March 21 Peace Love Art Activism

Religion and Public Education

Butler Act

March 21, 1925: the Butler Act became state law in Tennessee that prohibited “the teaching of the Evolution Theory in all the Universities, Normals and all other public schools of Tennessee, which are supported in whole or in part by the public school funds of the State, and to provide penalties for the violations thereof … that it shall be unlawful … to teach any theory that denies the story of the Divine Creation of man as taught in the Bible, and to teach instead that man has descended from a lower order of animals.” (see Scopes for expanded story)

March 21 Peace Love Art Activism

Anarchism in the US

Emma Goldman

March 21 – April 2, 1934: Goldman delivered five lectures in Chicago. The first day, sixteen hundred attended the lecture under the auspices of the Free Society Forum. Fifteen hundred attended a banquet held in her honor at the Medinah Hotel on March 28. (see Emma Goldman for expanded story)

Federal Loyalty Program

March 21, 1947: President Harry Truman announced a Federal Loyalty Program to remove Communists from employment by the U.S. government. Under his Executive Order 9835, all federal employees had to undergo a loyalty investigation by the FBI. The program institutionalized “guilt-by-association” as federal policy, since an employee’s loyalty might be suspect based on associations and affiliations, even those from many years in the past (for example, having joined a left-wing group when in college in the 1930s). A person fell under suspicion despite no evidence of any criminal activity (e.g., spying, treason) or criminal activity by a group he or she had once belonged to. Truman’s loyalty program was arguably the most important step in launching the domestic Cold War.

Truman’s Order also directed the U.S. Attorney General to create a List of Subversive Organizations. (RS, see Apr 9; list, see December 4)

1980 Olympic boycott

March 21, 1980: after the Soviet Union intervened in Afghanistan in December 1979 to prop up an unstable pro-Soviet government, the United States reacted quickly and sharply. It suspended arms negotiations with the Soviets, condemned the Russian action in the United Nations, and threatened to boycott the Olympics to be held in Moscow in 1980. When the Soviets refused to withdraw their troops from Afghanistan, President Carter finalized his decision to boycott the games.

On March 21, 1980, he met with approximately 150 U.S. athletes and coaches to explain his decision. He told the crowd, “I understand how you feel,” and recognized their intense disappointment. However, Carter defended his action, stating, “What we are doing is preserving the principles and the quality of the Olympics, not destroying it.” Many of the athletes were devastated by the news.

As one stated, “As citizens, it is an easy decision to make—support the president. As athletes, it is a difficult decision.” Others declared that the president was politicizing the Olympics. Most of the athletes only reluctantly supported Carter’s decision. (see Apr 20)

Elia Kazan

March 21, 1999: noted film director Elia Kazan was presented with an honorary Oscar. Because he had “named names” of alleged Communists before the House Committee on Un-American Activities (HUAC) on April 10, 1952, many victims of the anti-Communist Hollywood blacklist and their supporters protested the award. Some did not attend the ceremony and others who did attend refused to stand when he was on stage.  

Kazan had directed the film, On the Waterfront (released on July 28, 1954) as an attempt to justify testifying before investigating committees. His former friend and professional colleague, playwright Arthur Miller, wrote the play, The Crucible, which had premiered on January 22, 1953, to draw the connection between the anti-Communist hysteria of the Cold War and the infamous 1692 Salem, Massachusetts witch trials. (see May 12, 2002)

Cuba

March 21, 2016: Obama and Cuban President Raul Castro met. (see Nov 25)

March 21 Peace Love Art Activism

March 21 Music et al

Moondog Coronation Ball

March 21, 1952:  the Moondog Coronation Ball, likely first Rock and Roll concert, held. Alan Freed, the Cleveland disc jockey known as “Moondog” and thought by some to have coined the term “rock and roll,” organized the concert at the Cleveland Arena. It attracted nearly 25,000 young people, mostly African-Americans.

Authorities shut down the show, which featured artists such as the Dominoes and Paul “Hucklebuck” Williams, when the thousands of ticket-holders were denied entrance and became unruly. (RR, see Mar 27; TC, see August 1, 1954; see Moondog for expanded story)

Cavern Club

March 21, 1961: The Beatles’ first night-time performance at Liverpool’s Cavern Club. Their 11 previous appearances at the venue had been lunchtime shows. The band got $42.00 per night. They supported The Blue Genes, who later became The Swinging Blue Jeans.

Although the precise number of their Cavern performances is not known, The Beatles played at least 155 lunchtime and 125 evening shows. Their final performance at the venue took place on 3 August 1963. (see Mar 24)

She Loves You

March 21 – April 3, 1964, The Beatles: “She Loves You” #1 on the Billboard Hot 100. (see Mar 23)

March 21, 1964, The Beatles: Beatles appeared on the cover of The Saturday Evening Post, one of America’s mainstream magazines at the time.  Post’s cover story – “The Secrets of The Beatles” – promised “an intimate account of their American tour and a probing analysis of their incredible power to excite frenzied emotions among the young.” 

Mississippi Goddam

March 21, 1964: at Carnegie Hall concert, Nina Simone sang her composition, “Mississippi Goddam.”

John Lennon/LSD

March 21, 1967: (from the College of Rock and Roll) John Lennon took his first major LSD trip. (not sure what sources mean by ‘major’). He did it while recording backing vocals on the track “Getting Better.” George Martin, not realizing the effects of the drug or the fact that John was even on the drug, took John to the roof of Abbey Road Studios so he could get some fresh air. Paul McCartney and George Harrison, upon learning where John was, rushed up to get him down. They understood.

They got back into the studio and worked on a piano track for “Lovely Rita” instead.. (see Mar 23)

Strawberry Fields

March 21, 1984: a section of Central Park was renamed ‘Strawberry Fields‘ to honor John Lennon. (see February 10, 1986)

Beatle catalog

March 21, 2016: Paul McCartney filed legal papers in the US, as part of an attempt to reclaim the publishing rights to The Beatles’ back catalog. Although he co-wrote most of the band’s hits, the he never controlled the publishing.

However, the US copyright act of 1976 gives writers the opportunity to reclaim the rights after 56 years. The Lennon-McCartney catalog becomes available in 2018, and McCartney recently moved to recapture it. (2017 Billboard article) (see Aug 29)

March 21 Peace Love Art Activism

BLACK HISTORY

SOUTH AFRICA/APARTHEID

Sharpeville  Massacre 1960

March 21, 1960: police fired on a demonstration in Sharpeville, killing 69 people and wounding 181. After the shooting, the South African government banned black political groups and gatherings and arrested thousands. The African National Congress was among the banned groups. Its members went underground and began to plan a campaign of direct attacks on the apartheid government. (SA History site article) (SA/A, see March 29, 1961)

School Desegregation 1973

March 21, 1973: in San Antonio Independent School District v. Rodriguez the Supreme Court ruled that education is not a “fundamental right” and that the Constitution does not require equal education expenditures within a state. The ruling has the effect of locking minority and poor children who live in low-income areas into inferior schools. (see April)

Michael Donald lynched

March 21, 1981: Mobile, Alabama. Henry Hays (age 26), and James Llewellyn “Tiger” Knowles (age 17) kidnap, beat, strangle, and slit the throat of Michael Donald before hanging him from a tree. Local police initially stated that Donald had been killed as part of a drug deal gone wrong. (see June 6, 1997). Donald, an African-American, had been walking back from a store and randomly selected by Ku Klux Klan members Hays and Knowles. (next BH, see Dec 11; next lynching & Michael Donald, see June 16, 1983; for expanded chronology of lynching, see also AL4)

Sharpeville Massacre 1985

March 21, 1985: police in Langa, South Africa, opened fire on blacks marching to mark the 25th anniversary of the Sharpeville shootings, killing at least 21 demonstrators. (see Apr 15)

School Desegregation 2014

March 21, 2014: according to surveys released by the U.S. Education Department that include data from every U.S. school district.Public school students of color get more punishment and less access to veteran teachers than their white peers.

Black students were suspended or expelled at triple the rate of their white peers, according to the U.S. Education Department’s 2011-2012 Civil Rights Data Collection, a survey conducted every two years. Five percent of white students were suspended annually, compared with 16 percent of black students, according to the report. Black girls were suspended at a rate of 12 percent — far greater than girls of other ethnicities and most categories of boys.

At the same time, minority students had less access to experienced teachers. Most minority students and English language learners are stuck in schools with the most new teachers. Seven percent of black students attend schools where as many as 20 percent of teachers fail to meet license and certification requirements. And one in four school districts pay teachers in less-diverse high schools $5,000 more than teachers in schools with higher black and Latino student enrollment. (BH, see Nov 10; SD, see May 13, 2016)

BLACK & SHOT

March 21, 2024:  U.S. District Judge Tom Lee sentenced two former Mississippi sheriff’s deputies from a self-described “Goon Squad” to federal prison for the torture and abuse of Michael Jenkins and Eddie Parker in a racist attack.

Brett Morris McAlpin, 53, was ordered to serve 327 months, which was more than 27 years.

And Joshua Hartfield, 32, the final former deputy to be sentenced, was ordered to serve 121 months, or about 10 years. [NBC News article] (next B & S, see May 7, 2025)

March 21 Peace Love Art Activism

Vietnam

Robert Bailey

March 21, 1961: Army Major Lawrence Robert Bailey was the first recorded American to be held as a prisoner of war in Southeast Asia. One of eight crew members of a C-47 surveillance aircraft shot down over Laos, Bailey was held by the Pathet Lao for 17 months, losing one-third of his body weight during that time. The other occupants of the plane were presumed to have died in the crash; Bailey always wore a parachute. (see May 4)

March 21 Peace Love Art Activism

FREE SPEECH

Fanny Hill

March 21, 1966: Memoirs v. Massachusetts Since the Roth ruling (June 24, 1957), to be declared obscene a work of literature had to be proven by censors to:

1. appeal to prurient interest,
2. be patently offensive, and
3. have no redeeming social value.

The book  in this case was Fanny Hill (or Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure, 1749) by John Cleland. The Court held in Memoirs v. Massachusetts that, while it might fit the first two criteria (it appealed to prurient interest and was patently offensive), it could not be proven that Fanny Hill had no redeeming social value. The judgment favoring the plaintiff continued that it could still be held obscene under certain circumstances — for instance, if it were marketed solely for its prurient appeal. (see July 4)

Flag burning

March 21, 1990: US v Mark John Haggerty, et al. In a 5-to-4 decision, coming 6 months after Texas v. Johnson (June 21, 1989), the Court struck down the law because “its asserted interest is related to the suppression of free expression and concerned with the content of such expression.” Allowing the flag to be burned in a disposal ceremony but prohibiting protesters from setting it ablaze at a political protest made that clear, argued Justice Brennan in one of his final opinions. (FS & flag burning, see June 11)

March 21 Peace Love Art Activism

Feminism & Women’s Health

Redstockings

March 21, 1969: the Redstockings organized a public hearing on abortion, called an abortion speak-out, to air women’s views on abortion (F, see May 4; BC, January 19, 1970)

National Women’s Political Caucus

March 21, 1971: The National Women’s Political Caucus (NWPC) is established by Gloria Steinem, Betty Friedan, and Bella Abzug. The organization sought  to encourage women’s political involvement and to attain equality for all women. (NWPC site)  (next Feminism  see July 10)

March 21 Peace Love Art Activism

Voting Rights

Dunn v. Blumstein

March 21, 1972:  in the case of Dunn v. Blumstein, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that states could not require one year of residency for voting eligibility. (see August 22, 1973)

March 21 Peace Love Art Activism

Watergate Scandal

March 21, 1973: White House counsel John Dean had the “Cancer in the Whitehouse” conversation. Dean recalled, “I began by telling the president that there was a cancer growing on the presidency and if the cancer was not removed that the president himself would be killed by it. I also told him that it was important that this cancer be removed immediately because it was growing more deadly every day…

I told the president about the fact that there was no money to meet their [the Watergate burglars] demands. He asked me how much it would cost. I told him I could only make an estimate that it might be as high as a million dollars or more. He told me that that was no problem. He also looked over at [Chief of Staff H.R.] Haldeman and repeated the same statement.”  (see Nixon for expanded story)

March 21 Peace Love Art Activism

INDEPENDENCE DAY

March 21, 1990: Namibia independent from South Africa. (see June 11)

March 21 Peace Love Art Activism

Consumer Protection

FDA v. Brown & Williamson Tobacco Corp

March 21, 2000: in FDA v. Brown & Williamson Tobacco Corp a divided Supreme Court ruled the government lacked authority to regulate tobacco as an addictive drug. (Oyez article) (see November 21, 2007)

March 21 Peace Love Art Activism

Cultural Milestone

March 21, 2006: the social media website Twitter launched with the first tweet by co-founder Jack Dorsey. (see Mar 25)

March 21 Peace Love Art Activism

Nuclear/Chemical News

March 21, 2008: more than 300 people participated in an annual Good Friday peace action at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (Livermore, CA).The Tri-Valley Communities Against a Radioactive Environment (CARES) organized the event). The lab was a key participant in the design of all weapons in the U.S. nuclear arsenal. The Alameda County Sheriff arrested 91 of the protesters. CARES Executive Director Marylia Kelley said, “The emphasis is on nonviolence and rejecting violence.” (see March 11, 2011)

March 21 Peace Love Art Activism

STAND YOUR GROUND LAW

Trayvon Martin Shooting

March 21, 2012: the Department of Justice and the FBI opened an investigation into the “facts and circumstances” surrounding the killing of Trayvon Martin. The department will “conduct a thorough and independent review of all evidence and take appropriate action at the conclusion of the investigation,” according to a statement. (see Mar 28)

March 21 Peace Love Art Activism

LGBTQ

New Hampshire

March 21, 2012: New Hampshire lawmakers rejected a bill that would have made their state legislature the first one to repeal a gay marriage law, handing gay-rights supporters a key victory in the Northeast, where same-sex marriage is prevalent. (see Apr 12)

Michigan

March 21, 2014: Judge Bernard A. Friedman of Federal District Court struck down Michigan’s ban on same-sex marriage, the latest in a string of court decisions across the country to rule that denying marriage to gay and lesbian couples is a violation of the Constitution.

Friedman wrote, “The guarantee of equal protection must prevail.”

It was not clear from the written decision whether same-sex couples in Michigan could immediately apply for marriage licenses. Friedman did not say whether he planned to delay implementation, as federal judges in other states had done, until the state had a chance to appeal to the Court of Appeal for the Sixth Circuit, in Cincinnati. Soon after the decision was issued, the Michigan attorney general, Bill Schuette, filed notice that the state would appeal.

The two-week trial, which ended March 7, drew special attention because it was the first in several years to include testimony from social-science researchers on the potential impact of same-sex marriage on families and children. The state, arguing that it would be risky to change the definition of marriage, cited studies that concluded that children raised by same-sex couples had worse outcomes in life. 

Those challenging the ban argued that the studies had been widely discredited, and Judge Friedman agreed, calling them deeply flawed. Lawyers for the plaintiffs described the scholars who appeared for the state as religiously motivated and part of a “desperate fringe,” and subjected them to withering cross-examination. Scholars called to rebut the testimony described a virtual consensus in the field that other things like income and stability being equal, children fared just as well with same-sex parents. (see Mar 28)

March 21 Peace Love Art Activism

Cannabis

Medical marijuana

March 21, 2014: Maricopa County (AZ) Superior Court Judge Katherine Cooper ruled that 5-year-old  Zander Welton’s parents, Jacob and Jennifer Welton, may use medical marijuana extracts for the boy’s severe seizures. The Weltons sued Gov. Jan Brewer, Maricopa County Attorney Bill Montgomery, and the state’s Department of Health Services in October for fear that they would be prosecuted for treating Zander’s seizures with marijuana extracts.

Zander suffered from focal cortical dysplasia, a congenital condition that causes epilepsy and autism. After seeing the CNN documentary, “Weed,” the Weltons were inspired to treat Zander’s seizures with marijuana extracts, and after two months of use, his seizures had nearly stopped and he was able to run short distances and walk backwards.

Judge Cooper found the 2010 voter-approved Arizona Medical Marijuana Act (AMMA) allows qualifying patients to legally use marijuana extracts, including CBD (cannabidiol) oil, which the Weltons give Zander. (next C, see Apr 14)

Legalized cannabis

March 21, 2016: the Supreme Court denied an Oklahoma and Nebraska challenge to Colorado legalizing marijuana. Even though SCOTUS denied to hear Oklahoma and Nebraska’s pot suit against Colorado, the plaintiff states could still take their case to U.S. District Court. (next C, see Apr 19 or see CCC for expanded chronology) 

March 21 Peace Love Art Activism

Terrorism

March 21, 2019:  Cesar A. Sayoc Jr. pleaded guilty in federal court in Manhattan to sending out 16 homemade pipe bombs to prominent Democrats and critics of President Trump. (next T, see Mar 27; next CSJ, see Aug 5)

March 21 Peace Love Art Activism

March 20 Peace Love Art Activism

Judicial Milestone

Martin v. Hunter’s Lessee

March 20, 1816:  Martin v. Hunter’s Lessee, case affirmed the Supreme Court’s right to review state court decisions.

From 1779 to 1785, Virginia passed a series of laws by which the state confiscated all lands owned by foreigners. David Hunter was granted 800 acres of confiscated lands that had been willed to Denny Martin Fairfax, a British subject. Fairfax brought suit against Hunter for return of the land. On Fairfax’s death the suit was taken over by his heir, Philip Martin. Martin argued that Fairfax’s ownership had been protected by treaties between the United States and Great Britain guaranteeing British subjects the right to hold land in America. The Virginia court of appeals upheld the grant to Hunter, but on appeal the U.S. Supreme Court voided the grant (1813). The Virginia court refused to obey the Supreme Court ruling, declaring that it had no right to review the decisions of state courts under the U.S. Constitution. When the case again came before the Supreme Court, Justice Story ruled that section 25 of the Judiciary Act of 1789, which granted the U.S. Supreme Court appellate jurisdiction over state courts in certain situations (as in this case, where a state court denied the validity of a federal statute), was constitutional. (Oyez article) (see May 10, 1886)

March 20 Peace Love Art Activism

BLACK HISTORY

Uncle Tom’s Cabin

March 20, 1852: Harriet Beecher Stowe’s anti-slavery novel, Uncle Tom’s Cabin, published. 10,000 copies were sold in the first week, 300,000 within the first year. The many different editions published in Europe sold an aggregate of one million copies in the first year.

It was the second best-selling book of the 19th century after the Bible.and was so widely read that when President Abraham Lincoln met Stowe in 1862, he reportedly said, “So this is the little lady who made this big war.” (pdf of text) (see Mar 22)

Dred Scott

March 22, 1852: in Scott v. Emerson, the Missouri Supreme Court reversed the lower court and declared that Scott was still a slave. The decision was frankly political. The court decided the case not on the basis of legal precedent, but because of popular prejudice. Chief Justice William Scott stated: 

Times are not now as they were when the former decisions on this subject were made. Since then not only individuals but States have been possessed with a dark and fell spirit in relation to slavery, whose gratification is sought in the pursuit of measures, whose inevitable consequence must be the overthrow and destruction of our government. Under such circumstances it does not behoove the State of Missouri to show the least countenance to any measure which might gratify this spirit. She is willing to assume her full responsibility for the existence of slavery within her limits, nor does she seek to share or divide it with others.

Thus, Chief Justice Scott overturned twenty-eight years of Missouri precedents. (see Dred Scott for expanded story)

Muhammad Ali

March 20, 1964: The Department of the Army issued the following statement about Ali’s draft status: “The Department of the Army has completed a review of Cassius Clay’s second pre-induction examination and has determined he is not qualified for induction into the Army under applicable standards.”

The Army had given Ali a second test after it was determined that the results of his initial test were inconclusive. Ali’s response was, “I just said I’m the greatest. I never said I was the smartest.” (Ali, see May 25, 1965)

Voting Rights

March 20, 1964:  the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee announced the “Freedom Summer” program that would train young people to go to Mississippi and help Black register to vote. (BH, see Mar 23; VR, see June 14) 

March to Montgomery

March 20, 1965: President Lyndon B. Johnson notified Alabama’s Governor George Wallace that he would use federal authority to call up the Alabama National Guard in order to supervise the planned civil rights march from Selma to Montgomery. (see March for expanded story)

James Earl Ray

March 20, 1969: James Earl Ray sentenced to 99 years for murder of Martin Luther King Jr. Prior to his death, Ray was in the Lois M. DeBerry Special Needs Facility in Nashville.

He died at age 70 on April 23, 1998, at the Columbia Nashville Memorial Hospital in Nashville from complications related to kidney disease and liver failure caused by hepatitis C.  (NYT obit for Ray) (see Apr 8)

Michael Donald

March 20, 1981: Mobile, Alabama. Henry Hays (age 26), and James Llewellyn “Tiger” Knowles (age 17) kidnap, beat, strangle, and slit the throat of Michael Donald before hanging him from a tree.

Local police initially stated that Donald had been killed as part of a drug deal gone wrong. (see June 6, 1997). Donald, an African-American, had been walking back from a store and randomly selected by Ku Klux Klan members Hays and Knowles. (retrospective Vanguard USA article)  (BH, see Dec 11; Michael Donald, see June 16, 1983)

Laquan McDonald

March 20, 2018: the American Civil Liberties Union and several community organizations said that they have reached an agreement to provide input into reforms being proposed for the Chicago Police Department. (B & S, see Mar 27; McDonald, see Sept 13)

Antwon Rose

March 20, 2019:  John Leach, a neighbor who lives a few houses away from the scene of East Pittsburgh police officer Michael Rosfeld shooting Antwon Rose, testified that he saw the officer standing on the sidewalk, panicking, saying, “I don’t know why I shot him. I don’t know why I fired.” (B & S and AR, see Mar 22)

BLACK & SHOT

March 20, 2024: U.S. District Judge Tom Lee sentenced Daniel Ready Opdyke to 17.5 years and Chritsian Lee Dedmon to 40 years in prison for torturing Michael Jenkins and Eddie Parker. [NBC article] (next B & S, see March 21)

March 20 Peace Love Art Activism

DEATH PENALTY

Martha Place

March 20, 1899: Martha Place, convicted of the murder of her step-daughter, became the first woman to die in the electric chair. The execution was carried out at New York’s Auburn Prison. (CDNC article) (see May 2, 1910)

Pope Francis

March 20, 2015: Pope Francis came out against the death penalty once again, calling it “unacceptable” regardless of the seriousness of the crime of the condemned. The pope met with a three-person delegation of the International Commission Against the Death Penalty and issued a letter on the occasion urging worldwide abolition.

Citing his previous messages against the death penalty, the pope called capital punishment “cruel, inhumane and degrading” and said it “does not bring justice to the victims, but only foments revenge.” Furthermore, in a modern “state of law, the death penalty represents a failure” because it obliges the state to kill in the name of justice, the pope said. Rather, it is a method frequently used by “totalitarian regimes and fanatical groups” to do away with “political dissidents, minorities” and any other person deemed a threat to their power and to their goals. (American Magazine article) (see Mar 23)

March 20 Peace Love Art Activism

US Labor History

R.B. Grover shoe factory

March 20, 1905: an old boiler exploded and shot up through three floors and the roof of the R.B. Grover shoe factory in Brockton, Massachusetts. The building collapsed and burst into flames. killing 58 people and  injuring 150. The incident led to passage of a national boiler safety code. (see June 27)

March 20 Peace Love Art Activism

Vietnam

French return

March 20, 1945: French troops return to Hanoi. (see May 31)

Dien Bien Phu

March 20, 1954: Secretary of State John Foster Dulles and other members of the Eisenhower administration were stunned at the turn of events at Dien Bien Phu (French defeated) and discussions  held discussions to decide on a course of action. Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Admiral Arthur Radford proposed the use of nuclear strikes against the Viet Minh. Other options included massive conventional air strikes, paratrooper drops, and the mining of Haiphong Harbor. In the end, President Eisenhower decided that the situation was too far gone and ordered no action to be taken to aid the French. (see Apr 7)

Operation Popeye/1967

March 20, 1967:  a highly classified weather modification program in Southeast Asia called Operation Popeye began. It was an attempt to extend the monsoon season, specifically over areas of the Ho Chi Minh Trail maze. The military seeded the clouds over the Trail to create floods and wash out supply routes to hinder North Vietnam’s supply chain into and from South Vietnam.

The 54th Weather Reconnaissance Squadron carried out the operation using the slogan “make mud, not war.”

The initial area of operations was the eastern half of the Laotian panhandle.

At times the program was also known as Operation Motorpool, and Operation Intermediary-Compatriot.  (next V, see Mar 25)

Operation Popeye/1974

March 20, 1974: the Defense Department provided Senator Pell’s Subcommittee with a top secret briefing on weather modification activities in Southeast Asia. (V, see Apr 16; see OP for expanded chronology)

Gen. David Shoup

March 20, 1968:

• retired U.S. Marine Corps Commandant Gen. David Shoup estimated that up to 800,000 men would be required just to defend South Vietnamese population centers. He further stated that the US could only achieve military victory by invading the North, but argued that such an operation would not be worth the cost.

• The New York Times published excerpts from General Westmoreland’s classified end-of-year report (1967), which indicated that the U.S. command did not believe the enemy capable of any action even approximating the Tet Offensive (January 1968). This report, Shoup’s comments, and other conflicting assessments of the situation in Vietnam contributed to the growing dissatisfaction among a large segment of American society with the Vietnam War. (see Mar 22)

Chicago 8

March 20, 1969: the grand jury impaneled to investigate the 1968 Chicago riots charged eight protesters with various crimes and eight police officers with civil rights violations. The eight protesters were: Abbie Hoffman, Jerry Rubin, David Dellinger, Tom Hayden, Rennie Davis, John Froines, Lee Weiner, and Bobby Seale. Later, Seale’s trial will be separated and the group will thereafter be known as the Chicago Seven. (Vietnam, see March 25 – 31; Chi8, see Sept 23)

March 20 Peace Love Art Activism

Cold War

Nikita Khrushchev

March 20, 1953: the Soviet government announced that Nikita Khrushchev had been selected as one of five men named to the new office of Secretariat of the Communist Party. Khrushchev’s selection was a crucial first step in his rise to power in the Soviet Union. (see Apr 13)

Cuba

March 20, 2016: President Barack Obama arrived in Cuba and ended a half-century of estrangement. Obama and Cuban President Raul Castro met. (Guardian article) (see Nov 25).

March 20 Peace Love Art Activism

INDEPENDENCE DAY

Tunisia

March 20, 1956:  Tunisia independent from France. (see Nov 18)

March 20 Peace Love Art Activism

see March 20 Music et al for expanded info

Calcutta

March 20 – April 9, 1961: Lawrence Welk’s Calcutta  is Billboard #1 album.

Surrender

March 20 – April 2, 1961: “Surrender” by Elvis Presley #1 Billboard Hot 100. Though based on an early 20^th century Italian ballad, it was one of 25 songs Doc Pomus and Mort Shuman wrote for Presley. (Apr 10)

Goldfinger

March 20 – April 9, 1965: the Goldfinger soundtrack is the Billboard #1 album.

John & Yoko

March 20, 1969: John Lennon and Yoko Ono married in Gibraltar. (see March 25 – 31)

Knight Ringo

March 20, 2018: Prince William knighted Ringo. Ringo became the second Beatle knighted. Paul was knighted in 1997. (next Beatles, see August 27, 2020)

March 20 Peace Love Art Activism

AIDS

AZT

March 20, 1987: the Food and Drug Administration approved the sale of AZT, a drug shown to prolong the lives of some AIDS patients. (see Mar 24)

March 20 Peace Love Art Activism

Feminism

March 20, 1991: in Automobile Workers vs. Johnson Controls, the US Supreme Court ruled unconstitutional the exclusion of women from jobs where exposure to lead might harm the fetus unless the women could prove they were medically infertile; the decision was unanimous; the court noted that men were not subjected to similar requirements, though exposure by men to lead was also known to be harmful to reproduction. (Oyez article) (see Oct 11)

March 20 Peace Love Art Activism

Jack Kevorkian

March 20, 1996: Rep Dave Camp (R-MI), introduced a bill in the House to prohibit taxpayer funding of assisted suicide. (see Kevorkian for expanded story)

March 20 Peace Love Art Activism

Consumer Protection

March 20, 1997: Liggett Group settled 22 state lawsuits by admitting the industry markets cigarettes to teenagers and agreeing to warn on every pack that smoking is addictive. (see Aug 25)

March 20 Peace Love Art Activism

CLINTON IMPEACHMENT

March 20, 1998: President Clinton decided to formally invoke executive privilege. (see Clinton for expanded story)

March 20 Peace Love Art Activism

Pledge of Allegiance

March 20, 2003: the US House of Representatives voted 400-7 to condemn the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals decision not to reconsider its ruling that the addition of the phase “under God” to the The Pledge of Allegiance was unconstitutional. (see Pledge for expanded chronology)

March 20 Peace Love Art Activism

Sexual Abuse of Children

March 20, 2012: Supreme Court: John Doe AP v. Roman Catholic Archdiocese of St. Louis. The Court rejected an appeal challenging a Missouri court’s ruling that the Constitution’s religious- freedom protections shield churches from lawsuits questioning practices for employing and supervising the clergy. The Court agreed with a Missouri trial judge who had ruled that  the church couldn’t be sued on the “John Doe’s” claims and an appeals court had upheld the decision. (SCOTUS link) (see Mar 27)

March 20 Peace Love Art Activism

Iraq War II

March 20, 2015: federal Judge Alvin K. Hellerstein of the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York ruled that the United States government must release photographs showing the abuse of detainees in American custody at the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq and other sites. Hellerstein gave the Defense Department 60 days to appeal. The American Civil Liberties Union had filed a lawsuit in 2004 seeking the release of the photos. Judge Hellerstein ruled in August 2014 that the government had failed to show how the photos would endanger American soldiers, but allowed it to submit more evidence. He said in the Mar 20 ruling that the additional evidence had failed to change his decision. (see Apr 13)

March 20 Peace Love Art Activism

Environmental Issues

Fracking

March 20, 2015: the Obama administration unveiled the nation’s first major federal regulations on hydraulic fracturing. The new rules applied only to oil and gas wells drilled on public lands, even though the vast majority of fracking in the US was done on private land. The rules will cover about 100,000 wells, according to the Interior Department.

“Current federal well-drilling regulations are more than 30 years old, and they simply have not kept pace with the technical complexities of today’s hydraulic fracturing operations,” said the interior secretary, Sally Jewell.     

The regulations, which would take effect in 90 days, would allow government workers to inspect and validate the safety and integrity of the cement barriers that line fracking wells. They wouldrequire companies to publicly disclose the chemicals used in the fracturing process within 30 days of completing fracking operations.

The rules would also set safety standards for how companies could store used fracking chemicals around well sites, and will require companies to submit detailed information on well geology to the Bureau of Land Management, a part of the Interior Department. (see Apr 1)

Climate Change Report

March 20, 2023:  the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change reported that Earth was likely to cross a critical threshold for global warming within the next decade, and nations needed to make an immediate and drastic shift away from fossil fuels to prevent the planet from overheating dangerously beyond that level.

The report, by a body of experts convened by the United Nations, offered the most comprehensive understanding to date of ways in which the planet was changing. It said that global average temperatures were estimated to rise 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit) above pre industrial levels sometime around “the first half of the 2030s,” as humans continued to burn coal, oil and natural gas. [NYT article] (next EI, see Apr 6)

March 20 Peace Love Art Activism

Women’s Health

Wisconsin

March 20, 2015: U.S. District Judge William Conley struck down a Wisconsin law requiring doctors performing abortions to get hospital admitting privileges, ruling that any benefits to women’s health from the requirement are “substantially outweighed” by restricting women’s access to abortion.

Conley, who earlier had put the law on hold, ruled that the 2013 law was unconstitutional. He issued a permanent injunction blocking its enforcement. (see Apr 27)

Gestational Age Act

March 20, 2018: federal Judge Carlton W. Reeves put the Gestational Age Act law on hold ruling after an emergency hearing that the clinic’s argument that the law was unconstitutional was “substantially likely to succeed.” [NYT report] (WH, see Mar 30; Mississippi, see Nov 20)

March 20 Peace Love Art Activism

LGBTQ

March 20, 2015: Justice Secretary César Miranda, Puerto Rico’s attorney general, announced that its government would no longer defend a law that banned same-sex couples from marrying and did not recognize the validity of such marriages performed in other jurisdictions.

“The decision recognizes that all human beings are equal before the law,” Miranda said. “We believe in an equal society in which everyone enjoys the same rights.” (see Mar 26)

March 20 Peace Love Art Activism

ADA

March 20, 2017:  “Sesame Street” added Julia, a 4-year-old female muppet who has autism, to its cast as part of an expanding autism initiative.

The TV show rolled out the news of Julia’s arrival on its website and released a series of YouTube videos featuring her. Julia, who loves to sing and can memorize lyrics better than her young peers, struggles with loud noises like sirens, which can cause her to become emotionally upset. (CBS News story) (see Mar 22)

March 20 Peace Love Art Activism

March 19 Peace Love Art Activism

Voting Rights

Women’s vote

March 19, 1914:  US Senate voted for first time since 1887 on federal woman suffrage amendment. It defeated the bill,  but reintroduced it the next day. (VR, see Apr 8; Feminism, see May 2)

Gerrymandering

March 19, 2018: the US Supreme Court rejected a second emergency application from Republican lawmakers in Pennsylvania seeking to overturn decisions from that state’s highest court, which had ruled that partisan gerrymandering had warped Pennsylvania’s congressional map and then imposed one of its own.

The ruling meant a new map drawn by the Pennsylvania Supreme Court would very likely be in effect in 2018’s elections, setting the stage for possible gains by Democrats. Under the current map, Republicans held 12 seats. Democrats held five and were expected to pick up another when the result of a special election the previous week was certified.

The full Supreme Court denied the latest application without comment or noted dissents. (see June 11)

March 19 Peace Love Art Activism

US Labor History

Adamson Act

March 19, 1917: the U.S. Supreme Court upheld the Adamson Act that made the eight-hour workday for railroads constitutional. (U Penn Law Review article) (see Apr 10)

March 19 Peace Love Art Activism

BLACK HISTORY

Harlem Revolt

March 19, 1935: Harlem Riot, a 12-year-old boy was caught shoplifting and threatened with physical punishment but the boy bit the employee’s hand and escaped. A number of coincidences cause local residents to assume that the boy was beaten to death and riots follow.

Sociologist Allen D. Grimshaw called the Harlem Riot of 1935 “the first manifestation of a ‘modern’ form of racial rioting,” citing three criteria:

1. “violence directed almost entirely against property”
2. “the absence of clashes between racial groups”
3. “struggles between the lower-class Negro population and the police forces”

Whereas previous race riots had been characterized by violent clashes between groups of black and white rioters, subsequent riots would resemble the riot in Harlem. (RR, see June 15, 1943; BH, see June 18, 1935)

Lloyd Gaines

March 19, 1939: after he prevailed on December 12, 1938 in a lawsuit to force the University of Missouri to accept him to its all-white law school, a Lloyd Gaines went missing and was never seen  again.

Family members suspected that Gaines was abducted and murdered for his activism, while state officials claimed he fled and assumed another identity in response to threats against him and his loved ones. To this day, Mr. Gaines’s fate is unknown.[EJI article]  (next BH, see Apr 9)

George Whitmore, Jr.

March 19, 1965:  NY Supreme Court Justice David L. Malbin found  that the jury in the Elba Borrero case had been influenced by “prejudice and racial bias” and reversed George Whitmore, Jr.’s conviction, granting him a new trial. Malbin stated: “The hearing revealed that prejudice and racial bias invaded the jury room. Bigotry I any of its sinister forms is reprehensible, it must be crushed, never to rise again. It has no place in an American courts of Justice.”

On the same day, a bipartisan commission recommended  the end of capital punishment in New York State. (see Whitmore for expanded story)

Stop and Frisk Policy/1999

March 19, 1999: New York State Attorney General Eliot Spitzer announced a civil rights inquiry into whether the New York Police Department’s “stop and frisk” practices have caused some people to be unjustifiably searched. Spitzer’s study would conclude that stop-and-frisks disproportionately impact men of color. (see December 2002)

Stop and Frisk Policy/2005

March 19, 2015: Manhattan Federal Judge Analisa Torres, overseeing reforms to the NYPD’s stop and frisk program, affirmed the “important perspective” of police unions in the overhaul. Torres said the five unions representing cops should be allowed to give input regarding any reforms proposed by the city. After the unions voice their opinions, the reforms will go to the court-appointed federal monitor, then to Torres for final approval, she wrote. (see July 9)

Laquan McDonald

March 19, 2019: the Illinois Supreme Court let stand a prison sentence of less than seven years for Chicago police officer Jason Van Dyke convicted of killing black teenager Laquan McDonald that many criticized as far too lenient.

The high court offered no explanation for its 4-2 decision that denied a rare bid by Illinois’ attorney general and a special prosecutor to get the justices to toss a lower court’s sentence. One judge issued a strong dissent and one partially dissented. (LM, see  June 14)

Antwon Rose

March 19, 2019: Pennsylvania police officer Michael Rosfeld, who shot and killed an unarmed black teenager Antwon Rose on,  went on trial.

A guilty verdict could put Rosfeld behind bars for life.

Rosfeld lawyers were expected to argue that the June 19 shooting of Antwon Rose II after a traffic stop in East Pittsburgh was justified, while prosecutors push for a conviction in the criminal homicide case.

Bystanders captured the shooting on video and posted it online, triggering a series of protests in the Pittsburgh area that included a  march that shut down a major highway.

The jury was made up of six men and six women, including three African-Americans. (next B & S and AR, see Mar 20 )

BLACK & SHOT/Jenkins and Parker

March 19, 2024: Hunter Elward and Jeffrey Middleton , two former Mississippi police officers, were sentenced for torturing Michael Jenkins and Eddie Parker, two black, men in their own home. Jenkins and were beaten, shocked with stun guns and sexually assaulted by the officers.

Elward, who shot one of the victims in the mouth during a botched mock execution, was sentenced to 20 years; Middleton was sentenced to just over 17 years.  [BBC article] (next B & S, see Mar 20)

March 19 Peace Love Art Activism

March 19 Music et al

The Blackboard Jungle

March 19, 1955: The Blackboard Jungle released. The NY Times review stated: Evan Hunter’s “Blackboard Jungle,” which tells a vicious and terrifying tale of rampant hoodlumism and criminality among the students in a large city vocational training school, was sensational and controversial when it appeared as a novel last fall. It is sure to be equally sensational and controversial, now that it is made into a film.

Actor Glenn Ford played the main character. Ford’s son, Peter, had liked the Bill Haley song “Rock Around the Clock” and recommended its inclusion in the movie. The movie made the song a huge hit. (see Mar 26; Haley, see July 9); see Princeton Blackboard riot)

Jackie McLean

March 19, 1962: Jackie McLean recorded Let Freedom Ring album at Van Gelder Studios. (All Music review)

Bob Dylan

March 19, 1962:  Columbia released 20-year-old Bob Dylan first album: Bob Dylan. He recorded it between November 20 – 22, 1961. The album sold only 5,000 copies in its first year. (2012 Rolling Stone magazine article) (see Apr 16)

Show Business Personalities

March 19, 1964 : British Prime Minister Harold Wilson, (they would sing about him later in “Taxman”) presented The Beatles with the award for being “Show Business Personalities of 1963” at the Variety Club of Great Britain Annual Show Business Awards. (see Mar 21)

Acid Test

March 19, 1966: Acid Test Los Angeles, California (Pico) Carthay Studios. (Rolling Stone magazine article on acid tests) (see Mar 22)

March 19 Peace Love Art Activism

Vietnam

Horst Faas

March 19, 1964: a photograph of a Vietnamese man holding his dead child and begging US soldiers for help and other images from South Vietnam earned Associated Press photographer Horst Faas the Pulitzer Prize in 1965. The caption, as it appeared in the Milwaukee Sentinel on March 20: The body of a child killed in battle Thursday in South Vietnam was held by his father as rangers of the Vietnamese army looked down from a tank. The child was killed as government forces pursued Vietcong guerrillas into a village near the Cambodian border. The Vietnamese forces used bombers and armored personnel carriers against the guerrilla forces in the battle. (Vietnam, see in “April – June”; Faas, see July 18, 1965)

Howard University

March 19 – 23, 1968: students at Howard University in Washington, D.C., staged rallies, protests and a 5-day sit-in, laying siege to the administration building, shutting down the university in protest over its ROTC program and the Vietnam War, and demanding a more Afrocentric curriculum. (Harvard Crimson article) (see Mar 20)

March 19 Peace Love Art Activism

Native Americans

Wounded Knee II

March 19, 1973: the insurgent Indians holding this tiny village publicly burned a detailed Government proposal aimed at settling the armed confrontation. However, they agreed to continue negotiations with Government officials. (see  Mar 27)

March 19 Peace Love Art Activism

FREE SPEECH

Barbara Papish

March 19, 1973: PAPISH v. BOARD OF CURATORS OF THE UNIVERSITY OF MISSOURI ET AL. Barbara Papish, a graduate student in the University of Missouri School of Journalism, was expelled for distributing on campus a newspaper “containing forms of indecent speech” in violation of a bylaw of the Board of Curators. The newspaper, the Free Press Underground, had been sold on this state university campus for more than four years pursuant to an authorization obtained from the University Business Office. The particular newspaper issue in question was found to be unacceptable for two reasons. First, on the front cover the publishers had reproduced a political cartoon previously printed in another newspaper depicting policemen raping the State of Liberty and the Goddess of Justice. The caption under the cartoon read: “. . . With Liberty and Justice for All.” Secondly, the issue contained an article entitled “Motherfucker  Acquitted,” which discussed the trial and acquittal on an assault charge of a New York City youth who was a member of an organization known as “Up Against the Wall, Motherfucker”

The U.S. Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals had ruled her freedom of expression could be subordinated to the “conventions of decency in the use and display of language and pictures” on a public campus without violating the First Amendment.

The US Supreme court voted  6-3 to overturn that decision. The Supreme Court noted that the Eighth Circuit’s ruling had come several days before Healy v. James, 408 U.S. 169 (1972), in which the Court had said that even though a state university could enforce reasonable rules governing student conduct, “state colleges and universities are not enclaves immune from the sweep of the First Amendment.” In a per curiam opinion, the Papish majority said Healy made “clear that the mere dissemination of ideas – no matter how offensive to good taste – on a state university campus may not be shut off in the name alone of ‘conventions of decency.'” (see June 21)

Civil rights inquiry

March 19, 1999: New York State Attorney General Eliot Spitzer announced a civil rights inquiry into whether the New York Police Department’s “stop and frisk” practices have caused some people to be unjustifiably searched. Spitzer’s study would conclude that stop-and-frisks disproportionately impact men of color. (see December 2002)

Federal Judge Analisa Torresm

March 19, 2015: Manhattan Federal Judge Analisa Torresm, overseeing reforms to the NYPD’s stop and frisk program, affirmed the “important perspective” of police unions in the overhaul. Torres said the five unions representing cops should be allowed to give input regarding any reforms proposed by the city. After the unions voice their opinions, the reforms will go to the court-appointed federal monitor, then to Torres for final approval, she wrote. (see July 9)

March 19 Peace Love Art Activism

Irish Troubles

March 19, 1988:  two British Army Corporals were killed after driving straight into a funeral for the victims of the Milltown Cemetery attack three days earlier, after they were mistakenly thought to be carrying out a similar attack to the one by Ulster Defence Association (UDA) member Michael Stone, in which he killed three Catholics attending the funeral. (see Troubles for expanded story)

March 19 Peace Love Art Activism

Iraq War II

Iraq War starts

March 19, 2003: U.S. and coalition forces launched missiles and bombs at targets in Iraq including a “decapitation attack” aimed at Iraqi President Saddam Hussein and other top members of the country’s leadership.

There were nearly 300,000 American, British and other troops at the border.

President George W. Bush warned Americans that the conflict “could be longer and more difficult than some predict.” He assured the nation that “this will not be a campaign of half-measures, and we will accept no outcome except victory.” (see Mar 23)

Iraq War continues

March 19, 2006:

•  on the eve of the third anniversary of the Iraq invasion, President Bush promised to “finish the mission” with “complete victory,” urging the American public to remain steadfast but offering no indication when victory may be achieved. [Washington Post, 3/19/06]
• Time Magazine revealed that U.S. Marines killed at least 15 unarmed Iraqi civilians in Haditha the previous November. (see Apr 23)

March 19 Peace Love Art Activism

Westboro Baptist Church

March 19, 2014: the Rev. Fred Phelps, the virulently anti gay preacher who drew wide, scornful attention for staging demonstrations at military funerals as a way to proclaim his belief that God was punishing America for its tolerance of homosexuality died. He was 84. (see Sept 8)

March 19 Peace Love Art Activism

DEATH PENALTY

March 19, 2015:

• S. District Judge W. Keith Watkins issued orders that executions in Alabama were on hold until the U.S. Supreme Court decided a case regarding the drugs Oklahoma was using to kill condemned inmates. “The State has conceded that the best course of action is to stay decisions in lethal injection cases across the board” until the Oklahoma case was decided, Watkins wrote in a court order. Watkins issued orders this week in at least two death penalty cases, stating that executions in those cases were stayed until the nation’s highest court ruled on the use of midazolam as a lethal injection drug. Watkins’ orders indicated that Alabama would not oppose any motion for a stay of execution until the Supreme Court issued a ruling.
• The the Florida Supreme Court unanimously ruled that inmates serving life sentences for crimes they committed as juveniles should be re-sentenced under guidelines that went into effect last year. In four separate cases, the justices ordered lower courts to apply a 2014 law to inmates who, as juveniles, were sentenced in the past either to life in prison or to terms that would have effectively kept them behind bars until they die. Two of the inmates were convicted of murder. The highly anticipated rulings settled the question of whether two seminal U.S. Supreme Court decisions that found life sentences for juveniles violate Eighth Amendment protections against cruel and unusual punishment should apply retroactively. Lower courts were divided on the retroactivity issue. (see Mar 20)

March 19, 2018: the US Supreme Court turned down a request that it take a fresh look at whether the death penalty was constitutional anywhere in the nation.

The court also refused to consider a narrower question in the same case: Whether Arizona’s capital sentencing system, which appears to make virtually all murderers eligible for the death penalty, violates the Constitution.

Justice Breyer also issued a statement on the narrower challenge, saying that Arizona’s capital sentencing system may well be unconstitutional and invited a further challenge with more evidence. Justices Ginsburg, Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan joined Justice Breyer’s statement. (see Apr 19)

March 19 Peace Love Art Activism

Women’s Health

March 19, 2018: saying that he was “saving the unborn,” Gov. Phil Bryant of Mississippi signed into law [Gestational Age Act] a measure that would ban almost all abortions after 15 weeks of pregnancy. Abortion rights supporters called it the earliest abortion ban in the country, and said it was an unconstitutional restriction that defied years of federal court precedent over the limits states may impose on abortion providers.

The Jackson Women’s Health Organization, filed a complaint in United States District Court for Mississippi’s Southern District less than an hour after he signed the bill into law. [NYT report] (WH & Mississippi, see Mar 20)

March 19 Peace Love Art Activism

Immigration History

March 19, 2019: the Supreme Court adopted a strict interpretation of a federal immigration law, saying it required the detention of immigrants facing deportation without the possibility of bail if they had committed crimes, including minor ones, no matter how long ago they had been released from criminal custody.

The vote was 5 to 4, with the court’s more conservative justices in the majority. Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr., writing for the majority, said the plain language of a federal law required the result.

Justice Stephen G. Breyer summarized his dissent from the bench, a sign of profound disagreement. He said the majority had violated the nation’s basic values.

“The greater importance of the case,” he said, “lies in the power that the majority’s interpretation grants the government. It is a power to detain persons who committed a minor crime many years before. And it is a power to hold those persons, perhaps for many months, without an opportunity to obtain bail.” (see Mar 26)

March 19 Peace Love Art Activism

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