January 30 Peace Love Art Activism

BLACK HISTORY

January 30, 1844: Richard Theodore Greener was born.  In 1870 he will  become the first African American to graduate from Harvard University. (see February 4, 1846)

Robert Johnson lynched

January 30, 1934: Deputy Constable Thomas Grave, assigned to move  Robert Johnson (see Jan 28), decided to do so after midnight; this was not standard procedure, and Graves later claimed he opted for a late night transfer to avoid waking up early in the morning. Around 2:30 a.m. on January 30th, Graves placed Johnson in the front seat of the police car and began driving to the county jail; on the way, Graves’s vehicle was stopped by three cars full of white men who allegedly disarmed Graves and made him lie face down in the backseat of his car while they kidnapped Robert Johnson.

The mob carried Johnson off to a wooded part of town along the Hillsborough River near Sligh Avenue, where about thirty people were gathered to watch the lynching. Johnson was killed with four shots to the head and one to the body, all fired from the pistol the mob had taken from Deputy Constable Graves.

Governor David Sholtz called for an investigation of the lynching and a grand jury was convened. Though Deputy Constable Graves testified that he was beaten by the mob, the grand jury noted that he bore no bruises or other signs of injury. Nevertheless, the grand jury’s investigation didn’t produce any charges of conspiracy, and no one was prosecuted for Robert Johnson’s murder. (next BH & Lynching, see Oct 26; for expanded chronology of lynching, see also AL4)

Martin Luther King, Jr home bombed

January 30, 1956: speaking at an afternoon meeting held after his arrest on speeding charges and following reports of MIA dissension had appeared in the press, King insisted that MIA leaders should continue the bus boycott. He told the Executive Board members of the Montgomery Improvement Association, “If we went tonight and asked the people to get back on the bus, we would be ostracized….My intimidations are a small price to pay if victory can be won.”

At 9:15 p.m., while King spoke at a mass meeting, his home was bombed. His wife and daughter were not injured. Later King addressed an angry crowd that gathered outside the house, pleading for nonviolence. (see Boycott for expanded chronology; bombing, see Aug 25)

George Whitmore/Death Penalty

January 30, 1965: The New York Times published an editorial praising both Stanley J. Reiben (Whitmore’s lawyer) and Frank Hogan (NY prosecutor)  for acting “in the highest tradition of the bar.” The editorial said that the case “provokes fresh doubt” about the validity of the death penalty and urged its abolition. (BH, see Feb 1; see Whitmore for expanded story;  DP, see May 13)

Mississippi officially ratifies abolition of slavery

January 30, 2013: after viewing the popular film, Lincoln, Dr. Ranjan Batraafter, an associate professor of neurobiology and anatomical sciences at the University of Mississippi Medical Center, did research about how an amendment is ratified. He found that although Mississippi had ratified the 13th amendment in 1995, the state never officially notified the US Archivist. Therefore, Mississippi’s the ratification was not official.

On this date Secretary of State Delbert Hosemann agreed to file the paperwork and make it official and sent the Office of the Federal Register a copy of the 1995 Senate resolution, adopted by both the Mississippi Senate and House. (Guardian article) (see Feb 7)

SOUTH AFRICA/APARTHEID

January 30, 2015:  the South African government granted parole to Eugene de Kock, a death squad leader for the apartheid state, after two decades in jail. “In the interest of nation building and reconciliation, I have decided to place Mr. de Kock on parole,” said Justice Minister Michael Masutha. (next SA/A, see December 26, 2021)

BLACK & SHOT

January 30, 2015: the family of slain Bronx teen Ramarley Graham agreed to accept $3.9 million from the city to settle their wrongful death lawsuit.  (B & S, see April 2; Graham, see March 26, 2017)

January 30 Peace Love Art Activism

Vietnam

USSR & Hanoi

January 30, 1950: the Soviet Union extended diplomatic recognition to Hanoi . The Chinese and the Soviet military and economic assistance enabled North Vietnam to fight first the French and then the Americans. (see Feb 7)

General Nguyễn Khánh

January 30, 1964: General Nguyễn Khánh ousted the military junta led by General Dương Văn Minh from the leadership of South Vietnam without firing a shot. It came less than three months after Minh’s junta had themselves come to power in a bloody coup against then President Ngô Đình Diệm. The coup was bloodless and took less than a few hours—after power had been seized Minh’s aide and bodyguard, Major Nguyễn Văn Nhung was arrested and summarily executed.

The New York Times reported, ““The bloodless coup d’état executed by the short, partly bald general apparently took Saigon by surprise.”  (V, see Feb 1; SVL, see Sept 13 – 14)

Tet Offensive

January 30, 1968: Viet Cong and NVA troops launched the Tet Offensive attacking a hundred cities and towns throughout South Vietnam. The surprise offensive was closely observed by American TV news crews in Vietnam which filmed the U.S. embassy in Saigon being attacked by 17 Viet Cong commandos, along with bloody scenes from battle areas showing American soldiers under fire, dead and wounded.

The graphic color film footage was then quickly relayed back to the states for broadcast on nightly news programs. (see Feb 1)

January 30 Peace Love Art Activism

January 30 Music et al

Billboard #1 Single

January 30 – February 12, 1961: “Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow” by the Shirelles #1 Billboard Hot 100. Carole King and Jerry Goffin’s first #1 hit. Also, the first song to reach #1 by an all-girl group.

Velvet Underground

January 30, 1968: Velvet Underground released White Light/White Heat album. One of the album”s songs is “Sister Ray” – The song concerns drug use, violence, homosexuality and transvestism. Reed said of the lyrics: “‘Sister Ray’ was done as a joke—no, not as a joke—but it has eight characters in it and this guy gets killed and nobody does anything. It was built around this story that I wrote about this scene of total debauchery and decay. I like to think of ‘Sister Ray’ as a transvestite smack dealer. The situation is a bunch of drag queens taking some sailors home with them, shooting up on smack and having this orgy when the police appear.”

The recording engineer is famously rumored to have walked out while recording the song. Lou Reed recalled: “The engineer said, ‘I don’t have to listen to this. I’ll put it in Record, and then I’m leaving. When you’re done, come get me.'”

The Beatles

January 30, 1969: atop the Apple building at 3 Savile Row, London, the Beatles, with Billy Preston, gave their final live performance, in what became the climax of their Let It Be film.  George Harrison later said, “We went on the roof in order to resolve the live concert idea, because it was much simpler than going anywhere else; also nobody had ever done that, so it would be interesting to see what happened when we started playing up there. It was a nice little social study.We set up a camera in the Apple reception area, behind a window so nobody could see it, and we filmed people coming in. The police and everybody came in saying, ‘You can’t do that! You’ve got to stop.’

It was a cold day, and a bitter wind was blowing on the rooftop by midday. To cope with the weather, John Lennon borrowed Yoko Ono’s fur coat, and Ringo Starr wore his wife Maureen Starkey’s red mac. The 42-minute show was recorded onto two eight-track machines in the basement of Apple, by George Martin, engineer Glyn Johns and tape operator Alan Parsons. (see Feb 15)

January 30 Peace Love Art Activism

Irish Troubles

see Sunday Bloody Sunday for more

January 30, 1972:  in Derry (Londonderry) Northern Ireland, British paratroopers responded to a civil rights march by Catholics, in defiance of a ban against marches, and shot dead thirteen unarmed marchers. The day became known as “Bloody Sunday” or the “Bogside Massacre.” (see IT for expanded chronology)

January 30 Peace Love Art Activism

Watergate Scandal

January 30, 1973: former Nixon aides G. Gordon Liddy and James W. McCord Jr. convicted of conspiracy, burglary and wiretapping in the Watergate incident. (see Watergate for expanded chronology)

January 30 Peace Love Art Activism

Iran hostage crisis

January 30, 1981: an estimated 2 million New Yorkers turned out for a ticker-tape parade honoring the freed American hostages from Iran. (see IHC for expanded coverage]

January 30 Peace Love Art Activism

Native Americans

January 30, 1989 American Indian Movement leader Russell C Means told Congress that there was ”rampant graft and corruption” among tribal governments and in Federal programs intended to assist American Indians.

”Graft and corruption is rampant through the contracting auspices of the B.I.A. and its surrogate tribal governments,” Means said. ”Indian-front contractors bid for and receive Government contracts only to proceed to build shoddy, dangerous bridges, buildings, schools, roads and dams.”  (see Nov 28)

January 30 Peace Love Art Activism

Cannabis

January 30, 1997: The New England Journal of Medicine published an editorial written by Jerome P. Kassirer, MD, titled “Federal Foolishness and Marijuana.” The article stated: “Federal authorities should rescind their prohibition of the medicinal use of marijuana for seriously ill patients and allow physicians to decide which patients to treat. The government should change marijuana’s status from that of a Schedule 1 drug (considered to be potentially addictive and with no current medical use) to that of a Schedule 2 drug (potentially addictive but with some accepted medical use) and regulate it accordingly.” (see October 29, 1998 or see CCC for expanded chronology)

January 30 Peace Love Art Activism

TERRORISM

January 30, 2003: “Shoe Bomber,” Richard Reid, sentenced to life in prison with no possibility of parole with three life sentences to be served consecutively. (see Mar 1)

January 30 Peace Love Art Activism

Japanese Internment

January 30, 2011: the first Fred Korematsu Day was celebrated (see Korematsu vs United States) to commemorate Korematsu, who was evacuated and interned during World War II along with about 120,000 other Japanese-Americans following the attack on Pearl Harbor. California established the day in September 2010. (see JI for expanded chronology)

January 30 Peace Love Art Activism

US Labor History

2011 Union membership

January 30, 2012: the Department of Labor released a report stating that the union membership rate–the percent of wage and salary workers who were members of a union–was 11.8 percent essentially unchanged from 11.9 percent in 2010.

The number of wage and salary workers belonging to unions, at 14.8 million, also showed little movement over the year.

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 Apr 30)

January 30 Peace Love Art Activism

Nuclear News

 Byron nuclear power plant

January 30, 2012: in Illinois, the Byron nuclear power plant accidentally released radioactive steam. (see Mar 5)

Hawaii false alarm

January 30, 2018: officials said that the Hawaii emergency management services worker who sent a false alert warning of an incoming ballistic missile on January 13 had a long history of poor performance and sent the warning Officials said that the worker thought the state faced an actual threat.

The continuing commission investigation had revealed a series of missteps that led to the false alert, including major gaps in Hawaii’s protocol for handling public safety alerts.

The state reported that the employee had been fired. [NYT article] (see Mar 1)

North Korea/Iran

January 30, 2019: Daniel R. Coats, the director of national intelligence concluded that North Korea was “unlikely to give up” all of its nuclear stockpiles, and that Iran was not “…undertaking the key nuclear weapons-development activity” needed to make a bomb. Both evaluations directly contradicted two top tenets of President Trump’s foreign policy. [NYT article]

Weapons grade plutonium

January 30, 2019: the U.S. Department of Energy disclosed that it already had shipped one-half metric ton of weapons-grade plutonium from South Carolina to the Nevada National Security Site. The Justice Department notified a federal judge in Reno the government had already trucked the radioactive material to the site 70 miles north of Las Vegas when Nevada filed a request for an injunction to block the move in November. Department lawyers said in a nine-page filing that the previously classified information about the shipment from South Carolina can be disclosed now because enough time has passed to protect national security. They didn’t specify when the transfer occurred (next N/C N, see Feb 1; next Iran,  see July 1)

January 30, 2022: North Korea fired what was presumed to be its longest range ballistic missile since 2017, an escalation of its weapons program and a possible sign of larger tests to come, according to South Korea’s President.

Both the South Korean and Japanese governments reported the launch of an Intermediate Range Ballistic Missile (IRBM), with officials in Tokyo saying the missile reached a height of 2,000 kilometers (1,243 miles) with a range of 800 kilometers (497 miles), before falling into waters off the east coast of the Korean Peninsula.

“If the missile were fired at a normal apogee, its range would be up to 3,500 kilometers to 5,500 kilometers, making it an Intermediate Range Ballistic Missile and North Korea’s longest test since 2017,” Joseph Dempsey, research associate for defense and military analysis at the International Institute for Strategic Studies in London, told CNN. (next N/C N, see July 6, 2023)

January 30 Peace Love Art Activism

Stop and Frisk Policy

January 30, 2013: New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio announced  the city had reached an agreement with civil rights lawyers who had challenged the Police Department’s stop-and-frisk practices, which would allow the sweeping reforms ordered by federal judge Shira A. Scheindlin last summer to be carried out. Those reforms, which included the appointment of a federal monitor, were blocked last fall after the Bloomberg administration appealed the judge’s rulings, which found that the city’s stop-and-frisk policies were unconstitutional and that the department had resorted to “a policy of indirect racial profiling.” (see June 18)

January 30 Peace Love Art Activism

LGBTQ

Maine Supreme Court

January 30, 2014: in a 5-1 decision the Maine Supreme Judicial Court guaranteed the right of a transgender child to use the school bathroom designated for the gender with which he or she identifies. It is the first time any court in the nation has ruled it is unlawful to force a transgender child to use the school bathroom designated for the sex he or she was born with rather than the one with which the child identifies, according to the Gay & Lesbian Advocates & Defenders of Boston, which represented the girl and her family.

The court’s carefully worded majority opinion focused on students’ educational needs as well as anti-discrimination laws. “Our opinion must not be read to require schools to permit students casual access to any bathroom of their choice,” Justice Warren Silver wrote for the majority. “Decisions about how to address students’ legitimate gender identity issues are not to be taken lightly. Where, as here, it has been clearly established that a student’s psychological well-being and educational success depend upon being permitted to use the communal bathroom consistent with her gender identity, denying access to the appropriate bathroom constitutes sexual orientation discrimination in violation of the MHRC.” (see Jan 31)

BSA

January 30, 2017: the Boy Scouts of America communications director Effie Delimarko announced that the Scouts would allow transgender children who identify as boys to join its troops. Previously the group had used the gender assigned on one’s birth certificate to determine a member’s eligibility. However, the group felt “that approach is no longer sufficient as communities and state laws are interpreting gender identity differently.” (LGBTQ, see Feb 22; BSA, see May 11)

January 30 Peace Love Art Activism

Immigration History

January 30, 2017: the acting Attorney General Sally Yates told Justice Department lawyers not to make legal arguments defending President Donald Trump’s executive order on immigration and refugees. Yates, an Obama appointee who was serving until Trump attorney general nominee Jeff Sessions was confirmed, did not believe the substance of the order was lawful.

Within four hours, President Trump fired Yates, saying she had betrayed the administration. Trump replaced Yates with Dana J. Boente, the US attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia, saying that Boente would serve as attorney general until Congress acted to confirm Senator Jeff Sessions of Alabama. In his first act in his new role, Mr. Boente recinded Yates’s order. (NYT article) (see Feb 3)

January 30 Peace Love Art Activism

Trump Impeachment

January 30, 2020:  the NYT reported that Senator Lamar Alexander, Republican of Tennessee, said that although he believed that Democrats had proved their case that President Trump acted “inappropriately” in his dealings with Ukraine, he did not think the president’s actions were impeachable and would vote against considering new evidence in the impeachment trial.

Alexander’s statement was a strong indication that Republicans had lined up the votes to block a call for more witnesses and documents and press toward a quick acquittal. His opposition was a significant victory for the White House and Republican leaders.

“The question then is not whether the president did it, but whether the United States Senate or the American people should decide what to do about what he did,” Alexander said. (next Trump Impeachment, see Jan 31 or see TI for expanded chronology)

January 30 Peace Love Art Activism

January 28 Peace Love Art Activism

US Labor History

American Miners’ Association

January 28, 1861: American Miners’ Association formed.  (see June 17, 1864)

Yablonski murders

January 28, 1977: the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania overturned Tony Boyle’s conviction in the Yablonski murders and ordered that he be given a new trial. The court found that the trial judge had improperly refused to allow a government auditor to testify. Boyle’s attorneys said that the auditor’s testimony could have exonerated Boyle. (see Sept 15)

January 28 Peace Love Art Activism

Feminism

Julia Ward Howe

January 28, 1908: author and activist Julia Ward Howe, famous for her composition, “The Battle Hymn of the Republic,” became the first woman elected to the American Academy of Arts and Letters. (see Feb 24)

Women’s Action Coalition

January 28, 1992: motivated largely by frustration over the recent confirmation of Clarence Thomas as a Supreme Court Justice, a group of New York City women formed the Women’s Action Coalition (WAC), a direct-action organization devoted to the support of women’s rights. Although the group officially disbanded in 1994, they continued to gather informally for various actions. (see Apr 5)

January 28 Peace Love Art Activism

BLACK HISTORY

Robert Johnson

January 28, 1934: police arrested Robert Johnson, a 40-year-old black man, in Tampa, Florida, and accused him of raping and robbing a white woman. The subsequent investigation quickly cleared Johnson of the charges, but nonetheless issued a warrant accusing him of stealing chickens and turkeys. As a result, Johnson was not released, bud did have to be transferred from the city jail to the county jail. On January 30 Deputy Constable Thomas Grave, assigned to move  Robert Johnson, will decide to do the transfer so after midnight; this was not standard procedure, and Grave later claimed he opted for a late night transfer to avoid waking up early in the morning. Around 2:30 a.m. on January 30th, Graves placed Johnson in the front seat of the police car and began driving to the county jail; on the way, Graves’s vehicle was stopped by three cars full of white men who allegedly disarmed Graves and made him lie face down in the backseat of his car while they kidnapped Robert Johnson.

The mob carried Johnson off to a wooded part of town along the Hillsborough River near Sligh Avenue, where about thirty people were gathered to watch the lynching. Johnson was killed with four shots to the head and one to the body, all fired from the pistol the mob had taken from Deputy Constable Graves.

Governor David Sholtz called for an investigation of the lynching and a grand jury was convened. Though Deputy Constable Graves testified that he was beaten by the mob, the grand jury noted that he bore no bruises or other signs of injury. Nevertheless, the grand jury’s investigation did not produce any charges of conspiracy and no one was prosecuted for Robert Johnson’s murder.  [EJI article] (see Jan 30)

SOUTH AFRICA/APARTHEID

January 28, 1997: four apartheid-era police officers, appearing before the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, admit to the 1977 killing of Stephen Biko, a leader of the South African “Black consciousness” movement. (see June 16, 1999)

Clarence H. Graham

January 28, 2015: Clarence H. Graham was known by many titles in his hometown: Honor student. Vietnam veteran. Social worker. Father. And criminal, for an act that is now considered heroic. 

On this date the State of South Carolina officially vacated the misdemeanor conviction that it had secured more than a half-century earlier against Mr. Graham and other black civil rights protesters who were dragged by the police from a segregated lunch counter, convicted of trespassing and sentenced to 30 days’ labor in a county prison camp. (see Feb 10)

Stephon Clark

January 28, 2019: lawyers for the family of Stephon Clark, the unarmed black man who was fatally shot last March by Sacramento police officers, filed a wrongful-death lawsuit alleging that the officers who fired had racially profiled the 22-year-old and used excessive force.

The complaint, filed in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of California, names the two officers — Terrence Mercadal and Jared Robinet — as well as the City of Sacramento as defendants. It seeks at least $20 million in damages and was filed on behalf of Mr. Clark’s two sons, his parents and his grandparents. [NYT article] (B & S, see Feb 4; SC, see March 2, 2019)

January 28 Peace Love Art Activism

January 28 Music et al

Fear of Rock

January 28, 1944: 500 teenagers at a public forum mocked the idea that boogie-woogie music caused delinquency. Symphony conductor Arthur Rodzinsky had warned about the bad influence of boogie-woogie. The forum was one of a series of planned forums organized by The New York Times. The teenagers also discussed delinquency, mixed marriages and war work.  (see May 8, 1954)

Roots of Rock

January 28, 1956: Elvis Presley made his first appearance on national television on “The Dorsey Brothers Stage Show” on CBS. (see Apr 3)

Jimi Hendrix

January 28, 1970, Winter Festival for Peace held in Madison Square Garden. Among the artists involved were: Blood Sweat and Tears, Peter Paul and Mary, Jimi Hendrix (only sang two songs and ambled off), Richie Havens, Harry Belafonte, Voices of East Harlem, the Rascals, Dave Brubeck, Paul Desmond, Judy Collins, cast of Hair. The show ended at 4 AM. Richie Haven’s commented, “Since man has been on earth, peace has never really been here. If we can do it now, it’ll be a first.”  (article from jimihendrix dot com) (see Mar 25)

We Are the World

January 28, 1985 – “We Are the World” recorded by the super group USA for Africa. It was written by Michael Jackson and Lionel Richie.

January 28 Peace Love Art Activism

Clarence Earl Gideon

January 28, 1964: the publication of Gideon’s Trumpet by Anthony Lewis. The book provided history of Gideon’s landmark case (see Gideon for expanded Gideon story)

January 28 Peace Love Art Activism

Healthcare

Women’s Health

January 28, 1965, from an AP report:  “An $8,500 federal grant for birth control — including the distribution of oral contraceptive pills — has been approved for the South Texas Planned Parenthood Clinic of Corpus Christi. It is believed the funds, given as a part of the Johnson administration’s war on poverty, are the first authorized for such a clinic not under the direction of a state welfare agency. The $8,500 is part of a $295,200 package for the Corpus Christi area from the Office of Economic Opportunity. The bulk of the money will go for other health, education and welfare measures.” (see June 7)

Affordable Care Act/Healthcare

January 28, 2021: the President Biden administration announced plans to reopen enrollment in many of the Affordable Care Act marketplaces, both to help those who may have lost health insurance during the pandemic and to offer coverage to those who did not have any and now want it.

The so-called special enrollment period is intended to help people who have lost coverage in the past year, but it will be open to those who want health insurance for any reason in the 36 states that use Healthcare.gov.

The  administration also announced that it was reinstating global protections for women’s reproductive health care by eliminating the rule that prohibited the granting of American foreign aid to health providers abroad that offer abortion counseling. [NYT article] (next ACA and Healthcare, see  June 18)

January 28 Peace Love Art Activism

Environmental Issues

January 28, 1969: in the Santa Barbara Channels (California) an oil rig blow-out occurred 6 miles off the coast on Union Oil’s Platform A in the Dos Cuadras Offshore Oil Field. Within a ten-day period, an estimated 80,000 to 100,000 barrels of crude oilspilled into the Channel and onto the beaches of Santa Barbara County

The Santa Barbara oil spill  was the largest oil spill in United States waters by that time and ranks third after the 2010 Deepwater Horizon and 1989 Exxon Valdez spills. It remains the largest oil spill to have occurred in the waters off California. (see June 22)

January 28 Peace Love Art Activism

Vietnam

January 28, 1973: a cease-fire officially went into effect in the Vietnam War. (see Feb 5)

January 28 Peace Love Art Activism

Iran hostage crisis

January 28, 1980: six United States diplomats, posing as Canadians, managed to escape from Tehran, Iran as they board a flight to Zürich, Switzerland. (see Apr 7)

January 28 Peace Love Art Activism

LGBTQ

Gays in the military

January 28, 1982: the US Department of Defense created a new policy to ban homosexuals from the military: “Homosexuality is incompatible with military service. The presence in the military environment of persons who engage In homosexual conduct or who, by their statements, demonstrate a propensity to engage in homosexual conduct, seriously impairs the accomplishment of the military mission. The presence of such members adversely affects the ability of the Military Services to maintain discipline, good order, and morale; to foster mutual trust and confidence among service members, to ensure the integrity of the system of rank and command; to facilitate assignment and worldwide deployment of service members who frequently must live and work under close conditions affording minimal privacy: to recruit and retain members of the Military Services; to maintain the public acceptability of military service; and to prevent breaches of security.”  (see March 2,  1982)

Gays in the Boy Scouts

January 28, 2013: news leaked out that the Boy Scouts of America might eliminate its ban on gay scouts and leaders. “The Boy Scouts would not, under any circumstances, dictate a position to units, members, or parents,” said Deron Smith, a spokesman for the Boy Scouts of America. “This would mean there would no longer be any national policy regarding sexual orientation, and the chartered organizations that oversee and deliver Scouting would accept membership and select leaders consistent with each organization’s mission, principles, or religious beliefs.” If approved as proposed, LGBTQ Scout policy would become a local decision.   (LGBTQ & BSA, see Feb 6)

Pope Francis clarifies

January 28, 2023: Pope Francis clarified his January 24 comments about homosexuality and sin, saying he was merely referring to official Catholic moral teaching that teaches that any sexual act outside of marriage is a sin.

In a note, Francis recalled that even that black-and-white teaching is subject to circumstances that might eliminate the sin altogether.

His comments calling for the decriminalization of homosexuality were hailed by LGBTQ advocates as a milestone that would help end harassment and violence against LGBTQ persons. But his reference to “sin” raised questions about whether he believed that merely being gay was itself a sin. [AP article] (next LGBTQ+, see Apr 6); Pope Francis, see Sept 25)

January 28 Peace Love Art Activism

Challenger

January 28, 1986: space shuttle Challenger exploded 73 seconds after liftoff from Cape Canaveral, killing all seven crew members. (NYT article)

January 28 Peace Love Art Activism

see CLINTON IMPEACHMENT for expanded story

January 28, 199: in a party-line vote, the Senate OKed a Republican plan for the impeachment trial’s deposition phase, and sets February 12 as a target date for the trial’s end. 

January 28 Peace Love Art Activism

AIDS

January 28, 2003: President George W. Bush announced the creation of the US President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) in his State of the Union address. PEPFAR was a $15 billion, 5-year plan to combat AIDS, primarily in countries with a high burden of infections. (see June 5, 2006)

January 28 Peace Love Art Activism

IRAQ

January 28, 2003: President George W. Bush said in his State of the Union address that Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein had sought uranium from Africa. (The claim was later disputed by former ambassador Joseph Wilson, whom the CIA had asked to investigate. (text of speech) (see Feb 5)

January 28 Peace Love Art Activism

DEATH PENALTY

January 28, 2015:  executions were put on hold in Oklahoma after the U.S. Supreme Court said that the state cannot perform executions using a specific drug while the justices consider a challenge over whether the sedative ensures prisoners won’t suffer. (see Feb 13)

January 28 Peace Love Art Activism

Immigration History

January 28, 2017: US District Judge Ann Donnelly blocked part of the president’s actions regarding the Jan 27 ban, preventing the government from deporting some arrivals who found themselves ensnared by the presidential order. But it stopped short of letting them into the country or issuing a broader ruling on the constitutionality of Mr. Trump’s actions.

Her ruling stated in part, “There is imminent danger that, absent the stay of removal, there will be substantial and irreparable injury to refugees, visa-holders, and other individuals from nations subject to the January 27, 2017, Executive Order.”

Large crowds of protesters turned out at airports around the country to denounce Trump’s ban. (NYT article) (see Jan 29)

January 28 Peace Love Art Activism

Nuclear/Chemical News

January 28, 2017: a NY Times article reported that between 1977 and 1980 the US government had sent roughly 4,000 troops to the Enewetak Atoll in the middle of the Pacific Ocean to clean up the fallout from dozens of nuclear tests on the ring of coral islands, Initiall the men were given protective gear, but that was taken away and most worked in shirts and short and no respirators.

Hundreds said they were plagued by health problems, including brittle bones, cancer and birth defects in their children. Many were already dead. Others were too sick to work.

The military stated there was no connection between those illnesses and the cleanup. It stated that radiation exposure during the work fell well below recommended thresholds and safety precautions were top notch. So the government refused to pay for the veterans’ medical care.

Congress had recognized that troops were harmed by radiation on Enewetak during the original atomic tests, which occurred in the 1950s, and had decided that those men should be cared for and compensated.  (see Feb 12)

January 28 Peace Love Art Activism

Trump Impeachment

January 28, 2020: the NYT reported that President Trump’s defense team appealed to the Senate to disregard a new account by the former national security adviser John R. Bolton that had bolstered the impeachment case against the president. But by day’s end, Republican leaders working feverishly to block testimony from Mr. Bolton or other witnesses indicated they had not yet corralled the votes to do so.

On the final day of arguments on Mr. Trump’s behalf, Jay Sekulow, one of the president’s private lawyers, sought to raise doubts about Mr. Bolton’s claim in an unpublished manuscript that Mr. Trump tied the release of military aid to Ukraine to investigations into his political rivals, calling it an “unsourced allegation” that was “inadmissible” in his impeachment trial. (next TI, see Jan 29 or see Trump for expanded chronology)

January 28 Peace Love Art Activism

Sexual Abuse of Children & BSA

January 28, 2021: James Glawson, 76, a former chaplain for the Boy Scouts in Rhode Island was sentenced to 40 years in prison after pleading no contest to charges that he sexually assaulted six young men.

The ex-chaplain volunteered for the Boy Scouts from 1980 to 2018 and served as an assistant Catholic chaplain at the scouting camp in Hopkinton, R.I., according to the Rhode Island State Police.

Investigators said that Glawson came to their attention in 2019 when staff members at a Rhode Island group home reported that he had had inappropriate contact with an 18-year-old developmentally disabled resident. [NYT story] [Provence Journal story] (next SA of C and BSA, see Mar 2)

January 28 Peace Love Art Activism