December 15 Peace Love Art Activism

BILL OF RIGHTS

December 15, 1791: Virginia became the last state to ratify the Bill of Rights, making the first ten amendments to the Constitution law and completing the revolutionary reforms begun by the Declaration of Independence. Anti-Federalist critics of the document, who were afraid that a too-strong federal government would become just another sort of the monarchical regime from which they had recently been freed, believed that the Constitution gave too much power to the federal government by outlining its rights but failing to delineate the rights of the individuals living under it.

1. First Amendment – Freedom of speech, press, religion, peaceable assembly, and to petition the government
2. Second Amendment – Right for the people to keep and bear arms, as well as to maintain a militia
3. Third Amendment – Protection from quartering of troops
4. Fourth Amendment – Protection from unreasonable search and seizure
5. Fifth Amendment – Due process, double jeopardy, self-incrimination, private property
6. Sixth Amendment – Trial by jury and other rights of the accused
7. Seventh Amendment – Civil trial by jury
8. Eighth Amendment – Prohibition of excessive bail, as well as cruel and unusual punishment
9. Ninth Amendment – Protection of rights not specifically enumerated in the Bill of Rights.
10. Tenth Amendment – Powers of states and people.

Fourth Amendment

December 15, 2014: in Heien v. North Carolina the U.S. Supreme Court sided with the police in a case arising from an officer’s “mistake of law.” At issue was a 2009 traffic stop for a single busted brake light that led to the discovery of illegal drugs inside the vehicle. According to state law at the time, however, motor vehicles were required only to have “a stop lamp,” meaning that the officer did not have a lawful reason for the initial traffic stop because it was not a crime to drive around with a single busted brake light. Did that stop therefore violate the 4th Amendment’s guarantee against unreasonable search and seizure? Writing today for the majority, Chief Justice John Roberts held that it did not. “Because the officer’s mistake about the brake-light law was reasonable,” Roberts declared, “the stop in this case was lawful under the Fourth Amendment.” (see March 30, 2015)

FREE SPEECH

December 15, 2017: the Trump administration prohibited officials at Centers for Disease Control and Prevention agency (CDC) from using a list of seven words or phrases — including “fetus” and “transgender” — in any official documents being prepared for 2018’s budget.

Policy analysts at the Centers were told of the list of forbidden words at a meeting with senior CDC officials who oversee the budget. According to an analyst the forbidden words were “vulnerable,” “entitlement,” “diversity,” “transgender,” “fetus,” “evidence-based” and “science-based.”

In some instances, the analysts were given alternative phrases. Instead of “science-based” or ­“evidence-based,” the suggested phrase is “CDC bases its recommendations on science in consideration with community standards and wishes,” the person said. In other cases, no replacement words were immediately offered. [WP article] (see Dec 21)

December 15 Peace Love Art Activism

Native Americans

December 15, 1890: Sioux Indian Chief Sitting Bull and 11 other tribe members were killed in Grand River, S.D., during a clash with Indian police. (see Dec 29)

December 15 Peace Love Art Activism

US Labor History

December 15, 1894:  Judge Woods sentenced labor leader and socialist Eugene V. Debs to six months imprisonment for his leadership of the Pullman railroad strike.  (see February 4, 1896)

US Labor History & Feminism

December 15, 1921: the Kansas National Guard was called out to subdue from 2,000 to 6,000 protesting women who were going from mine to mine attacking non-striking miners in the Pittsburg coal fields. The women made headlines across the state and the nation: they were christened the “Amazon Army” by the New York Times. (F, see February 27, 1922; Labor, see Dec 19)

December 15, 1967: the Age Discrimination in Employment Act supplemented the 1964 Civil Rights Act, which in Title VII prohibited employment discrimination on the basis of race, color, religion, sex or national origin — but did not cover age. The age discrimination act was one of the many major legislative achievements of President Lyndon Johnson’s Great Society.

The law: “(b) It is therefore the purpose of this chapter to promote employment of older persons based on their ability rather than age; to prohibit arbitrary age discrimination in employment; to help employers and workers find ways of meeting problems arising from the impact of age on employment.”

Vietnam & US Labor History

December 15, 1967: meeting in its biennial convention, the AFL-CIO declared “unstinting support” for “measures the Administration might deem necessary to halt Communist aggression and secure a just and lasting peace” in Vietnam. (Vietnam, see January 3, 1968; Labor, see March 17, 1968)

December 15 Peace Love Art Activism

BLACK HISTORY

Tom Waller lynched

December 15, 1897: a group of 30 white men approached a group of black men, including an acquaintance of Charles Lewis (see Dec 10), and coerced him into saying that a man named Tom Waller had also been involved in the crime. Though another man in the group insisted this was not true, the unsubstantiated allegation was enough to seal Mr. Waller’s fate.

Soon after he was taken into custody, a growing mob of 400 people seized Waller from law enforcement and conducted a “sham trial”; newspapers reported that several men “held court under a tree,” where Waller was interrogated as a rope was placed around his neck. Some men reportedly suggested that the “trial” be delayed a week because the “evidence” was so scant, but the rest of mob rejected that idea and instead insisted that Waller be lynched that night.

Newspapers later explained that the mob preferred to lynch Mr. Waller immediately because waiting “meant standing guard all night in the cold, and most of those present did not relish this at all.”

As the hundreds of white men in the mob grew “hungry,” press accounts described, “a wagon load of provisions” including fish and lobster was brought forward and everyone “indulged in a hearty supper” before continuing their deadly plan.

The mob ultimately hanged Tom Waller on the night of December 15th, on the same hill where Mr. Lewis had been lynched five days earlier, and left his body hanging until 10am the next morning. (next BH, see February 22, 1898;  see 19th century for expanded lynching chronology)

 Albany Movement

December 15, 1961: going against some of his Southern Christian Leadership Conference advisers, King accepted an invitation to Albany, Georgia and spoke at a rally in support of activists that had be arrested the previous day. (see Albany for expanded chronology)

BLACK & SHOT

December 15, 2015: Chicago Mayor Emanuel announced the creation of the Task Force on Police Accountability, which would study the processes, oversight and training at CPD, and make recommendations.  (B & S and L. McDonald, see Dec 16)

December 15 Peace Love Art Activism

LGBTQ

December 15, 1950: a Senate report titled “Employment of Homosexuals and Other Sex Perverts in Government“ is distributed to members of Congress after the federal government had covertly investigated employees’ sexual orientation at the beginning of the Cold War. The report states since homosexuality is a mental illness, homosexuals “constitute security risks” to the nation because “those who engage in overt acts of perversion lack the emotional stability of normal persons.” Over the previous few years, more than 4,380 gay men and women had been discharged from the military and around 500 fired from their jobs with the government. The purging will become known as the “lavender scare.”(see March 25, 1952)

Redefinition

December 15, 1973: in a major breakthrough for lesbian and gay rights, the American Psychiatric Association removed the designation of homosexuality as a mental illness. The designation had been a major stigma on same-sex relations. The American Psychological Association, a different professional group, removed its designation of homosexuality as unhealthy in 1975. (NYT article) (see January 1974)

Washington, D.C.

December 15, 2009: the Washington, D.C. City Council voted to legalize same-sex marriage. [CNN article] (see Dec 18)

December 15 Peace Love Art Activism

December 15 Music et al

December 15 – March 8, 1963 – Vaughn Meader’s comedy album, The First Family Billboard #1 album.

December 15, 1964, The Beatles: Beatles ’65 released. In two weeks it became the 9^th biggest selling album of 1964. (see Dec 18)

John’s last live performance

December 15, 1969: John Lennon gave his last live performance in England. It was a UNICEF benefit in London. (see Dec 16)

December 15 Peace Love Art Activism

Space Race

December 15 – 16, 1965: Wally Schirra and Thomas Stafford fly Gemini 6 within a few feet of Borman and Lovell in Gemini 7, for the first true rendezvous in space. (NYT article) (see February 3, 1966)

December 15 Peace Love Art Activism

Feminism

December 15, 1969: Nixon administration released “A Matter of Simple Justice,” a report on women’s rights. The 77-page report declared that the federal government “should be as seriously concerned about sex discrimination as with race discrimination.” To that end, it called on the Nixon administration to convene a national conference on women’s rights and for Congress to develop legislation to eliminate all existing forms of sex discrimination. (see February 1, 1970)

First Secret Service females

December 15, 1971: the Secret Service appointed its first five female special agents. [The Hill article]

Phyllis Schlafly Blasts ERA

In 1972  Phyllis Schlafly published “What’s Wrong with ‘Equal Rights’ for Women,” launching the campaign opposing ratification of the Equal Rights Amendment. Arguing that the ERA would force women into the military, jeopardize benefits under Social Security, and weaken existing legal protections under divorce and marriage laws, Schlafly played a large part in bringing the movement toward ratification of the amendment to a halt. (text) (see Jan 1)

Anita Hill

December 15, 2017:  announced that Anita Hill would head the Commission on Sexual Harassment and Advancing Equality in the Workplace. The Commission was composed of and funded by some of the most powerful names in Hollywood and was created to tackle widespread sexual abuse and harassment in the media and entertainment industries.

Kathleen Kennedy, the president of Lucasfilm; Maria Eitel, the co-chair of the Nike Foundation; the powerhouse attorney Nina Shaw; and Freada Kapor Klein, the venture capitalist who helped pioneer surveys on sexual harassment decades ago spearheaded the Commission whose mission was “tackle the broad culture of abuse and power disparity.” (see March 15, 2018)

Women’s Health

December 15, 2017: Judge Wendy Beetlestone of the Federal District Court in Philadelphia blocked Trump administration rules that made it easier for employers to deny insurance coverage of contraceptives for women.

Beetlestone issued a preliminary injunction, saying the rules contradicted the text of the Affordable Care Act by allowing many employers to opt out of providing contraceptive coverage if they had religious or moral objections.

In the lawsuit, filed by the State of Pennsylvania, the judge said the rules would cause irreparable harm because tens of thousands of women would lose contraceptive coverage. [NYT article] (see Dec 18)

December 15 Peace Love Art Activism

Vietnam

December 15, 1969: Nixon announced that 50,000 additional U.S. troops would be pulled out of South Vietnam by April 15, 1970. (see Dec 16)

December 15 Peace Love Art Activism

Environment

MV Argo Merchant

December 15, 1976: the oil tanker MV Argo Merchant caused one of the worst marine oil spills in history when it runs aground near Nantucket, Massachusetts. (NYT article) (see May 11, 1977)

Paris Accord

December 15, 2018: diplomats from nearly 200 countries reached a deal to keep the Paris climate agreement alive by adopting a detailed set of rules to implement the pact.

The deal, struck after an all-night bargaining session, would ultimately require every country in the world to follow a uniform set of standards for measuring their planet-warming emissions and tracking their climate policies. And it called on countries to step up their plans to cut emissions ahead of another round of talks in 2020.

It also called on richer countries to be clearer about the aid they intend to offer to help poorer nations install more clean energy or build resilience against natural disasters. And it builds a process in which countries that are struggling to meet their emissions goals can get help in getting back on track. (see January 10, 2019)

NYC Gas Ban

December 15, 2021: New York City’s City Council approved a bill banning gas hookups in new buildings. The bill will ban gas-powered stoves, space heaters and water boilers in all new buildings, a move that would significantly affect real estate development and construction in the nation’s largest city and could influence how cities around the world seek to reduce the burning of fossil fuels, which drives climate change.

The  bill effectively required all-electric heating and cooking and the ban would take effect in December 2023 for buildings under seven stories; for taller buildings, developers negotiated a delay until 2027.

Mayor Bill de Blasio had called for the ban two years ago, and wold sign the bill “enthusiastically,” said Ben Furnas, the director of climate and sustainability for the mayor’s office.

“It’s a historic step forward in our efforts to reach carbon neutrality by 2050 and reduce our reliance on fossil fuels,” Mr. Furnas said. “If we can do it here, we can do it anywhere.” [NYT article] (next EI, see )

December 15 Peace Love Art Activism

The Cold War

People’s Republic of China

December 15, 1978: President Jimmy Carter stated that as of January 1, 1979, the United States would formally recognize the communist People’s Republic of China (PRC) and sever relations with Taiwan. (see June 18, 1979)

Dissolution of the USSR

December 15, 1989: a popular uprising began in Romania. [RFE article] (see USSR for expanded chronology)

December 15 Peace Love Art Activism

TERRORISM

December 15, 1981: a suicide car bomb killed 61 people at the Iraqi embassy in Beirut, Lebanon; Iraq’s ambassador to Lebanon was among the casualties. (see April 18, 1983)

December 15 Peace Love Art Activism

Irish Troubles

December 15, 1993:  the Downing Street Declaration, issued jointly by UK and the Republic of Ireland, affirmed the UK would transfer Northern Ireland to the Republic of Ireland only if a majority of Northern Ireland’s people approved. (see Troubles for expanded chronology)

CLINTON IMPEACHMENT

December 15, 1998: in a blow to White House hopes, 11 moderate House Republicans announced they would vote to impeach the president. (see CI for expanded chronology)

December 15 Peace Love Art Activism

Iraq War II

December 15, 2009:  millions of Iraqis turned out to choose a parliament in a mostly peaceful election. [Aljazeera article] (see February 2, 2006)

December 15 Peace Love Art Activism

December 10 Peace Love Art Activism

Feminism

Voting Rights

December 10, 1869:  motivated more by interest in free publicity than a commitment to gender equality, Wyoming territorial legislators passed a bill that is signed into law granting women the right to vote. Western states led the nation in approving women’s suffrage, but some of them had other motives. Though some men recognized the important role women played in frontier settlement, others voted for women’s suffrage only to bolster the strength of conservative voting blocks. In Wyoming, some men were also motivated by sheer loneliness–in 1869, the territory had over 6,000 adult males and only 1,000 females, and area men hoped women would be more likely to settle in the rugged and isolated country if they were granted the right to vote. (Voting Rights, see February 3, 1870)

Matilda Josyln Gage

In 1870  Gage researched and published “Woman as Inventor.” In it, Gage credited the invention of the cotton gin to a woman, Catherine Littlefield Greene. Gage claimed that Greene suggested to Whitney the use of a brush-like component instrumental in separating out the seeds and cotton. [Gage provided no source for this claim and to date there has been no independent verification of Greene’s role in the invention of the gin. However, many believe that Eli Whitney received the patent for the gin and the sole credit in history textbooks for its invention only because social norms inhibited women from registering for patents.]  During this same time Gage wrote a series of articles speaking out against United States’ unjust treatment of American Indians and describing superior position of native women. “The division of power between the sexes in this Indian republic was nearly equal,” Gage wrote of the Iroquois. In matters of government, “…its women exercised controlling power in peace and war … no sale of lands was valid without consent” of the women, while “the family relation among the Iroquois demonstrated woman’s superiority in power … in the home, the wife was absolute … if the Iroquois husband and wife separated, the wife took with her all the property she had brought … the children also accompanied the mother, whose right to them was recognized as supreme.” “Never was justice more perfect, never civilization higher,” Gage concluded. (next Feminism, see February 3, 1870; Native Americans, see June 18;  see Gage for her expanded chronology)

Equal Rights Amendment

December 10, 1923: The Equal Rights Amendment, drafted by Alice Paul, introduced in the Senate. It read, “Men and women shall have equal rights throughout the United States and every place subject to its jurisdiction.”  Although the amendment will be introduced in every session of Congress, it will not reach the floor of the House of Representatives for a vote until 1971.(see January 14, 1927)

Jane Addams

December 10, 1931: Jane Addams became the first American woman to be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize; the co-recipient was Nicholas Murray Butler. (January 12, 1932)

Janice R. Lachance

December 10, 1997: with the swearing in of Janice R. Lachance as Director of the U.S. Office of Personnel Management on this day, the total number of women appointed to President Clinton’s Cabinet reached 13, the highest number in any presidential cabinet in US history. (see March 4, 1998)

Shirin Ebadi

December 10, 2003: Iranian democracy activist Shirin Ebadi, the first Muslim woman to win the Nobel Peace Prize, accepted the award in Oslo, Norway. (see January 26, 2005)

December 10 Peace Love Art Activism

BLACK HISTORY

Charles Lewis lynched

December 10, 1897: in Lawrence County, Mississippi a white family was found murdered. A surviving 5-year-old child claimed a black man did it. Officials brought several black male “suspects” before her and she identified one — a man named Charles Lewis — as the perpetrator. A mob of hundreds immediately formed and lynched Lewis.

Although early accounts alleged only one perpetrator, the white community was unsatisfied to lynch only one man, and continued to “investigate” the white family’s murders. [EJI article] (next BH, see Dec 15; see 19th century for expanded lynching chronology)

Ralph Bunche

December 10, 1950: for his peace mediation during the first Arab-Israeli war, American diplomat Ralph Joseph Bunche received the Nobel Peace Prize in Oslo, Norway. Bunche was the first African American to win the prestigious award.(see January 20, 1951)

Humboldt Black Players Secregated

December 10, 1960, Black college football players from California’s Humboldt State College were banned from “mixing” with white people during their stay in Florida for the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA) National Championship Football Game. After an undefeated season, the racially integrated team earned the right to compete in the Holiday Bowl on December 10 in St. Petersburg, Florida, for the national title. However, segregated facilities forbade Humboldt State’s Black players from sleeping under the same roof as their white teammates. [EJI article] (next BH, see January 6, 1961)

Freedom Riders

December 10, 1961: nine Freedom Riders from Atlanta arrived at the Albany Trailways bus terminal and were met by a crowd of approximately three hundred black onlookers and a squad of Albany policemen. Albany Police Chief Laurie Pritchett arrested the riders without incident, telling the press that white Albany would “not stand for these troublemakers coming into our city for the sole purpose of disturbing the peace and quiet in the city of Albany.” (BH, AM, & FR, see December 11)

Martin Luther King, Jr

December 10, 1964: Martin Luther King, Jr received Nobel Peace Prize. In his acceptance speech, King said, “I refuse to accept the view that mankind is so tragically bound to the starless midnight of racism and war that the bright daybreak of peace and brotherhood can never become a reality.” (BH, see Dec 12; MLK, see Dec 28)

Frank Morris burned to death

December 10, 1964: the Ku Klux Klan set fire to the business of Frank Morris, a 51-year-old African-American in Ferriday, Louisiana. Morris died four days. He had been asleep in the back of his shoe shop when he heard glass breaking shortly after midnight. Out front he saw two men, one pouring gasoline on the outside of the building, the other holding a shotgun. Morris yelled, “Hey, stop that!” Suddenly, the building was ignited, and Morris was in a sea of flame and smoke. The man with the shotgun blocked his escape through the front door as he pointed the barrel at Morris while shouting, “Get back in there, nigger!”

Two police officers arrived just seconds after Morris’s attackers fled. They watched Morris emerge from the back of the building completely in flames—naked, bleeding, exhausted—leaving behind a trail of bloody footprints. Skin peeled and fell from his body. Morris’s hair was ablaze, the waistband of his boxer shorts and the shoulder straps of his undershirt smoldering. Morris said he didn’t know his attackers.

The FBI agent who rushed to the hospital within hours of the arson said, “If Frank would have told me who they [his attackers] were, we would have gone after the sons of bitches.” Morris’s friends believed he knew his attackers but was afraid to identify them. No one was prosecuted. (see Dec 14)

March to Montgomery

On March 11, 1965 James J. Reeb had died in a hospital in Birmingham, Alabama after White supremacists had beat him in Selma, AL following the second march from Selma.

On December 10, 1965, Elmer Cook, O’Neal Hoggle, and his brother Willam Hoggle were acquitted of the murder of Rev James J Reeb. The all-white jury deliberated 90 minutes. (BH, see January 3, 1966; see March for expanded chronology)

Toni Morrison

December 10, 1993: Toni Morrison received the Nobel Prize for Literature at the award ceremony in Oslo, Norway. She was the first African American woman to win. (Feminism, see January 24, 1994; BH, see January 26, 1974)

Nelson Mandela

December 10, 1996: Mandela signed into law a new democratic constitution, completing the country’s transition from white-minority rule to a non-racial democracy.  (SA/A, see January 28, 1997; NM, see June 16, 1999)

Antwon Rose

December 10, 2018:  NBC news reported that the parents of Antwon Rose, who East Pittsburgh police officer Officer Michael Rosfeld fatally shot  when as Rose fled a traffic stop, sued Rosfeld’s former employer — the University of Pittsburgh — for failing to properly discipline him or record performance issues in his personnel file.

In the lawsuit filed in Allegheny County, the Rose’s parents  said the university allowed Rosfeld to resign quietly without putting any notice in his personnel file that there had been issues with at least one arrest. The University had hired Rosfeld as a university police officer in 2012, was suspended in December 2017, and resigned a few weeks. (B & S, see Dec 14; AR, see January 11, 2019)

December 10 Peace Love Art Activism

US Labor History

December 10, 1906: first sit-down strike in U.S. called by International Workers of the World at General Electric in Schenectady, N.Y.(see April 4, 1907)

December 10 Peace Love Art Activism

LGBTQ

December 10, 1924: Henry Gerber founded The Society for Human Rights in Chicago. The society was the first gay rights organization as well as the oldest documented in America.

After receiving a charter from the state of Illinois, the society published the first American publication for homosexuals, Friendship and Freedom. Soon after its founding, the society disbanded due to political pressure.(see June 23, 1945)

December 10 Peace Love Art Activism

FREE SPEECH

December 10, 1948: Chicago authorities banned The Respectful Prostitute, a play by Jean-Paul Sartre. Chicago theater and film censor Harry Fulmer argued that the play would offend African-Americans. The play involves an incident that occurred on a train where an African-American man was falsely accused of attacking a white woman, when in fact a white man perpetrated the attack. National NAACP Director Walter White gave the play his “unqualified endorsement” but was unsuccessful in preventing the ban. (next FS, see following; next BH, Dec 14)

Book burning

December 10, 1948: most of the 500 students at St. Patrick’s School in Binghamton, NY, on this day stood and watched as the school burned 10,000 comic books as part of a “purity” crusade. The Bishop of the Catholic Diocese, as part of the crusade, urged parish members to “boycott” stores that sold magazines with “indecent pictures and sensational details of crime.” The comic books were burned in a courtyard behind the school. The event was part of a national panic over comic books in the 1950s regarding their alleged impact on juvenile delinquency.(see March 8, 1949)

December 10 Peace Love Art Activism

Cold War

December 10, 1949: Generalissimo Chiang Kai-Shek, longtime American ally and leader of the anticommunist Chinese Nationalists, fled mainland China to organize the Republic of China on the island of Taiwan. (NYT article) (see January 21, 1950)

December 10 Peace Love Art Activism

Technological Milestone

December 10, 1959: a National Airlines Boeing 707 with 111 passengers flew from New York to Miami. It was the first domestic passenger jet flight. (see February 7, 1960)

December 10 Peace Love Art Activism

see December 10 Music et al for more

Roots of Rock: Fats Domino

December 10, 1949: Fats Domino recorded his first sides for Imperial Records. He recorded The Fat Man, one of the earliest rock and roll records. The title also turned into Domino’s nickname and stayed with him through his years of success. (see January 3, 1950)

John Lennon leaves Hamburg

December 10, 1960: John Lennon traveled back to England by train and boat. Stuart Sutcliffe continued stay in Hamburg, , effectively signified the end of his time in The Beatles. (see Beatles Deported for expanded chronology)

CBS/Beatles

December 10, 1963: CBS-TV aired a four-minute segment on The Beatles that had been pre-empted by the JFK tragedy. (see Dec 17)

Grateful Dead & Rock Venues

December 10, 1965: the San Francisco Fillmore auditorium held its first rock ‘n’ roll concert (thanks to promoter Bill Graham), a benefit for the San Francisco Mime Troupe. Unbilled but also playing that night: the Grateful Dead, having just changed its name from the Warlocks. (RV, see January 8, 1966; GD, see January 22, 1966)

see “Good Vibrations” for more

December 10 – 16, 1966: “Good Vibrations” by the Beach Boys #1 on the Billboard Hot 100.

John Lennon/John Sinclair

December 10, 1971: John Lennon headlined The John Sinclair Freedom Rally, a protest and concert in response the imprisonment of John Sinclair who was given ten years in prison for the possession of two marijuana cigarettes. The concert was held in Crisler Arena at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Two days after the event, Sinclair was released. (see January 1972)

Bob Dylan

December 10, 2016: Bob Dylan did not attend the Nobel Banquet in the Stockholm City Hall. Azita Raji, the United States Ambassador to Sweden, gave an acceptance speech in his place. (see June 4, 2017)

December 10 Peace Love Art Activism

Vietnam

My Lai Massacre

December 10, 1970: the defense opened its case in the murder trial of Lt. William Calley. Citing “superior’s orders,” Defense Attorney George Lattimer contended that Capt. Ernest Medina, Calley’s company commander, told his men that they were finally going to fight the enemy. He reportedly ordered “every living thing” killed. Lattimer also cited poor training of the platoon, the rage of the men who had seen their buddies killed, and the expectation of fierce resistance as additional factors contributing to the incident. The lawyer also charged that higher commanders on the ground and in the air observed the episode but did nothing. (Vietnam; see Jan 12; see My Lai for expanded chronology)

 Peace Accord

December 10, 1972: technical experts on both sides began work on the language of a proposed peace accord, giving rise to hope that a final agreement is near. (see Dec 13)

December 10 Peace Love Art Activism

AIDS

December 10, 1982: CDC reported a case of AIDS in an infant who received blood transfusions. The following week, the MMWR reports 22 cases of unexplained immunodeficiency and opportunistic infections in infants. (see January 7, 1983)

December 10 Peace Love Art Activism

Immigration History

Luis Ramirez

On July 12, 2008 six white teenagers beat Mexican immigrant Luis Ramirez to death in Shenandoah, Pennsylvania, while taunting him with racial slurs and threats including: “Spic,” “fucking Mexican,” and “This is Shenandoah. This is America. Go back to Mexico.” After leaving Mr. Ramirez, a 25-year-old father of two, unconscious and convulsing on the pavement, one of the attackers yelled: “Tell your fucking Mexican friends to get the fuck out of Shenandoah or you’re going to be fucking laying next to him.” Mr. Ramirez died of his injuries two days later. (see Luis Ramirez for expanded chronology)

Trump’s Wall

December 10, 2019: Judge David Briones of the US District Court for the Western District of Texas said  that the administration cannot use military construction funds to build additional barriers on the southern border.

The ruling was a setback for the administration, which has sought to shore up money for the President’s signature campaign promise of a border wall, and marks yet another high-profile blow the courts have dealt Trump on key issues, including his immigration policies and his fight to not turn his tax returns over to Congress. It targeted only one set of Pentagon funds, however, leaving in place the money the Supreme Court allowed to be used earlier this year. [CNN article] (next Wall, see January 8, 2020 or see TW for expanded chronology) (next IH, see Dec 20)

December 10 Peace Love Art Activism

Marijuana

December 10, 2013: Uruguay’s Senate gave final congressional approval to create the world’s first national marketplace for legal marijuana. The government will oversee production, sales and consumption. (NYT article) (see February 6, 2014)

December 10 Peace Love Art Activism

Trump Impeachment Inquiry

December 10, 2019: House Judiciary Chair Jerry Nadler announced the articles of impeachment against President Trump: obstruction of Congress and abuse of power. [CNN article] (see TII for expanded chronology)

December 10 Peace Love Art Activism

Environmental Issues

Climate change

December 10, 2019 the annual Arctic report card  stated that temperatures in the Arctic region remained near record highs in 2019. The high temperatures lead to low summer sea ice, cascading impacts on the regional food web and growing concerns over sea level rise.

Average temperatures for the year ending in September were the second highest since 1900, the year records began, scientists said. While that fell short of a new high, it fit a worrying trend: Over all, the past six years have been the warmest ever recorded in the region.

“It’s really showing that we have a system that’s under duress,” said Donald K. Perovich, a professor of engineering at the Thayer School of Engineering at Dartmouth College and the lead author of the report’s chapter on sea ice.

The results are from a peer-reviewed assessment produced by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration that takes a broad look at the effects of climate change in the region and compares current findings with the historical record. [NYT article] (next EI, see Dec 20)

December 10 Peace Love Art Activism