 people aboard survived.
January 15 Peace Art Love Activism
The Cold War
January 15, 2015: the Obama administration announced a set of new regulations regarding Cuba that eased decades-old restrictions on travel, business and remittances, putting into reality some of the changes promised by President Obama last month when he announced plans to resume normal diplomatic relations with Havana.
Under the new regulations, Americans would be allowed to travel to Cuba for any of a dozen specific reasons without first obtaining a special license from the government. Airlines and travel agents would be allowed to provide service to Cuba without a specific license. And travelers would be permitted to use credit cards and spend money while in the country and bring back up to $400 in souvenirs, including up to $100 in alcohol or tobacco. The new regulations would also make it easier for American telecommunications providers and financial institutions to do business with Cuba. Americans would be allowed to send more money to Cubans, up to $2,000 every three months instead of the $500 then permitted. (NYT video) (see Apr 10)
January 15 Peace Art Love Activism
LGBTQ
Idaho
January 15, 2015: Idaho state officials authorized paying $456,000in legal fees incurred defending Idaho’s ban on same sex marriage, including $401,000 in fees to the attorneys who successfully sued last year to overturn the ban. The fees would be paid from the state’s special Constitutional Defense Fund.
Caspar v. Snyder
January 15, 2015: in Caspar v. SnyderU.S. District Judge Mark Goldsmith ruled that three hundred Michigan same-sex couples had a “fundamental right” for their marriages to be legal, a after the state refused to recognize the unions.
The 16 individuals and about 600 more were married in March when Michigan’s gay marriage ban was struck down. For one day, several county clerks were able to issue licenses to same-sex couples and perform wedding ceremonies before an appeals court stayed the ruling.
Goldsmith wrote, “The same-sex couples who married in Michigan during the brief period when such marriages were authorized acquired a status that state officials may not ignore absent some compelling interest — a constitutional hurdle that the defense does not even attempt to surmount…In these circumstances, what the state has joined together, it may not put asunder.” (see Jan 16)
Fair Housing
January 15, 2019: U.S. District Judge Jean C. Hamilton dismissed a lawsuit that alleged a suburban St. Louis senior living community discriminated against a married lesbian couple by denying them housing.
Hamilton said in the decision that the Fair Housing Act did not protect against discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation. Mary Walsh and Bev Nance sued the Friendship Village location in Sunset Hills in July 2018.
After they submitted their application and a $2,000 deposit, they were notified that their request was denied. They were told Friendship Village’s cohabitation policy defines marriage as a union between one man and one woman, “as marriage is understood in the Bible.” (LGBTQ, see Jan 22; FH, see Jan 25)
January 15 Peace Art Love Activism
DEATH PENALTY
January 15, 2015: the US Supreme Court declined to halt the execution of Oklahoma inmate,Charles Warner, who was convicted of raping and murdering an 11-month-old baby. The court was divided 5-4, with Justice Sonia Sotomayor writing a dissenting opinion. (NYT article) (see Jan 23)
January 15 Peace Art Love Activism
Environmental Issues
January 15, 2018: the majority of members of the National Parks System Advisory Board, which advises the federal government on management of the country’s national parks, jointly resigned to protest Trump administration policies that the board members said had ignored science, squelched efforts to address climate change and undermined environmental protections.
“From all of the events of this past year I have a profound concern that the mission of stewardship, protection, and advancement of our National Parks has been set aside,” wrote Tony Knowles, the head of the advisory board, in a resignation letter that was co-signed by eight other members of the 12-member panel. [NYT report](see Feb 6)
January 15 Peace Art Love Activism
Immigration History/Census
January 15, 2019: U.S. District Judge Jesse Furman of the Southern District of New York blocked the Commerce Department from adding a question on American citizenship to the 2020 census, handing a legal victory to critics who accused the Trump administration of trying to turn the census into a tool to advance Republican political fortunes.
Several states and activists had said immigrants, fearful of volunteering their immigration status to the Trump administration, would refuse to respond. The plaintiffs in the suit ― 18 states, the District of Columbia, several cities and a handful of immigrant rights groups ― argued the Trump administration intended to drive down the response rate among those groups when it added the question. [NYT article] [next IH, see Jan 16; next Census, see Mar 6)
January 15 Peace Art Love Activism
Sexual Abuse of Children
January 15, 2019: the governing body for the Jesuit order in the northeastern United States releaseda list of 50 priests under its jurisdiction who had been credibly accused of sexual misconduct with minors.
All but 15 of the Roman Catholic priests on the list released by the USA Northeast Province of the Society of Jesus were dead, and all of the alleged abuse all took place before 1997. (see Feb 13)
Later that same day, the House voted to send articles of impeachment against President Donald Trump to the Senate for a trial. The House voted 228 to 193 largely along party lines to send the Senate the two articles accusing Trump of abuse of power and obstruction of Congress. [CNN story] (next TI see, Jan 18 or see Trumpfor expanded chronology)
January 15 Peace Art Love Activism
Nuclear/Chemical News
January 15, 2021: North Korea unveiled a new type of submarine-launched ballistic missile, described by state media as “the world’s most powerful weapon”.
Several of the missiles were displayed at a parade overseen by leader Kim Jong-un, reported state media. The weapon’s actual capabilities remain unclear, as it is not known to have been tested.
It also followed a rare political meeting where Mr Kim decried the US as his country’s “biggest enemy.” [BBC article] (next N/C N, see Feb 18)
January 14, 1910: using section 497 of the Postal Laws and Regulations Act of 1902, Mother Earth magazine was banned from the mails after Anthony Comstock complained about Emma Goldman’s essay, “The Traffic in Women.“” The issue will be released by the Post Office after Comstock is forced to withdraw his objections. (see March 26, 1910)
January 14 Peace Love Art Activism
Technological Milestone
January 14, 1914: Henry Ford announced the newest advance in assembly line production of cars. The new continuous motion method reduced assembly time of a car from 12½ hours to 93 minutes. (see Mar 14)
January 14 Peace Love Art Activism
BLACK HISTORY
Raymond Gunn lynching
January 14, 1931: black residents of Maryville, Missouri fled the town after the lynching of Raymond Gunn on January 12. More than 20 percent of Maryville’s black population fled the town in fear. Despite investigations initiated by state officials, no one was ever arrested or convicted of any crime related to the lynching of Raymond Gunn. [EJI article] (next BH, see July 15, 1931; next Lynching, see April 2, 1933; see AL3 for expanded chronology of early 20th century lynching)
A. Philip Randolph
January 14, 1941: Civil rights leader A. Philip Randolph on this day proposed a march on Washington to demand equal employment opportunities for African-Americans in the defense industries. Full employment had returned to the U.S. as a result of the war in Europe.
The idea of an African-American protest march in Washington, D.C., shocked and scared many Americans –and drew more African-American support than Randolph had imagined. (BH, see Apr 18; March, see June 18)
Segregation Forever
January 14, 1963: in Nov 1962 Alabama elected George Wallace governor in a landslide victory. He took the oath of office standing on the gold star marking the spot where, 102 years earlier, Jefferson Davis was sworn in as President of the Confederate States of America. In his inaugural speech, Wallace used the line for which he is best known: In the name of the greatest people that have ever trod this earth, I draw the line in the dust and toss the gauntlet before the feet of tyranny, and I say segregation now, segregation tomorrow, segregation forever…Let us send this message back to Washington . . . that from this day we are standing up, and the heel of tyranny does not fit the neck of an upright man . . . that we intend to take the offensive and carry our fight for freedom across the nation, wielding the balance of power we know we possess in the Southland. . . . that WE, not the insipid bloc voters of some sections will determine in the next election who shall sit in the White House of these United States. (see Jan 20)
Lawrence Douglas Wilder
January 14, 1990: Lawrence Douglas Wilder was sworn in as the governor of Virginia by former U.S. Supreme Court Justice Lewis Powell. Wilder was the first African-American to be elected governor of a U.S. state. (see May 17)
de la Beckwith extradited
January 14, 1991: Chattanooga, TN. Judge Joe DeRisio of Hamilton County Criminal Court ordered that Byron de la Beckwith be returned to Mississippi to face a charge of first-degree murder in the 1963 slaying of Medgar Evers, but DeRisio delayed putting the extradition order into effect until January 22 to give Mr. Beckwith time to file an appeal with the Tennessee Court of Criminal Appeals. (see June 3, 1991)
Antwon Rose
January 14, 2019: Judge Alexander Bicket ordered that a jury be selected from another county for the trial of East Pittsburgh officer Michael Rosfeld accused in the shooting death of an unarmed black teenager 17-year-old Antwon Rose Jr.
Rosfeld is charged with homicide in the death of Rose Jr., who was shot June 19, 2018 as he fled a traffic stop.
Bicket ordered that a jury be chosen from outside Allegheny County, citing “pervasive prejudicial pre-trial publicity” that could deny Rosfeld an impartial jury. He said he expected media coverage to intensify with jury selection for a trial scheduled to begin in late February. (B & S, see Jan 16; AR see Mar 19)
January 14 Peace Love Art Activism
Japanese Internment Camps
Proclamation No. 2537
January 14, 1942: President Franklin D. Roosevelt issued Presidential Proclamation No. 2537, requiring aliens from World War II-enemy countries–Italy, Germany and Japan–to register with the United States Department of Justice. Registered persons were then issued a Certificate of Identification for Aliens of Enemy Nationality. (see JICfor expanded chronology)
January 14 Peace Love Art Activism
January 14 Music et al
Sgt Presley
January 14, 1960: Elvis Presley promoted to sergeant in the U.S. Army (see Mar 5)
LSD
Poster for San Francisco Human Be In
January 14, 1967: the Human Be-In was held in San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park. It was a prelude to San Francisco’s Summer of Love, which made the Haight-Ashbury district a symbol of American counterculture and introduced the word “psychedelic” to suburbia. (see San Francisco Human Be Infor more) (LSD, see March)
John Lennon
January 14, 1970: a display of John Lennon’s erotic “Bag One” lithographs opened in London. 2 days later Scotland Yard seized prints as evidence of pornography. (see Jan 27)
January 14 Peace Love Art Activism
Vietnam & My Lai Massacre
January 14, 1971: During his trial for charges of assault with intent to murder at least six My Lai civilians, Sergeant Charles Hutto admitted to killing a group of unarmed civilians with an M60 machine gun. Hutto’s acquittal (on the 14th) set the precedent that “obeying orders” is a viable defense for mass murder. (see My Lai for expanded chronology; Vietnam, see Jan 18)
January 14 Peace Love Art Activism
The Red Scare
January 14, 1975: after 37 years of civil liberties abuses involving investigations of freedom of belief and association, almost all of which involved left-wing, labor and liberal individuals and groups, the House of Representatives on this day abolished the notorious House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC). (see May 2)
January 14 Peace Love Art Activism
Nuclear news
January 14, 1994: President Bill Clinton and Russian President Boris Yeltsin signed accordsin Moscow to stop aiming missiles at any nation and to dismantle the nuclear arsenal of Ukraine. (see May 31)
January 14 Peace Love Art Activism
CLINTON IMPEACHMENT
Monica Lewinsky
January 14, 1998: Monica Lewinsky gave Linda Tripp a document headed “Points to make in an affidavit,” coaching Tripp on what to tell Jones’ lawyers about Kathleen Willey, another former White House staffer. Willey recently had testified about alleged unsolicited sexual advances made by the president in 1993.
Opening statements
January 14, 1999: thirteen House prosecutors begin a three-day opening statement, laying out the case for the Senate to convict President Clinton and remove him from office. (see Clinton for expanded entry)
January 14 Peace Love Art Activism
Iraq War II
January 14, 2005: Army Specialist Charles Graner Jr., the reputed ringleader of a band of rogue guards at the Abu Ghraib prison, was convicted at Fort Hood, Texas, of abusing Iraqi detainees. (see Jan 15)
January 14 Peace Love Art Activism
LGTBQ
January 14, 2014: U.S. District Judge Terence Kern ruled that Oklahoma’s ban on marriage equality was unconstitutional. His ruling was stayed pending appeal, meaning marriages would not occur immediately in the Sooner State.
Two plaintiff couples, Mary Bishop and Sharon Baldwin and Gay Phillips and Susan Barton, filed their case, Bishop v. Oklahoma, in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Oklahoma in November 2004. [NYT article] (see Jan 23; Oklahoma, seeJuly 18)
January 14 Peace Love Art Activism
US Labor History
January 14, 2019: more than 30,000 Los Angeles public-school teachers began a long-planned strike, pressing demands for higher pay, smaller classes and more support staff in the schools.
The strike affected roughly 500,000 students at 900 schools in the district, the second-largest in the nation. The schools remained open staffed by substitutes hired by the city, but many parents said they would not send their children across picket lines. [NYT article] (LH, see Jan 18; strike, see Jan 22)
January 14 Peace Love Art Activism
Environmental Issues
Climate change continues
January 14, 2021: an analysis of global temperatures by the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies found that 2020 was slightly warmer than 2016. But the difference was insignificant, the institute’s director, Gavin Schmidt, said in an interview.
“Effectively it’s a statistical tie,” he said.
Other analyses issued, one by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administrationand another by Berkeley Earth, an independent research group in California, found that 2020 was slightly cooler than 2016, as did one published last week by the Copernicus Climate Change Service in Europe. But the difference was small enough to not be statistically significant.
With the 2020 results, the last seven years have been the warmest since the beginning of modern record-keeping nearly a century and a half ago, Dr. Schmidt said.
“We are now very, very clear about the underlying long-term trends,” he said. “We understand where they come from. It’s because of the greenhouse gases being pumped into the atmosphere.”
The planet has warmed more than 1 degree Celsius (about 2 degrees Fahrenheit) since the late 1800s, when the spread of industrialization led to rising emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases, and the pace has accelerated in recent decades. Since 1980, warming has averaged about 0.18 degree Celsius (about 0.32 degrees Fahrenheit) per decade. [NYT article]
Electric Vehicle Study
January 14, 2021: data published by a team at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) showed that despite the higher sticker price, electric cars might actually save drivers money in the long-run.
o reach this conclusion, the MIT team calculated both the carbon dioxide emissions and full lifetime cost — including purchase price, maintenance and fuel — for nearly every new car model on the market.
They found electric cars were easily more climate friendly than gas-burning ones. Over a lifetime, they were often cheaper, too. [NYT article] (next EI, see Jan 19)
January 14 Peace Love Art Activism
What's so funny about peace, love, art, and activism?
