Category Archives: Today in history

July 10 Peace Love Art Activism

July 10 Peace Love Art Activism

BLACK HISTORY

Separate Car Act

July 10, 1890: Louisiana governor Francis Nicholls signed the Separate Car Act, which mandated the racial segregation of railroad passengers. [Railroad article] (see Nov 1)

E. Frederic Morrow

July 10 Peace Love Art Activism

July 10, 1955: E Frederic Morrow moved to the White House on this day to become an aide to President Dwight D. Eisenhower and as such he became the first African-American to serve in that capacity. His autobiography vividly describes his difficulties in trying to persuade the administration to take a strong stand on civil rights. Morrow, for example, tried unsuccessfully to get President Eisenhower to issue a statement regarding the brutal murder of Emmett Till, a 14-year-old African-American, in Mississippi on August 28, 1955. He did, however, finally convince Eisenhower to meet with civil rights leaders in the White House, a meeting that occurred on June 23, 1958.  [1994 NYT obit]  (see August 21)

Albany Movement

July 10, 1962: Martin Luther King Jr and Ralph Abernathy, convicted of having violated a street and sidewalk assembly ordinance without a permit on December 16, 1961, went to jail to emphasize their nonviolent defiance of racial barriers. They had been given the choice of a $178 fine each or 45 days in jail. They choose jail. (see Albany for expanded story)

July 10 Peace Love Art Activism

Religion and Public Education

SEPARATION OF CHURCH AND STATE

July 10, 1925: the Scopes trial began with jury selection. Judge John Raulston asks the Rev. Lemuel M. Cartright to open the proceedings with a prayer. (see Scopes for expanded story)

July 10 Peace Love Art Activism

July 10 Music et al

LSD

July 10, 1960: Sidney Cohen’s survey of 5,000 individuals who had taken LSD 25,000 times concluded it was safe. (see June 1961)

Bobby Lewis

July 10 – August 27, 1961: “Tossin’ and Turnin’” by Bobby Lewis #1 Billboard Hot 100.

A Hard Day’s Night

July 10, 1964: recorded 29 Jan, 25 – 27 Feb, 1 Mar and 1 – 4 June 1964 at EMI Studios, London and Pathé Marconi Studios, Paris, Parlophone released A Hard Day’s Night, the Beatles’ third studio album. Side one contained songs from the soundtrack to their film A Hard Day’s Night. United Artists Records had released the American version  two weeks earlier on 26 June 1964 with a different track listing. This was the first Beatles album recorded entirely on four-track tape, allowing for good stereo mixes.

In contrast to their first two albums, John Lennon and Paul McCartney wrote all 13 tracks, showcasing the development of the band’s songwriting talents. (see July 12)

see Rolling Stones for more

July 10 – August 6, 1965: “(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction by the Rolling Stones #1 on the Billboard Hot 100, the first of five #1 Billboard Hot 100 songs in the 1960s.

Beatles VI

July 10 – August 20, 1965: Beatles VI  is the Billboard #1 album. (see July 29)

Third Big Sur Folk Festival

July 10, 1966: The Third Big Sur Folk Festival. (see June 28 – 29, 1967)

Featuring:

  • Joan Baez
  • Judy Collins
  • Mark Spoelstra
  • Malvina Reynolds
  • Nancy Carlen
  • Al Kooper
  • Mimi Fariña
  • panel discussion w Ralph Gleason: “What’s Happening Baby”
The [bumpy] Road to Bethel: July 10, 1969
  • Peter Goodrich and John Roberts meet in Peter Marshall’s office with Charles Baxter, Jeffrey Joerger, and Lee Howard of Food for Love to discuss providing food at the festival. Because of the lack of any other companies offering their services and the late date, Roberts approved Food for Love’s application. (see July 10)
  • the entire production staff met to go over all progress that had been made since they began. Most were pleased with the many tasks accomplished and plans in place. (see  Chronology for expanded story)
Grateful Dead

July 10, 1986: Jerry Garcia went into a five day diabetic coma, resulting in the band withdrawing from their current tour. (see July 29, 1987)

July 10 Peace Love Art Activism

Space Race

July 10, 1962: Telstar satellite launched by NASA. It was the…

  • first active, direct-relay communications satellite
  • first satellite to relay television, telephone and high-speed data communications
  • first transatlantic television [NASA article] (Space race, see Sept 12; relay satellite, see Dec 13; Telstar, see Dec 22)
July 10 Peace Love Art Activism

Feminism

July 10, 1971: more than 200 women — Republicans, Democrats and independents — met to inaugurate a new organization aimed at increasing the number of women holding public office. The group called itself the National Women’s Political Caucus. [NWPC site]  (see Nov 22)

July 10 Peace Love Art Activism

Vietnam

July 10 > 14, 1972: The Democratic National Convention meets in Miami Beach. Senator George McGovern, who backed the immediate and complete withdrawal of U.S. troops from South Vietnam, was nominated for President. He named fellow Senator Thomas Eagleton as his running mate. [NYT article] (see Aug 11)

July 10 Peace Love Art Activism

INDEPENDENCE DAY

July 10, 1973: Bahamas independent of United Kingdom. [Bahamas site] (see Sept 24)

July 10 Peace Love Art Activism

UK rioting

July 10, 1981: three days of rioting that took place in the Handsworth area of Birmingham, England. The disturbances resulted in 121 arrests and 40 injuries to police officers, alongside widespread damage to property. [Birmingham article] (see July 12)

July 10 Peace Love Art Activism

Irish Troubles

July 10, 1981:  funeral for Joe McDonnell. The British Army moved to arrest an IRA firing party at the funeral and seized a number of weapons and made several arrests. Rioting broke out following this incident. (see Troubles for expanded story)

July 10 Peace Love Art Activism

Environmental Issues

July 10, 1985: French Direction Générale de la Sécurité Extérieure agents  (France’s external intelligence agency) bombed and sank the Greenpeace vessel Rainbow Warrior in Auckland harbor. [2015 Guardian article] (see April 23, 1988)

July 10 Peace Love Art Activism

Immigration History

July 10, 2018: facing a legal deadline to return young migrant children separated from their parents at the border, federal officials said that they had reunited four families, with an additional 34 reunions scheduled before the end of the day. The relatively slow pace of unwinding the Trump administration’s family separation policy fell short of an original court order, which had directed that all children under age 5 — a total of 102, by the government’s latest count — be returned to their families by this date.  (see July 14)

July 10 Peace Love Art Activism

FREE SPEECH, US Labor History & Colin Kaepernick

July 10, 2018: the NFL players union filed a grievance over the league’s new requirement that players stand for the national anthem or wait in their dressing rooms, a policy that followed President Donald Trump’s denunciation of pregame protests.

The National Football League said on May 23 it would require any player who did not wish to stand during the playing of “The Star-Spangled Banner” before games to stay off the field until the ceremony ended.

Before the league announced the new policy, the NFL Players Association (NFLPA) had offered to discuss other ways to defuse tensions over the protests, which were prompted by a series of police killings of unarmed black men in Missouri, New York and other cities.

“The union’s claim is that this new policy, imposed by the NFL’s governing body without consultation with the NFLPA, is inconsistent with the collective bargaining agreement and infringes on player rights,” the NFLPA said. (FS, see July 14; LH, see July 17; CK, see July 19)

July 10 Peace Love Art Activism

Cultural Milestone

July 10, 2019: in Puebla, Mexico, Volkswagen made the last Beetle, a third-generation Denim Blue coupe. (next CM, see October 11, 2021)

July 10 Peace Love Art Activism

Women’s Health/Affordable Care Act

July 10, 2020:  US District Judge Catherine Blake in Maryland blocked a new federal regulation that would have required insurers on the Obamacare exchanges that cover abortions to issue separate bills for that coverage.

The decision marked a setback in the Trump administration’s long-standing efforts to limit abortion access through federal programs. Planned Parenthood of Maryland and several individuals who bought health insurance on their states’ exchanges filed the lawsuit in February, with lawyers from Planned Parenthood Federation of America and the American Civil Liberties Union Foundation representing plaintiffs.

Blake found that the rule from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) ran afoul of a section of the Affordable Care Act barring “unreasonable barriers” to health care, since “it makes it harder for consumers to pay for insurance because they must now keep track of two separate bills.”

The insured individuals who helped bring the suit “are in danger of losing non-Hyde abortion coverage if states allow issuers to drop the coverage and if issuers decide that the ‘separate billing’ rule is too burdensome,” Blake wrote. [CBS News article] (next ACA/Healthcare,see July 13; next WH, see July 21)

July 10 Peace Love Art Activism

July 9 Music et al

July 9 Music et al

Roots of Rock

July 9, 1955:  “Rock Around the Clock” became the first rock and roll recording to hit the top of Billboard’s Pop charts, a feat it repeated on charts around the world. (see Aug 21)

July 9 Music et al

Dick Clark

July 9 Music et al

July 9, 1956: Dick Clark took over as the host of Philadelphia’s TV dance show on WFIL, called Bandstand. He got the job after the former host Bob Horn was arrested for DUI. The show would go national on ABC the following year, with the name changed to American Bandstand. (see Sept 9)

July 9 Music et al

Bob Dylan

July 9, 1962: Dylan recorded “Blowin’ In the Wind” A few weeks earlier when he performed it live he stated, “This here ain’t no protest song or anything like that, ’cause I don’t write no protest songs” while onstage at Gerde’s Folk City in Greenwich Village, talking about a song he claims to have written in just 10 minutes. (see July 30)

Cultural Milestone

July 9 Music et al

July 9, 1962: the first one-man exhibition for artist Andy Warhol opens at Ferus Gallery in Los Angeles, consisting of 32 silk-screened portraits of Campbell’s soup cans. (see March 5, 1963)

The Beatles

see Paperback Writer for more

July 9 – 15, 1966: “Paperback Writer” #1 on the Billboard Hot 100. From Rolling Stone magazine: In the annals of Beatles singles, we have what we might think of as a game-starter in “Please Please Me,” a game-ender in something like “Let It Be,” and a host of game-changers, the most important of which is rarely discussed as one of the band’s top efforts.

And yet, “Paperback Writer” – “just a little bluesy song,” according to its modest/understating author, Paul McCartney – which was cut 50 years ago in mid-April 1966, and released May 30th of that year, is perhaps the single that best suggests how the Beatles were about to change things up in their most radical way yet.

July 9 Music et al

July 9 Peace Love Art Activism

July 9 Peace Love Art Activism

Feminism

Fourteenth Amendment

July 9 Peace Love Art Activism

July 9, 1868: the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution ratified, explicitly protecting the voting rights of only the “male inhabitants” of the United States. This marks the first instance in which the Constitution clearly links citizenship and voting rights to gender.

The amendment extended the Fifth Amendment’s protections to the states. The Fourteenth Amendment states: “nor shall any state deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.” The Fourteenth Amendment will be cited in the June 29, 1972 Supreme Court case Furman v. Georgia which ruled the death penalty unconstitutional as administered. The Fourteenth Amendment was also cited in the Mar. 1, 2005 Supreme Court case Roper v. Simmons which ruled the death penalty unconstitutional for offenders under the age of 18.  (BH, see Sept 3; DP, see August 6, 1890; VR, see April 1869)

Matilda Joslyn Gage

July 9 Peace Love Art Activism

In 1869 Gage helped found New York State Woman Suffrage Association; served as president for nine years.

Matilda Joslyn Gage continued

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.]

Gage writes about American Indians

In the 1870s 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. (Feminsim, see February 3, 1870;  see Gage for expanded story)

Emma Goldman

July 9 Peace Love Art Activism

July 9, 1917: a jury found Emma Goldman and Alexander Berkman guilty of conspiracy against the selective draft law in NYC. They were fined $10,000, sentenced to two years’ imprisonment, and immediately transported to federal penitentiaries: Berkman is sent to Atlanta State Penitentiary in Georgia and Goldman is taken to Jefferson City Penitentiary in Missouri. (see Sept 11)

Florence Blanchfield

July 9 Peace Love Art Activism

July 9, 1947:  In a ceremony held at the Pentagon in Arlington, Virginia, General Dwight D. Eisenhower appointed Florence Blanchfield to be a lieutenant colonel in the U.S. Army, making her the first woman in U.S. history to hold permanent military rank. A member of the Army Nurse Corps since 1917, Blanchfield secured her commission following the passage of the Army-Navy Nurse Act of 1947 by Congress. Blanchfield had served as superintendent of the Army Nurse Corps during World War II and was instrumental in securing passage of the Army-Navy Nurse Act, which was advocated by Representative Frances Payne Bolton. In 1951, Blanchfield received the Florence Nightingale Award from the International Red Cross. In 1978, a U.S. Army hospital in Fort Campbell, Kentucky, was named in her honor. [1971 NYT obit] (see December 2, 1949)

Alice Paul dies

July 9, 1977: from the New York Times. “Alice Paul, a pioneer of the women’s movement who helped lead the fight for women’s suffrage and who, more than 50 years ago, helped draft the forerunner to today’s proposed equal rights amendment to the Constitution, died yesterday at the Quaker Greenleaf Extension Home in Moorestown, N.J. She was 92 years old.” (see April 19, 1978)

July 9 Peace Love Art Activism

BLACK HISTORY

James H Meredith

July 9, 1963: following the June 12 assassination of Medgar Evers, James Meredith had issued a statement that read in part: The blame clearly rests with the Governors of the Southern states and their defiant and provocative actions’ it rests with the blind courts and prejudiced juries; it is known by both blacks and whites that no white man will be punished for any crime against a Negro. He went on to say that nothing had happened to the guilty parties in the September 30 riots and called for “a general boycott of everything possible by all Negroes within the boundaries of the State of Mississippi.” On July 9, Governor Ross Barnett asked the Federal Court permission to expel Meredith for those statements. (see Aug 18)

Blacks cannot congregate

July 9, 1964: Dallas County (Alabama) Circuit Court Judge James Hare issued an injunction effectively forbidding gatherings of three or more people to discuss civil rights or voter registration in Selma. (see July 12)

137 SHOTS

July 9, 2015: Cuyahoga County prosecutor Tim McGinty offered to drop charges against five white police supervisors accused of failing to stop a car chase that ended in a deadly 137-shot barrage of police gunfire and the deaths of two unarmed black people if they’re willing to say they endangered the public and meet other conditions, attorneys for two supervisors said Wednesday. Both attorneys said their clients have rejected the deal and are prepared to go to trial. (see 137 for expanded story)

Stop and Frisk Policy

July 9, 2015: according to Peter Zimroth, a federal monitor appointed to oversee court-ordered changes to the department regarding stop-and-frisk, the New York Police Department may not be accurately reporting the number of stop-and-frisk encounters, casting doubt on the extent of the decline in the crime-fighting tactic.

In his first progress report since his appointment, Zimroth wrote that an NYPD audit showed that some officers were conducting street stops without documenting them correctly or weren’t documenting them at all in some cases.

He also said in the 87-page report that interviews and conversations with NYPD members of varying ranks found that some officers may not be making stops that would be lawful because they aren’t sure what they are authorized to do and they fear “legal liability” and discipline. (see July 28)

July 9 Peace Love Art Activism

see July 9 Music et al for more

Roots of Rock

July 9, 1955:  “Rock Around the Clock” became the first rock and roll recording to hit the top of Billboard’s Pop charts, a feat it repeated on charts around the world. (see Aug 21)

Dick Clark

July 9, 1956: Dick Clark took over as the host of Philadelphia’s TV dance show on WFIL, called Bandstand. He got the job after the former host Bob Horn was arrested for DUI. The show would go national on ABC the following year, with the name changed to American Bandstand. (see Sept 9)

Bob Dylan

July 9, 1962: Dylan recorded “Blowin’ In the Wind” A few weeks earlier when he performed it live he stated, “This here ain’t no protest song or anything like that, ’cause I don’t write no protest songs” while onstage at Gerde’s Folk City in Greenwich Village, talking about a song he claims to have written in just 10 minutes. (see July 30)

Cultural Milestone

July 9, 1962: the first one-man exhibition for artist Andy Warhol opens at Ferus Gallery in Los Angeles, consisting of 32 silk-screened portraits of Campbell’s soup cans. (see March 5, 1963)

The Beatles

July 9 – 15, 1966: “Paperback Writer” #1 on the Billboard Hot 100. (see Paperback for more; next Beatles, see July 29)

July 9 Peace Love Art Activism

Nuclear/Chemical News

July 9, 1955: Bertrand Russell issued the Russell–Einstein Manifesto. It highlighted the dangers posed by nuclear weapons and called for world leaders to seek peaceful resolutions to international conflict. It’s Resolution read:

We invite this Congress, and through it the scientists of the world and the general public, to subscribe to the following resolution: “In view of the fact that in any future world war nuclear weapons will certainly be employed, and that such weapons threaten the continued existence of mankind, we urge the Governments of the world to realize, and to acknowledge publicly, that their purpose cannot be furthered by a world war, and we urge them, consequently, to find peaceful means for the settlement of all matters of dispute between them.”  [Russell-Eiunstein Manifesto] (Red Scare, see “in August” ; Nuclear, see Aug 8)

July 9 Peace Love Art Activism

FREE SPEECH

American Nazi Party

July 9, 1978: American Nazi Party held a rally at Marquette Park, Chicago Two dozen Nazis, under heavy police protection, assembled for less than an hour. [NYT archive article] (see June 25, 1982)

Trump Twitter

July 9, 2019:  in Knight First Amendment Institute, et al v. Donald J. Trump, et al, a three-judge panel on the US Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit ruled unanimously that President Trump had been violating the Constitution by blocking people from following his Twitter account because they criticized or mocked him.

The panel ruled that because Trump used Twitter to conduct government business, he could not exclude some Americans from reading his posts — and engaging in conversations in the replies to them — because he did not like their views

Writing for the panel, Judge Barrington D. Parker noted that the conduct of the government and its officials were subject to a “wide-open, robust debate” that “generates a level of passion and intensity the likes of which have rarely been seen.”

The First Amendment prohibits an official who uses a social media account for government purposes from excluding people from an “otherwise open online dialogue” because they say things the official disagrees with, he wrote. [NYT article] (next FS, see Sept 24)

July 9 Peace Love Art Activism

UK

July 9, 1981: Sheffield riot occurred in and around Sheffield Town Hall. The exact cause was unclear. 14 policemen and 5 civilians were injured, 20 arrests were made, and several offices inside the Town Hall were badly damaged. (see July 10)

July 9 Peace Love Art Activism

CLINTON IMPEACHMENT

July 9, 1998: Monica Lewinsky announces she is prepared to cooperate in the Maryland investigation into the legality of Linda Tripp’s tapes of phone conversations as Tripp appears before the grand jury for the fourth time. (see Clinton for expanded story)

July 9 Peace Love Art Activism

INDEPENDENCE DAY

July 9, 2011: South Sudan independent from Sudan. [NYT article]

July 9 Peace Love Art Activism

Environmental Issues

July 9, 2018: Starbucks announced that it would stop using disposable plastic straws by 2020, eliminating more than one billion straws a year. Instead, Starbucks, which had more than 28,000 stores worldwide, would use recyclable, strawless lids on most of its iced drinks. The Frappuccino was the one exception: it will have a straw made from either paper or compostable plastic. (see July 19)

July 9 Peace Love Art Activism

Immigration History

July 9, 2018:

  • in a ruling that countered nearly every argument posed by the Justice Department, Judge Dolly M. Gee of the Federal District Court in Los Angeles held that there was no basis to amend a longstanding consent decree that required children to be released to licensed care programs within 20 days. The government said that long-term confinement was the only way to avoid separating families when parents were detained on criminal charges. Gee said the administration’s request to modify the decree, the 1997 Flores agreement, was “a cynical attempt” to shift immigration policymaking to the courts in the wake of “over 20 years of congressional inaction and ill-considered executive action that have led to the current stalemate.”
  • federal authorities prepared to unspool the administration’s family separation program, with 54 young migrants scheduled to be returned to their parents as a result of an earlier court ruling from a federal judge in San Diego. The secretive operation set to unfold on July 10 involved transporting children hundreds of miles to undisclosed locations around the country. (see July 10)
2020 Census

July 9, 2019: United States District Judge Jesse M. Furman in New York rejected the Justice Department’s request to switch its legal team midway through a case challenging the Trump administration’s effort to add a citizenship question to the 2020 census.

Furman’s sharply worded order further hobbled an already struggling battle by the administration to save the citizenship question. Efforts to block it had become a crucial political issue as the next census — and the redrawing of political boundaries in 2021 that would use fresh census data — drew near. [NYT article] (next IH, & Census, see July 11)

July 9 Peace Love Art Activism

Native Americans

July 9, 2020:  in McGirt v. Oklahoma, the Supreme Court ruled by a 5-4 margin that nearly half of Oklahoma is an Indian reservation in the eyes of the criminal-justice system, preventing state authorities from prosecuting offenses there that involve Native Americans.

The decision was potentially one of the most consequential legal victories for Native Americans in decades. It was written by Justice Neil Gorsuch, a Westerner who has sided with tribes in previous cases and joined the court’s more liberal members.

“Today we are asked whether the land these treaties promised remains an Indian reservation for purposes of federal criminal law,” Justice Gorsuch wrote. “Because Congress has not said otherwise, we hold the government to its word.” [NY Times article]  (next NA, see July 13); see June 29, 2022 for SCOTUS decision limited this)

July 9 Peace Love Art Activism