Laws
7 Reasons Why the Chicago 8 Trial Mattered
The 1968 Democratic National Convention in Chicago is most-remembered for what happened on the streets outside of it. Before the convention began on August 26, Chicago Mayor Richard J. Daley refused protest permits to most anti-war demonstrators and deployed 12,000 police ...read more
Meet Elizabeth Freeman, the First Enslaved Woman to Sue for Her Freedom—and Win
In 1780, the proclamation “all men are born free and equal,” rang out from the central square in the small town of Sheffield in western Massachusetts. The line was from the state’s newly ratified constitution, read aloud for a proud public to hear. America’s war for independence ...read more
The ‘White Slavery’ Law That Brought Down Jack Johnson is Still in Effect
He was known as the Galveston Giant—a boxer who fought his way toward the first world heavyweight title held by an African-American. But in 1912, Jack Johnson became something else: a wanted man. Accused of violating the Mann Act, which forbade transporting a woman across state ...read more
Roe v. Wade
Roe v. Wade was a landmark legal decision issued on January 22, 1973, in which the U.S. Supreme Court struck down a Texas statute banning abortion, effectively legalizing the procedure across the United States. The court held that a woman’s right to an abortion was implicit in ...read more
The NRA Supported Gun Control When the Black Panthers Had the Weapons
With each passing day, the debate for or against gun control rages on within the United States. And although the National Rifle Association (NRA) currently leads the charge for the rights of citizens to carry guns of all types with little to no interference from the government, ...read more
The Great Depression Lesson About ‘Trade Wars’
President Donald Trump has tweeted that “trade wars are good, and easy to win.” But many economists have disagreed that raising tariffs sharply can improve the economy. In particular, experts have pointed to the failure of the Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act, passed in June 1930, to ...read more
1960s Unrest Was The Impetus For The First Gun Age Limits
The U.S. Constitution only provides age requirements for two things: holding political office and voting. It says you can be a House representative at 25, a senator at 30, and a president or vice president at 35. The 14th and 26th Amendments both dealt with the voting age, with ...read more
The Tragic Story of America’s Deadliest Nightclub Fire
Movie stars. Artificial palm trees. Big band music. The night of November 28, 1942, promised all the glamour and glitz that made Boston’s most famous night spot, The Cocoanut Grove, legendary. That night, about a thousand revelers gathered to drink and dance the night away. Just ...read more
Executive Order
An executive order is an official directive from the U.S. president to federal agencies that often have much the same power of a law. Throughout history, executive orders have been one way that the power of the president and the executive branch of government has expanded—to ...read more
Veto
The veto power of the U.S. president is one way of preventing the legislative branch of the federal government from exercising too much power. The U.S. Constitution gives the president the power to veto, or reject, legislation that has been passed by Congress. What Does Veto ...read more
ACLU
The ACLU, or American Civil Liberties Union, is a nonprofit legal organization whose goal is to protect the constitutional rights of Americans through litigation and lobbying. Founded in 1920, their stated mission is “to defend and preserve the individual rights and liberties ...read more
When New York Banned Smoking to Save Women’s Souls
A cop ran toward Katie Mulcahey, making sure he got her attention. “Madam, you mustn’t,” he shouted. “What would Alderman Sullivan say?” Then he arrested her. Mulcahey’s crime wasn’t theft or DUI. It was January 1908, and she had just become the victim of New York’s newest law, a ...read more
New floating bridge opens in Seattle; I-90 stretches from coast to coast
On September 12, 1993, the rebuilt Lacey V. Murrow Bridge over Lake Washington opens in Seattle. The new bridge, which was actually the eastbound lanes of Interstate 90 (the westbound lanes cross the lake on a separate bridge), connects the city and its eastern suburbs. It ...read more
Standard Oil geologists arrive in Saudi Arabia
On September 23, 1933, a party of American geologists lands at the Persian Gulf port of Jubail in Saudi Arabia and begins its journey into the desert. That July, with the discovery of a massive oil field at Ghawar, Saudi King Abdel Aziz had granted the Standard Oil Company of ...read more
Nissan Motor Company founded
On June 1, 1934, the Tokyo-based Jidosha-Seizo Kabushiki-Kaisha (Automobile Manufacturing Co., Ltd. in English) takes on a new name: Nissan Motor Company. Jidosha-Seizo Kabushiki-Kaisha had been established in December 1933. The company’s new name, adopted in June 1934, was an ...read more
First drunk driving arrest
On September 10, 1897, a 25-year-old London taxi driver named George Smith becomes the first person ever arrested for drunk driving after slamming his cab into a building. Smith later pleaded guilty and was fined 25 shillings. In the United States, the first laws against ...read more
ASCAP is founded
“If music did not pay, it would be given up.” So wrote Associate Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes in a landmark Supreme Court decision in 1917. Holmes wasn’t referring to musicians themselves in that statement, but to places of business in which copyrighted musical works could be ...read more
PG-13 rating debuts
On July 1, 1984, the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA), which oversees the voluntary rating system for movies, introduces a new rating, PG-13. The initial rating categories were G (appropriate for all ages), M (for mature audiences, but all ages admitted), R (persons ...read more
“Henry & June” is first NC-17 film shown in theaters
On October 5, 1990, Henry & June, starring Uma Thurman, Fred Ward and Maria de Medeiros and inspired by the novel of the same name by Anais Nin, opens in theaters as the first film with an NC-17 rating. Set in Paris, France, in the early 1930s, Henry & June tells the story of the ...read more
Union leaders put on trial for assassination
Union leaders Bill Hayward, Charles Moyer and George Pettibone are taken into custody by Idaho authorities and the Pinkerton Detective Agency. They are put on a special train in Denver, Colorado, following a secret, direct route to Idaho because the officials had no legal right ...read more
The “Trial of the Century” draws national attention
Schoolteacher John T. Scopes is convicted of violating Tennessee’s law against teaching evolution in public schools. The case debated in the so-called “Trial of the Century” was never really in doubt; the jury only conferred for a few moments in the hallway before returning to ...read more
Plea bargaining gains favor in American courts
Albert McKenzie pleads guilty to a misdemeanor count of embezzlement in Alameda County, California. McKenzie had originally been charged with a felony for taking $52.50 from the sewing-machine company for which he worked. However, rather than go through a trial, the prosecution ...read more
Women’s rights activist arrested
Emma Goldman, a crusader for women’s rights and social justice, is arrested in New York City for lecturing and distributing materials about birth control. She was accused of violating the Comstock Act of 1873, which made it a federal offense to disseminate contraceptive devices ...read more
Sun sets on the Ford Rotunda
On November 8, 1962, the famous Ford Rotunda stands in Dearborn, Michigan for the last time: the next day, it is destroyed in a massive fire. Some 1.5 million people visited the Rotunda each year, making it the fifth most popular tourist attraction in the U.S. (behind Niagara ...read more