Category Archives: Today in history

September 1 Peace Love Art Activism

September 1 Peace Love Art Activism

Immigration History

September 1 Peace Love Art Activism

September 1, 1884: during the week of September 1, 1884, Joseph and Mary Tape, immigrants from China who had lived in the United States for over a decade, attempted to enroll their eight-year-old, American-born daughter, Mamie Tape, in San Francisco’s Spring Valley School. Principal Jennie Hurley denied the Tapes’ request on the basis of their race, and State Education Superintendent William Welcher supported that decision. Welcher justified the denial in part by noting that even the California Constitution described Chinese-Americans as “dangerous to the well-being of the state.”

In response to the school’s refusal to admit their daughter, Mr. and Mrs. Tape sued. (Chinese American site article) (see January 9, 1885)

September 1 Peace Love Art Activism

BLACK HISTORY

Separate Car Act

September 1, 1891: in response to the Separate Car Act and increasing violence against people of color in the South, a group made up mostly of “Creoles of color” convened at the offices of The Crusader, a black weekly in New Orleans. The paper’s chief editorial contributor, Rodolphe Desdunes, contended that the “law is unconstitutional. It is like a slap in the face of every member of the black race.” The group, called the Citizens Committee, devised a test case to prove the unconstitutionality of the law. (text from The Way It Was In the South)  (see March 9, 1892)

Separate high schools

September 1, 1926: Arizona opened separate high schools for African-American students, separating black and white students. (Arizona State Archives article) (see March 7, 1927)

Josh White

September 1, 1950: Josh White was a noted African-American blues and folk singer who was also outspoken on civil rights and other social issues. On June 22, 1950, he had been named in the notorious report Red Channels as a Communist sympathizer. As a result, he was called before the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) to testify on this day. White did not back down from his political commitments, and in fact turned the tables on HUAC by affirming his support for civil rights and reading the entire lyrics of the famous Billie Holiday song, Strange Fruit, into the Congressional Record.  (Green Left Weekly article) (see Dec 10)

Sarah Keys v. Carolina Coach Company

September 1, 1953 : in Sarah Keys v. Carolina Coach Company, Keys became the first African American to challenge “separate but equal” in bus segregation before the Interstate Commerce Commission. The initial reviewing commissioner declined to hear her case, but Keys prevailed in front of the full commission. (Army dot mil article) (see Oct 8)

Emmett Till/fully prosecute

September 1, 1955:  Mississippi Governor Hugh White ordered  local officials to “fully prosecute” Milam and Bryant in the Till case. 

Emmett Till/Roy Bryant

September 1, 1994: Roy Bryant Sr., 63, died at the Baptist Hospital in Jackson, Mississippi of cancer. (BH, see Mar 16; see Till for expanded story)

Huckleberry Finn

September 1 Peace Love Art Activism

September 1, 1955:  a CBS television production of Mark Twain’s classic American novel, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, omitted the character Nigger Jim, who is central to the novel, and also any mention of slavery. (see Sept 2)

School Desegregation

September 1, 1956: Clinton, Tennessee’s Clinton High School began to desegregate in the fall of 1956. The integration of Clinton High School was among the first Tennessee public schools to do so. Anti-integration campaigners from inside and outside Clinton protested the decision to integrate the high school. They were inspired by New Jersey white supremacist John Kasper and Asa Carter both of whom spoke publicly in Clinton on September 1 against the decision to integrate the high school. After violence was narrowly averted on the lawn of the Anderson County Courthouse on September 1, National Guard troops were called into the city for two months to keep order.

The twelve black students who attended Clinton High School that fall became known as the “Clinton 12”. On the morning of each school day they walked together down Broad Street from Foley Hill to Clinton High. (next BH and next SD,  see Sept 29)

Race revolts

September 1, 1964: Harlem Riot, A grand jury report cleared Lieutenant Gilligan of any wrongdoing in the shooting death of James Powell. (BH, Sept 9; Harlem Riot, see Dec 20)

Orangeburg Massacre

September 1, 1973: a NYT article reported that “Cleveland L. Sellers Jr., a black activist, declared upon his release from prison this week that he would seek a new investigation into what he termed the “Orangeburg massacre.” “ (BH, see Sept 27; last OM entry)

September 1 Peace Love Art Activism

US Labor History

Labor Day

September 1, 1894: Congress declares Labor Day a national holiday. (see Dec 15)

Keating-Owen Child Labor Act

September 1, 1916: the Keating-Owen Child Labor Act, banning articles produced by child labor from being sold in interstate commerce, becomes law. [Our Documents article]  (Labor, see Sept 3; Child Labor Act, see June 3, 1918)

César E. Chávez

September 1, 1979: Chavez announced settlement of 8-month lettuce strike against Sun Harvest Inc as a “victory for both the union and the company.” The union continued its strike against five other growers in the Salinas valley. (see September 21, 1983)

September 1 Peace Love Art Activism

TERRORISM

September 1, 1926: Ku Klux Klan members in Virginia kidnapped Father Vincent B. Warren, a Catholic priest, because he had been teaching African-American children in Princess Anne County, VA.  They took him to a rural area and threatened Warren with guns and the prospect of being burned alive. The men released Warren several hours later.(altdaily.com article) (see November 25, 1930)

September 1 Peace Love Art Activism

Fair Housing

Housing Act of 1937

September 1 Peace Love Art Activism

September 1, 1937: the Housing Act of 1937, sometimes called the Wagner-Steagall Act, provided for subsidies to be paid from the U.S. government to local public housing agencies (LHAs) to improve living conditions for low-income families. The act created the United States Housing Authority within the United States Department of the Interior. The act built on the National Housing Act of 1934, which created the Federal Housing Administration.  (Living New Deal article)

Mutual Ownership Defense

From 1940 – 1942: the Mutual Ownership Defense Housing Division of the Federal Works Agency part of the United States government, operating under the leadership of Colonel Lawrence Westbrook, was an attempt by the federal government to respond to the housing needs facing defense workers and develop housing projects for middle-income families utilizing the cooperative/mutual housing ownership concept. Under pressure by entrenched real estate interests and intense and competing resource needs caused by World War II, the Division lasted for only two years. As stated in the Second Annual Report of the Federal Works Agency: “As a group, defense workers were also poor candidates for individual home ownership because the duration of their employment was uncertain, and because few of them had savings adequate to finance the downpayment on new homes. Recognizing these characteristics, attention was given early to some special form of housing to meet squarely the economic problem of the defense worker and one which, at the same time, might lead to an ultimate solution of the housing problems of millions of other American families of similar economic status.”(howderfamily.com article) (see November 1, 1943)

September 1 Peace Love Art Activism

Japanese Internment Camps

September 1, 1942: in the first specific ruling on the constitutionality of actions by President Roosevelt, by Congress, and by Lieut. Gen. John L. DeWitt in connection with evacuation of Japanese on the Pacific Coast, federal Judge Martin I Welsh of District Court of Northern California held that the Army was within its rights in evacuating, and in keeping in protective custody, all American-born Japanese as well as Japanese nationals. (see Japanese for expanded story)

September 1 Peace Love Art Activism

Cold War

ANZUS

September 1 Peace Love Art Activism

September 1, 1951:   Australia, New Zealand, and the United States signed ANZUS, a mutual defense accord similar to NATO in Europe. The alliance between the U.S. and New Zealand, however, has been suspended since 1985, after the institution of New Zealand’s nuclear-free zone prohibited U.S. nuclear warships from entering New Zealand’s ports. (US DoS article) (see Oct 30)

Nuclear/Chemical News

September 1, 1961: the Soviet Union ended a moratorium on atomic bomb testing with an above-ground nuclear explosion in central Asia. The USSR had ended speculation the day before in a TASS broadcast that announced it had resumed atomic testing, and by 5 Sep, had conducted three nuclear weapons tests. President Kennedy ordered the resumption of U.S. underground weapons testing. (CW & Nuclear, see Sept 15; testing, see August 5, 1963)

September 1 Peace Love Art Activism

September 1 Music et al

Jimi Hendrix

September 1, 1957: Jimi Hendrix, 14, attended an Elvis Presley concert at Sicks Stadium in Seattle. (Elvis, see Dec 20; JH, see May 31, 1961)

Sheila

September 1 – 14, 1962: “Sheila” by Tommy Roe #1 Billboard Hot 100.

Brian Epstein

September 1, 1967: the Beatles held a meeting at Paul McCartney’s house in London to decide upon their next course of action following the death of manager Brian Epstein. They decided to postpone their planned trip to India and to begin the already-delayed production of the Magical Mystery Tour movie. They had two songs already recorded for the movie, ‘Magical Mystery Tour’ and ‘Your Mother Should Know’. (see Sept 11)

Roots of Rock

September 1 Peace Love Art Activism

September 1, 1995: in Cleveland, OH, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum ribbon cutting ceremony took place. The museum officially opened the next day. (see March 18, 2017)

September 1 Peace Love Art Activism

Vietnam

September 1, 1966: the Joint Chiefs of Staff granted approval of the  Operation Popeye project (next Vietnam, see October; see OP for expanded story)

SEPARATION OF CHURCH AND STATE

September 1, 1967: the repeal of Tennessee’s Butler Act forbidding the teaching of evolution went into effect. (see Scopes for expanded story) 

September 1 Peace Love Art Activism

Stop and Frisk Policy

September 1, 1971:  Criminal Procedure Law 140.50 went into effect, which governs Terry-stops, or stop and frisks. (see June 15, 1976)

September 1 Peace Love Art Activism

Consumer Protection

September 1, 1998: the Intermodal Surface Transportation Efficiency Act of 1991 went into effect. The law required that all cars and light trucks sold in the United States have air bags on both sides of the front seat. (US DoT article) (see March 30, 1999)

September 1 Peace Love Art Activism

Assisted Suicide

September 1, 1998:  Michigan’s second law outlawing physician-assisted suicide goes into effect. (see Kevorkian for expanded story)

September 1 Peace Love Art Activism

Hurricane Katrina

September 1, 2005: President Bush appeared on Good Morning America, and said that he understood the frustration of Katrina victims, many of whom are still waiting for food, water, and other aid. “I fully understand people wanting things to have happened yesterday,” Bush said. “I understand the anxiety of people on the ground. … So there is frustration. But I want people to know there’s a lot of help coming.” (see Sept 2)

September 1 Peace Love Art Activism

McCain/Palin

September 1 – 4, 2008 – Republican National Convention held in St Paul, MN. John McCain and Sarah Palin nominated for President and Vice-President.

September 1 Peace Love Art Activism

Women’s Health

September 1, 2014: U.S. District Judge John deGravelles temporarily blocked Louisiana from enforcing its restrictive new abortion law, but lawyers and advocates appeared to disagree about whether the judge’s order affects doctors at all five abortion clinics in the state or only those at three clinics whose lawsuit challenges the measure.

   Judge deGravelles wrote that authorities could enforce the law until he held a hearing on whether an order to block it is needed while the case remained in court.

The law required doctors who performed abortions to have admitting privileges to a hospital within 30 miles of their clinics. The lawsuit claimed doctors haven’t had enough time to obtain the privileges and the law likely would close all five clinics. [NPR story] (see Oct 2)

September 1 Peace Love Art Activism

LGBTQ

September 1, 2015: Rowan County (Kentucky) Clerk Kim Davis denied licenses to gay couples saying she was acting “under God’s authority,” just hours after the Supreme Court refused to support her position.

In a raucous scene in this little town, two same-sex couples walked into the Rowan County Courthouse, trailed by television cameras and chanting protesters on both sides of the issue, only to be turned away by the county clerk, Kim Davis.

As one couple, David Ermold and David Moore, tried to engage her in an argument, Ms. Davis said several times that her office would not issue any marriage licenses. “Under whose authority?” Mr. Ermold asked.

 “Under God’s authority,” she replied. [NYT article]  (see Sept 3)

September 1 Peace Love Art Activism

FREE SPEECH

Colin Kaepernick

September 1, 2016: Kaepernick took a knee during the anthem and teammate Eric Reid joined him. This was the first time during his protest, Kaepernick wasn’t alone.

                Also, Jeremy Lane of the Seattle Seahawks sits during the national anthem

Lane became the first non-teammate to join Kaepernick in protest. He sat on the bench prior to the national anthem in Oakland, just minutes after Kaepernick and Reid took a knee during the anthem in San Diego.

                “I wasn’t trying to say anything. Just standing behind Kaepernick,” Lane said following the game. He added that he would keep doing it until he felt like justice was served. (FS & CK, see Sept 4)

September 1 Peace Love Art Activism

1969 Wonderland Pop Festival

1969 Wonderland Pop Festival

August 13 – 14, 1969
Wonderland Gardens, London, Ontario

1969 festival #33

1969 Wonderland Pop Festival

Well, here’s another 1969 festival that is a little one and likely why little is known about it.  Here’s what I’ve found:

1969 Wonderland Pop Festival

Dennis Dunaway’s story

From the Alternative Control siteDennis Dunaway is the bassist from the original Alice Cooper lineup. He has a Wonderland Pop Festival story that includes Woodstock.

On the afternoon of July 26th, 1969, the Alice Cooper group played the Eugene Pop Festival at the University of Oregon with the Doors, the Youngbloods, the Byrds, Them and others. Nearby Creswell was where I spent my childhood, and where my grandparents still had the farm where I had spent the summer of ’64 working to get the money to buy my first bass. So my Grandma came to the show, and afterwards the band followed her back to the farm for a delicious home cooked meal. Then my Grandpa loaded the outrageous looking Alice Cooper group into the back of his pickup and took us around to meet his neighbors. They all asked if we were from the “Hippy Farm,” which we soon found out was a nearby commune owned by Ken Kesey who wrote One Flew Over TheCukoo’s Nest. So after we bid my grandparents farewell, the band went to visit Kesey. But it looked like the few people stirring were recovering from a wild night. One guy sat by a smoldering camp fire with a mic plugged into an amp attached to an orange extension cord that snaked all the way back to the house. Loudly through the microphone, he explained that the bus that the two other hippies were painting psychedelic patterns on was about to be driven across the country to upstate New York for a big music festival. He loudly said it would be the biggest festival of them all. Two weeks later (August 13th), we were opening for The Mothers of Invention at the Wonderland Pop Festival in London, Ontario. Alice and I asked Frank Zappa why we weren’t playing at the big music festival in New York that weekend? Frank said, “Because we don’t want to.”

1969 Wonderland Pop Festival

From the Original Glen Buxton site

Glen Buxton was the Alice Cooper guitarist: Review in the London Free Press, August 15, 1969. The headline reads “Wonderland ‘rocked’ by pop festival”.

The festival ran 13th and 14th Aug. Alice Cooper gets the biggest mention in the review:

“Alice Cooper stomped on a metal satchel, speared the big bass drum, threw microphones and stands on the stage, drummed out all the violent motions of war, and died.

“It was a groovy scene. And it happened in London.

“Alice Cooper–it’s the name of a light-popping, five-man rock group from Arizona–was one of six groups on stage Thursday at Wonderland, wrapping up London’s first pop festival.”

1969 Wonderland Pop Festival

A little bit of help?

Sorry nothing else, but as always let me know if you know something. Thanks.

1969 Wonderland Pop Festival

Next 1969 festival (other than Woodstock): Bullfrog 3 (2 )Festival

August 2 Peace Love Art Activism

August 2 Peace Love Art Activism

Native Americans

August 2 Peace Love Art Activism

August 2, 1874: gold discovered in the Black Hills of western South Dakota during an expedition led by Colonel Custer. The land belonged to the Sioux but was invaded by prospectors. Sioux leaders Crazy Horse and Sitting Bull retaliated. (Gold Rush Nuggets dot com article) (see June 17, 1876)

August 2 Peace Love Art Activism

Black History

August 2, 1900: North Carolina approved a constitutional amendment that required residents to pass a literacy test in order to register to vote. Under the provision, illiterate registrants with a relative who had voted in an election prior to the year 1863 were exempt from the requirement.

These provisions effectively disenfranchised most of the state’s African-American voting population. At the same time, the rules preserved the voting rights of most of the state’s poor and uneducated white residents—who were much more likely to have a relative eligible to vote in 1863, before the abolition of slavery and passage of the 14th and 15th Amendments. To the drafters and supporters of the amendment, this outcome was by design. [EJI article] (next BH, see Nov 16)

Jersey City revolt

August 2, 1964: the Jersey City Riots began when police attempted to arrest Dolores Shannon, a 26-year-old black woman, in the Booker T. Washington housing project for alleged disorderly conduct. Walter Mays, 34, a black man sitting on his nearby porch, objected that police were handling Ms. Shannon too harshly. Though police claimed Mr. Mays attacked them, witnesses insisted police physically attacked Mr. Mays and then arrested him. A crowd of black people who had gathered at the scene chanted “police brutality!” in protest, and responding patrolmen were pelted with rocks and garbage. In the three days of riots that followed, black community members angered by police mistreatment and economic depression stoned cars and looted from local stores.

Experiencing the most extreme impacts of the city’s economic downturn, Jersey City’s African American community of 280,000 people was primarily comprised of low-income families living in racially segregated neighborhoods plagued by police brutality, limited recreational resources, and poor environmental maintenance from the city government. When the riots erupted, leaders from the local NAACP chapter and the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) stepped forward to mediate between the African American community and Jersey City authorities led by Mayor Thomas J. Whelan. (2017 Jersey Journal article) (see Aug 3)

Rainey Pool Murder

August 2, 1999: Joe Oliver Watson entered a guilty plea for manslaughter in the Pool case. (Northeastern University article) (BH & RP, see Nov 10 – 13, 1999)

BLACK & SHOT/Eric Garner

August 2, 2017: according to lawyers involved in the case, a Staten Island (NY) judge approved nearly $4 million in payments to the family of Eric Garner from a $5.9 million wrongful death settlement with the city. [NY Post article] (B & S, see Sept 12; Garner, see April 20, 2018)

August 2 Peace Love Art Activism

Cannabis

1937 Marijuana Tax Act

August 2, 1937: The 1937 Marijuana Tax Act signed. It is widely regarded as a major milestone in the U.S. policy of criminalizing drugs, which escalated into a “war on drugs” in the 1970s — resulting in many civil liberties violations. The law was prompted in part by a national panic over the dangers of marijuana, as can be seen in the now famous 1936 film Reefer Madness (Leafly dot com article) (see CC for expanded chronology) 

Illinois

August 2, 2018: Illinois Gov. Bruce Rauner (R) signed HB 4870 into law. The bill required schools to let parents or guardians administer medical cannabis to children at school.  (see CCC for expanded chronology)

August 2 Peace Love Art Activism

Nuclear News

Einstein

August 2, 1939: Albert Einstein signed a letter to President Franklin D. Roosevelt urging creation of an atomic weapons research program. (text via Atomic Archive) (see December 2, 1942)

Cold War agreement terminated

August 2, 2019: the United States terminated a major treaty of the Cold War, the Intermediate Nuclear Forces agreement, and planned to start testing a new class of missiles within a month.

The new missiles were unlikely to be deployed to counter the treaty’s other nuclear power, Russia, which the United States said for years was in violation of the accord. Instead, the first deployments were likely to be intended to counter China, which had amassed an imposing missile arsenal and was now seen as a much more formidable long-term strategic rival than Russia. [NYT article] (next N/C, see Sept 20; next CW, see July 12, 2021)

August 2 Peace Love Art Activism

Cold War

August 2 Peace Love Art Activism

August 2, 1945: the Potsdam Conference ended with the Potsdam Agreement that organized the division and reconstruction of Europe after World War II. The US, France, Great Britain, and the Soviet Union decided to split Germany’s capital, Berlin, into four zones. The Allied powers also agree to start legal trials at Nuremberg of Nazi war criminals. (Office of he Historian article) (see August 6, 1945)

August 2 Peace Love Art Activism

August 2 Music et al

Robert Zimmerman

August 2, 1962: Robert Zimmerman changed his name to Bob Dylan. [Ultimate Classic Rock article] (see Dylan for expanded early chronology)

Dylan attends HS reunion

August 2, 1969: returning to his hometown of Hibbing, MN, Dylan attended the 10-year reunion for Hibbing High’s Class of 1959 at the local Moose Lodge. While there, he brought Sara to see his boyhood home (Bob’s mother no longer lived there) and also got together with some old friends and formed an ad hoc band, The Chartbusters and played a couple of parties in St Cloud, MN. Each of the member had a pseudonym, Dylan’s was Jack Smith. (see August 15 Woodstock notes)

The Road to Bethel

August 2, 1969: Town of Bethel Building Inspector Donald Clark sent letter to Woodstock Ventures stating that he has lifted the Stop Order against it and that all permits would be issued pending approval by the departments of health and agriculture. (see Chronology for expanded story)

William S Burroughs

August 2 Peace Love Art Activism

August 2, 1997: William S. Burroughs died. (see December 22, 2014)

August 2 Peace Love Art Activism

Vietnam

August 2 Peace Love Art Activism

August 2, 1964: Gulf of Tonkin incident.  The first sea “battle” between USS Maddox and North Vietnamese Navy torpedo boats. (see Tonkin for expanded story)

August 2 Peace Love Art Activism

Irish Troubles

August 2, 1981, Irish Troubles:  the eighth hunger striker died. Kieran Doherty (25) died after 73 days on hunger strike. (see Troubles for expanded story)

August 2 Peace Love Art Activism

Iraq War I

August 2, 1990: Iraq invades Kuwait. (Nation article) (see Aug 6)

August 2 Peace Love Art Activism

Deepwater Horizon Spill

August 2, 2010: Flow Rate Technical Group reported that the well initially was dumping 62,000 barrels of oil per day initially after the spill and that it dwindled to 53,000 barrels when it was capped as the well was depleted. This means that 4.9 million barrels were went into the Gulf (see July 2, 2015)

August 2 Peace Love Art Activism

Death Penalty

Delaware

August 2, 2016: the Delaware Supreme Court ruled the state’s death penalty law was unconstitutional. The court said Delaware’s current capital punishment statute violates the U.S. Constitution by giving judges, and not juries, the final say to impose a death sentence. (NY Times article) (see Nov 9)

Pope Francis

August 2, 2018: in a major shift in Roman Catholic teaching on the issue, Pope Francis declared the death penalty inadmissible in all cases “because it is an attack on the inviolability and dignity of the person,”

Francis, who had spoken out against capital punishment before — including in 2015 in an address to Congress — added the change to the Catechism of the Catholic Church — the compendium of Catholic beliefs.

The pontiff said the church would work “with determination” for the abolition of capital punishment worldwide.

Previously, the catechism had allowed the death penalty in some cases, if it was “the only practicable way to defend the lives of human beings effectively against the aggressor,” even if in reality “cases of absolute necessity for suppression of the offender today are very rare, if not practically nonexistent.” (see Aug 14)

August 2 Peace Love Art Activism

Immigration History

August 2, 2017: President Trump supported a proposal to slash legal immigration to the United States in half within a decade by sharply curtailing the ability of American citizens and legal residents to bring family members into the country.

The plan would enact the most far-reaching changes to the system of legal immigration in decades and represented the president’s latest effort to stem the flow of newcomers to the United States. Since taking office, he had barred many visitors from select Muslim-majority countries, limited the influx of refugees, increased immigration arrests and pressed to build a wall along the southern border.

In asking Congress to curb legal immigration, Mr. Trump intensified a debate about national identity, economic growth, worker fairness and American values that animated his campaign last year. Critics said the proposal would undercut the fundamental vision of the United States as a haven for the poor and huddled masses, while the president and his allies said the country had taken in too many low-skilled immigrants for too long to the detriment of American workers.  (2017 NYT article) (see Aug 25)

August 2 Peace Love Art Activism

Environmental Issues

August 2, 2018the White House announced that it was moving ahead on its much-anticipated plan to roll back the fuel economy mandate set by the Obama administration. The move would likely mean fewer high-efficiency, zero-pollution cars on the road.

The previous guidelines, which were reached during Obama’s first term, call for automakers to steadily reach a fleet average of 54.5 miles per gallon by 2025 — though with credits and other modifications, the actual figure is expected to wind up in the low to mid-40 mpg range. This announcement meant the new standard would be frozen at 2020 levels, around 37 mpg. (see Aug 22)

August 2 Peace Love Art Activism