December 18 Peace Love Art Activism

BLACK HISTORY

Thirteenth Amendment

December 18, 1865: Secretary of State William H. Seward proclaimed the Thirteenth Amendment to Constitution to have been adopted. It officially outlawed slavery and involuntary servitude, except as punishment for a crime. It reads:

Section 1. Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction.                 Section 2. Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation. (see Dec 19)

Davis Knight

On April 18, 1946:  thirty-two-year-old Navy veteran Davis Knight married Junie Lee Spradley. In June 1948, the state indicted Mr. Knight for violating a law that prohibited “marriage or cohabitation between white persons and those with one-eighth or more Negro or Mongolian blood.” At trial, Mr. Knight insisted that he was white: his wife believed him to be white and his Navy service records listed him as white. The State set out to prove he was black.

The whole case turned on the race of Mr. Knight’s deceased great-grandmother, Rachel; if she was black, Mr. Knight was at least one-eighth black and guilty. As evidence of Rachel’s race, the State presented several elderly witnesses, including an eighty-nine-year-old white man who testified that Rachel had lived on his father’s plantation and was a “known Negro.”

On December 18, 1948  a jury found Davis Knight to be black and sentenced to five years in prison for marrying outside of his race. He appealed.

On November 14, 1949 the Mississippi State Supreme Court reversed Davis Knight’s conviction. The Court held that, in Mr. Knight’s particular case, the State had failed to provide sufficient evidence to prove that his grandmother Rachel was fully black, so it had not proved that Mr. Knight was at least one-eighth black.

Though the decision did not strike down the state’s miscegenation law, or prevent future prosecution of Mr. Knight or others, many white Mississippians protested the decision, hanging members of the court in effigy. The state’s ban on interracial marriage would stand for nearly two more decades, until the United States Supreme Court’s 1967 decision in Loving v. Virginia struck down remaining anti-miscegenation laws in Mississippi and seventeen other states. (BH, see August 27, 1949; Knight, see November 14, 1949)

Abolish Public Schools

December 18, 1952: anticipating that the U.S. Supreme Court would soon strike down racial segregation in public schools, Georgia Governor and ardent segregationist Herman Talmadge announced he would end public education in the state rather than integrate. “There is only one solution in the event segregation is banned by the Supreme Court,” Talmadge declared at a press conference, “And that is abolition of the public school system.”

Governor Talmadge’s plan involved leasing existing public schools for $1 to a “suitable man or woman” tasked with setting up and operating a private school system and using that system to maintain segregation. [EJI article] (next BH, see Dec 30)

see  Albany Movement for more

December 18, 1961: an agreement was reached in Albany, GA. It paved the way for the release of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and about 300 other Negroes from prison. (BH, see February 12, 1963;see Albany Movement; MLK, see October 16, 1962)

Murders of Three Civil Rights Workers

December 18, 1964: eighteen of the 21 Mississippians implicated in the murder of the three civil rights workers were arraigned before a US commissioner in Meridan, MS.

Defendant Lawrence Rainey, Neshoba county sheriff, said, “Hey, let’s have some Red Man” –and bit off a cheek-filling plug. His deputy (and codefendant) Cecil Price (holding a bail application) smiled and other defendants and spectators laughed. (next BH, see Dec 20;  see Murders for expanded chronology)

Confederate Monument Dismantled

December 18, 2023:  a monument to Confederate soldiers was scheduled to be removed from Arlington National Cemetery by the end December 22. The removal came in response to legislation passed by Congress, and amidst efforts in recent years to take down symbols honoring slaveholders and Confederate leaders.

In 2021, Congress passed a law requiring the Department of Defense to look at removing “names, symbols, displays, monuments, or paraphernalia” commemorating the Confederacy.

Arlington’s Confederate Memorial offers a “mythologized vision of the Confederacy, including highly sanitized depictions of slavery,” according to a report prepared by a commission set up in response to that legislation. The report noted that an inscription promotes the “Lost Cause” myth, “which romanticized the pre-Civil War South and denied the horrors of slavery.” [NPR article] (next BH, see )

December 18 Peace Love Art Activism

FREE SPEECH

December 18, 1935: Boston Mayor F. W. Mansfield  denounced Lillian Hellman’s  play The Children’s Hour. The play has a lesbian theme, in which a young girl runs away from a boarding school and, to avoid being returned, tells her grandmother that the two headmistresses of the school are having a love affair. The accusation ruins the women’s careers and their relationship. (see January 11, 1936)

December 18 Peace Love Art Activism

Japanese Internment Camps

December 18, 1944: brought by Japanese-American Fred Korematsu regarding the Japanese internment, the Supreme Court sided with the government in Korematsu v. United States ruling that the exclusion order was constitutional. (see JIC for expanded internment chronology)

December 18 Peace Love Art Activism

Nuclear and Chemical Weapons

December 18, 1957: the Shippingport Atomic Power Station in Pennsylvania, the first civilian nuclear facility to generate electricity in the United States, went online.(see February 17, 1958)

December 18 Peace Love Art Activism

Space Race

December 18, 1958: the US launched the world’s first communications satellite, SCORE (Signal Communication by Orbiting Relay Equipment), nicknamed “Chatterbox,”  aboard an Atlas rocket. The Atlas missile served as a platform for the experiment and the communications equipment was integrated into its faring pods. It transmitted the first message from space to Earth on a short-wave frequency—a pre-recorded statement from President Dwight D. Eisenhower: “This is the President of the United States speaking. Through the marvels of scientific advance, my voice is coming to you from a satellite traveling in outer space. My message is a simple one: Through this unique means I convey to you and all mankind, America’s wish for peace on Earth and goodwill toward men everywhere.” (see January 2, 1959)

December 18 Peace Love Art Activism

see December 18 Music et al for more

Lion Sleeps Tonight

December 18, 1961 – January 12, 1962: a South African song from the 1920s, “The Lion Sleeps Tonight” by the Tokens #1 Billboard Hot 100.

Blue Hawaii

December 18, 1961 –  May 4, 1962 – Elvis Presley’s Blue Hawaii movie soundtrack continues as the Billboard #1 album. (see April 21, 1962)

I Want To Hold Your Hand

On December 17, 1963: a 15-year-old girl from Silver Spring, MD wrote to Washington. D.C. station WWDC radio DJ Carroll James requesting Beatles music after seeing a CBS-news segment.

He  obtained a copy of “I Want To Hold Your Hand” from his stewardess girlfriend, who brought the single back from the UK.

He became the first disc jockey to broadcast a Beatles record on American radio.

Due to listener demand, the song was played daily, every hour.

On December 18 – 19, 1963 Capitol Records threatened to sue WWDC to stop playing song, but then reversed itself and decided to rush-release “I Want To Hold Your Hand,” previously scheduled for  January 13, 1964.

Christmas leave was canceled at Capitol Records, as pressing plants and staff gear up for rush release. (see Dec 23)

“Another Beatles Christmas Record”

December 18, 1964, The Beatles: “Another Beatles Christmas Record” issued to fan club members. (see Dec 26)

LSD

December 18, 1965: Big Beat Acid Test, The Big Beat Club, Palo Alto.

Timothy Leary

In 1966: Timothy Leary founded the League of Spiritual Development, with LSD as the sacrament. (see Jan 8)

The Family Way

December 18, 1966: “The Family Way” movie premiered. Music by Paul McCartney.  (next Beatles, see March 18, 1967; Family Way, see January 6, 1967)

December 18 Peace Love Art Activism

Vietnam

Operation Game Warden

December 18, 1965:  Operation Game Warden (Task force 116) began. It was an U.S. and South Vietnamese Navy operation in the Mekong Delta and near Saigon to patrol the rivers and coastal waters of South Vietnam, prevent the infiltration of soldiers and supplies from North Vietnam, and deny the Viet Cong access to the waterways. (see Dec 21)

My Lai Massacre

December 18, 1971: after a trial that included testimony from 106 witnesses, Colonel Henderson was acquitted of all charges. (see My Lai for expanded chronology; Vietnam, see January 1, 1972)

Operation Linebacker Two

December 18, 1972: President Nixon ordered a new bombing campaign against the North Vietnamese. Operation Linebacker Two lasted for 12 days, including a three day bombing period by up to 120 B-52s. Strategic surgical strikes were planned on fighter airfields, transport targets and supply depots in and around Hanoi and Haiphong. U.S. aircraft dropped more than 20,000 tons of bombs in this operation. Twenty-six U.S. planes were lost, and 93 airmen were killed, captured or missing. North Vietnam admitted to between 1,300 and 1,600 dead. (see Dec 22)

December 18 Peace Love Art Activism

Judicial Milestone

December 18, 1967: Katz v. United States, was a US Supreme Court case discussing the nature of the “right to privacy” and the legal definition of a “search”. The Court’s ruling refined previous interpretations of the unreasonable search and seizure clause of the Fourth Amendment to count immaterial intrusion with technology as a search, overruling Olmstead v. United States (see June 4, 1928) and Goldman v. United States. Katz also extended Fourth Amendment protection to all areas where a person has a “reasonable expectation of privacy”. (see April 7, 1969)

December 18 Peace Love Art Activism

Native Americans

December 18, 1968: Mohawk Indians formed a blockade at the Cornwall International Bridge between the U.S. and Canada in protest of the U.S. restricting Native peoples’ free movement between the two countries. Many protesters were arrested but the Canadian government dismissed the charges.(see September 29, 1969)

December 18 Peace Love Art Activism

Nuclear News

December 18, 1970: a blast from a planned atomic test accidentally released a plume of hot gases and radioactive dust three and a half minutes after ignition and continuing for many hours, raining fallout on workers. Six percent of the explosion’s radioactive products were vented atomic leak in Nevada forced hundreds of citizens to flee the test site. (see May 27, 1972)

December 18 Peace Love Art Activism

TERRORISM

December 18, 1989: a mail bomb killed Robert Robinson, an attorney in Savannah, Georgia, in his office. Robinson was in his second term as 5th District alderman when he was killed.

A year after his slaying, federal officials obtained a 70-count indictment against Walter Leroy Moody Jr., 56, of Rex, including a murder charge in the slaying of 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals Judge Robert S. Vance on Dec. 16, 1989, in a mail bomb explosion at his home in Mountain Brook, Ala.

The indictment charged Moody with transporting explosive material with intent to kill, causing a death.

Moody was convicted in federal court in June 1991 of 70 offenses, including murder in the Vance slaying, and sentenced to serve consecutive life terms without parole.

He was later convicted in an Alabama circuit court in Birmingham in the slayings of Vance and Robinson and sentenced to death in February 1997.

NAACP targeted

In late December 1989: pipe bombs intercepted at 11th Circuit headquarters in Atlanta, GA and the Jacksonville, FL office of the NAACP. (see July 6, 1990)

December 18 Peace Love Art Activism

CLINTON IMPEACHMENT

December 18, 1998: the House of Representatives engaged in a fierce, daylong debate whether to impeach President Clinton. A CNN survey suggested there were enough votes to approve one or more articles of impeachment. (see CI for expanded chronology)

December 18 Peace Love Art Activism

DEATH PENALTY

U.N. General Assembly

December 18, 2007: the U.N. General Assembly passed a nonbinding resolution calling for a moratorium on the death penalty, overcoming protests from a bloc of states that said it undermined their sovereignty. The resolution which calls for ‘a moratorium on executions with a view to abolishing the death penalty,’ was passed by a 104 to 54 vote, with 29 abstentions. Two similar moves in the 1990s failed in the assembly. The resolution’s text stops short of an outright demand for immediate abolition; it carries no legal force but backers say it has powerful moral authority.

Among nations who voted against were Egypt, Iran, Singapore, the United States and a bloc of Caribbean states. Eighty-seven countries — including the 27 European Union states, more than a dozen Latin American countries and eight African states — jointly introduced the resolution, though opponents singled out the EU as the driving force. [Reuters article] (see June 25, 2008)

Capital punishment continues decline

December 18, 2009: use of capital punishment by states continued its steady decline, with fewer death sentences handed down in 2009 than any year since the death penalty was reinstated by the Supreme Court in 1976. Year-end figures by the Death Penalty Information Center (DPIC) showed 11 states were considering abolishing executions, with many legislators citing high costs associated with incarcerating and handling often decades-long appeals by death row inmates.

Fifty-two inmates were executed in 11 states in 2009. As in previous years, Texas in 2009 led the states in executions, with 24 — four times as many as the next-highest, Alabama. Nine men who had been sentenced to death were exonerated and freed in 2009, most after new DNA or other forensic testing cleared them, or raised doubts their culpability. That was the second highest total since the death penalty was reinstated 33 years earlier.  (see June 18, 2010)

December 18 Peace Love Art Activism

LGBTQ

District of Columbia

December 18, 2009: District of Columbia Mayor Adrian Fenty signed a freedom to marry bill into law after it passed by a large majority of City Council members. January 1, 2010 New Hampshire same-sex couples begin marrying in the state. [CNN article](see January 1, 2010)

Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell

December 18, 2010: the U.S. Senate voted 65 to 31 in favor of repealing Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell, the Clinton-era military policy that forbid openly gay men and women from serving in the military. Eight Republicans sided with the Democrats to strike down the ban. The ban will not be lifted officially until President Obama, Defense Secretary Robert Gates, and Admiral Mike Mullen, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, agree that the military is ready to enact the change and that it won’t affect military readiness. (see Dec 22)

Transgender government employees

December 18, 2014: Attorney General Eric Holder announced  that the Justice Department would interpret the Civil Rights Act of 1964 as protecting transgender government employees from discrimination.

In a memo, Holder wrote that the “best reading of Title VII’s prohibition of sex discrimination is that it encompasses discrimination based on gender identity, including transgender status.” Holder said that while Congress “may not have had such claims in mind when it enacted Title VII, the Supreme Court has made clear that Title VII must be interpreted according to its plain text.”

In a statement, Holder called the move an “important shift” that “will ensure that the protections of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 are extended to those who suffer discrimination based on gender identity, including transgender status.” [US DoJ article]

Same-sex marriage Florida

December 18, 2014: the U.S. Supreme Court refused to block gay marriages in Florida, the latest of about three dozen states allowing same-sex weddings.

In a one-paragraph order, the court decided not to step into the Florida case. A federal judge previously declared Florida’s ban on gay marriage unconstitutional and said same-sex marriage licenses could start being issued in the state after Jan. 5, unless the Supreme Court intervened.

Most federal judges and appeals courts have ruled against state bans, but the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Cincinnati has upheld the right of four states to decide whether to allow gay marriage. (LGBTQ, see Dec 19; Florida, see Dec 26)

Kedarie Johnson

December 18, 2017:  Jorge Sanders-Galvez, convicted of murdering a 16-year-old Burlington High School student  Kedarie Johnson (see March 2, 2016) in an alley was sentenced to life in prison without parole.

At his sentencing, Jorge Sanders-Galvez also was charged with attempted murder and assault on a correctional officer after authorities said he beat a Des Moines County sheriff’s officer at the county jail the previous week. (see Dec 22)

Church Changes a bit

December 18, 2023: the Vatican announced that Pope Francis took steps in his efforts to make the Roman Catholic Church more welcoming to L.G.B.T.Q. Catholics by allowing priests to bless couples in same-sex relationship.

Priests had long blessed a wide variety of people, offering a prayer asking for God’s help and presence. The Vatican had long said it could not bless same-sex couples because it would undermine church doctrine that marriage is only between a man and a woman.

The new rule was issued in a declaration by the church’s office on doctrine and introduced by its prefect, Cardinal Víctor Manuel Fernández, who said that the declaration did not amend “the traditional doctrine of the church about marriage,” because it allowed no liturgical rite that could be confused with the sacrament of marriage. [NYT article] (next LGBTQ, see )

December 18 Peace Love Art Activism

Iraq War II

December 18, 2011:  the last convoy of heavily armored U.S. troops left Iraq, crossing into Kuwait in darkness in the final moments of a nine-year war. (see February 13, 2012)

December 18 Peace Love Art Activism

Cannabis

December 18, 2014:  Nebraska Attorney General Jon Bruning said the state was joining Oklahoma in a federal lawsuit that sought a declaration that Colorado’s legalization of marijuana violated the United States Constitution.

“Federal law undisputedly prohibits the production and sale of marijuana,” said Bruning. “Colorado has undermined the United States Constitution, and I hope the U.S. Supreme Court will uphold our constitutional principles.”

Bruning said the “illegal products of this system” are heavily trafficked into neighboring states, causing an unnecessary burden on the state of Nebraska.

The Colorado Attorney General’s Office said it would defend the state’s marijuana laws. “We are not entirely surprised by this action,” Colorado Attorney General John Suthers said. “However, it appears the plaintiffs’ primary grievance stems from non-enforcement of federal laws regarding marijuana, as opposed to choices made by the voters of Colorado. We believe this suit is without merit and we will vigorously defend against it in the U.S. Supreme Court.”

On  March 21, 2016, the U.S. Supreme Court declined 6 – 2 to hear Nebraska and Oklahoma’s proposed lawsuit meaning the nation’s highest court will not rule on the interstate dispute. (see January 9, 2015 or see CCC for expanded chronology)

Crime and Punishment

December 18, 2019:  NJ Governor Phil Murphy signed  A5823 into law which restored voting rights to 80,000 people on probation or parole.

He also signed into law an expungement bill for people with marijuana convictions.

“This move will make it possible for thousands of residents now and in the future to truly be able to turn the corner and not have long forgotten mistakes marking them like a ‘scarlet letter’ for the rest of their lives,” one of the measure’s sponsors, state Assemblywoman Annette Quijano, D-Union, said in a statement. [NJN story] (next Cannabis, see Dec 31; also see CCC for expanded cannabis chronology; next C & P, see January 7, 2020)

Malta Legalization

December 18, 2021: just days after Malta’s Parliament approved a bill to legalize marijuana, President George Vella signed the legislation into law making Malta the first European country to enact the reform.

Under the legislation sponsored by MP Owen Bonnici, adults 18 and older will be allowed to possess up to seven grams of cannabis and cultivate as many as four plants for personal use. Up to 50 grams of homegrown marijuana can be stored at home.

While there won’t be a commercial market per se, non-profit cooperatives will be able to cultivate marijuana and distribute it to members. [MM article] (next Cannabis see May 25, 2022 or see CAC for expanded chronology)

December 18 Peace Love Art Activism

Women’s Health/Immigration History

December 18, 2017: Judge Tanya S. Chutkan, of the United States District Court for the District of Columbia ruled that “Jane Roe” and “Jane Poe,”  two undocumented immigrants in US custody, must be allowed to have abortions,

The immigrants, both 17, had entered the United States illegally and were being held in government-run shelters. Under a policy announced in March by the Department of Health and Human Services’ Office of Refugee Resettlement, federally funded shelters cannot take “any action that facilitates” an abortion for an unaccompanied minor without the approval of the office’s director

Chutkan stayed her order for 24 hours to let the government appeal.  [NYT article] (WH & IH, see Dec 19)

December 18 Peace Love Art Activism

Affordable Care Act

December 18, 2019: a 2-1 decision, by a panel of the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit in New Orleans struck down a central provision of the Affordable Care Act, ruling that the requirement that people have health insurance was unconstitutional.

The appeals panel did not invalidate the rest of the law, instead sending the case back to a federal district judge in Texas to “conduct a more searching inquiry” into which of the law’s many parts could survive without the mandate. [NYT story] (next ACA, see April 1, 2020)

December 18 Peace Love Art Activism

Trump Impeachment

The House of Representatives on Wednesday impeached President Trump for abuse of power and obstruction of Congress, making him the third president in history to be charged with committing high crimes and misdemeanors and face removal by the Senate.

On a day of constitutional consequence and raging partisan tension, the votes on the two articles of impeachment fell largely along party lines, after a bitter debate that stretched into the evening and reflected the deep polarization gripping American politics in the Trump era. [NYT story] [see TII for chronology]

December 18 Peace Love Art Activism

December 17 Peace Love Art Activism

Technological and Cultural Milestones

The Wright Brothers

December 17, 1903: Orville and Wilbur Wright made the first successful man-powered airplane flight, near Kitty Hawk, N.C.(see October 27, 1904)

Color TV

December 17, 1953: the FCC approved color specifications from the National Television System Committee (NTSC) for a color system compatible with existing black and white sets. By the end of 1953, 44.7% of American households have a TV set. By the end of 1954, 55.7% of households will. (see Dec 30)

Superstation

December 17, 1976: WTCG-TV, Atlanta, GA, changed its call letters to WTBS, and uplinked via satellite. The station became the first commercial TV station to cover the entire U.S. (see June 5, 1977)

Simpsons

December 17, 1989:  the first full episode of “The Simpsons,” a Christmas special titled “Simpsons Roasting on an Open Fire,” premiered on Fox. The episode chronicled the less-than-perfect family’s financial woes and captured viewers with a satirical cynicism that would define the following decade of television.(next CM, see February 14, 1990)

December 17 Peace Love Art Activism

Anarchism in the US

December 17, 1910: Emma Goldman published her first book, Anarchism and Other Essays. (PDF of book) (see Emma Goldman for her larger story)

December 17 Peace Love Art Activism

Nuclear and Chemical Weapons

Otto Hahn and Fritz Strassmann

December 17, 1938: German chemists Otto Hahn and Fritz Strassmann discovered nuclear fission by splitting the nuclei of uranium into lighter elements while performing experiments in Berlin.(see August 2, 1939)

Intercontinental missile

December 17, 1957: the US successfully test-fired the Atlas intercontinental ballistic missile for the first time. (see Dec 18)

December 17 Peace Love Art Activism

Immigration History

Magnuson Act

December 17, 1943: the Magnuson Act repealed the Chinese Exclusion Act (May 6, 1882). The exclusion act was arguably the most restrictive immigration law ever passed in the US. It barred from immigration all Chinese laborers. Although it permitted the entry of some non-laborers, who were required to obtain certification from the Chinese government, few were able to quality. Repeal of the Exclusion Act at this time was spurred by the fact that China was an important ally of the U.S. against Japan in World War II. (see June 27, 1952)

Arizona drivers license

December 17, 2014: the Supreme Court let stand a ruling requiring Arizona to issue driver’s licenses to young immigrants spared from deportation by President Obama.

The court’s brief, unsigned order gave no reasons, but it nonetheless represented the justices’ first encounter with the Obama administration’s recent efforts to provide relief to immigrants who are in the United States unlawfully. Justices Antonin Scalia, Clarence Thomas and Samuel A. Alito Jr. dissented, also without giving reasons. [NYT article] (see February 15, 2015)

December 17 Peace Love Art Activism

Japanese Internment Camps

December 17, 1944: Major General Henry C. Pratt issued Public Proclamation No. 21, declaring that, effective January 2, 1945, Japanese American “evacuees” from the West Coast could return to their homes. (see November 21, 1945 re the final closing.) (see JI for expanded chronology)

December 17 Peace Love Art Activism

BLACK HISTORY

Montgomery Bus Boycott

December 17, 1955: Martin Luther King, Jr met with white representatives in an unsuccessful attempt to resolve the bus dispute. The boycott, initially launched as a one-day statement of protest, had been going on for nearly two weeks at this point. ( see Montgomery for expanded chronology)

Coerced confessions

December 17, 1977: the district attorney dropped the murder and robbery charges against the five Black men forced to confess under threat of death, saying that without the confessions there was not much of a case. Two of the defendants had spent one year in jail, and the other three had been incarcerated for almost two years.  No one was ever convicted of  Gordon Howell’s murder (see January 22, 1976). (see Dec 30)

Arthur McDuffie

December 17, 1979: Arthur McDuffie, a 33-year-old African American insurance sales representative, was riding a motorcycle when he was signaled to pull over by Metro-Dade Police Department (MDPD) officers in Miami, Florida. Mr. McDuffie did not comply, beginning an eight-mile chase through Miami. After he was apprehended, MDPD officers beat him into a coma. There is no evidence that he physically resisted arrest, and officers later ran over Mr. McDuffie’s motorcycle to make it appear as if he had been in an accident. Mr. McDuffie died four days later.

After an autopsy confirmed witness reports that he had been beaten to death, five MDPD officers were charged with manslaughter and evidence tampering. The jury found them not guilty on all counts.(BH & McDuffie, see May 18, 1980)

Medgar Evers

December 17, 1990: Byron De La Beckwith, 70 years old, twice tried but never convicted in the shooting death of the civil rights leader Medgar Evers in 1963, was arrested as a fugitive from Mississippi. Officials said a grand jury in Hinds County heard testimony the previous week in the slaying of Medgar Evers, who was field secretary for the Mississippi branch of the NAACP . Hinds County District Attorney Ed Peters, said he had no comment on the arrest and would not say whether Mr. Beckwith had been indicted in connection with the reopened investigation into Mr. Evers’ killing. (see Dec 19)

George J. Stinney Jr

December 17, 2014: Calling it a “great and fundamental injustice,” South Carolina Circuit Judge Carmen T. Mullen vacated the 1944 murder conviction of 14-year-old George J. Stinney Jr., the youngest person executed in the United States in the last century.

Mullen did not rule that the conviction of Mr. Stinney for the murder of two white girls in the town of Alcolu was wrong on the merits. She did find, however, that the prosecution had failed in numerous ways to safeguard the constitutional rights of Mr. Stinney, who was black, from the time he was taken into custody until his death by electrocution.

The all-white jury could not be considered a jury of the teenager’s peers, Judge Mullen ruled, and his court-appointed attorney did “little to nothing” to defend him. His confession was most likely coerced and unreliable, she added, “due to the power differential between his position as a 14-year-old black male apprehended and questioned by white, uniformed law enforcement in a small, segregated mill town in South Carolina.” (see GJS, Jr for expanded chronology)

Russian voter interference

December 17, 2018: according to a report produced for the Senate Intelligence Committee. the Russian influence campaign on social media in the 2016 election made an extraordinary effort to target African-Americans, used an array of tactics to try to suppress turnout among Democratic voters and unleashed a blizzard of activity on Instagram that rivaled or exceeded its posts on Facebook

New Knowledge, a cybersecurity company based in Austin, Tex., along with researchers at Columbia University and Canfield Research LLC  produced the report. [NYT article]

Colin Kaepernick/Ben & Jerry’s

December 17, 2020: Vermont ice cream maker Ben & Jerry’s honored Colin Kaepernick with a new flavor blending his civil rights activism and non-dairy, vegan appetite.

“Change the Whirled” — a mix of caramel sunflower butter, fudge chips, graham crackers and chocolate cookies — would raise money for Kaepernick’s “courageous work to confront systemic oppression and to stop police violence against Black and Brown people,” the company said in a statement. [VTDigger story] (next BH, see ; see CK for expanded Kaepernick story)

December 17 Peace Love Art Activism

December 17 Music et al

Beatles

December 17, 1961: Brian Epstein contacted a local wedding photographer, Albert Marrion, to see if he could take some professional pictures of the group for the first time. (see January 1, 1962)

Alan Freed

December 17, 1962: Alan Freed pleaded guilty in Criminal Court to accepting a $2,000 bribe from the Cosnat Distributing Company and a $700 bribe from the Superior Record Sales Co, Inc. Jundge John Murtagh imposed a $300 fine and a six-month suspended jail sentence.  (see June 8, 1963)

DJ Carroll James

December 17, 1963: radio DJ Carroll James at Washington. D.C. station WWDC, played a U.K. copy of  “I Want to Hold Your Hand” on the radio after a 15-year-old girl from Silver Spring, MD wrote to him requesting Beatles music after seeing the CBS-news segment.  James Carroll became the first disc jockey to broadcast a Beatles record on American radio. He had obtained the record from his stewardess girlfriend, who brought the single back from the UK. Due to listener demand, the song was played daily, every hour. (see Dec 18 – 19)

Beatles Third Christmas Record

December 17, 1965, The Beatles: “The Beatles Third Christmas Record” released. (see January 8, 1966)

Winchester Cathedral

December 17 – 30, 1966: “Winchester Cathedral” by The New Vaudeville Band #1 on the Billboard Hot 100.

Christmas Time Is Here Again

December 17, 1967: Beatles sent Christmas Time Is Here Again to fan club members.  (see Busy Beatles for more) (next Beatles, see Dec 26)

December 17 Peace Love Art Activism

Environmental Issues

Clean air bill

December 17, 1963: President Johnson signed into law a “clean air” bill designed to channel $95 million in federal funds into a four-year program to fight air pollution. The legislation authorized the Department of Health, Education and Welfare to conduct research into the problem of air pollution, which some experts say is becoming a national menace.

It also would permit federal aid to states and communities which are fighting air pollution.

In signing the measure, Johnson said it would combat a “serious and growing” hazard. He said an estimated 6,000 U.S. communities need the type of assistance provide by the bill. States will retain the primary responsibility for controlling and reducing pollution except in those cases where pollution from one source — such as a concentration of factories — affects more than one state.

In such cases federal authorities may seek relief in court if a voluntary solution is unsuccessful.

The federal aid program involves grants on a matching basis on a matching basis of one state dollar for every two federal dollars put up. Regional grants are based on matching of three-quarters federal, one-quarter state. (see September 3, 1964)

Fracking

December 17, 2014: NY Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo’s administration announced that it would ban hydraulic fracturing in New York State because of concerns over health risks, ending years of debate over the method of extracting natural gas. [NYT article] (see January 6, 2015)

December 17 Peace Love Art Activism

Feminism

December 17, 1970: Jo Carol LaFleur told the principal of a Cleveland, Ohio, junior high school, where she was teaching, that she was pregnant. According to school policy, teachers were banned from the classroom after the fourth month of pregnancy — and could not return until the semester after the child was three months old. On January 21, 1974, in Cleveland Board of Education v. LaFleur the US Supreme Court found that overly restrictive maternity leave regulations in public schools violated the due process clause of the Fifth Amendment and the Fourteenth Amendment. This decision struck down mandatory maternity leave rules. (F, see January 15, 1971; Jo Carol LaFleur, see January 21, 1974)

December 17 Peace Love Art Activism

Lynette Alice Fromme

December 17, 1975: a federal jury in Sacramento, California, sentenced Lynette Alice Fromme, also known as “Squeaky” Fromme, to life in prison for her attempted assassination of President Gerald R. Ford. (see Lynette Squeaky Fromme) (see August 16, 2009)

December 17 Peace Love Art Activism

Irish Troubles

December 17, 1983:  a Provisional IRA car bomb killed 6 Christmas shoppers and injured 90 outside Harrods in London. (see  Troubles for expanded chronology)

December 17 Peace Love Art Activism

see AIDS & Ryan White for full story

Diagnosis

December 17, 1984: during a partial-lung removal procedure, Ryan White was diagnosed with AIDS. (next AIDS, see March 2, 1985)

Ruling appealed

December 17, 1985: the school board voted 7–0 to appeal Indiana Department of Education ruling. (see RW for expanded chronology)

December 17 Peace Love Art Activism

The Cold War

Dissolution of the USSR

December 17, 1989: Timișoara Riot in Romania. Demonstrations in the city of Timișoara were triggered by the government-sponsored attempt to evict László Tőkés, an ethnic Hungarian pastor, accused by the government of inciting ethnic hatred. Members of his ethnic Hungarian congregation surrounded his apartment in a show of support. Romanian students spontaneously joined the demonstration which had became a more general anti-government demonstration. Regular military forces, police and Security fired on demonstrators killing and injuring men, women and children. (see USSR for expanded chronology)

United States/Cuba

December 17, 2014: American officials announced that the US would restore full diplomatic relations with Cuba and open an embassy in Havana for the first time in more than a half-century after the release of an American contractor held in prison for five years.

In a deal negotiated during 18 months of secret talks hosted largely by Canada and encouraged by Pope Francis, who hosted a final meeting at the Vatican, President Obama and President Raúl Castro of Cuba agreed in a telephone call to put aside decades of hostility to find a new relationship. [NYT article] (see January 12, 2015)

December 17 Peace Love Art Activism

Jack Kevorkian

December 17, 1993: Kevorkian ended fast and left jail after Oakland County Circuit Court Judge reduced bond to $100 in exchange for his vow not to assist in any more suicides until state courts resolved the legality of his practice. (see JK for expanded chronology)

December 17 Peace Love Art Activism

see CLINTON IMPEACHMENT for expanded chronology

Monica Lewinsky subpoenaed

December 17, 1997: Monica Lewinsky subpoenaed by lawyers for Paula Jones, who was suing the president on sexual harassment charges.

Impeachment debate

December 17, 1998: Republicans rescheduled the impeachment debate for December 18 over Democratic objections. Republican Speaker-elect Bob Livingston is forced to admit his own marital indiscretions, but says unlike President Clinton, they were not with a staff member and he was never asked to testify under oath about them

December 17 Peace Love Art Activism

ADA

December 17, 1999: The Ticket to Work and Work Incentives Improvements Act of 1999 (TWWIIA) expanded the availability of Medicare and Medicaid so that certain disabled beneficiaries who return to work will not lose their medical benefits. (see May 29, 2001)

STAND YOUR GROUND

December 17, 2014: on this date Markus Kaarma, 30, of Missoula, Montana, who had shot and killed Diren Dede, a German exchange student caught trespassing in his garage, was convicted of deliberate homicide in a case that attracted attention as a test of “stand your ground” laws that governed the use of deadly force to defend life and property.

Kaarma had shot  Dede on April 27, 2014 after being alerted to an intruder by motion sensors. Witnesses testified Kaarma fired four shotgun blasts at Dede, who was unarmed.(see February 12, 2015)

December 17 Peace Love Art Activism

December 16 Peace Love Art Activism

BILL OF RIGHTS

December 16, 1689, : the English “Bill of Rights” went into effect. (see October 19, 1765)

December 16 Peace Love Art Activism

BLACK HISTORY

Short family murdered

December 16, 1945: in Fontana, California, the home of the Short family erupted in flames, killing Mrs Helen Short and her two children, Barry, 9, and Carol Ann, 7. Mr O’day H. Short survived the explosion The Shorts were the first and only black family living in the neighborhood.

Initially organized as a collection of chicken farms and citrus groves in the early twentieth century, by the early 1940s the small San Bernardino County town of Fontana was transformed into an industrial center with the opening of a wartime steel mill. As the community population grew in numbers and diversity, strict segregation lines emerged: black families moving out of the overcrowded Los Angeles area were relegated to living in the rocky plains of “North Fontana,” and working in the dirtiest departments of the mill. Ku Klux Klan activity also surged throughout Southern California during this time period, with white supremacists poised to terrorize black and Chicano veterans of WWII returning with militant ideas of racial equality.

This was reality in fall 1945, when O’day H. Short – a Mississippi native and Los Angeles civil rights activist – purchased a tract of land “in town” with intentions of moving his family to Fontana’s white section. As the Shorts built their modest home and prepared to live in it full time, local forces of all kinds tried to stop them. In early December 1945, “vigilantes” visited Mr. Short and ordered him to move or risk harm to his family; he refused and reported the threats to the FBI and local sheriff. Sheriff’s deputies did not offer protection and instead reiterated the warning that Short should leave before his family was harmed. Shortly after, members of the Fontana Chamber of Commerce visited the home, encouraging Mr. Short to move to the North Fontana area, and offering to buy his home. He refused.

Just days later, an explosion “of unusual intensity” destroyed the home, killing Mr. Short’s wife and children. He survived for two weeks, shielded from the knowledge of the other deaths, but died in January 1946 after the local D.A. bluntly informed him of his family’s fate during an investigative interview.

Local officials initially concluded that the fire was an accident, caused by Mr. Short’s own lighting of an outdoor lamp. After surviving family members, the black press, and the Los Angeles NAACP protested, a formal inquest was held, at which an independent arson investigator obtained by the NAACP testified that the fire had clearly been intentionally set. Despite this testimony, and evidence of the harassment the Short family had endured in the weeks leading to the fire, local officials again concluded it an accident and closed the case. No criminal investigation was ever opened, no arrests or prosecutions were made, and residential segregation persisted in Fontana for over 25 more years.

Women’s Political Council

In 1946, The Women’s Political Council formed as a civic organization for African-American professional women in Montgomery, Alabama. It was inspired by the Atlanta Neighborhood Union. Many of its middle-class women were active in education; most of WPC’s members were educators at Alabama State College or Montgomery’s public schools. About forty women attended the first organizational meeting. Mary Fair Burks, who was head of Alabama State’s English department, was the group’s first president. (Black History, see Feb 12; Feminism, see July 9, 1947)

Albany Movement

December 16, 1961: New York Times: The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., 264 other Negroes and one white youth were arrested today as they marched on City Hall for a prayer demonstration. All were jailed. There was no violence, despite the tension aroused by week-long racial controversy and the breakdown of negotiations between white and Negro leaders aimed at restoring this city of 56,000 persons to normal. (see Albany Movement for the long sad story)

Medgar Evers assassination

December 16, 1992: a divided Mississippi Supreme Court refused to block the trial of Byron De La Beckwith, paving the way for him to be tried for the third time for the 1963 murder of the civil rights leader Medgar Evers. The court voted 4 to 3 to deny Mr. Beckwith’s claim that the case should be dismissed without going to trial. (see Dec 23)

SOUTH AFRICA/APARTHEID

December 16, 1961: Nelson Mandela and other A.N.C. leaders form a military wing called Umkhonto we Sizwe, or Spear of the Nation. Mr. Mandela becomes the first commander in chief of the guerrilla army. He will train to fight, work to obtain weapons for the group, and come to be known as the Black Pimpernel, but he will never see combat. (see August 5, 1962)

Amadou Diallo

December 16, 1999: a NY appellate court ordered a change of venue to Albany, stating that pretrial publicity had made a fair trial in New York City impossible. (see February 25, 2000)

Colin Powell

December 16, 2000: President-elect George W. Bush selected Colin Powell to become the first African-American secretary of state.(see January 21, 2001)

Tulsa “Good Friday” Shootings

December 16, 2013: On April 6, 2012 Jacob England and Alvin Watts had gone on a shooting spree that left three people dead and terrorized Tulsa’s black community. On this date, the two men were each sentenced to life without the possibility of parole. The men were sentenced after pleading guilty to three first-degree murder charges and two shooting with intent to kill charges. England, 19, and Watts, 33, were also sentenced to one year in the county jail for the misdemeanor charge of malicious intimidation, the state of Oklahoma’s equivalent of a hate crime offense.

On December 16, 2013, Jacob England and Alvin Watts, the two suspects in Tulsa’s so-called “Good Friday” murders, were each sentenced to life without the possibility of parole. The men were sentenced after pleading guilty to three first-degree murder charges and two shooting with intent to kill charges. England, 19, and Watts, 33, were also sentenced to one year in the county jail for the misdemeanor charge of malicious intimidation, the state of Oklahoma’s equivalent of a hate crime offense.

BLACK & SHOT

December 16, 2015: Chicago police Officer Jason Van Dyke was indicted on first-degree murder charges in the shooting of Laquan McDonald. (B & S, see Dec 27; McDonald, see Jan 22)

Emmett Till

December 16, 2016:  President Obama signed the Emmett Till Civil Rights Crimes Reauthorization Act of 2016. The Act allowed the Department of Justice and the FBI to reopen unsolved civil rights crimes.committed before 1980. The legislation is an expansion of a previous bill of a similar name signed into law in 2008. (BH, see January 10, 2017; ET, see January 23, 2017)

Trayvon Martin Shooting

December 16, 2017: George Zimmerman took a verbal shot at rapper JAY-Z threatening to “beat” the rapper and feed him to “an alligator” over Jay-Z’s role in a Trayvon Martin documentary.

Zimmerman, said he has a score to settle with JAY-Z over the way a camera crew treated the Zimmerman family.  Zimmerman complained that a production team made unannounced visits to the homes of his parents and an uncle in Florida and said JAY-Z and executive producer Michael Gesparro indirectly “harassed” his family.

“I know how to handle people who f–k with me,” Zimmerman added “I have since February 2012.”

Negro Leagues Recognized

December 16, 2020: Major League Baseball Commissioner Rob Manfred declared that seven Negro leagues that operated between 1920 and 1948 would be recognized as official major leagues, with their records and statistics counted in baseball’s record books.

“All of us who love baseball have long known that the Negro Leagues produced many of our game’s best players, innovations and triumphs against a backdrop of injustice,” Manfred said in a statement. “We are now grateful to count the players of the Negro Leagues where they belong: as Major Leaguers within the official historical record.” [NYT article] (next BH, see Dec 17)

December 16 Peace Love Art Activism

 Cold War

Korea

December 16, 1950: President Harry S. Truman proclaimed a national state of emergency during the Korean War in response to Chinese intervention.

Survival Under Atomic Attack

In 1951, the US Government released a film, “Survival Under Atomic Attack” (NN, see Jan 27; Red Scare, see March 29, 1951)

LSD & the US Government

In 1951: the CIA became aware of and began experimenting with LSD. (next Red Scare, see March 29)

LSD &  Al Hubbard

In 1951: Al Hubbard first tried LSD. Hubbard was an early proponent for the drug during the 1950s. He is reputed to have been the “Johnny Appleseed of LSD” and the first person to emphasize LSD’s potential as a visionary or transcendental drug. Hubbard may have introduced more than 6,000 people to LSD, including scientists, politicians, intelligence officials, diplomats, and church figures. Hubbard, then forty-nine years old, eagerly sought out others familiar with hallucinogenic drugs, including Aldous Huxley, the eminent British novelist who for years had been preoccupied with the specter of drug-induced thought control.

“Most people are walking in their sleep,” Hubbard said. “Turn them around, start them in the opposite direction and they wouldn’t even know the difference. [but]  give them a good dose of LSD and let them see themselves for what they are.”

LSD & Charles Savage

In 1952: Charles Savage published the first study on the use of LSD to treat depression.

LSD & Dr. Humphry Osmond

In 1953: Dr. Humphry Osmond began treating alcoholics with LSD.

First LSD conferences

In 1955: first conferences focusing on LSD and mescaline took place in Atlantic City and Princeton, N.J.

LSD & Aldous Huxley

In 1955: with Al Hubbard’s assistance, novelist Aldous Huxley first took LSD. (see March 14, 1957)

LSD/relating to Nature

December 16, 2019: the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health published an article in which they said, “We found a strong relationship between the amount of lifetime use of psychedelics and nature relatedness, as well as increases in nature relatedness from before to after psychedelic use.”  (next LSD, see November 3, 2020)

December 16 Peace Love Art Activism

LGBTQ

Overt Homosexuality

December 16, 1963: the NY State Liquor Authority announced the revocation of the liquor licenses of two NYC bars. In a NY Times article, NYC Police Commissioner said, “Homosexuality is another one of the many problems confronting law enforcement…the underlying factors in homosexuality are not criminal but rather medical and sociological.” In the same NYT article, a Dr Irvin Bieber stated, “Public acceptance, [of homosexuality] if based on the concept of homosexuality as an illness, could be useful. If, by a magic wand, one could eliminate overnight all the manifestations of hostility I think there would be a gradual, important reduction in the incidence of homosexuality.”  (see May 19, 1964)

Rev Frank Schaefer

December 16, 2013: Rev. Frank Schaefer, a United Methodist minister who was suspended for officiating at his son’s gay marriage, said he would not voluntarily surrender his religious credentials even though he cannot uphold his church’s doctrines on issues relating to same-sex marriage.

Schaefer was convicted of violating church doctrine by performing a same-sex marriage when he officiated at his son’s nuptials in 2007 in Massachusetts. On Nov. 19, he was suspended for 30 days and asked to agree to abide by church doctrine, as outlined in the Methodist Book of Discipline, or to surrender his ministerial credentials. (see Dec 19)

December 16 Peace Love Art Activism

Vietnam & STUDENT ACTIVISM

December 16, 1965: in Des Moines, Iowa  John F. Tinker (15), John’s younger sister Mary Beth Tinker (13), and their friend Christopher Eckhardt (16) decided to wear black armbands to their schools (high school for John and Christopher, junior high for Mary Beth) in protest of the Vietnam War and supporting the Robert Kennedy’s proposed extension of the Viet Cong’s proposed Christmas Eve truce.  Two days earlier, the principals of the Des Moines schools adopted a policy that banned the wearing of armbands to school. Any student violating the policy would be suspended and allowed to return to school only after agreeing to comply with the policy. Mary Beth Tinker and Christopher Eckhardt chose to violate this policy, and the next day John Tinker also did so. Both were suspended from school until after January 1, 1966, when their protest had been scheduled to end. (for more, see Tinker v Des Moines ; Student Activism, see February 27, 1969; Tinker, see February 24, 1969; Vietnam, see Dec 18)

December 16 Peace Love Art Activism

December 16 Music et al

The Beatles

December 16, 1966: release of Beatles Fourth Christmas Record — Pantomime: Everywhere It’s Christmas to fan club members. (next Beatles, see Dec 18)

John & Yoko

December 16, 1969: John Lennon and Yoko Ono put up eleven billboards in major cities worldwide with the slogan: War Is Over! (Lennon, see Dec 19; Vietnam see February 18, 1970)

December 16 Peace Love Art Activism

INDEPENDENCE DAY

December 16, 1971, Bangladesh war of independence ends in victory. (NYT article)

December 16, 1991: Kazakhstan declared its independence from the Soviet Union. (USSR, see Dec 24; ID, see March 1, 1992)

December 16 Peace Love Art Activism

Sara Jane Moore

December 16, 1975,  a federal court accepted Sara Jane Moore’s plea of guilty of attempting to assassinate President Ford. (see Sarah Jane for more)

December 16 Peace Love Art Activism

TERRORISM

December 16, 1989: a powerful explosion killed Federal Judge Robert Vance after he opened a mail bomb in his house near Birmingham, Alabama. His wife, Helen, was seriously injured.

The federal government charged Walter Leroy Moody, Jr., with the murders of Judge Vance and of Robert E. Robinson, a black civil-rights attorney in Savannah, Georgia, who had been killed in a separate explosion at his office on December 18. Moody was also charged with mailing bombs that were defused at the Eleventh Circuit’s headquarters in Atlanta and at the Jacksonville office of the NAACP.

Moody was sentenced to seven federal life terms. (see Dec 18)

December 16 Peace Love Art Activism

IRAQ

Weapon discovery

December 16, 1995: Iraqi scuba divers, under the direction of the United Nations Special Commission, dredge the Tigris near Baghdad. The divers find over 200 prohibited Russian-made missile instruments and components. (see August 31, 1996)

U.S. and British forces attack Iraq v Clinton Impeachment

December 16, 1998: in a coordinated strike, U.S. and British forces attack Iraq in retaliation for its failure to cooperate with U.N. weapons inspectors. Because of the military action, House Republican leaders delay a planned impeachment debate and vote set to begin Thursday, December 17. (see Clinton Impeachment: Iraq, see October 2, 2002)

December 16 Peace Love Art Activism

Sexual Abuse of Children

December 16, 2006:  the Archdiocese of Los Angeles agreed to pay $60m to settle to 45 cases of alleged sexual abuse by priests. (see January 4, 2007)

December 16 Peace Love Art Activism

STAND YOUR GROUND LAW

December 16, 2012: Tampa, FL. Michael Jock was waiting in line at a Little Caesars when another customer, Randall White, complained about the slow service. The men exchanged words, which turned into a shoving match. Jock pulled out a revolver and fired it at White, striking him in the torso. The two struggled and White was shot a second time. Jock claimed the action was justified under Florida’s “stand your ground” law.

However, according to the Tampa Bay Times, police determined that the incident “did not reach a level where deadly force was required.” The officers charged Jock with aggravated battery with a weapon and shooting within a building. He was later released on $20,000 bail. (see January 3, 2013)

December 16 Peace Love Art Activism

Stop and Frisk Policy

December 16, 2013: the Civilian Complaint Review Board went after officer Roman Goris after an alleged wrongful stop and frisk in 2011. The NYPD disciplinary trial of marked the first time the NYPD’s independent watchdog prosecuted an officer for a stop and frisk violation itself. (see Dec 19)

December 16 Peace Love Art Activism

Cannabis

December 16, 2014:  drug Policy Alliance lobbyist Bill Piper told the Los Angeles Times “the war on medical marijuana is over” after President Obama signed the $1.1 trillion “Cromnibus” bill  with a small provision tucked away inside that prohibited the federal government from interfering with states that legalized it. (see Dec 18 or see CCC for expanded chronology)

December 16 Peace Love Art Activism

Women’s Health

December 16, 2021:  the federal government permanently lifted a major restriction on access to abortion pills. It allowed patients to receive the medication by mail instead of requiring them to obtain the pills in person from specially certified health providers.

The Food and Drug Administration’s action meant that medication abortion, an increasingly common method authorized in the United States for pregnancies up to 10 weeks’ gestation, would become more available to women who found it difficult to travel to an abortion provider or prefer to terminate a pregnancy in their homes. It allowed patients to have a telemedicine appointment with a provider who could prescribe abortion pills and send them to the patient by mail.  [NYT article] (next WH, see March 25, 2022)

December 16 Peace Love Art Activism