September 26 Peace Love Art Activism

Technological Milestone

September 26, 1908: the first production Ford Model T left the Piquette Plant in Detroit, Mich. It was the first car ever manufactured on an assembly line, with interchangeable parts. The auto industry was to become a major U.S. employer, accounting for as many as one of every eight to 10 jobs in the country (see December 19, 1910)

September 26 Peace Love Art Activism

Mother Earth magazine

September 26, 1917: the U.S. Post Office directed Mother Earth, the magazine founded and edited by Emma Goldman, the famous anarchist and opponent of U.S. involvement in World War I, to show cause on this day why it should not be barred from the mails because of its opposition to the war.

Goldman had already been arrested for opposing the draft, in violation of the Espionage Act, passed on June 15, 1917. The Post Office subsequently denied Mother Earth 2nd Class mailing privilege (a device that was widely used during World War I, and effectively denied use of the mails for publications), and Mother Earth suspended publication.

Goldman would be deported from the U.S. to the Soviet Union on the so-called “Red Ark” on December 21, 1919, along with 249 other alleged alien radicals. (see Goldman for expanded story)

September 26 Peace Love Art Activism

BLACK HISTORY

School Desegregation

September 26, 1927: Gary, Indiana School Superintendent Dr. William A Wirt faced a dilemma in the 1910 – 20′s as the city’s black population greatly increased. The East Pulaski and Virginia Street School served the black population, but were segregated and in deplorable condition. The spillover caused nominal numbers of black students to receive education in predominately white schools throughout the city, but they were limited in which facilities they could use.

In the 1926 – 27 school year six black students had attended classes at Emerson High School. To help ameliorate the student overpopulation at Virginia Street School the district transferred 18 black students to Emerson in 1927.

White students outraged at the presence of more black students in their  took to the streets. On Monday, September 26 some 600 students walked out of class. Those who remained inside were heckled incessantly until they joined the throngs of protesters. As the demonstration gained momentum signs saying, “WE WON’T GO BACK UNTIL EMERSON IS WHITE. . . . NO NIGGERS FOR EMERSON. . . . EMERSON IS A WHITE MAN’S SCHOOL”. (see Sept 27)  

James H Meredith

September 26, 1962: the chief US Marshal and Mississippi Lieut. Governor scuffled repeatedly as State officials prevented the registration of Meredith for the third time. (see September 27, 1962)

Sixteenth Street Baptist Church bombing

September 26, 1977: reported in the NYT: A 73-year-old former Ku Klux Klansman was indicted today on four counts of first-degree murder in the bombing of a Birmingham church 14 years ago that killed four young black girls attending Sunday school. Robert Chambliss of Birmingham was being held without bond in Jefferson County Jail in Birmingham. (see November 16)  

SOUTH AFRICA/APARTHEID

September 26, 1986: President Reagan vetoed the Comprehensive Anti-Apartheid Act. The law would have imposed sanctions against South Africa and stated five preconditions for lifting the sanctions that would essentially end the system of apartheid. [Politico article]  (see Sept 29)

Stop and Frisk Policy

September 26, 2012: Ligon v. City of New York — a lawsuit brought on behalf of people who say they were illegally stopped, ticketed or arrested for trespassing, some in their own buildings — showed that the Bronx district attorney’s office had serious concerns about such arrests as far back as three years ago.

These arrests were made in public housing developments or under the Clean Halls program, which allows police to patrol the hallways of private buildings to prevent crime. [ACLU article] (BH, see Oct 2; Stop and Frisk, see December 20)

Stephon Clark

September 26, 2019: the Sacramento Police Department cleared Officers Terrence Mercadal and Jared Robinet, who fatally shot Stephon Clark on March 18, 2018, saying they did not violate department policy or training.

“This incident has been thoroughly investigated by law enforcement agencies at the local, state and federal levels,” Chief Daniel Hahn said in a prepared statement. “Every one of these independent examinations has reached the same finding – the use of deadly force in this case was lawful. Our internal investigation concluded that there were no violations of department policy or training.” [Sacramento Bee article] (next B & S, see Oct 1; next SC, see Oct 8)

September 26 Peace Love Art Activism

Vietnam

Lt. Col. Peter Dewey

September 26, 1945: Lt. Col. Peter Dewey, a U.S. Army officer with the Office of Strategic Services (OSS) in Vietnam and trying to help arrange negotiations between the Viet Minh and France, was unintentionally shot and killed in Saigon by the Viet Minh.

Dewey was the head of a seven-man team sent to Vietnam to search for missing American pilots and to gather information on the situation in the country after the surrender of the Japanese. Dewey is not listed on the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C. because the United States Department of Defense has ruled that the war officially started, from a U.S. perspective, on November 1, 1955, after the U.S. took over following the French defeat at Dien Bien Phu. (Blog article) (Oct 4)

Scranton Commission

September 26, 1970:  the President’s Commission on Campus Unrest (the Scranton Commission) appealed to President Nixon to lead Americans back from the brink of what it described as a chasm in society so dangerous that it threatened the survival of the nation. The Commission concluded that the shootings at Kent State were unjustified. The report said: Even if the guardsmen faced danger, it was not a danger that called for lethal force. The 61 shots by 28 guardsmen certainly cannot be justified. Apparently, no order to fire was given, and there was inadequate fire control discipline on Blanket Hill. The Kent State tragedy must mark the last time that, as a matter of course, loaded rifles are issued to guardsmen confronting student demonstrators. [text of report] (see Sept 29)

Henry A. Kissinger

September 26 – 27, 1972: for the 18th time since August, 1969, Henry A. Kissinger, President Nixon’s adviser on national security, met privately in Paris with Le Duc Tho, a Hanoi Politburo member, and Xuan Thuy, North Vietnam’s chief delegate to the Paris peace talks. (see Oct 9)

September 26 Peace Love Art Activism

Politics

September 26, 1960: Richard Nixon and John F. Kennedy, participate in the first (of four) televised presidential election debates. [Mary Ferrell Foundation article]

         

September 26 Peace Love Art Activism

see September 26 Music et al for more

Connie Francis

September 26 – October 9, 1960: “My Heart Has a Mind of Its Own” by Connie Francis #1 Billboard Hot 100

Kingston Trio

September 26 – October 30, 1960: the Kingston Trio’s String Along is their 3^rd Billboard #1 album in 1960.

Bob Dylan

September 26, 1961: Dylan started as opening act for the Greenbriar Boys. He stayed two weeks. (see Sept 29)

Oh Pretty Woman

September 26 – October 16, 1964: “Oh Pretty Woman” by Roy Orbison #1 on the Billboard Hot 100. The title was inspired by Orbison’s wife Claudette interrupting a conversation to announce she was going out; when Orbison asked if she was okay for cash, his co-writer Bill Dees interjected “A pretty woman never needs any money.

Brian Epstein

September 26, 1966: Brian Epstein,  hospitalized in a London clinic. The official given reason was that it was a check-up, although it later transpired that he had overdosed on prescribed drugs.

Epstein had been suffering from depression and anxiety for some time, a condition exacerbated by his use of drugs – both prescribed and illegal. His anxiety had heightened following The Beatles decision to stop touring, which left Epstein with less involvement in their careers. Each member was undertaking individual projects in the late summer of 1966 and he had intended to join John Lennon in Spain on the set of How I Won The War.

However, as a result of the hospitalization, he was forced to cancel his visit to Spain. Although Epstein is known to have made later suicide attempts, it is believed that this overdose was accidental. (see Oct 3)

Abbey Road

September 26, 1969: UK release of Abbey Road album. Though recorded after material for the Let It Be lp had already been recorded, it is released before Let It Be. (see Oct 1)

Walls and Bridges

September 26, 1974: US release of John Lennon’s fifth album, Walls and Bridges  (UK release will be 4 October)

Written, recorded and released during his 18-month separation from Yoko Ono (June 1973–January 1975), the album captured Lennon in the midst of his “Lost Weekend”.

Walls and Bridges became an American Billboard number 1 album. (see Nov 16)

September 26 Peace Love Art Activism

ADA

1973 Rehabilitation Act

September 26, 1973: the 1973 Rehabilitation Act, passed by Congress and signed into law on this day, was an important milestone in federal programs for disabled persons. It replaced previous laws in 1954 and 1965. Section 504 of the law was particularly important, expanding the rights of persons with disabilities, greatly expanded grants to the states for vocational rehabilitation, and also expanding federal research and training related to persons with disabilities.

When the Department of Health, Education & Welfare (HEW) failed to issue regulations implementing Section 504, disability rights activists protested with a sit-in on April 5, 1977. HEW issued the regulations three weeks later.

The campaign for the rights of the disabled culminated in the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), signed by President George H. W. Bush on July 26, 1990. The ADA served as the model for the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, which was signed on March 30, 2007. The U.S. Senate has still not ratified the Convention, however, because of conservative opposition. [US Access Board article]

“Ugly Law”

In 1974, Chicago repealed last “Ugly Law” . These laws had allowed police to arrest and jail people with “apparent” disabilities for no reason other than being disfigured or demonstrating some type of disability. (see January 8, 1974)

September 26 Peace Love Art Activism

LGBTQ

September 26, 1975: President Ford sent a letter to Oliver W Sipple expressing his “heartfelt appreciation” for the former marine’s help during an attack on the President in San Francisco. (see Sipple for expanded story)

September 26 Peace Love Art Activism

Nuclear/Chemical News

False alarm

September 26, 1983: in the early hours of the morning, the Soviet Union’s early-warning systems detected an incoming missile strike from the United States. Computer readouts suggested several missiles had been launched. The protocol for the Soviet military would have been to retaliate with a nuclear attack of its own.

But duty officer Stanislav Petrov – whose job it was to register apparent enemy missile launches – decided not to report them to his superiors, and instead dismissed them as a false alarm.

This was a breach of his instructions, a dereliction of duty. The safe thing to do would have been to pass the responsibility on, to refer up. His decision may have saved the world. The detection was false.  [BBC article on “The Man Who Saved the World”] (next N/C N, see April 4, 1984; next Iran, see Oct 13)

Trump/Iran

September 26, 2017: President Donald Trump had been declaring that Iran was in violation of the Iran nuclear pact, also known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), but his criticism of the deal was contradicted by Marine Gen. James Dunford, of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

Dunford’s comments came in a written Q&A submitted to the Senate Armed Services Committee in advance of a hearing on threats to the US. When asked by the committee whether Iran was complying with JCPOA, Dunford unequivocally said yes.

“The briefings I have received indicate that Iran is adhering to its JCPOA obligations,” he said.

Dunford went even further. Asked if the deal was working as intended — making it harder for Iran to get nuclear weapons — he said that it had. “The JCPOA has delayed Iran’s development of nuclear weapons,” Dunford wrote. [PBS article]  (next N/C N, see Oct 6; next Iran, see Oct 13)

September 26 Peace Love Art Activism

Jack Kevorkian

September 26, 1992: Lois Hawes, 52, a Warren, Michigan, woman with lung and brain cancer, died from carbon monoxide poisoning at the home of Kevorkian’s assistant Neal Nicol in Waterford Township, Michigan. (see JK for expanded story)

September 26 Peace Love Art Activism

Sexual Abuse of Children

September 26, 1996:  the last Magdalene asylum, in Waterford, Ireland, closed. Magdalene asylums were institutions from the 18th to the late-20th centuries ostensibly for “fallen women”, a term used to imply sexual promiscuity. The first asylum in Ireland opened in Dublin in 1765. In Belfast there was a Church of Ireland run Ulster Magdalene Asylum (founded in 1839) Initially the mission of the asylums was often to rehabilitate women back into society, but by the early 20th century the homes had become increasingly punitive and prison-like. In most of these asylums, the inmates were required to undertake hard physical labor, including laundry and needle work. They also endured a daily regime that included long periods of prayer and enforced silence. In Ireland, such asylums were known as Magdalene laundries. It has been estimated that up to 30,000 women passed through such laundries in Ireland. (see Magdalene for more; next Sexual Abuse date, see Dec 3, 1996)

September 26 Peace Love Art Activism

Immigration History

September 26, 2011: Pastor Manuel Hernández was pulled over by an undercover detective in a rural area near Warrior, Alabama, and became the first person arrested under Alabama’s new anti-immigration law, just hours after a federal judge upheld the law’s key passages.

Pastor Hernández, an undocumented immigrant from Mexico, worked at the Prayer Center for All Nations in Anniston, Alabama. When the detective asked to see his identification, Hernàndez provided his Mexican passport and Mexican Consular ID card, as well as a card issued by the American Association of Chaplains. The detective questioned the validity of these documents and accused Hernàndez of committing a felony by carrying the chaplain card because it had the state seal on it but was an unofficial form of identification.

Though the detective claimed to have pulled Pastor Hernández over for excessive speeding, he never issued a ticket. Hernández was arrested under suspicion of being an undocumented immigrant and spent several days in jail, where he felt discriminated against as a Latino. Hernández said officials refused to give him a Spanish language Bible and, thinking he could not speak English, said in his presence, “He is an illegal and should be treated as an illegal.” After a few days of incarceration, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officials released Pastor Hernández with orders to return to immigration court at a later date. (see June 15, 2012)

September 26 Peace Love Art Activism

Occupy Wall Street

September 26, 2012: the University of California agreed to pay about $1 million to settle a lawsuit filed by UC-Davis students who were pepper-sprayed by campus police during an Occupy-style protest on campus last November. The settlement also calls for a personal written apology from UC-Davis Chancellor Linda Katehi to each person hit with the spray.  [CBS News article] (see July 21, 2015)

September 26 Peace Love Art Activism

Affordable Care Act

September 26, 2017: Senator Mitch McConnell officially pulled the plug on the latest plan to repeal the Affordable Care Act, telling senators they would not vote on the measure and effectively admitted defeat in the last-gasp drive to fulfill a core promise of President Trump and Republican lawmakers.

McConnell’s announcement came less than 24 hours after a pivotal Republican senator, Susan Collins of Maine, declared firm opposition to the repeal proposal, all but ensuring that Republican leaders would be short of the votes they needed. [Politico article] (see Oct 12)

September 26 Peace Love Art Activism

DEATH PENALTY

September 26, 2017:  the U.S. Supreme Court stayed the execution of Keith Leroy Tharp, a Georgia inmate who had been on death row for a quarter-century, halting the lethal injection after his attorneys raised questions of racial bias in the case.

Georgia sentenced Tharpe to death in 1991 for killing Jaquelin Freeman, his sister-in-law. Tharpe’s wife left him in August 1990 and moved in with her mother, and he made violent threats against them before fatally shooting Freeman and raping his wife, according to a summary of the case from the Georgia Supreme Court. He was sentenced to death the following January.

Attorneys for Tharpe sought to stop his execution which had been set for that night, writing in a Supreme Court filing that “racism played [a] pivotal role in his death sentence.” [US News article] (see Nov 6)

September 26 Peace Love Art Activism

Trump Inquiry

September 26, 2019:  according to a whistle-blower complaint, President Trump used the power of his office to try to get Ukraine to interfere in the 2020 election to investigate a political rival “for personal gain,” Attorney General William P. Barr and the president’s personal attorney Rudolph W. Giuliani were central to the effort, the complaint said.

In addition, the complaint said that whistle-blower, an unidentified intelligence officer, learned from multiple American officials that “senior White House officials had intervened to ‘lock down’ all records of the phone call, especially the official word-for-word transcript of the call that was produced as is customary by the White House Situation Room.” [NYT article]

September 26 Peace Love Art Activism

Environmental Issues

September 26, 2021: the New York Times reported that when Hurricane Ida barreled into the Louisiana coast with near 150 mile-per-hour winds on Aug. 30, it left a trail of destruction. The storm also triggered the most oil spills detected from space after a weather event in the Gulf of Mexico since the federal government started using satellites to track spills and leaks a decade ago. (next EI, see Sept 29)

September 26 Peace Love Art Activism

US Labor History/Crime and Punishment

September 26, 2022: thousands of Alabama inmate workers began a labor strike to protest poor prison conditions across the state, where facilities were overcrowded, understaffed and notoriously dangerous.

The protest also called for broader criminal justice reforms. Diyawn Caldwell, the president of Both Sides of the Wall, an advocacy group, said the organization was coordinating the strike with inmates across the state and predicted that about 80 percent of the roughly 25,000 people in prison would participate in the strike, forgoing their usual jobs as cooks and cleaners. [NYT article] (next C & P, see July 21, 2023; next LH, see April 10, 2023)

US Labor History

September 26, 2023: President Biden traveled to Michigan to join a group of striking autoworkers on the picket line, the first time a sitting President had done such  gesture of support to a labor union. [NYT article] (next LH, see Oct 4; auto strike, see Oct 30)

September 26 Peace Love Art Activism

September 25 Peace Love Art Activism

Technological Milestone

September 25, 1956: the first trans-Atlantic telephone cable went into service. [Atlantic Cable article] (see August 3, 1958)

September 25 Peace Love Art Activism

BLACK HISTORY

School Desegregation

September 25, 1957: in a dramatic and unprecedented move, President Dwight Eisenhower sent federal troops to Little Rock, Arkansas, to ensure the racial integration of Central High School. The Little Rock crisis was one of the most dramatic events in the history of the civil rights movement.

Arkansas Governor Orval Faubus and local authorities had resisted integration in the face of a court order to implement the Supreme Court’s Brown v. Board of Education decision on May 17, 1954. Mobs had prevented the enrollment of nine African-American students (the “Little Rock Nine”) on September 23, as local authorities failed to maintain public order. Central High School was successfully integrated on this day because of the federal troops.

In 1958, however, local officials resisted another court order, and that issue resulted in a landmark Supreme Court decision asserting the authority of the federal courts to enforce lawful court orders, Cooper v. Aaron, on September 12, 1958. Nonetheless, the Little Rock school board (which was not directly affected by the court decision) voted to close the schools rather than integrate, and the 1958–1959 academic year is known as the “lost year.” The schools opened the following year. (BH & SD, see Oct 5; Central High School, see February 9, 1960)

Herbert Lee murdered

September 25, 1961: E.H. Hurst – a local white state legislator – shot and killed Herbert Lee in front of several eyewitnesses. Mr. Lee was a member of the Amite County, Mississippi, NAACP and worked with Bob Moses of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) on a voter registration drive. Louis Allen, a black man who witnessed the murder, was initially coerced into saying that Hurst killed Herbert Lee in self defense; he later recanted and said Hurst had actually shot Lee for registering black voters.

Louis Allen spoke with the FBI about Lee’s murder, but told federal authorities that he would need protection if he were to agree to cooperate in their investigation. The FBI refused to provide protection, and Allen did not testify against Hurst. However, news spread in the local community that Allen had spoken with federal investigators.

Beginning in 1962, Mr. Allen was targeted for harassment and violence: local whites cut off business to his logging company; he was jailed on false charges; and on one occasion, Sheriff Daniel Jones broke Allen’s jaw with a flashlight. The son of a high ranking local Klansman, Sheriff Jones was suspected to also be a member of the Ku Klux Klan. Louis Allen filed complaints and testified before a federal grand jury regarding the abuse he suffered at the hands of Sheriff Jones, but his claims were dismissed. [Black Past article] (BH, see May 5, 1962; Lee, see January 31, 1964)

St. Matthew’s Baptist Church burned down

September 25, 1962: a pre-dawn fire at St. Matthew’s Baptist Church destroyed the building. It was the fifth black church to burn in the past month. (BH, see Sept 25;  see Albany for expanded story)

James H Meredith

September 25, 1962: Mississippi Governor Ross R Barnett’s responded with two proclamations.

To sheriffs and law enforcement officers:  They were “authorized and directed to proceed to do all things necessary that the peace and security of the people of the State of Mississippi are fully protected.”

The second, directed at Meredith stated in part that “in order to prevent violence and a breach of the peace…do hereby and finally deny you admission to the University of Mississippi.” (see September 26, 1962)

Johnnie May Chappell

September 25, 1964:  soon after obtaining the confessions (see Aug 11), detectives Cody and Coleman were ordered to stop their investigation. Afterwards, Cody was not sure anything else was done to develop the case, but on this date a grand jury indicted all four men on the evidence in the murder of Johnnie May Chappell.

J.W. Rich was the first to go on trial. He says now that the prosecution didn’t have anything on him. It’s true that the case may have looked slim to a jury. The .22-caliber gun that Cody and Coleman recovered was never introduced at trial (it later disappeared from the evidence room). Cody himself wasn’t called to testify. The other men’s statements weren’t submitted in court. The bullet taken from Chappell’s body was introduced in a plain white envelope, not an evidence bag showing the date it had been recovered and from where. Perhaps unwilling to press for a first-degree murder charge in the death of a black woman, the prosecutor told jurors they could find Rich guilty on a lesser count. The jury found him guilty of manslaughter and the judge gave Rich 10 years. He would serve 3.

The State Attorney’s Office released Wayne Chessman, Elmer Kato, and Alex Davis from prosecution for lack of evidence, despite their confessions. (BH, see Oct 14; Chappell, see December 4, 2002)

September 25 Peace Love Art Activism

The Cold War

Eisenhower/Khrushchev

September 25, 1959: Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev met with President Eisenhower. The two men came to general agreement on a number of issues, but a U-2 spy plane incident in May 1960 crushed any hopes for further improvement of U.S.-Soviet relations during the Eisenhower years. (NYT article) (see May 1)

Nuclear/Chemical News

September 25, 1962: Soviet Union above ground nuclear test. 19.1 megaton. (see Sept 27)

September 25 Peace Love Art Activism

September 25 Music et al

see The Beatles cartoon series for more

September 25, 1965: a cartoon series featuring The Beatles began in the US. Simply titled The Beatles, it ran until 1969 on the ABC network with 39 episodes produced over three seasons. The series was shown on Saturday mornings at 10.30am until 1968, when it was moved to Sunday mornings. Each episode was named after a Beatles song, with stories based on the lyrics. The Beatles themselves were not directly involved in the production, which was created by Al Brodax and Sylban Buck, and produced by King Features Syndicate. American actor Paul Frees provided the voices for John Lennon and George Harrison, while British actor Lance Percival did the same for Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr. (see Oct 9)

Eve of Destruction

September 25 – October 1, 1965: “Eve of Destruction” by Barry McGuire #1 on the Billboard Hot 100. (see Sept 30)

Eighth Big Sur Folk Festival

September 25, 1971:  the final one featured: Joan Baez, Kris Kristofferson, Mimi Fariña and Tom Jans, Mickey Newbury, Big Sur Choir, Lily Tomlin & Larry Manson

U2

September 25, 1976: the Irish rock band U2 formed after drummer Larry Mullen Jr. posted a note seeking members for a band on the notice board of his Dublin school.

September 25 Peace Love Art Activism

Vietnam & Operation Popeye

September 25, 1968: the southern region of North Vietnam was added to the operational area. (V, see Oct 14; see OP for expanded story)

September 25 Peace Love Art Activism

Feminism

Sandra Day O’Connor

September 25, 1981: Sandra Day O’Connor became the first woman appointed to the Supreme Court. [Makers dot com article] (see Nov 12)

Ruth Bader Ginsberg

September 25, 2020: Ruth Bader Ginsburg lain in state inside the US Capitol. The first person given that honor was Henry Clay in 1852, a Kentucky Senator who died during his term. Since then, the 33 men who have lain in state at the US Capitol had all been high-profile statesmen, like President Abraham Lincoln, or military members.

Ginsburg was the first woman and only the second justice from the top court to be given the honor. The first was William Howard Taft, who was also a US president. [BBC story] (next Feminism, see January 19, 2021)

September 25 Peace Love Art Activism

Irish Troubles

Maze Prison escape

September 25, 1983: 38 Irish republican prisoners, armed with six handguns, hijack a prison meals lorry and smash their way out of HMP Maze, in the largest prison escape since World War II and in British history. [BBC article]

Irish Republican Army

September 25, 2005:  two months after announcing its intention to disarm, the Irish Republican Army (IRA) gave up its weapons in front of independent weapons inspectors. The decommissioning of the group s substantial arsenal took place in secret locations in the Republic of Ireland. One Protestant and one Catholic priest as well as officials from Finland and the United States served as witnesses to the historic event. Automatic weapons, ammunition, missiles and explosives were among the arms found in the cache, which the head weapons inspector described as “enormous.” (see Troubles for expanded story)

September 25 Peace Love Art Activism

Trump Impeachment Inquiry

September 25, 2019: the White House released a reconstruction of the call that President Trump made to Urkraine  President  Volodymyr Zelensky in which Trump encouraged Zelensky to work with Attorney General William P. Barr and Rudolph W. Giuliani, the president’s personal lawyer, on corruption investigations connected to former Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. and other Democrats.

Although there was no explicit quid pro quo in the conversation, Trump raised the matter immediately after Zelensky spoke of his country’s need for more help from the United States. The call came only days after Mr. Trump had blocked $391 million in aid to Ukraine, a decision that perplexed national security officials at the time and for which he gave conflicting explanations. [NYT article] (see TII for expanded chronology)

September 25 Peace Love Art Activism

Environmental Issues

Climate Change

September 25, 2019: according to the report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, a group of scientists convened by the United Nations to guide world leaders in policy making, climate change was heating the oceans and altering their chemistry so dramatically that it threatened seafood supplies, fueling cyclones and floods and posing profound risks to the hundreds of millions of people living along the coasts.

The report concluded that the world’s oceans and ice sheets were under such severe stress that the fallout could prove difficult for humans to contain without steep reductions in greenhouse gas emissions. Fish populations were already declining in many regions as warming waters threw marine ecosystems into disarray. [NYT article] (next EI, see Oct 29)

William Perry Pendley

September 25, 2020: U.S. District Judge Brian Morris ruled that President Trump’s leading steward of public lands had been serving unlawfully, blocking him from continuing in the position in the latest pushback against the administration’s practice of filling key positions without U.S. Senate approval.

U.S. Interior Department Bureau of Land Management acting director William Perry Pendley served unlawfully for 424 days without being confirmed to the post by the Senate as required under the Constitution, Morris determined.

The ruling came after Montana’s Democratic governor in July sued to remove Pendley, saying the former oil industry attorney was illegally overseeing an agency that manages almost a quarter-billion acres of land, primarily in the U.S. West.

“Today’s ruling is a win for the Constitution, the rule of law, and our public lands,” Gov. Steve Bullock said Friday. Environmental groups and Democratic lawmakers from Western states also cheered the judge’s move after urging for months that Pendley be removed. [NBC Montana story]

Drilling ban

September 25, 2020: President Trump expanded a ban on exploratory drilling off the coasts of North Carolina and Virginia, his latest extension of an existing offshore drilling moratorium in the Gulf of Mexico.

The memorandum “prevents consideration of this area for any leasing for purposes of exploration, development, or production during the 10-year period beginning on July 1, 2022, and ending on June 30, 2032.”

The memo makes clear that the ban on leasing does not apply if it’s for “environmental conservation purposes, including the purposes of shore protection, beach nourishment and restoration, wetlands restoration, and habitat protection.”

It stands in contrast to the Trump administration’s record of supporting oil and gas production and rolling back rules on greenhouse gas emissions. [NPR story] (next EI, see Nov 4)

September 25 Peace Love Art Activism

Census

September 25, 2020: after a September 22 hearing, on this date in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, Judge Lucy H. Koh barred the Trump administration from ending the 2020 census a month early.

Koh  had issued a preliminary injunction on September 5 preventing the administration from winding down the count by September 30, a month before the scheduled completion date of October 31. She also barred officials from delivering completed population data to the White House on Dececember. 31 rather than the April 2021 delivery date that had previously been set out.

The ruling came after evidence filed this week showed that top Census Bureau officials believed ending the head count early would seriously endanger its accuracy. [NYT story] (next Census, see Oct 13)

September 25 Peace Love Art Activism

LGBTQ+

September 25, 2023: in a letter from the Vatican Pope Francis suggested for the first time that some people in same-sex unions could be blessed by Catholic priests. On the topic of homosexual unions, the pontiff had previously reiterated that the Church only recognized marriage as a union between a man and a woman, but the letter appears to show some willingness to open the door to such blessings. This was a seeming reversal of previous statements in March, when the Pope said the Church could not bless same-sex unions, because they could “not bless sin.” The latest development appears to be a nod to a decision made by the German Church, in which same-sex unions received a Catholic blessing from several priests. [CNN article]  (next LGBTQ, see March 11, 2024)

September 25 Peace Love Art Activism, September 25 Peace Love Art Activism, September 25 Peace Love Art Activism, September 25 Peace Love Art Activism, September 25 Peace Love Art Activism, 

September 24 Peace Love Art Activism

Emma Goldman

September 24, 1901: Goldman released after two weeks in jail; the case re her association with President McKinley’s assassination (Sept 6) is dropped for lack of evidence.(see Goldman for expanded story)

September 24 Peace Love Art Activism

BLACK HISTORY

National Equal Rights League

September 24, 1922: the National Equal Rights League sent a telegram to President Harding calling for a special session of Congress to act on the Dyer Anti-Lynching bill. Congress had adjourned without completing consideration of the bill. [history of NERL via Black Past]  (see Nov 4)

”SCOTTSBORO BOYS”

September 24, 1951: Haywood Patterson convicted of manslaughter and sentenced to 6 to 15 years. He died of cancer less than a year later. (see Scottsboro Travesty)

Fear of Rock

September 24, 1954: in an editorial entitled “Control the Dimwits,” Billboard magazine called for removing rhythm and blues records with sexual double entendres from jukeboxes.

The Songwriter’s Protective Association endorsed the editorial and police in Memphis, Tennessee, and Long Beach, California, confiscated jukeboxes with the offending records. The largest jukebox operator in the New York City area offered to remove any records that Billboard would list. (BH, see October; Fear, see  October Music)

School Desegregation

September 24, 1957: Little Rock Mayor Woodrow Mann sent a special request for federal assistance to President Dwight Eisenhower. (see Sept 25)

Executive Order 11246

September 24, 1965: President Lyndon B. Johnson signed Executive Order 11246. It, established requirements for non-discriminatory practices in hiring and employment on the part of U.S. government contractors. It “prohibits federal contractors and federally assisted construction contractors and subcontractors, who do over $10,000 in Government business in one year from discriminating in employment decisions on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, or national origin.” It also required contractors to “take affirmative action to ensure that applicants are employed, and that employees are treated during employment, without regard to their race, color, religion, sex or national origin.” The phrase “affirmative action” had appeared previously in Executive Order 10925 in 1961. (US gov document)(see Oct 14)

George Whitmore, Jr

September 24, 1970: New York Court of Appeals affirmed the conviction of Richard Robles in the Wylie-Hoffert case. (see Whitmore for expanded story)

Orangeburg Massacre

In late September/early October 1970: a jury found Cleveland Sellers guilty  of participating in a riot two nights before the Orangeburg shootings. He was the only person tried in relation to the the 1968 event.  (BH, see Oct 26; OM, see September 1, 1973)

September 24 Peace Love Art Activism

Vietnam

Retaliation

September 24, 1945: Vietnamese retaliated for the previous day’s killings by the British and French and stormed though a French neighborhood killing some 150 men, women, and children.

American Lt Col Dewey cabled to his superiors that “The French and British are finished here and we [the US] ought to clear out of southeast Asia. (see Sept 26)

September 24 Peace Love Art Activism

September 24 Music et al

Bob Dylan

September 24, 1965 : Dylan kicked off a national tour in Austin, TX. The Hawks are his back up band. The electric songs are typically booed. Levon Helm, unable to deal with the constant booing, left the tour at the end of November and went to work as a deckhand on oil rigs in the Gulf of Mexico. (see Nov 22)

see Sing-In For Peace for more

September 24, 1965: Irwin Silber, editor of Sing Out!’ (a magazine of recordings), singer Barbara Dane, and Pete Seeger, along with the cream of the folk establishment organized a two-part “Sing-In For Peace” concert at Carnegie Hall.

The concert featured sixty black and white artists. The Fugs performed their scathing “Kill for Peace.” Unfortunately, a local newspaper strike prevented much media coverage, but the concert marked a turning point in the peace song movement. As Silber remarked in Sing Out!, “the essence of the creative union between folksong and social value had been recaptured.” (see Sept 25)

Cherish

September 24 – October 14, 1966: “Cherish” by the Association #1 on the Billboard Hot 100.

Jimi Hendrix

September 24, 1966: impressed with Hendrix’s version of “Hey Joe”, The Animals’ bassist, Chas Chandler, brought him to London and signed him to a management and production contract with himself and ex-Animals manager Michael Jeffery. Chandler then helped Hendrix form a new band, The Jimi Hendrix Experience, with guitarist-turned-bassist Noel Redding and drummer Mitch Mitchell, both English musicians. (see Oct 1)

September 24 Peace Love Art Activism

INDEPENDENCE DAY

September 24, 1973: Guinea Bissau independent of Portugal. [Britannica article on Guinea Bissau] (see February 7, 1974)

September 24 Peace Love Art Activism

Symbionese Liberation Army

September 24, 1976:  Patty Hearst sentenced to seven years in prison for her part in a 1974 bank robbery. (NYT article)(see Nov 19)

September 24 Peace Love Art Activism

AIDS

September 24, 1982: CDC used the term “AIDS” (acquired immune deficiency syndrome) for the first time, and released the first case definition of AIDS: “a disease at least moderately predictive of a defect in cell-mediated immunity, occurring in a person with no known case for diminished resistance to that disease.” [Back To Stonewall article] (see Dec 10)

September 24 Peace Love Art Activism

Nuclear/Chemical News

September 24, 1996: the US and the world’s other major nuclear powers signed a treaty to end all testing and development of nuclear weapons.  [ACA article] (see March 11, 1997)

September 24 Peace Love Art Activism

CLINTON IMPEACHMENT

September 24, 1998: the House Judiciary Committee announced the committee would consider a resolution to begin an impeachment inquiry against President Clinton in an open session on October 5 or October 6. (see Clinton for expanded story)

September 24 Peace Love Art Activism

US Labor History

UAW

September 24, 2007: United Auto Workers walked off the job at GM plants in the first nationwide strike during auto contract negotiations since 1976. (A tentative pact ended the walkout two days later.) [CNBC article] (see February 13, 2008)

WGA

September 24, 2023: the major film and television studios and striking writers reached a tentative agreement paving a path forward to end the strike that had frozen most Hollywood productions since May. A tentative agreement still needed ratification by members of the Writers Guild of America [CNN article] (next LH, see Sept 26)

September 24 Peace Love Art Activism

Foxconn

September 24, 2012: Foxconn Technology said it had closed one of its large Chinese plants after the police were called in to break up a fight among factory employees. A spokesman said some people had been hurt and detained by the police after the disturbance escalated into a riot involving more than 1,000 workers late Sunday.  The company said the incident was confined to an employee dormitory and “no production facilities or equipment have been affected.” It said the cause of the disturbance was still under investigation. One Foxconn employee reached by telephone Monday afternoon, however, said the incident began when workers started brawling with security guards. (see February 4, 2013)

September 24 Peace Love Art Activism

Native Americans

September 24, 2014: the Obama administration agreed to pay the Navajo Nation a record $554 million to settle longstanding claims by America’s largest Indian tribe that its funds and natural resources were mishandled for decades by the U.S. government.

The accord, resolved claims that dated back as far as 50 years and marked the biggest U.S. legal settlement with a single tribe.

The deal stemmed from litigation accusing the government of mismanaging Navajo trust accounts and resources on more than 14 million acres of land held in trust for the tribe and leased for such purposes as farming, energy development, logging and mining. (NYT article) (see Oct 13)

September 24 Peace Love Art Activism

DEATH PENALTY

Pope Speaks to US Congress

September 24, 2015: in his address to Congress, Pope Francis made an impassioned plea for the U.S. to abolish the death penalty. “I am convinced that this way is the best, since every life is sacred, every human person is endowed with an inalienable dignity, and society can only benefit from the rehabilitation of those convicted of crimes,” he said. (see Oct 6)

Marcellus Williams Executed

September 24, 2024: the state of Missouri on Tuesday executed Marcellus Williams shortly after the U.S. Supreme Court rejected a request to delay the execution.

St. Louis County Prosecuting Attorney Wesley Bell, who had sought to have the conviction overturned, said, “This outcome did not serve the interests of justice.”

Faced with the DNA evidence and other new information in Williams’ case, Bell sought to toss out the conviction on numerous grounds, including the results of the DNA testing and constitutional violations during the jury selection process. [CBS News article]  (next DP, see )

September 24 Peace Love Art Activism

LGBTQ

September 24, 2015: Kim Davis met with the Pope Francis in a private meeting at the Vatican Embassy in Washington. The meeting lasted for about ten minutes. Pope Francis thanked Davis for her courage and advised her to stay strong. The Pontiff hugged Davis and her husband Joe and gave them rosaries. “I put my hand out and he reached and he grabbed it, and I hugged him and he hugged me,” Davis told ABC News in an interview. [NYT article] (see Oct 2)

September 24 Peace Love Art Activism

Immigration History

September 24, 2017: President Trump issued a new order indefinitely banning almost all travel to the United States from seven countries, including most of the nations covered by his original travel ban, citing threats to national security posed by letting their citizens into the country.

The new order was more far-reaching than the president’s original travel ban, imposing permanent restrictions on travel, rather than the 90-day suspension that Mr. Trump authorized soon after taking office. But officials said his new action was the result of a deliberative, rigorous examination of security risks that was designed to avoid the chaotic rollout of his first ban. And the addition of non-Muslim countries could address the legal attacks on earlier travel restrictions as discrimination based on religion.

Starting in October, most citizens of Iran, Libya, Syria, Yemen, Somalia, Chad and North Korea will be banned from entering the United States. Citizens of Iraq and some groups of people in Venezuela who seek to visit the United States will face restrictions or heightened scrutiny. [NYT article] (see Oct 17)

September 24 Peace Love Art Activism

 FREE SPEECH

Colin Kaepernick

September 24, 2017: President Trump called for football fans to boycott N.F.L. games unless the league fired or suspended players who refused to stand for the national anthem, saying that players must “stop disrespecting our flag and country.”

“If NFL fans refuse to go to games until players stop disrespecting our country, you will see change take place fast,” Mr. Trump wrote. [NYT article] (FS, see Oct 9; CK, see Oct 13)

Crime and Punishment

September 24, 2019:  PEN America released a new report on book restrictions within the U.S. prison system, according to the group, “the largest book ban policy in the United States.”

Rules governing what prisoners can and cannot read varied from state to state, even from prison to prison. “Prison systems function as a hierarchy, meaning officials at multiple levels can act as censors and block incarcerated people’s access to books,” the report stateed. Book bans often did not follow a formal process, and could be based on the discretion of individual officers. This made it difficult to track just how many authors and titles had been banned in U.S. prisons. [NYT article] (next FS, see July 23, 2020; next C & P, see Nov 14)

September 24 Peace Love Art Activism

Trump Impeachment Inquiry

September 24, 2019: after months of reticence by Democrats who had feared the political consequences of impeaching a president , Speaker Nancy Pelosi announced that the House would initiate a formal impeachment inquiry against President Trump, charging him with betraying his oath of office and the nation’s security by seeking to enlist a foreign power to tarnish a rival for his own political gain.

Pelosi’s declaration set the stage for a history-making and exceedingly bitter confrontation between the Democrat-led House and a defiant president who has thumbed his nose at institutional norms. (see TII for expanded chronology)

September 24 Peace Love Art Activism

Space

September 24, 2023: the Bennu asteroid sample collected by NASA touched down on Earth, giving scientists the opportunity to learn more about the origins of the solar system and capturing a piece of a massive space rock that has a chance of colliding with our planet in the future. It was the first time the agency had accomplished such a feat. [NPR article]  (next Space & Bennu, see Oct 12)