April 14 Peace Love Art Activism

Cultural Milestones

Birth of Christmas

AD 336: in an old list of Roman bishops, compiled in A. D. 354 these words appear for A.D. 336: “25 Dec.: natus Christus in Betleem Judeae.” December 25th, Christ born in Bethlehem, Judea.  Thus this day in 336 AD was the first recorded celebration of Christmas.

Before then, birthdays in general were not given much emphasis–not even the birth of Christ. The day on which a saint died was considered more significant than their birth, And Christ’s baptism—celebrated on January 6 with the Feast of the Epiphany—received more attention than his birthday.

Why December 25? When a consensus arose in the Roman Catholic Church to celebrate Christ’s conception on March 25th, it was reasonable to celebrate his birth nine months later. 

Noah Webster

April 14, 1828: Noah Webster, a Yale-educated lawyer with an avid interest in language and education, published his American Dictionary of the English Language. Webster’s dictionary was one of the first lexicons to include distinctly American words. The dictionary, which took him more than two decades to complete, introduced more than 10,000 “Americanisms.” The introduction of a standard American dictionary helped standardize English spelling, a process that had started as early as 1473, when printer William Caxton published the first book printed in English. The rapid proliferation of printing and the development of dictionaries resulted in increasingly standardized spellings by the mid-17th century. (Noah Webster House site bio)  (see March 23, 1839)

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BLACK HISTORY

Pennsylvania Abolition Society

April 14, 1775: The Society for the Relief of Free Negroes Unlawfully Held in Bondage (aka, Pennsylvania Abolition Society) founded in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania by Anthony Benezet and others. It was the first American abolition society. Seventeen of the 24 men who attended initial meetings of the Society were Quakers, or members of the Religious Society of Friends. Thomas Paine was also among the Society’s founders. (Paabolition dot org article) (see Nov 12)

Harriet Tubman

April 14, 1853: Harriet Tubman made her first trip back South to ensure that other slaves won their freedom. She helped hundreds of slaves escape North. She was never caught, despite a $40,000 reward for her capture. (see February 28, 1854)

United States v. Cruikshank

April 14, 1873: the Louisiana state militia under the control of Republican Governor William Kellogg arrived at the scene and recorded the carnage.  New Orleans police and federal troops also arrived in the next few days to reestablish order.  A total of 97 white militia men were arrested and charged with violation of the U.S. Enforcement Act of 1870 (also known as the Ku Klux Klan Act).   A handful of them were convicted but were eventually released in 1875 when the U.S. Supreme Court in United States v. Cruikshank ruled the Enforcement Act was unconstitutional. (harriet-tubman dot org article) (see June 28, 1874)

Horace Duncan, Fred Coker, and Will Allen lynched

 

April 14, 1906:  two innocent black men named Horace Duncan and Fred Coker (aka Jim Copeland) were abducted from the county jail by a white mob of several thousand participants and lynched in Springfield, Missouri.

The day before, a white woman reported that two African American men had assaulted her. Despite having “no evidence against them,” local police arrested  Duncan and Coker were “on suspicion.”

Local law enforcement did little to stop the mob from seizing the two men, though the officers were armed. When the mob dragged Duncan and Coker outside, the gathered crowd of nearly 3,000 angry white men, women, and children began shouting, “Hang them!” and “Burn them!”

At the public square, the mob hanged both men from the railing of the Gottfried Tower, then set a fire underneath and watched as both corpses were reduced to ashes in the flames.

Continuing their rampage, the mob returned to the jail and proceeded to lynch another African American man—Will Allen.

Two days after the lynchings, the woman who reported being assaulted issued a statement that she was “positive” that [Mr. Coker and Mr. Duncan] “were not her assailants, and that she could identify her assailants if they were brought before her.”

Four white men were arrested and twenty-five warrants issued, but only one white man was tried and no one was ever convicted.  [EJI article] (next BH, see Sept 22; next Lynching, see February 10, 1908; for for expanded chronology, see American Lynching 2)

Scottsboro 9

April 14, 1933: a meeting of Communists listened in NYC’s Union Square to speakers for the International Labor Defense plead for unity among white persons and Negroes to fight for the release of the “Scottsboro boys.” The meeting attracted approximately 10,000 people. (see Scottsboro or expanded story)

School Desegregation

April 14, 1947: Mendez v. Westminster. Five Mexican-American fathers, (Thomas Estrada, William Guzman, Gonzalo Mendez, Frank Palomino, and Lorenzo Ramirez) challenged the practice of school segregation in the U.S. District Court in Los Angeles. They claimed that their children, along with 5,000 other children of “Mexican” ancestry, were victims of unconstitutional discrimination by being forced to attend separate “schools for Mexicans” in the Westminster, Garden Grove, Santa Ana, and El Modena school districts of Orange County.

On February 18, 1946 Senior District Judge Paul J. McCormick, had ruled in favor of Mendez and his co-plaintiffs, finding segregated schools to be an unconstitutional denial of equal protection.

The school district appealed to the Ninth Federal District Court of Appeals in San Francisco, which upheld Judge McCormick’s decision, finding that the segregation practices violated the Fourteenth Amendment.

On April 14, 1947, the US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit affirmed the district court’s ruling, but not on equal protection grounds. It did not challenge the “separate but equal” interpretation of the 14th Amendment announced by the U.S. Supreme Court in Plessy v. Ferguson in 1896. (PBS article) (see January 20, 1951)

Malcolm X

April 14, 1957:   Malcolm X led a demonstration outside the police station in Harlem to protest the beating of a Muslim, demanding his transfer to a hospital. (BH, see May 17; MX, see May 5, 1962)

George Whitmore, Jr

April 14, 1964: Minnie Edmonds, a 46-year-old African American cleaning woman and mother of five, was stabbed to death by a man who attempted to snatch her purse near Sutter Avenue and Chester Street in the Brownsville section of Brooklyn.

Detective Joseph Di Pima

A year later, on April 14, 1965: Detective Joseph Di Pima testified that George Whitmore, Jr.’s confessions were voluntary, telling the jury, “All I had to say to him was: “What happened next George?” (see Whitmore to expand story)

Trayvon Martin Shooting

April 14, 2013:  Sgt. Ron King, who had been with the Port Canaveral police force for two years, was fired after it was discovered he was conducting practice with targets resembling Trayvon Martin wearing a hoodie, reports CBS Orlando affiliate WKMG. “Whether it was his stupidity or his hatred, (this is) not acceptable,” said Port Authority interim CEO Jim Walsh. Walsh said it happened at a training exercise earlier this month. King was teaching a shooting course to other officers and allegedly had the posters in his patrol car. (BH, see Apr 18; Martin, see June 20)

April 14 Peace Love Art Activism

Environmental Issues

Dust Bowl Black Sunday

April 14, 1935: another devastating storm of the Dust Bowl era. High winds kicked up clouds of millions of tons of dirt and dust so dense and dark that some eyewitnesses believed the world was coming to an end.

The day is known as “Black Sunday,” when a mountain of blackness swept across the High Plains and instantly turned a warm, sunny afternoon into a horrible blackness that was darker than the darkest night. Famous songs were written about it, and on the following day, the world would hear the region referred to for the first time as “The Dust Bowl.”

The wall of blowing sand and dust first blasted into the eastern Oklahoma panhandle and far northwestern Oklahoma around 4 PM. It raced to the south and southeast across the main body of Oklahoma that evening, accompanied by heavy blowing dust, winds of 40 MPH or more, and rapidly falling temperatures. But the worst conditions were in the Oklahoma and Texas panhandles, where the rolling mass raced more toward the south-southwest – accompanied by a massive wall of blowing dust that resembled a land-based tsunami. Winds in the panhandle reached upwards of 60 MPH, and for at least a brief time, the blackness was so complete that one could not see their own hand in front of their face. It struck Beaver around 4 PM, Boise City around 5:15 PM, and Amarillo at 7:20 PM. (PBS American Experience article) (see April 16, 1947)

Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill

April 14, 2010:   six days before the explosion, Brian Morel, a BP drilling engineer, emailed a colleague “this has been a nightmare well which has everyone all over the place.” (see Apr 20)

April 14 Peace Love Art Activism

The Cold War

Bay of Pigs Invasion

April 14, 1962: a Cuban military tribunal convicted 1,179 Bay of Pigs attackers. (Cold War, see Apr 25; see Bay of Pigs for expanded story)

State sponsor of terrorism

April 14, 2015: President Barack Obama notified Congress that he intended to remove Cuba from the list of state sponsors of terrorism. Obama submitted a statutorily required report to Congress on this date saying that he intended to rescind Cuba’s designation. Obama was required to submit the report to Congress 45 days before the designation would be officially rescinded. (see May 19; Cuba, see May 29)

April 14 Peace Love Art Activism

April 14 Music et al

Jimi Hendrix

April 14, 1962: during a weekend furlough, Hendrix and Billy Cox go to Indianapolis to enter a talent contest. After many delays in getting back to base, Hendrix failed to report for bed check. Hwas was given fourteen days of restriction between April 16 and 29. (see Hendrix military for expanded chronology)

1968 Oscars

April 14, 1969: 1968 Oscars held. No host. This year was the first in which the telecast on television was beamed worldwide – to 37 nations. Best Picture award Oliver.

The Ballad of John and Yoko

April 14, 1969: Paul and John recorded of ‘The Ballad of John and Yoko.’ Paul played bass, drums and piano with John on guitars and lead vocals. The song was banned from many radio stations as being blasphemous. On some stations, the word ‘Christ’ was edited in backwards to avoid the ban. (see May 9) (see Ballad for expanded story)

April 14 Peace Love Art Activism

Vietnam

173rd Airborne

April 14, 1965: the Joint Chiefs of Staff ordered the deployment of the 173rd Airborne Brigade from Okinawa to South Vietnam. The 173rd arrived in Vietnam in May 1965 and was the first major U.S. Army ground combat unit committed to the war. (see Apr 17)

Richard Nixon

April 14, 1967: private citizen Richard Nixon visited Saigon and stated that anti-war protests back in the U.S. were “prolonging the war.” In San Francisco and New York thousands march against the Vietnam War. (see Apr 15)

Vietnamese orphans

April 14, 1975:  the American airlift of Vietnamese orphans to the US ended after 2,600 children were transported to America. (2016 Daily Mail article) (see Apr 21)

April 14 Peace Love Art Activism

Women’s Health

Harry Blackmun

April 14, 1970: President Nixon nominated Harry Blackmun to the Supreme Court. He is best known as the author of the Court’s opinion in Roe v. Wade. (Oyez article on Blackmun) (see May 12)

Mifepristone

April 14, 2023: the Supreme Court it was temporarily keeping in place federal rules for use of mifepristone, an abortion drug, while it took time to more fully consider the issues raised in a court challenge.

In an order signed by Justice Samuel Alito, the court put a five-day pause on the case so the justices can decide whether lower court rulings restricting the Food and Drug Administration’s approval of mifepristone, should be allowed to take effect in the short term. [AP article] (next WH, see April 21)

April 14 Peace Love Art Activism

IRAQ War I

April 14 – 16, 1993:  former President George Bush visited Kuwait to commemorate the allied victory in the Persian Gulf War. (see June 18)

April 14 Peace Love Art Activism

CLINTON IMPEACHMENT

April 14, 1998: Kenneth Starr filed a sealed motion in U.S. District Court to compel testimony of uniformed Secret Service agents, according to the Wall Street Journal. (see Clinton for expanded story)

April 14 Peace Love Art Activism

Jack Kevorkian

You Don’t Know Jack

April 14 , 2010: the HBO film You Don’t Know Jack premiered at the Ziegfeld Theater in New York City. Kevorkian walked the red carpet alongside Al Pacino, who portrayed him in the film. Pacino received Emmy and Golden Globe awards for his portrayal, and personally thanked Kevorkian, who was in the audience, upon receiving both of these awards. Kevorkian stated that both the film and Pacino’s performance “brings tears to my eyes – and I lived through it”. (see Kevorkian for expanded story)

April 14 Peace Love Art Activism

Cannabis

Maryland

April 14, 2014: Maryland Governor Martin O’Malley signed a bill into law that decriminalized the possession of small amounts of marijuana. The bill made possession of less than 10 grams of marijuana a civil offense punishable by a fine of up to $100 for a first offense, up to $250 for a second offense, and up to $500 for subsequent offenses. Third-time offenders and individuals under 21 years of age would be required to undergo a clinical assessment for substance abuse disorder and a drug education program. (Washington Post article) (see Apr 28 or see CCC for expanded chronology)

April 14 Peace Love Art Activism

DEATH PENALTY

April 14, 2017: the Arkansas Supreme Court granted an emergency stay of execution for Bruce Ward and less than two hours later an Arkansas circuit judge issued a temporary restraining order the executions of six other murderers. The judge’s restraining order barred the state from administering one of three drugs it planned to use in the executions, which were scheduled to begin on Monday and stretch over 11 days. An eighth inmate who had been scheduled to die also won a stay earlier, removing him from the list for April execution. (see Apr 20)

April 14 Peace Love Art Activism

War in Afghanistan

April 14, 2021: the Biden administration set a new timetable for withdrawal: it said it would begin pulling out its remaining 3,500 troops on May 1 and complete the pullout at the latest by September. 11 — the 20th anniversary of the al-Qaida terror attack on the U.S. that had triggered the U.S.-led invasion of Afghanistan. NATO announced it would follow the same timetable for withdrawing nearly 10,000 troops.

In leaving, Washington calculated that it could manage its chief security interest — ensuring Afghanistan doesn’t become a base for terror attacks on the United States — from a distance. [AP article]   (next Afghanistan, see Aug 31)

April 14 Peace Love Art Activism

April 5 Peace Love Art Activism

BLACK HISTORY

Johnson Whittaker

April 5, 1880: while sleeping in his barracks, three white cadets brutally beat cadet Johnson Whittaker,  the second Black student admitted to the U.S. Military Academy at West Point and the only Black cadet at that time. The three slashed Whittaker’s head and ears, burned his Bible, threatened his life and then left him in his underwear, tied to the bed and bleeding profusely.

After Cadet Whittaker reported to West Point administrators that he had been attacked, the institution opened an investigation into him, and declined to hold his white attackers accountable. Administrators instead claimed that Cadet Whittaker had staged the attack to get out of his final exams, and in May, a West Point court of inquiry found Cadet Whittaker guilty of that charge. He was forced to take his final exams while incarcerated and withstand court-martial proceedings in New York City where the army prosecutor repeatedly referred to Black people as an “inferior race” known to “feign and sham.”

Whittaker was expelled from West Point, dishonorably discharged from the military, and held for continued imprisonment,

A year later, President Arthur issued an executive order overturning the conviction based on a finding that military prosecutors had relied on improperly admitted evidence. By the time of President Arthur’s intervention, Cadet Whittaker had been incarcerated for nearly two years; even after his conviction was overturned, West Point reinstated Cadet Whittaker’s expulsion, claiming he had failed an exam.

In 1995, more than 60 years after his death, Mr. Whittaker’s heirs accepted the commission he would have received upon graduating West Point. At the ceremony, President Bill Clinton remarked: “We cannot undo history. But today, finally, we can pay tribute to a great American and we can acknowledge a great injustice.” [EJI article; 1880 NYT article; BlackPast article] (next BH, see “In July 1881″)

Peons

April 5, 1921: although the 13th Amendment to the Constitution abolished slavery, African Americans continued to be held as de facto slaves in systems of peonage, a form of debt bondage. “Peons” or indentured servants owed money to their “masters” and were forced to work off their debt, a process that took years. A federal law passed in 1867 prohibited peonage but the practice continued for decades throughout the South. It was notoriously difficult to prosecute those who violated the federal law and those who were prosecuted were often acquitted by sympathetic juries.

Fear of a peonage prosecution led to a brutal spree of murders in rural Georgia in 1921. John Williams, a local white plantation owner, held blacks on his farm against their will in horrific, slavery-like conditions. After federal investigators suspected that Williams was violating the peonage law, Williams decided to get rid of the “evidence” of his crime by killing eleven black men whom he had been working as peons. Williams’s trial began on April 5, 1921, and four days later he was convicted of murder and sentenced to life imprisonment. He died in prison several years later.

Following the murders by Williams and other local atrocities against black people, Georgia Governor Hugh Dorsey in 1921 released a pamphlet entitled “A Statement from Governor Hugh M. Dorsey as to the Negro in Georgia.” Dorsey had collected 135 cases of mistreatment of blacks in the previous two years, including lynchings, extensive peonage, and general hostility. Dorsey recommended several remedies, including compulsory education for both races; a state commission to investigate lynchings; and penalties for counties where lynchings occurred. Reflecting on the mob violence that had become common throughout the South, Dorsey wrote, “To me it seems that we stand indicted as a people before the world.”

In response, several officials denied the charges contained in the pamphlet and many Georgians called for Dorsey’s impeachment. (next BH, see May 4; next Lynching, see May 31 and June 1; for for expanded chronology, see American Lynching 2)

Trayvon Martin Shooting

April 5, 2013:  Trayvon Martin’s parents settled a wrongful death claim with the homeowners association of the Retreat at Twin Lakes, the Florida housing complex where their son was shot and killed by neighborhood watch volunteer George Zimmerman. The undisclosed sum was believed to be more than $1 million. (see April 14)

April 5 Peace Love Art Activism

FREE SPEECH

H.L. Mencken

April 5, 1926: in an incident orchestrated himself, journalist H.L. Mencken was arrested for publishing “Hatrack,” a chapter from a book, Up From Methodism, by Herbert Asbury, in the April issue of his magazine, The American Mercury. His intention was to challenge postal obscenity laws. At trial, he was quickly acquitted. (see April 30, 1927)

Kelley v Johnson

April 5, 1976: The US Supreme Court decided in Kelley v Johnson that personal appearance of police officers is not a protected right of privacy as long as the regulations are rational and there is no substantial claim of infringement on the individual’s freedom of choice with respect to certain basic matters of procreation, marriage, and family life.

Justice Marshall dissented: By taking over appearance, the state forces the officer to sacrifice elements of his identity.  This liberty of appearance is on par with other protected interests like privacy, self-identity, autonomy and personal integrity.  Further, there is no rational relationship between the ends means (how does appearance have to do with esprit de corps?) (see May 24)

April 5 Peace Love Art Activism

Calvin Graham

April 5, 1943: Graham’s enlistment was cancelled. Since his enlistment was considered void he was paid no accrued pay and allowances and no travel allowances. His enlistment was considered void, he was given no credit for the military service (including the more than 4 months foreign service) and no mustering out pay.(see Calvin Graham for expanded post)

April 5 Peace Love Art Activism

Cold War/McCarthyism

Nuclear/Chemical News

April 5, 1951:  the Rosenbergs were sentenced to death and the pair was taken to Sing Sing to await execution. (Red Scare, see May 14; Rosenbergs, see June 19, 1953; NN, see Dec 20)

Roy Cohn and G. David Schine

April 5, 1953: Senator Joe McCarthy’s chief aides, Roy Cohn and G. David Schine, arrived in Germany with plans to remove allegedly “pro-Communist” materials from U.S. information libraries in Europe. Schine claimed there was “too much pro-Communist periodicals and books” and too little anti-Communist materials in the libraries. Their tour turned into a circus that embarrassed the U.S. and alienated Western Europeans. The works of a number of noted American authors were removed from the libraries in the process. Senator McCarthy later claimed there were “30,000 Communist books” in the libraries. A survey by The New York Times found that several hundred books by more than 40 authors were eventually removed. (RS, see Apr 13; FS, see April 21, 1954)

April 5 Peace Love Art Activism

see April 5 Music et al for more

The Cavern Club

April 5, 1962: The Beatles performed at The Cavern Club in Liverpool as part of a special night presented by the Beatles’ fan club. The Beatles wear their black leather outfits for the first half of the performance, for old time’s sake, then change into their new suits for the second half of the show. (see Apr 10)

Jerry Lee Lewis

April 5, 1964, Jerry Lee Lewis played and recorded the famous Live at the Star Club in Hamburg, Germany. (see Live for more)

My Fair Lady

April 5, 1964 Oscars held. Bob Hope hosted. The Best Picture winner My Fair Lady

Vietnam, BLACK HISTORY & Muhammad Ali

April 5, 1967:  Monkees fans walked from London’s Marble Arch to the US Embassy in Grosvenor Square to protest Davy Jones’ planned call-up. Jones was exempted because he was deemed responsible for supporting his father. (Vietnam & BH, see Apr 10;  Ali, see Apr 17)

Witchita Lineman

April 5 – 11, 1969: Glen Cambell’s Witchita Lineman Billboard #1 album

Fear of Rock

April 5, 1983: Interior Secretary James Watt banned the Beach Boys from the 4th of July celebration on the Washington Mall, saying rock ‘n’ roll bands attract the “wrong element.” (Rock, see January 23, 1986; FoR, see May 7, 1991)

Beat Generation

April 5, 1997: Allen Ginsberg died. (see Aug 2) (NYT article/obit)

April 5 Peace Love Art Activism

Vietnam

Daniel Ellsberg/Pentagon Papers 

April 5 – 7, 1973: top Nixon aide John Ehrlichman secretly met twice with Judge Matthew Byrne, who was presiding over the Russo/Ellsberg trial, and offered him a job as the new director of the F.B.I.  (see Papers for expanded story)

April 5 Peace Love Art Activism

Immigration History

Freedom Flight

April 5, 1973: the last of more than 260,500 Freedom Flight refugees from Fidel Castro’s Cuba arrived in the US. (see March 17, 1980)

Children separated

April 5, 2019:  in court documents filed  on this date, the US government said might take federal officials two years to identify what could be thousands of immigrant children who were separated from their families at the southern United States border.

A federal judge had asked for a plan to identify these children and their families after a report from government inspectors in January revealed that the Trump administration most likely separated thousands more children from their parents than was previously believed. [NYT article]

Census

April 5, 2019: U.S. District Judge George Hazel of Maryland in a 119-page opinion found the decision to include a citizenship question on the 2020 census forms to be unlawful. The question asked, “Is this person a citizen of the United States?

“The unreasonableness of Defendants’ addition of a citizenship question to the Census is underscored by the lack of any genuine need for the citizenship question, the woefully deficient process that led to it, the mysterious and potentially improper political considerations that motivated the decision and the clear pretext offered to the public,” wrote Hazel.

Hazel concluded that the decision by Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross, who oversaw the census, to add the question violated administrative law. Federal judges in New York and California  had previously come to the same conclusion. [NPR article] (next IH, see Apr 8; next Census, see  July 2)

April 5 Peace Love Art Activism

ADA

Judy Heumann

 

April 5, 1977: demonstrators led by Judy Heumann (see September 28, 1987) took over the Health Education and Welfare (HEW) office in UN Plaza, San Francisco, California, in protest of HEW Secretary Califano’s refusal to complete regulations for Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, which made it illegal for federal agencies, public universities, and other public institutions receiving any federal funds to discriminate on the basis of disability. Califano issued the regulations three weeks later. (2015 Rooted In Rights dot org article on Heumann) (see Apr 28)

April 5 Peace Love Art Activism

Falklands War

April 5, 1982: British task force of more than 100 ships set sail for Falklands, including aircraft carriers HMS Hermes and HMS Invincible. Lord Carrington, the Foreign Secretary, resigned over the invasion. Francis Pym replaced him. (see Apr 25)

April 5 Peace Love Art Activism

Feminism & Women’s Health

March for Women’s Lives

April 5, 1992: the March for Women’s Lives, organized by the National Organization for Women (NOW; founded on June 30, 1966), brought approximately 750,000 people to Washington, D.C., on this day. One of the largest protest marches on the nation’s capital, the pro-choice rally came as the Supreme Court was about to consider the constitutionality of Casey v. Planned Parenthood (Feminism, see Apr 23; Women’s Health, see June 29)

Idaho

April 5, 2023: Idaho Gov. Brad Little signed a bill into law that made it illegal for an adult to help a minor get an abortion across state lines without parental consent.

The new law was the first of its kind in the United States and cames less than a year after Idaho banned nearly all abortions.

Little, a Republican, wrote in a letter to Idaho lawmakers announcing he had signed the legislation. “With the U.S. Supreme Court’s reversal of Roe vs. Wade last summer, the right and duty to establish legal policy on abortion was finally returned to our state democratic process.” [ABC News article] (see next)

Michigan Abortion Law Overturned

April 5, 2023: Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer signed bipartisan legislation repealing the state’s 1931 law banning abortion without exceptions for rape or incest and criminalizing nurses and doctors for doing their jobs. In Novmember 2022, Michiganders turned out in record numbers to get Proposal 3 on the ballot and enshrine reproductive freedom in the state constitution. The new laws remove the unconstitutional 1931 law from the books and ensure that Michiganders can make their own decisions about their own bodies.

Governor Whitmer said, “In November, Michiganders sent a clear message: we deserve to make our own decisions about own bodies. Today, we are coming together to repeal the extreme 1931 law banning abortion without exceptions for rape or incest and criminalizing nurses and doctors for doing their jobs. Standing up for people’s fundamental freedoms is the right thing to do and it’s also just good economics. By getting this done, we will help attract talent and business investment too. I will continue to use every tool in my toolbox to support, protect, and affirm reproductive freedom for every Michigander, and I’ll work with anyone to make Michigan a welcoming beacon of opportunity where anyone can envision a future.” [Michigan dot gov article] (next WH, see Apr 7)

April 5 Peace Love Art Activism

TERRORISM

Pan Am flight 103

April 5, 1999: two Libyans suspected of bringing down Pan Am flight 103 in 1988 were handed over to Scottish authorities for eventual trial in the Netherlands. (see October 12, 2000)

Ahmed Ressam

 

April 5, 2001: Algerian national Ahmed Ressam, accused of bringing explosives into the United States days before the millennium celebrations, was convicted on terror charges. (see May 29)

Laurence Foley

April 5, 2004: Jordan’s military court convicted eight Muslim militants and sentenced them to death for the 2002 killing of U.S. aid official Laurence Foley in a terror conspiracy linked to al-Qaeda. (see Dec 6)

April 5 Peace Love Art Activism

LGBTQ

Matthew Shepard murder

April 5, 1999: Russell Henderson pleads guilty and agrees to testify against Aaron McKinney to avoid the death penalty; Henderson received two consecutive life sentences. The jury in McKinney’s trial found him guilty of felony murder. As they began to deliberate on the death penalty, Shepard’s parents brokered a deal, resulting in McKinney receiving two consecutive life terms without the possibility of parole. (LGBTQ, see July 7; Matthew, see September 27, 2007)

Mississippi

April 5, 2016: Mississippi Gov. Phil Bryant signed a controversial bill into law that could allow businesses and government workers to deny services to lesbian and gay couples.

Bryant said in a statement that he was signing HB 1523 “to protect sincerely held religious beliefs and moral convictions of individuals, organizations and private associations from discriminatory action by state government or its political subdivisions.” (see Apr 19)

April 5 Peace Love Art Activism

US Labor History

Upper Big Branch Mine

April 5, 2010: a huge underground explosion at the Upper Big Branch Mine in Montcoal, W. Va., killed 29 miners. It was the worst U.S. mine disaster in 40 years. The Massey Energy Co. mine had been cited for two safety infractions the day before the blast; 57 the month before, and 1,342 in the previous five years. Three and one-half years after the disaster Massey’s then-CEO, Don Blankenship, was indicted by a federal grand jury on four criminal counts.

Union Membership

In 2010: the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that the number of American workers in unions declined sharply in 2010, with the percentage slipping to 11.9 percent, the lowest rate in more than 70 years. The report found that the number of workers in unions fell by 612,000 in 2010 to 14.7 million, an even larger decrease than the overall 417,000 decline in the total number of Americans working. (see February 16, 2011)

April 5 Peace Love Art Activism

SEPARATION OF CHURCH AND STATE

Capt. Singh

April 5, 2016: the Army granted Capt Simratpal Singh, a Sikh, permission to serve while wearing a turban over his long hair and a beard with his uniform. He was the first active duty soldier to seek the accommodation and receive it while serving in the Army, according to The Sikh Coalition, the largest Sikh American advocacy organization in the United States. (see Aug 4)

April 5 Peace Love Art Activism

Native Americans

April 5, 2021: the United States Forest Service said that an ancient site of carved boulders and rock formations in a Georgia forest that has long been sacred to Native Americans was vandalized with paint and deep scratches,.

The boulders are part of the Track Rock Gap site in the  Chattahoochee-Oconee National Forests, a protected area of more than 800,000 acres where more than 100 figure carvings known as petroglyphs were made on soapstone boulders by Native Americans in precolonial times, the service said.

Five boulders had scratches and two had paint on them, said Steven Bekkerus, a spokesman for the Forest Service.

“It’s one of the most significant rock art sites in the Southeastern United States and the only such site located on public land in Georgia,” the service said. onday. [NYT article] (next NA, see June 3)

April 5 Peace Love Art Activism

Sexual Abuse of Children

April 5, 2023: according to a detailed report from the Maryland attorney general, clergy members across the Archdiocese of Baltimore abused hundreds of children and teenagers over the course of six decades, abetted by a church hierarchy that systematically failed to investigate and restrict their access to children.

The result of a four-year investigation by the attorney general’s office, the 463-page report documented what it described as “pervasive and persistent abuse” by clergy members and others in the archdiocese, as well as dismissals and cover-ups by the church hierarchy. [NYT article] (next SAoC, see May 23)