August 4 Peace Love Art Activism

Native Americans

August 4, 1862: increasingly discontented over the loss of land, non-payment of annuities, past broken treaties, food shortages and famine following crop failure, representatives of the northern Sissetowan and Wahpeton Dakota bands met at the Upper Sioux Agency in the northwestern part of the reservation and successfully negotiated to obtain food. (see February 8, 1887)

August 4 Peace Love Art Activism

World War I

August 4, 1914: at midnight, Britain declared war on Germany, marking the official beginning of World War I. (see Nov 29, 1914)

August 4 Peace Love Art Activism

The Cold War

August 4, 1960: an FBI memo on this day ordered the Bureau’s illegal COINTELPRO program to disrupt organizations advocating independence for Puerto Rico. COINTELPRO, created on March 8, 1956, was a secret program that engaged in a variety of illegal activities against targeted organizations, including wiretaps, burglaries, theft, the forging of documents, and the dissemination of disruptive disinformation.

COINTELPRO was originally directed at the Communist Party and other Marxist groups, but was later expanded to target the Ku Klux Klan, on July 30, 1964, and “New Left” political groups on May 9, 1968. (see Aug 17)

August 4 Peace Love Art Activism

Black History

Dixon v. Alabama State Board of Education

August 4, 1961: US District court decided that although no rule existed requiring formal charges or a hearing, Alabama State College’s usual practice had been to grant a hearing to students prior to decisions of expulsion. The Court reasoned that any governmental acting to cause injury to an individual must adhere to Constitutional due process requirements. The minimum requirements of due process are to be determined by the circumstances and interests of the parties involved in the action. Actions of the government cannot be arbitrary.

On February 25, 2010, in a ceremony commemorating the fiftieth anniversary of the sit-in, Alabama State University (formerly Alabama State College) President William Harris reinstated the nine students, criticized Governor Patterson’s “arbitrary, illegal and intrusive” role in forcing the expulsions, and praised the student protest as “an important moment in civil rights history.” [Justia article] (BH, see Sept 29; SR, see April 6, 1963)

Race Revolt

August 4, 1964: Jersey City revolt ended after the third night of unrest when city officials dispatched 400 police officers to the streets. That same night, black clergy traveled through the city urging an end to the riots using NAACP bullhorns and sound equipment to announce that one of the community’s demands had been met: the city had agreed to re-open two closed local parks.

The Jersey City revolt, one of the first race riots to occur after the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, left 46 people injured, 71 homes and businesses damaged, and 52 people arrested. [Black Past article]  (RR, see Aug 5)

Chaney, Goodman, and Schwerner

August 4, 1964: (Neshoba Country, Miss.) the bodies of the three civil-rights workers—two white, one black [James E. Chaney, 21; Andrew Goodman, 21; and Michael Schwerner, 24] were found in an earthen dam, six weeks into a federal investigation backed by President Johnson. (BH, see Aug 28; see Murders for expanded story)

Medgar Evers assassination

August 4, 1992: Jackson, Mississippi. Judge, L. Breland Hilburn of Hinds County Circuit Court, refused Byron De La Beckwith’s request to let him go free because of deteriorating health and memory. (Evers, see August 24)

Rodney King twice

August 4, 1992: a federal grand jury returned indictments against Sgt. Stacey Koon and officers Laurence Michael Powell, Timothy Wind, and Theodore Briseno on the charge of violating the civil rights of Rodney King. (King, see Feb 25, 1993)

August 4, 1993: U.S. District Judge John Davies sentenced both Sgt. Stacey Koon and Laurence Michael Powell to 30 months in prison for violating King’s civil rights. Powell was found guilty of violating King’s constitutional right to be free from an arrest made with “unreasonable force.” Ranking officer Koon is convicted of permitting the civil rights violation to occur. (BH, see Feb 5, 1994; King, see April 19, 1994)

August 4 Peace Love Art Activism

Clarence Earl Gideon

August 4, 1961:  being too poor to pay for counsel, Gideon was forced to defend himself at his trial after being denied a lawyer by his trial judge, Robert McCrary, Jr.. Gideon was tried and convicted of breaking and entering with intent to commit petty larceny (see Gideon for expanded story)

August 4 Peace Love Art Activism

Vietnam & Daniel Ellsberg/Pentagon Papers

August 4, 1964: the  “second” Gulf of Tonkin incident. It turned out that North Vietnamese “boats” were radar ghosts.”

Daniel Ellsberg started working for the Defense Department as assistant to John McNaughton (assistant secretary of defense and a close advisor to McNamara) The validity of Johnson’s claim…

…was later questioned, and it comes to be considered one of many presidential lies that led to U.S. escalation in Vietnam. (Vietnam, see Aug 5; see DE/PP for expanded story)

LBJ a bit upset

August 4, 1965: President Johnson called CBS president Frank Stanton and asked, “Frank, are you trying to fuck me?” (see Aug 5)

Henry H. Howe

August 4, 1967:  the U.S. Court of Military Appeals in Washington upheld the 1965 court-martial of Second Lieutenant Henry H. Howe, who had been sentenced to dismissal from the service and a year at hard labor for participating in an antiwar demonstration. (see Aug 7)

Secret talk

August 4, 1969:  American envoy Henry Kissinger held a secret talk with two North Vietnamese negotiators. The North Vietnamese remained immovable. Kissinger reminded them of Nixon’s July 15 warned about a breakthrough before November. (Vietnam, see Aug 30)

August 4 Peace Love Art Activism

The [bumpy] Road to Bethel

August 4, 1969: Don Ganoung presented the Bethel Medical Center with a check for $10,000; officers of the Peace Service Corps moved into their headquarters on Lake Street. (see Chronology for expanded story)

August 4 Peace Love Art Activism

Arthur Bremer

August 4, 1972, a jury of six men and six women took just over an hour and a half to reach their guilty verdict. Arthur Bremer was sentenced to 63 years in prison for shooting George Wallace and three other people on May 15, 1972. [2015 Washington Post article] (see Sept 28)

August 4 Peace Love Art Activism

Jack Kevorkian

August 4, 1993: Thomas Hyde, a 30-year-old Novi, Michigan, man with ALS, is found dead in Kevorkian’s van on Belle Isle, a Detroit park. (see JK for expanded story)

August 4 Peace Love Art Activism

Dissolution of Yugoslavia

August 4, 1994: Serb-dominated Yugoslavia withdrew its support for Bosnian Serbs, sealing the 300-mile border between Yugoslavia and Serb-held Bosnia. (see July 11 – 22, 1995)

August 4 Peace Love Art Activism

LGBTQ

Proposition 8

August 4, 2010: Chief U.S. District Judge Vaughn Walker ruled that Proposition 8, the 2008 referendum that banned same-sex marriage in California, violates the 14th Amendment’s equal protection clause. “Proposition 8 singles out gays and lesbians and legitimates their unequal treatment,” Vaughn wrote in his opinion. “Proposition 8 perpetuates the stereotype that gays and lesbians are incapable of forming long-term loving relationships and that gays and lesbians are not good parents.”  [CNN article] (see Sept 21)

Florida gay marriage

August 4, 2014: Florida State Circuit Judge Dale Cohen in Broward County made history, ordering the state of Florida to recognize gay marriages performed in another state. Cohen’s ruling was the third in as many weeks by a Florida judge who ruled that the state’s ban on gay marriage was unconstitutional.

This one was unique, however, because it was the first requiring the state to recognize a gay marriage conducted elsewhere.

The other two – one July 17 by a judge in Monroe County and another July 25 by a Miami-Dade judge – only required local clerks of court to begin issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples. (see Sept 3)

August 4 Peace Love Art Activism

Women’s Health

Alabama/Abortion

August 4, 2014: in a 172-page decision United States District Judge Myron H. Thompson rejected as unconstitutional an Alabama law requiring doctors at abortion clinics to have admitting privileges at local hospitals.

The requirement, adopted by the legislature in 2013, would have forced three of Alabama’s five abortion clinics to close, severely restricting access to abortions while not providing significant medical benefits..

The ruling added to a swirl of contradictory court decisions on the requirement of admitting privileges, especially in the South where abortion opponents had promoted such laws in the name of patient safety. Advocates of abortion rights called the requirement a transparent effort to close clinics.

Major national medical associations had said that requiring admitting privileges were medically unnecessary because in the rare emergency, hospitals would accept patients and specialists would provide treatment. [NYT article] (see Aug 28)

FDA Approves Zurzuvae

August 4, 2023: federal health officials approved the first pill specifically intended to treat severe depression after childbirth, a condition that affects thousands of new mothers in the U.S. each year.

The Food and Drug Administration granted approval of the drug, Zurzuvae, for adults experiencing severe depression related to childbirth or pregnancy. The pill is taken once a day for 14 days.

“Having access to an oral medication will be a beneficial option for many of these women coping with extreme, and sometimes life-threatening, feelings,” said Dr. Tiffany Farchione, FDA’s director of psychiatric drugs, in a statement. [NPR article] (next WH, see Aug 8)

August 4 Peace Love Art Activism

Sexual Abuse of Children

August 4, 2015: the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Milwaukee said that it would pay $21 million to more than 300 victims of clergy abuse in a settlement that would end a four-year bankruptcy proceeding.

The proposed deal, which would be part of a reorganization plan submitted to a bankruptcy court later this month, was to be reviewed by a judge overseeing the case at a Nov. 9 hearing. Archbishop Jerome Listecki called the settlement a “new Pentecost,” but an attorney for the victims, along with advocates for those abused by clergy, decried the settlement as a paltry amount. [Chicago Tribune article] (March 1, 2016)

August 4 Peace Love Art Activism

SEPARATION OF CHURCH AND STATE

August 4, 2016: in November 2013, Shannon Morgan, a resident of Leesburg, N.J., applied for a license plate that read “8THIEST.” The DMV denied the application because the plate “may carry connotations offensive to good taste and decency,” according to court papers.

After she received that rejection, Ms. Morgan used the state’s online application form to apply for a plate that said “BAPTIST” and was quickly approved, said Richard B. Katskee, the legal director for Americans United for Separation of Church and State, an advocacy group in Washington that acted as her legal counsel. It sued the commission in April 2014.

Under the terms of the settlement agreement, Ms. Morgan will receive the license plate she requested in 2013 once she reapplied and sent in the usual application fee of $50. The commission also paid her $75,000 in legal fees. (see May 1, 2017)

August 4 Peace Love Art Activism

Iraq War II

August 4, 2017:  a federal appeals court threw out the lengthy sentences for three former Blackwater Worldwide security contractors and ordered a new trial for a fourth man involved in a deadly 2007 shooting in Baghdad.

The shooting injured or killed at least 31 civilians and made Blackwater a symbol of unchecked, freewheeling American power in Iraq.

Firing from heavily armored trucks, the contractors unleashed a torrent of machine gun fire and launched grenades into a crowded traffic circle. An F.B.I. agent one called it the “My Lai massacre of Iraq.”

Three men, Dustin L. Heard, Evan S. Liberty and Paul A. Slough, were convicted in 2014 of voluntary manslaughter and using a machine gun to carry out a violent crime. They were sentenced to 30 years in prison, a mandatory sentence on the machine-gun charge. [Washington Post article] (see October 22, 2014)

A fourth man, Nicholas A. Slatten, a sniper who the government said fired the first shots, was convicted of murder and received a life sentence.

Voting Rights

August 4, 2023: in an emphatic 2-to-1 opinion, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit ruled that Mississippi’s lifetime ban on voting for people convicted of a range of felonies was cruel and unusual punishment that violates the Eighth Amendment and “is at odds with society’s evolving standards of decency.”

The ruling upbraided Mississippi officials for what it called a pointless “denial of the democratic core of American citizenship.”

“Mississippi denies this precious right to a large class of its citizens, automatically, mechanically, and with no thought given to whether it is proportionate as punishment for an amorphous and partial list of crimes,” the judges wrote. [NYT article] (next VR, see Nov 17)

August 4 Peace Love Art Activism

August 3 Peace Love Art Activism

Immigration History

August 3, 1882: Congress passed a law regulating immigration. Under the statute, state-run boards under contract to the US Secretary of the Treasury were to inspect immigrants according to rules that were uniform in all ports. Boards were prohibited from admitting any immigrant found to be a “convict, lunatic, idiot or any person unable to take care of him or herself without becoming a public charge.” (see January 1, 1892)

DACA

August 3, 2018: a U.S. District Court Judge John D. Bates in the District of Columbia ruled that the Obama-era program offering temporary protected status to a cohort of immigrants brought here illegally as children must remain in place despite efforts by the Trump administration to dismantle it.

Bates excoriated Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen’s arguments to end the program known as Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA).

” … The Nielsen Memo offers nothing even remotely approaching a considered legal assessment that this Court could subject to judicial review,” Bates wrote. He added, later, “The Nielsen Memo demonstrates no true cognizance of the serious reliance interests at issue here — indeed, it does not even identify what those interests are … ”

However, he ruled that the administration would have until August 23 to appeal the decision before the order to reanimate the program and allow new applications goes into effect. [NBC News story] (next IH, see Aug 16; next DACA, see Aug 31)

August 3 Peace Love Art Activism

US Labor History

Richie “Blackie” Ford

August 3, 1913: fighting broke out when sheriff’s deputies attempted to arrest Wobbly leader Richie “Blackie” Ford as he addressed striking field workers at the Durst Ranch in Wheatland, Calif. Four persons died, including the local district attorney, a deputy and two workers. Despite the lack of evidence against them, Ford and another strike leader were found guilty of murder by a 12-member jury that included eight farmers (see Sept 23)

Philadelphia Transportation Company strike

August 3, 1944: the third day of the strike, President Roosevelt authorized the War Department to take control of the Philadelphia Transportation Company . Two days later, 5000 United States Army troops moved into Philadelphia to prevent uprisings and protect PTC employees who crossed the picket line. Despite the military presence, the strike sparked thirteen acts of racial violence, including several non-fatal shootings.

After more than a week, the strike ended and PTC employees returned to work after being threatened with termination, loss of draft deferments, and ineligibility for unemployment benefits. By September 1944, the PTC’s first black trolley drivers were on duty.  [Temple U article] (see January 8, 1945)

Air controllers strike

August 3, 1981: some 15,000 air traffic controllers strike. President Reagan threatened to fire any who do not return to work within 48 hours, saying they “have forfeited their jobs” if they do not. Most stay out. [Politico article]  (see Aug 5)

August 3 Peace Love Art Activism

FREE SPEECH

August 3, 1922: John Sumner, head of the New York Society for the Suppression of Vice, announced plans for a committee representing publishers and authors that would screen all literary manuscripts to ensure they were not immoral. The Authors League supported this voluntary censorship idea. The leaders were concerned that sexually oriented and other immoral works were bringing the book industry into “disrepute.” It was suggested that the effort would be led by a prominent “proconsul,” such as Will Hays, then the head to the movie industry’s self-censorship effort or Judge Kenesaw Mountain Landis, who was famous for his actions regarding the 1919 “Black Sox” scandal in professional baseball. The self-censorship idea never came to fruition, however. (see Aug 12)

August 3 Peace Love Art Activism

The Red Scare

August 3, 1948: after being a Communist Party USA member and Soviet spy, Whittaker Chambers later renounced communism and became an outspoken opponent. Chambers testified before the House Un-American Activities Committee, naming Alger Hiss—an important figure in Franklin Roosevelt’s State Department—as a Communist agent.  [1961 NYT obit] (see August 5, 1948)

Technological Milestone

August 3, 1958: the U.S. nuclear submarine Nautilus accomplished the first undersea voyage to the geographic North Pole. The world’s first nuclear submarine, the Nautilus dived at Point Barrow, Alaska, and traveled nearly 1,000 miles under the Arctic ice cap to reach the top of the world. It then steamed on to Iceland, pioneering a new and shorter route from the Pacific to the Atlantic and Europe. [Nautilus dot org article] (see December 10, 1959)

August 3 Peace Love Art Activism

INDEPENDENCE DAY

August 3, 1960:  Niger independent from France. [SAHO article] (see ID for the many nations that became independent in the 1960s)

August 3 Peace Love Art Activism

August 3 Music et al

Dylan/Baez

August 3, 1963: Dylan and Joan Baez, a couple, begin a tour together. She is the headline name, but Dylan is the star. The tour provided a huge boost to Dylan’s career.

That same summer, manager Albert Grossman bought a house in Bearsville, NY near Woodstock. He converted space above the barn as a guest room for Dylan. Both he and Baez will be frequent visitors. (see Aug 17)

Cavern Club

August 3, 1963, The Beatles performed at The Cavern Club for the final time. (see Sept 16)

So Much In Love

August 3 – 9, 1963,  “So Much In Love” by The Tymes #1 on the Billboard Hot 100.

see Newport Pop Festival for more

August 3 & 4, 1968 – The first Newport Pop Festival started at the Orange County Fairgrounds in Costa Mesa, California. It is believed to have been the first pop music concert attended by more than 100,000 paying concertgoers.

Doors

August 3 – 16, 1968: “”Hello, I Love You” by the Doors #1 on the Billboard Hot 100.

Bumpy Road to Bethel

August 3, 1969:  from Dale Bell’s book Woodstock (quoting John Roberts): “Over the course of the spring and summer we had gone to several meetings with film makers like Pennebaker and the Maysles Brothers, and they had all expressed interest in making our movie. But talks had languished and then died when it became clear that we would have to finance their efforts ourselves. Bob Maurice and Mike Wadleigh had been latecomers to this process. I had seen some of Wadleigh’s work and thought it to be original and clever, but noting I had seen altered my fundamental view that financing a documentary was a sane use of my vanishing resources. 

Sunday, August 3rd, 1969 was turning into another typical day at the office. …Around noon I decided to take a break and go someplace where the phones wouldn’t ring with Woodstock problems. I walked down to my dad’s apartment in mid-town. …The phone rang. It was Bob Maurice. …I said “What’s on your mind?” “About 90 grand,” he said. “That’s what it will take for you to own this movie.” I lectured him patiently on the economics of documentaries, concluding with a polite but firm refusal. “You’ll have to get it somewhere else, Bob, I’m pretty much tapped.

  “…a week later…” (film, see Aug 10)

Elliot Tiber

August 3, 2016: Elliot Tiber died in Boca Raton, Fla. from complications of a stroke. Tiber had helped introduce Woodstock Ventures to the Bethel area when he found out that Wallkill had kicked out the festival. (NYT obit) (see Chronology for expanded Woodstock story)

August 3 Peace Love Art Activism

Vietnam

Torching peasant homes

August 3, 1965: CBS-TV news showed pictures of men from the First Battalion, Ninth Marines setting fire to huts in the village of Cam Na, six miles west of Da Nang, despite reports that the Viet Cong (aka, National Liberation Front) had already fled the area. The film report sparked indignation and condemnation of the U.S. policy in Vietnam both at home and overseas. At the same time, the Department of Defense announced that it was increasing the monthly draft call from 17,000 in August to 27,400 in September and 36,000 in October. It also announced that the Navy would require 4,600 draftees, the first such action since 1956. (see Aug 12)

Troop increase

August 3, 1967: after weeks of internal discussions and disagreements, President Johnson agreed to send 45,000 to 50,000 troops to Vietnam which would bring up the total there to 525,000 by mid-1968. He also agreed to activate Reserve units, but kept them state-side fearing increased war protests. (see Aug 4)

August 3 Peace Love Art Activism

BLACK HISTORY

Jersey City

August 3, 1964: local Black leaders presented Jersey City Mayor Whelan with a list of demands: accessible recreational areas for black youth; more black police officers; and better living conditions. NAACP and CORE leaders urged city officials to consider the demands, but Mayor Whelan was resistant and accused the leaders of bringing “hooligan youth” to meet with him. Held amidst continuing rioting, the meeting lasted just twenty-six minutes and made no progress. (see Aug 4)

Law Center for Constitutional Rights

August 3, 1967: William Kunstler and other lawyers formed the Law Center for Constitutional Rights, later known as the Center for Constitutional Rights. The group became one of the most important legal institutions for the civil rights movement. In 1961, Kunstler had traveled to Mississippi and began working in civil rights cases, helping to form the Lawyers Constitutional Defense Committee.  [CCR site] (see Aug 25)

August 3 Peace Love Art Activism

LGBTQ

August 3, 1982: police arrested Michael Hardwick for sodomy after they observed him having sex with another man in his own bedroom in Georgia. Although the district attorney eventually dropped the charges, Hardwick decided to challenge the constitutionality of Georgia’s law. (LGBTQ, see July 4, 1983; Hardwick, see July 30, 1986)

August 3 Peace Love Art Activism

Iran–Contra Affair

August 3, 1987:  the Iran-Contra congressional hearings ended with none of the 29 witnesses tying President Ronald Reagan directly to the diversion of arms-sales profits to Nicaraguan rebels.  (see Nov 18)

August 3 Peace Love Art Activism

Environmental Issues

August 3, 2015: in the strongest action ever taken in the United States to combat climate change, President Obama unveiled a set of environmental regulations devised to sharply cut planet-warming greenhouse gas emissions from the nation’s power plants and ultimately transform America’s electricity industry.

The rules were the final, tougher versions of proposed regulations that the Environmental Protection Agency announced in 2012 and 2014. If they could withstand the expected legal challenges, the regulations would set in motion sweeping policy changes that could shut down hundreds of coal-fired power plants, freeze construction of new coal plant,s and create a boom in the production of wind and solar power and other renewable energy sources. [NYT article] (see Aug 5)

August 3 Peace Love Art Activism

Crime and Punishment

August 3, 2016: President Obama commuted the sentences of 214 more federal inmates, the largest single-day grant of commutations in the nation’s history.

With 562 total commutations during his presidency — most of which have come in 2016 —Obama had used his constitutional clemency power to shorten the sentences of more federal inmates than any president since Calvin Coolidge.

The early release of the 214 prisoners, mostly low-level drug offenders, was part of Obama’s effort to correct what he viewed as unreasonably long mandatory minimum sentences. Some date back decades, including 71-year-old Richard L. Reser of Sedgwick, Kan., who was given a 40-year sentence for dealing methamphatamine and firearm possession in 1989. [Atlantic article] (see Dec 19)

August 3 Peace Love Art Activism

Terrorism

August 3, 2019: in an El Paso, TX Walmart and armed with a powerful rifle, 21-year-old Patrick Crusius  killed 20 people and wounded 26 others.

Authorities took Crusius into custody after he surrendered to the police outside the Walmart. The authorities said they were investigating a manifesto Crusius  posted before the shooting, which described an attack in response to “the Hispanic invasion of Texas.” [NYT article] (next T, see Aug 5)

August 3 Peace Love Art Activism