March 18 Peace Love Art Activism

Native Americans

Cherokee Nation v. Georgia

March 18, 1831: Cherokee Nation v. Georgia. The Cherokee Nation sought a federal injunction against laws passed by the state of Georgia depriving it of rights within its boundaries. The Supreme Court held that the United States government had no original jurisdiction in the matter, as the Cherokee were a dependent nation, with a relationship to the United States like that of a ward to its guardian. (Cherokee Nation site article) (see January 16, 1832)

March 18 Peace Love Art Activism

Technological Milestone

Staple Bend Tunnel

March 18, 1834: the first U.S. railroad tunnel was completed between Hollidaysburg and Johnstown, Pennsylvania. Driven through slate, the Staple Bend Tunnel was 901 feet long, 25 feet wide and 21 feet high and lined throughout with masonry 18 inches thick. It was for the Allegheny Portage Railroad, the first railroad to go west of the Allegheny Mountains. The project engineer was Solomon White Roberts. Construction had begun on April 12, 1831.

Today it is part of a trail. (see January 6, 1838)

March 18 Peace Love Art Activism

BLACK HISTORY

American Colonization Society

March 18, 1895:  200 former African slaves left Savannah, Georgia for Liberia. Much of the aid for this came through the American Colonization Society (ACS).

The society also committed itself to fostering a public-school system in Liberia, promoting more frequent ships between the U.S. and Liberia, collecting and circulating more reliable information about Liberia, and enabling Liberia to depend more on itself. Future colonists were to be selected with a view to the needs of Liberia and not to their own situations.

William Henry (Harrison) Heard led the group who used money, purchased land, and built the first African Methodist Episcopal Church in the city of Monrovia, Liberia. This church stands now as the Elias Turner Memorial Chapel. (PBS article) (see July 29)

Claudette Colvin

March 18, 1955: a jury convicted Claudette Colvin of refusing to move to the back of the city bus and having assaulted the policeman who removed her from the vehicle. (see Claudette Colvin for expanded story)

March to Montgomery

March 18, 1965: a federal judge ruled that SCLC had the right to march to Montgomery, AL to petition for ‘redress of grievances’. (see March to Montgomery for expanded story)

March 18 Peace Love Art Activism

Feminism

Matilda Josyln Gage

March 18, 1898: Gage died in Chicago at the home of her daughter, Maud Gage Baum. Gage was 72. Her gravestone reads:

THERE IS A WORD

SWEETER THAN MOTHER

HOME OR HEAVEN

THAT WORD IS LIBERTY

(see Gage for expanded story; next Feminism, see May 17, 1900)

March 18 Peace Love Art Activism

US Labor History

Woolworth clerks

March 18, 1937: New York City police evicted and arrested striking Woolworth clerks occupying stores and demanding a 40-hour workweek. Police were met with huge protests at the stores and the precinct where the workers had been taken. Once freed, the clerks returned to the stores and re-occupied them and, in the end, they won a one-year union contract, an eight-hour day, six-day workweek, and a 32.5 cent per hour minimum wage. (Labor Notes site article) (see Mar 29)

Postal worker strike

March 18, 1970: the first strike against the U.S. government and the first mass work stoppage in the 195-year history of the Postal Service began with a walkout of letter carriers in Brooklyn and Manhattan who demanded better wages.

Ultimately, 210,000 (in 30 cities) of the nation’s 750,000 postal employees participated in the wildcat strike. With mail service virtually paralyzed in New York, Detroit, and Philadelphia, Pres. Nixon declared a state of national emergency and assigned military units to New York City post offices. The stand-off ended one week later.

Congress voted a six percent raise for the workers retroactive to December. (see Mar 23)

March 18 Peace Love Art Activism

Japanese Internment Camps

War Relocation Authority

March 18, 1942: the federal government created the War Relocation Authority to “Take all people of Japanese descent into custody, surround them with troops, prevent them from buying land, and return them to their former homes at the close of the war.”

While the government interned roughly 2,000 people of German and Italian ancestry during this period, 120,000 men, women, and children of Japanese ancestry were rounded up on the West Coast. There were three categories of internees: Nisei (native U.S. citizens of Japanese immigrant parents), Issei (Japanese immigrants), and Kibei (native U.S. citizens educated largely in Japan). The government transported  internees to one of 10 relocation centers in California, Utah, Arkansas, Arizona, Idaho, Colorado, and Wyoming. (see Japanese Internment for expanded story)

March 18 Peace Love Art Activism

Clarence Earl Gideon

March 18, 1963: Gideon v. Wainwright. The US Supreme Court stated that, The Sixth Amendment right to counsel is a fundamental right applied to the states via the Fourteenth Amendment’s due process clause, and requires that indigent criminal defendants be provided counsel at trial. Supreme Court of Florida reversed.

In other words, the US Supreme Court unanimously ruled that those accused of a crime have a constitutional right to a lawyer whether or not they can afford one.

About 2,000 convicted people in Florida alone were freed as a result of the Gideon decision; Gideon himself was not freed. He instead got another trial. (next JM, see June 22, 1964; see Gideon for expanded story)

March 18 Peace Love Art Activism

Space Race

Voskhod 2

March 18, 1965: Voskhod 2 carried Pavel Belyayev and Alexei Leonov into orbit. Leonov left the spacecraft for 20 minutes on the first “spacewalk.” (NASA article) (see Mar 23)

March 18 Peace Love Art Activism

March 18 Music et al

The Beatles

March 18 – 24, 1967, The Beatles after live performances: “Penny Lane” #1 on the Billboard Hot 100. (see Penny Lane for expanded story; next Beatles, see Mar 23)

FREE SPEECH

March 18, 1970:  Country Joe McDonald was convicted of obscenity and fined $500 for leading a crowd in his infamous Fish Cheer (“Gimme an F !”) at a concert in Massachusetts. (see Mar 31)

Roots of Rock

March 18, 2017: Chuck Berry died. He was 90. First responders were called out to a home 12:40 p.m. and found a man later identified as Berry unresponsive “and immediately administered lifesaving techniques,” a statement read. They were unable to revive him and he was pronounced dead at 1:26 p.m. (NY Times obit)

March 18 Peace Love Art Activism

Vietnam

My Lai Massacre

March 18, 1968: Warrant officer Hugh Thompson called in to report to a Colonel Henderson, and Thompson described  unnecessary killing of civilians. Henderson’s investigation report, submitted on April 24, stated that 20 civilians had been killed and Thompson’s allegations were false. (see My Lai for expanded story; next Vietnam, see March 19 – 23)

Operation Breakfast

March 18, 1969:  U.S. B-52 bombers were secretly diverted from their targets in South Vietnam to attack suspected communist base camps and supply areas in neutral Cambodia for the first time in the war. President Nixon approved the mission–formally designated Operation Breakfast–at a meeting of the National Security Council on March 15. This mission and subsequent B-52 strikes inside Cambodia became known as the “Menu” bombings. A total of 3,630 flights over Cambodia dropped 110,000 tons of bombs during a 14-month period through April 1970. The Pentagon established an intricate reporting system to prevent disclosure of the bombing. (PBS Frontline article) (see March 25 – 31)

March 18 Peace Love Art Activism

Oil embargo

March 18, 1974, Arab oil ministers announced the end of the embargo against the United States, all except Libya.

March 18 Peace Love Art Activism

CLINTON IMPEACHMENT

Julie Steele

March 18, 1998: Julie Steele’s affidavit released. In it she said she lied when she claimed Kathleen Willey had come to her house the night of the encounter and told her about it. 

Susan McDougal trial

March 18, 1999: Deputy Independent Counsel Hickman Ewing testified at the Susan McDougal trial that he had written a “rough draft indictment” of first lady Hillary Rodham Clinton after he doubted her truthfulness in a deposition. (see Clinton for expanded story)

March 18 Peace Love Art Activism

Terri Schiavo

March 18 2005, Courts again allowed the removal of Terri Schiavo’s feeding tube. (see Mar 31)

March 18 Peace Love Art Activism

DEATH PENALTY

New Mexico

March 18, 2009 : New Mexico Gov Bill Richardson, who had supported capital punishment, signed legislation to repeal New Mexico’s death penalty, calling it the ‘most difficult decision in my political life.‘ The new law replaced lethal injection with a sentence of life in prison without the possibility of parole. The repeal took effect on July 1, and applied only to crimes committed after that date. ‘Regardless of my personal opinion about the death penalty, I do not have confidence in the criminal justice system as it currently operates to be the final arbiter when it comes to who lives and who dies for their crime,’ Richardson said. (see  September 30, 2009)

March 18 Peace Love Art Activism

March 17 Peace Love Art Activism

BLACK HISTORY

Dred Scott

March 17, 1848: before the next trial took place, Irene Emerson had the sheriff of St. Louis County take charge of the Scott family. He was responsible for their hiring out, and maintained the wages until such a time as the outcome of the freedom suit was determined (custody of the Scott family would remain with the St. Louis County sheriff until March 18, 1857). (see Dred Scott for expanded story; BH, see December 25, 1848)

Carrollton, Mississippi

March 17, 1886: 23 African Americans were killed in a courthouse massacre in Carrollton, Miss., when 60 armed men charged in and opened fire in a courtroom. Two African-American brothers, Ed and Charley Brown, were testifying against Jim Lidell, Jr., accusing him of assault with intent to kill. The brothers were killed, and no one was ever indicted for their slayings or others that day. (Mississippi Civil Rights Project article) (see Dec 11)

March to Montgomery

March 17, 1965: despite the arguments between the SCLC and the SNCC, King joins Forman in leading a march of 2000 people in Montgomery to the Montgomery County courthouse. After the march, King announced the third Selma-to-Montgomery march. City of Montgomery officials apologized for the assault on SNCC protesters by county and state law enforcement and asked King and Forman to work with them on how best to deal with future protests in the city; student leaders promised they would seek permits for future protest marches. Gov. Wallace continued to arrest protestors who venture on to state-controlled property. (next BH, see Mar 19; see Montgomery for expanded article)

137 SHOTS

March 17, 2015, Cuyahoga Common Pleas Judge John P. O’Donnell denied a request by Cuyahoga County Prosecutor Timothy J. McGinty’s office to dismiss one of the attorneys representing Michael Brelo, the Cleveland police officer charged with the deaths of Timothy Russell and Malissa Williams. McGinty had argued that it was a conflict of interest for attorney Patrick D’Angelo to represent Brelo since the attorney also represented the Cleveland Police Patrolmen’s Association, the union of rank-and-file officers. O’Donnell wrote in his decision that the situation “does not demonstrate an actual conflict of interest,” and that Brelo’s right to an attorney of his choice outweighs any risk of a conflict. (see 137 for expanded chronology)

March 17 Peace Love Art Activism

Feminism & Voting Rights

Alice Paul

March 17, 1913: Alice Paul headed suffrage delegation to President Woodrow Wilson. (PBS article on Alice Paul) (see April 1913)

Loretta Perfectus Walsh

March 17, 1917:  Loretta Perfectus Walsh became the first woman to officially enlist in a branch of the US armed forces in a position other than an nurse. She served as a Chief Yeoman. (see Apr 2)

March 17 Peace Love Art Activism

Vietnam

Strategy meeting

March 17, 1964: President Johnson presided over a session of the National Security Council during which Secretary of Defense McNamara and Gen. Maxwell Taylor present a full review of the situation in Vietnam. During the meeting, various secret decisions were made, including the approval of covert intelligence-gathering operations in North Vietnam; contingency plans to launch retaliatory U.S. Air Force strikes against North Vietnamese military installations and against guerrilla sanctuaries inside the Laotian and Cambodian borders; and a long-range “program of graduated overt military pressure” against North Vietnam. President Johnson directed that planning for the bombing raids “proceed energetically.” (see Mar 19)

London demonstration

March 17, 1968: 25,000 people in London demonstrated against Vietnam War. Mick Jagger later  wrote “Street Fighting Man” and John Lennon wrote “Revolution” in response. (BBC article) (see Mar 18)

My Lai Massacre

March 17, 1970: the Army had commissioned a board of inquiry, headed by Lieutenant General Peers. After investigating, Peers reported that U.S. soldiers committed individual and group acts of murder, rape, sodomy, maiming and assault that took the lives of a large number of civilians–he concluded that a “tragedy of major proportions” occurred at My Lai. The Peers report said that each successive level of command received a more watered-down account of what had actually occurred; the higher the report went, the lower the estimate of civilians allegedly killed by Americans. Peers found that at least 30 persons knew of the atrocity (next Vietnam, see Apr 15; see My Lai for expanded story).

Hanoi Hilton

March 17, 1973: the first American prisoners of war (POWs) released from the “Hanoi Hilton” in Hanoi, North Vietnam. (Smithsonian article) (see Mar 29)

March 17 Peace Love Art Activism

US Labor History

César E. Chávez

March 17, 1966: César E. Chávez and the National Farm Workers Association left Delano for Sacramento, the capital of California, a 340-mile Peregrinácion (pilgrimage) which would take three weeks. They were calling public attention to the plight of farm workers and for their struggle for the right to organize a union. (see April 10, 1966)

KMPX-FM

March 17, 1968: staffers at San Francisco progressive rock station KMPX-FM strike, citing corporate control over what music is played and harassment over hair and clothing styles, among other things. The Rolling Stones, Joan Baez, the Jefferson Airplane, the Grateful Dead and other musicians request that the station not play their music as long as the station is run by strikebreakers. (see Mar 28)

March 17 Peace Love Art Activism

FREE SPEECH

Skokie anti-Nazi ordinances

March 17, 1978: Judge Bernard Decker granted the Village of Skokie’s motion to stay his order voiding the Skokie anti-Nazi ordinances so as to permit the Village to perfect an appeal to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 7th Circuit. (see Apr 6)

March 17 Peace Love Art Activism

Immigration History

Refugee Act of 1980

March 17, 1980: President Carter signed the Refugee Act of 1980. It aimed at stating a clear-cut national policy and providing a flexible mechanism to meet the changed developments of world refugees. The main objectives of the act were

1. to create a new definition of refugee based on the one created at the UN Convention and Protocol on the Status of Refugees,
2. to raise the limitation from 17,400 to 50,000 refugees admitted each fiscal year,
3. provide emergency procedures for when that number exceeds 50,000,
4. to establish the Office of U.S. Coordinator for Refugee Affairs and the Office of Refugee Resettlement
5. established explicit procedures on how to deal with refugees in the U.S. by creating a uniform and effective resettlement and absorption policy. (see June 15, 1982)

March 17 Peace Love Art Activism

IRAQ War I

Troops home

March 17, 1991: first U.S. troops arrived home from Iraq. (see Apr 18)

Between Iraq Wars I & II

March 17, 2003: President Bush warned U.N. weapons inspectors to leave the Iraq within 48 hours. They were in country searching for weapons of mass destruction (WMD), conducting 900 inspections at 500 locations in four months.

Bush had given Saddam Hussein the same amount of time to step down from power or suffer the consequences of the planned invasion.

Hans Blix, the chief weapons inspector, and Mohamed El Baradei, head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, and the inspectors had found no WMDs, or any evidence of a renewed Iraqi nuclear weapons program. Despite increasing cooperation from Iraqi authorities relenting to international pressure, the inspectors were unable to complete their work due to the American threat of war. (see Mar 19)

March 17 Peace Love Art Activism

CLINTON IMPEACHMENT

March 17, 1998: the White House charged that Kathleen Willey tried to sell her story to a book publisher for $300,000. Willey’s attorney denied the charges. A friend of Lewinsky and the presidential diarist give grand jury testimony. (see Clinton for expanded story)

March 17 Peace Love Art Activism

Sexual Abuse of Children

Michael Fugee

March 17, 2014: acting with uncustomary speed, the Vatican expelled Michael Fugee from the priesthood for repeatedly defying a lifetime ban on ministry to children.

Fugee attended youth retreats and heard confessions from minors despite signing a court-sanctioned decree forbidding such activities.

Fugee’s removal came four months after the New Jersey’s Bergen County Prosecutor’s Office agreed to drop criminal charges against him in exchange for his expulsion. He remains under lifetime supervision by the prosecutor’s office. (NJ dot com article) (see May 6)

March 17 Peace Love Art Activism

LGBTQ

Same-sex marriage

March 17, 2015:

• District Judge Callie Granade said in a five-page order that Mobile County Probate Court Judge Don Davis must comply with her previous ruling, which found the state’s gay marriage ban to be unconstitutional.  Alabama’s all-Republican Supreme Court had contravened that ruling on March 2. It ordered probate judges to stop issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples, arguing that the ban was constitutional.
• The Presbyterian Church (USA), the largest body of Presbyterians in the country, approved a change in the wording of its constitution to allow gay and lesbian weddings within the church, a move that threatened to continue to split the mainline Protestant denomination. (see Mar 20)

March 17 Peace Love Art Activism

Nuclear/Chemical News

March 17, 2017: Secretary of State Rex W. Tillerson ruled out opening any negotiation with North Korea to freeze its nuclear and missile programs and said for the first time that the Trump administration might be forced to take pre-emptive action “if they elevate the threat of their weapons program” to an unacceptable level. (see Mar 27)

March 17 Peace Love Art Activism

Charles Manson

March 17, 2018: the funeral for Charles Manson took place in Porterville, Calif. Following his cremation at the funeral home, guests listened to covers of Manson’s songs that had been recorded by Guns N’ Roses and the Beach Boys.

The news comes via the Porterville Recorder, who added that the cult leader’s own recordings were also played at the service, which was attended by 20 family members and friends, including Manson Family member Sandra Good. (next CM, see July 11, 2023)

March 17 Peace Love Art Activism

Fair Housing

March 17,2023: The Department of Housing and Urban Development, via a final rule, rescinded a 2020 Fair Housing Act rule and reinstating HUD’s Discriminatory Effects Standard, which dated back to 2013, the agency announced.

“Discrimination in housing continues today and individuals, including people of color and people with disabilities, continue to be denied equal access to rental housing and homeownership,” HUD Secretary Marcia L. Fudge said in a statement. “Today’s rule brings us one step closer to ensuring fair housing is a reality for all in this country.”

The 2020 rule  — HUD’s Implementation of the Fair Housing Act’s Disparate Impact Standard — never took effect, and the 2013 rule is still in force. Prior to the effective date of the 2020 rule, the US District Court for the District of Massachusetts issued a preliminary injunction in Massachusetts Fair Housing Center v. HUD, which stayed HUD’s implementation and enforcement of the rule. [McKnight article] (next FH, see Sept 28)

March 17 Peace Love Art Activism

March 16 Peace Love Art Activism

BLACK HISTORY

Freedom’s Journal

March 16, 1827: the Freedom’s Journal newspaper was founded. It was the first Black-owned and operated newspaper in the United States. Started by a group of free Black men in New York City, the paper served to counter racist commentary published in the mainstream press. As a four-page, four-column standard-sized weekly, Freedom’s Journal was established the same year that slavery was abolished in New York State. Samuel E. Cornish and John B. Russwurm served as its senior and junior editors. The Journal consisted of news of current events, anecdotes, and editorials and was used to address contemporary issues such as slavery and “colonization,” a concept that was conceived in 1816 to repatriate free Black people to Africa. (Wisconsin Historical Society link to all issues) (see July 5)

March to Montgomery

March 16, 1965: police clashed with 600 SNCC marchers in Montgomery, Alabama. (see MM for expanded chronology)

Thirteenth Amendment

March 16, 1995:  Mississippi ratified the Thirteenth Amendment, becoming the last state to approve the abolition of slavery. The amendment was nationally ratified in 1865. (CBS News article) (see Apr 16)

Sean Bell incident

March 16, 2007: a grand jury indicted three of the five police officers involved in the shooting. Officer Gescard Isnora, who fired the first shot, and Officer Michael Oliver, who fired 31 of the 50 shots, were charged with manslaughter, reckless endangerment and assault, while Detective Marc Cooper was charged with two counts of reckless endangerment. (NYT search) (B &S, and Sean Bell, see April 25, 2008)

March 16 Peace Love Art Activism

Technological Milestone

Robert H. Goddard

March 16, 1926: rocket science pioneer Robert H. Goddard successfully tested the first liquid-fueled rocket, in Auburn, Mass. (see January 7, 1926)

Space Race

March 16, 1966: Americans Neil Armstrong and David Scott coupled Gemini 8 to an unmanned Agena vehicle, docking two spacecraft together for the first time. Shortly after this feat, Gemini 8 experienced a stuck thruster, causing the craft to tumble wildly, and the rest of the mission was aborted.

Following reports of Gemini 8’s problems, the Soviet Union revealed that their Voskhod 2 mission the previous March had landed far off course and the astronauts were stranded in a snowy forest for a day before they could be recovered. (NASA article) (see Mar 31)

March 16 Peace Love Art Activism

US Labor History

United Federation of Teachers

March 16, 1960: the United Federation of Teachers (UFT) was formed in New York to represent New York City public school teachers and, later, other education workers in the city. (UFT site) (see Nov 25)

March 16 Peace Love Art Activism

March 16 Music et al

Frank Fontaine

March 16 – April 20, 1963: Frank Fontaine’s Songs I Sing on the Jackie Gleason Show the Billboard #1 album.

Otis Redding

March 16 – April 12, 1968: “(Sittin’ On) The Dock of the Bay” by Otis Redding #1 on the Billboard Hot 100. 

March 16 Peace Love Art Activism

Vietnam

Alice Herz

March 16, 1965: Quaker Alice Herz, 82, immolated self in Detroit in protest of the Vietnam war. (CNN article on self immolation) (Vietnam, see Mar 24; Herz, see Mar 22; see Immolation for expanded story)

My Lai Massacre

March 16, 1968: the two Charlie Company platoons in the village begin rounding up approximately 20-50 civilians (mostly women, children and old men,) pushing them along trails to a dirt road south of the village, and placing them under guard. Another group of 70 civilians were moved to the east of the village. Soldiers begin killing the civilians without pretext. Men were stabbed with bayonets or shot in the head. One GI pushed a man down a well and threw an M26 grenade in after him. Over a dozen women and children praying by a temple were shot in the head by passing soldiers.

Two soldiers came across a woman carrying an infant and walking with a toddler; they fire at her. An elderly woman was spotted running down a path with an unexploded M79 grenade lodged in her stomach. One soldier forced a woman around the age of 20 to perform oral sex on him while holding a gun to a four-year-old child’s head. At a drainage ditch into which the civilians had been herded and Lieutenant Calley gave the order to start killing them. Within ten minutes, all are shot down by members of the 1st Platoon. Witnesses to the shooting reported anywhere between 75 and 150 Vietnamese killed. None of the Vietnamese were armed. From his helicopter, a Warrant Officer Hugh Thompson spotted a group of wounded Vietnamese citizens south of My Lai. He marked their positions with smoke grenades and radioed soldiers on the ground to provide medical assistance. Later Thompson will confront officers on the ground at the massacre site. He will succeed in Medevacing some villagers for help. Thompson will also report that day what he has seen. (2018 NYT article) (see My Lai for expanded story; Vietnam, see Mar 16)

Robert F. Kennedy

March 16, 1968: Robert F. Kennedy announced candidacy for President. (text of announcement) (see Mar 17)

March 16 Peace Love Art Activism

Fair Housing

Pruitt-Igoe

March 16, 1972: after years of failed attempts at remedying the many housing issues, the first of the Pruitt-Igoe building was demolished. The second one went down April 22, 1972. After more implosions on July 15, the first stage of demolition was over. As the government scrapped rehabilitation plans, the rest of the Pruitt–Igoe blocks were imploded during the following three years; and the site was finally cleared in 1976 with the demolition of the last block. (see Mar 23)

March 16 Peace Love Art Activism

FREE SPEECH

Zoia Horn

March 16, 1972: reference librarian Zoia Horn refused to testify against the Harrisburg Seven who were on trial for an alleged conspiracy to kidnap then-National Security Adviser Henry Kissinger. Five of the seven were current or former Catholic priests or nuns.

Horn had been implicated by an ex-convict informer placed in the Bucknell University library by the FBI.

Though given immunity from self-incrimination, Zoia objected to the idea that libraries could become places of infiltration and spying. Charged with contempt of court, she was sent to jail for 20 days until a mistrial was declared.

Judith Krug, longtime director of the American Library Association’s Office of Intellectual Freedom, said that Horn was “the first librarian who spent time in jail for a value of our profession.”

At the trial she asked to read a statement of explanation, but was led away in handcuffs before she had begun her third sentence: “Your Honor, it is because I respect the function of this court to protect the rights of the individual, that I must refuse to testify. I cannot in my conscience lend myself to this black charade. I love and respect this country too much to see a farce made of the tenets upon which it stands. To me it stands on freedom of thought—but government spying in homes, in libraries and universities inhibits and destroys this freedom. It stands on freedom of association—yet in this case gatherings of friends, picnics and parties have been given sinister implications, and made suspect. It stands on freedom of speech—yet general discussions have been interpreted by the government as advocacies of conspiracies.” (see Mar 23)

March 16 Peace Love Art Activism

TERRORISM

Terry Anderson

March 16, 1985: Terry Anderson was kidnapped on a west Beirut street while leaving a tennis court. His captors took him to the southern suburbs of the city, where he was held prisoner in an underground dungeon for the next six-and-a-half years. (see Dec 24)

Asian killings

March 16, 2021: Robert Aaron Long, 21, of Woodstock, Ga  shot and killed eight people at three massage parlors in the Atlanta area. Authorities said that six of the people killed were Asian, and two were white. All but one were women.

Aaron was captured in Crisp County, about 150 miles south of Atlanta, after a manhunt. [NYT story] (next T, see May 14, 2022)

March 16 Peace Love Art Activism

Iran–Contra Affair

March 16, 1988: Lieutenant Colonel Oliver North and Vice Admiral John Poindexter were indicted on charges of conspiracy to defraud the United States. (see Mar 24)

March 16 Peace Love Art Activism

Irish Troubles

March 16, 1988:  Milltown Cemetery attack: during a funeral for three Provisional IRA volunteers, Ulster Defence Association (UDA) volunteer Michael Stone attacked the crowd with grenades and pistols, killing three and wounding over sixty. (see Troubles for expanded story)

March 16 Peace Love Art Activism

IRAQ

Chemical weapons

March 16, 1988: Iraq used chemical weapons against Kurds supporting Iran in Halabja, killing 4000, an attack which begins the Anfal campaigns against Kurdish villages (formally continuing until 6 Sept, though  attacks continued until 1989). Approximately 50,000 to 180,000 Kurds are killed in this campaign, and 1,276 villages are destroyed. (see Aug 20)

Dick Cheney

March 16, 2003: Vice President Dick Cheney predicted on NBC’s “Meet the Press” that American troops would be “greeted as liberators” by the Iraqi people. (see Mar 17)

March 16 Peace Love Art Activism

CLINTON IMPEACHMENT

March 16, 1998: Clinton said “nothing improper” happened when he was alone with Kathleen Willey, responding to her accusations aired in an interview on “60 Minutes” the previous night. The White House released letters Willey sent to the president, signed “Fondly, Kathleen” in an effort to cast doubt on her story.

Exactly a year later, on March 16, 2000, Independent Counsel Robert Ray’s office filed a report stating there is “no substantial and credible evidence” that President Bill Clinton and first lady Hillary Rodham Clinton sought confidential FBI background checks of former GOP White House personnel. (see Clinton for expanded story)

March 16 Peace Love Art Activism

LGBTQ

March 16, 2011: The Respect for Marriage Act, the bill that would overturn the so-called Defense of Marriage Act, introduced.  (see Apr 4  or see or see December 13, 2022 re DoMA)

March 16 Peace Love Art Activism

STAND YOUR GROUND LAW

Trayvon Martin Shooting

March 16, 2012: Sanford FL police released copies of the 911 calls to the news media. On the recordings, one shot, an apparent warning or miss, is heard, followed by a voice begging or pleading, and a cry. A second shot is then heard, and the pleading stops. (see Mar 21)

March 16 Peace Love Art Activism

Kandahar massacre

March 16, 2012: the military identified the soldier accused of killing 16 Afghan villagers as Staff Sgt. Robert Bales, a 38-year-old father of two who had been injured twice in combat over the course of four deployments and had, his lawyer said, an exemplary military record. Bales was flown from Kuwait to the Midwest Joint Regional Correctional Facility in Fort Leavenworth, Kansas. According to U.S. Army Colonel James Hutton, Chief of Media Relations, Bales was held in special housing in his own cell and was able to go outside the cell “for hygiene and recreational purposes” (see Mar 23)

March 16 Peace Love Art Activism

Women’s Health

March 16, 2012: Utah Gov. Gary Herbert vetoed a bill banning public schools from teaching contraception as a way of preventing pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases. The bill, which also sought to bar instruction on homosexuality or other aspects of human sexuality other than the teaching of abstinence, would have been the first of its kind in the nation if it had become law. (see Oct 23)

March 16 Peace Love Art Activism

Clarence Earl Gideon

March 16, 2013: approaching the 50^th anniversary of the US Supreme Court decision, Gideon v. Wainwright, which guaranteed indigent defendant the right to a lawyer, a NYT article stated, the Legal Services Corporation, the Congressionally financed organization that provides lawyers to the poor in civil matters, says there are more than 60 million Americans — 35 percent more than in 2005 — who qualify for its services. But it calculates that 80 percent of the legal needs of the poor go unmet. In state after state, according to a survey of trial judges, more people are now representing themselves in court and they are failing to present necessary evidence, committing procedural errors and poorly examining witnesses, all while new lawyers remain unemployed… According to the World Justice Project, a nonprofit group promoting the rule of law that got its start through the American Bar Association, the United States ranks 66th out of 98 countries in access to and affordability of civil legal services. (see Gideon for expanded chronology)

March 16 Peace Love Art Activism

Immigration History

March 16, 2017: in Maryland, Judge Theodore D. Chuang echoed the conclusion of U.S. District Judge Derrick K. Watson in Hawaii ruling in a case brought by nonprofit groups that work with refugees and immigrants. Chuang stated that the likely purpose of the executive order was “the effectuation of the proposed Muslim ban” that Mr. Trump pledged to enact as a presidential candidate.

Chuang’s decision cited Mr. Trump’s public comments to conclude that there were “strong indications that the national security purpose is not the primary purpose for the travel ban,” and that Mr. Trump may have intended to violate the constitutional prohibition on religious preferences. (IH, see Mar 29; Maryland, see May 25)

March 16 Peace Love Art Activism