August 9, 1945: the US dropped atomic bomb on Nagasaki, Japan. Total deaths by the end of 1945 may have reached 80,000 from the explosion and exposure to the bomb’s radiation. [2015 New Yorker story] (RS, see Sept 2; NN, see January 24, 1946)
Mihama power plant (Japan)
August 9, 2004: five people died in an accident at the plant in the Fukui province (INES Level 1). Seven people are also injured when hot water and steam leaks from a broken pipe. Officials insist that no radiation leaked from the plant, and there is no danger to the surrounding area. [blog story] (see February 10, 2005)
August 9 Peace Love Art Activism
INDEPENDENCE DAY
August 9, 1965: Singapore leaves Malaysian Federation. [History SG story] (see ID for expanded list of independent countries of the 1960s)
August 9 Peace Love Art Activism
Charles Manson
August 9, 1969: members of a cult led by Charles Manson murdered Sharon Tate, (8 months pregnant), and her friends: Folgers coffee heiress Abigail Folger, Wojciech Frykowski, and Hollywood hairstylist Jay Sebring at Roman Polanski’s home in Los Angeles, California. NYT article (see Aug 10)
August 9 Peace Love Art Activism
Watergate Scandal
August 9, 1974: Gerald Ford becomes president. (see Watergate for expanded story)
August 9 Peace Love Art Activism
Irish Toubles
August 9, 1981: Liam Canning (19), a Catholic civilian, was shot dead by the Ulster Freedom Fighters (UFF), a covername used by the Ulster Defence Association (UDA), as he walked along Alliance Avenue, Ardoyne, Belfast. Peter Maguinness (41), a Catholic civilian, was shot dead by a plastic bullet fired by the Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC) while he was outside his home on the Shore Road, Greencastle, Belfast. There were continuing riots in Nationalist areas of Northern Ireland. (see Troubles for expanded story)
August 9 Peace Love Art Activism
Grateful Dead
August 9, 1995: Jerry Garcia, 53, died. (see Dec 8)
August 9 Peace Love Art Activism
Pledge of Allegiance
August 9, 2002: the U.S. Justice Department filed an appeal of the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals’ ruling in the Newdow vs. U.S. Congress case in which the court struck down the addition of the phrase “under God” to the Pledge of Allegiance as unconstitutional. (see Pledge for expanded story)
August 9 Peace Love Art Activism
LGBTQ
August 9, 2007: sponsored by the Human Rights Campaign, the Logo cable channel hosts the first American presidential forum focusing specifically on LGBTQ issues, inviting each presidential candidate. Six Democrats participate in the forum, including Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama, while all Republican candidates decline. (see Nov 8)
August 9 Peace Love Art Activism
137 SHOTS
August 9, 2013: Cleveland Police Chief Michael McGrath announced that 75 officers faced discipline for their involvement in the 60-car high speed pursuit last Nov. 29 that began downtown and ended in East Cleveland. The internal charges range from engaging in a chase without permission to providing false information on duty reports. Nineteen of them also will have disciplinary hearings that could result in temporary suspensions. None will be terminated. (see 137 for expanded story)
August 9 Peace Love Art Activism
Environmental Issues
August 9, 2021: a major new United Nations scientific report concluded.that nations had delayed curbing their fossil-fuel emissions for so long that they could no longer stop global warming from intensifying over the next 30 years, though there was still a short window to prevent the most harrowing future
Humans had already heated the planet by roughly 1.1 degrees Celsius, or 2 degrees Fahrenheit, since the 19th century, largely by burning coal, oil and gas for energy. And the consequences could be felt across the globe: The summer of 2021 alone, blistering heat waves had killed hundreds of people in the United States and Canada, floods had devastated Germany and China, and wildfires had raged out of control in Siberia, Turkey and Greece.
But that was only the beginning, according to the report, issued by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, a body of scientists convened by the United Nations. Even if nations started sharply cutting emissions immediately, total global warming was likely to rise around 1.5 degrees Celsius within the next two decades, a hotter future that was essentially locked in. [NYT article] (next EI, see Aug 18)
August 9 Peace Love Art Activism
BLACK HISTORY
August 9, 2022: jurors in Leflore County, Mississippi examining the case of Emmett Till declined to indict Carolyn Bryant Donham, the white woman whose accusations prompted the attack.
The jurors heard more than seven hours of testimony from investigators and witnesses with direct knowledge of the case. Still, prosecutors said, the panel did not find sufficient evidence to indict Donham on charges of kidnapping or manslaughter.
“After hearing every aspect of the investigation and evidence collected regarding Donham’s involvement, the grand jury returned a ‘no bill’ to the charges of both kidnapping and manslaughter,” the office of W. Dewayne Richardson, the district attorney for the Fourth Circuit Court District of Mississippi. [NYT article] (next BH, & next ET, see Oct 21 or see ET chronology for expanded story)
August 8, 1925: more than 35,000 Ku Klux Klan members marched down Constitution Avenue in Washington, D.C., wearing their Klan robes but not their masks. The march marked the high point of the Klan’s power in the 1920s when it had a strong national presence and was almost as focused on attacking the Catholic Church as it was on African-Americans. [Atlantic article] (BH, see Aug 25; Terrorism, see September 1, 1926)
BLACK & SHOT
August 8, 2014: Ferguson, Missouri, Police Officer Darren Wilson shot and killed Michael Brown, an unarmed 18-year-old. Wilson claimed he shot Brown as the teen ran at him after the two fought over his gun. But multiple witnesses, including the majority of those heard by a grand jury, said Brown did not run toward the officer. Many said Brown had his hands up when he was shot and killed. On Nov. 24, a grand jury voted not to indict Wilson, setting off protests across America. NYT article (B & S, see Aug 11; Brown, see June 20, 2017)
137 SHOTS
August 8, 2017: the city of Cleveland will pay Jessica Barnes, Jasmine Bruce, Dominique Knox, Eric Maxwell, and Tanis Quach, and National Lawyers Guild Legal Observer Jordan Workman.$50,000 each for being falsely arrested in May 2015 while they demonstrated against the acquittal of Michael Brelo.
Brelo was found ‘not guilty’ of voluntary manslaughterin the November 2012 deaths of Timothy Russell and Malissa Williams. The Cleveland Police officer was on trial for firing 49 rounds at Russell and Williams, who were unarmed.
The verdict had prompted several protests in and around downtown Cleveland.
The six were wrongfully arrested, jailed, and prosecuted for several months, before the charges were finally dismissed.
According to the lawsuit, Cleveland Police intentionally kept the protesters in jail to prevent them from returning to the streets to protest. While locked up for 36 hours, they were subjected to bed bugs, contaminated drinking water, and mold. (see 137 for expanded story)
August 8 Peace Love Art Activism
Nuclear/Chemical News
ICPUAE
August 8, 1955: the Geneva Conference on the Peaceful Uses of Atomic Energy (ICPUAE) was opened, sponsored by the United Nations. By the time the conference ended on 20 August, hundreds of papers had been read and discussed. Dr. Homi Bhabha was elected to preside over the conference. In his presidential address, he said, “nuclear energy would provide a short cut to the prosperity of the developing countries that the industrialized countries were now beginning to enjoy.” Varied uses of nuclear energy were considered, but particularly in the field of generation of electricity. [NCBI article] (see May 20, 1956)
Trump threatens Korea
August 8, 2017: President Trump threatened to unleash “fire and fury” against North Korea if it endangered the United States, as tensions with the isolated and impoverished nuclear-armed state escalated into perhaps the most serious foreign policy challenge yet of his administration.
In language that evoked the horror of a nuclear exchange, Trump sought to deter North Koreafrom any actions that would put Americans at risk. But it was not clear what specifically would cross his line. Administration officials had said that a pre-emptive military strike, while a last resort, was among the options they have made available to the president.
“North Korea best not make any more threats to the United States,” Mr. Trump told reporters at his golf club in Bedminster, N.J., where he is spending much of the month on a working vacation. “They will be met with fire and fury like the world has never seen.” [NYT article] (see Sept 26)
Also…Native Americans & Environmental Issues
August 8, 2023: President Biden announced the designation of nearly a million acres of land, an area sacred to Native American tribes, near the Grand Canyon as a new national monument to protect the area from uranium mining.
“The mining is off limits for future development in that area,” said Ali Zaidi, Mr. Biden’s national climate adviser. “It’s focused on preserving the historical resources” in the area.
Native tribes and environmental groups had long lobbied for the government to permanently protect the area around the Grand Canyon from uranium mining, which they say would damage the Colorado River watershed as well as areas with great cultural meaning for Native Americans. [NYT article] (next NA, see ; next EI, see Aug 14; next N/C N, see Aug 24)
August 8 Peace Love Art Activism
August 8 Music et al
August 8 – 15, 1960: Brian Hyland’s “Itsy Bitsy Teenie Weenie Yellow Polka Dot Bikini” #1 Billboard Hot 100.
August 8, 1964: released fourth album, Another Side of Bob Dylan. Became 1964’s 10th biggest selling album. He recorded the entire album on June 9.
‘Abbey Road’ album cover
August 8, 1969: the photo session for the cover of The Beatles ‘Abbey Road’ album took place on the crossing outside Abbey Road studios. Photographer Iain McMillan, balanced on a step-ladder in the middle of the road took six shots of John, Ringo, Paul, and George walking across the zebra crossing while a policeman held up the traffic. The band then returned to the studio and recorded overdubs on ‘The End’, ‘I Want You (She’s So Heavy)’ and ‘Oh! Darling’. (see Aug 15 – 18)
August 8 Peace Love Art Activism
Vietnam
R W Apple
August 8, 1967: President Johnson called Barry Zorthian, the embassy public affairs official in Saigon, and told him that R W Apple, the chief of the NY Time’s Saigon office, was clearly a Communist and should be thrown out of Vietnam and not to speak to Apple again. (see Aug 31)
August 8, 1970: Daniel Ellsberg and Patricia Marx married; Marx changes her name to Ellsberg.
August 8 Peace Love Art Activism
VP Agnew Scandal
August 8, 1973: Vice President Spiro T. Agnew branded as “damned lies” reports he had taken kickbacks from government contracts in Maryland and vowed not to resign. (see Oct 10)
August 8 Peace Love Art Activism
Watergate Scandal
August 8, 1974: President Richard M. Nixon announced his resignation effective Aug 9. (see Watergate for expanded story)
August 8 Peace Love Art Activism
Irish Troubles
August 8, 1981: ninth hunger striker dies. Thomas McElwee (23) died after 62 days on hunger strike. This weekend marked the tenth Anniversary of the introduction of Internment and there were widespread riots in Republican areas. Three people were killed during disturbances over the weekend. (see Troubles for expanded story)
August 8 Peace Love Art Activism
César E. Chávez
August 8, 1994: President Clinton posthumously presented the Presidential Medal of Freedom to César E. Chávez. His widow, Helen, accepted the medal. [PDF] (May 30, 1995)
August 8 Peace Love Art Activism
Sexual Abuse of Children
August 8, 2003: seeking a resolution to the sex abuse crisis, the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Boston offered $55 million to settle more than 500 clergy sex abuse lawsuits, according to a document obtained by The AP. Those who say they were abused as children by clergy would have 30 days to accept the offer, and 95 percent of the claimants would have to participate. Attorney Jeffrey Newman, who represented more than 200 alleged victims, said, “We think it’s a very good start, but it’s only a start.” [Boston Globe article] (see Aug 23)
August 8 Peace Love Art Activism
Feminism
August 8, 2009: Sonia Sotomayor became the third woman and the first Hispanic to serve on the Supreme Court. [CNN story on Sotomayor] (see Dec 7)
August 8 Peace Love Art Activism
STAND YOUR GROUND LAW
August 8, 2013: Paul Miller, the 66-year-old Flagler Beach resident sentenced to life in prison in June for the murder of Dana Mulhall, his neighbor, in 2012, was moved to what may be his permanent home for the rest of his life: Dade Correctional Institution in Florida City, south of Miami, some 350 miles from his home–and spouse–in Flagler Beach. (see Nov 27)
Women’s Health
August 8, 2023: Ohio voters rejected an effort to raise the threshold to amend the state’s constitution ahead of a November referendum on whether to constitutionally guarantee abortion rights there, handing abortion rights advocates a critical victory.
Known as Issue 1, the measure would have changed Ohio’s referendum law – lifting the threshold to amend the state’s constitution from a simple majority to 60% of the vote.
Its passage would have effectively raised new obstacles to direct democracy, making it harder for citizens to bypass the Ohio legislature with referendums. [CNN article] (next WH, see Sept 8)
August 7, 1789: President George Washington signed the Northwest Ordinance The primary effect of the ordinance was the creation of the Northwest Territory [the region south of the Great Lakes, north and west of the Ohio River, and east of the Mississippi River] and one of its provisions was the prohibition of slavery in the territory which had the practical effect of establishing the Ohio River as the boundary between free and slave territory in the region between the Appalachian Mountains and the Mississippi River. This division helped set the stage for national competition over admitting free and slave states, the basis of a critical question in American politics in the 19th century until the Civil War. (BH, see February 11, 1790)
Dred Scott
c 1800: Scott born a slave in Virginia. (next BH, see Aug 30)
In 1830: after Peter Blow’s failure to farm in Alabama, he moved to Missouri with his slaves (including Dred Scott). (BH, see May 30, 1822)
In 1832, Peter Blow died.
In 1833 US Army Surgeon Dr John Emerson purchased Scott and went with him to Fort Armstrong in Illinois, a free state (admitted as a state on December 3, 1818). (next BH, see October 21, 1835; see Dred Scott for full story}
Thomas Shipp and Abram Smith
August 7, 1930: a white mob lynched Thomas Shipp and Abram Smith in Marion, Indiana. The two young black men, 18 and 19 years old respectively, had been arrested that afternoon. They were accused of attacking a young white couple, beating and fatally shooting the man, and attempting to assault the woman. Once the men were detained, word of the charges spread and a growing mob of angry white residents gathered outside the county jail.
Around 9:30 p.m., the mob attempted to rush the jail, but was repelled by tear gas. An hour later, they successfully barreled past the sheriff and three deputies, grabbed Shipp and Smith from their cells as they prayed, and dragged them into the street. By then numbering between 5000 and 10,000 people (half the white population of Grant County) the mob beat, tortured, and hung both men from trees in the courthouse yard, brutally executing them without benefit of trial or legal proof of guilt. As the men’s bodies hung, members of the mob re-entered the jail and grabbed 16-year-old James Cameron, another youth being held for the crime. The mob beat Cameron severely and were preparing to hang him alongside the others when a member of the crowd intervened and insisted he was innocent. Cameron was released and the mob later dispersed.
Enraged by the lynching, the NAACP traveled to Marion to investigate, and later provided United States Attorney General James Ogden with the names of 27 people believed to have participated. Though the lynching and its spectators were photographed, local residents claimed not to recognize anyone pictured and no one was charged or tried in connection with the killings. A photograph of Shipp’s and Smith’s battered corpses hanging lifeless from a tree, with white spectators proudly standing below, remains one of the most iconic lynching photographs. After seeing the photo in 1937, New York schoolteacher Abe Meeropol was inspired to write “Strange Fruit,” a haunting poem about lynching that later became a famous song recorded by Billie Holiday. [Black Past article] (next BH & Lynching, see Nov 20; see AL3 for expanded chronology of early 20th century lynching)
August 7, 1970: George Jackson’s [see Aug 21, 1971] 17-year-old brother Jonathan Jackson, burst into a Marin County courtroom with an automatic weapon, freed prisoners James McClain, William A. Christmas and Ruchell Magee, and took Judge Harold Haley, Deputy District Attorney Gary Thomas, and three jurors hostage to demand the release of the “Soledad Brothers.” Haley, Jackson, Christmas and McClain were killed as they attempted to drive away from the courthouse. Activist Angela Davis was indicted for supplying the weapons to Jackson (BH, see Sept 10 ; BP, see August 21, 1971; Davis, see June 4, 1972)
African National Congress
August 7, 1990: The African National Congress announced that it ordered the immediate suspension of its guerrilla campaign against apartheid, which started in the early 1960s. While the war between the A.N.C. and the government had operated on a low level for years, the announcement was significant because it gives Mr. de Klerk political ammunition to use against the right-wing opposition to negotiations. [AFC site] (SA/A, see Oct 15; Mandela, see December 20, 1991)
James C. Anderson
August 7, 2011: CNN broadcasts a security video showing the Anderson incident. The murder, whose race-based implications had been slow to surface, shot to national prominence with the video’s release. (see Aug 20)
August 7 Peace Love Art Activism
Emma Goldman
August 7, 1915: Goldman and Ben Reitman were fined $100 for having distributed birth control information the day before. Goldman speaks that evening on “The Intermediate Sex (A Discussion of Homosexuality)” at Turn Hall. In the audience were policemen in plain clothes, a deputy district attorney, and a deputy city attorney. She was not arrested. (see February 8, 1916)
August 7 Peace Love Art Activism
FREE SPEECH
August 7, 1934: the Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the decision that James Joyce’s Ulysses was not obscene. (see April 22, 1935)
August 7 Peace Love Art Activism
INDEPENDENCE DAY
August 7, 1960: Ivory Coast independent from France. [BBC article] (see ID for expanded list of the many Independence days during 1960)
August 7 Peace Love Art Activism
Vietnam
August 7, 1964: the U.S. congress passed the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution, giving President Johnson the power to take whatever actions he sees necessary to defend southeast Asia. (see Tonkin for expanded story;next V, see Sept 13 – 14)
NYT questions strategy
August 7, 1967: in a NYT article, R W Apple, the chief of the paper’s Saigon office, called into question every optimistic assumption about the war the administration and the military had expressed. The article pointed out that 13,000 Americans had died, 75,000 had been wounded, that the war was costing $2 billion a month, that 1.2 million allied troops had been able to secure only a freaction of a country less than one and a half times the size of NY state, and that every time General Westmoreland optimistically states that the South Vietnamese military will soon be able to fight on their own, he asks for more American troops. (see Aug 8)
August 7 Peace Love Art Activism
August 7 Music et al
LSD
August 7, 1965: The Merry Pranksters invited the Hell’s Angels to party with them at the La Honda camp. The party went on for two days, but the police never had sufficient reason to move in. [blog article] (see Aug 24)
Henry the VIII
August 7 – 13, 1965: “I’m Henry the VIII I Am” by Herman’s Hermits #1 on the Billboard Hot 100.
August 7, 1969: chartered Hog Farm flight from Santa Fe arrived at JFK Airport with 85 members who join other Hog Farm members who’d already arrived. Total festival workforce exceeded 1,500. (see Chronology for expanded story)
August 7 Peace Love Art Activism
World Trade Center
August 7, 1974: after months of preparation, shortly after 7:15 a.m., Philippe Petit stepped off the South Tower and onto his 3/4″ 6×19 IWRC (independent wire rope core) steel cable. He walked the wire for 45 minutes, making eight crossings between the towers, a quarter of a mile above the sidewalks of Manhattan. In addition to walking, he sat on the wire, gave knee salutes and, while lying on the wire, spoke with a gull circling above his head. (NYT article) (see May 26, 1977)
August 7 Peace Love Art Activism
CLINTON IMPEACHMENT
August 7, 1998: a federal appeals court let an investigation of alleged news leaks from Ken Starr’s office continue. (see Clinton for expanded story)
August 7 Peace Love Art Activism
TERRORISM
August 7, 1998: bombings of the United States embassies in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, and Nairobi, Kenya kill 224 people and injure over 4,500; they are linked to terrorist Osama Bin Laden, an exile of Saudi Arabia. [CNN article] (see April 5, 1999)
August 7 Peace Love Art Activism
DEATH PENALTY
August 7, 2015: in a decision that surprised many, a jury sentenced James E. Holmes to life in prison with no chance of parole, rejecting the death penalty for the man who carried out a 2012 shooting rampage that killed 12 people in a Colorado movie theater. [NYT article] (see Sept 24)
August 7 Peace Love Art Activism
Environmental Issues
August 7, 2017: the NY Times obtained a draft report by scientists from 13 federal agencies, which had not yet been made public. It concluded that Americans were feeling the effects of climate change right now. It directly contradicted claims by President Trump and members of his cabinet who said that the human contribution to climate change was uncertain, and that the ability to predict the effects is limited.The average temperature in the United States had risen rapidly and drastically since 1980, and recent decades had been the warmest of the past 1,500 years, according to the federal climate change report. It awaited approval by the Trump administration. [NYT article] (see Oct 9)
August 7 Peace Love Art Activism
Immigration History
August 7, 2019: federal immigration officials raided several food-processing plants in Mississippi and arrested approximately 680 people believed to be working in the U.S. without authorization.
The U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Homeland Security Investigations conducted the coordinated raids “at seven agricultural processing plants across Mississippi,” according to an ICE statement. In addition to the arrests, agents seized company business records.
More than 600 ICE agents were involved in the raids, surrounding the perimeters of the targeted plants to prevent workers, mainly Latino immigrants, from escaping. The actions were centered onplants near Jackson owned by five companies. [NPR story] [Nov 2019 follow-up story]
Medical deferred action cancelled
August 7, 2019: without any public announcement, the US Citizenship and Immigration Services eliminated a “deferred action” program that had allowed immigrants to avoid deportation while they or their relatives were undergoing lifesaving medical treatment. The agency said that it received 1,000 deferred-action applications related to medical issues each year.
The policy change was the latest in a series of moves by the Trump administration to revoke or modify procedures that had allowed certain immigrants to remain in the United States on humanitarian grounds. In addition to those with serious medical conditions, they included crime victims who had helped law enforcement with investigations and caretakers of sick children or relatives. (next IH, see Aug 21; deferred, see Sept 2)
August 7 Peace Love Art Activism
What's so funny about peace, love, art, and activism?
