Category Archives: Peace Love Art and Activism

Lynching, Music et al, Peace Love Art and Activism, Today in history

October 18 Peace Love Art Activism

October 18, 2015 Woodstock Whisperer Leave a comment

October 18 Peace Love Art Activism

BLACK HISTORY

Hard Scrabble Riot

October 18, 1824: a white mob attacked black homes in Hard Scrabble (a section of Providence, RI) after a black man refused to get off the sidewalk when approached by some whites. Although the mob claimed to be targeting places of ill-repute, it destroyed buildings indiscriminately. Hundreds of whites destroyed approximately 20 black homes. Four people were tried for rioting, but only one was found guilty.

Hard Scrabble was a predominantly black neighborhood in northwestern Providence in the early 19th century. Away from the town center, its inexpensive rents attracted working class free blacks, poor people of all races and marginalized businesses such as saloons and houses of prostitution. Tensions developed between the residents of Hard Scrabble and other residents of Providence. [Smithsonian article] (see also Snowtown Riot, September 21 -24, 1831)

Nat Turner

In 1825: Nat Turner had a second vision (see Turner In 1821). He saw lights in the sky and prayed to find out what they meant. Then “… while laboring in the field, I discovered drops of blood on the corn, as though it were dew from heaven, and I communicated it to many, both white and black, in the neighborhood; and then I found on the leaves in the woods hieroglyphic characters and numbers, with the forms of men in different attitudes, portrayed in blood, and representing the figures I had seen before in the heavens.” (next BH, March 16, 1827; see NT for expanded chronology)

Jack Johnson

October 18, 1912: boxer Jack Johnson was arrested on the grounds that his relationship with Lucille Cameron violated the Mann Act (see June 25, 1910 ) against “transporting women across state lines for immoral purposes” due to her being an alleged prostitute. Her mother also swore formally that her daughter was insane

Cameron, soon to become his second wife, refused to cooperate and the case fell apart.

Less than a month later, Johnson was arrested again on similar charges. This time, the woman, another alleged prostitute named Belle Schreiber, with whom he had been involved in 1909 and 1910, testified against him. In the courtroom of Kenesaw Mountain Landis, the future Commissioner of Baseball who perpetuated the baseball color line until his death, Johnson was convicted by an all-white jury in June 1913, despite the fact that the incidents used to convict him took place before passage of the Mann Act.

He was sentenced to a year and a day in prison. (BH, see In December; Johnson, see June 25, 1913)

George Armwood lynched

October 18, 1933: a mob of at least 2000 white residents of Princess Anne, Maryland beat, hanged, dragged, and burned George Armwood to death. Armwood, reportedly known to be “feeble-minded,” had been accused of assaulting an 80-year-old woman who was also the mother of a local white policeman. Shortly after being arrested, Armwood was dragged out of the jail and an 18-year-old boy immediately cut off his ear with a butcher knife. The growing mob then beat George Armwood nearly to death and dragged him to a tree, where he was hanged. Afterward, the mob cut down his corpse, dragged it through the streets, hanged it again, and then staged a public burning. The New Journal and Guide reported that “[m]en, women and children, participated in the savage orgy.”

Armwood’s lynching sparked a national outcry and calls for prosecution of the lynchers, yet investigations at the county, state, and federal levels faced obstacles and delays. Inquiries following the lynching were marked by residents’ refusal to identify participants as well as mockery and intimidation of black witnesses. The American Civil Liberties Union, frustrated with the silence, began offering a $1000 reward to people willing to name leaders of the mob.

Even when finally presented with identifying evidence, the county prosecutor refused to act. When the Maryland Attorney General ordered troops to arrest eight named participants, white residents who supported the accused lynchers waged riots of protest. Four white men were ultimately tried for the lynching of George Armwood, and acquitted by all-white juries. [EJI article] (next BH, see January 28, 1934; next Lynching, see January 30, 1934; see AL3 for expanded chronology of early 20th century lynching)

Irene Morgan

On July 16, 1944, Irene Morgan (age 27), recovering from a miscarriage and traveling by bus from Virginia to Baltimore for a doctor’s appointment refused to relinquish her seat [as well as another Black woman] to a white couple.

The driver, angered by Morgan’s refusal, drove the bus to the Middlesex County town of Saluda and stopped outside the jail. A sheriff’s deputy came aboard and told Morgan that he had a warrant for her arrest. She continued to refuse and had to be physically subdued. She was jailed for resisting arrest and violating Virginia’s segregation law.

On this date [October 18, 1944} Morgan was convicted. On January 27, 1001, President Bill Clinton awarded her the Presidential Citizens Medal. (BH, see June 3, 1946)

George Whitmore, Jr.

October 18, 1965: prosecutors disclosed that friends of Richard Robles cooperated in the surreptitious recording of conversations in which he admitted the double murder. When confronted with the tapes after his arrest, Robles “freely and voluntarily confessed” in the presence of eight police officers, including Thomas J. Cavanagh Jr., the commander of the Manhattan detective squad. (next BH, see Oct 19; see Whitmore for expanded story)

Tommie Smith and John Carlos

October 18, 1968: the U.S. Olympic Committee suspended Tommie Smith and John Carlos, for giving a “black power” salute as a protest during a victory ceremony in Mexico City. (see “In November“)

October 18 Peace Love Art Activism

Technological Milestones

Long distance telephone

October 18, 1892: the first long distance telephone line between Chicago and New York was opened. (see June 21, 1893)

Transistor radio

October 18, 1954: Industrial Development Engineering Associates announced the first practical transistor radio, the Regency TR-1. (see Nov 1)

October 18 Peace Love Art Activism

US Labor History

Feminism

October 18, 1911: New York City agreed to pay women school teachers a rate equal to that of men. (Labor, see Dec 5; Feminism, see January 11 > March 1912)

Colin Kaepernick

October 18, 2017: at the next day of the NFL meetings, NFL Houston Texan owner Robert McNair, in response to some players supporting Colin Kaepernick’s kneeling in 2016 with their own associated protests, said, ” “We can’t have the inmates running the prison,”

NFL executive Troy Vincent, a former player, later stood up and said he was offended by McNair’s characterization of the players as “inmates.” Vincent said that in all his years of playing in the NFL — during which, he said, he had been called every name in the book, including the N-word — he never felt like an “inmate.” (Labor , see Oct 27; Free Speech & CK, see Oct 29)

October 18 Peace Love Art Activism

October 18 Music et al

Quarry Men

October 18, 1957: The Quarry Men performed at the New Clubmoor Hall (Conservative Club), Norris Green, Liverpool. This was Paul McCartney’s first appearance with the group. The line-up for The Quarry Men was John Lennon, Paul McCartney, Eric Griffiths, Colin Hanton, and Len Garry. Paul McCartney, suffering from a case of the stage jitters, flubs his guitar solo on the song “Guitar Boogie”. Upset with his playing, Paul tries to make amends by showing John a song he had written, “I Lost My Little Girl”. John then shows Paul some songs that he has composed. The two start writing songs together from that moment, which marks the birth of the Lennon-McCartney songwriting partnership. Pete Shotton, out of the group by this time, had no real musical ability and knew it; he was almost relieved when, during a drunken argument, John Lennon had smashed Pete’s washboard over Pete’s head. That was the end of Pete Shotton’s career as a Quarry Man. (see January 24, 1958)

WNEW-FM

October 18, 1967: press release from WNEW-FM announcing that Rosko will be joining station on October 31. (see Oct 29)

Rolling Stone magazine

October 18, 1967: the first issue of Rolling Stone magazine released with a cover dated Nov 9 and featuring a photograph of John Lennon in the film How I Won the War. (see Dec 22)

John & Yoko arrested

October 18, 1968: the Drug Squad arrested John Lennon and Yoko Ono. Lennon and Ono were temporarily living at Ringo Starr’s flat at 34 Montagu Square, London. Following a tip-off from a newspaper journalist friend, they had thoroughly cleaned the flat to make sure it was free of drugs.

Lennon related: All of a sudden, there was this knock on the door and a woman’s voice outside, and I look around and there is a policeman standing in the window, waiting to be let it. We’d been in bed and our lower regions were uncovered. Yoko ran into the bathroom to get dressed with her head poking out, so they wouldn’t think she was hiding anything. Then I said, ‘Ring the lawyer, quick,’ but she went and rang Apple. I will never know why…. That thing was set up. The Daily Express was there before the cops came. In fact, Don Short had told us, ‘They’re coming to get you,’ three weeks before. So, believe me, I’d cleaned the house out, because Jimi Hendrix had lived there before in the apartment, and I’m not stupid. I went through the whole damn house. (see Nov 1)

“I Can’t Get Next To You”

October 18 – 31, 1969: “I Can’t Get Next To You” by The Temptations #1 on the Billboard Hot 100.

October 18 Peace Love Art Activism

The Cold War

Cuban Missile Crisis

October 18, 1962: President Kennedy met with Soviet Minister of Foreign Affairs, Andrei Gromyko, who claimed the weapons were for defensive purposes only. Not wanting to expose what he already knew, and wanting to avoid panicking the American public, Kennedy did not reveal that he was already aware of the missile build-up. (see Cuban missile crisis)

October 18 Peace Love Art Activism

Vietnam & DRAFT CARD BURNING

David Miller

October 18, 1965: the FBI arrested David Miller for burning draft card on October 15. (Vietnam, see Oct 30; Draft Card, see Nov 6)

Peace Negotiations

October 18, 1972: Henry Kissinger began discussions with President Thieu. In Paris, a spokesman for the North Vietnamese delegation, Nguyen Thanh Le, denounced the United States position as “erroneous and intransigent.” (see Oct 20)

October 18 Peace Love Art Activism

Environmental Issues

October 18, 1972: Congress passed the Clean Water Act, overriding President Richard M. Nixon’s veto. (see December 28, 1973) (NYT Clean Water Act article)

October 18 Peace Love Art Activism

CLINTON IMPEACHMENT

October 18, 1999: Robert Raysworn in as the successor to Independent Counsel Ken Starr, inheriting a highly controversial investigation and the duty to write the special prosecutor’s final report. (see Clinton for expanded story)

October 18 Peace Love Art Activism

LGBTQ

October 18, 2012: the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Manhattan became the second in the nation to strike down the Defense of Marriage Act as unconstitutional. The decision upheld a lower court judge who ruled that the 1996 law that defines marriage as involving a man and a woman was unconstitutional. The three-judge panel said the law violates equal protection. A federal appeals court in Boston earlier in the year also found it unconstitutional. (NYT article) (next LGBTQ+ see Oct 23 or see December 13, 2022 re DoMA)

New Jersey

October 18, 2013: NJ state Supreme Court ruled that the state must begin granting same-sex marriage licenses on October 21 (Monday) (see Oct 21) (NYT article)

October 18 Peace Love Art Activism

Newsweek

October 18, 2012, Newsweek magazine, in print publication since February 17, 1933, announced that would end print publication at the end of the year. (NYT article)

October 18 Peace Love Art Activism

Sexual Abuse of Children

Boy Scouts of America

October 18, 2012: thousands of pages of internal documents, police files and newspaper clippings were released about how the Boy Scouts of America had policed the ranks of its scoutmasters and other volunteers to guard against sexual predators — and how they had often failed. The files were put together over a 20-year period in states across the nation on 1,247 men who were accused of abuse between 1965 and 1985, often with multiple victims. The release of the documents creates, for the first time, a public database on specific abuse accusations. (Sexual abuse, see Dec 21; BSA, see January 28, 2013) (NYT article)

Pennsylvania investigation

October 18, 2018: the US Justice Department opened an investigation into Roman Catholic dioceses in Pennsylvania accused of covering up sex abuse for decades.

It may have been the first statewide investigation by the federal government of the church’s sex abuse problems. And it came two months after the Pennsylvania attorney general’s office released a grand jury report charging that bishops and other church leaders had covered up the abuse of more than 1,000 people over a period of more than 70 years. (see Nov 8)

October 18 Peace Love Art Activism

SEPARATION OF CHURCH AND STATE

October 18, 2017: the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in favor of secularists in a challenge of an enormous cross in the middle of a public roadway in Maryland.

The Bladensburg cross was a massive Latin cross displayed on government property in the center of one of the busiest intersections in Prince George’s County, Md. The religious structure, a claimed war memorial, had been maintained with thousands of dollars in government funds.

The Court of Appeals concluded that the monumental cross — a universal hallmark symbol of Christianity — entangled the government with religion.

“One simply cannot ignore the fact that for thousands of years, the Latin cross has represented Christianity,” wrote the court in its opinion. “Even in the memorial context, a Latin cross serves not simply as a generic symbol of death, but rather a Christian symbol of the death of Jesus Christ.” (see April 15)

October 18 Peace Love Art Activism

Feminism & Space

October 18, 2019: NASA astronauts Jessica Meir and Christina Koch conducted the first all-female spacewalk outside of the International Space Station. (next Feminism, see January 15, 2020 ; next Space, see February 6, 2020)

October 18 Peace Love Art Activism

Immigration History

October 19. 2019: Health and Human Services official Cmdr. Jonathan White told U.S. District Judge Dana Sabraw he believed a “final accounting” would show at least 1,250 additional children had been separated from their parents before Sabraw issued an injunction stopping the family separation practice.

The additional separations would likely be confirmed before an October. 25 deadline set on April 25 by Sabraw in the expanded family separation class action he was presiding over in the Southern District of California.

The government had 6 months to account for all additional families it separated after a January 2019 report by the Office of Inspector General raised the alarm that thousands more children may have been separated than previously thought.

The American Civil Liberties Union also alerted the court during the summer about hundreds more families that had been separated despite Sabraw’s order ceasing the practice. The government had separated those families due to parental criminal history for minor crimes including misdemeanors. (next IH, see Oct 24; next Judge Sabraw, see January 13, 2020)

October 18 Peace Love Art Activism

Music et al, Peace Love Art and Activism, Today in history

October 17 Peace Love Art Activism

October 17, 2015 Woodstock Whisperer Leave a comment

October 17 Peace Love Art Activism

BLACK HISTORY

TERRORISM

October 17, 1872: President Grant declared martial law and suspended the writ of habeajs corpus in nine South Carolina counties. Once he did so, federal forces were allowed to arrest and imprison KKK members and instigators of racial terrorism without bringing them before a judge or into court. Many affluent Klan members fled the jurisdiction to avoid arrest but by December 1871 approximately 600 Klansmen were in jail. More than 200 arrestees were indicted, 53 pleaded guilty, and five were convicted at trial. Klan terrorism in South Carolina decreased significantly after the arrests and trials but racial violence targeting black people continued throughout the South for decades. (see Nov 28)

Lunch counter desegregation

October 17, 1960: in response to the sit-ins that had began on February 1, several chain stores announced on this day that they would desegregate their lunch counters in North Carolina, Virginia, Tennessee and seven other southern states. This decision was arguably the greatest single victory for the sit-in movement, but many restaurants continued to segregate. (see Oct 19)

BLACK & SHOT

October 17, 2010: in Pleasantville, N.Y police officer, Aaron Hess shot and killed Danroy Henry, a college running back sitting next to his best friend Brandon Cox from Easton, Mass. Hess fired four rounds, his lawyer said, into the Nissan Altima with Cox and Henry inside, killing Henry, wounding Cox. (B & S, and Henry, see February 14, 2011)

October 17 Peace Love Art Activism

Vietnam

Formation

October 17, 1887: French Indochina was officially formed from Annam, Tonkin, Cochinchina (which together form modern Vietnam) and the Kingdom of Cambodia following the Sino-French war (1884–1885). Laos was added after the Franco-Siamese War in 1893. (see May 19, 1891)

Henry Kissinger peace talks

October 17, 1972: Kissinger, in Paris again, was said by Hanoi to have “reached agreement on almost all problems.” North Vietnam said only two unspecified points of disagreement remained. Mr Kissinger flies to Saigon. (see Oct 18)

October 17 Peace Love Art Activism

Cold War

Loyalty oath invalidated

October 17, 1952 : a loyalty oath for University of California employees was a major controversy for many years, beginning in 1949. The Board of Regents finally adopted a required oath on April 21, 1950. On August 25, UC fired 31 faculty for refusing to sign the oath. On this day, the California Supreme Court invalidated the law in Tolman v. Underhill. (The university oath was separate from, and in addition to, the Levering Act oath, which was required of all California public employees, signed into law by Governor Earl Warren on October 3, 1950.) (see Nov 1)

Che returned

October 17, 1997: Guevara’s remains, with those of six of his fellow combatants, were laid to rest with military honors in a specially built mausoleum in the Cuban city of Santa Clara, where he had commanded over the decisive military victory of the Cuban Revolution. (NYT article) (see April 10, 1998)

Fernald School

October 17, 1995: in a lawsuit over radiation experiments MIT researchers conducted at a home for mentally retarded children during the 1950s was filed. The lawsuit came only days after an advisory committee to President Clinton released findings about thousands of human radiation experiments conducted during the Cold War, including tests done at the Fernald School. The committee concluded that the experiments were wrong and warranted apologies to the test subjects but that only a few should receive monetary compensation. [CBS story] (ADA, see February 8, 1996; CW, see May 12, 2002)

October 17 Peace Love Art Activism

see October 17 Music et al for more

“Save the Last Dance for Me”

October 17 – 23, 1960: written by Doc Pomus and Mort Shuman, “Save the Last Dance for Me” by the Drifters #1 Billboard Hot 100. The song was written on the day of Pomus’ wedding while the wheelchair-bound groom, who had polio as a child, watched from his wheelchair as his bride danced with their guests.

Beatles first Christmas disc

October 17, 1963: among other things, the Beatles recorded a free flexi-disc to be given away to members of the Official Beatles Fan Club. This was the first of seven such recordings made between 1963 and 1969, and was posted to members on 9 December. (see Oct 21)

“Do Wah Diddy Diddy”

October 17 – 30, 1964: “Do Wah Diddy Diddy” by Manfred Mann #1 on the Billboard Hot 100.

Cultural Milestone

October 17, 1967: the play, Hair premiered off-Broadway at the Public Theatre and ran for a limited engagement of six weeks. Although the production had a “tepid critical reception”, it was popular with audiences. (CM, see Oct 18; Hair, see Dec 22)

Brian Epstein

October 17, 1967: John, Paul, George, and Ringo attended a memorial service for Brian Epstein at the New London Synagogue, Abbey Road. (see Nov 27)

October 17 Peace Love Art Activism

LGBTQ

Homosexual League of New York

October 17, 1963: Randolph Wicker, director of the Homosexual League of New York, called for public acceptance of homosexuals as a legitimate minority group. (NYT article) (see Dec 16)

Westboro Baptist Church

October 17, 1998: Matthew Shepard buried. Fred Phelps, leader of the Westboro Baptist Church in Topeka, Kansas, took his church’s “God Hates Fags” message to the funeral of Matthew Shepard, held in Casper, Wyoming. Two of his picket signs read: “No Tears for Queers” and “Fag Matt in Hell. (NYT article) (next LGBTQ, see Nov 3; next Westboro, see January 15, 2006; see Shepard for expanded story)

October 17 Peace Love Art Activism

Native Americans

October 17, 1988: The Indian Gaming Regulatory Act established the jurisdictional framework that governs Indian gaming. There was no federal gaming structure before this act. The stated purposes of the act include providing a legislative basis for the operation/regulation of Indian gaming, protecting gaming as a means of generating revenue for the tribes, encouraging economic development of these tribes, and protecting the enterprises from negative influences (such as organized crime). [PDF link] (see January 30, 1989)

October 17 Peace Love Art Activism

Immigration History

Luis Ramirez

October 17, 2013: a unanimous three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit affirmed the federal hate-crime convictions of Derrick Donchak and Brandon Piekarsky in the July 12, 2008 beating death of immigrant Luis Ramirez.

The Third Circuit panel in Philadelphia affirmed both convictions and sentences for Donchak and Piekarsky for violating the civil rights of Ramirez, 25, after a booze-fueled confrontation with a group of white high-school football players in the former mining town of Shenandoah.

Donchak, then 20, and Piekarsky, then 18, were found guilty of the federal charges by a federal jury sitting in Scranton on October 14, 2010. Each was sentenced to nine years in prison followed by three years of supervised release. (see Ramirez for expanded story)

Travel Ban, ruling 1

October 17, 2017: the day before it was to take effect, judge, Derrick K. Watson of Federal District Court in Honolulu issued a nationwide order blocking President Trump’s third attempt at a travel ban. It would have indefinitely stopped almost all travel to the United States from seven countries, including most of the Muslim-majority nations included in his original travel ban.

The ruling was yet another legal setback for one of Trump’s earliest and most controversial efforts. Watson had previously blocked Mr. Trump’s second travel ban from taking effect in March. A federal judge in Seattle had blocked the White House’s first executive order sharply limiting travel from seven predominantly Muslim countries.

This third executive order went further than the original, imposing permanent restrictions on travel instead of the original 90-day suspension. Under the newest version, most citizens of Iran, Libya, Syria, Yemen, Somalia, Chad and North Korea were to be excluded from entering the United States, while citizens of Iraq and some groups of people in Venezuela who attempted to visit the United States would have faced extra barriers to entry. (see Oct 17)

Travel Ban, ruling 2

October 17, 2017: U.S. District Judge Theodore D. Chuang of Greenbelt, MD imposed a nationwide order against enforcement, in a ruling that was broader than one issued earlier in the day by judge Derrick K. Watson of Federal District Court in Honolulu.

In a 91-page ruling, Chuang, ruled that the third Trump executive order was likely to be struck down as a discriminatory ban on Muslims, a violation of the Constitution. In Honolulu, District Judge Derrick K. Watson did not rule on the constitutional question.

Both judges did find that the challengers to the third order were likely to win their claim that the third version exceeded presidential power under federal immigration laws.

The two rulings combined provided opponents of the ban with multiple legal attacks as the cases make their way through the appeals process. (IH, see Oct 24; Trump, see Nov 13)

October 17 Peace Love Art Activism

FREE SPEECH, US Labor History & Colin Kaepernick

Kneeling 2017

October 17, 2017: National Football League officials announced that they would not seek commitments from its players to stop kneeling during pregame renditions of the U.S. national anthem.

“We spent today talking about the issues that our players have been trying to bring attention to. About issues in our communities to make our communities better,” NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell told reporters. [Washington Post article] (FS & CK, see Oct 18; Labor, see Oct 27)

Kneeling 2018

October 17, 2018: NFL owners announced that their national anthem conduct policy was no longer in effect.

Team owners and commissioner Roger Goodell signaled that message at the exit of the NFL’s annual fall meetings in New York when all the power brokers passed on revisiting punishment for forms of social protest by players. The league’s anthem conduct policy had been suspended by team owners last July and hadn’t been brought back to the table since, despite a handful of players continuing to protest social and racial inequalities during the pregame ceremony.

After the NFL’s broadcast partners stopped showing the anthem on television and political rhetoric around the issue died down, the league passed on revisiting forms of punishment in what was billed as a meeting where any changes (if at all) could be made. [Yahoo news article] (FS, see Nov 1; CK, see Oct 25)

US Labor History

October 17, 2019: teachers in Chicago went on strike, forcing the cancellation of classes for more than 300,000 public school students in the nation’s third-largest district. [NYT article] (next LH, see Oct 25; strike, see Oct 31)

October 17 Peace Love Art Activism

TERRORISM

October 17, 2017: Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab of Nigeria who was serving multiple life sentences for trying to blow up an airliner with a bomb hidden in his underwear sued the Justice Department, arguing that prison officials were violating his rights by holding him in solitary confinement, restricting his communication with relatives and force-feeding him when he goes on a hunger strike to protest. [DFP article] (see Oct 31)

October 17 Peace Love Art Activism

Cannabis

October 17, 2018: Canada became the first major world economy to legalize recreational marijuana use, beginning a national experiment that (according to a NYT article) “…will alter the country’s social, cultural and economic fabric, and present the nation with its biggest public policy challenge in decades.

Newfoundlanders became the first Canadians to be able to smoke pot legally, when retailers there opened in the country’s easternmost province at midnight.” (see Oct 31)

October 17 Peace Love Art Activism

Trump Impeachment Inquiry

Sondland testimony

October 17, 2019: US Ambassador to the European Union Gordon Sondland was directed by to work with Rudy Giuliani on Ukraine, he told Congress and was left with a choice: Abandon efforts to bolster a key strategic alliance or work to satisfy the demands of the President’s personal lawyer.

Sondland said he wasn’t aware until “much later” that Giuliani’s agenda might have included an effort to “prompt the Ukrainians” to investigate former Vice President Joe Biden and his son Hunter and to involve the Ukrainians in the President’s campaign.

The revealing testimony of the President’s top diplomat showcased how Trump put on hold an effort to strengthen relations with the country until top US officials were in contact with Giuliani, who was pursuing an investigation into the Bidens, a potential political rival in Trump’s reelection campaign. And Sondland said he was “disappointed” that Trump wouldn’t commit to a meeting sought by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky until they spoke with Giuliani. [CNN article]

Mick Mulvaney quid pro quo

October 17, 2019: Mick Mulvaney, the acting White House chief of staff said that the White House withheld nearly $400 million in military aid to Ukraine to further President Trump’s political interests.

Mulvaney told journalists that the aid was withheld in part until Ukraine investigated an unsubstantiated theory that Ukraine, not Russia, was responsible for hacking Democratic Party emails in 2016 — a theory that would show that Trump was elected without Russian help.

Mulvaney took back the statement later in the day. [NYT article] (see TII for expanded chronology)

October 17 Peace Love Art Activism

Music et al, Peace Love Art and Activism, Today in history

October 16 Peace Love Art Activism

October 16, 2015 Woodstock Whisperer Leave a comment

October 16 Peace Love Art Activism

Feminism

DEATH PENALTY

October 1692: Governor William Phipps of Massachusetts ordered the Court of Oyer and Terminer dissolved and replaced with the Superior Court of Judicature, which forbade the type of sensational testimony allowed in the earlier trials. Executions ceased, and the Superior Court eventually released all those awaiting trial and pardoned those sentenced to death. The Salem witch trials, which resulted in the executions of 19 innocent women and men, had effectively ended. (DP, see April 30, 1790)

“Of Husband and Wife”

1776 – 1830: state laws rather than federal law governed women’s rights in the early Republic and most of those laws were based on Sir William Blackstone’s 1769 “Of Husband and Wife” in his Commentaries on the Laws of England. In “Of Husband and Wife” he explained the legal concept of Coverture, whereby, upon marriage, a woman’s legal rights were subsumed by those of her husband. He explained:

By marriage, the husband and wife are one person in law: that is, the very being or legal existence of the woman is suspended during the marriage, or at least is incorporated and consolidated into that of the husband: under whose wing, protection, and cover, she performs every thing; and is therefore called in our law-French a feme-covert; is said to be covert-baron, or under the protection and influence of her husband, her baron, or lord; and her condition during her marriage is called her coverture. Upon this principle, of a union of person in husband and wife, depend almost all the legal rights, duties, and disabilities, that either of them acquire by the marriage. I speak not at present of the rights of property, but of such as are merely personal. For this reason, a man cannot grant any thing to his wife, or enter into covenant with her: for the grant would be to suppose her separate existence; and to covenant with her, would be only to covenant with himself: and therefore it is also generally true, that all compacts made between husband and wife, when single, are voided by the intermarriage. (see May 20, 1782)

Women’s Health

October 16, 1916: birth control pioneer Margaret Sanger opened the first birth control clinic in the U.S. on this day in the Brownsville neighborhood of Brooklyn, New York. She opened it with her sister, Ethel Byrne, who was a registered nurse. More than 100 women and about 20 men were lined up outside the two-room office on Amboy Street when Sanger opened the door. The clinic served 448 people that first day. (see Oct 26)

October 16 Peace Love Art Activism

BLACK HISTORY

Slave Revolts

October 16 – 17, 1859: with a group of slaves and white abolitionists, John Brown led an capture a federal armory and arsenal in Harper’s Ferry,VA . A local militia under the leadership of Robert E Lee put down the insurrection. The raid hastened the advent of the Civil War, which started two years later. [Smithsonian article] (see Oct 25 – Nov 2)

October 16 Peace Love Art Activism — President Roosevelt at Tuskegee Institute with Booker T Washington

Booker T. Washington

October 16, 1901: President Theodore Roosevelt invited Booker T. Washington, founder of the Tuskegee Institute and the most prominent African American of his time, to a meeting in the White House. When the meeting went long, the President asked Washington to stay for dinner, the first African American to do so. The President’s act drew harsh criticism from some Southerners. [NPR article] (next BH, see Oct 31)

MARTIN LUTHER KING

October 16, 1962: Martin Luther King meets with President John F. Kennedy to discuss the issues King was involved with. (BH, see Nov 18; MLK see Nov 27)

Olympic Project for Human Rights

October 16, 1968: African American sprinters Tommie Smith and John Carlos placed first and third in the 200-meter dash at the Olympic Games in Mexico City, Mexico. As the national anthem played during the medal ceremony, rather than hold their hands over their hearts and face the American flag, the two men bowed their heads and raised black gloved fists in a silent protest against racial discrimination in the United States. Both men wore black socks with no shoes and Smith also wore a black scarf around his neck. At a press conference following the demonstration, Smith explained he had raised his right fist to represent black power in America, while Carlos had raised his left fist to represent black unity. Smith said the black scarf represented black pride and the black socks without shoes were intended to signify black poverty in America.

The demonstration was supported by Australian silver medalist Peter Norman, who wore a patch representing the Olympic Project for Human Rights, an organization established in 1967 that had urged athletes to boycott the Olympics to protest racial segregation in the United States, South Africa, and in sports generally. Two days after their gesture of protest, Smith and Carlos were expelled from the Olympic Village for allegedly violating the principles of the Olympic spirit.

Despite their medal-winning performances, the two athletes faced intense criticism and received death threats upon returning home. At the time, their protest was largely perceived as a show of disrespect directed toward the American flag and national anthem, though supporters praised their bravery. Gradually, the symbolic importance of their protest came to be more widely recognized. Today, the image of the two men with fists and heads bowed is one of the most enduring symbols of the American civil rights struggle. [PBS article] (next BH, see Oct 18; Smith and Carlos, see November 1, 2019)

SOUTH AFRICA/APARTHEID

October 16, 1984: South African activist Bishop Desmond Tutu awarded Nobel Peace Prize. [SA History article] (see February 10, 1985)

The Million Man March

October 16, 1995: The Million Man March was held in Washington, D.C. The event was conceived by Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan. [Black Past article] (see January 8, 1996)

Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial

October 16, 2011: the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial was formally dedicated in Washington, D.C. [NYT article] (see February 24, 2012)

Ahmaud Arbery

October 16, 2020: the three white men charged with the homicide of a Ahmaud Arbery pleaded not guilty in Chatham County Superior Court docket. Gregory McMichael, 64, and his son Travis, 34, were charged with homicide and aggravated assault. William “Roddie” Bryan Jr., 50, was charged with homicide and try and illegally detain and confine. (next B & S, see Dec 29; see Arbery for expanded story)

October 16 Peace Love Art Activism

Immigration History

1918 Immigration Act

October 16, 1918: the 1918 Immigration Act, passed in the middle of anti-radical hysteria during World War I, amended the restrictive 1903 Immigration Act (passed on March 3, 1903) to expand the definition of, and restrictions on, anarchists. The new law barred the entry into the U.S., and allowed the deportation of, anarchists, who were defined as anyone teaching opposition to organized government, teaching the violent overthrow of government, or were members of organizations that advocated those ideas. It also repealed the provision in the 1903 law that had exempted from deportation immigrants who had lived in the U.S. for five years or longer.

In the years ahead, additional restrictive immigration laws were passed. The 1924 Immigration Act, passed on May 26, 1924, imposed a national origins quota system that discriminated against people from Southern and Eastern Europe seeking to come to the U.S. The 1952 McCarran-Walter Act, effective June 27, 1952, was a Cold War measure that excluded alleged “subversives” from the U.S. and allowed the government to deport alleged “subversive” immigrants already in the U.S. The 1965 Immigration Act, which President Lyndon Johnson signed into law on October 3, 1965, abolished the 1924 national origins quota system in favor of a non-discriminatory policy. (Anarchism, see Nov 11; Immigration, see May 19, 1921)

Immigrant Children Separation Settlement

October 16, 2023: lawyers representing thousands of families separated at the southern border during a Trump administration crackdown reached a settlement with the federal government that enabled the migrants to remain in the United States and apply for asylum, putting them on the path to permanent legal residency.

All told, several thousand foreign-born children had been taken from their parents. Later, it emerged that hundreds of U.S.-born children crossing the border with migrant parents were also subjected to the policy. [NYT article] (next IH, see Dec 8)

October 16 Peace Love Art Activism

The Cold War & Cuban Missile Crisis

October 16, 1962: the Defense Inelligence Agency laid out the details of the Soviet buildup. [Nat’l Archives article (see CMC for expanded chronology)

October 16 Peace Love Art Activism

Nuclear/Chemical News

October 16, 1964: China tested an atomic weapon for the first time thus becoming fifth nation with nuclear weapon capability joining the United States, the Soviet Union, Great Britain, and France. (NYT article) (see February 18, 1965)

October 16 Peace Love Art Activism

Vietnam

October 16, 1965: anti-war rallies occurred in 40 American cities and in international cities including London and Rome. (NYT article) (see Oct 30)

October 16 Music et al

Rock Venues #1

October 16, 1965: from Professor Poster Facebook page: … back in 1965…this rare “Poster From The Past” handbill advertised the very FIRST event promoted by the Family Dog at The Longshoreman’s Hall in San Francisco. Ellen Harmon, one of the four original partners in the Family Dog collective, was an avid reader of Marvel comic books and she helped dedicate the first dance to “Dr. Strange,” Master of the Mystic Arts. The comic book theme continued through the next two dances, known as “A Tribute to Sparkle Plenty” and “A Tribute to Ming the Merciless,” both 1940s comic book characters. Alton Kelley, also an original Family Dog founder/partner, created the artwork for all three handbills and went on to do numerous others which are documented in the MANY poster that we love so much.

Jefferson Airplane teamed up with first-time promoters, the Family Dog (Chet Helms, who would join later). They decided that the Longshoreman’s Hall was a venue large enough to be filled with dancing bodies. Along with the Charlatans, the Marbles, and Great Society, Jefferson Airplane played the very first Family Dog concert. In the crowd, people dressed up in costumes happily danced along to the music. From this initial Family Dog concert, the San Francisco music scene would change forever. This handbill, measuring 8 1/2″ x 11″ is an extremely rare flyer printed on thin yellow/white paper. Because it comes from the earliest Family Dog show, it has become extremely sought after and VERY expensive!. This is a VERY SPECIAL and historic handbill that marks the very Beginning of what became a real movement here. (see Nov 6)

Paul McCartney/The Family Way

October 16, 1966: United Artists announced that the film was to be re-titled All In Good Time, and that Lennon and McCartney would be writing the soundtrack together. It was eventually released as The Family Way and Lennon had no involvement in the music. (see Nov 7)

Jimi Hendrix

October 16, 1968: release of the Jimi Hendrix Experience’s ‘Electric Ladyland‘ album. It was also made available as two albums with changed artwork after complaints about the naked women who were pictured on the inner sleeve. The female models were paid for the photo shoot and double if they posed completely naked. Hendrix was displeased with both. He had wanted one of the band and himself in NYC’s Central Park on an Alice in Wonderland statue. (see Nov 16 – 29)

Rock Venues #2

October 16, 2006: CBGB, the legendary New York punk club credited with discovering Patti Smith and Ramones, closed after a final gig by Smith herself. Blondie and Talking Heads also found fame after performing at the club, which helped launch US punk music. The venue first opened in December 1973, its full name CBGB OMFUG standing for “country, bluegrass, blues and other music for uplifting gormandizers”.

October 16 Peace Love Art Activism

Vietnam

Oakland, California

October 16, 1967: Oakland CA police arrested thirty-nine people, including singer-activist Joan Baez, for blocking the entrance of that city’s military induction center. (see Oct 20)

October 16 Peace Love Art Activism

Gulf Six

October 16, 1973: the Gulf Six (Iran, Iraq, Abu Dhabi, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and Qatar) unilaterally raise the posted price of Saudi Light marker crude 17 percent from $3.12 to $3.65 per barrel and announce production cuts. (NYT article)

October 16 Peace Love Art Activism

TERRORISM

October 16, 1987: an Iranian Silkworm missile launched from the Iranian occupied Al-Faw Peninsula strikes the ship Sea Isle City. The missile struck the wheel house and crew quarters of the ship which was not carrying oil at the. A total of 18 crew members were wounded. (see Oct 19)

October 16 Peace Love Art Activism

Irish Troubles

October 16, 1998: David Trimble and John Hume were named recipients of the Nobel Peace Prize for brokering the Northern Ireland peace accord. (see Troubles for expanded story)

October 16 Peace Love Art Activism

IRAQ II

October 16, 2002: President George W. Bush signed a congressional resolution authorizing war against Iraq. [Bush’s statement at signing] (see Nov 27)

October 16 Peace Love Art Activism

FREE SPEECH, US Labor History & Colin Kaepernick

October 16, 2017: President Trump reiterated that he wanted the National Football League to suspend players if they knelt during the pregame renditions of “The Star-Spangled Banner,” saying the players were disrespecting the country. [Daily Mail article] (FS, Labor, & CK, see Oct 17)

October 16 Peace Love Art Activism

The Cold War

October 16, 2018: North and South Korea and the U.S.-led United Nations Command met to discuss efforts to disarm a military zone the two countries control within their shared border under their peace agreement..

South Korea’s Defense Ministry said the military officials, including U.S. Army Col. Burke Hamilton, the secretary of the UN Command’s military armistice committee, reviewed the ongoing demining operations at the Joint Security Area and further plans to demilitarize the zone. [CTV News article] (see June 5, 2019)

October 16 Peace Love Art Activism

US Labor History

October 16, 2019: the UAW said that General Motors and union leaders reached a tentative deal on a new labor contract that would end the United Auto Workers’ month-long strike against the automaker.

Details of the proposed four-year deal were not disclosed. However, the union’s members with GM are expected to receive raises of 3% to 4% or lump-sum bonuses each year as part of the accord. The deal also will include the addition or retention of 9,000 hourly U.S. jobs and a “clear path” for temporary workers with three or more years to become full-time employees, according to two people briefed on the pact. [CNBC article] (next LH, see Oct 17; GM, see Oct 25)