February 20 Peace Love Art Activism

Native Americans

Father Rale’s War

February 20, 1725: part of Father Rale’s War—or the war between the Abenaki and the New Englanders—a group of 88 scalp hunters led by John Lovewell attacked a band of Abenaki Indians living in a wigwam near Wakefield, New Hampshire. State-sponsored programs that offered rangers payments for Indian scalps motivated the men. They tracked the Abenaki for 11 days then opened fire near midnight on February 20.

Lovewell’s posse killed and scalped 10 men and received a bounty of 100 British pounds per scalp.  (from Battles of the Northeast site)

US Constitution & Native Americans

In 1789: US Constitution and references to Native Americans/Indians:

• Article 1 Section 3: 3: Representatives and direct Taxes shall be apportioned among the several States which may be included within this Union, according to their respective Numbers, which shall be determined by adding to the whole Number of free Persons, including those bound to Service for a Term of Years, and excluding Indians not taxed. [Indians not counted in population]
• Article 1, Section 8: To regulate Commerce with foreign Nations, and among the several States, and with the Indian Tribes; [Indians are treated as a foreign group]  (next NA, see February 27, 1803)

February 20 Peace Love Art Activism

Feminism

Deborah Samson

February 20, 1804: Paul Revere wrote to Massachusetts US Representative William Eustis on behalf of Deborah Samson. Revere requested that the US Congress grant her a military pension. This had never before been requested by or for a woman, but with her health failing and her family destitute, the money was greatly needed. Revere wrote, “I have been induced to enquire her situation, and character, since she quit the male habit, and soldiers uniform; for the more decent apparel of her own gender…humanity and justice obliges me to say, that every person with whom I have conversed about her, and it is not a few, speak of her as a woman with handsome talents, good morals, a dutiful wife, and an affectionate parent.” (see Samson for expanded story)

see National Women’s Hall of Fame for more

February 20, 1969: National Women’s Hall of Fame founded in Seneca Falls, New York. The museum’s location commemorates Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Lucretia Mott, two renowned leaders of the suffragette movement in the U.S. who organized the first Women’s Right Convention at Seneca Falls in 1848. Follow link above for more. (see Mar 21)

February 20 Peace Love Art Activism

Judicial Milestone

February 20, 1809:  US Supreme Court Chief Justice John Marshall ruled in United States v. Peters that the legal power of the federal judiciary was greater than that of any individual state: “If the legislatures of the several states may, at will, annul the judgments of the courts of the United States, and destroy rights acquired under those judgments, the constitution itself becomes a solemn mockery; and the nation is deprived of the means of enforcing its laws by the instrumentality of its own tribunals.” (Constitutional Law Reporter article) (see March 20, 1816)

February 20 Peace Love Art Activism

US Labor History

Textile Workers Strike

February 20, 1834: responding to a 15 percent wage cut, women textile workers in Lowell, Mass., organized a “turn-out”—a strike—in protest. The action failed. One worker’s diary recounts a “stirring speech” of resistance by a co-worker, 11-year-old Harriet Hanson Robinson. (see November 1, 1835)

Dockworker Strike

February 20, 2015: negotiators reached a tentative contract covering West Coast dockworkers, likely ending a protracted labor dispute that snarled international trade at seaports handling about $1 trillion worth of cargo annually.  

The breakthrough came after nine months of negotiations that turned contentious in the fall, when dockworkers and their employers began blaming each other for problems getting imports to consumers and exports overseas.  

The five-year deal, confirmed by International Longshore and Warehouse Union spokesman Craig Merrilees, The 13,000-member union’s rank-and-file still had approve. They worked 29 ports from San Diego to Seattle that handle about one-quarter of all U.S. international trade, much of it with Asia. (see Mar 25)

February 20 Peace Love Art Activism

Immigration History

February 20, 1907: President Theodore Roosevelt signed the Immigration Act of 1907 which excluded “idiots, imbeciles, feeble-minded persons, epileptics, insane persons” from being admitted to the United States. (see Mar 2)

Cold War

Sen Joe McCarthy back tracks

February 20, 1950: Sen Joseph McCarthy gave a six hour speech on the floor of the Senate that lasts until midnight.  However, he now claimed to have evidence of only 81 communists working in the State Department. (see Apr 10)

SEATO ends

February 20, 1976: after operating for 22 years, SEATO [the Southeast Asia Treaty Organization] concluded its final military exercise and quietly shut down. SEATO had been one of the bulwarks of America’s Cold War policies in Asia, but the Vietnam War did much to destroy its cohesiveness and question its effectiveness. [NYT article] (see March 24, 1977)

February 20 Peace Love Art Activism

Fourth Amendment

February 20, 1950: United States v. Rabinowitz the US Supreme Court held that warrantless searches immediately following an arrest to be constitutional. The decision overturned Trupiano v. United States (1948), which had banned such searches.

Police arrested Albert J. Rabinowitz in his office on February 16, 1943 for selling forged US postage stamps to an undercover federal officer. Federal agents then conducted a warrantless, ninety-minute search of the office, finding an additional 573 forged stamps. Rabinowitz unsuccessfully moved to exclude this evidence from his subsequent trial, but the motion was denied. He was convicted, but a US Court of Appeals later reversed the verdict, ruling that his rights under the Fourth Amendment to the United States Constitution had been violated.

The US Supreme Court reversed the Appeals Court ruling in a 5-3 decision. Writing for the majority, Justice Sherman Minton wrote that only “unreasonable” searches were banned under the Fourth Amendment; searching the office of a suspected forger at the site of his lawful arrest was held to be reasonable. (see November 13, 1951)

February 20 Peace Love Art Activism

BLACK HISTORY

School Desegregation

February 20, 1958: five months after the integration crisis involving the Little Rock Nine, the Little Rock, Arkansas school board filed suit in the US District Court for the Eastern District of Arkansas, urging suspension of its plan of desegregation. They alleged that public hostility to desegregation and that the opposition of Governor Orval Faubus and the state legislature created an intolerable and chaotic situation. (BH, see  Mar 28; SD, see Sept 12)

Alcorn A & M

February 20, 1968: Mississippi State troopers used tear gas and clubs to break up a student demonstration at Alcorn A & M (now Alcorn State University) in Lorman, Miss. Students had opposed the dismissal of three students who had passed out campaign literature in support of congressional candidate Charles Evers. (see Feb 29)

Race Revolt

February 20, 1987: in Tampa, FL, violence broke out for a second night in a mostly black neighborhood where a melee followed the death of a young black man subdued by a white officer using a chokehold.

Isolated groups of roaming youths broke windows with stones and bottles, and seven people were arrested, said Police Capt. R. W. B. Seal

Officials said the violence was less severe than the previous night, when stores were looted, car and trash fires were set and stones were hurled at the police after a crowd of 200 people gathered.  

”It’s a war zone down there,” said Bob Gilder, former president of the Tampa chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. He said the disturbance had been touched off by the death Wednesday (Feb 18) of 23-year-old Melvin Eugene Hair. Mr. Hair reportedly threatened four people with a knife and attacked a police officer, who then applied the choke hold. The officer, David D’Agresta, 25, has been placed on administrative leave with pay pending an investigation into Mr. Hair’s death. (NYT article) (see BH, see Dec 21; RR, see January 16, 1989)

February 20 Peace Love Art Activism

February 20 Music et al

Wonderland by Night

February 20 – March 5, 1961: Bert Kaempfert’s Wonderland by Night returns to Billboard #1 album.

This Diamond Ring

February 20 – March 5, 1965: “This Diamond Ring” by Gary Lewis and the Playboys #1 on the Billboard Hot 100. Al Kooper was one of the composers.

February 20 Peace Love Art Activism

Space Race

John Glenn

February 20, 1962: John Glenn orbited the Earth three times, becoming the first American to do so.  [NASA article] (see Apr 24)

Ranger 8

February 20, 1965: the Ranger 8 spacecraft crashed on the moon after sending back thousands of pictures of the lunar surface (NASA article). (see Mar 18)

February 20 Peace Love Art Activism

Vietnam

South Vietnam Leadership

February 20, 1965: Gen Nguyen Khanh was able to get troops to take over from the insurgents without any resistance. Meanwhile, Air Vice Marshal Nguyen Cao Ky met with the dissident officers and agreed to their demand for the dismissal of Khanh. (V & SVL, see Feb 21)

Tet Offensive

February 20, 1968: as a result of the Tet Offensive, the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee began hearings to investigate American policy in Vietnam. At issue was whether the administration had provided Congress with truthful data at the time it was seeking passage of the Tonkin Gulf Resolution in August 1964, which had considerably broadened the president’s war-making authority in Southeast Asia. (see Feb 25)

Chicago 8

February 20, 1970: Abbie Hoffman, Jerry Rubin, David Dellinger, Tom Hayden, and Rennie Davis were each fined $5,000 and sentenced to five years in prison. At sentencing, Abbie Hoffman recommended that the judge try LSD, offering to set him up with a dealer he knew in Florida. [Newspapers site article] (Chi8, see May 3, 1971; Vietnam, see Feb 21)

February 20 Peace Love Art Activism

Symbionese Liberation Army

February 20, 1974: Patty Hearst’s 20th birthday. On a third audio tape, DeFreeze repeats his earlier statement that Hearst’s contribution should reflect both Hearst’s capabilities and the need of the people. He demands that the amount be increased to $6 million. He also demands that Hearst prove that he will stop committing “crimes” against “the people.” (see SLA for expanded story)

February 20 Peace Love Art Activism

FREE SPEECH

February 20, 1974: the Supreme Court issued a 6-3 decision stating that the case of Lewis v. City Of New Orleans   should be reversed and remanded and declaring a municipal/other local ordinance as unconstitutional. The judgment rested on the Court’s authority over judicial review at the state level.

The Louisiana Supreme Court had upheld a statute making it unlawful and a breach of the peace “for any person wantonly to curse or revile or to use obscene or opprobrious language toward or with reference to” any city police officer serving in the line of duty, maintaining that it only prohibited fighting words. (see June 25)

February 20 Peace Love Art Activism

Oklahoma City Explosion

February 20, 1996: the Court granted a change of venue and ordered that the case be transferred from Oklahoma City to the U.S. District Court in Denver, CO. (see June 2, 1997)

February 20 Peace Love Art Activism

CLINTON IMPEACHMENT

February 20, 1998: Lewinsky attorney Bill Ginsburg said the former intern met with Vernon Jordan much earlier than was being reported. (see Clinton for expanded story)

February 20 Peace Love Art Activism

LGBTQ

February 20, 2015: Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton asked the State Supreme Court to revoke the marriage license issued a day earlier to two women, arguing that the move violated a decade-old state ban on same-sex marriage and could cause legal chaos. [NYT article] (see Feb 21)

February 20 Peace Love Art Activism

Crime and Punishment

February 20, 2019: in Timbs v Indiana, the US Supreme Court unanimously sided with a small time drug offender in Indiana whose $42,000 Land Rover was seized by law enforcement officials. The Court ruled that the Constitution places limits on civil forfeiture laws that allow states and localities to take and keep private property used to commit crimes.

Civil forfeiture was a popular way to raise revenue, and its use had been the subject of widespread criticism across the political spectrum.

The Supreme Court had ruled (see Austin v US, June 28, 1993) that the Eighth Amendment, which bars “excessive fines,” limits the ability of the federal government to seize property.

On this date, the court ruled that the clause also applies to the states. (see June 17)

February 20 Peace Love Art Activism

Nuclear/Chemical News

February 20, 2019: authorities arrested three European lawmakers after they broke into an air base in Belgium to protest the stockpiling of American nuclear weapons there.

The three politicians—Molly Scott Cato of the U.K., Michele Rivasi of  France and Tilly Metz of Luxembourg, all members of the European Parliament (MEPs) representing green parties—broke into the Kleine Brogel base in eastern Belgium on Wednesday and unfurled a banner on a runway used by F-16 fighter jets, The Guardian reported.

The three had been protesting the base’s stockpiling of American B61 nuclear bombs, of which there were believed to be between 10 and 20 at the facility, according to the Nuclear Threat Initiative. All were detained on the runway.

Another 12 activists—including a fourth Green MEP Thomas Waitz from Austria—were arrested at a concurrent demonstration outside the base, the newspaper said. The other 12 were members of the Belgian peace group Agir Pour la Paix—Act for Peace. Several of those detained had tried to climb over the fence surrounding the dual-runway base. (see Feb 28)

February 20 Peace Love Art Activism

Women’s Health

February 20, 2020: CBS News reported that according to a spokesperson for the Center for Reproductive Rights, Mississippi’s controversial “fetal heartbeat” ban, an effective six-week ban on abortion, was just struck down by a federal judge, The Center is the law firm that challenged the state law.

A three-judge panel of the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals issued its decision writing, “[A]ll agree that cardiac activity can be detected well before the fetus is viable. That dooms the law. If a ban on abortion after 15 weeks is unconstitutional, then it follows that a ban on abortion at an earlier stage of pregnancy is also unconstitutional.”

The decision temporarily will block the law from going into effect, upholding a lower court’s decision from May 2019. In December, the Fifth Circuit also struck down a 15-week abortion ban passed by Mississippi. (next WH, see Feb 24)

February 20 Peace Love Art Activism

Japanese Internment Camps

February 20, 2020: Hawaii News Now reported that the California Assembly apologized for discriminating against Japanese Americans and helping the U.S. government send them to internment camps during World War II.

The Assembly unanimously passed the resolution as several former internees and their families looked on. After the votes, lawmakers gathered at the entrance of the chamber to hug and shake hands with victims, including 96-year-old Kiyo Sato.

The California resolution said anti-Japanese sentiment began in California as early as 1913, when the state passed the Alien Land Law, targeting Japanese farmers who were perceived as a threat by some in the massive agricultural industry. Seven years later, the state barred anyone with Japanese ancestry from buying farmland. (next JIC see  Feb 26, or see Internment for expanded chronology)

February 20 Peace Love Art Activism

February 19 Peace Love Art Activism

Technological Milestone

February 19, 1878:  Thomas Edison received a patent for his phonograph. (see October 21, 1879)

February 19 Peace Love Art Activism

Cultural Milestone

Kellogg’s

February 19, 1906: Will Keith Kellogg  founded the Battle Creek Toasted Corn Flake Company (W.K. Kellogg Company) to manufacture breakfast cereals (cornflakes). (see February 8, 1910)

Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood

February 19, 1968: Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood premiered on National Educational Television. Host Fred Rogers created the half-hour educational children’s television series. It hd originated in 1963 as Misterogers on CBC Television, and was later re-branded in 1966 as Misterogers’ Neighborhood and later Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood on the regional Eastern Educational Network (CM, see Apr 2; Mr Rogers, see August 31, 2001)

February 19 Peace Love Art Activism

Immigration History

February 19, 1923: in United States v. Bhagat Singh Thind, the US Supreme Court unanimously decided that Bhagat Singh Thind, an Indian Sikh man who identified himself as a “high caste aryan, of full Indian blood,” was racially ineligible for naturalized citizenship in the United States.

In 1919, Thind had filed a petition for naturalization under the Naturalization Act of 1906 which allowed only “free white persons” and “aliens of African nativity and persons of African descent” to become United States citizens by naturalization. (next IH, see May 26, 1924)

BLACK HISTORY

Moore v. Dempsey

February 19, 1923: in Moore v. Dempsey, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled 6-2 that mob-dominated trials violated the due process clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. In 1919, African-American sharecroppers had gathered in a church at Elaine, Ark., to discuss fairer prices for their products. White men fired into church, leading to three days of fighting and the killing of five white men and more than 100 black men, women and children. A white committee appointed by the governor concluded the black men planned to kill all the whites. More than 700 African-American men were arrested with 67 sent to prison and a dozen to Death Row. The Supreme Court reversed the cases on appeal, concluding the trial had been prejudiced by a white mob outside yelling that if the black men weren’t sentenced to death, the mob would lynch them. The court decision was a major victory for African Americans and the NAACP, which had represented the men. (PBS article) (next BH, see June 21; next Lynching, see April 29 or see AL3 for expanded chronology of early 20th century lynching)

February 19 Peace Love Art Activism

FREE SPEECH

1930 Production Code

February 19, 1930: almost from the birth of the movies in America, films faced censorship efforts. Beginning in the early 1920s, leaders of the motion picture industry tried various methods to impose self-censorship on Hollywood films as a strategy to head off government censorship. One version was published in Variety magazine on this day. The 1930 Production Code spelled out specific restrictions on “offensive” language and behavior, particularly regarding sex and crime, and prohibited the ridicule of religion. It also forbade the depiction of illegal drug use, venereal disease, childbirth, and sexual relations between races.

Catholic religious leaders especially had turned up the heat on Hollywood, calling for strict moral standards and a Code of Conduct for movie content. Four years later, on June 13, 1934, facing threats of boycotts of “indecent” films, Hollywood adopted the famous and puritanical Production Code that imposed rigid censorship on American movies that lasted until the 1960s. (see Mar 31)

Speaker Ban Law

February 19, 1968: a three-judge federal district court in Greensboro, North Carolina ruled that state’s Speaker Ban Law was unconstitutional and violated First Amendment protections of free speech. Governor Moore did not appeal the decision. (North Carolina History article) (FS, see Apr 22; RS, see January 14, 1975; North Carolina, see May 17, 1995)

February 19 Peace Love Art Activism

Japanese Internment Camps

Executive Order 9066

February 19, 1942: President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed and issued Executive Order 9066 authorizing the Secretary of War to prescribe certain areas as military zones. Eventually, EO 9066 cleared the way for the relocation of Japanese Americans to internment camps. By June, the government relocated more than 110,000 Japanese Americans to remote internment camps built by the U.S. military in scattered locations around the country. During the course of World War II, 10 Americans were convicted of spying for Japan. Not one was of Japanese ancestry. (see Internment for expanded story)

Proclamation 4417

February 19, 1976: in a largely symbolic act in the Bicentennial year, President Gerald Ford on this day issued Proclamation 4417, officially rescinding President Franklin Roosevelt’s Executive Order 9066, authorizing the evacuation of Japanese-Americans from the West Coast. President Ford rescinded Roosevelt’s order on the same day Roosevelt had acted, thirty-four years later. (See February 19, 1942.)  Although a  symbolic act, President Ford’s order was an important statement, nonetheless. The treatment of the Japanese-Americans in World War II is regarded by many as the greatest civil liberties tragedy in American history. Congress passed the Civil Liberties Act on August 10, 1988, apologizing to the Japanese Americans and providing reparations of $20,000 to each surviving victim. (Ford Library article) (see Internment for expanded chronology)

February 19 Peace Love Art Activism

Feminism

February 19, 1963: W.W. Norton and Co published The Feminine Mystique by Betty Friedan. The book gave voice to the discontent and confinement women experienced in their societal roles as housewives and helped to spark the development of the Women’s Liberation Movement. (NYT review) (see  Apr 7)

February 19 Peace Love Art Activism

Vietnam/South Vietnam Leadership

February 19, 1965: some units of the Army of the Republic of Vietnam commanded by General Lâm Văn Phát and Colonel Phạm Ngọc Thảo launched a coup against General Nguyễn Khánh, the head of South Vietnam’s ruling military junta. Their aim was to install General Trần Thiện Khiêm, a Khánh rival who had been sent to Washington D.C. as Ambassador to the United States to prevent him from seizing power. The attempted coup reached a stalemate, and although the trio did not take power, a group of officers led by General Nguyễn Chánh Thi and Air Marshal Nguyễn Cao Kỳ, and hostile to both the plot and to Khánh himself, were able to force a leadership change and take control themselves with the support of American officials, who had lost confidence in Khánh. (V & SVL, see Feb 20)

February 19 Peace Love Art Activism

see February 19 Music et al for more

Rock Venues

February 19, 1966: Jefferson Airplane and Big Brother and the Holding Company with Janis Joplin performed at the Fillmore Auditorium. (see March 8, 1968)

Billboard Hot 100

February 19 – 25, 1966 – “Lightnin’ Strikes” by Lou Christie #1 on the Billboard Hot 100.

Billboard #1 album

February 19 – March 4, 1966 — Herb Albert’s Whipped Cream and Other Delights is the Billboard #1 album. It is one of the most famous album covers of all time. (see Whipped Cream for more)

The Beatles

Paul McCartney

February 19, 1972: Paul McCartney released “Give Ireland Back to the Irish.” BBD immediately banned the song. (see Mar 23)

George Harrison

February 19, 1981:  George Harrison was ordered to pay ABKCO Music the sum of $587,000 for “subconscious plagiarism” between his song, “My Sweet Lord” and the Chiffons “He’s So Fine.” (see May 11)

February 19 Peace Love Art Activism

LGBTQ

The National Planning Conference of Homophile Organizations

February 19, 1966: The National Planning Conference of Homophile Organizations, held in Kansas City, Missouri, on this day, was arguably the first such national meeting of the various homosexual organizations in the U.S. (Enacademic article) (see Apr 1)

Southern Baptist Convention

February 19, 2013: The executive committee of the 16-million member Southern Baptist Convention passed a resolution stating that a proposal to alter the Boy Scout ban on gays would “place the…organization at odds with a consistent biblical worldview on matters of human sexuality, making it an organization that would no longer complement, but rather contradict, our belief in God and His moral precepts that serve as the basis for our Christian faith.” (see Mar 26)

Texas

February 19, 2015:

• a same-sex couple wed in Texas, despite the state’s ban on gay marriage. Sarah Goodfriend and Suzanne Bryant were granted a court order for medical reasons: Goodfriend had been diagnosed and treated for ovarian cancer. Judge David Wahlberg ordered Travis County Clerk Dana Debeauvoir to grant a license to the couple because they are “medically fragile.”
• later the Texas Supreme Court imposed a stay on county court rulings striking down the state’s gay marriage ban. A short statement on the state supreme court website said the justices had issued a special order: “The Texas Supreme Court has granted a stay of two trial court rulings that Texas’ constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriages violates constitutional protections to equal protection and due process of law.” (see Feb 20)

February 19 Peace Love Art Activism

Symbionese Liberation Army

February 19, 1974: as ordered by the SLA, Randolph Hearst announced that he would create People in Need (P.I.N.), a food distribution program. P.I.N. director Ludlow Kramer expected that the program would feed 100,000 people for twelve months with $2 million. (see Patty Hearst for expanded story)

February 19 Peace Love Art Activism

US Labor History

February 19, 1975: NLRB v. J. Weingarten, Inc., was a case decided by the US Supreme Court that ruled that employees in unionized workplaces had the right under the National Labor Relations Act to the presence of a union steward during any management inquiry that the employee reasonably believes may result in discipline. (see  Dec 23)

February 19 Peace Love Art Activism

AIDS & Ryan White

February 19, 1986: Howard County judge refused to issue an injunction against White. (see Ryan White for expanded story)

February 19 Peace Love Art Activism

CLINTON IMPEACHMENT

February 19, 1998: Ken Starr’s chronology showed presidential friend Vernon Jordan began seeking a private-sector job for Monica Lewinsky within 72 hours of her being listed as a potential witness in the Paula Jones civil rights lawsuit against President Bill Clinton. (see Clinton for expanded story)

February 19 Peace Love Art Activism

The Cold War

February 19, 2008: an ailing Fidel Castro resigned the Cuban presidency after nearly a half-century in power. (see Feb 24)

February 19 Peace Love Art Activism

Environmental Issues

February 19, 2020: the NYT reported that oil and gas production might be responsible for a far larger share of the soaring levels of methane, a powerful greenhouse gas, in the earth’s atmosphere, new research has found.

The findings, published in the journal Nature, added urgency of efforts to rein in methane emissions from the fossil fuel industry, which routinely leaks or intentionally releases the gas into air.

“We’ve identified a gigantic discrepancy that shows the industry needs to, at the very least, improve their monitoring,” said Benjamin Hmiel, a researcher at the University of Rochester and the study’s lead author. “If these emissions are truly coming from oil, gas extraction, production use, the industry isn’t even reporting or seeing that right now.” (next EI, see Apr 16)

February 19 Peace Love Art Activism

Women’s Health

February 19, 2021: U.S. District Court Judge Mary Geiger Lewis granted a two-week temporary restraining order regarding the “South Carolina Fetal Heartbeat and Protection from Abortion Act” while the case,  brought by Planned Parenthood, worked its way through the legal system. [NPR story] (next WH, see Mar 5)

February 19 Peace Love Art Activism

February 18 Peace Love Art Activism

BLACK HISTORY

Quakers

February 18, 1688:  in response to fellow Quaker families in Germantown, Pennsylvania, who had decided to practice slavery, members of the Society drafted the first protest against slavery in the new world.

Slave Revolt

In 1709  a plot involving enslaved Indians as well as Africans spread through at least three Virginia counties—James City, Surry, and Isle of Wight. Of the four ringleaders, Scipio, Salvadore, Tom Shaw, and Peter, all but Peter were quickly jailed. [newafrikan77 article] (see April 20 (Easter), 1710)

In Dahomey

February 18, 1903: In Dahomey, the first full-length musical written and performed by African Americans appeared on Broadway. It featured music by Will Marion Cook, book by Jesse A. Shipp, and lyrics by poet Paul Laurence Dunbar.The play ran for 53 performances. (Curtain Up article) (see Apr 15)

Wilson Watches KKK in White House

February 18, 1915: President Woodrow Wilson had never seen a motion picture until he was offered a chance to see Birth of a Nation in the White House on this day. He had known the author of the book (The Clansman) and play, Thomas Dixon, Jr., in graduate school at Johns Hopkins. The film was also the first motion picture to be shown at the White House. Directed by D. W. Griffith, Birth of a Nation is one of the most important and controversial films in the history of motion pictures. It presented the Southern view of post-Civil War Reconstruction (1865–1877), with racist stereotypes of African-Americans, played by white actors with painted faces, and also presented a heroic view of Ku Klux Klan. Birth of a Nation is famous and influential in the history of motion pictures for its bold and innovative cinematographic techniques.

President Wilson reportedly enjoyed the movie. Born in Virginia, he was sympathetic to the Southern view of Reconstruction. In his own five-volume History of the American People, written before he entered politics, Wilson embraced a similar view of Reconstruction, with a critical view of African-Americans and favorable view of the KKK.

Wilson is often quoted as having said that the movie is “Like writing history with lightening,” but there is no evidence that he actually said that. It is generally assumed that the producers of the film invented the quote to promote the film. (next BH, see Apr 17; Birth, see December 8, 1922)

Fred D. Gray

February 18, 1956:  a Montgomery, AL grand jury charged Fred D Gray, the lawyer for Jeanette Reese,  with “unlawful appearance as an attorney” for representing  Reese after she had withdrawn from the suit. (2017 Case Western PDF “In Honor of Fred Gray”) (see MBB for expanded chronology)

Jimmie Lee Jackson 

February 18, 1965: the Rev James Orange had been arrested and jailed in Perry County, Alabama on charges of disorderly conduct and contributing to the delinquency of minors for enlisting students to aid in voting rights drives. On the night of February 18, around 500 people left Zion United Methodist Church in Marion and attempted a peaceful walk to the Perry County Jail about a half a block away where Orange was being held. The marchers planned to sing hymns and return to the church.

The marchers were met at the Post Office by a line of Marion City police officers, sheriff’s deputies, and Alabama State Troopers. In the standoff, streetlights were abruptly turned off and the police began to beat the protestors. Among those beaten were two United Press International photographers, whose cameras were smashed, and NBC News correspondent Richard Valeriani, who was beaten so badly that he was hospitalized. The marchers turned and scattered back towards the church.

Twenty-six-year-old Jimmie Lee Jackson, his mother Viola Jackson, and his 82-year-old grandfather, Cager Lee, ran into Mack’s Café behind the church, pursued by Alabama State Troopers. Police clubbed Cager Lee to the floor in the kitchen. The police continued to beat the cowering octogenarian Lee, and when his daughter Viola attempted to pull the police off, she was also beaten. When Jimmie Lee attempted to protect his mother, one trooper threw him against a cigarette machine. A second trooper shot Jimmie Lee twice in the abdomen. James Bonard Fowler later admitted to being that trooper. Although shot twice, Jimmie Lee fled the café amid additional blows from police clubs and collapsed in front of the bus station. Jackson made a statement to a lawyer, Oscar Adams of Birmingham in the presence of FBI officials stating he was “clubbed down” by State Troopers after he was shot and had run away from the café. (BH, see Feb 21; see Jackson for expanded story)

Emmett Till

February 18, 2013: Epic Records Chairman Antonio “L.A.” Reid apologized to the family of slain civil rights figure Emmett Till, and said tht his label is working to remove from circulation a remix of the track “Karate Chop” by Atlanta rapper Future that included a vulgar sexual reference by fellow rapper Lil Wayne invoking Till’s name. “Just ended a conversation with L.A. Reid, CEO of Epic,” reads a recent post on the Mamie Till Mobley Memorial Foundation Facebook page. Mobley was Till’s mother. (BH, see April 5; see Till for expanded story)

February 18 Peace Love Art Activism

Cultural Milestones

The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn

February 18, 1885: Mark Twain published The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.

Even in 1885, two decades after the Emancipation Proclamation and the end of the Civil War, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn landed was controversial. A month after its publication, a Concord, Massachusetts, library banned the book, calling its subject matter “tawdry” and its narrative voice “coarse” and “ignorant.” Other libraries followed suit, beginning a controversy that continued long after Twain’s death in 1910.

In the 1950s, the book came under fire from African-American groups for being racist in its portrayal of black characters, despite the fact that it was seen by many as a strong criticism of racism and slavery. In 1998, an Arizona parent sued her school district, claiming that making Twain’s novel required high school reading made already existing racial tensions even worse. (see March 29, 1886)

First Academy Awards

February 18, 1929: The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences telegramed the winners of the first Academy Awards. The first award recipients’ names were printed on the back page of the academy’s newsletter. A few days later, Variety published the information–on page seven.  The awards ceremony was on May 16 at the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel in Los Angeles. (see April 6, 1930)

February 18 Peace Love Art Activism

US Labor History

Screen Actors Guild

February 18, 1953: the Screen Actors Guild’s first-ever strike – which began over filmed television commercials – ended when a contract was reached that covered all work in commercials. An actual ceremony was held three months later on May 16. (2016 Telegraphy article) (see Nov 30)

Yablonskis murder trial

February 18, 1978: for a second time, a jury found W.A. Boyle guilty of first-degree murder in the the Joseph Yablonski, his wife, and their daughter. (LH, see Apr 25; Yablonski, see July 8, 1982)

February 18 Peace Love Art Activism

Cold War

Arthur Miller

February 18, 1957: a Federal grand jury indicted Arthur Miller, playwright, on charges of contempt of Congress. He had refused to name names before the House Committee on Un-American Activities.

The same jury returned a similar indictment against Otto Nathan, an associate professor at New York University and executor of the estate of Dr. Albert Einstein.

Miller was a witness in June 1956 before the House committee. He testified then that he had never been a Communist, but he acknowledged that he had been associated in the past with a number of Communist-front groups. He testified he was present at five or six meetings of Communist authors in New York in 1947.

Miller told the committee he “would not support now a cause dominated by Communists,” but he added, “my conscience will not permit me to use the name of another person and bring trouble to him.”

The two questions he was charged with unlawfully refusing to answer were:

Bertrand Russell

February 18, 1961: Bertrand Russell, 89, lead March of 20,000 & sit-down of 5,000 anti-nuke demonstration outside U.K. Defense Ministry. He was jailed for 7 days. (see “in March”)

United States embargo

February 18, 1964: the United States cut off military assistance to Britain, France, and Yugoslavia in retaliation for their continuing trade with the communist nation of Cuba. The action was chiefly symbolic, but represented the continued U.S. effort to destabilize the Cuban regime of Fidel Castro.

The amount of aid denied was minuscule–approximately $100,000 in assistance to each nation. None of the nations indicated that the aid cut-off would affect their trade with Cuba in the least. America’s decision to terminate the trade, therefore, hardly had a decisive effect. Many commentators at the time concluded that the U.S. action was largely a result of frustration at not being able to bring down the Castro government. (2016 Politico article) (see May 19)

February 18 Peace Love Art Activism

Vietnam

Robert F. Kennedy

February 18, 1962: while in Saigon, Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy said: “We are going to win in Vietnam. We will remain here until we do win.” When asked whether the US was involved in a “war,” Kennedy said, “We are involved in a struggle.” When asked to clarify the difference, he said, “It is a legal difference. Perhaps it adds up to the same thing. It is a struggle short of war.” Kennedy added,  “I think the American people understand and fully support this struggle.” (see Feb 21)

Bombing North Vietnam

February 18, 1965: the US State Department sent secret cables to U.S. ambassadors in nine friendly nations advising of forthcoming bombing operations over North Vietnam, and instructed them to inform their host governments “in strictest confidence” and to report reactions. President Lyndon Johnson wanted these governments to be aware of what he was planning to do in the upcoming bombing campaign.

Johnson made the controversial decision to undertake the sustained bombing of North Vietnam because of the deteriorating military conditions in South Vietnam. Earlier in the month, he had ordered Operation Flaming Dart in response to communist attacks on U.S. installations in South Vietnam. It was hoped that these retaliatory raids would cause the North Vietnamese to cease support of Viet Cong forces in South Vietnam, but they did not have the desired effect. Out of frustration, Johnson turned to a more extensive use of air power. (see Feb 19)

All-time High

February 18, 1968: American officials in Saigon reported an all-time high weekly rate of U.S. casualties–543 killed in action and 2,547 wounded in the previous seven days. These losses were a result of the heavy fighting during the Tet Offensive. (see Feb 20)

STUDENT ACTIVISIM

February 18, 1969: Howard University students seized Administration Building and boycotted classes (Washington, DC). (Vietnam, see Feb 22; SA see Feb 24)

Chicago 8

February 18, 1970: all Chicago Seven defendants were found not guilty of conspiracy. Two (Froines and Weiner) were acquitted completely, while the remaining five were convicted of crossing state lines with the intent to incite a riot, a crime instituted by the anti-riot provisions of the Civil Rights Act of 1968. (2000 Jurist article) (see Feb 20)

February 18 Peace Love Art Activism

INDEPENDENCE DAY

February 18, 1965: Gambia independent from United Kingdom.  (Access Gambia article on Gambia) (see ID for more 1960s’ Independence Days)

February 18 Peace Love Art Activism

Nuclear/Chemical Weapons News

Bomb Shelters

February 18, 1965: Sect. of Defense Robert McNamara called for nationwide network of bomb shelters. (see January 17, 1966)

J Robert Oppenheimer

February 18, 1967: J Robert Oppenheimer, the nuclear physicist who headed the United States’ development of the first atomic bomb, died. [NYT obit] (next N/C N, see May 19)

Sister Megan Rice

February 18, 2014: Judge Amul Thapar of Federal District Court sentenced an 84-year-old Sister Megan Rice, to 35 months in prison for breaking into a facility where enriched uranium for nuclear bombs is stored. Thapar sentenced Michael Walli and Greg Boertje-Obed, the other two others who took part, to 62 months. “Her crimes are minimal in comparison to the others,” the judge said. The three admitted to spray painting peace slogans and hammering on exterior walls of the facility. When a guard confronted them, they offered him food and began singing. The complex is the primary American site for processing and storage of enriched uranium. (Nuclear, see Oct 26; Rice, see May 8, 2015)

Iran

February 18, 2021: Biden administration said that the US was willing to sit down for talks with Tehran and other signatories to the Iran nuclear deal, before either side has taken any tangible action to salvage or return to compliance with the agreement.

“The United States would accept an invitation from the European Union High Representative to attend a meeting of the P5+1 [the permanent members of the UN Security Council — China, France, Russia, the United Kingdom and the United States — and Germany] and Iran to discuss a diplomatic way forward on Iran’s nuclear program,” State Department spokesperson Ned Price said in a statement. [CNN article] (next N/C N and Iran, see  Apr 2)

February 18 Peace Love Art Activism

February 18 Music et al

February 18 – March 3, 1967: “Kind of a Drag” by the Buckinghams #1 on the Billboard Hot 100.

February 18 Peace Love Art Activism

DEATH PENALTY

February 18, 1972: the California Supreme Court abolished the death penalty (People v Anderson). Charles Manson’s death penalty changed to life imprisonment. (DP, see June 29; CM, see September 5, 1975)

February 18 Peace Love Art Activism

Irish Troubles

February 18, 1996:  an IRA briefcase bomb in a bus kills the bomber and injures 9 in the West End of London. (BBC “On This Day” article) (see Troubles for expanded story)

February 18 Peace Love Art Activism

CLINTON IMPEACHMENT

February 18, 1998: one of President Bill Clinton’s closest advisers, Bruce Lindsey, spent the day before the Whitewater grand jury. The hearing was stopped briefly when questions of executive privilege are raised. (see Clinton for expanded story)

February 18 Peace Love Art Activism

Iraq War II

February 18, 2007:  a Washington Post investigation revealed that returning soldiers faced deplorable conditions at Walter Reed’s outpatient center: The entire building, constructed between the world wars, often smells like greasy carry-out. Signs of neglect are everywhere: mouse droppings, belly-up cockroaches, stained carpets, cheap mattresses. [Washington Post article] (see Mar 27)

February 18 Peace Love Art Activism

War in  Afghanistan

February 18, 2009: President Obama ordered the deployment of 17,000 additional US troops to Afghanistan. [NYT article]

February 18 Peace Love Art Activism

Sexual Abuse of Children

Los Angeles Archdiocese

February 18, 2014: the Los Angeles Archdiocese settled what officials said was the last of its pending priest molestation lawsuits, bringing to a close a decade of wrenching abuse litigation that cost the Catholic Church more than $740 million.

The church reached the $13-million agreement with 17 victims last week, on the eve of a trial scheduled to begin February 14 over the alleged acts of Father Nicolas Aguilar-Rivera, a visiting cleric from Mexico who police believe molested more than two dozen boys over a mere nine months in 1987.

Eleven men, who were ages 7 to 12 when they were allegedly abused by the priest, were scheduled to appear in court to argue that Cardinal Roger M. Mahony and his aides had allowed the priest to flee in the days before police were notified. [LA Times article] (next SA of C, see Mar 17)

Boy Scouts Bankrupt

February 18, 2020: the NYT reported that The Boy Scouts of America  filed for bankruptcy protection succumbing to financial pressures that included a surge in legal costs over its handling of sexual abuse allegations.

The Boy Scouts had long maintained internal files at their headquarters in Texas detailing decades of allegations involving nearly 8,000 “perpetrators,” according to an expert hired by the organization. In recent months lawyers said that former scouts had come forward to identify hundreds of other abusers not included in those files.  (next BSA and SAofC see Nov 15)

February 18 Peace Love Art Activism

Women’s Health & Feminism

Norma McCorvey

February 18, 2017:  Norma McCorvey, the anonymous plaintiff in Roe v. Wade, the landmark 1973 Supreme Court ruling that legalized abortion in the United States, reshaping the nation’s social and political landscapes, and inflaming one of the most divisive controversies of the past half-century, died on in Katy, Tex. She was 69. [NYT obit] (WH, Mar 6 see ; Feminism, see Mar 8)

South Carolina

February 18, 2021: South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster  signed the “South Carolina Fetal Heartbeat and Protection from Abortion Act“ which would prohibit abortion as soon as cardiac activity can be detected with an ultrasound. The only exceptions would occur in cases of rape, incest or when a mother’s life is in danger.

That left a window of about five to six weeks to legally terminate a pregnancy, which was often before a patient is aware they’re pregnant. Doctors who performed the procedure after that time would face felony charges. [AP News article] (next WH, see Feb 19)

February 18 Peace Love Art Activism

Trump’s Wall

February 18, 2019: a coalition of 16 states challenged President Trump in court over his plan to use emergency powers to spend billions of dollars on his border wall.

The suit, filed in Federal District Court in San Francisco, argued that the president did not have the power to divert funds for constructing a wall along the Mexican border because it was Congress that controled spending. [Read the full lawsuit here.] (IH & TW, see Feb 26)

February 18 Peace Love Art Activism

Space