January 18 Peace Love Art Activism

US Labor History

Moyer v Peabody

January 18, 1909:  the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in Moyer v. Peabody that a governor and officers of a state National Guard may imprison anyone—in the case at hand, striking miners in Colorado—without probable cause “in a time of insurrection” and deny the person the right of appeal. (see Sept 29)

Union membership

January 18, 2019: according to a report released by the Department of Labor, the union membership rate–the percent of wage and salary workers who were members of unions–was 10.5 percent in 2018, down by 0.2 percentage point from 2017, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. The number of wage and salary workers belonging to unions, at 14.7 million in 2018, was little changed from 2017. In 1983, the first year for which comparable union data are available, the union membership rate was 20.1 percent and there were 17.7 million union workers. (see Jan 22)

January 18 Peace Love Art Activism

Women’s Health

American Birth Control League

January 18, 1939: at the 18th annual meeting of the American Birth Control League (ABCL), Margaret Sanger’s organization, the group agreed to merge with the Birth Control Clinical Research Bureau to create the Birth Control Foundation of America. The new group eventually adopted the name Planned Parenthood Foundation, by which it is known today.

Margaret Sanger, the founder of the birth control movement in America, was reportedly furious when the name “Planned Parenthood” was adopted. Throughout her career, she had always refused to accept the use of euphemism for the term “birth control.”

Russell Marker

In 1941: chemistry professor Russell Marker discovered a way to make synthetic progesterone with Mexican wild yams known as cabeza de negro. His discovery made progesterone production affordable and will become the basis for hormonal Women’s Health. (see March 5, 1942)

January 18 Peace Love Art Activism

Vietnam

China supports Vietnam

January 18, 1950: People’s Republic of China formally recognized the communist Democratic Republic of Vietnam and agreed to furnish it military assistance.  (see Jan 30)

US sprays herbicides

January 18, 1962: the US began spraying foliage with herbicides in South Vietnam, in order to reveal the whereabouts of Vietcong guerrillas. (see Feb 18)

US troop strength

January 18, 1966:  about 8,000 U.S. soldiers land in South Vietnam; U.S. troops total 190,000. (see Jan 31)

George McGovern

January 18, 1971: in a televised speech, Senator George S. McGovern (D-South Dakota) began his antiwar campaign for the 1972 Democratic presidential nomination by vowing to bring home all U.S. soldiers from Vietnam if he were elected. (see January 31 – February 2)

January 18 Peace Love Art Activism

BLACK HISTORY

Autherine Lucy Foster

January 18, 1957: Federal Judge Hobart H. Grooms ruled that University of Alabama officials were justified in expelling Autherine Lucy Foster. (see Autherine Lucy Foster for expanded chronology) (next BH, see Jan 22)

School desegregation

January 18, 1960: the City of Atlanta approved a plan to desegregate schools.  (BH, see Jan 24; SD, see Feb 9)

B Elton Cox

January 18, 1965: B Elton Cox had been the leader of a civil rights demonstration in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, of 2,000 Black students protesting segregation and the arrest and imprisonment the previous day of other Black students who had participated in a protest against racial segregation. The group assembled a few blocks from the courthouse, where Cox identified himself to officers as the group’s leader and explained the purpose of the demonstration.

Following his refusal to disband the group, he led it in an orderly march toward the courthouse. In the vicinity of the courthouse, officers stopped Cox who, after explaining the purpose and program of the demonstration, was told by the Police Chief that he could hold the meeting so long as he confined it to the west side of the street. Cox directed the group to the west sidewalk, across the street from the courthouse and 101 feet from its steps. There, the group, standing five feet deep and occupying almost the entire block but not obstructing the street, displayed signs and sang songs which evoked response from the students in the courthouse jail. Cox addressed the group. The Sheriff, construing as inflammatory appellant’s concluding exhortation to the students to “sit in” at uptown lunch counters, ordered dispersal of the group which, not being directly forthcoming, was effected by tear gas. Cox was arrested the next day and was convicted of peace disturbance, obstructing public passages, and courthouse picketing. The Louisiana Supreme Court affirmed the convictions, two of which (peace disturbance and obstructing public passages) were involved in this case.

On January 18, 1965 in Cox v. Louisiana, the US Supreme Court ruled that held that a state government cannot employ “breach of the peace” statutes against protesters engaging in peaceable demonstrations that may potentially incite violence.

Voter registration denied

January 18, 1965: Black civil rights advocates met at Brown Chapel. Following speeches and prayers, King and John Lewis lead 300 marchers out of the church. Selma Police Chief Wilson Baker allowed them to march in small groups to the courthouse to register despite Hare’s (July 9, 1964) injunction, but Sheriff Jim Clark has them line up in an alley beside the courthouse, where they are out of sight, and left them there. None were registered. (see Jan 19)

Fair Housing

January 18, 1966: Robert C. Weaver becomes the first HUD Secretary. He also became the first Black person appointed to the Cabinet. (see NYT article/obit) (see April 11, 1968)

137 Shots

January 18, 2019:  East Cleveland Law Director Willa Hemmons dropped misdemeanor charges against three of the five police supervisors accused of dereliction of duty for failing to control a high-speed chase that ended with Timothy Russell and Malissa Williams being killed in a 137-shot barrage of police gunfire.

Cleveland.com reported that Hemmons announced the dismissals but did not provide an explanation. She says she’s preparing to try the other two supervisors’ cases. (see 137 for extensive chronology)

January 18 Peace Love Art Activism

January 18 Music et al

Running Bear

January 18 – February 7, 1960: “Running Bear” by Johnny Preston #1 Billboard Hot 100. Second of three #1 songs in a row in which a person or persons die. The song was written by J. P. Richardson (aka The Big Bopper) with background vocals by Richardson and George Jones, who do the Indian chanting of “UGO UGO” during the three verses, as well as the Indian war cries. (see Running Bear for more)

I Want To Hold Your Hand

January 18, 1964: the Beatles’ “I Want To Hold Your Hand” entered Billboard  at No. 45. (see Jan 20)

McCartney sues Sony

January 18, 2017: Paul McCartney filed a federal lawsuit against the music publisher Sony/ATV over ownership of some of the Beatles’ most famous songs.

McCartney’s suit was over what is known as copyright termination: the right of authors — or any creators — to reclaim ownership of their works from publishers after a specific length of time has passed. It was part of the 1976 copyright act and in recent years had become a potent force in the music industry as performers and songwriters used the law to regain control of their work.

In McCartney’s suit, filed in United States District Court in Manhattan, lawyers for the singer detailed the steps they have taken over the last nine years to reclaim Mr. McCartney’s piece of the copyrights in dozens of Beatles songs he wrote with John Lennon, including “Love Me Do,” “I Want to Hold Your Hand” and “All You Need Is Love.” That process involved filing numerous legal notices, which, the suit said, should be enough to guarantee that Sony/ATV would return the rights to Mr. McCartney, starting in October 2018. (see March 20, 2018)

January 18 Peace Love Art Activism

World Trade Center

January 18, 1964: plans to build the New York World Trade Center announced. (see December 23, 1970)

January 18 Peace Love Art Activism

Clarence Earl Gideon

January 18, 1972: after his acquittal, Gideon resumed his previous way of life and married again some time later. He died of cancer in Fort Lauderdale, Florida at age 61. Gideon’s family in Missouri accepted his body and buried him in an unmarked grave. The local chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union later added a granite headstone, inscribed with a quote from a letter Gideon wrote to his attorney, Abe Fortas.  (see Gideon for expanded chronology)

January 18 Peace Love Art Activism

Iran–Contra Affair

January 18, 1994: prosecutor Lawrence Walsh released his final report in which he said former President Reagan had acquiesced in a cover-up of the scandal. Reagan called the accusation “baseless.”

January 18 Peace Love Art Activism

CLINTON IMPEACHMENT

January 18, 1998: President Clinton met with Betty Currie, Clinton’s personal secretary, and compared his memory with hers on Lewinsky. (see Clinton for expanded story)

January 18 Peace Love Art Activism

Sexual Abuse of Children

Geoghan convicted

January 18, 2002:  defrocked Boston priest John Geoghan, 66, was convicted of indecent assault and battery as a priest sex scandal in the archdiocese widens. Geoghan, 66, has been accused of abusing 130 children while he was actively serving as a priest in the Archdiocese of Boston over a 30-year period. He faces more criminal and civil suits.  

On February 21, 2002 Geoghan was sentenced to 9-10 years in prison as the archdiocese continues to reel from the scandal. The extent of the cover-up and the sheer number of priests involved has shocked Boston’s large Catholic community, leading to calls for Cardinal Bernard Law to step down. Meanwhile, new cases are being reported in several other states. (see Apr 8)

Pope Francis

January 18, 2018: Pope Francis spoke in defense of Bishop Juan Barros Madrid who they say protected the Rev. Fernando Karadima, a pedophile priest.

Francis told reporters there was not a shred of evidence against Madrid, who victims of Karadima, Chile’s most notorious priest, had accused of being complicit in his crimes.

“The day someone brings me proof against Bishop Barros, then I will talk,”  (see Jan 21)

January 18 Peace Love Art Activism

BLACK & SHOT

January 18, 2016: the University of Cincinnati agreed to pay $4.85 million to the family of Samuel DuBose, the unarmed black man who was shot to death on July 19, 2015  by Ray Tensing, one of its police officers. The settlement that also required the college to provide an undergraduate education to his 12 children, create a memorial to him on campus, and include his family in discussions on police reform. B & S, see March 14, 2017; DuBose, see Nov 12)

January 18 Peace Love Art Activism

Nuclear/Chemical News

January 18, 2018: India tested a long-range ballistic missile capable of carrying nuclear weapons, paving the way for membership to a small list of countries with access to intercontinental missiles and putting most of China in its reach.

The ballistic missile, called Agni 5, was launched from Abdul Kalam Island, off Odisha State in eastern India, traveling for around 19 minutes and 3,000 miles. In a statement, the Indian Ministry of Defense said that all objectives of the mission had been “successfully met.” (see Jan 30)

January 18 Peace Love Art Activism

LGBTQ

January 18, 2018: Helen Grace James had entered the Air Force in 1952 as a radio operator  In 1955, the Air Force investigated her after she was suspected of being gay. She was arrested and discharged as “undesirable,” with no severance pay, insurance or other benefits.

On January 3, 2018, James had sued the Air Force to have her discharge upgraded. She had said an “honorable” discharge would “make me feel like I’ve done all I can to prove I am a good person, and that I deserve to be a whole civilian in this country I love.”

On this date, FedEx delivered a notification of her status upgrade to “honorable.”

The 90-year-old James said she was “still trying to process it. It was both joy and shock. It was really true.”  (see Feb 12)

January 18 Peace Love Art Activism

Immigration History

January 18, 2018:   President Trump tweeted: “The Wall is the Wall, it has never changed or evolved from the first day I conceived of it,”  in response to a Washington Post report that White House Chief of Staff John Kelly said “a concrete wall from sea to shining sea” was not going to happen and that Trump’s campaign promises about the wall were “uninformed.”  (next IH, see Jan 22; next TW, see Mar 13)

January 18 Peace Love Art Activism

Trump Impeachment

January 18, 2020: President Trump’s legal defense team strenuously denied that he had committed impeachable acts, denouncing the charges against him as a “brazen and unlawful” attempt to cost him re-election as House Democrats laid out in meticulous detail their case that he should be removed from office. [NYT story] (next TI, see Jan 20 or see Trump for expanded chronology)

January 18 Peace Love Art Activism

2020 Census

January 18, 2021: Census Bureau Director Steve Dillingham, the Trump-appointed official overseeing the 2020 census, announced his resignation, nearly a year before his term’s scheduled end.

Dillingham’s announcement came six days after the Trump administration backed off from its final attempt to exclude undocumented immigrants from an important count of the nation’s population.

The departure saved him from the possibility of being fired by the incoming Biden administration, which had indicated it will not follow the Trump administration’s plan to exclude non-citizens when splitting seats in Congress between the states. [CNN article] (next Census, see Jan 20)

January 18 Peace Love Art Activism

January 17 Peace Love Art Activism

BLACK HISTORY

Act 44

January 17, 1834: the Alabama State Legislature passed Act 44 as part of a series of increasingly restrictive laws governing the behavior of free and enslaved blacks within the state.

In the immediate aftermath of the infamous Nat Turner slave rebellion in Virginia (see August 21 – 22, 1831), Alabama passed a statute in 1833 that made it unlawful for free blacks to settle in Alabama. That statute provided that freed blacks found in Alabama would be given thirty days to vacate the state. After thirty days, the freed slave could be subject to a penalty of thirty-nine lashes and receive an additional twenty-day period to leave the state. After that period had expired, the free person could be sold back into slavery with proceeds of the sale going to the state and to those who participated in apprehending him.

Act 44 expanded on this legislation by specifying a series of procedures that had to be followed for a slave to be freed within the state. One of the requirements was that emancipation for an enslaved person could take effect only outside of Alabama’s borders. Further, if an emancipated slave returned to Alabama, he could be lawfully captured and sold back into slavery. In fact, Act 44 required sheriffs and other law enforcement officers to actively attempt to apprehend freed slaves who had entered Alabama for any reason. (next BH, see March 14, 1835)

Cassius Marcellus Clay

January 17, 1942: Cassius Marcellus Clay, Jr. born in Louisville, Kentucky. About Clay’s childhood, Ali’s younger brother, Rudy said “All the time, he used to ask me to throw rocks at him. I thought he was crazy, but he’d dodge every one. No matter how many I threw, I could never hit him.” (see Muhammad Ali for more) (next BH, see Jan 25; MA, see October 1954)

George Jackson

January 17, 1970: George Jackson was charged along with Fleeta Drumgo and John Clutchette for murdering Soledad prison guard John V. Mills. Mills was beaten and thrown from the third floor of Soledad’s Y wing. This was a capital offense and a successful conviction could put them in the gas chamber.

Mills  was apparently murdered  in retaliation for the shooting deaths of three black inmates by a Soledad officer Opie G Miller the year prior. Miller was not convicted of any crime, a grand jury ruling his actions to be justifiable homicide. (George Jackson bio from black past dot com)  (BH, see Jan 26; BP, see Feb 21)

James A. Hood died

January 17, 2013: James A. Hood died in Gadsden, Ala. He was 70. Hood integrated the University of Alabama on June 11, 1963 together with his fellow student Vivian Malone after Gov. George C. Wallace capitulated to the federal government in a signature moment of the civil rights movement known as the “stand in the schoolhouse door.”  (NYT obit) (see Jan 30)

January 17 Peace Love Art Activism

US Labor History

Lucy Parsons

January 17, 1915: organized and led by radical labor organizer, Lucy Parsons, more than 1,500 people march in Chicago, demanding relief from hunger and high levels of unemployment in the city. Chicago Police describe Lucy Parsons as “more dangerous than a thousand rioters.”  (Lucy Parson site bio) (see Jan 19)

Federal employees organize

January 17, 1962: an order by President Kennedy allowed federal employees to organize, join unions, and bargain collectively with the government. It did not give them the right to strike. The move begins an era of public employee unionization. (public employee unions, see January 22, 2010; LH, February 10, 1963)

Recall petition

January 17, 2012: volunteers in Wisconsin submitted nearly a million signatures (double the number of signatures required) calling for a recall election of Governor Scott Walker in protest of his public fight last year to abandon the collective bargaining rights of public workers. (see  Jan 30)

January 17 Peace Love Art Activism

Cultural Milestone

January 17, 1920: the 18th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution took effect and prohibition began.  Section 1 read:

After one year from the ratification of this article the manufacture, sale, or transportation of intoxicating liquors within, the importation thereof into, or the exportation thereof from the United States and all territory subject to the jurisdiction thereof for beverage purposes is hereby prohibited. (see Aug 31)

January 17 Peace Love Art Activism

LSD

January 17, 1966: Ken Kesey tried for marijuana possession arrest in October 1965. He was found guilty and sentenced to six months on a work farm and three years probation. (see January 19)

January 17 Peace Love Art Activism

Nuclear News

Bomber collision

January 17, 1966: a B-52 bomber collided with a KC-135 jet tanker over Spain’s Mediterranean coast, dropping three 70-kiloton hydrogen bombs near the town of Palomares and one in the sea. None explode. (see Oct 5)

Nuclear Posture Review

January 17, 2018: the Pentagon sent Nuclear Posture Review, the newly drafted United States nuclear strategy,  President Trump for approval.

The NPR would permit the use of nuclear weapons to respond to a wide range of devastating but non-nuclear attacks on American infrastructure, including what current and former government officials described as the most crippling kind of cyberattacks.

For decades, American presidents had threatened “first use” of nuclear weapons against enemies in only very narrow and limited circumstances, such as in response to the use of biological weapons against the United States. The NPR the first to expand that to include attempts to destroy wide-reaching infrastructure, like a country’s power grid or communications, that would be most vulnerable to cyberweapons. (see Jan 18)

January 17 Peace Love Art Activism

DEATH PENALTY

Gary Gilmore

January 17, 1977: a Utah firing squad made Gary Gilmore the first person executed in the U.S. in almost 10 years. (see June 29, 1977)

Clarence Ray Allen

January 17, 2006:  California executed Clarence Ray Allen, its oldest death row inmate, minutes after his 76th birthday. The execution took place despite arguments that putting to death an elderly, blind and wheelchair-bound man was cruel and unusual punishment. Allen arranged a triple murder 25 years earlier.  (see Dec 30)

January 17 Peace Love Art Activism

Iraq/Iran

Tow missiles/Iran-contra affair

January 17, 1986: 4,000 more Tow missiles for Iran authorized by Reagan, supplied through Israel. (see Apr 22)

Scud missiles

January 17, 1991: Iraq fired eight Scud missiles into Israel. (Jan 22)

US dead

January 17, 2004:  500 U.S. soldiers dead in Iraq since the invasion. (see Feb 4)

January 17 Peace Love Art Activism

CLINTON IMPEACHMENT

January 17, 1998: William Ginsburg flew to Washington to represent Monica Lewinsky. President Clinton gave his deposition in the Jones lawsuit, in which he denied having a sexual relationship with Lewinsky. Newsweek magazine decided not to run a story by investigative reporter Michael Isikoff on the Lewinsky tapes and the alleged affair. (see Clinton for expanded story)

January 17 Peace Love Art Activism

Women’s Health

North Carolina/abortion

January 17, 2014: U.S. District Judge Catherine Eagles ruled that North Carolina law requiring women who want an abortion to have an ultrasound and then have a medical provider describe the image to them is a violation of constitutional free-speech rights. Eagles stated that states don’t have the power to force a health care provider to be the bearer of what she called an “ideological message in favor of carrying a pregnancy to term.” (see Feb 5)

Mississippi/abortion

January 17, 2020: on December 13, 2019, US Appeals Court Judge Patrick Higginbotham l had blocked the law as unconstitutional.  Mississippi then asked the full court to reconsider the case,. On this date, a three judge panel of the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals denied a request from Mississippi to reconsider a ruling striking down the state’s ban on abortions after 15 weeks.

The December ruling had made clear that Supreme Court precedent clearly protects the right to an abortion. “States may regulate abortion procedures prior to viability so long as they do not impose an undue burden on the woman’s right, but they may not ban abortions,” the court said last month. “The law at issue is a ban.” [TH article] (next WH, see Jan 20; Mississippi, see Feb 20)

January 17 Peace Love Art Activism

Environmental Issues

January 17, 2015: oil pumped in the Bakken formation in North Dakota and Montana leaked from a pipeline into the Yellowstone River near Glendive, Montana. The 12-inch crude line was shut, according to Bill Salvin, an outside spokesman for True Companies, whose Bridger Pipeline LLC operated the Poplar pipe system. As much as 1,200 barrels of oil leaked from the pipeline, much of which went into the Yellowstone River, said Dave Parker, spokesman for Montana Governor Steve Bullock. (see Feb 16)

January 17 Peace Love Art Activism

The Cold War

January 17, 2018: North and South Korea agreed to have their athletes march together under one flag at the opening ceremony of the Winter Olympics in February and to field a joint women’s ice hockey team, the most dramatic gesture of reconciliation between the two nations in a decade. (see Apr 19)

January 17 Peace Love Art Activism