May 20 Peace Love Art Activism

Feminism

Deborah Sampson

May 20, 1782: women were not allowed to enlist in the army as a Continental soldier, but Deborah Sampson, five feet seven inches in height, disguised herself as a man and successfully enlisted in the army under the name of her deceased brother, Robert Shurtlieff Sampson. (see Sampson for expanded story)

May 20 Peace Love Art Activism

Cultural Milestone

May 20, 1873: San Francisco businessman Levi Strauss and Reno, Nevada, tailor Jacob Davis were given a patent to create work pants reinforced with metal rivets, marking the birth of one of the world’s most famous garments: blue jeans. [Levi Strauss site timeline] (see November 18, 1883)

May 20 Peace Love Art Activism

INDEPENDENCE DAY

Cuba

May 20, 1902: Cuba independent from the United States. (see November 3, 1903)

East Timor

May 20, 2002: East Timor (Timor-Leste) became independent from Portugal. [Guardian article] (see May 21, 2006)

Dissolution of Yugoslavia

May 20, 2006: Montenegro independent from Serbia. [NYT article] (see February 17, 2008)

May 20 Peace Love Art Activism

Emma Goldman

May 20, 1913: Goldman and Ben Reitman returned to San Diego a year after Reitman’s abduction (see May 14, 1912). Goldman was scheduled to lecture on “Ibsen’s Play, An Enemy of the People.” Upon their arrival, they were taken to a police station under police protection, surrounded by a mob. Police later escorted  and placed them aboard the afternoon train to Los Angeles “for their own safety.” (see Goldman for expanded story)

May 20 Peace Love Art Activism

US Labor History

Railway Labor Act

May 20, 1926: the Railway Labor Act took effect. It was the first federal legislation protecting workers’ rights to form unions. [US DoT article] (see April 30, 1927)

May 20 Peace Love Art Activism

FREE SPEECH

Cantwell v. Connecticut

May 20, 1940: the Supreme Court overturned the Cantwells’ convictions in Cantwell v. Connecticut  holding that the Fourteenth Amendment incorporated the Free Exercise Clause of the First Amendment. (Cantwells, see April 26, 1938) This case marked the incorporation of the Free Exercise Clause of the First Amendment into the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment, making it applicable to the states. [Oyez article] (FS, see June 28; JM, see April 27, 1942)

May 20 Peace Love Art Activism

Vietnam

Gen. Henri Navarre

May 20, 1953: Gen. Henri Navarre assumed command of French Union Forces in Vietnam and stated “Now we can see [success in Vietnam] clearly, like light at the end of a tunnel” The Vietnamese will defeat the French a year. (see July 27)

Flower Power Day

May 20, 1967: Flower Power Day in NYC. Abbie Hoffman organized the Flower Brigade as an official contingent of a New York City parade honoring the soldiers in Vietnam. News coverage captured Flower Brigade participants, who carried flowers, flags and pink posters imprinted with LOVE, being attacked and beaten by bystanders. In response to the violence, Hoffman wrote in WIN magazine, “Plans are being made to mine the East River with daffodils. Dandelion chains are being wrapped around induction centers…. The cry of ‘Flower Power’ echoes through the land. We shall not wilt (see June Peace…)

Hamburger Hill

May 20, 1969: US Maj. Gen. Melvin Zais, commanding general of the 101st, sent in two additional U.S. airborne battalions and a South Vietnamese battalion as reinforcements. The communist stronghold was finally captured in the 11th attack, when the American and South Vietnamese soldiers fought their way to the summit of the mountain. In the face of the four-battalion attack, the North Vietnamese retreated to sanctuary areas in Laos.

During the intense fighting, 597 North Vietnamese were reported killed and U.S. casualties were 56 killed and 420 wounded. Due to the bitter fighting and the high loss of life, the battle for Ap Bia Mountain received widespread unfavorable publicity in the United States and was dubbed “Hamburger Hill” in the U.S. media, a name evidently derived from the fact that the battle turned into a “meat grinder.” The purpose of the operation was not to hold territory but rather to keep the North Vietnamese off balance. [Guardian article] (see May 29)

Pro-Vietnam demonstration

May 20, 1970: around 100,000 people demonstrated in the Wall Street district in support of the war. [janos nyc article] (see May 21)

May 20 Peace Love Art Activism

Nuclear/Chemical News

H-bomb

May 20, 1956: the first hydrogen fusion bomb (H-bomb) to be dropped from an airplane exploded over Namu Atoll at the northwest edge of the Bikini Atoll. The fireball was four miles in diameter. It was designated as “Cherokee,” as part of “Operation Redwing.”. (see Oct 23)

May 20 Peace Love Art Activism

see May 20 Music et al for more

May 20, 1944: Joe Cocker born.

Silver Beetles

May 20, 1960: the Silver Beetles (John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison, Stu Sutcliffe, and Tommy Moore) played the first night of a short tour of Scotland backing singer Johnny Gentle, at Alloa Town Hall in Clackmannanshire.They were never billed as The Silver Beetles on the tour; all posters gave the billing as “Johnny Gentle and his group”. Paul McCartney later wrote:

“Now we were truly professional, we could do something we had been toying with for a long time, which was to change our names to real showbiz names. I became Paul Ramon, which I thought was suitably exotic. I remember the Scottish girls saying, ‘Is that his real name? That’s great.’ It’s French, Ramon. Ra-mon, that’s how you pronounce it. Stuart became Stuart de Staël after the painter. George became Carl Harrison after Carl Perkins (our big idol, who had written ‘Blue Suede Shoes’). John was Long John. People have since said, ‘Ah, John didn’t change his name, that was very suave.’ Let me tell you: he was Long John. There was none of that ‘he didn’t change his name’: we all changed our names.

So here we were, suddenly with the first of Larry’s untempestuous acts and a tour of Scotland, when I should have been doing my GCE exams. A lot of my parents’ hopes were going up the spout because I was off with these naughty boys who weren’t doing GCEs at all.” (see June 11)

Karlheinz Stockhausen

May 20, 1967: advanced copies of Sgt Pepper’s are sent to the B.B.C. radio service. It decides to ban “A Day In the Life” from broadcast because it contained drug inducement themes in the song. The song’s style was influenced by Karlheinz Stockhausen’s Gesang der Jünglinge (see June 1)

“Groovin’”

May 20 – June 2, 1967: “Groovin’ ” by the Young Rascals #1 on the Billboard Hot 100.

The Road to Bethel

May 20, 1969: Michael Lang found separate office space at 513-A Avenue of the Americas in NYC so he can be away from the other organizers. (see Road for expanded story)

Let It Be

May 20, 1970: Let It Be movie released. (see June 13)

May 20 Peace Love Art Activism

BLACK HISTORY

Delray Beach Segregation

May 20, 1956:  a group of Black residents attempted to gain access to the beach, only to be forced out by an angry gathering of 70 white people demanding they leave. Over the next several days, white citizens began stockpiling weapons from stores in Fort Lauderdale and West Palm Beach, anticipating the return of Black beachgoers and preparing to respond with lethal violence.  [EJI article] (next BH and Delray Beach, see May 23)

Freedom Riders

May 20, 1961: The Freedom Riders arrived in Montgomery, AL where a police escort abandoned them to an angry mob. Freedom Rider Jim Zwerg and Federal official John Seigenthaler were badly injured in an ensuing brawl. (see May 21)

May 20 Peace Love Art Activism

LGBTQ

John Singer and Paul Barwick

May 20, 1974: The Court of Appeals of Washington denied the case of Seattle residents John Singer and Paul Barwick, who challenged the denial of the freedom to marry to same-sex couples. . (see March 26, 1975)

Romer v. Evans

May 20, 1996: in the case of Romer v. Evans, the US Supreme Court ruled that Colorado’s 2nd amendment, denying gays and lesbians protections against discrimination, was unconstitutional, calling them “special rights.” According to Justice Anthony Kennedy, “We find nothing special in the protections Amendment 2 withholds. These protections . . . constitute ordinary civil life in a free society.” [Oyez article] (see September 21, 1996)

Pennsylvania same-sex marriage

May 20, 2014: continuing a rush of rulings that had struck down marriage limits across the country, Judge John E. Jones III of Federal District Court in Pennsylvania declared the state’s ban on same-sex marriage to be unconstitutional.

“We are a better people than what these laws represent, and it is time to discard them into the ash heap of history,” wrote Judge John E. Jones III of Federal District Court in a decision posted on Tuesday afternoon.

President George W. Bush  had appointed Judge Jones in 2002.

Jones did not issue a stay, writing, “By virtue of this ruling, same-sex couples who seek to marry in Pennsylvania may do so, and already married same-sex couples will be recognized as such in the Commonwealth.”

Pennsylvania was the last of the Northeast states with a ban on same-sex marriage.

Boy Scouts of America

May 20, 2014: the Boy Scouts of America announced that it will limit the maximum age of youth in its programs to 18 years old in 2015, down from 21.

The move means those young men from 18 to 20 years old currently participating as youth members in Scouting will have to meet adult membership standards, likely by next spring, BSA spokesman Deron Smith said in an email. Those standards include barring “open or avowed” gay adults from joining and have been at the center of a controversy that has roiled one of America’s most popular youth organizations for years. (LGBTQ, see June 4; BSA, see January 21, 2015)

May 20 Peace Love Art Activism

Tiananmen Square

May 20, 1989: the Chinese government declared martial law in Beijing. [UPI article] (see May 30)

May 20 Peace Love Art Activism

Ryan White

May 20, 1996: the U.S. Congress reauthorized the Ryan White CARE Act. (see Ryan White for expanded story)

May 20 Peace Love Art Activism

Sexual Abuse of Children

May 20, 2009: Ireland. the Commission to Inquire into Child Abuse released a 2000-page report recording claims from hundreds of Irish residents that they were physically, sexually, or emotionally abused as children between the 1930s and the 1990s in a network of state-administered and church-run residential schools meant to care for the poor, the vulnerable, and the unwanted. The alleged abuse was by nuns, priests and non-clerical staff and helpers. (see March 20, 2012)

May 20 Peace Love Art Activism

Stop and Frisk Policy

May 20, 2012: Mayor Michael Bloomberg defended stop and frisk practices and said the NYPD will continue the practice that had faced increasing scrutiny. (see June 4, 2012)

May 20 Peace Love Art Activism

DEATH PENALTY

Nebraska

May 20, 2015: with a vote of 32 – 15, the Nebraska legislature passed a bill to repeal the state’s death penalty and replace it with life without parole. The measure faced a promised veto from Gov. Pete Ricketts. State Sen. Ernie Chambers, the bill’s sponsor and a member of the New Alliance Party, said he was confident supporters could muster the 30 votes necessary to override a veto. (DP, see May 26; Nebraska, see May 27)

Women’s Health

May 20, 2016: Oklahoma‘s Republican Governor Mary Fallin vetoed a bill that called for prison terms of up the three years for doctors who performed abortions, saying the legislation “would not withstand a criminal constitutional legal challenge.”

The bill, which was approved a day earlier in the Republican-dominated legislature, would have made performing an abortion a felony and also called for revoking the licenses of any doctor who conducted one. The bill allowed an exemption for an abortion necessary to save the life of the mother.

“The bill is so ambiguous and so vague that doctors cannot be certain what medical circumstances would be considered ‘necessary to preserve the life of the mother,’” Fallin said, in a statement from her office, where she was described as “the most pro-life governor in the nation.” (see June 27)

May 20 Peace Love Art Activism

Native Americans

May 20, 2019: the US Supreme Court ruled that an 1868 treaty between the United States and the Crow Tribe that promised that in exchange for the Tribe’s territory in modern-day Montana and Wyoming, its members would “have the right to hunt on the unoccupied lands of the United States so long as game may be found thereon . . . and peace subsists,” 15 Stat. 650. In 2014, still held true despite Wyoming challenging off-season hunting in Bighorn National Forest.

The state court held that the treaty right expired upon Wyoming’s statehood and that, in any event, the national forest became categorically “occupied” when it was created.

The Supreme Court vacated. Hunting rights under the Treaty did not expire upon Wyoming’s statehood or that the Tribe would have understood it to do so. Bighorn National Forest did not become categorically “occupied” within the meaning of the Treaty when the national forest was created. (see Aug 29)

May 20 Peace Love Art Activism

May 19 Peace Love Art Activism

Vietnam

Nguyễn Sinh Cung

May 19, 1891: Nguyễn Sinh Cung born in Kim Liên, Nghệ An Province, Vietnam.

In 1907: after receiving a primary education at a local school, Nguyen Sinh Cungand and his brother traveled to the city of Hué to attend a prestigious Franco-Vietnamese academy.

In 1911: Nguyen Sinh Cung traveled to Saigon and obtained a job as a cook aboard a French steam ship bound for the French city of Marseille. Although the details of his journey are not well documented, Cung spent the next two years traveling around the world, visiting cities in Europe, Asia, North America, and, according to some accounts, Africa and South America as well. Ho eventually settled in London.

In 1917: Nguyen Sinh Cung moved to Paris during the height of World War I. He adopted the name Nguyen Ai Quoc (“Nguyen the Patriot”) and became involved in leftist and anti-colonial activism. (see June 18, 1919)

May 19 Peace Love Art Activism

US Labor History

Fraterville Mine explosion

May 19, 1902: two hundred sixteen miners die from an explosion and its aftermath at the Fraterville Mine in Anderson County, Tenn. All but three of Fraterville’s adult males were killed. The mine had a reputation for fair contracts and pay—miners were represented by the United Mine Workers—and was considered safe; methane may have leaked in from a nearby mine. [WVLT article](see February 14, 1903)

May 19 Peace Love Art Activism

BLACK HISTORY

Mary Turner lynched

May 19, 1918: Mary Turner the 8-month pregnant wife of Hayes Turner,  publicly denounced her husband’s lynching the previous day. A mob hung her upside down from a tree, doused her in gasoline and motor oil, and set her on fire. While Turner was still alive, a member of the mob split her abdomen open with a knife. Her unborn child fell on the ground, where it cried before it was stomped on and crushed. Finally, Turner’s body was riddled with hundreds of bullets. Mary Turner and her child were cut down and buried near the tree. A whiskey bottle marked the grave. No charges were ever brought against the known or suspected participants in these crimes. [Miami Herald article] (next BH, see June 3; next Lynching, see July 29; for expanded chronology, see American Lynching 2)

Mattie Green

May 19, 1960:  in Ringgold Georgia. a bomb killed Mattie Green, a 32-year-old mother of six while she and her family were sleeping at home. Her family survived. No one was convicted on the crime, and the FBI closed the case after concluding no federal laws had been violated. [DoJ article] (see June Peace…)

Freedom Riders

May 19, 1961: The Nashville Riders return to Birmingham and attempt to leave the city by bus. Bus drivers again refuse to depart the station, fearing the mobs waiting outside. (see May 20)

George Whitmore, Jr.

May 19, 1965: The New York Assembly passes the abolition bill by a vote of seventy-eight to sixty-seven. (see Whitmore for expanded story)

May 19 Peace Love Art Activism

Immigration History

Emergency Quota Act

May 19, 1921: the Emergency Quota Act became law. It restricted immigration into the US and added two new features to American immigration law: numerical limits on immigration from Europe and the use of a quota system for establishing those limits.

The Emergency Quota Act restricted the number of immigrants admitted from any country annually to 3% of the number of residents from that same country living in the United States as of the U.S. Census of 1910. Based on that formula, the number of new immigrants admitted fell from 805,228 in 1920 to 309,556 in 1921-22. The act meant that only people of Northern Europe who had similar cultures to that of America were likely to get in. [Immigration to the US article] (see May 26, 1924)

May 19 Peace Love Art Activism

May 19 Music et al

Pete Townshend

May 19, 1945: Pete Townshend born.

Jerry Hyman

May 19, 1947: Jerry Hyman of Blood, Sweat and Tears was born on  in Brooklyn, NY

DJ payola

May 19, 1960: five radio disk jockeys, including Alan Freed, were arrested on charges that they had accepted payola. District Attorney Frank Hogan said they had accepted illegal gratuities amounting to $116,580 from twenty-three record companies in the previous two years. (see Sept 13)

Marilyn Monroe

May 19, 1962: Marilyn Monroe performed a sultry rendition of “Happy Birthday” for President John F. Kennedy during a fundraiser at New York’s Madison Square Garden. (see June 15)

Two Virgins

May 19, 1968: while Cynthia Lennon was on vacation in Greece, John invited Yoko Ono to his home. He recalled: ” I called her over, it was the middle of the night and Cyn was away, and I thought, ‘Well, now’s the time if I’m going to get to know her any more.’ She came to the house and I didn’t know what to do; so we went upstairs to my studio and I played her all the tapes that I’d made, all this far-out stuff, some comedy stuff, and some electronic music. There were very few people I could play those tapes to. She was suitably impressed, and then she said, ‘Well, let’s make one ourselves,’ so we made Two Virgins. It was midnight when we finished, and then we made love at dawn. It was very beautiful.” (Beatles, see May 31;  see Two Virgins for more)

May 19 Peace Love Art Activism

The Cold War

Secret surveillance 

May 19, 1964: the US State Department delivered a strong protest in Moscow after more than 40 secret microphones were found in the U.S. Embassy. U.S. security had tore into walls of the building in April. US officials said the microphones were embedded 8 to 10 inches deep in the walls of the 10-story building, and obviously had been installed before the Russians turned the building over for U.S. occupancy in 1952. [State Dept memorandum re bugging] (see Oct 14)

David Greenglass

May 19, 2015: U.S. District Judge Alvin Hellerstein of New York ordered the unsealing of the testimony of Ethel Rosenberg’s brother, David Greenglass, who implicated his sister as a spy. Greenglass recanted his testimony seven years after he gave it, saying that he gave false testimony after prosecutors threatened him by saying they would go after his wife, who may have assisted Julius Rosenberg. Hellerstein said the testimony now could be unsealed because Greenglass died last year at the age of 92, though he fought to the end of his life to keep it permanently sealed, according to the Associated Press.

“The requested records are critical pieces of an important moment in our nation’s history,” Hellerstein wrote. “The time for the public to guess what they contain should end.” [Newsday article]  (DP, see May 20; Cold War, see May 29; Nuclear, see July 14; Rosenbergs, see July 15)

May 19 Peace Love Art Activism

Nuclear/Chemical News

May 19, 1967: the Soviet Union ratified a treaty with the United States and Britain banning nuclear weapons from outer space. (see July 1, 1968)

May 19 Peace Love Art Activism

Cannabis

Leary v. United States

May 19, 1969: the U.S. Supreme Court dealt with the constitutionality of the Marihuana Tax Act of 1937. Timothy Leary had been arrested for the possession of marijuana in violation of the Marihuana Tax Act. Leary challenged the act on the ground that the act required self-incrimination, which violated the Fifth Amendment. The unanimous opinion of the court was penned by Justice John Marshall Harlan II and declared the Marihuana Tax Act unconstitutional. [Oyez article]

NORML

In 1970:  The National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws [NORML] founded as a nonprofit public-interest advocacy group whose mission is to end marijuana prohibition.  [NORML site] (next Cannabis, see May 1, 1971 or see CC for expanded chronology)

May 19 Peace Love Art Activism

Falklands War

May 19, 1982: a British helicopter transporting SAS soldiers ditched in the sea killing 22 servicemen. (see May 21)

May 19 Peace Love Art Activism

Iraq War II

May 19, 2004: Specialist Jeremy C. Sivits received a year in prison and a bad conduct discharge in the first court-martial stemming from abuse of Iraqis at the Abu Ghraib prison. [NYT article] (see Aug 27)

May 19 Peace Love Art Activism

Environmental Issues

Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill

May 19, 2010: Oil washes ashore on mainland Louisiana [Reuters article] (see May 27)

California spill

May 19, 2015: a broken onshore pipeline spewed oil down a storm drain and into the Pacific Ocean for several hours before it was shut off, creating a slick some 4 miles long across a scenic stretch of central California coastline. Initial estimates put the spill at about 21,000 gallons. The spill was about 20 miles northwest of Santa Barbara. (see May 27)

May 19 Peace Love Art Activism

Stop and Frisk Policy

May 19, 2010,: in another lawsuit, the New York Civil Liberties Union filed to stop the NYC from keeping a huge database of New Yorkers stopped, but never charged. (see July 16)

May 19 Peace Love Art Activism

LGBTQ

NAACP

May 19, 2012: The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People approved a resolution supporting marriage for same-sex couples. In the weeks that follow, the National Center for La Raza (NCLR) and the League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC), the nation’s largest and oldest Latino civil rights organizations, respectively, pass similar resolutions supporting all families. [NY Daily News article] (see May 31)

Oregon ban on same-sex marriage

May 19, 2014: U.S. District Judge Michael McShane struck down Oregon’s voter-approved ban on gay marriage, saying it was unconstitutional. McShane said the ban unconstitutionally discriminated against same-sex couples and ordered the state not to enforce it. State officials earlier refused to defend the constitutional ban in court.  (next LGBTQ, see May 20; Oregon, see June 4)

May 19 Peace Love Art Activism

Women’s Health

Affordable Care Act

May 19, 2015: a federal court again denied the University of Notre Dame’s challenge to the health law’s contraception provision, saying a compromise arrangement offered by the Obama administration appeared adequate to meet the Catholic institution’s religious objections to covering Women’s Health for students and staff. Notre Dame had been fighting the Affordable Care Act’s requirement that most employers include contraception in health plans with no out-of-pocket costs, arguing that the federal government was forcing it to violate its beliefs. Notre Dame had argued its concerns weren’t satisfied by the Obama administration’s alternative arrangement, under which an employer with a religious objection can state its conflict and have its insurer administrate contraceptive coverage.

In a 2-1 ruling, a panel of the Seventh U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Chicago said the university hadn’t done enough to show it is entitled to a preliminary injunction that would allow it to opt out of the requirements while it continued to fight them. Instead, the court indicated it believed the administration had hit the right balance in addressing the university’s concerns.

“Although Notre Dame is the final arbiter of its religious beliefs, it is for the courts to determine whether the law actually forces Notre Dame to act in a way that would violate those beliefs,” the court said in an opinion written by Judge Richard Posner. “The very word ‘accommodation’ implies a balance of competing interests; and when we compare the burden on the government or third parties of having to establish some entirely new method of providing contraceptive coverage with the burden on Notre Dame of simply notifying the government that the ball is now in the government’s court, we cannot conclude that Notre Dame has yet established its right to the injunctive relief that it is seeking before trial,” he wrote. [WSJ article] (BC, see May 29; ACA, see June 8; Notre Dame, see February 7, 2018)

May 19 Peace Love Art Activism

May 18 Peace Love Art Activism

BLACK HISTORY

Plessy v. Ferguson

May 18, 1896: in Plessy v. Ferguson the US Supreme Court upheld the constitutionality of state laws requiring racial segregation in public facilities under the doctrine of “separate but equal”. Thus the Supreme Court denied Homer Plessy’s challenge to the law. “The object of the Fourteenth Amendment was undoubtedly to enforce the absolute equality of the two races before the law,” wrote Justice Henry Billings Brown, “but in the nature of things it could not have been intended to abolish distinctions based upon color, or to enforce social, as distinguished from political, equality, or a commingling of the two races upon terms unsatisfactory to either.” Only one justice dissented, John Harlan, who contended that the decision “will not only stimulate aggressions, more or less brutal and irritating, upon the admitted rights of colored citizens, but will encourage the belief that it is possible, by means of state enactments, to defeat the beneficent purposes which the people of the United States had in view when they adopted the recent amendments of the Constitution.” [Cornell Law article] (next BH, see July 1896; SD, see May 17, 1954; Plessy, see January 5, 2022)

Hayes Turner lynched

May 18, 1918: Hampton Smith was a farmer in Valdosta, Georgia. He often He found labor by paying fines and then forcing the person to work on his farm. He was notorious for abusing those workers. On May 16, someone killed him. A Sidney Johnson was a suspect. During the  manhunt for Johnson, at least 13 people were killed. Among those killed was Hayes Turner, who was seized from custody after his arrest on the morning of May 18, 1918, and lynched. (next BH & Lynching, see May 19; for expanded chronology, see American Lynching 2)

Freedom Riders

May 18, 1961: Bull Connor ordered the jailed Riders from Birmingham to the Tennessee border in the middle of the night, dropping them off in the tiny town of Ardmore, AL and instructed them to take a train home. (see May 19)

Arthur McDuffie

May 18, 1980: an all-white jury found the officers not guilty of killing Arthur McDuffie (see December 27. 1979) and violence broke out across Miami, sparking nine days of riots more violent than those of the 1960s. The National Guard responded and a state of emergency was declared. The riots left 57 dead, more than 1400 arrested, and $125 million in property damage. [Miami Herald article] (BH, see Dec 31; RR, see February 20, 1987)

May 18 Peace Love Art Activism

Native Americans

Talton v Mayes

May 18, 1896: the Supreme Court decided that the individual rights protections, which limit federal, and later, state governments, do not apply to tribal government. It reaffirmed earlier decisions, such as the 1831 Cherokee Nation v. Georgia case (see March 18, 1831) that gave Indian tribes the status of “domestic dependent nations,” the sovereignty of which is independent of the federal government. [Justia dot com article] (see January 23, 1907)

May 18 Peace Love Art Activism

Anarchism

Alexander Berkman

May 18, 1906: Alexander Berkman (see September 19, 1892), who had attempted to kill Henry Clay Frick during the steel strike at Homestead, PA in 1892, was released from prison having served thirteen years in the Western Penitentiary and one year in the Allegheny Workhouse of his 22-year sentence. [PBS article] (see May 26, 1906)

May 18 Peace Love Art Activism

US Labor History

William “Big Bill” Haywood

May 18, 1928: William “Big Bill” Haywood – founding member of the Industrial Workers of the World, member of the Executive Committee of the Socialist Party of America, secretary of the Western Federation of Miners, and an advocate of industrial unionism –died at the Kremlin Hospital. He had been under treatment there for several weeks for chronic diabetes, which improved, but which was followed a month ago by the first attack of hemiplegia. He had fled to the Soviet Union after having been found guilty and sentenced to 20 years in prison under the Espionage Act of 1917. (PDF of NYT obit)

Emma Goldman

In 1930: journalist H. L. Mencken petitioned the U.S. Department of State to revoke Goldman’s deportation and grant her a visitor’s visa. He also requested that the Department of Justice return her personal papers seized in the 1917 raid on the Mother Earth office, to no avail. (see Goldman for expanded story)

United Farm Workers

May 18, 1969: march from Coachella to Calexico. (see July 17, 1970)

May 18 Peace Love Art Activism

Feminism

Ladies of Courage 

May 18, 1954:  Eleanor Roosevelt and Lorena Hickok’s book Ladies of Courage recorded women’s achievements in U.S. politics. (see January 7, 1955)

May 18 Peace Love Art Activism

Nuclear/Chemical News

Albert Schweitzer

May 18, 1957: the Saturday Review magazine published “A Declaration of Conscience” by Albert Schweitzer. “The end of further experiments with atom bombs would be like the early sunrays of hope which suffering humanity is longing for.”  (NN, see July 29; Red Scare, see Aug 1)

India

May 18, 1974: India successfully detonated its first nuclear weapon, becoming the 6th nation to do so. (see November 29, 1975)

see May 18 Music et al for more

see Jimmy Soul for more

May 18 – 30, 1963,  – “If You Wanna Be Happy” by Jimmy Soul #1 on the Billboard Hot 100.

Miami Pop Festival

May 18 – 19, 1968 – The first Miami Pop Festival. An estimated 100,000 people attended this concert, which was promoted by Richard O’Barry & Michael Lang.

Northern California Folk-Rock Festival

May 18 – 19, 1968: The Northern California Folk-Rock Festival was held at Family Park in the Santa Clara County Fairgrounds in San Jose, California and promoted by Bob Blodgett. It was the first of two such festivals held at the venue, being followed by the 1969 Northern California Folk-Rock Festival.

The festival featured Country Joe and the Fish, The Animals, Jefferson Airplane, The Doors, Big Brother and the Holding Company, The Youngbloods, Electric Flag, Kaleidoscope, Taj Mahal, and Ravi Shankar. And although not mentioned in the promotional material, Grateful Dead also performed. (see Aug 3 & 4)

Archie Bell and the Drells

May 18 – 31, 1968: Tightin’ Up” by Archie Bell and the Drells #1 on the Billboard Hot 100.

May 18 Peace Love Art Activism

LGBTQ

Committee on Public Health

May 18, 1964: the Committee on Public Health of the New York Academy of Medicine issued a report stating that homosexuals had gone beyond the plane of defensiveness and argued that their “deviancy” was “a desirable, noble, preferable way of life.”  (see June 20)

Richard Baker and James Michael McConnell

May 18, 1970: the Hennepin County, Minnesota District Court’s clerk denied a marriage license  to Richard Baker and James Michael McConnell. (see Baker/McConnell for expanded story; LGBTQ, see June 27)

May 18 Peace Love Art Activism

Educational Milestone

Head Start program

May 18, 1965: President Johnson said that 530,000 of “poverty’s children” would be given a head start in pre-school guidance centers so they won’t already be doomed to fail because of family backgrounds when they start school. More than half the estimated one million disadvantaged children expected to start school next fall will take part in the first summer sessions of Project Head Start. … The program calls for teaching the children things that most people take for granted. Some of the children have never seen a book, a flush toilet or electric lights. They also would receive medical and dental care. [Head Start site]

May 18 Peace Love Art Activism

Vietnam & South Vietnam Leadership

May 18, 1966: U.S. Marines faced off against pro-Buddhist ARVN soldiers at a bridge near Da Nang.  A few shots were exchanged and the ARVN soldiers attempted to blow up the bridge. General Lewis William Walt, the commander of the U.S. Marines in South Vietnam, was present and directed the Marines to secure the bridge (V & SVL, see May 24)

Space Race

May 18 – 26, 1969: Apollo 10 utilized both the command-service module and the Lunar Module around the moon. Tom Stafford and Gene Cernan descended to within 50,000 feet of the surface of the moon. [NASA article] (see July 16)

May 18 Peace Love Art Activism

Iraq War II

May 18, 2006:  CIA Director Michael Hayden: “I wasn’t comfortable” with Bush administration approach to prewar intelligence. (see June 15)

May 18 Peace Love Art Activism

Fourth Amendment & ADA

May 18, 2015: the U.S. Supreme Court chose not to rule on whether the Americans with Disabilities Act applied during police encounters the same day the court said it would not consider a closely-watched special education case.

In a ruling, the high court failed to address key questions about the implications of the ADA in situations involving law enforcement. At issue was the case of Teresa Sheehan, a woman with mental illness who was living in a San Francisco group home. Police were called when Sheehan threatened to kill her social worker. The responding officers initially retreated from Sheehan’s room when she brandished a knife, but they then re-entered the room and shot her multiple times when she continued to confront them with the knife. Sheehan survived and sued the officers alleging that they violated her Fourth Amendment rights by entering her room without a warrant and she alleged violations of the ADA arguing that they did not accommodate her disability when they chose to enter her room a second time.

The court ruled that Sheehan cannot hold the officers liable for her injuries because they acted legally when they entered her room and their use of force was “reasonable.” However, the justices declined to address the ADA issue because attorneys for the city of San Francisco changed their position on the matter. Initially, city attorneys suggested that the ADA did not apply to police at all, but in arguments before the Supreme Court earlier this year conceded that the law applied generally, but not in circumstances where a suspect is “armed and violent.”

Accordingly, Justice Samuel Alito wrote in the court’s opinion that the justices did not decide on the ADA issue because it hadn’t been completely addressed by the lower courts. [LA Times article] (4^th, see June 22; ADA, see May 21)

May 18 Peace Love Art Activism

Environmental Issues

May 18, 2021:  the International Energy Agency issued a detailed road map of what it would take for the world’s nations to slash carbon dioxide emissions to net zero by 2050. That would very likely keep the average global temperature from increasing 1.5 Celsius above preindustrial levels — the threshold beyond which scientists say the Earth faces irreversible damage.

Nations around the world would need to immediately stop approving new coal-fired power plants and new oil and gas fields and quickly phase out gasoline-powered vehicles if they want to avert the most catastrophic effects of climate change.

While academics and environmentalists have made similar recommendations before, this is the first time the International Energy Agency has outlined ways to accomplish such drastic cuts in emissions.  [NYT article] (next EI, see May 24)

May 18 Peace Love Art Activism