January 17, 1834: the Alabama State Legislature passed Act 44 as part of a series of increasingly restrictive laws governing the behavior of free and enslaved blacks within the state.
In the immediate aftermath of the infamous Nat Turner slave rebellion in Virginia (see August 21 – 22, 1831), Alabama passed a statute in 1833 that made it unlawful for free blacks to settle in Alabama. That statute provided that freed blacks found in Alabama would be given thirty days to vacate the state. After thirty days, the freed slave could be subject to a penalty of thirty-nine lashes and receive an additional twenty-day period to leave the state. After that period had expired, the free person could be sold back into slavery with proceeds of the sale going to the state and to those who participated in apprehending him.
Act 44 expanded on this legislation by specifying a series of procedures that had to be followed for a slave to be freed within the state. One of the requirements was that emancipation for an enslaved person could take effect only outside of Alabama’s borders. Further, if an emancipated slave returned to Alabama, he could be lawfully captured and sold back into slavery. In fact, Act 44 required sheriffs and other law enforcement officers to actively attempt to apprehend freed slaves who had entered Alabama for any reason. (next BH, see March 14, 1835)
Cassius Marcellus Clay
January 17, 1942: Cassius Marcellus Clay, Jr. born in Louisville, Kentucky. About Clay’s childhood, Ali’s younger brother, Rudy said “All the time, he used to ask me to throw rocks at him. I thought he was crazy, but he’d dodge every one. No matter how many I threw, I could never hit him.” (see Muhammad Alifor more) (next BH, see Jan 25; MA, see October 1954)
George Jackson
January 17, 1970: George Jackson was charged along with Fleeta Drumgo and John Clutchette for murdering Soledad prison guard John V. Mills. Mills was beaten and thrown from the third floor of Soledad’s Y wing. This was a capital offense and a successful conviction could put them in the gas chamber.
Mills was apparently murdered in retaliation for the shooting deaths of three black inmates by a Soledad officer Opie G Miller the year prior. Miller was not convicted of any crime, a grand jury ruling his actions to be justifiable homicide. (George Jackson bio from black past dot com) (BH, see Jan 26; BP, see Feb 21)
James A. Hood died
January 17, 2013: James A. Hood died in Gadsden, Ala. He was 70. Hood integrated the University of Alabama on June 11, 1963 together with his fellow student Vivian Malone after Gov. George C. Wallace capitulated to the federal government in a signature moment of the civil rights movement known as the “stand in the schoolhouse door.” (NYT obit) (see Jan 30)
January 17 Peace Love Art Activism
US Labor History
Lucy Parsons
January 17, 1915: organized and led by radical labor organizer, Lucy Parsons, more than 1,500 people march in Chicago, demanding relief from hunger and high levels of unemployment in the city. Chicago Police describe Lucy Parsons as “more dangerous than a thousand rioters.” (Lucy Parson site bio) (see Jan 19)
Federal employees organize
January 17, 1962: an order by President Kennedy allowed federal employees to organize, join unions, and bargain collectively with the government. It did not give them the right to strike. The move begins an era of public employee unionization. (public employee unions, see January 22, 2010; LH, February 10, 1963)
Recall petition
January 17, 2012: volunteers in Wisconsin submitted nearly a million signatures (double the number of signatures required) calling for a recall election of Governor Scott Walker in protest of his public fight last year to abandon the collective bargaining rights of public workers. (see Jan 30)
After one year from the ratification of this article the manufacture, sale, or transportation of intoxicating liquors within, the importation thereof into, or the exportation thereof from the United States and all territory subject to the jurisdiction thereof for beverage purposes is hereby prohibited. (see Aug 31)
January 17 Peace Love Art Activism
LSD
January 17, 1966: Ken Kesey tried for marijuana possession arrest in October 1965. He was found guilty and sentenced to six months on a work farm and three years probation. (see January 19)
January 17 Peace Love Art Activism
Nuclear News
Bomber collision
January 17, 1966: a B-52 bomber collided with a KC-135 jet tanker over Spain’s Mediterranean coast, dropping three 70-kiloton hydrogen bombsnear the town of Palomares and one in the sea. None explode. (see Oct 5)
Nuclear Posture Review
January 17, 2018: the Pentagon sent Nuclear Posture Review, the newly drafted United States nuclear strategy, President Trump for approval.
The NPR would permit the use of nuclear weapons to respond to a wide range of devastating but non-nuclear attacks on American infrastructure, including what current and former government officials described as the most crippling kind of cyberattacks.
For decades, American presidents had threatened “first use” of nuclear weapons against enemies in only very narrow and limited circumstances, such as in response to the use of biological weapons against the United States. The NPR the first to expand that to include attempts to destroy wide-reaching infrastructure, like a country’s power grid or communications, that would be most vulnerable to cyberweapons. (see Jan 18)
January 17 Peace Love Art Activism
DEATH PENALTY
Gary Gilmore
January 17, 1977: a Utah firing squad made Gary Gilmore the first person executed in the U.S. in almost 10 years. (see June 29, 1977)
Clarence Ray Allen
January 17, 2006: California executed Clarence Ray Allen, its oldest death row inmate, minutes after his 76th birthday. The execution took place despite arguments that putting to death an elderly, blind and wheelchair-bound man was cruel and unusual punishment. Allen arranged a triple murder 25 years earlier. (see Dec 30)
January 17 Peace Love Art Activism
Iraq/Iran
Tow missiles/Iran-contra affair
January 17, 1986: 4,000 more Tow missiles for Iran authorized by Reagan, supplied through Israel. (see Apr 22)
Scud missiles
January 17, 1991: Iraq fired eight Scud missiles into Israel. (Jan 22)
US dead
January 17, 2004: 500 U.S. soldiers dead in Iraq since the invasion. (see Feb 4)
January 17 Peace Love Art Activism
CLINTON IMPEACHMENT
January 17, 1998: William Ginsburg flew to Washington to represent Monica Lewinsky. President Clinton gave his deposition in the Jones lawsuit, in which he denied having a sexual relationship with Lewinsky. Newsweek magazine decided not to run a story by investigative reporter Michael Isikoff on the Lewinsky tapes and the alleged affair. (see Clinton for expanded story)
January 17 Peace Love Art Activism
Women’s Health
North Carolina/abortion
January 17, 2014: U.S. District Judge Catherine Eagles ruled that North Carolina law requiring women who want an abortion to have an ultrasound and then have a medical provider describe the image to them is a violation of constitutional free-speech rights. Eagles stated that states don’t have the power to force a health care provider to be the bearer of what she called an “ideological message in favor of carrying a pregnancy to term.” (see Feb 5)
Mississippi/abortion
January 17, 2020: on December 13, 2019, US Appeals Court Judge Patrick Higginbotham l had blocked the law as unconstitutional. Mississippi then asked the full court to reconsider the case,. On this date, a three judge panel of the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals denied a request from Mississippi to reconsider a ruling striking down the state’s ban on abortions after 15 weeks.
The December ruling had made clear that Supreme Court precedent clearly protects the right to an abortion. “States may regulate abortion procedures prior to viability so long as they do not impose an undue burden on the woman’s right, but they may not ban abortions,” the court said last month. “The law at issue is a ban.” [TH article] (next WH, see Jan 20; Mississippi, see Feb 20)
January 17 Peace Love Art Activism
Environmental Issues
January 17, 2015: oil pumped in the Bakken formation in North Dakota and Montana leaked from a pipeline into the Yellowstone River near Glendive, Montana. The 12-inch crude line was shut, according to Bill Salvin, an outside spokesman for True Companies, whose Bridger Pipeline LLC operated the Poplar pipe system. As much as 1,200 barrels of oil leaked from the pipeline, much of which went into the Yellowstone River, said Dave Parker, spokesman for Montana Governor Steve Bullock. (see Feb 16)
January 17 Peace Love Art Activism
The Cold War
January 17, 2018: North and South Korea agreed to have their athletes march together under one flag at the opening ceremony of the Winter Olympics in February and to field a joint women’s ice hockey team, the most dramatic gesture of reconciliation between the two nations in a decade. (see Apr 19)
January 16, 1832: the General Assembly of Alabama enacted provisions prohibiting the Creek and Cherokee from practicing customs or making laws that conflicted with Alabama law. The provision stated, “All laws, usages and customs now used, enjoyed, or practiced, by the Creek and Cherokee nations of Indians, within the limits of this State, contrary to the constitution and laws of this State, be, and the same are hereby abolished.”
This statute was created just three years after another that effectively extended the jurisdiction of Alabama into Creek territory. In response to that first law, and white settlers’ increasing unlawful encroachment into the Creek Nation, the Creek Council repeatedly – yet unsuccessfully – petitioned the federal government for assistance and protection.
Even without federal support, many Creeks refused to succumb to mounting pressure to emigrate west of the Mississippi River, and their leaders continued organizing efforts to secure their tribal lands. These efforts were frustrated by this 1832 law, which also declared it illegal for tribal leaders to “meet in any counsel, assembly, or convention” and create “any law for said tribe, contrary to the laws and constitution of this State.” Punishment for violating this law was imprisonment “in the common jail of the proper county, for not less than two, nor more than four, months.”
The 1832 law also provided that the Cherokee and Creek could only testify in court in suits involving other Cherokee and Creek, effectively ensuring that Creeks defrauded and illegally deprived of their land by white intruders would have no recourse in the Alabama courts. White settlers, speculators, and those intending to illegally occupy tribal lands were enticed by the law preventing any suit for trespass and traveled to Creek territory in Alabama to take advantage of the law. Both the Alabama and federal government’s singular goal was removal of Indians from Alabama to the Western Territory and this law furthered those aims. By 1837, 23,000 Creeks had emigrated out of the Southeast. (see Mar 24)
Grass Roots Oyate
January 16, 2000: the activist group Grass Roots Oyate began its occupation of the Red Cloud Building at the Oglala Sioux Tribal Headquarters, Pine Ridge Reservation, in protest of what they deemed the corrupt, oppressive and ineffective politics of tribal leadership. Federal officials removed financial records the following day, and the elected tribal president was suspended. The activists vowed to continue the occupation until their demands were met. (see August 2002)
January 16 Peace Love Art Activism
US Labor History
United Packinghouse Workers
January 16, 1946: the meatpacking industry in the U.S. effectively shuts down when both the United Packinghouse Workers of America and the Amalgamated Meat Cutters and Butcher Workmen of North America go on strike over wages. Just ten days into the strike, using the War Labor Disputes Act, President Harry Truman seized control of the plants and ordered the workers back to work with the greatest single wage increase ever in the industry. (see May 17)
Curt Flood
January 16, 1970: seven-time Golden Glove-winning center fielder Curt Flood of the St. Louis Cardinals filed suit in federal court against Commissioner Bowie Kuhn, the presidents of the American and National Leagues and all 24 teams in the Major League Baseball (MLB) organization.
After the Cardinals traded Flood to the Philadelphia Phillies in October 1969, Flood wrote a letter to Kuhn in late December, protesting the league’s player reserve clause, which prevented players from moving to another team unless they were traded. Kuhn denied Flood’s request to be made a free agent, and Flood decided to sue. (LH, see Jan 22; Flood, see June 19, 1972)
January 16 Peace Love Art Activism
January 16 Music et al
Bob Nehart
January 16 – 22, 1961: Bob Newhart’s comedy album returns to #1 for a fourth time. It had first reached Billboard’s #1 position on August 1, 1960 and remained there for eight weeks. This last time it will remain on top for a week.
Supremes
January 16 – 22, 1965: “Come See About Me” by the Supremes #1 on the Billboard Hot 100. It had already been #1 on December 19 for a week.
January 16 Peace Love Art Activism
Vietnam
Oplan 34A
January 16, 1964: President Johnson approved Oplan 34A, operations to be conducted by South Vietnamese forces supported by the United States to gather intelligence and conduct sabotage to destabilize the North Vietnamese regime.
Actual operations began in February and involved raids by South Vietnamese commandos operating under U.S. orders against North Vietnamese coastal and island installations. Although American forces were not directly involved in the actual raids, U.S. Navy ships were on station to conduct electronic surveillance and monitor North Vietnamese defense responses under another program called Operation De Soto.
Oplan 34A attacks would play a major role in what became known as the Gulf of Tonkin Incident (Aug 2). (next Vietnam, see Jan 22)
Youth International Party
January 16, 1968: Youth International Party (YIPPIES!) founded. (see Jan 21)
Expanded peace talks
January 16, 1969: an agreement is reached in Paris for the opening of expanded peace talks. It was agreed that representatives of the United States, South Vietnam, North Vietnam, and the National Liberation Front would sit at a circular table without nameplates, flags or markings. (see Jan 25)
January 16 Peace Love Art Activism
Space Race
January 16, 1969: two manned Soviet Soyuz spaceships became the first vehicles to dock in space and transfer personnel. (see March 3 – 13)
January 16 Peace Love Art Activism
IRAN
January 16, 1979: Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi of Iran flees Iran with his family, relocating to Egypt. (History dot com article) (see Iran hostage for more)
January 16 Peace Love Art Activism
BLACK HISTORY
Miami revolt
January 16, 1989: three days of violent protests began in Miami after police officer William Lozano shot Clement Lloyd, 23, while on his motorcycle with passenger Allan Blanchard, 24.
Lloyd was killed instantly by a bullet to the head; Blanchard died of injuries the next day. (LA Times article) (BH, see Feb 10; RR, seeDec 7)
Muhammad Ali
January 16, 2019: Ali’s hometown of Louisville, Ky. renamed its airport in honor of him.
The Louisville Regional Airport Authority board announced its decision to call the airport the Louisville Muhammad Ali International Airport.
“Muhammad became one of the most well-known people to ever walk the Earth and has left a legacy of humanitarianism and athleticism that has inspired billions of people,”saidMayor Greg Fischer in a press release from the board. “It important that we, as a city, further champion The Champ’s legacy, and the airport renaming is a wonderful next step.” (see Jan 19)
Black & Shot/Laquan McDonald
January 16, 2019 : Associate Judge Domenica Stephenson acquitted Chicago police officers David March, Joseph Walsh, and Thomas Gaffney of charges that they covered up for fellow police officer Jason Van Dyke after he shot and killed Laquan McDonald, a black teenager. The verdict came as a blow to those who saw the case as a rare moment when officers might be held accountable for a longstanding pattern of defending one another.
Stephenson dismissed prosecutors’ assertions that the officers had conspired and obstructed justice.
“This court finds that the state has failed to meet its burden on all charges,” Judge Stephenson said.
Along with the three officers, the broad concept of a police “code of silence” was on trial in Chicago, a city where police have been accused for decades of covering up fellow officers’ misconduct. [NYT article] (B & S, see Jan 28; LM, see Feb 4)
January 16 Peace Love Art Activism
Dissolution of the USSR
January 16, 1990: in the wake of vicious fighting between Armenian and Azerbaijani forces in Azerbaijan, the Soviet government sent in 11,000 troops to quell the conflict. The fighting–and the official Soviet reaction to it–was an indication of the increasing ineffectiveness of the central Soviet government in maintaining control in the Soviet republics, and of Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev’s weakening political power. (see USSR for expanded chronology)
January 16 Peace Love Art Activism
IRAQ War I
January 16, 1991: Operation Desert Storm began with air strikes against Iraq. (2016 Vice News article) (see Jan 17)
January 16 Peace Love Art Activism
Women’s Health
January 16, 1997: Eric Rudolph bombed an abortion clinic in the Atlanta suburb of Sandy Springs. (see January 29, 1998)
January 16 Peace Love Art Activism
CLINTON IMPEACHMENT
January 16, 1998: Whitewater Independent Counsel Ken Starr contacted Attorney General Janet Reno to get permission to expand his probe. Reno agreed and submitted the request to a panel of three federal judges. The judges agreed to allow Starr to formally investigate the possibility of subornation of perjury and obstruction of justice in the Jones case. Tripp and Lewinsky met again at the Ritz-Carlton. FBI agents and U.S. attorneys interceded and take Lewinsky to a hotel room, where they questioned her and offer her immunity. Lewinsky contacted her mother, Marcia Lewis, who traveled down from New York City by train. Marcia Lewis contacted her ex-husband, who called attorney William Ginsburg, a family friend. Ginsburg advises Monica Lewinsky not to accept the immunity deal until he learns more. (see CI for expanded chronology)
January 16, 2015: the Supreme Court agreed to decide whether all 50 states must allow gay and lesbian couples to marry. The court’s announcement made it likely that it would resolve one of the great civil rights questions of the age before its current term ends in June.
The justices ducked the issue October, refusing to hear appeals from rulings allowing same-sex marriage in five states. That surprise action delivered a tacit victory for gay rights, immediately expanding the number of states with same-sex marriage to 24 from 19, along with the District of Columbia.
Largely as a consequence of the Supreme Court’s failure to act in October, the number of states allowing same-sex marriage had grown to 36, and more than 70 percent of Americans lived in places where gay couples could marry. [NYT report] (see Jan 21)
January 16 Peace Love Art Activism
Nuclear/Chemical News
January 16, 2018: on this date, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention had scheduled a workshop titled “Public Health Response to a Nuclear Detonation,” for doctors, government officials, emergency responders and others whom, if they survived, would be responsible for overseeing the emergency response to a nuclear attack.
“While a nuclear detonation is unlikely,” the C.D.C. stated on its website, “it would have devastating results and there would be limited time to take critical protection steps. Despite the fear surrounding such an event, planning and preparation can lessen deaths and illness.”
The announcement of the workshop had generated much media attention given President Trump’s recent comments regarding North Korea’s nuclear capability, although the CDS said that those comments were not related to the cancellation. . The CDC said the Nuclear workshop would be rescheduled.
A workshop regarding public health and the flu became the topic (see Jan 22)
January 16 Peace Love Art Activism
Cannabis
January 16, 2018: although veterans groups were pushing for the use of the drug as an alternative to opioids and anti-depressants, the Department of Veterans Affairs said it would not conduct research into whether medical marijuana could help veterans suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder and chronic pain. [WP report] (next Cannabis, see Jan 22 or see CCC for expanded post)
January 16 Peace Love Art Activism
Immigration History
January 16, 2019: according to a report by government inspectors , the Trump administration likely separated thousands more children from their parents at the Southern border than was previously believed.
The federal government had reported that nearly 3,000 children were forcibly separated from their parents under last year’s “zero-tolerance” immigration policy, under which nearly all adults entering the country illegally were prosecuted, and any children accompanying them were put into shelters or foster care.
But even before the administration officially unveiled the zero-tolerance policy in the spring of 2018, staff of the US Dept of Health and Human Services, the agency that oversees the care of children in federal custody, had noted a “sharp increase” in the number of children separated from a parent or guardian, according to the report from the agency’s Office of Inspector General.
As of December 2018, the department had identified 2,737 children who were separated from their parents under the policy and required to be reunified by a federal court order issued in June 2018.
But that number did not represent the full scope of family separations. Thousands of children might have been separated during an influx that began in 2017, before the accounting required by the court, the report said. [NYT article] (next IH, see Jan 19)
January 15, 1909: San Francisco police arrested Goldman and Ben Reitman just before they were about to hold a meeting. Police charged them with rout—the assembly of two or more persons at a meeting where measures are advocated where if they were actually carried out would lead to a riot.
Police also arrested William Buwalda for his protest of their arrest. (see Goldman for expanded information)
January 15 Peace Art Love Activism
Environmental Issues
January 15, 1919: fiery hot molasses flooded the streets of Boston killing 21 people and injuring scores of others. The molasses burst from a huge tank at the United States Industrial Alcohol Company building in the heart of the city. (NYT article) (see May 11, 1934)
January 15 Peace Art Love Activism
Religion and Public Education
Separation of church and State
January 15, 1927: the Tennessee Supreme Court ruled that the Butler law (forbid the teaching of evolution) was constitutional. However, it overturned Scopes’ verdicton a technicality, ruling that his fine should have been set by the jury hearing the case instead of by Judge Raulston. The justices declared in their ruling that “[n]othing is to be gained by prolonging the life of this bizarre case.” (Butler Act, see May 17, 1967; Separation, see see February 5, 1953)
Champaign, IL
In 1940: in Champaign, IL, interested members of various Protestant, Catholic, and Jewish faiths formed an association named the Champaign Council on Religious Education. This association obtained permission from the Champaign Board of Education to offer voluntary religious education classes for public school students from grades four to nine. These weekly 30- and 45-minute classes were led by clergy and lay members of the association in public school classrooms during school hours. (see 1944 below)
Released time
In 1942: “Released time” participation reached 1.5 million students in 46 states. Some districts held the classes in the public school buildings.
James McCollum
In 1944: Vashti McCollum’s son, James McCollum, then a fourth grader enrolled in the Champaign public schools, came home with a parental consent form for his attendance at “voluntary” religion classes during the school day. The form allowed choice between Catholic, Protestant, and Jewish instruction. She permitted James’s participation.
Cold War/Religion
In 1945: in the postwar era, Americans flock to church in record numbers, swelling the growth of traditional denominations — Methodists, Baptists, Disciples of Christ, Lutherans and Presbyterians. Church building booms; Bible sales skyrocketed. Amid the prosperity, the United States and the Soviet Union face off in the Cold War, a spiritual struggle that pits Christian America against “godless communism.” (Religion, see July 1945; CW, see Feb 4)
January 15 Peace Art Love Activism
BLACK HISTORY
President Truman & civil rights
January 15, 1947: President Truman, condemning “a tendency in this country” toward revival of bigotry and intolerance, called for legislation to implement the Bill of Rights and protect the civil rights of citizens in those local areas from which Federal enforcement agencies have been excluded. (BH, see Feb 17; C on CR, see May 1)
Viola Liuzzo car for sale…a “crowd-getter”
January 15, 1966: on March 25, 1965, terrorists had assassinated civil rights volunteers Viola Liuzzo and Leroy Moton while they were driving. On this date, the Birmingham News newspaper published an ad offering Liuzzo’s bullet-ridden car for sale. Asking $3,500, the ad read, “Do you need a crowd-getter? I have a 1963 Oldsmobile two-door in which Mrs. Viola Liuzzo was killed. Bullet holes and everything intact. Ideal to bring in crowds.” (BH, see Jan 31; see VIfor expanded chronology)
Brown v. Board of Education
In 1972, a federal court ordered the Board of Education of Oklahoma City Schools to adopt a busing program to desegregate the city’s public schools in compliance with the United States Supreme Court’s desegregation decision in Brown v. Board of Education. The school board complied for five years and then filed a motion to lift the order. The federal court found that integration had been achieved, granted the motion, and ended the busing program.
In 1984, the school board adopted a new student assignment plan that significantly reduced busing and re-segregated Oklahoma City schools. Local parents of African American students initiated litigation challenging the new assignment plan and asking for reinstatement of the 1972 busing decree. In 1989, the United States Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit re-instituted the decree, and the school board appealed to the United States Supreme Court.
On January 15, 1991, the Court declared in a 5-3 decision written by Chief Justice William Rehnquist that federal desegregation injunctions were intended to be temporary. Despite troubling evidence that Oklahoma City schools were re-segregating under the district’s new plan, the Court sent the case back to the lower federal court for assessment under a less stringent standard, which ultimately permitted the school board to proceed with the new plan. Justice Thurgood Marshall, joined by Justices Harry Blackmun and John Paul Stevens, argued in dissent that a desegregation decree should not be lifted when doing so recreates segregated “conditions likely to inflict the stigmatic injury condemned in Brown.” (NYT article) (BH see Mar 3; SD, see March 31, 1992)
January 15 Peace Art Love Activism
FREE SPEECH
On March 8, 1949 authorities had arrested Irving Feiner after speaking to a crowd of 75 or 80 people in Syracuse, New York. Feiner, a college student, had been standing on a large wooden box on the sidewalk, addressing a crowd through a loud-speaker system attached to an automobile. He made derogatory remarks about President Harry S. Truman, the American Legion, the Mayor of Syracuse, and other local political officials. Feiner urged that they rise up in arms and fight for equal rights.
On January 15, 1951 in Feiner v. New York, in a 6–3 decision delivered by Chief Justice Fred Vinson, the US Supreme Court upheld Feiner’s arrest.
Focusing on the “rise up in arms and fight for their rights” part of Feiner’s speech, the court found that Feiner’s First Amendment rights were not violated, because his arrest came when the police thought that a riot might occur. The court found that the police did not attempt to suppress Feiner’s message based on its content, but rather on the reaction of the crowd. The court reaffirmed the fact that a speaker cannot be arrested for the content of his speech. The court also reaffirmed that the police must not be used as an instrument to silence unpopular views, but must be used to silence a speaker who is trying to incite a riot.
New York won, the Chief Justice wrote, because by law, Feiner’s actions created an imminent threat: the police arrested him because the police wanted to protect the city government and the people of New York. (see June 4)
January 15, 1961: Motown Records signed The Supremes. Their first release will be ” I Want a Guy.”
Rock Venues
January 15, 1964: the Los Angeles Whiskey a Go Go opened. The club’s opening night featured Johnny Rivers as the headlining act. The club quickly became famous for its music (rock ‘n’ roll), dancing (the patrons on the floor and the go-go dancers inside elevated glass cages) and the Hollywood celebrities it attracted. The Whisky played an important role in many musical careers, especially for bands based in southern California. The Byrds, Alice Cooper, Buffalo Springfield, Smokestack Lightning, and Love were regulars, and The Doors were the house band for a while – until the debut of the “Oedipal section” of “The End” got them fired. (see Whisky a Go Go for more) (see August 13, 1965)
LSD
January 15, 1966: Portland, Oregon Acid Test. (see Jan 17)
The Rolling Stones
January 15, 1967: The Rolling Stones appeared on The Ed Sullivan Show. At Ed Sullivan’s request, the band changed the lyrics of “Let’s Spend the Night Together” to “Let’s spend some time together”.
Byrds
January 15, 1968: Byrds released Notorious Byrd Brothers album.
January 15, 1969: all four Beatles met to discuss their future, Harrison was in a commanding position, following a series of dismal sessions at Twickenham Film Studios, and was able to set down his terms for returning to the group. During the five-hour meeting he made it clear that he would leave the group unless the idea of a live show before an audience was dropped. (see Jan 30)
January 15 Peace Art Love Activism
Vietnam
JFK: no troops fighting in Vietnam
January 15, 1962: asked at a news conference if U.S. troops are fighting in Vietnam, President Kennedy answered “No.” He was technically correct, but U.S. soldiers were serving as combat advisers with the South Vietnamese army, and U.S. pilots were flying missions with the South Vietnamese Air Force. While acting in this advisory capacity, some soldiers invariably got wounded, and press correspondents based in Saigon were beginning to see casualties from the “support” missions and ask questions. (see Jan 18)
… & Feminism
January 15, 1968: Jeannette Rankin, a renowned pacifist, made history as the first woman elected to Congress in 1916. At age 87, Rankin made one final push for peace by leading an anti-Vietnam War march: the Jeannette Rankin Brigade — a demonstration of thousands of women in Washington, D.C.
Some marchers were unhappy with the Brigade’s image of mourning wives and mothers. A group of between 200 to 500 women wearing “miniskirts and high boots,” called the Radical Women’s Group, tried to commandeer the microphones. They alleged that Coretta Scott King had been coerced into giving peaceful speeches to appeal to “church women” in the march.
The splinter group invited the marchers to a staged funeral procession of “traditional womanhood” at Arlington National Cemetery. They paraded a dummy in “feminine getup” with “blonde curls,” to a funeral dirge “lamenting woman’s traditional role which encourages men to develop aggression and militarism to prove their masculinity. (V, see Jan 16, F, see Sept 7)
Peace talks stumble forward
January 15, 1973: citing “progress” in the Paris peace negotiations between National Security Advisor Henry Kissinger and Le Duc Tho of North Vietnam, President Richard Nixon halted the most concentrated bombing of the war, as well as mining, shelling, and all other offensive action against North Vietnam. The cessation of direct attacks against North Vietnam did not extend to South Vietnam, where the fighting continued as both sides jockeyed for control of territory before the anticipated cease-fire. (see Jan 22)
January 15 Peace Art Love Activism
Clarence Earl Gideon
January 15, 1963: theGideon v. Cochran case was argued at the US Supreme Court. Abe Fortas was assigned to represent Gideon. Bruce Jacob, the Assistant Florida Attorney General, was assigned to argue against Gideon. Fortas argued that a common man with no training in law could not go up against a trained lawyer and win, and that “you cannot have a fair trial without counsel.” Jacob argued that the issue at hand was a state issue, not federal; the practice of only appointing counsel under “special circumstances” in non-capital cases sufficed; that thousands of convictions would have to be thrown out if it were changed; and that Florida had followed for 21 years “in good faith” the 1942 Supreme Court ruling in Betts v. Brady. The case’s original title, Gideon v. Cochran, was changed to Gideon v. Wainwright after Louie L. Wainwright replaced H. G. Cochran as the director of the Florida Division of Corrections. (see Gideon for expanded chronology)
January 15 Peace Art Love Activism
Super Bowl
January 15, 1968: first Super Bowl...Packers vs. Chiefs. Packers 35, Chiefs 10.
January 15 Peace Art Love Activism
Feminism
NY Radical Women
January 15, 1968: Members of the New York Radical Women led an protest event, a “burial of traditional womanhood.” held in Arlington National Cemetery. (see Vietnam above)
National Press Club
January 15, 1971: National Press Club, Washington, DC, voted to admit women to membership after excluding women from membership since the club’s founding. (see January 25, 1971)
Equal Rights Amendment
January 15, 2020: Virginia became the 38th state to approve the Equal Rights Amendment, a symbolic victory for those who for generations had been pushing for a constitutional guarantee of legal rights regardless of sex.
Virginia’s decision did not seal the amendment’s addition to the United States Constitution. A deadline for three-quarters, or 38, of the 50 states to approve the E.R.A. expired in 1982, so the future of the measure was uncertain, and experts said the issue would likely be tied up in the courts and in the political sphere for years. [NYT article] (next Feminism, see Feb 6)
January 15 Peace Art Love Activism
Native Americans
January 15, 1972: Russell C Means, director of the Cleveland American Indian Center, said the symbol used by the Cleveland Indians was “racist, degrading and demeaning” to the American Indian and that he would file a lawsuit to halt use of the symbol. (NYT article) (see Oct 31)
January 15 Peace Art Love Activism
United Farm Workers
January 15, 1974, César E. Chávez awarded the Martin Luther King Jr. Nonviolent Peace Prize by Coretta Scott King. (see June 5, 1975)
January 15 Peace Art Love Activism
Sara Jane Moore
January 15, 1976: Sara Jane Moore was sentenced to life in prison by Federal district judge Samuel Conti who said that Moore would not have tried to kill President Ford here on Sept. 22 “if we had in this country any effective capital punishment law.” Conti called Moore “a product of a permissive society.” (NYT article) (see alsoLynette Squeaky Frommeand/or Oliver W Sipple) (see February 5, 1979)
January 15 Peace Art Love Activism
Student Rights & Fourth Amendment
January 15, 1985: New Jersey v. T.L.O. (1985)Students have a reduced expectation of privacy in school. A teacher accused “T.L.O.” of smoking in the bathroom. When she denied the allegation, the principal searched her purse and found cigarettes and marijuana paraphernalia. A family court declared T.L.O. a delinquent. The Supreme Court ruled that her rights were not violated since students have reduced expectations of privacy in school. (SR, see July 7, 1986; 4th, see Mar 27)
January 15 Peace Art Love Activism
IRAQ
IRAQ War I
January 15, 1991: The UN deadline for the withdrawal of Iraqi forces from occupied Kuwait expired, preparing the way for the start of Operation Desert Storm. (see Jan 16)
Iraq War II
January 15, 2005: a military court sentenced Army Specialist Charles Graner Jr. to 10 years behind bars for physically and sexually mistreating Iraqis at Abu Ghraib prison. (IW II, see Mar 3; mistreatment, see March 20, 2015)
January 15, 2001: Wikipedia, the free web-based encyclopedia, made its debut. (see Oct 23)
January 15 Peace Art Love Activism
Westboro Baptist Church
January 15, 2006: members of the Westboro Baptist Church (Topeka, Kansas) protested a memorial for Sago Mine disaster victims, claiming that the mining accident was God’s revenge against America for its tolerance of homosexuality. (see March 2, 2011)
January 15 Peace Art Love Activism
Capt Chesley Sullenberger
January 15, 2009: US Airways Capt Chesley Sullenberger guided a jetliner disabled by a bird strike just after takeoff from New York’s LaGuardia Airport to a safe landing in the Hudson River. All 155 people aboard survived.
January 15 Peace Art Love Activism
The Cold War
January 15, 2015: the Obama administration announced a set of new regulations regarding Cuba that eased decades-old restrictions on travel, business and remittances, putting into reality some of the changes promised by President Obama last month when he announced plans to resume normal diplomatic relations with Havana.
Under the new regulations, Americans would be allowed to travel to Cuba for any of a dozen specific reasons without first obtaining a special license from the government. Airlines and travel agents would be allowed to provide service to Cuba without a specific license. And travelers would be permitted to use credit cards and spend money while in the country and bring back up to $400 in souvenirs, including up to $100 in alcohol or tobacco. The new regulations would also make it easier for American telecommunications providers and financial institutions to do business with Cuba. Americans would be allowed to send more money to Cubans, up to $2,000 every three months instead of the $500 then permitted. (NYT video) (see Apr 10)
January 15 Peace Art Love Activism
LGBTQ
Idaho
January 15, 2015: Idaho state officials authorized paying $456,000in legal fees incurred defending Idaho’s ban on same sex marriage, including $401,000 in fees to the attorneys who successfully sued last year to overturn the ban. The fees would be paid from the state’s special Constitutional Defense Fund.
Caspar v. Snyder
January 15, 2015: in Caspar v. SnyderU.S. District Judge Mark Goldsmith ruled that three hundred Michigan same-sex couples had a “fundamental right” for their marriages to be legal, a after the state refused to recognize the unions.
The 16 individuals and about 600 more were married in March when Michigan’s gay marriage ban was struck down. For one day, several county clerks were able to issue licenses to same-sex couples and perform wedding ceremonies before an appeals court stayed the ruling.
Goldsmith wrote, “The same-sex couples who married in Michigan during the brief period when such marriages were authorized acquired a status that state officials may not ignore absent some compelling interest — a constitutional hurdle that the defense does not even attempt to surmount…In these circumstances, what the state has joined together, it may not put asunder.” (see Jan 16)
Fair Housing
January 15, 2019: U.S. District Judge Jean C. Hamilton dismissed a lawsuit that alleged a suburban St. Louis senior living community discriminated against a married lesbian couple by denying them housing.
Hamilton said in the decision that the Fair Housing Act did not protect against discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation. Mary Walsh and Bev Nance sued the Friendship Village location in Sunset Hills in July 2018.
After they submitted their application and a $2,000 deposit, they were notified that their request was denied. They were told Friendship Village’s cohabitation policy defines marriage as a union between one man and one woman, “as marriage is understood in the Bible.” (LGBTQ, see Jan 22; FH, see Jan 25)
January 15 Peace Art Love Activism
DEATH PENALTY
January 15, 2015: the US Supreme Court declined to halt the execution of Oklahoma inmate,Charles Warner, who was convicted of raping and murdering an 11-month-old baby. The court was divided 5-4, with Justice Sonia Sotomayor writing a dissenting opinion. (NYT article) (see Jan 23)
January 15 Peace Art Love Activism
Environmental Issues
January 15, 2018: the majority of members of the National Parks System Advisory Board, which advises the federal government on management of the country’s national parks, jointly resigned to protest Trump administration policies that the board members said had ignored science, squelched efforts to address climate change and undermined environmental protections.
“From all of the events of this past year I have a profound concern that the mission of stewardship, protection, and advancement of our National Parks has been set aside,” wrote Tony Knowles, the head of the advisory board, in a resignation letter that was co-signed by eight other members of the 12-member panel. [NYT report](see Feb 6)
January 15 Peace Art Love Activism
Immigration History/Census
January 15, 2019: U.S. District Judge Jesse Furman of the Southern District of New York blocked the Commerce Department from adding a question on American citizenship to the 2020 census, handing a legal victory to critics who accused the Trump administration of trying to turn the census into a tool to advance Republican political fortunes.
Several states and activists had said immigrants, fearful of volunteering their immigration status to the Trump administration, would refuse to respond. The plaintiffs in the suit ― 18 states, the District of Columbia, several cities and a handful of immigrant rights groups ― argued the Trump administration intended to drive down the response rate among those groups when it added the question. [NYT article] [next IH, see Jan 16; next Census, see Mar 6)
January 15 Peace Art Love Activism
Sexual Abuse of Children
January 15, 2019: the governing body for the Jesuit order in the northeastern United States releaseda list of 50 priests under its jurisdiction who had been credibly accused of sexual misconduct with minors.
All but 15 of the Roman Catholic priests on the list released by the USA Northeast Province of the Society of Jesus were dead, and all of the alleged abuse all took place before 1997. (see Feb 13)
Later that same day, the House voted to send articles of impeachment against President Donald Trump to the Senate for a trial. The House voted 228 to 193 largely along party lines to send the Senate the two articles accusing Trump of abuse of power and obstruction of Congress. [CNN story] (next TI see, Jan 18 or see Trumpfor expanded chronology)
January 15 Peace Art Love Activism
Nuclear/Chemical News
January 15, 2021: North Korea unveiled a new type of submarine-launched ballistic missile, described by state media as “the world’s most powerful weapon”.
Several of the missiles were displayed at a parade overseen by leader Kim Jong-un, reported state media. The weapon’s actual capabilities remain unclear, as it is not known to have been tested.
It also followed a rare political meeting where Mr Kim decried the US as his country’s “biggest enemy.” [BBC article] (next N/C N, see Feb 18)
January 15 Peace Art Love Activism
What's so funny about peace, love, art, and activism?
