The Tokens’ unusual single, “The Lion Sleeps Tonight” remained at #1 on Billboards Top 100 list. In two days Chubby Checkers’ “The Twist” would come back to be Billboard’s #1 single nearly a year and a half after hitting that same spot in August 1960.
Elvis Presley’s Blue Moon album was Billboard’s #1 mono album and Stereo 35/MM by Enock Light & the Light Brigade was the #1 stereo album.
Pete Best was The Beatles drummer, though by that August Richard Starkey replaced Best.
There was no band called the Rolling Stones, but there was an amazing guitarist singer: Howlin’ Wolf.
Howlin Wolf Howlin Wolf
Chester Arthur Burnett
Chester Arthur Burnett was born on June 10, 1910 in White Station, Mississippi. The adults in his childhood years caused constant disruption in Chester’s life. His parents separated and his mother left him with an abusive uncle. When he was 13, Chester ran away to live with his father where they worked on a Delta farm.
It was there that Chester’s love of music found the Delta blues. His father bought a guitar for him when he was 17 and Chester began to get lessons from Charley Patton–the first of many Delta blues stars.
When he wasn’t working on the farm, he traveled with other musicians performing with them. He stood at 6′ 6″ and had a booming voice. Not surprisingly the he got the nickname Howlin’ Wolf.
Howlin Wolf Howlin Wolf
Howlin’ Wolf
He served in the Army during World War II, was discharged after a “nervous breakdown,” moved in with a girlfriend, and eventually returned to his father’s farm after she, too, suffered the same ailment.
Burnett also returned to music and when not farming, Howlin’ Wolf toured throughout the South.
Howlin Wolf Howlin Wolf
Sam Phillips
Sam Phillips with his Memphis Recording Service was on a mission: find musicians who had IT. In 1951 Fortune crossed the paths of Phillips and Wolf. Phillips recorded Wolf and as was typical at the time, sold the singles to another company. In this case, Chess Records in Chicago run by brothers Leonard and Phil Chess.
Howlin Wolf Howlin Wolf
Chess Records
Much to Phillips’ dismay, he lost Wolf to the Chess brothers, Wolf moved to Chicago, and became part of that city’s immeasurable electric blues legacy.
On January 11, 1962 Chess released the Wolf’s so-called “rocking chair” album. Its actual name was simply the eponymous Howlin’ Wolf. The album consisted of the A and B sides of six previously released singles, but what a collection of songs this album had. Looking at the dozen songs (nine of which Willie Dixon wrote), one realizes (again) the influence American blues, particularly Chicago’s electric blues, had on those young British musicians.
Side one
“Shake for Me” – 2:12
“The Red Rooster” – 2:22
“You’ll Be Mine” – 2:25
“Who’s Been Talkin'” – 2:18
“Wang Dang Doodle” – 2:18
“Little Baby” – 2:45
Side two
“Spoonful” – 2:42
“Going Down Slow” – 3:18
“Down in the Bottom” – 2:05
“Back Door Man” – 2:45
“Howlin’ for My Baby” – 2:28
“Tell Me” – 2:52
Note how nearly every song is under three minutes–typical of course for singles of the time but still great examples of how much power Wolf packed into such a small space.
Legacy
While the album was not an instant classic, Time has crowned it such. So many great covers brought deserved attention to Wolf’s first powerful recordings combined to make it so.
Rolling Stone magazine ranks it at #238 of the “500 Greatest Albums of All Time” and describes it as “Chicago blues at its raunchy best, “The Rocking Chair Album” features an outrageous set of sex songs written by Willie Dixon, including “Shake for Me,” “The Red Rooster” and “Back Door Man.” In 1971, on The London Howlin’ Wolf Sessions, Wolf finally taught an enraptured Eric Clapton how to play “The Red Rooster.”
If you have time today (or tomorrow?) give a listen (or two) to this amazing album.
Wolf died on January 10, 1976. Numerous music halls of fame have inducted him and even the US government issued a commemorative stamp on September 17, 1994. (Mississippi Writers & Musicians site obit)
Note that the second song on the Rolling Stones recently released album, Blue & Lonesome, is a cover of Howlin’s “Commit a Crime.” Here is Mick and Jeff doing the song at the White House. I don’t think we’ll be hearing anything like it anytime soon.
On January 8, 1811 Charles Deslondes had led a rebellion of some 500 enslaved black people in New Orleans. Deslondes’s background was that after black people in Haiti won their independence from the French in 1804 following a thirteen-year war, many white planters relocated from Haiti to the area of New Orleans Territory . The planters brought their slaves. Charles Deslondes was one of them. In early January 1811, Charles Deslondes led the plan for an anti-slavery rebellion. The rebellion began with an attack on a plantation attack. One white man died. The rebels then traveled along the Mississippi River, attacking plantations and recruiting more fighters. Some enslaved blacks joined the rebels, while others warned their masters and tried to avert plantation attacks. Many whites escape.
On January 11, 1811 a militia of white planters confronted Charles Deslondes and the rebels in a brief battle, killing many and forcing others to flee. Deslondes and his supporters were captured. Some were returned to their plantations; others were tried and executed, their corpses publicly displayed as warning against future uprisings. The final death toll included two whites and ninety-five blacks. The territorial legislature later voted to financially compensate whites whose enslaved black laborers had been killed. (next BH & SR, see March 6, 1815; or see SR for expanded slave revolt chronology)
Robert Mallard
January 11, 1949: the trial of accused William Howell was set to begin. The other accused Robert Clifton had obtained a severance of trial. Mallard testified that her husband and their family turned off on a side road leading to their home and were stopped by a gang of “about twenty men, wearing white stuff and all carrying pistols.” She testified that she recognized Howell among the members of the mob, and also recognized Clifton’s automobile. During her testimony Mallard became hysterical and fell from the witness chair to the floor, kneeling with her hands in the air. She exclaimed, “It was so horrible! Why did they kill him? He was so good to us. . . . I’m so sick.”
Howell testified that he spent the night with friends, and his friends corroborated this story. The defense sought to imply that Amy Mallard had a pistol that night. Defense lawyers further claimed that outside influences were trying to control the verdict.
After twenty-five minutes of deliberation, the jury acquitted Howell, and the courthouse crowd cheered in jubilation. The judge granted the county attorney’s motion to dismiss the indictment against Clifton, since the evidence against Clifton was weaker than that against Howell. After the trial, defense attorney Sharpe said of Goldwasser, “That roaring lion from Judea is a disgrace to the Jewish race. He wouldn’t even make catfish bait in the Altamaha River!” (BH & RM, see July 4)
After the US Supreme Court struck down public school segregation in Brown v. Board of Education, many Southern states rushed to implement new laws to circumvent the ruling. In 1955 and 1956, the Georgia legislature passed a series of laws that prevented any integrated school system in the state from receiving or spending state funds.
Georgians elected Ernest Vandiver, Jr., a staunch opponent of integration, Governor of Georgia in 1958. Maintaining segregation within the school system was so core to his candidacy that his election motto was “No, not one,” referring to the number of black children that should be allowed to attend schools alongside white children. During the Vandiver administration, a federal court in Calhoun v. Latimer found that the Atlanta school system remained unlawfully segregated and ordered the school district to integrate. Vandiver defied the court order and continued Georgia’s policy of school segregation, stating that he would comply with existing state law and withhold funds from the offending school district rather than see segregation end. (BH & SD, see Jan 18)
Henry Hezekiah Dee and Charles Eddie Moore
During the search for the bodies of civil rights workers Mickey Schwerner, James Chaney, and Andrew Goodman, the bodies of Henry Hezekiah Dee and Charles Eddie Moore were found and initially mistaken for two of the three workers.
An FBI investigation led to the arrests of James Seale and Charles Edwards. On January 11, 1965, on the recommendation of the State District Attorney, the charges were dismissed. Not until . After the dismissal of state charges, the FBI actively continued to investigate the murders to no avail. (seeDee/Moore for expanded chronology; next BH, see Jan 18)
George Whitmore, Jr
January 11, 1966: Justice Davidson sentenced Richard Robles to life in prison. (BH, see Jan 11; Robles, see, November 1986; see Whitmore for expanded chronology)
Vernon Dahmer Sr
January 11, 1966: Vernon Dahmer Sr. died a day after the Ku Klux Klan attacked him and his family in their home near Hattiesburg, Miss. Fourteen men were arrested in the late 1960s, with one conviction and several mistrials. Sam Bowers served six years in prison for the murders of civil rights workers Chaney, Goodman, and Schwerner. (BH, see Jan 12; Dahmer, see June 23)
Medgar Evers
January 11, 2017: the National Park Service named the Evers home a national historic landmark. (next BH, see June 17; see ME for expanded Evers chronology)
Chaney, Goodman, and Schwerner
January 11, 2018: Edgar Ray Killen, the former Klansman who was sentenced to a 60-year prison term in 2005 for arranging the murders of three young civil rights workers outside Philadelphia, Miss., in 1964 during the Freedom Summer drive to register Southern black voters, died in prison in Parchman, Miss. He was 92. (next BH, see Mar 15; see Murders for expanded chronology)
Antwon Rose
January 11, 2019: Allegheny County Judge Alexander Bicket decided to unseal the transcript of a closed hearing the previous week related to the criminal case against former police officer Michael Rosfeld.
That hearing hearing was closed and all information within the hearing was sealed, but WPXI-TV and the Post-Gazette had lawyers in court arguing the public was entitled to know the details of that hearing. (B & S and AR, see Jan 14)
January 11 Peace Love Art Activism
US Labor History
Feminism/Lawrence textile strike
January 11 > March 1912: Lawrence textile strike in Lawrence, Massachusetts, often known as the “Bread and Roses” strike. Dozens of different immigrant communities united under the leadership of the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) in a largely successful strike led to a large extent by women. The strike is credited with inventing the moving picket line, a tactic devised to keep strikers from being arrested for loitering.
It also adopted a tactic used before in Europe, but never in the United States, of sending children to sympathizers in other cities when they could not be cared for by strike funds On 24 February 1912, women attempting to put their children on a train out of town were beaten by police. (LH, see Feb 8; Feminism, see Mar 12)
GM sit-down strike
January 11, 1937: nearly two weeks into a sit-down strike by General Motors (GM) auto workers at the Fisher Body Plant No. 2 in Flint, Michigan, a riot broke out when police try to prevent the strikers from receiving food deliveries from supporters on the outside. Strikers and police officers alike were injured in the melee, which was later nicknamed the “Battle of the Running Bulls.” After riot, Michigan governor Frank Murphy called in the National Guard to surround the plant. However, the governor, who wanted to preserve his reputation as a friend to the workingman, decided against ordering troops into the plant. (see Feb 11)
January 11 Peace Love Art Activism
FREE SPEECH
January 11, 1936: following a protest by the local Ministerial Association, the Tulsa, Oklahoma government banned the play Tobacco Road by Erskine Caldwell. The play was based on Caldwell’s 1933 novel of the same name. Both the novel and the play were censored in cities around the country because of their treatment of sexuality. The play was also banned in Newark, Chicago, Detroit and Albuquerque for being “immoral.”
January 11, 1962: Howlin’ Wolf released Howlin’ Wolf album. (see Howlin’ Wolffor more).
Please Please Me
January 11, 1963: recorded on 26 November 1962, the Beatles released their second single in the UK: “Please Please Me.” The song’s title also became the title of their first LP.
John Lennon: ” ‘Please Please Me’ is my song completely. It was my attempt at writing a Roy Orbison song, would you believe it? I wrote it in the bedroom in my house at Menlove Avenue, which was my auntie’s place“. (David Sheff. John Lennon: All We Are Saying).
The single reached No. 1 on the New Musical Express (the most recognized chart at the time) on 22 February 1963, as well as the Melody Maker where it was Number 1 for two weeks. However, it only reached No. 2 on the Record Retailer chart, which subsequently evolved into the UK Singles Chart and because of this it was not included on the multi-million selling Beatles compilation, 1. (see Please Please Me) (Beatles, see Jan 25; Please Please Me, see Feb 22)
January 11, 1964: U.S. Surgeon General Luther Terry issued “Smoking and Health,” a report by an advisory committee which concluded that “cigarette smoking contributes substantially to mortality from certain specific diseases and to the overall death rate.” (NYT article) (see May 10)
January 11 Peace Love Art Activism
Vietnam
January 11, 1967: the Justice Department had asked the Supreme Court to uphold the constitutionality of the law prohibiting draft card burning. Solicitor General Thurgood Marshall said that the law was “an appropriate regulatory measure designed to preserve a document which plays an important role in the administration of the Selective Service System.” (next Vietnam, see Jan 12; see Draft Card Burning for expanded story)
January 11 Peace Love Art Activism
Dissolution of the USSR
January 11, 1990: in Lithuania, 300,000 demonstrated for independence. (see Jan 16)
January 11 Peace Love Art Activism
Native Americans
January 11, 1992: Berkeley, CA declared 1992, the 500th anniversary of Columbus’ landing in America, “The Year of Indigenous People.” The idea of abandoning Columbus Day was initiated by the Berkeley chapter of the Resistance 500 task force, a group dedicated to publicizing the belief that Columbus was responsible for the genocide of American Indians. (see February 11– July 15, 1994)
January 11 Peace Love Art Activism
CLINTON IMPEACHMENT
January 11, 1999: President Clinton’s defense team denied the charges against the president in a 13-page answer to a Senate summons. House prosecutors submit a pre-trial memo outlining their case. (seeCIfor expanded chronology)
January 11 Peace Love Art Activism
TERRORISM
January 11, 2002: the first planeload of al-Qaida prisoners from Afghanistan arrived at a U.S. military detention camp in Guantanamo, Cuba. [CNN report] (see Jan 16)
January 11 Peace Love Art Activism
DEATH PENALTY
January 11, 2003: calling the death penalty process “arbitrary and capricious, and therefore immoral,” Illinois Gov. George Ryan commuted the sentences of 167 condemned inmates, clearing his state’s death row two days before leaving office. (see June 24, 2004)
January 11 Peace Love Art Activism
Cannabis
AIDS
January 11, 2010: the New Jersey Legislature approved a measure made it the 14th in the nation to legalize the use of marijuana to help patients with chronic illnesses. The measure allowed patients diagnosed with severe illnesses like cancer, AIDS, Lou Gehrig’s disease, muscular dystrophy and multiple sclerosis to have access to marijuana grown and distributed through state-monitored dispensaries — was passed by the General Assembly and State Senate on the final day of the legislative session. (NYT article) (next Cannabis, see Feb 7 or see CCC for expanded chronology; next AIDS, see July 27)
The bill allowed possession of up to an ounce of marijuana, or two mature plants. It did not allow a regulated retail market, such as California’s or Colorado’s.
The “yes” vote in the Vermont State House marked the first time legalization had been approved by a Legislature. The eight other states that made pot legal had done so by citizen referendum.
Lt. Gov. David Zuckerman said the bill was a good first step to a regulated market for marijuana in the Green Mountains. (next Cannabis, see Jan 16 or see CCCfor expanded chronology; Vermont, see Jan 22)
January 11 Peace Love Art Activism
Environmental Issues
West Virginia
January 11, 2014: as hundreds of thousands of residents faced a third day without water because of a chemical spill in a local river. Jeff McIntyre, president of West Virginia American Water said that it could be days before it was safe for them to drink tap water again. Officials had set up four labs to test the amount of chemical in the water, but that it might take days to provide enough samples to determine whether the water was safe. (NYT article) (see Jan 19)
Reduced Air Pollution
January 11, 2021: according to an estimate published by the Rhodium Group. America’s greenhouse gas emissions from energy and industry plummeted more than 10 percent in 2020, reaching their lowest levels in at least three decades as the coronavirus pandemic slammed the brakes on the nation’s economy,
The steep drop, however, was the result of extraordinary circumstances and experts warned that the country still faced enormous challenges in getting its planet-warming pollution under control. In the years ahead, United States emissions were widely expected to bounce back once the pandemic receded and the economy rumbled back to life — unless policymakers take stronger action to clean up the country’s power plants, factories, cars and trucks. [NYT article] (next EI, see Jan 13)
January 11 Peace Love Art Activism
Immigration History
Who Pays?
January 11, 2017: after repeating many times that Mexico would pay for the wall and in what would turn out to be the first of many contentious press conferences, President Trump clarified that Mexico might not be paying the upfront costs for the wall after all.
“I want to get the wall started. I don’t want to wait a year and a half until I make my deal with Mexico. They will reimburse us for the cost of the wall, whether it’s a tax or whether it’s a payment. Probably less likely that it’s a payment.” (IH & TW, see Jan 25)
See through wall
January 11, 2018: Trump explained to The Wall Street Journal that border officials told him “they need see-through” and indicated a concrete wall might be the wrong thing because of that.
“We need a form of fence or window,” Trump said.
“If you have a wall this thick and it’s solid concrete from ground to 32 feet high, which is a high wall, much higher than people planned. You go 32 feet up and you don’t know who’s over here,” he explained. “If you don’t know who’s there, you’ve got a problem.”
He also said the wall did not need to run the course of the entire border because of natural barriers. But he also insisted “the wall’s identical” to what he promised on the campaign trail. (next TW, see Jan 18 or see Wall for expanded chronology)
Haitian immigrants
January 11, 2018: President Trump balked at an immigration dealthat would include protections for people from Haiti and some nations in Africa, demanding to know at a White House meeting why he should accept immigrants from “shithole countries” rather than from places like Norway.
Later, Trump denied using the phrase. (IH, see Jan 22; Temporary Protected Status see Jan 31)
Feminism
January 11, 2024: when St. Paul City Council President Mitra Jalali looked out at her fellow council members at their initial meeting she saw all the members’ seats were occupied by women — a first for Minnesota’s capital city.
Experts who track women in politics said St. Paul, with a population of about 300,000 people, was the first large U.S. city they know of with an all-female city council.
“We’re a multifaith, multicultural group of women. Our professional experiences are what people trusted as much as our personal ones. … And we have a clear policy vision that we got elected on,” Jalali said in an interview. [AP article] (next Feminism, see Feb 13)
January 10, 1860: the Pemberton Mill – a five-story brick textile factory in Lawrence, Massachusetts – collapsed from excessive load, killing dozens of workers instantly and trapping many more in the rubble. An estimated 145 workers died and 166 were injured in the collapse and subsequent fire that broke out, the majority of whom were young Irish women. (see January 28, 1861)
Joe Hill framed
January 10, 1914: someone shot and killed Utah grocer John G. Morrison, 47, and his son Arling, 17, in their Salt Lake City store. Despite evidence suggesting another man was responsible, police arrested labor activist Joe Hill, who will be executed for the murders. (see Joe Hillfor expanded chronology; LH, see Feb 13)
January 10 Peace Love Art Activism
Feminism
Voting Rights/Susan B. Anthony
January 10, 1878: Senator A. A. Sargent of California introduced a women’s suffrage amendment drafted by Susan B. Anthony. The text of the amendment will remain unchanged through its ratification forty-four years later as the Nineteenth Amendment in 1920. (see February 15, 1879)
Alice Paul
After President Wilson delayed for two weeks meeting a delegation of suffragists and then cut the meeting short and walked out on them. The next day, January 10, 1917, suffrage leader Alice Paul began leading picketers (whom they called “Silent Sentinels”) in front of the White House gates demanding a constitutional amendment granting women the right to vote. Carrie Chapman Catt, President of the National American Women’s Suffrage Assocation (NAWSA), the larger and moderate suffrage group, stated that picketing the White House was “an error” on the part of Alice Paul and the National Woman’s Party. (next Feminism & Voting Rights, see Mar 4)
House approves women’s suffrage
January 10, 1918,: exactly a year later, the US House of Representatives voted for second time on federal woman suffrage amendment, passing measure by vote of 274 yeas to 136 nays. The Senate will not vote to pass the amendment until June 4, 1919. (see Feb 3)
Malala Yousafzai
January 10, 2013: Franceawarded Malala Yousufzai the Simone de Beauvoir Prize for Womens’ Freedom.(Feminism, see Jan 23; Yousufazi, see Feb 2)
January 10 Peace Love Art Activism
January 10 Music et al
January 10, 1947: Finian’s Rainbow opened on Broadway. Among its songs was “When the Idle Poor Become the Idle Rich” written by Yip Harburg. (see Finian’s for more)
When the idle poor become the idle rich,
You’ll never know just who is who or who is which,
Won’t it be rich when everyone’s poor relative becomes a Rockefellertive,
And palms no longer itch, what a switch,
When we all have ermine and plastic teeth,
How will we determine who’s who underneath?
And when all your neighbors are upper class,
You won’t know your Joneses from your Astors,
Let’s toast the day,
The day we drink that drinkie up,
But with the little pinkie up,
The day on which, the idle poor become the idle rich.
“Talking Atom (Old Man Atom)”
In 1948: Pete Seeger recorded the 1945 Vern Partlow song “Talking Atom (Old Man Atom)” which expressed a fear of atomic energy and its possible consequences. (see News for additional mid-century examples)
Introducing the Beatles
January 10, 1964: although it had originally been scheduled for a July 22, 1963 release, the US label Vee-Jay finally released the Introducing The Beatles LP on this day. Legal and business issues plagued the album. By late fall, it sold more than 1.3 million copies. (see Jan 18)
George Harrison quits Beatles
January 10, 1969,: just as Ringo Starr had temporarily quit The Beatles in August 1968, George Harrison walked out, unable to tolerate any longer the tensions within the group. (see Beatles Officially Legally End) (next Beatles, see Jan 12)
January 10 Peace Love Art Activism
BLACK HISTORY
SCLC
January 10, 1957: Black leaders formed the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. following the Montgomery Bus Boycott victory and consultations with Bayard Rustin, Ella Baker, and others, Dr. Marthin Luther King, Jr. invited about 60 black ministers and leaders to Ebenezer Church in Atlanta. Their goal was to form an organization to coordinate and support nonviolent direct action as a method of desegregating bus systems across the South. In addition to Rustin and Baker, Rev. Fred Shuttlesworth of Birmingham, Rev Joseph Lowery of Mobile, Rev Ralph Abernathy of Montgomery, Rev C.K. Steele of Tallahassee, all played key roles in this meeting.(BH, see Jan 13; SCLC, see Feb 14)
Vernon Dahmer home fire-bombed
January 10, 1966: Klansmen firebombed Vernon Dahmer‘s home and attacked his store in Kelly Settlement, Hattiesburg, Mississippi. Dahmer was the President of the NAACP chapter in Hattiesburg, and had been helping black voters by letting them pay their poll tax at his store.
Dahmer helped get his family out of the structure, but was severely burned from the waist up. The fire destroyed their home, grocery store, and car. Dahmer died in the hospital due to his lungs being severely burned and smoke inhalation.
Four of Dahmer’s sons were serving overseas and had protective escort from the airport to attend funeral services.(BH, see Jan 11; Dahmer, see March 8, 1968)
Edward W Brooke elected
January 10, 1967: Republican Edward W. Brooke of Massachusetts, the first black elected to the U.S. Senate by popular vote, took his seat. (see Jan 27)
Terrorism
January 10, 2017: a federal jury sentenced Dylann S. Roof to death. Dylann was the unrepentant white supremacist who killed nine African-American churchgoers in a racial rampage. (NYT article) (BH, see Jan 11; T, see Feb 22)
January 10 Peace Love Art Activism
LGBTQ
Diane Feinstein
January 10, 1978: Diane Feinstein was elected president of the 11-member SF Board of Supervisors. Harvey Milk and Dan White took their seats on the board for the first time. Milk began his term by sponsoring a civil rights bill that outlawed sexual orientation discrimination. Only one supervisor votes against it. Mayor Moscone signed it into law. (see Nov 7)
Obama admin approves Utah same-sex marriages
January 10, 2014: the Obama administration said it would recognize same-sex marriages in Utah– even though the state will not do so – and would provide federal benefits to about 1,400 gay couples who wed there before the Supreme Court halted the nuptials this week.
President Barack Obama’s Justice Department took the step two days after Gary Herbert, the Republican governor of the conservative, predominantly Mormon state, said Utah would not recognize, at least for now, the marriages of gay couples who rushed to wed after a federal judge’s December 20 ruling briefly allowed such marriages. “These marriages will be recognized as lawful and considered eligible for all relevant federal benefits on the same terms as other same-sex marriages,” U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder said in a statement.
“These families should not be asked to endure uncertainty regarding their status as the litigation unfolds,” Holder said.
The National Organization for Marriage, which opposed same-sex marriages, condemned Holder’s move as an overreach of federal authority. (see Jan 14)
Ashton Whitake
January 10, 2018: the the Kenosha Unified School District in Wisconsin has agreed to pay $800,000 to settle a lawsuit filed by Ashton Whitake, a transgender student who said he was forbidden from using boys bathrooms at his high school and felt degraded by administrators.
The school board’s decision meant that the matter will not be taken up by the United States Supreme Court.
Whitaker filed the lawsuit was filed in 2016, as a rising senior. Court documents showed that Mr. Whitaker, 18, began to openly identify as a boy when he was a freshman at the high school. After teachers and administrators there told him he could not use the boys restrooms, he sued the school district. (see Jan 10)
Costa Rica
January 10, 2018: a ruling supporting same-sex marriage by the Inter-American Court of Human Rights in a marriage equality case out of Costa Rica was binding not just for Costa Rica but ruling also set a precedent for 19 other countries who had agreed to abide by the court’s decisions.
Argentina, Brazil, Colombia and Uruguay already recognized same-sex marriages as did several states in Mexico. Chile and Ecuador currently recognize same-sex civil unions but not marriages.
The ruling was legally binding in Argentina, Barbados, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, the Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Haiti, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Suriname and Uruguay.
In the Western Hemisphere, homosexuality was criminalized in Barbados, Jamaica, and Trinidad and Tobago. Dominica, Grenada and Jamaica do not submit to the rulings of the court. (see Jan 13)
January 10 Peace Love Art Activism
Nuclear/Chemical news
January 10, 2003: North Korea withdrew from a global treaty had barred it from making nuclear weapons. (see Dec 19)
January 10 Peace Love Art Activism
Iraq War II
January 10, 2007: President George W. Bush announced he would send a “surge“ of 21,500 U.S. forces to Iraq. (see Feb 2)
January 10 Peace Love Art Activism
Environmental Issues
West Virginia
January 10, 2014: federal prosecutors opened an investigation into a chemical spill in West Virginia that had contaminated drinking water used by more than 200,000 residents. State officials said it remained unclear when tap water would be safe to use.
According to the state’s Department of Environmental Protection, the spill that has affected Charleston and the nine surrounding counties was discovered around noon January 9 at a storage facility owned by on the Elk River, where a 48,000-gallon tank began leaking 4-Methylcyclohexane Methanol, or MCHM, a compound used to wash coal of impurities. [NYT report] (see Jan 11)
Ocean warming
January 10, 2019: a new analysis, published in the journal Science, found that the oceans were heating up 40 percent faster on average than a United Nations panel estimated five years ago. The researchers also concluded that ocean temperatures had broken records for several straight years.
“2018 is going to be the warmest year on record for the Earth’s oceans,” said Zeke Hausfather, an energy systems analyst at the independent climate research group Berkeley Earth and an author of the study. “As 2017 was the warmest year, and 2016 was the warmest year.” [NYT article] (see Feb 6)
January 10 Peace Love Art Activism
Immigration History
Immigration raids
January 10, 2018: federal immigration agents descended on dozens of 7-Eleven convenience stores across the country before daybreak arresting undocumented workers and demanding paperwork from managers, in what the Trump administration described as its largest enforcement operation against employers so far.
The sweeps of 98 stores in 17 states, from California to Florida, resulted in 21 arrests, according to United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement, which signaled intensified efforts against businesses that hire unauthorized workers.
“Today’s actions send a strong message to U.S. businesses that hire and employ an illegal work force: ICE will enforce the law, and if you are found to be breaking the law, you will be held accountable,” Thomas D. Homan, the acting director of the agency, said in a statement. [US News report] (see Jan 11)
In brief remarks to reporters Trump left open the possibility of declaring a state of emergency, which could allow him to bypass Congress to fund the wall. [NYT article] (next IH, see Jan 15; next TW, see Jan 19)
Space
January 10, 2024: NASA technicians finally removed the stuck fasteners from the sample return capsule of its OSIRIS-REx spacecraft — which Initially, the team at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas was able to access 70.3 grams (2.48 ounces) of material — 10 grams more than the mission’s goal — from the outside of the sampler head, called the Touch-and-Go Sample Acquisition Mechanism (TAGSAM).
However, the bulk of the asteroid sample material remained trapped inside the capsule when two of the 35 fasteners on TAGSAM could not be removed with existing tools approved for use inside the OSIRIS-REx glovebox, which ensures the asteroid samples are not contaminated during processing. Researchers were able to develop new tools that could tackle the fasteners, according to a statement from NASA. [Space.com article] (next OSIRIS-REX, see Feb 12)
January 10 Peace Love Art Activism
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