July 10 Peace Love Art Activism

BLACK HISTORY

Separate Car Act

July 10, 1890: Louisiana governor Francis Nicholls signed the Separate Car Act, which mandated the racial segregation of railroad passengers. [Railroad article] (see Nov 1)

E. Frederic Morrow

July 10, 1955: E Frederic Morrow moved to the White House on this day to become an aide to President Dwight D. Eisenhower and as such he became the first African-American to serve in that capacity. His autobiography vividly describes his difficulties in trying to persuade the administration to take a strong stand on civil rights. Morrow, for example, tried unsuccessfully to get President Eisenhower to issue a statement regarding the brutal murder of Emmett Till, a 14-year-old African-American, in Mississippi on August 28, 1955. He did, however, finally convince Eisenhower to meet with civil rights leaders in the White House, a meeting that occurred on June 23, 1958.  [1994 NYT obit]  (see August 21)

Albany Movement

July 10, 1962: Martin Luther King Jr and Ralph Abernathy, convicted of having violated a street and sidewalk assembly ordinance without a permit on December 16, 1961, went to jail to emphasize their nonviolent defiance of racial barriers. They had been given the choice of a $178 fine each or 45 days in jail. They choose jail. (see Albany for expanded story)

July 10 Peace Love Art Activism

Religion and Public Education

SEPARATION OF CHURCH AND STATE

July 10, 1925: the Scopes trial began with jury selection. Judge John Raulston asks the Rev. Lemuel M. Cartright to open the proceedings with a prayer. (see Scopes for expanded story)

July 10 Peace Love Art Activism

July 10 Music et al

LSD

July 10, 1960: Sidney Cohen’s survey of 5,000 individuals who had taken LSD 25,000 times concluded it was safe. (see June 1961)

Bobby Lewis

July 10 – August 27, 1961: “Tossin’ and Turnin’” by Bobby Lewis #1 Billboard Hot 100.

A Hard Day’s Night

July 10, 1964: recorded 29 Jan, 25 – 27 Feb, 1 Mar and 1 – 4 June 1964 at EMI Studios, London and Pathé Marconi Studios, Paris, Parlophone released A Hard Day’s Night, the Beatles’ third studio album. Side one contained songs from the soundtrack to their film A Hard Day’s Night. United Artists Records had released the American version  two weeks earlier on 26 June 1964 with a different track listing. This was the first Beatles album recorded entirely on four-track tape, allowing for good stereo mixes.

In contrast to their first two albums, John Lennon and Paul McCartney wrote all 13 tracks, showcasing the development of the band’s songwriting talents. (see July 12)

see Rolling Stones for more

July 10 – August 6, 1965: “(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction by the Rolling Stones #1 on the Billboard Hot 100, the first of five #1 Billboard Hot 100 songs in the 1960s.

Beatles VI

July 10 – August 20, 1965: Beatles VI  is the Billboard #1 album. (see July 29)

Third Big Sur Folk Festival

July 10, 1966: The Third Big Sur Folk Festival. (see June 28 – 29, 1967)

Featuring: Joan Baez Judy Collins Mark Spoelstra

Malvina Reynolds Nancy Carlen Al Kooper Mimi Fariña panel discussion w Ralph Gleason: “What’s Happening Baby”

The [bumpy] Road to Bethel: July 10, 1969

• Peter Goodrich and John Roberts meet in Peter Marshall’s office with Charles Baxter, Jeffrey Joerger, and Lee Howard of Food for Love to discuss providing food at the festival. Because of the lack of any other companies offering their services and the late date, Roberts approved Food for Love’s application. (see July 10)
• the entire production staff met to go over all progress that had been made since they began. Most were pleased with the many tasks accomplished and plans in place. (see  Chronology for expanded story)

Grateful Dead

July 10, 1986: Jerry Garcia went into a five day diabetic coma, resulting in the band withdrawing from their current tour. (see July 29, 1987)

July 10 Peace Love Art Activism

Space Race

July 10, 1962: Telstar satellite launched by NASA. It was the…

• first active, direct-relay communications satellite
• first satellite to relay television, telephone and high-speed data communications
• first transatlantic television [NASA article] (Space race, see Sept 12; relay satellite, see Dec 13; Telstar, see Dec 22)

July 10 Peace Love Art Activism

Feminism

July 10, 1971: more than 200 women — Republicans, Democrats and independents — met to inaugurate a new organization aimed at increasing the number of women holding public office. The group called itself the National Women’s Political Caucus. [NWPC site]  (see Nov 22)

July 10 Peace Love Art Activism

Vietnam

July 10 > 14, 1972: The Democratic National Convention meets in Miami Beach. Senator George McGovern, who backed the immediate and complete withdrawal of U.S. troops from South Vietnam, was nominated for President. He named fellow Senator Thomas Eagleton as his running mate. [NYT article] (see Aug 11)

July 10 Peace Love Art Activism

INDEPENDENCE DAY

July 10, 1973: Bahamas independent of United Kingdom. [Bahamas site] (see Sept 24)

July 10 Peace Love Art Activism

UK rioting

July 10, 1981: three days of rioting that took place in the Handsworth area of Birmingham, England. The disturbances resulted in 121 arrests and 40 injuries to police officers, alongside widespread damage to property. [Birmingham article] (see July 12)

July 10 Peace Love Art Activism

Irish Troubles

July 10, 1981:  funeral for Joe McDonnell. The British Army moved to arrest an IRA firing party at the funeral and seized a number of weapons and made several arrests. Rioting broke out following this incident. (see Troubles for expanded story)

July 10 Peace Love Art Activism

Environmental Issues

July 10, 1985: French Direction Générale de la Sécurité Extérieure agents  (France’s external intelligence agency) bombed and sank the Greenpeace vessel Rainbow Warrior in Auckland harbor. [2015 Guardian article] (see April 23, 1988)

July 10 Peace Love Art Activism

Immigration History

July 10, 2018: facing a legal deadline to return young migrant children separated from their parents at the border, federal officials said that they had reunited four families, with an additional 34 reunions scheduled before the end of the day. The relatively slow pace of unwinding the Trump administration’s family separation policy fell short of an original court order, which had directed that all children under age 5 — a total of 102, by the government’s latest count — be returned to their families by this date.  (see July 14)

July 10 Peace Love Art Activism

FREE SPEECH, US Labor History & Colin Kaepernick

July 10, 2018: the NFL players union filed a grievance over the league’s new requirement that players stand for the national anthem or wait in their dressing rooms, a policy that followed President Donald Trump’s denunciation of pregame protests.

The National Football League said on May 23 it would require any player who did not wish to stand during the playing of “The Star-Spangled Banner” before games to stay off the field until the ceremony ended.

Before the league announced the new policy, the NFL Players Association (NFLPA) had offered to discuss other ways to defuse tensions over the protests, which were prompted by a series of police killings of unarmed black men in Missouri, New York and other cities.

“The union’s claim is that this new policy, imposed by the NFL’s governing body without consultation with the NFLPA, is inconsistent with the collective bargaining agreement and infringes on player rights,” the NFLPA said. (FS, see July 14; LH, see July 17; CK, see July 19)

July 10 Peace Love Art Activism

Cultural Milestone

July 10, 2019: in Puebla, Mexico, Volkswagen made the last Beetle, a third-generation Denim Blue coupe. (next CM, see October 11, 2021)

July 10 Peace Love Art Activism

Women’s Health/Affordable Care Act

July 10, 2020:  US District Judge Catherine Blake in Maryland blocked a new federal regulation that would have required insurers on the Obamacare exchanges that cover abortions to issue separate bills for that coverage.

The decision marked a setback in the Trump administration’s long-standing efforts to limit abortion access through federal programs. Planned Parenthood of Maryland and several individuals who bought health insurance on their states’ exchanges filed the lawsuit in February, with lawyers from Planned Parenthood Federation of America and the American Civil Liberties Union Foundation representing plaintiffs.

Blake found that the rule from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) ran afoul of a section of the Affordable Care Act barring “unreasonable barriers” to health care, since “it makes it harder for consumers to pay for insurance because they must now keep track of two separate bills.”

The insured individuals who helped bring the suit “are in danger of losing non-Hyde abortion coverage if states allow issuers to drop the coverage and if issuers decide that the ‘separate billing’ rule is too burdensome,” Blake wrote. [CBS News article] (next ACA/Healthcare,see July 13; next WH, see July 21)

July 10 Peace Love Art Activism

July 9 Peace Love Art Activism

Feminism

Fourteenth Amendment

July 9, 1868: the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution ratified, explicitly protecting the voting rights of only the “male inhabitants” of the United States. This marks the first instance in which the Constitution clearly links citizenship and voting rights to gender.

The amendment extended the Fifth Amendment’s protections to the states. The Fourteenth Amendment states: “nor shall any state deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.” The Fourteenth Amendment will be cited in the June 29, 1972 Supreme Court case Furman v. Georgia which ruled the death penalty unconstitutional as administered. The Fourteenth Amendment was also cited in the Mar. 1, 2005 Supreme Court case Roper v. Simmons which ruled the death penalty unconstitutional for offenders under the age of 18.  (BH, see Sept 3; DP, see August 6, 1890; VR, see April 1869)

Matilda Joslyn Gage

In 1869 Gage helped found New York State Woman Suffrage Association; served as president for nine years.

Matilda Joslyn Gage continued

In 1870 Gage researched and published “Woman as Inventor.” In it, Gage credited the invention of the cotton gin to a woman, Catherine Littlefield Greene. Gage claimed that Greene suggested to Whitney the use of a brush-like component instrumental in separating out the seeds and cotton. [Gage provided no source for this claim and to date there has been no independent verification of Greene’s role in the invention of the gin. However, many believe that Eli Whitney received the patent for the gin and the sole credit in history textbooks for its invention only because social norms inhibited women from registering for patents.]

Gage writes about American Indians

In the 1870s Gage wrote a series of articles speaking out against United States’ unjust treatment of American Indians and describing superior position of native women. “The division of power between the sexes in this Indian republic was nearly equal,” Gage wrote of the Iroquois. In matters of government, “…its women exercised controlling power in peace and war … no sale of lands was valid without consent” of the women, while “the family relation among the Iroquois demonstrated woman’s superiority in power … in the home, the wife was absolute … if the Iroquois husband and wife separated, the wife took with her all the property she had brought … the children also accompanied the mother, whose right to them was recognized as supreme.” “Never was justice more perfect, never civilization higher,” Gage concluded. (Feminsim, see February 3, 1870;  see Gage for expanded story)

Emma Goldman

July 9, 1917: a jury found Emma Goldman and Alexander Berkman guilty of conspiracy against the selective draft law in NYC. They were fined $10,000, sentenced to two years’ imprisonment, and immediately transported to federal penitentiaries: Berkman is sent to Atlanta State Penitentiary in Georgia and Goldman is taken to Jefferson City Penitentiary in Missouri. (see Sept 11)

Florence Blanchfield

July 9, 1947:  In a ceremony held at the Pentagon in Arlington, Virginia, General Dwight D. Eisenhower appointed Florence Blanchfield to be a lieutenant colonel in the U.S. Army, making her the first woman in U.S. history to hold permanent military rank. A member of the Army Nurse Corps since 1917, Blanchfield secured her commission following the passage of the Army-Navy Nurse Act of 1947 by Congress. Blanchfield had served as superintendent of the Army Nurse Corps during World War II and was instrumental in securing passage of the Army-Navy Nurse Act, which was advocated by Representative Frances Payne Bolton. In 1951, Blanchfield received the Florence Nightingale Award from the International Red Cross. In 1978, a U.S. Army hospital in Fort Campbell, Kentucky, was named in her honor. [1971 NYT obit] (see December 2, 1949)

Alice Paul dies

July 9, 1977: from the New York Times. “Alice Paul, a pioneer of the women’s movement who helped lead the fight for women’s suffrage and who, more than 50 years ago, helped draft the forerunner to today’s proposed equal rights amendment to the Constitution, died yesterday at the Quaker Greenleaf Extension Home in Moorestown, N.J. She was 92 years old.” (see April 19, 1978)

July 9 Peace Love Art Activism

BLACK HISTORY

James H Meredith

July 9, 1963: following the June 12 assassination of Medgar Evers, James Meredith had issued a statement that read in part: The blame clearly rests with the Governors of the Southern states and their defiant and provocative actions’ it rests with the blind courts and prejudiced juries; it is known by both blacks and whites that no white man will be punished for any crime against a Negro. He went on to say that nothing had happened to the guilty parties in the September 30 riots and called for “a general boycott of everything possible by all Negroes within the boundaries of the State of Mississippi.” On July 9, Governor Ross Barnett asked the Federal Court permission to expel Meredith for those statements. (see Aug 18)

Blacks cannot congregate

July 9, 1964: Dallas County (Alabama) Circuit Court Judge James Hare issued an injunction effectively forbidding gatherings of three or more people to discuss civil rights or voter registration in Selma. (see July 12)

137 SHOTS

July 9, 2015: Cuyahoga County prosecutor Tim McGinty offered to drop charges against five white police supervisors accused of failing to stop a car chase that ended in a deadly 137-shot barrage of police gunfire and the deaths of two unarmed black people if they’re willing to say they endangered the public and meet other conditions, attorneys for two supervisors said Wednesday. Both attorneys said their clients have rejected the deal and are prepared to go to trial. (see 137 for expanded story)

Stop and Frisk Policy

July 9, 2015: according to Peter Zimroth, a federal monitor appointed to oversee court-ordered changes to the department regarding stop-and-frisk, the New York Police Department may not be accurately reporting the number of stop-and-frisk encounters, casting doubt on the extent of the decline in the crime-fighting tactic.

In his first progress report since his appointment, Zimroth wrote that an NYPD audit showed that some officers were conducting street stops without documenting them correctly or weren’t documenting them at all in some cases.

He also said in the 87-page report that interviews and conversations with NYPD members of varying ranks found that some officers may not be making stops that would be lawful because they aren’t sure what they are authorized to do and they fear “legal liability” and discipline. (see July 28)

July 9 Peace Love Art Activism

see July 9 Music et al for more

Roots of Rock

July 9, 1955:  “Rock Around the Clock” became the first rock and roll recording to hit the top of Billboard’s Pop charts, a feat it repeated on charts around the world. (see Aug 21)

Dick Clark

July 9, 1956: Dick Clark took over as the host of Philadelphia’s TV dance show on WFIL, called Bandstand. He got the job after the former host Bob Horn was arrested for DUI. The show would go national on ABC the following year, with the name changed to American Bandstand. (see Sept 9)

Bob Dylan

July 9, 1962: Dylan recorded “Blowin’ In the Wind” A few weeks earlier when he performed it live he stated, “This here ain’t no protest song or anything like that, ’cause I don’t write no protest songs” while onstage at Gerde’s Folk City in Greenwich Village, talking about a song he claims to have written in just 10 minutes. (see July 30)

Cultural Milestone

July 9, 1962: the first one-man exhibition for artist Andy Warhol opens at Ferus Gallery in Los Angeles, consisting of 32 silk-screened portraits of Campbell’s soup cans. (see March 5, 1963)

The Beatles

July 9 – 15, 1966: “Paperback Writer” #1 on the Billboard Hot 100. (see Paperback for more; next Beatles, see July 29)

July 9 Peace Love Art Activism

Nuclear/Chemical News

July 9, 1955: Bertrand Russell issued the Russell–Einstein Manifesto. It highlighted the dangers posed by nuclear weapons and called for world leaders to seek peaceful resolutions to international conflict. It’s Resolution read:

We invite this Congress, and through it the scientists of the world and the general public, to subscribe to the following resolution: “In view of the fact that in any future world war nuclear weapons will certainly be employed, and that such weapons threaten the continued existence of mankind, we urge the Governments of the world to realize, and to acknowledge publicly, that their purpose cannot be furthered by a world war, and we urge them, consequently, to find peaceful means for the settlement of all matters of dispute between them.”  [Russell-Eiunstein Manifesto] (Red Scare, see “in August” ; Nuclear, see Aug 8)

July 9 Peace Love Art Activism

FREE SPEECH

American Nazi Party

July 9, 1978: American Nazi Party held a rally at Marquette Park, Chicago Two dozen Nazis, under heavy police protection, assembled for less than an hour. [NYT archive article] (see June 25, 1982)

Trump Twitter

July 9, 2019:  in Knight First Amendment Institute, et al v. Donald J. Trump, et al, a three-judge panel on the US Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit ruled unanimously that President Trump had been violating the Constitution by blocking people from following his Twitter account because they criticized or mocked him.

The panel ruled that because Trump used Twitter to conduct government business, he could not exclude some Americans from reading his posts — and engaging in conversations in the replies to them — because he did not like their views

Writing for the panel, Judge Barrington D. Parker noted that the conduct of the government and its officials were subject to a “wide-open, robust debate” that “generates a level of passion and intensity the likes of which have rarely been seen.”

The First Amendment prohibits an official who uses a social media account for government purposes from excluding people from an “otherwise open online dialogue” because they say things the official disagrees with, he wrote. [NYT article] (next FS, see Sept 24)

July 9 Peace Love Art Activism

UK

July 9, 1981: Sheffield riot occurred in and around Sheffield Town Hall. The exact cause was unclear. 14 policemen and 5 civilians were injured, 20 arrests were made, and several offices inside the Town Hall were badly damaged. (see July 10)

July 9 Peace Love Art Activism

CLINTON IMPEACHMENT

July 9, 1998: Monica Lewinsky announces she is prepared to cooperate in the Maryland investigation into the legality of Linda Tripp’s tapes of phone conversations as Tripp appears before the grand jury for the fourth time. (see Clinton for expanded story)

July 9 Peace Love Art Activism

INDEPENDENCE DAY

July 9, 2011: South Sudan independent from Sudan. [NYT article]

July 9 Peace Love Art Activism

Environmental Issues

July 9, 2018: Starbucks announced that it would stop using disposable plastic straws by 2020, eliminating more than one billion straws a year. Instead, Starbucks, which had more than 28,000 stores worldwide, would use recyclable, strawless lids on most of its iced drinks. The Frappuccino was the one exception: it will have a straw made from either paper or compostable plastic. (see July 19)

July 9 Peace Love Art Activism

Immigration History

July 9, 2018:

• in a ruling that countered nearly every argument posed by the Justice Department, Judge Dolly M. Gee of the Federal District Court in Los Angeles held that there was no basis to amend a longstanding consent decree that required children to be released to licensed care programs within 20 days. The government said that long-term confinement was the only way to avoid separating families when parents were detained on criminal charges. Gee said the administration’s request to modify the decree, the 1997 Flores agreement, was “a cynical attempt” to shift immigration policymaking to the courts in the wake of “over 20 years of congressional inaction and ill-considered executive action that have led to the current stalemate.”
• federal authorities prepared to unspool the administration’s family separation program, with 54 young migrants scheduled to be returned to their parents as a result of an earlier court ruling from a federal judge in San Diego. The secretive operation set to unfold on July 10 involved transporting children hundreds of miles to undisclosed locations around the country. (see July 10)

2020 Census

July 9, 2019: United States District Judge Jesse M. Furman in New York rejected the Justice Department’s request to switch its legal team midway through a case challenging the Trump administration’s effort to add a citizenship question to the 2020 census.

Furman’s sharply worded order further hobbled an already struggling battle by the administration to save the citizenship question. Efforts to block it had become a crucial political issue as the next census — and the redrawing of political boundaries in 2021 that would use fresh census data — drew near. [NYT article] (next IH, & Census, see July 11)

July 9 Peace Love Art Activism

Native Americans

July 9, 2020:  in McGirt v. Oklahoma, the Supreme Court ruled by a 5-4 margin that nearly half of Oklahoma is an Indian reservation in the eyes of the criminal-justice system, preventing state authorities from prosecuting offenses there that involve Native Americans.

The decision was potentially one of the most consequential legal victories for Native Americans in decades. It was written by Justice Neil Gorsuch, a Westerner who has sided with tribes in previous cases and joined the court’s more liberal members.

“Today we are asked whether the land these treaties promised remains an Indian reservation for purposes of federal criminal law,” Justice Gorsuch wrote. “Because Congress has not said otherwise, we hold the government to its word.” [NY Times article]  (next NA, see July 13); see June 29, 2022 for SCOTUS decision limited this)

July 9 Peace Love Art Activism

July 8 Peace Love Art Activism

BLACK HISTORY

Slave Ship Clotilde

July 8, 1860: more than 50 years after Congress banned the importation of enslaved Africans into the United States, the slave ship Clotilde arrived in Mobile, Alabama, carrying more than 100 enslaved people from West Africa. Captain William Foster commanded the boat, and was later said to be working for Timothy Meaher, a white Mobile shipyard owner who built the Clotilde.

Captain Foster evaded capture by federal authorities by transferring the enslaved Africans to a riverboat and burning and then sinking the Clotilde. [EJI article]  (next BH, see March 27, 1861; Clotilde, see May 22, 2019)

Hamburg Massacre

July 8, 1876: the Hamburg Massacre took place in South Carolina after African-American members of a militia marched on the Fourth of July. Two white farmers, temporarily obstructed from traveling through town, brought a formal complaint, demanding the disbandment of the militia. Hundreds of armed white men descended on the small black community, and militia members retreated to a warehouse they used as their armory. The attackers fired a cannon at the armory, eventually killing seven, six of them African Americans. It was the beginning of the “Redemption,” re-instituting white supremacist rule. The only known monument that exists honors the lone white soldier who died. [Black Past article] (next BH, see January 29, 1877)

Marcus Garvey

July 8, 1917: Garvey delivered an address, “The Conspiracy of the East St. Louis Riots,” at Lafayette Hall in Harlem, in which he stated that the East St Louis riot (see July 2) was “one of the bloodiest outrages against mankind.” (BH, see July 28; see MG for expanded Garvey story)

Robert Fahsenfeld

July 8, 1963: Robert Fahsenfeld, owner of a segregated lunchroom in the racially tense Eastern Shore community of Cambridge, Maryland, douses a white integrationist with water. The integrationist, Edward Dickerson, was among three white and eight African American protesters who knelt on the sidewalk in front of the restaurant to sing freedom songs. A raw egg, which Fahsenfeld had broken over Dickerson’s head moments earlier, still is visible on the back of Dickerson’s head. The protesters were later arrested.

Medgar Evers murder trail

July 8, 1963: Byron de La Beckwith pleaded not guilty in State Circuit Court on his indictment for the murder of Medgar W. Evers. (BH, see July 9; Evers, see July 25)

July 8 Peace Love Art Activism

Vietnam

Viet Minh

July 8, 1944: the French discovered a Viet Minh base in Cao Bang province with arms and other material and warned of an immediate need “to re-establish authority.” The Viet Minh controlled much of the border areas on northern Vietnam in Cao Bang, Bac Kan, and Lang Son provinces. (see Dec 27)

Maj. Dale R. Buis and Master Sgt. Chester M. Ovnand

July 8, 1959: Maj. Dale R. Buis and Master Sgt. Chester M. Ovnand become the first Americans killed in the American phase of the Vietnam War when guerrillas strike a Military Assistance Advisory Group (MAAG) compound in Bien Hoa, 20 miles northeast of Saigon. The group had arrived in South Vietnam on November 1, 1955, to provide military assistance. The organization consisted of U.S. Army, Navy, Air Force, and Marine Corps personnel who provided advice and assistance to the Ministry of Defense, Joint General Staff, corps and division commanders, training centers, and province and district headquarters. (see March 6, 1960)

Ambassador Maxwell Taylor

July 8, 1965: Ambassador Maxwell Taylor resigned as U.S. Ambassador to South Vietnam. Taylor had earlier been opposed to the introduction of U.S. ground troops into South Vietnam, proposing instead an intensified air campaign against North Vietnam. Taylor would be replaced by Henry Cabot Lodge, Jr., who returned to Saigon for his second stint as ambassador. [1979 WGBH interview] (see July 18)

US troop withdrawal

July 8, 1969: the first U.S. troop withdrawals are made from Viet Nam. (see July 11)

The Cold War

July 8, 1960: the Soviet Union charged CIA pilot Francis Gary Powers with espionage. (CW, see Aug 4; see Powers for expanded story)

July 8 Peace Love Art Activism

July 8 Music et al

Jimi Hendrix

July 8, 1967: The Monkees, one of the biggest acts in the US, started a US concert tour. Mickey Dolenz had strongly recommended hiring Jimi Hendrix and his band as their opening act. Peter Tork and Michael Nesmith supported the choice; both were anxious to be accepted as serious musicians and believed that Hendrix would lend them some credibility among rock critics and older record buyers. Tork would later say, “Besides, …it would give us the chance to watch Jimi Hendrix perform night after night!”

Jimi, on the other hand, thought The Monkees’ music was “dishwater,” but his manager convinced him to sign on for the tour and to capitalize on the buzz generated by his Monterey Pop performance

The Monkees’ young fans were confused by the overtly sexual stage antics of Hendrix, and when he tried to get them to sing along to “Foxy Lady” they stubbornly screamed “Foxy Davy!”  (next Hendrix, see July 16; see Hendrix/Monkees for expanded story)

The [bumpy] Road to Bethel

July 8, 1969

• the Middletown Fire Department unanimously turned down a proposal to supply personnel to run Nathan’s food concessions. The fire companies’ membership objected to the long hours Natahan’s had required.
• Wes Pomeroy and Don Ganoung  met with town fire advisory board to discuss the festival’s  fire protection needs. Instead of evaluating the festival’s requirements and coming to an informal arrangement, the advisory board decided not to act on the proposed plans until it was asked to do so by the town board under the new local law.
• Joel Rosenman received a letter from Margaret Y Tremper, the deputy town clerk from the Town of Shawangunk in upstate NY. The letter informed the festival organizers that the festival address used on advertising was misleading as Wallkill, NY (Ulster County) was not the same as the Town of Wallkill (Orange county), where the festival was. She hoped that they would correct their advertising to avoid having thousands of attendees mistakenly arriving at her location and not theirs.
• a Smoky Robinson and the Miracles concert in Boston resulted in scattered incidents of stone throwing and window breaking after the sound system had problems.
•  Miles Lourie resigned as counsel for Woodstock Ventures because of the recent appointment of Peter Marshall as an additional counsel.
• (second week of July) Peter Goodrich continued to try to find companies for the festival’s food concession stands. (see Chronology for the whole story)

July 8 Peace Love Art Activism

Native Americans

Termination policies

July 8, 1970: President Richard Nixon formally ended the termination policies established in the 1950s and announced a new policy of “self-determination without termination.” The administration introduced 22 legislative proposals supporting Indian self-rule. [APP article] (see “in August”)

Long Walkers 3

July 8, 2011: Long Walkers 3 arrived in Washington, DC. (see July 18, 2012)

July 8 Peace Love Art Activism

LGBTQ

Democratic Rules Committee

July 8, 1980: The Democratic Rules Committee states that it will not discriminate against homosexuals. At their National Convention on August 11-14, the Democrats become the first political party to endorse a homosexual rights platform. (see Sept 9)

DOMA’s Section 3

July 8, 2010: U.S. District Court Judge Joseph Tauro ruled in Gill v. Office of Personnel Management and Commonwealth of Massachusetts v. United States Department of Health and Human Services that DOMA’s Section 3, which restricts marriage to different-sex couples, was unconstitutional. [text] (see August 2010)

July 8 Peace Love Art Activism

Irish Troubles

July 8, 1981:   Irish Republican Joe McDonnell died at the Long Kesh Internment Camp after a 61-day hunger strike. (see Troubles for expanded story)

July 8 Peace Love Art Activism

US Labor History

July 8, 1982: W.A. Boyle, the former president of the United Mine Workers who was convicted of hiring assassins to kill union rival Joseph Yablonski, lost an appeal for a new trial when the Pennsylvania  State Supreme Court ruled that the verdict was fair. (see Nov 16)

July 8 Peace Love Art Activism

Iraq War II

Rape charges

July 8, 2006: four other soldiers charged with participating in the rape and murders; a fifth charged with dereliction of duty for failing to report the crimes (see in July 2006)

Colin Powell

July 8, 2007:  the former American secretary of state Colin Powell revealed that he’d spent 2½ hours vainly trying to persuade President George W Bush not to invade Iraq and believed the conflict could not be resolved by US forces. [2015 NBC News interview] (see Aug 16)

July 8 Peace Love Art Activism

Cannabis

July 8, 2011:  “The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) ruled that marijuana has “no accepted medical use” and should therefore remain illegal under federal law — regardless of conflicting state legislation allowing medical marijuana and despite hundreds of studies and centuries of medical practice attesting to the drug’s benefits.

The judgment came in response to a 2002 petition by supporters of medical marijuana, which called on the government to reclassify cannabis, which is currently a Schedule I drug — like heroin, illegal for all uses — and to place it in Schedule III, IV or V, which would allow for common medical uses…

The government had long delayed making a judgment on the petition, but now that it has, it makes it possible for advocates to appeal it in federal court. Now, that process can be set in motion.” (next Cannabis, see November or see CCC for expanded chronology)

July 8 Peace Love Art Activism

Women’s Health

Wisconsin abortion Law blocked

July 8, 2013: a federal U.S. District Judge William Conley temporarily blocked part of Wisconsin’s new abortion law and scheduled a hearing for next week. The law includes provisions similar to those in several other states that require women to undergo an ultrasound procedure before having an abortion and require doctors who provide abortion services to have admitting privileges at a hospital. Opponents, including Planned Parenthood of Wisconsin, which is representing two doctors and an abortion clinic in challenging the law, said the measure was rushed into effect and that the provision affecting doctors would force two of the state’s four clinics to close. Conley agreed that the law had been rushed onto the books, noting that it was proposed, passed, signed and enacted in just 34 days, a timeline he called “precipitous.” [Reuters article] (see Oct 28)

Contraception blocked

July 8, 2020:  in Little Sisters of the Poor Saints Peter and Paul Home v .Pennsylvania, the Supreme Court upheld a Trump administration regulation that lets employers with religious or moral objections limit women’s access to birth control coverage under the Affordable Care Act.

As a consequence of the ruling, about 70,000 to 126,000 women could lose contraceptive coverage from their employers, according to government estimates.

The vote was 7 to 2, with Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Sonia Sotomayor dissenting. [NYT article] (next WH/ACA, see July 10)

July 8 Peace Love Art Activism

Fair Housing

July 8, 2015: Housing and Urban Development Secretary Julián Castro released new rules to promote integrated neighborhoods, a goal that has lagged in many cities, despite a 1960s ban on racial discrimination. The potentially far-reaching initiative would require localities receiving HUD funds to study patterns of racial bias in housing, report publicly on their findings and set goals for ending segregation that will be monitored.

Efforts to combat segregation in housing date to the 1968 Fair Housing Act, which was recalled last month when the U.S. Supreme Court (June 25) reaffirmed its authority to prohibit housing policies unfair to minorities The ruling and the new administration effort put heat on local governments to carry out the mandate of the nearly half-century-old law to “affirmatively further” the goals of nondiscrimination in housing.  [NYT article] (see July 13)

July 8 Peace Love Art Activism

Nuclear/Chemical News

July 8, 2019: Behrouz Kamalvandi of Iran’s country’s atomic energy agency  announced that the country had breached a crucial limit on the level of uranium enrichment set out in the 2015 nuclear deal.  China, another signatory to the deal, accused the United States of “bullying” Tehran with crippling economic sanctions.

Kamalvandi told the Iranian state broadcaster IRIB that the country had surpassed a limit of 3.67 percent uranium enrichment, and was prepared to go further. Kamalvandi later told another Iranian news outlet, ISNA, that the enrichment level was above 4.5 percent. (next N/C N, see Aug 2; next Iran, see January 5, 2020)

July 8 Peace Love Art Activism

Consumer Protection

July 8, 2019: Judge Amit P. Mehta, of the United States District Court in the District of Columbia ruled that the Trump administration could not force pharmaceutical companies to disclose the list price of their drugs in television ads

Mehta ruled that the Department of Health and Human Services exceeded its regulatory authority by seeking to require all drugmakers to include in their television commercials the list price of any drug that costs more than $35 a month. [NYT article] (see Sept 11)

July 8 Peace Love Art Activism

SEPARATION OF CHURCH AND STATE

July 8, 2020: in the cases of Our Lady of Guadalupe School v. Morrissey-Berru, No. 19-267, and St. James School v. Darryl Biel, No. 19-348 , the Supreme Court ruled that federal employment discrimination laws do not apply to teachers at church-run schools whose duties include religious instruction.

The 7-to-2 ruling could affect more that 100,000 teachers at Catholic elementary and secondary schools and many other employees of religious groups.

Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr., writing for the majority, said the First Amendment’s protection of religious freedom forbids judges from interfering in the internal workings of religious institutions.

“When a school with a religious mission entrusts a teacher with the responsibility of educating and forming students in the faith,” he wrote, “judicial intervention into disputes between the school and the teacher threatens the school’s independence in a way that the First Amendment does not allow.” [NYT article] (next Separation, see July 24)

July 8 Peace Love Art Activism