February 16 Peace Love Art Activism
Native Americans
Failed Cherokee rescue
February 16, 1760: Cherokee Indians failed to rescue Cherokee hostages held in Fort St. George (South Carolina). In revenge, the British killed all the hostages.
1789 US Constitution & Native Americans
- Article 1 Section 3: 3: Representatives and direct Taxes shall be apportioned among the several States which may be included within this Union, according to their respective Numbers, which shall be determined by adding to the whole Number of free Persons, including those bound to Service for a Term of Years, and excluding Indians not taxed. [Indians not counted in population]
- Article 1, Section 8: To regulate Commerce with foreign Nations, and among the several States, and with the Indian Tribes; [Indians are treated as a foreign group]
Jefferson’s plan to get Native American’s land
In 1803: in a private letter to William Henry Harrison, Governor of the Indiana Territory, President Thomas Jefferson outlined an Indian policy that would result in the natives ceding land to the United States. He stated [my underlining]: To promote this disposition to exchange lands, which they have to spare and we want, for necessaries, which we have to spare and they want, we shall push our trading uses, and be glad to see the good and influential individuals among them run in debt, because we observe that when these debts get beyond what the individuals can pay, they become willing to lop them off by a cession of lands. He added, “…we presume that our strength and their weakness is now so visible that they must see we have only to shut our hand to crush them, and that all our liberalities to them proceed from motives of pure humanity only. Should any tribe be foolhardy enough to take up the hatchet at any time, the seizing the whole country of that tribe, and driving them across the Mississippi, as the only condition of peace, would be an example to others, and a furtherance of our final consolidation.” (see October 5, 1813)
February 16 Peace Love Art Activism
BLACK HISTORY
Missouri
February 16, 1847: the Missouri legislature passed an act that prohibited “Negroes and mulattoes” from learning to read and write and assembling freely for worship services. The act also forbade the migration of free blacks to the state. The penalty for anyone violating any of the law’s provisions was a fine not to exceed five thousand dollars, a jail term not to exceed six months, or a combination of fine and jail sentence.
The 1847 law supplemented a Missouri law passed in 1825 that imposed various restrictions on free black people. The 1825 law defined a black person as anyone having at least one black grandparent, and made a distinction between those considered full-blooded Negroes and mixed-blooded mulattoes. The 1825 law also prohibited free blacks from keeping or carrying weapons without a special permit and settling in Missouri without a certificate of citizenship from Missouri or another state. Free blacks who migrated to or through Missouri without citizenship documents faced arrest, a court order to leave the state within thirty days, and a punishment of ten lashes. Under the 1825 law, white ship captains and labor bosses were permitted to bring free blacks into the state as workers, though for no longer than six months at a time.
In 1840, nearly 13 percent of Missouri’s population was composed of enslaved black people, while free black people made up less than one percent of the state’s residents. The 1847 law was enacted to place further limitations on the black population and calm fears of a possible rebellion. (see June 30)
U.S. Navy
February 16, 1944: the U.S. Navy began training its first African-American officers. More than 100,000 African Americans were in the Navy in World War II, many of them forced to serve as laborers, support crew and cooks. None were officers. After pressure from civil rights groups, the Navy responded by commissioning 16 African-American officers and sending them for training. (next BH, see Mar 13)
Black Liberation Front
February 16, 1965: the New York City police and the Federal Bureau of Investigation with the help of the Royal Canadian Police broke up a plot to blow up the Statue of Liberty, the Liberty Bell, and the Washington Monument. The four were: Walter Augustus Bowe, Khaicel Sultan Sayyed , leader Robert Steele Collier, and Canadian Michelle Duclos,The men were part of an extremist organization known as the “Black Liberation Front” (BLF), while Duclos was a member of the Quebec secessionist group Rassemblement pour l’Indépendance Nationale. (Chicago Tribune headline) (BH, see Feb 17; next Terrorism, see June 14)
February 16 Peace Love Art Activism
INDEPENDENCE DAYS
Lithuania twice
February 16, 1918: Lithuania independent from the Russian and German Empires. (see Feb 24)
February 16, 1990: Lithuania declared its independence from the Soviet Union. (see Mar 15)
February 16 Peace Love Art Activism
US Labor History
Furrier strike
February 16, 1926: the beginning of a 17-week general strike of 12,000 New York furriers, in which Jewish workers formed a coalition with Greek and African American workers and became the first union to win a 5-day, 40-hour week (see May 1)
Milwaukee teacher strike
February 16, 2011: public schools in Milwaukee and Madison, Wisc., closed as teachers call in sick to protest Gov. Scott Walker’s plans to gut their collective bargaining rights. (see Feb 17)
February 16 Peace Love Art Activism
Technological & Cultural Milestones
Nylon
February 16, 1937: Wallace H. Carothers, a research chemist for Du Pont, received a patent for nylon. (see April 30, 1939)
The Camel Newsreel Theatre
February 16, 1948: NBC-TV aired the first nightly newscast, “The Camel Newsreel Theatre,” which consisted of Fox Movietone newsreels. The program was 10-minutes long. (see June 20)
911
February 16, 1968: the nation’s first 911 emergency telephone system was inaugurated in Haleyville, Ala. (NENA article on history or 9-1-1) (see September 2, 1969)
February 16 Peace Love Art Activism
Cold War
Fidel Castro
February 16, 1959: Fidel Castro became prime minister of Cuba after leading a guerrilla campaign that forced right-wing dictator Fulgencio Batista into exile. Castro, who became commander in chief of Cuba’s armed forces after Batista was ousted on January 1, replaced the more moderate Miro Cardona as head of the country’s new provisional government. (see Apr 15)
Boston SANE
February 16, 1962: Boston SANE [Sane Nuclear Policy (1957)] & fledgling Students for a Democratic Society held first anti-nuclear march on Washington with 4000 – 8000 protesters. (see Apr 14)
Flights to Cuba
February 16, 2016: the Obama administration’s top transportation officials joined Cuban dignitaries at the Hotel Nacional in Havana to sign an agreement that restored commercial airline service between the two countries for the first time in more than 50 years. (see Mar 20)
February 16 Peace Love Art Activism
February 16 Music et al
Beatles/Ed Sullivan
February 16, 1964: second appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show. This time in Miami. An estimated 70 million viewers watch that night Set list: She Loves You > That Boy > All My Loving; I Saw Her Standing There > With Love From Me To You > I Want To Hold Your Hand [Sullivan also refers to upcoming Clay/Liston fight in Miami] (see Ed Sullivan Meets the Beatles Again for more)(next Beatles, see Feb 18)
Beatles/India
February 16, 1968: Mike Love, Mia Farrow, Donovan and others travel to India to visit the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi at Rishikesh. (see Apr 12)
Tony Sheridan
February 16, 2013: Tony Sheridan, the British guitarist, singer and songwriter who was the star on the Beatles’ first commercial recording — they were the backup band—died. (next Beatles, see March 21, 2016)
February 16 Peace Love Art Activism
Vietnam
February 16, 1968: U.S. officials reported that, in addition to the 800,000 people listed as refugees prior to January 30, the fighting during the Tet Offensive created 350,000 new refugees. (see Feb 18)
February 16 Peace Love Art Activism
Watergate
February 16, 1971: Nixon began secret recordings using a newly installed taping system in White House. (see Watergate for expanded story)
February 16 Peace Love Art Activism
Symbionese Liberation Army
February 16, 1974: in a second tape recording, Patty Hearst asked her parents to “stop acting like I’m dead.” DeFreeze says that the S.L.A. is looking for “a good faith gesture.” The SLA had kidnapped Hearst on February 4. (see Patti Hearst for expanded story)
February 16 Peace Love Art Activism
TERRORISM
February 16, 2012: Judge Nancy Edmunds of Federal District Court in Detroit sentenced the so-called “underwear bomber” Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab to four consecutive life sentences plus 50 years. (Justice Dept article) (Terrorism, see Feb 29; Abdulmutallab, see January 13, 2014)
February 16 Peace Love Art Activism
LGBTQ & Marriage
NJ approves same-sex marriage
February 16, 2012: The New Jersey legislature approved the freedom to marry, but soon after, New Jersey Governor Chris Christie vetoed the bill.
Pew Research
February 16, 2012, the Pew Research Center reported that about 15% of all new marriages in the United States in 2010 were between spouses of a different race or ethnicity from one another, more than double the share in 1980 (6.7%). Among all newlyweds in 2010, 9% of whites, 17% of blacks, 26% of Hispanics and 28% of Asians married out. Looking at all married couples in 2010, regardless of when they married, the share of intermarriages reached an all-time high of 8.4%. In 1980, that share was just 3.2%. (see Feb 22)
Baker/McConnell
February 16, 2019, just two days after Valentine’s Day, the Social Security Administration sent a letter to Jack Baker and Michael McConnell confirming once and for all that their 1971 marriage was legal, stating that they were indeed entitled to monthly husband’s benefits. (see Baker/McConnell for expanded chronology; next LGBTQ, see Feb 26)
February 16 Peace Love Art Activism
Immigration History
Obama policy halted
February 16, 2015: Federal District Judge Andrew S. Hanen in Brownsville, Texas ordered a temporary halt to President Obama’s executive actions on immigration, siding with Texas and 25 other states that filed a lawsuit opposing the initiatives. (see Feb 23)
Hanen prohibited the Obama administration from carrying out programs the president announced in November that would offer protection from deportation and work permits to as many as five million undocumented immigrants. The first of those programs was scheduled to start receiving applications February 17. (IH, see Feb 23; Obama, see May 26)
Immigrant boycott
February 16, 2017: in a prequel to a May 1 protest, businesses in cities across the country closed as immigrants boycotted their jobs, classes and shopping. Immigrants in Washington, D.C., Philadelphia, Austin, Texas, and other major U.S. cities planned to stay home as part of a strike called “A Day Without Immigrants.” (see Feb 17)
February 16 Peace Love Art Activism
Environmental Issues
Train oil spill
February 16, 2015: a CSX train carrying crude oil from North Dakota’s Bakken formation derailed in the Mount Carbon area of Fayette County, West Virginia sending oil tankers off the tracks, with some reaching the Kanawha River.
The train, consisting of two locomotives and 109 rail cars, was en route to Yorktown, Va. (Reuters story) (see Feb 24)
Trump eases coal mining rules
February 16, 2017: President Trump signed legislation ending an Obama administration coal mining rule. The bill quashes the Office of Surface Mining’s Stream Protection Rule, a regulation to protect waterways from coal mining waste that officials had finalized in December 2016. (see Mar 9)
February 16 Peace Love Art Activism
Sexual Abuse of Children
February 16, 2019: Pope Francis expelled Theodore E. McCarrick, a former cardinal and archbishop of Washington, from the priesthood, after the church found him guilty of sexually abusing minors and adult seminarians over decades.
The move appears to be the first time any cardinal has been defrocked for sexual abuse — marking a critical moment in the Vatican’s handling of a scandal that has gripped the church for nearly two decades. It was also the first time an American cardinal had been removed from the priesthood.
In a statement, the Vatican said McCarrick had been dismissed after he was tried and found guilty of several crimes, including soliciting sex during confession and “sins” with minors and with adults, “with the aggravating factor of the abuse of power.” (next SAC, see Feb 21, next McCarrick, see July 28, 2021)
February 16 Peace Love Art Activism
Women’s Health
February 16, 2024: the Alabama Supreme Court ruled that frozen embryos can be considered children under state law.
The decision was issued in a pair of wrongful death cases brought by three couples who had frozen embryos destroyed in an accident at a fertility clinic. Justices, citing anti-abortion language in the Alabama Constitution, ruled that an 1872 state law allowing parents to sue over the death of a minor child “applies to all unborn children, regardless of their location.”
“Unborn children are ‘children’ … without exception based on developmental stage, physical location, or any other ancillary characteristics,” Justice Jay Mitchell wrote in a majority ruling by the all-Republican court. [AP article] (next WH, see Mar 4; Alabama, see Mar 6)
