January 19 Peace Love Art Activism

Feminism

Men’s League for Opposing Woman Suffrage

January 19, 1909: The Men’s League for Opposing Woman Suffrage  was founded with Lord Cromer as President. (Feminism, see Sept 27; VR, see see November 11, 1909)

Super Bowl Official

January 19,2021: the NFL announced that Sarah Thomas will become the first woman to officiate a Super Bowl. Thomas will serve as a down judge on referee Carl Cheffers’ crew at Super Bowl LV in Tampa, Florida.

Thomas joined the NFL in 2015 as its first female on-field official.  [ESPN article] (next Feminism, see Jan 25)

January 19 Peace Love Art Activism

US Labor History

January 19, 1915: guards employed by the Agricultural Fertilizer Chemical Company in Chrome, New Jersey, opened fire on unarmed striking workers, killing two people and wounding eighteen others. The next day, 31 deputy sheriffs were arrested, charged with first-degree murder, and held without bail. The workers eventually won a wage increase and nine of the deputies were convicted of manslaughter and received sentences of between two and ten years each.  (Daily Kos article) (see Jan 25)

January 19 Peace Love Art Activism

Immigration History

Watsonvill, CA

Beginning on January 19, 1930, mobs of upwards of 500 whites roamed Watsonville, California, and the surrounding towns and farms, setting upon Filipino farm workers and their property in a rage after Filipino men were seen dancing with white women at a newly opened local dance hall.

In the days and weeks before the rioting, politicians and community leaders had ramped up their anti-Filipino rhetoric, calling the farm workers “a menace,” and demanding that Filipinos be deported so “white people who have inherited this country for themselves and their offspring could live.” A local judge stated, “The worst part of [the Filipino man] being here is his mixing with young white girls from thirteen to seventeen. He gives them silk underwear and makes them pregnant and crowds whites out of jobs in the bargain.”

The Watsonville mob was initially turned away from the dance hall by security guards and the armed owners of the hall, but returned in full force to beat dozens of Filipino farm workers. The beatings continued elsewhere in the area, and on the night of January 22, a mob ransacked Filipino farm workers’ houses and shot into the dwellings, killing Fermin Tobera. No one was ever charged with that murder; seven men were later convicted of rioting, but received either probation or 30 days in jail.

The anti-Filipino frenzy continued in California in the months after the Watsonville riots ended on January 23, 1930, with violence breaking out in Stockton, Salinas, San Francisco, and San Jose. In 1933, California amended the law to prohibit marriages between Filipinos and whites. And in 1934, answering in part a long-standing request of California’s government, Congress reduced Filipino immigration to the United States to just 50 people per year. In September 2011, the California legislature officially expressed regret and apologized for these events and actions. (Santa Cruz Sentinel News article)  (see May 24, 1934)

Trump/Wall

January 19, 2019: President Trump announced that he would extend deportation protections for some undocumented immigrants in exchange for $5.7 billion in funding for a wall along the border with Mexico.

The president said he would extend the legal status of those facing deportation and support bipartisan legislation that would allow some immigrants who came to the United States illegally as children, known as Dreamers, to keep their work permits and be protected from deportation for three more years if they were revoked.

Speaker Nancy Pelosi said ahead of his remarks that she considered his proposal a “nonstarter,” in part because it offered no permanent pathway to citizenship for Dreamers. (next IH & TW, see Jan 25)

Wall’s expense

January 19, 2020: based on a status report that U.S. Customs and Border Protection, which is overseeing wall construction, had released, on this date, NPR reported that the price tag for President Trump’s border wall had topped $11 billion — or nearly $20 million a mile — and would become the most expensive wall of its kind anywhere in the world. $11 billion had been identified since Trump took office to construct 576 miles of a new “border wall system.” (next Immigration, see Jan 23; next Wall, see Feb 7, or see TW for expanded chronology)

January 19 Peace Love Art Activism

January 19 Music et al

Janis Joplin

January 19, 1943: Janis Joplin born in Port Arthur, TX.  (see Janis Joplin for more)

Ken Kesey arrested again

January 19, 1966: Ken Kesey arrested a second time for marijuana possession. Prankster Mountain Girl (Carolyn Garcia) also arrested. (see Ken Kesey for more) (see Jan 21)

John Lennon inducted

January 19, 1994: John Lennon inducted into the Rock ‘n’ Roll Hall of Fame, performers category. (see November 19, 1995)

January 19 Peace Love Art Activism

BLACK HISTORY

Protesters return

On January 18, 1965 Martin Luther King, Jr and John Lewis had led 300 marchers to register. Selma Police Chief Wilson Baker allowed them to march in small groups to the courthouse, but Sheriff Jim Clark had them line up in an alley beside the courthouse, where they were out of sight, and left them there. None were registered.

On January 19, 1965, protesters returned to the courthouse to register and demanded to remain at the front of the building. Clark arrested them (see Jan 22)

Byron De La Beckwith not guilty

January 19, 1974: Byron De La Beckwith was found not guilty of carrying a live time bomb and a pistol on a midnight drive into New Orleans from Mississippi. Beckwith said he was “exceedingly grateful for the kind treatment I have received and I ask the blessing of the most high God on all who have shown me such consideration.” Beckwith had stated during the trial that he did not know he was carrying a time bomb into New Orleans in his car. He said that the was “astounded” to learn from newspaper accounts after his arrest that there was a bomb in his car. (BH, see June 12; Evers, see October 1, 1989)

BLACK & SHOT

January 19, 2017: Chicago Police Superintendent Eddie Johnson handed down one-week suspensions to four officers for failing to ensure the dashboard cameras in their squad cars were operating properly on the night of Laquan McDonald’s shooting. (B & S, see Jan 24; McDonald, see Mar 23)

Cold Case Act

January 19, 2019: President Trump signed into law the “Civil Rights Cold Case Records Collection Act of 2018 (Public Law 115-426). It authorized the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) to create a collection of unsolved civil rights case files. In addition, the law established a Civil Rights Cold Case Review Board to determine which records could be released to the public.

The new law intended to make federal information about investigations of unsolved civil rights cases more readily available to the public. (see Feb 22)

January 19 Peace Love Art Activism

Women’s Health

Clement Haynsworth rejected

January 19, 1970: after the US Senate rejected Clement Haynsworth of South Carolina for an appointment to the US Supreme Court, President Nixon nominated Harold Carswell of the US Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals.

The nomination became intensely controversial after a reporter discovered the text of a 1948 political campaign speech by Carswell in which he said  “I Am A Southerner By Ancestry, Birth, Training, Inclination, Belief And Practice. I Believe That Segregation Of The Races is Proper And The ONLY Practical And Correct Way Of Life In Our States.” Later in the speech he stated, “I Yield To NO MAN, As A Fellow Candidate, Or As A Fellow Citizen, In The Firm Vigirous Belief In The Principles Of White Supremacy, And I Shall Always Be So Governed.”  (The speech’s capitalization is as indicated.)

Attorney General John Mitchell, citing an extensive background check by the Justice Department, was willing to forgive, stating that it was unfair to criticize Carswell for “political remarks made 22 years ago.”

Senator Roman Hruska, a Nebraska Republican, stated: “Even if he were mediocre, there are a lot of mediocre judges and people and lawyers. They are entitled to a little representation, aren’t they, and a little chance? We can’t have all Brandeises, Frankfurters and Cardozos.”

On April 8, 1970, the United States Senate refused to confirm Carswell’s nomination to serve on the Supreme Court by a vote of 51 to 45

Nixon then nominated Minnesota judge Harry Blackmun who was confirmed 94–0. Blackmun later became the author of Roe v. Wade. (see April 8)

January 19 Peace Love Art Activism

Watergate Scandal

January 19, 1979: former U.S. Attorney General John N. Mitchell was released on parole after 19 months at a federal prison in Alabama. (see Watergate for full story)

January 19 Peace Love Art Activism

Hostage Crisis

January 19, 1981: the United States and Iran signed an agreement paving the way for the release of 52 Americans held hostage for more than 14 months. (see Jan 20)

January 19 Peace Love Art Activism

Nuclear/chemical news

January 19, 1993: U.S. forces fired Tomahawk cruise missiles at Baghdad factories linked to Iraq’s illegal nuclear weapons program.  (see April 6, 1993)

January 19 Peace Love Art Activism

Environmental Issues

Block Island oil spill

January 19, 1996: a 1.8 million gallon oil spill began after a barge ran aground near Block Island National Wildlife Refuge. (see December 11, 1997)

Elk River spill

On January 9, 2014 it was found that a 48,000-gallon tank was leaking 4-Methylcyclohexane Methanol (MCHM) into the Elk River in West Virginia. The spill affected Charleston and the nine surrounding counties.  MCHM is a compound used to wash coal of impurities.

On January 19  West Virginia authorities completely lifted a 10-day-old ban on the use of tap water. The final 2 percent of the 300,000 customers affected by the spill were cleared to drink and wash from their tap, said West Virginia American Water spokeswoman Laura Jordan. Despite the lifting of the ban, dozens of people continued to seek medical attention at hospitals around Charleston for contamination-related illnesses and rashes.

Out of an “abundance of caution,” though, the water utility advised pregnant women to consider an alternative drinking water source “until the chemical is non-detectable in the water distribution system.”  (see April 29)

Relaxed Restrictions Struck Down

January 19, 2021: the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia struck down the Trump administration’s plan to relax restrictions on greenhouse gas emissions from power plants, paving the way for President-elect Joseph R. Biden Jr. to enact new and stronger restrictions on power plants.

The Court called the Trump administration’s Affordable Clean Energy rule a “fundamental misconstruction” of the nation’s environmental laws, devised through a “tortured series of misreadings” of legal statute.

On the last full day of the Trump presidency, it effectively ended the Environmental Protection Agency’s efforts to weaken and undermine climate change policies and capped a dismal string of failures in which courts threw out one deregulation after another. Experts had widely described the E.P.A.’s losing streak as one of the worst legal records of the agency in modern history. [NYT article] (next EI, see Jan 20)

January 19 Peace Love Art Activism

CLINTON IMPEACHMENT

Monica Lewinsky

January 19, 1998: Monica Lewinsky’s name surfaced in the Internet gossip column, the Drudge Report, which mentioned rumors that Newsweek had decided to delay publishing a piece on Lewinsky and the alleged affair.

Clinton defense team

January 19, 1999: President Clinton’s legal team begins a three-day defense of the president.

Clinton admits to lying

January 19, 2001: in a deal sparing himself possible indictment, President Bill Clinton acknowledged for the first time making false statements under oath about Monica Lewinsky; he also surrendered his law license for five years. (see Clinton for full impeachment information)

January 19 Peace Love Art Activism

LGBTQ

January 19, 2005: The Louisiana Supreme Court reinstated a ban on marriage between same-sex couples, bringing the number of states with constitutional amendments against marriage to 17. The Supreme Court decision overturned an October 2004 ruling from District Judge William Morvant, who declared that constitutionally excluding same-sex couples from marriage is unconstitutional. (see July 12)

January 19 Peace Love Art Activism

Native Americans

January 19, 2019: a group of boys from  Covington Catholic High School, an all-male college preparatory school in Park Hills, Ky., near Cincinnati. came to Washington on a field trip to rally at the March for Life.

Nathan Phillips, an Omaha elder, a veteran of the Vietnam War and the former director of the Native Youth Alliance, was there to raise awareness at the Indigenous Peoples March.

In a video posted widely on social media, the boys, predominantly white and wearing “Make America Great Again” gear, were seen surrounding Phillips, jeering him. Phillips said, ”I heard them saying ‘Build that wall! Build that wall!’”

In a statement, the Diocese of Covington and Covington Catholic High School condemned the behavior by the students and extended their “deepest apologies” to the elder, as well as to Native Americans in general. [NYT article] (see Apr 2)

January 19 Peace Love Art Activism

Voting Rights

January 19, 2022:  Senate Democrats suffered a major defeat in their efforts to pass voting rights legislation — a key issue for the party, which is under pressure to take action ahead of the midterm elections just months away.

An attempt by Democrats to change filibuster rules in order to pass a voting bill failed amid opposition from moderate Democratic Sens. Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema. The vote was 52-48, with the two moderates joining all GOP senators. After the vote failed, there was a loud round of applause from Republicans. [CNN article] (next VR, see June 8, 2023)

Space

January 19, 2024: a Japanese robotic spacecraft successfully set down on the moon— but its solar panels were not generating power, which would cut the length of time it would be able to operate to a few hours.

With the achievement, Japan became the fifth country to send a spacecraft that made a soft landing on the moon. [NYT article] (next Space, see Jan 25)

January 19 Peace Love Art Activism

January 18 Peace Love Art Activism

US Labor History

Moyer v Peabody

January 18, 1909:  the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in Moyer v. Peabody that a governor and officers of a state National Guard may imprison anyone—in the case at hand, striking miners in Colorado—without probable cause “in a time of insurrection” and deny the person the right of appeal. (see Sept 29)

Union membership

January 18, 2019: according to a report released by the Department of Labor, the union membership rate–the percent of wage and salary workers who were members of unions–was 10.5 percent in 2018, down by 0.2 percentage point from 2017, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. The number of wage and salary workers belonging to unions, at 14.7 million in 2018, was little changed from 2017. In 1983, the first year for which comparable union data are available, the union membership rate was 20.1 percent and there were 17.7 million union workers. (see Jan 22)

January 18 Peace Love Art Activism

Women’s Health

American Birth Control League

January 18, 1939: at the 18th annual meeting of the American Birth Control League (ABCL), Margaret Sanger’s organization, the group agreed to merge with the Birth Control Clinical Research Bureau to create the Birth Control Foundation of America. The new group eventually adopted the name Planned Parenthood Foundation, by which it is known today.

Margaret Sanger, the founder of the birth control movement in America, was reportedly furious when the name “Planned Parenthood” was adopted. Throughout her career, she had always refused to accept the use of euphemism for the term “birth control.”

Russell Marker

In 1941: chemistry professor Russell Marker discovered a way to make synthetic progesterone with Mexican wild yams known as cabeza de negro. His discovery made progesterone production affordable and will become the basis for hormonal Women’s Health. (see March 5, 1942)

January 18 Peace Love Art Activism

Vietnam

China supports Vietnam

January 18, 1950: People’s Republic of China formally recognized the communist Democratic Republic of Vietnam and agreed to furnish it military assistance.  (see Jan 30)

US sprays herbicides

January 18, 1962: the US began spraying foliage with herbicides in South Vietnam, in order to reveal the whereabouts of Vietcong guerrillas. (see Feb 18)

US troop strength

January 18, 1966:  about 8,000 U.S. soldiers land in South Vietnam; U.S. troops total 190,000. (see Jan 31)

George McGovern

January 18, 1971: in a televised speech, Senator George S. McGovern (D-South Dakota) began his antiwar campaign for the 1972 Democratic presidential nomination by vowing to bring home all U.S. soldiers from Vietnam if he were elected. (see January 31 – February 2)

January 18 Peace Love Art Activism

BLACK HISTORY

Autherine Lucy Foster

January 18, 1957: Federal Judge Hobart H. Grooms ruled that University of Alabama officials were justified in expelling Autherine Lucy Foster. (see Autherine Lucy Foster for expanded chronology) (next BH, see Jan 22)

School desegregation

January 18, 1960: the City of Atlanta approved a plan to desegregate schools.  (BH, see Jan 24; SD, see Feb 9)

B Elton Cox

January 18, 1965: B Elton Cox had been the leader of a civil rights demonstration in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, of 2,000 Black students protesting segregation and the arrest and imprisonment the previous day of other Black students who had participated in a protest against racial segregation. The group assembled a few blocks from the courthouse, where Cox identified himself to officers as the group’s leader and explained the purpose of the demonstration.

Following his refusal to disband the group, he led it in an orderly march toward the courthouse. In the vicinity of the courthouse, officers stopped Cox who, after explaining the purpose and program of the demonstration, was told by the Police Chief that he could hold the meeting so long as he confined it to the west side of the street. Cox directed the group to the west sidewalk, across the street from the courthouse and 101 feet from its steps. There, the group, standing five feet deep and occupying almost the entire block but not obstructing the street, displayed signs and sang songs which evoked response from the students in the courthouse jail. Cox addressed the group. The Sheriff, construing as inflammatory appellant’s concluding exhortation to the students to “sit in” at uptown lunch counters, ordered dispersal of the group which, not being directly forthcoming, was effected by tear gas. Cox was arrested the next day and was convicted of peace disturbance, obstructing public passages, and courthouse picketing. The Louisiana Supreme Court affirmed the convictions, two of which (peace disturbance and obstructing public passages) were involved in this case.

On January 18, 1965 in Cox v. Louisiana, the US Supreme Court ruled that held that a state government cannot employ “breach of the peace” statutes against protesters engaging in peaceable demonstrations that may potentially incite violence.

Voter registration denied

January 18, 1965: Black civil rights advocates met at Brown Chapel. Following speeches and prayers, King and John Lewis lead 300 marchers out of the church. Selma Police Chief Wilson Baker allowed them to march in small groups to the courthouse to register despite Hare’s (July 9, 1964) injunction, but Sheriff Jim Clark has them line up in an alley beside the courthouse, where they are out of sight, and left them there. None were registered. (see Jan 19)

Fair Housing

January 18, 1966: Robert C. Weaver becomes the first HUD Secretary. He also became the first Black person appointed to the Cabinet. (see NYT article/obit) (see April 11, 1968)

137 Shots

January 18, 2019:  East Cleveland Law Director Willa Hemmons dropped misdemeanor charges against three of the five police supervisors accused of dereliction of duty for failing to control a high-speed chase that ended with Timothy Russell and Malissa Williams being killed in a 137-shot barrage of police gunfire.

Cleveland.com reported that Hemmons announced the dismissals but did not provide an explanation. She says she’s preparing to try the other two supervisors’ cases. (see 137 for extensive chronology)

January 18 Peace Love Art Activism

January 18 Music et al

Running Bear

January 18 – February 7, 1960: “Running Bear” by Johnny Preston #1 Billboard Hot 100. Second of three #1 songs in a row in which a person or persons die. The song was written by J. P. Richardson (aka The Big Bopper) with background vocals by Richardson and George Jones, who do the Indian chanting of “UGO UGO” during the three verses, as well as the Indian war cries. (see Running Bear for more)

I Want To Hold Your Hand

January 18, 1964: the Beatles’ “I Want To Hold Your Hand” entered Billboard  at No. 45. (see Jan 20)

McCartney sues Sony

January 18, 2017: Paul McCartney filed a federal lawsuit against the music publisher Sony/ATV over ownership of some of the Beatles’ most famous songs.

McCartney’s suit was over what is known as copyright termination: the right of authors — or any creators — to reclaim ownership of their works from publishers after a specific length of time has passed. It was part of the 1976 copyright act and in recent years had become a potent force in the music industry as performers and songwriters used the law to regain control of their work.

In McCartney’s suit, filed in United States District Court in Manhattan, lawyers for the singer detailed the steps they have taken over the last nine years to reclaim Mr. McCartney’s piece of the copyrights in dozens of Beatles songs he wrote with John Lennon, including “Love Me Do,” “I Want to Hold Your Hand” and “All You Need Is Love.” That process involved filing numerous legal notices, which, the suit said, should be enough to guarantee that Sony/ATV would return the rights to Mr. McCartney, starting in October 2018. (see March 20, 2018)

January 18 Peace Love Art Activism

World Trade Center

January 18, 1964: plans to build the New York World Trade Center announced. (see December 23, 1970)

January 18 Peace Love Art Activism

Clarence Earl Gideon

January 18, 1972: after his acquittal, Gideon resumed his previous way of life and married again some time later. He died of cancer in Fort Lauderdale, Florida at age 61. Gideon’s family in Missouri accepted his body and buried him in an unmarked grave. The local chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union later added a granite headstone, inscribed with a quote from a letter Gideon wrote to his attorney, Abe Fortas.  (see Gideon for expanded chronology)

January 18 Peace Love Art Activism

Iran–Contra Affair

January 18, 1994: prosecutor Lawrence Walsh released his final report in which he said former President Reagan had acquiesced in a cover-up of the scandal. Reagan called the accusation “baseless.”

January 18 Peace Love Art Activism

CLINTON IMPEACHMENT

January 18, 1998: President Clinton met with Betty Currie, Clinton’s personal secretary, and compared his memory with hers on Lewinsky. (see Clinton for expanded story)

January 18 Peace Love Art Activism

Sexual Abuse of Children

Geoghan convicted

January 18, 2002:  defrocked Boston priest John Geoghan, 66, was convicted of indecent assault and battery as a priest sex scandal in the archdiocese widens. Geoghan, 66, has been accused of abusing 130 children while he was actively serving as a priest in the Archdiocese of Boston over a 30-year period. He faces more criminal and civil suits.  

On February 21, 2002 Geoghan was sentenced to 9-10 years in prison as the archdiocese continues to reel from the scandal. The extent of the cover-up and the sheer number of priests involved has shocked Boston’s large Catholic community, leading to calls for Cardinal Bernard Law to step down. Meanwhile, new cases are being reported in several other states. (see Apr 8)

Pope Francis

January 18, 2018: Pope Francis spoke in defense of Bishop Juan Barros Madrid who they say protected the Rev. Fernando Karadima, a pedophile priest.

Francis told reporters there was not a shred of evidence against Madrid, who victims of Karadima, Chile’s most notorious priest, had accused of being complicit in his crimes.

“The day someone brings me proof against Bishop Barros, then I will talk,”  (see Jan 21)

January 18 Peace Love Art Activism

BLACK & SHOT

January 18, 2016: the University of Cincinnati agreed to pay $4.85 million to the family of Samuel DuBose, the unarmed black man who was shot to death on July 19, 2015  by Ray Tensing, one of its police officers. The settlement that also required the college to provide an undergraduate education to his 12 children, create a memorial to him on campus, and include his family in discussions on police reform. B & S, see March 14, 2017; DuBose, see Nov 12)

January 18 Peace Love Art Activism

Nuclear/Chemical News

January 18, 2018: India tested a long-range ballistic missile capable of carrying nuclear weapons, paving the way for membership to a small list of countries with access to intercontinental missiles and putting most of China in its reach.

The ballistic missile, called Agni 5, was launched from Abdul Kalam Island, off Odisha State in eastern India, traveling for around 19 minutes and 3,000 miles. In a statement, the Indian Ministry of Defense said that all objectives of the mission had been “successfully met.” (see Jan 30)

January 18 Peace Love Art Activism

LGBTQ

January 18, 2018: Helen Grace James had entered the Air Force in 1952 as a radio operator  In 1955, the Air Force investigated her after she was suspected of being gay. She was arrested and discharged as “undesirable,” with no severance pay, insurance or other benefits.

On January 3, 2018, James had sued the Air Force to have her discharge upgraded. She had said an “honorable” discharge would “make me feel like I’ve done all I can to prove I am a good person, and that I deserve to be a whole civilian in this country I love.”

On this date, FedEx delivered a notification of her status upgrade to “honorable.”

The 90-year-old James said she was “still trying to process it. It was both joy and shock. It was really true.”  (see Feb 12)

January 18 Peace Love Art Activism

Immigration History

January 18, 2018:   President Trump tweeted: “The Wall is the Wall, it has never changed or evolved from the first day I conceived of it,”  in response to a Washington Post report that White House Chief of Staff John Kelly said “a concrete wall from sea to shining sea” was not going to happen and that Trump’s campaign promises about the wall were “uninformed.”  (next IH, see Jan 22; next TW, see Mar 13)

January 18 Peace Love Art Activism

Trump Impeachment

January 18, 2020: President Trump’s legal defense team strenuously denied that he had committed impeachable acts, denouncing the charges against him as a “brazen and unlawful” attempt to cost him re-election as House Democrats laid out in meticulous detail their case that he should be removed from office. [NYT story] (next TI, see Jan 20 or see Trump for expanded chronology)

January 18 Peace Love Art Activism

2020 Census

January 18, 2021: Census Bureau Director Steve Dillingham, the Trump-appointed official overseeing the 2020 census, announced his resignation, nearly a year before his term’s scheduled end.

Dillingham’s announcement came six days after the Trump administration backed off from its final attempt to exclude undocumented immigrants from an important count of the nation’s population.

The departure saved him from the possibility of being fired by the incoming Biden administration, which had indicated it will not follow the Trump administration’s plan to exclude non-citizens when splitting seats in Congress between the states. [CNN article] (next Census, see Jan 20)

January 18 Peace Love Art Activism