I try to be precise and factual with my the many events I attach to a date, but sometimes the best I can find is that something occurred in a month. Such are today’s entries. All the following happened in some past April. If you have the actual date, please let me know.
April Peace Love Art Activism
BLACK HISTORY
Dred Scott
In April 1838: the Scotts joined Dr & Mrs Emerson in Louisiana. When the Scotts arrived in Louisiana they might have sued for their freedom in that state. For more than twenty years Louisiana courts had upheld the freedom claims of slaves who had lived in free jurisdictions. Had the Scotts claimed their freedom in Louisiana in 1838, theirs would have been an open-and-shut case. But, once again, they did not seek their freedom. It is likely that they simply had no knowledge that the Louisiana courts routinely freed slaves who had lived in free jurisdictions. (BH, seeSeptember 3, 1838; see Scotts for expanded story)
School Desegregation
In April 1850: the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court issued its ruling in Roberts v. Boston regarding Sarah Roberts, a black child. Chief Justice Shaw decided the case on narrow legal groups, ruling in favor of the right of the school committee to set education policy as it saw fit. Shaw could find no constitutional reason for abolishing Black schools. Boston’s schools would remain segregated. (see Sarahfor expanded story)(BH, see Sept 18; SD, see April 28, 1855)
Leonidas C Dyer
In April 1918: Congressman Leonidas C. Dyer (R-Missouri) introduced an anti-lynching bill in the House of Representatives, based on a bill drafted by NAACP founder Albert E. Pillsbury in 1901. The bill called for the prosecution of lynchers in federal court. State officials who failed to protect lynching victims or prosecute lynchers could face five years in prison and a $5,000 fine. The victim’s heirs could recover up to $10,000 from the county where the crime occurred. (Bio Guide dot Congress bio) (next BH & Lynching, see May 18; next Dyer bill, see October 20, 1921; for expanded chronology, see American Lynching 2)
Aurelia Browder
In April 1955: police arrested Aurelia Browder (36 years old) for refusing to give up her bus seat to a white rider in Montgomery, AL. She will be the lead plaintiff in the Browder v. Gayle action lawsuit. (1998 Washington Post article) (BH, see May 7; Feminism, see Oct 21; B v G, see February 1, 1956; see Boycottfor expanded )
Muhammad Ali
Passion of Muhammad Ali cover by George Lois
In April 1968: Esquire magazine’s cover portrayed Muhammad Ali as a martyr akin to St Sebastian. Kurt Andersen, host of NPR’s Studio 360, stated that “George Lois’s covers for Esquire in the 60s are classic. His April 1968 image of Muhammad Ali to dramatize the boxer’s persecution for his personal beliefs, is the greatest magazine cover ever created, making a political statement without being grim or stupid or predicable.” (BH, see Apr 3; Ali, see, April 6, 1969) (see Passion of Muhammad Alifor expanded story)
Nathan Bedford Forrest Rangers
In April 1973: the Pontiac, Michigan school bus bomb case came to trial with Robert Miles, Wallace Fruit, Alex Distel, Dennis Ramsey, and Raymond Quirk as defendants. The government’s star witness, Jerome Lauinger, a Pontiac fireman and licensed gun dealer, told the court that he had infiltrated “Unit 5” of the KKK on behalf of the FBI some three-and-a-half years earlier. He reported that the KKK had a military arm called the “Nathan Bedford Forrest Rangers” and that he was a member of it as well. (BH, see Apr 10; SD, see “In May”)
Rodney King
In April 2012: King’s autobiography, “The Riot Within: My Journey from Rebellion to Redemption. Learning How We Can All Get Along” published. (see June 17, 2012)
In April 1913: Alice Paul and Lucy Burns founded the Congressional Union for Woman Suffrage (CU), which later became the National Woman’s Party. The NWP put its priority on the passage of a constitutional amendment ensuring women’s suffrage. (Crusade for the Vote dot org article) (see July 31)
Woman’s Peace Party
In April 1915: opposed to the War, Woman’s Peace Party representatives Jane Addams and Emily G Balch attended the International Congress of Women at The Hague in the Netherlands. The meeting was significant for its founding of the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom. (see Oct 23)
April Peace Love Art Activism
Vietnam
In April 1943: U.S. Navy Commodore Milton E. Miles, stationed in Chungking, China proposed that the US parachute twenty Office of Strategic Services (OSS) into the Central Highlands of Vietnam to organize guerrilla bands among the highland peoples to oppose the Japanese forces. The plan was approved, but never implemented. The United States, however, established a network of Vietnamese and French colonials for intelligence and espionage. (valor dot military times article) (see January 24, 1944)
Increased Air Power
April – June, 1964: the US massively reinforced its air power in Southeast Asia. Two aircraft carriers arrived off the Vietnamese coast prompted by a North Vietnamese offensive in Laos. (see Apr 25)
Increased troop strength
In April, 1965: 25,000 U.S. troops stationed in Vietnam (see Apr 3)
543,000 US troops
In April 1969: 543,000 US troops in Vietnam. 33,641 Americans have been killed, a greater total than the Korean War. (seeApr 2)
Sons and Daughters In Touch
Spring 2003: Sons and Daughters In Touch led an historic two week journey to Vietnam. Guided by Vietnam combat veterans and nurses who served in the war, more than 50 Gold Star ‘sons and daughters’ were able to stand in the precise location where their fathers were lost. While in Vietnam, the SDIT delegation also visited Ho Chi Minh City, the Mekong Delta, Cu Chi, Da Nang, Quang Tri, Khe San, China Beach, Hue City and Hanoi. (seeAugust 20, 2009)
April Peace Love Art Activism
LGBTQ
Dale Jennings
In spring 1952: Dale Jennings, a member of the Mattachine Society, arrested for allegedly soliciting a police officer.
American Psychiatric Association
In April 1952: the American Psychiatric Association listed homosexuality as a sociopathic personality disturbance in its first publication of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders. Immediately following the manual’s release, many professionals in medicine, mental health and social sciences criticized the categorization due to lack of empirical and scientific data. (see June 23, 1952)
April Peace Love Art Activism
Cold War
Committee for a Sane Nuclear Policy
In April 1957: the escalating nuclear arms race of the late 1950s led Norman Cousins, editor of the Saturday Review, along with Clarence Pickett of the American Society of Friends (Quakers), to found the National Committee for a Sane Nuclear Policy (SANE). (Red, see May 2; Nuclear, see Apr 29)
Cuban Missile Crisis
In April 1962: U.S. Jupiter missiles in Turkey became operational. All positions were reported “ready and manned” by U.S. personnel. (next Cold War, see Apr 14; see Cuban Missile Crisis for expanded story)
In April 1962: Ray Charles successfully combined country music with soul and crosses into the pop realm with the album “Modern Sounds In Country & Western Music” – the #1 album of 1962.
LSD
In April, 1966: Sandoz Pharmaceutical recalled the LSD it had previously distributed and withdrew its sponsorship for work with LSD. (seeSeptember1966)
Future Woodstock Performers
In April 1967: Country Joe (age 25 ) and the Fish released first album, Electric Music for the Mind and Body.
Ken Kesey
In April 1967: Ken Kesey re-tried. Hung jury. Pled guilty to a lesser charge. Given 6 months on work farm. (see June 1967)
The Road to Bethel
In April 1969: Allan Mann met with Elliiot Tibor who offered a barn for a theater from free if Mann would rent a nearby 6-room Victorian for the summer for $800. Paul Johnson, a friend of Mann, agreed to put the down payment of $200 for the house in exchange for a room there for the summer. [keep in mind, this agreement was made before Wallkill evicted the festival. (see Chronology for full list of dates)
April Peace Love Art Activism
STUDENT ACTIVISM
“People’s Park”
In April, 1969: UC Berkeley students with local residents began to build a “People’s Park” on college-owned land that had remained unused despite plans to build a park and sports field. (2017 Rolling Stone magazine article) (see Apr 9)
April Peace Love Art Activism
SEPARATION OF CHURCH AND STATE
In April 1995: the “Does” filed suit against Santa Fe Independent School District (TX) in the Federal District Court for the Southern District of Texas. For some time prior to the onset of this litigation, the “Does’ believed that SFISD was pursuing policies that were in contravention of the Establishment Clause, mainly because for an undisclosed period of time leading up to and including the 1992-93 and 1993-94 school years, SFISD allowed students to read overtly Christian prayers from the stage at graduation ceremonies, and over the public address system at home football games. The “Does” demanded prospective injunctive and declaratory relief in addition to money damages. (see June 25, 1997)
April Peace Love Art Activism
CLINTON IMPEACHMENT
In April 1996: then-Deputy White House Chief of Staff Evelyn Lieberman transfered Lewinsky to a job as an assistant to Pentagon spokesman Ken Bacon. Lieberman told The New York Times the move was due to “inappropriate and immature behavior” and inattention to work. At the Pentagon, Lewinsky met Linda Tripp, a career government worker. (see Clinton for expanded story)
April Peace Love Art Activism
Sexual Abuse of Children
Boston Archdiocese
In April 2003: the Boston Archdiocese avoided bankruptcy by agreeing to sell land and buildings for over $100m to fund legal settlements to more than 500 abuse victims. (see May 3)
April 1, 1621: at the Plymouth settlement (present-day Massachusetts), the leaders of the Plymouth colonists, acting on behalf of King James I, make a defensive alliance with Massasoit, chief of the Wampanoags. The agreement, in which both parties promised to not “doe hurt” to one another, was the first treaty between a Native American tribe and a group of American colonists. According to the treaty, if a Wampanoag broke the peace, he would be sent to Plymouth for punishment; if a colonist broke the law, he would likewise be sent to the Wampanoags. (Indian Country article) (next Native Americans, see May 22, 1623; Wampanoags, see June 24, 1675)
Rappahannock Tribe
April 1, 2022: the Rappahannock Tribe, a Native Tribe in Virginia, reacquired 465 acres of sacred land at Fones Cliff, the tribes’s ancestral home.
“We have worked for many years to restore this sacred place to the Tribe,” said Rappahannock Tribe Chief Anne Richardson, according to the Chesapeake Conservancy. “With eagles being prayer messengers, this area where they gather has always been a place of natural, cultural and spiritual importance.” [CNN article] (next NA, see June 13)
April 1 Peace Love Art Activism
Feminism
Deborah Samson
April 1, 1783: Deborah Samson was promoted and spent seven months serving as a waiter to General John Paterson. This job entitled her to a better quality of life, better food, less danger, and shelter.
That summer, while stationed in Philadelphia she came down with fever and was cared for by a Dr Barnabas Binney. In treating her he discovered the cloth she used to bind her breasts and, thus, discovered her secret. He did not betray her; he took her to his house, where his wife and daughters housed and took care of her. (seeSampsonfor expanded story)
April 1 Peace Love Art Activism
Cultural Milestones
William Wrigley, Jr
April 1, 1891: William Wrigley, Jr founded the Wrigley Co. in Chicago. He sold soap and gave away baking powder as a premium. The baking powder was more popular, so he switched to selling baking powder, giving chewing gum as a premium with each can. The gum became more popular than the baking powder so he went into the chewing gum business. (see May 5)
Baseball Hall of Fame
April 1, 1938: the Baseball Hall of Fame opened in Cooperstown, NY. (HoF site) (Apr 18)
April 1 Peace Love Art Activism
Black History
Ohio Denies Blacks From Testifying
April 1, 1807: Ohio began legally prohibiting Black people from testifying in cases involving white people as parties. As a result, for the next four decades, white people could act with impunity in filing baseless civil suits against Black people barred from testifying to defend themselves, and committing crimes against Black people with no fear that the victim or any Black witnesses would be permitted to give evidence against them. This law made Black people vulnerable to exploitation and abuse, and ensured that they could not rely on the courts for protection or justice. [EJI article] (next BH, see January 1, 1808)
Scottsboro Nine
April 1, 1935: the US Supreme Court ruled that the exclusion of black citizens on jury rolls deprives black defendants of their rights to equal protection under the law as guaranteed by the Fourteenth Amendment. The Court overturned the convictions of Haywood Patterson and Clarence Norris and the case is remanded to a lower court. (SB, see Nov 13) (see Scottsboro Nine Travesty)
Greensboro Four
April 1, 1960: students resumed sit-in activities at the Kress and F.W. Woolworth stores and began picketing on Elm and Sycamore streets. That evening at a mass meeting, more than 1,200 students pledged to continue the protests. (seeG4 for expanded chronology)
St Augustine Sit-ins
April 1, 1964: sit-ins at restaurants and hotels in St. Augustine, Fla., ended in the arrests of more than 280 people. Martin Luther King Jr. gave his support to the protests and was arrested on June 11 when he tried to eat the Monson Motel Restaurant in town. On June 5, the beach cottage where he was supposed to stay was riddled with bullets. (King Encyclopedia article) (see Apr 6)
Ahmaud Arbery/BLACK & SHOT
April 1, 2020: after a public records request, The Brunswick News [GA] reported details of the Glynn County Police Department’s records on the shooting of Ahmaud Arbery. The police report was based almost entirely on the responding officer’s interview with Gregory McMichael. The records claimed that after the McMichaels pursued Arbery, Travis McMichael and Arbery “started fighting over the shotgun, at which point Travis fired a shot and then a second later there was a second shot.”
George E. Barnhill, the Waycross district attorney, took over the case and advised the police that there was insufficient cause to arrest Mr. Arbery’s pursuers. He argued that they had acted legally under Georgia’s citizen arrest and self-defense laws, according to documents obtained by The New York Times.
Under pressure from Arbery’s family, Barnhill then recused himself from the case because his son had worked in the Brunswick prosecutor’s office with Gregory McMichael. Mr. Barnhill asked the Georgia Attorney General’s Office to help find another district attorney to handle the case. [NYT article] (next B & S and AA, see April 13 or see AA for expanded chronology)
April 1 Peace Love Art Activism
US Labor History
International Typographical Union
April 1, 1963: workers of the International Typographical Union ended their strike that had closed nine New York City newspapers. The strike ended 114 days after it began on December 8, 1962. (see June 10)
Baseball strike
April 1, 1972: major league baseball strike began. It was the first players’ strike in baseball history. (Labor, see Apr 11; baseball, see Apr 13)
McDonald’s
April 1, 2015: McDonald’s announced that it would raise wages and offer new benefits to 90,000 employees in the 1,500 outlets in the United States that it owned and operates, responding to competitive pressure from a tighter job market and to labor campaigns drawing public attention to its pay policies.
The decision, however, did not affect the 750,000 employees who work for the more than 3,100 franchisees that operate roughly 12,500 McDonald’s restaurants around the country. The company will increase wages to at least $1 over the local legal minimum wage for workers in restaurants under corporate control to an average of $9.90 an hour by July 1. That average will increase to more than $10 in 2016.
Employees who have worked in company restaurants more than a year will also be eligible for paid time off, whether they work full or part time. An employee who works an average of 20 hours a week might accrue as much as 20 hours of paid time off a year, the company said. McDonald’s will also expand a program intended to help employees of both its own restaurants and those operated by franchisees to take classes online toward earning high school diplomas. The company will cover those costs, as well as assist employees with college tuition. (see June 1)
Amazon Facility Unionized
April 1, 2022: in one of the biggest victories for organized labor in a generation, workers at a Staten Island, NY Amazon facility voted by a wide margin to form a union,.
Employees cast 2,654 votes to be represented by Amazon Labor Union and 2,131 against, giving the union a win by more than 10 percentage points, according to the National Labor Relations Board. More than 8,300 workers at the warehouse, which is the only Amazon fulfillment center in New York City, were eligible to vote. [NYT article] (next LH, see Sept 26)
April 1 Peace Love Art Activism
April 1 Music et al
John Lennon
April 1, 1966: John Lennon bought a copy of Timothy Leary’s The Psychedelic Experience and The Tibetan Book Of The Dead, where he read near the beginning of the book’s introduction; “When in doubt, relax, turn off your mind, float downstream,” which captured Lennon’s imagination and became the first line of ‘Tomorrow Never Knows’, (which he recorded 5 days later). (see May 1)
The Road to Bethel and the Woodstock Festival
April 1, 1969: Michael Lang was disappointed anyway with the Saugerties site. It didn’t have the rustic feel he hoped to have. (see Chronology for expanded story)
Palm Springs Pop Festival
The second festival of 1969 was in the Palm Spring, CA area and was over two days (see festivals for expanded story):
April 1: Palm Springs Drive-In Theatre
MC: KMET’s B Mitchell Reed
Jeff Beck (billed but didn’t appear)
Moby Grape (billed but didn’t appear)
Procol Harum (replacement)
Flying Burrito Brothers (replacement)
Gram Pasons
Timothy Leary
John Mayall
Paul Butterfield Blues Band
Lee Michaels
Hard Luck Boy
April 2: Palm Springs Angel Baseball Stadium
Ike & Tina Turner Revies
Buddy Miles Express
Canned Heat
Savoy Brown
Trans John & Yoko
April 1, 1970: as an April Fool’s joke, John Lennon and Yoko Ono issued a statement to the press that they were having dual sex change operations. (see Apr 10)
Grateful Dead & FREE SPEECH
April 1, 1970: radio station WUHY in Philadelphia was fined for a “string of vulgarities,” expressed by Jerry Garcia. The case led to the first fine ever imposed by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) for broadcast indecency. Dean Burch, Chair of the FCC, was searching for a test case in which the FCC could assert standards of decency in radio broadcasting. The executives of WUHY, however, chose to pay the $100 fine rather than contest the decision, and so there was no court case involving a test of the FCC’s standards and the First Amendment. (FS, see May 6; Dead, see March 27, 1973)
April 1 Peace Love Art Activism
LGBTQ
Gay entrapment
April 1, 1966: NYC Chief Inspector Sanford D. Garelik said that he hoped the public would report cases in which policemen lured homosexuals into breaking the law and then arrest them. (see Apr 17)
Coretta Scott King
April 1, 1998: Coretta Scott King called on the civil rights community to join the struggle against homophobia. She received criticism from members of the black civil rights movement for comparing civil rights to gay rights. (see November 3, 1998)
April 1, 1971: President Nixon ordered William Calley transferred from Leavenworth prison to house arrest at Fort Benning, pending appeal. (see My Laifor expanded story; Vietnam, see Apr 19)
April 1 Peace Love Art Activism
Jack Kevorkian
April 1, 1996, trial began in Jack Kevorkian‘s home town of Pontiac in the deaths of Miller and Wantz. For the start of his third criminal trial, he wears colonial costume–tights, a white powdered wig, and big buckle shoes–a protest against the fact that he is being tried under centuries-old common law. He would face a maximum of five years in prison and a $10,000 fine if convicted in the Wantz/Miller deaths. (see Kevorkian for expanded story)
April 1 Peace Love Art Activism
CLINTON IMPEACHMENT
April 1, 1998, : Judge Susan Webber Wright dismissed the Paula Jones case. (see Clinton for expanded story)
April 1, 2010: Halliburton employee Marvin Volek warned that BP’s use of cement “was against our best practices.” (see Apr 14)
April 1, 2015
California Gov. Jerry Brown ordered mandatory water use reductions for the first time in California’s history, saying the state’s four-year drought had reached near-crisis proportions after a winter of record-low snowfalls. Brown, in an executive order, directed the State Water Resources Control Board to impose a 25 percent reduction on the state’s 400 local water supply agencies, which serve 90 percent of California residents, over the coming year. The agencies will be responsible for coming up with restrictions to cut back on water use and for monitoring compliance. State officials said the order would impose varying degrees of cutbacks on water use across the board — affecting homeowners, farms and other businesses, as well as the maintenance of cemeteries and golf courses.
A report from the environmental group Natural Resources Defense Council analyzed the data on spills and other violations at oil and gas wells across the country, but an interesting aspect of the report was how little data the group was able to turn up. Based on NRDC’s evaluation of dozens of state databases, only three states — West Virginia, Pennsylvania and Colorado — have easily accessible, publicly available data on spills and other violations. That’s three states out of 36 that have active oil and gas development.
“We looked at 36 states, and there are only three states where it would be easy for a member of the public to sit down at their computer and get some information about a company’s compliance record,” said report co-author Amy Mall, a senior policy analyst at NRDC. The group said that there are other states where citizens can file requests for data, but these three are the only ones where the information proved relatively easy to access. (NRDC site) (see Apr 21)
April 1 Peace Love Art Activism
Affordable Care Act
No replacement soon
April 1, 2019: even as he asked a court tocancel President Obama’s Affordable Care Act, onMarch 25, President Trump had reassured Americans that they did not need to worry about the Affordable Care Act’s demise because Republicans would replace it with something better.
On this date, in the President tweeted that Republicans would not have a replacement plan for at least 19 more months — and then only if Republicans win the 2020 election. (see Oct 22)
No reopening
Obamacare Markets Will Not Reopen, Trump Decides
April 1, 2020: the NY Times reported that the Trump administration had decided against reopening the Affordable Care Act’s Healthcare.gov marketplaces to new customers, despite broad layoffs and growing fears that people will be uninsured during the coronavirus outbreak.
The option to reopen markets, in what is known as a special enrollment period, would have made it easier for people who have recently lost jobs or who had already been uninsured to obtain health insurance. The administration had established such special enrollment periods in the past, typically in the wake of natural disasters. (next ACA/Healthcare, see July 8)
March 31, 1840: President Martin Van Buren issued a broadly-applicable executive order granting the 10-hour day to all government employees engaged in manual labor. (see February 21, 1848)
César E. Chávez
March 31 1927: César Chávez born in Yuma, Arizona.
Mexican Repatriation
From 1929 – 1939, due to the high unemployment of “American” workers during the Great Depression, US authorities forced as many as 500,000 people of Mexican descent to leave the US without due process. (AFLCIO bio) (see April 10, 1930)
Civilian Conservation Corps
March 31, 1933: President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed legislation establishing the Civilian Conservation Corps to help alleviate suffering during the Depression. By the time the program ended after the start of World War II it had provided jobs for more than six million men and boys. The average enrollee gained 11 pounds in his first three months (see Apr 10)
César E. Chávez & Dolores Huerta
March 31, 1962: Chavez and Huerta resigned from the Community Service Organization. Chavez moved with his wife and eight small children the farm town of Delano, CA and dedicated himself full-time to organizing farm workers. Dolores Huerta and others later join him. (see September 30, 1962)
March 31 Peace Love Art Activism
BACK HISTORY and Feminism
Voting Rights
March 31, 1870: Thomas Mundy Peterson of Perth Amboy, New Jersey, became the first African American to vote in an election under the 15th Amendment. Peterson served as a school principal and later became the city’s first black officeholder and the first black person to ever serve on a jury. In New Jersey, March 31 is recognized as Thomas Mundy Peterson Day, honoring his historic vote.(BH, see Dec 12; VR, see November 5, 1872)
Marie Scott lynched
March 31, 1914: a white lynch mob in Wagoner County, Oklahoma, seized a 17-year-old black teenaged girl named Marie Scott from the local jail, dragged her screaming from her cell, and hanged her from a nearby telephone pole. Days before, a young white man named Lemuel Pierce was stabbed to death while he and several other white men were in the city’s “colored section”; Marie was accused of being involved.
It is most likely that Scott (or her brother) was defending herself from a sexual assault by Pierce or others in the white group. [EJI article] (next BH, see July 20; next Lynching, see April 17, 1915; for for expanded chronology, see American Lynching 2)
Gwendolyn Brooks
March 31, 1950: Gwendolyn Brooks becomes the first African American to win the Pulitzer Prize for her book of poetry Annie Allen. (Pulitzer site article) (BH, June 5; see Feminism September 18, 1950)
The Greensboro Four
March 31, 1960: of the 2,000 citizen letters the Advisory Committee received, 73 percent favored integrated lunch counters. The hotly debated topic was constantly in the news. The Greensboro Record reported a letter signed by 68 white citizens urged that “service to all customers at the lunch counters in these stores be entirely on a ‘first come, first served’ basis, just as it is in other areas of these establishments.” Chairman Zane and the Advisory Committee held numerous meetings with representatives from F.W. Woolworth, Kress and other downtown businesses. All refused to integrate. On March 31, a disappointed Edward Zane met with student leaders to break the news.
By the end of March, the sit-in Movement had spread to 55 cities in 13 states. (next BH, see Apr 24; seeG4 for expanded chronology)
School Desegregation
March 31, 1992: inFreeman v. Pitts the US Supreme Court further delayed the end of school desegregation, ruling that school systems can fulfill their obligations in an incremental fashion. (BH, see April 29; SD, see June 12, 1995)
Amadou Diallo
March 31, 1999: four New York City police officers were charged with murder for killing Amadou Diallo, an unarmed African immigrant, in a hail of bullets. (see Dec 16)
March 31 Peace Love Art Activism
FREE SPEECH
Movie code
March 31, 1930: the board of directors of the Motion Picture Producers and Distributors Association formally adopted the Code that would be published on February 19. (seeNov 25)
Scientific American seized
March 31, 1950: the U.S. government seized and then burned 3,000 copies of the highly respected magazine Scientific American. The magazine’s offense was an article on the atomic bomb, which the government claimed contained the “secret” to producing a bomb. The seizure and burning was symptomatic of the rising hysteria of the Cold War in 1950. (Today In Civil Liberties History article) (see January 15, 1951)
Illinois v Allen
March 31, 1970: Illinois v. Allen. Police had charged William Allen with armed robbery. Before his trial, he obtained permission to conduct his own defense, as long as he allowed court-appointed counsel to sit in. During voir dire, Allen started to argue with the judge, and continued to be insubordinate throughout the opening of the trial. After that, the judge ordered Allen removed from the courtroom and only allowed him in for identification and for portions of his defense. The US Supreme Court held that when a defendant refuses to conduct himself in an orderly manner, he can lose his Sixth Amendment right to be present at his own trial. Justice Brennan concurred, only adding that when a defendant is excluded from trial it should be incumbent upon the court to insure that the defendant has full communication with his attorney.
Grayned v Rockford
March 31, 1970: Grayned v. Rockford, the Supreme Court found that “The nature of a place, ‘the pattern of its normal activities, dictate the kinds of regulations of time, place, and manner that are reasonable.'” In determining what is reasonable, the Court stated that “[the] crucial question is whether the manner of expression is basically incompatible with the normal activity of a particular place at a particular time.” Thus, protesters have the right to march in support of a cause, but not on a public place during the middle of the day with bullhorns.
The Court held that the anti-picketing law was contrary to First Amendment rights as it created a per se ban on the free exercise of speech and was therefore unconstitutional. The anti-noise ordinance, however, had a compelling justification behind it and therefore it was constitutional. The demonstration was incompatible with the normal use of the facility; the noise was a disruptive to the functioning of the school as it was distracting for students and faculty members alike. Therefore, the state in this instance had a right to regulate it.
The Supreme Court held that the anti-picketing ordinance was unconstitutional on its face, but held that the anti-noise ordinance was constitutional. (see Apr 1)
Recording police
March 31, 2015, : the city of Portland, Maine and the American Civil Liberties Union announced that a U.S. District Court ordered the city to pay $72,000 in damages and court costs to a Jill Walker and Sabatino Scattoloni who sued after they were arrested in May, 2014 while video recording police making another arrest.
The settlement also required city police “to utiliz(e) this incident as a training tool to ensure the rights of citizens, including First Amendment rights, will be respected by its police officers in such interactions,” City Hall spokeswoman Jessica Grodin said in a press release.
Sgt. Benjamin Noyes arrested Walker and Scattoloni early in the morning on May 24, 2014, on Spring Street after they saw a traffic stop and then began recording the incident with a cell phone, according to the lawsuit filed against Noyes in September 2014 in Hancock County Superior Court.
“They watched silently, they did not approach or address the officers, and they did not in any way interfere with the officers’ work: they simply stood bearing witness,” the complaint said.
The suit alleged Noyes, a 17-year veteran of the Police Department, approached the couple, who were vacationing in Portland, and said “You have two seconds to get off this sidewalk or you will be under arrest.”
After being warned to leave twice, Walker and Scattoloni were charged with Class D obstruction of government administration and taken to Cumberland County Jail. They were freed after several hours on $60 bail; the charges were eventually dismissed.
The arrest report referred to in the suit quotes Noyes saying Walker and Scattoloni were arrested because of “their proximity to the combative female (involved in the traffic stop) and their refusal to follow my commands.”
The alleged violations of the couple’s First and Fourth Amendment rights included failure to advise them of their rights, and illegal searches at the scene and jail. (4th, see Apr 21; FS, see Apr 6)
March 31, 1949: RCA introduced the modern ’45 RPM as the “New System,” It was designed to be a replacement for the bulky 78-RPM record and was touted to be 1/10th the weight of its 12 inch counterpart and having a playtime of up to 5.3 minutes per side. It featured a lightweight record design and small 7-inch diameter with improved fidelity in terms of noise levels and frequency response. (Roots, see Dec 10; TM, see January 12, 1950)
Johnny B. Goode
March 31, 1958: Chuck Berry released the “Johnny B. Goode”. Written by Berry in 1955, the song is about a poor country boy who plays a guitar “just like ringing a bell,” and who might one day have his “name in lights.” Berry has acknowledged that the song is partly autobiographical, and originally had “colored boy” in the lyrics, but he changed it to “country boy” to ensure radio play. The title is suggestive that the guitar player is good, and hints at autobiographic elements because Berry was born at 2520 Goode Avenue in St. Louis. Chuck has said that he wrote it as a Rock and Roll version of the American dream. (see May 9)
Connie Francis
March 31 – April 6, 1962: “Don’t Break the Heart that Loves You” by Connie Francis #1 Billboard Hot 100.
Pvt Hendrix
March 31, 1962: Hendrix failed to report for bed check and as a result was reduced to general private status. His excuse:”delay due to payday activities and weekend.” (seePH for expanded chronology)
Jimi Hendrix
March 31, 1967: The Jimi Hendrix Experience played at the London Astoria. While waiting to perform, Hendrix and his manager Chas Chandler were discussing ways in which they could increase the band’s media exposure. When Chandler asked journalist Keith Altham for advice, Altham suggested that they needed to do something more dramatic than the stage show of The Who, which involved the smashing of instruments. Hendrix joked: “Maybe I can smash up an elephant”, to which Altham replied: “Well, it’s a pity you can’t set fire to your guitar”.
Chandler then asked road manager Gerry Stickells to find some lighter fluid. During the show, Hendrix gave an especially dynamic performance before setting his Fender Stratocaster on fire at the end of a 45-minute set. In the wake of the stunt, members of London’s press labeled Hendrix the “Black Elvis” and the “Wild Man of Borneo”
Tony Garland, Hendrix’s press agent scooped up the remains of the Strat, took them home and placed them in the garage of his parents southern U.K. home. About 30 years later, Garland’s nephew found the remains of the guitar, did a little research, and the burnt guitar was auctioned off in 2007 for $575,000. (see May 12)
The Beatles
George Harrison and Patty Boyd
March 31, 1969: George Harrison and Patty Boyd’s drug trialtook place. They pleaded guilty to possessing the cannabis, which was likely to have been planted in the house by police officers and were each fined £250 plus 10 guineas each in court costs, and were put on probation for a year. (Apr 14)
McCartney v Let It Be
March 31, 1970: Paul McCartney solo album and the Beatles Let It Be were scheduled for release within two weeks of each other. John and George composed a letter saying that they’d decided that it’d make much better business sense to delay Paul’s album so as not to compete with the Beatles. Ringo delivered the letters.
Paul blew up at Ringo.
As an attempt at reconciliation, John and George allowed the McCartney album to be issued in the UK on 17 April 1970, while Let It Be was eventually released on 8 May, but further damage to the already fragmenting relationships between the four had occurred. (see Apr 1)
March 31, 1958: in the case of Trop v. Dulles, the Supreme Court ruled that it was unconstitutional for the government to revoke the citizenship of a U.S. citizen as a form of punishment. While serving in the Army in 1944, Albert Trop escaped from the stockade where he was being held for misbehavior. The next day, he and a companion were walking along the road near Casablanca, Morroco, and were stopped by an Army truck. Trop willingly got into the truck and was returned to the Army base. (Thus, his “desertion” lasted for only some hours.) He was then court martialed and given a dishonorable discharge. In 1952 he applied for a passport and was then informed that, under a 1940 law, he had lost his citizenship because of his dishonorable discharge. (Oyez article) (seeMay 22, 1964)
March 31 Peace Love Art Activism
Space Race
Luna 10
March 31, 1966: Luna 10 launched from the Soviet Union. The unmanned probe will achieve lunar orbit — the first object to do so — and send information about the moon back to earth. (NASA article) (seeJune 2)
March 31 Peace Love Art Activism
Vietnam
DRAFT CARD BURNING
March 31, 1966: high school boys punched and kicked seven anti-Vietnam demonstrators on the steps of the South Boston District Court House after four of the protesters had burned their Selective Service cards. With shouts of “Kill them, shoot them,” about 50 to 75 high school boys charged the steps and knocked the demonstrators to the ground as a crowd of 200 watched. David O’Brien, 19, was one of the card burners. (Draft Card Burning, see July 1, 1966; Vietnam, see April 12; O’Brien, seeMay 27, 1968)
President Johnson
March 31, 1968: President Johnson announced his decision not to run again and offered partial Vietnam bombing halt. (see Apr 8)
March 31 Peace Love Art Activism
Fair Housing
March 31, 1980: Depository Institutions’ Deregulation and Monetary Control Act of 1980changed rules governing thrift institutions, expands alternative mortgages. It gave the Federal Reserve greater control over non-member banks.
It forced all banks to abide by Federal rules.
It removed the power of the Federal Reserve Board of Governors under the Glass–Steagall Act to use Regulation Q to set maximum interest rates for any deposit accounts other than demand deposit accounts.
It raised the deposit insurance of US banks and credit unions from $40,000 to $100,000.
It allowed credit unions and savings and loans to offer checkable deposits.
It allowed institutions to charge any loan interest rates they choose. (seeJuly 22, 1987)
After the NTSB’s announcement, Exxon officials confirmed that they had fired the 42-year old captain, although investigators could not determine whether he had been drinking on the job.
Coast Guard Commandant Paul Yost called it “almost unbelievable” that the Exxon Valdez had strayed from a 10-mile-wide shipping channel to crash into Bligh Reef. “This was not a treacherous area,” he said. ” . . . your children could drive a tanker through it.” (see February 27, 1990)
Record Number of Tornadoes
March 31, 2022: according to the Storm Prediction Center, there were more tornadoes in the US than any March on record.
It was the second year in a row the country had a record number of tornadoes in March, solidifying a trend toward more severe weather earlier in the year and raising questions among scientists, who’ve historically seen such weather peak from April to early June.
Meanwhile, more severe storms happening farther east in the country could mean more disastrous and deadly tornado outbreaks were possible.
March 31, 2005: the Silberman-Robb commission, the presidential commission on Iraqi WMD, concluded: [T]he intelligence community was dead wrong in almost all of its prewar judgments. [USA Today, 3/31/05] (see Apr 27)
“I’ve come to the conclusion that it would be helpful to move legislation this week that makes it clear that this law does not give businesses the right to discriminate against anyone,” Mr. Pence, a Republican, said at a news conference in Indianapolis.
He acknowledged that the law, called the Religious Freedom Restoration Act, had become a threat to the state’s reputation and economy, with companies and organizations signaling that they would avoid Indiana in response to it. Mr. Pence said he had been on the phone with business leaders from around the country, adding, “We want to make it clear that Indiana’s open for business.” (see Apr 20)
Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo signed the cannabis legislation a day after the State Legislature passed the bill following hours of debate among lawmakers in Albany.
With his signature, New York became the 15th state to legalize the recreational use of cannabis, positioning itself to quickly become one of the largest markets of legal cannabis in the nation. [NYT article] (next Cannabis, see Apr 7 or see CAC for expanded chronology)
Kentucky
March 31, 2023 just one day after the Kentucky House approved the legislation from Sen. Stephen West (R), Gov. Andy Beshear (D) signed a bill to legalize medical marijuana, making the state the 38th in the U.S. to enact the reform.
Far too many of our people face the obstacle of having chronic or terminal diseases like cancer, or those like our veterans suffering from PTSD or Kentuckians living with epilepsy, seizures, Parkinson’s or more,” Beshear said. “These folks want and deserve safe and effective methods of treatment.” [MM article] (next Cannabis, see Apr 3or see CAC for expanded chronology)
March 31 Peace Love Art Activism
Women’s Health
March 31, 2025: US district judge Myron Thompson ruled that Alabama’s attorney general Steve Marshall cannot prosecute individuals and groups that help Alabama women travel to other states to obtain abortions.
Thompson sided with an abortion fund and medical providers who sued Marshall, after he suggested they could face prosecution under anti-conspiracy laws. Thompson’s ruling declared that such prosecutions would violate both the first amendment and a person’s right to travel. [Guardian article] (next WH, see May 27)
March 31 Peace Love Art Activism
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What's so funny about peace, love, art, and activism?
In April 1918: Congressman Leonidas C. Dyer (R-Missouri) introduced an anti-lynching bill in the House of Representatives, based on a bill drafted by NAACP founder Albert E. Pillsbury in 1901. The bill called for the prosecution of lynchers in federal court. State officials who failed to protect lynching victims or prosecute lynchers could face five years in prison and a $5,000 fine. The victim’s heirs could recover up to $10,000 from the county where the crime occurred. (Bio Guide dot Congress bio) (next BH & Lynching, see May 18; next Dyer bill, see October 20, 1921; for expanded chronology, see American Lynching 2)
In April 2012: King’s autobiography, “The Riot Within: My Journey from Rebellion to Redemption. Learning How We Can All Get Along” published. (see June 17, 2012)
In April 1952: the American Psychiatric Association listed homosexuality as a sociopathic personality disturbance in its first publication of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders. Immediately following the manual’s release, many professionals in medicine, mental health and social sciences criticized the categorization due to lack of empirical and scientific data. (see June 23, 1952)
In April 1962: U.S. Jupiter missiles in Turkey became operational. All positions were reported “ready and manned” by U.S. personnel. (next Cold War, see Apr 14; see Cuban Missile Crisis for expanded story)
In April, 1969: UC Berkeley students with local residents began to build a “People’s Park” on college-owned land that had remained unused despite plans to build a park and sports field. (2017 Rolling Stone magazine article) (see Apr 9)
