Tuesday, April 30, 2024
Tuesday Morning in the Blogosphere
Today in Labor History April 30, 2024
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Everettville mine disaster
50,000 workers in Chicago were on strike, with 30,000 more joining in the next day. The strike brought most of Chicago’s manufacturing to a standstill. On May 3rd, Chicago cops killed four unionists. A mass meeting and demonstration was called for the 4th, in Haymarket Square, where a cop would be killed by an assailant who would never be identified. Ultimately, eight anarchists (many not even in attendance) would be tried for murder and sentenced to death. This event, known as the Haymarket Tragedy or the Haymarket Affair, would go on to be the inspiration for International Workers’ Day, celebrated on May 1st in every country in the world except the U.S. – 1886
The Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, miner’s strike continued, with 1,200 workers getting arrested and placed into specially erected bullpens until the strikes were broken. – 1889
An explosion at the Everettville mine in Everettville, West Virginia killed 109 miners, many of whom lie in unmarked graves to this day. – 1927
The TWU (Transport Workers Union) won $9.5 million in pensions for former Fifth Avenue Coach employees after a long court battle. – 1965
The Obama administration’s National Labor Relations Board implemented new rules to speed up unionization elections. The new rules were largely seen as a counter to employer manipulation of the law to prevent workers from unionizing. – 2012
Important Events From This day in History April 30
1952 England Diary of Anne Frank
1952: The diary of Anne Frank, a Jewish victim of the Holocaust is to be published in English titled "The Diary of a Young Girl". Her diary, later entitled "The Diary of Anne Frank", becomes one of the most popular books in the world and is included in most schools as recommended reading. The diary provides a disturbing account of a teenager living in hiding with seven others in fear of their lives in occupied Holland, Anne Frank died of typhus just before her 16th birthday in the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp in 1945. Find More What happened in 1952 Webmaster's note: I read this very moving journal after my daughter read it in high school a few years ago and was amazed at how well it was written under terrible circumstances.
1789 USA George Washington Inaugurated
1789: George Washington Inaugurated as the First President of the United States at Federal Hall in New York City (New York City was the first capital of the United States) New York State.
1921 England Treaty of Versailles
1921: The discussions over Germany sticking to the Treaty of Versailles and steps to enforce reparations by Germany for the World War are causing rifts between England , France and Italy with the British prime minister Lloyd George calling an emergency meeting of the cabinet . The French and Italians want immediate occupation of the Ruer region of Germany while Britain wishes to pursue more diplomatic means.
1932 USA Tuberculosis
1932: The continued growth in TB / Tuberculosis is becoming more widespread and with more variations and the worst affected are infants and young children. It is often transmitted through milk from diseased cows. It can be diagnosed by a chest X-ray and is highly contagious. Side note - this was the most important reason the milk we now buy is pasteurized / homogenized.
1939 USA New York World's Fair
1939: 200,000 people attended New York World’s Fair, officially opening. President Franklin D. Roosevelt gave the opening day address, which was not only broadcast over the various radio networks but also was televised. New York World's Fair allowed visitors to look at "The world of tomorrow." The General Motors exhibit was titled Futurama. Philo T. Farnsworth premiered some of the first televisions at the fair. AT&T presented its first Picture Phone at the World's Fair. Salvador Dali created a pavilion that was called “Dream of Venus” The IBM Pavilion featured electric typewriters, and a fantastic machine called the electric calculator that used punched cards to enter the information for the computer to calculate the results.
1939 USA First Regular Television Service
1939: President Franklin D. Roosevelt appeared on television for the opening of the New York World's Fair. His appearance started the first regular television service in America.
1940 Norway German Conquest
1940: Germany has stated that the conquest of Norway is now complete and has captured most British servicemen who are now in Prison Camps.
1940 USA Jimmy Dorsey
1940: Jimmy Dorsey and his band recorded the song "Contrasts." Along with his brother Tommy, the Dorsey Brothers eventually became an unmatched rival during the big band and swing era.
1943 Spain "The Man Who Never Was"
1943: "The Man Who Never Was" is pushed into the sea off the coast of Spain where the tide would bring the body ashore into German Hands. This was known as operation "Mincemeat." The operation was a British deception plan to convince the German High Command that allied forces would be invading the Balkans and Sardinia instead of the island of Sicily, by planting invasion plans on a corpse the Germans would find. The full deception is very complicated but great detail can be found on Wikipedia by searching for "The Man Who Never Was." The operation was a complete success which makes it even more interesting reading.
1945 Germany Hitler Commits Suicide
1945: German dictator Adolf Hitler and his wife Eva Braun committed suicide one day after they were married, just before the Russian troops entered his Berlin bunker at the end of World War II.
1948 England First Land Rover
1948: The Land Rover (Land Rover Series I) is shown for the first time at the Amsterdam Car Show, many of the original components were from Rover saloon cars including the 1.6 engine from the Rover P3 60 saloon. The car featured four-wheel drive.
1951 Iran Nationalize Oil Fields
1951: The Iranian government has voted to nationalize the countries oil fields which will be taken over from Anglo Iranian Co immediately and transferred to Government Ownership to ensure the wealth created from the nations reserves is used for the Iranian People.
1973 USA Watergate
1973: As part of the investigation of the Watergate bugging scandal 4 of President Nixon's closest aides resigned including Attorney General Richard G. Kleindienst, H.R. Haldeman, John D. Ehrlichman and John W. Dean II.
1975 South Vietnam Surrenders
1975: South Vietnam unconditional surrender to North Vietnam and the war in Vietnam is over with the Viet Cong and North Vietnamese Army and Government now in control.
1978 Bottled Water
1978: A debate is happening in the Soft Drink Industry and if the sales of bottled water by Perrier and others will ever make an impact on sales of more traditional sugary soft drinks in America.
1980 UK Terrorist Group Takes Iran Embassy Hostages
1980: Six terrorists take control of the Iranian Embassy in Prince's Gate, South Kensington in central London. The terrorists calling themselves the "Democratic Revolutionary Movement for the Liberation of Arabistan" take 26 hostages including the Metropolitan Police constable " PC Trevor Lock" on official protection duty at the main entrance. Their demands included the release of 91 political prisoners held in Iran as well as an aircraft to take them and the hostages out of the UK. The Iran embassy siege ends when SAS storms embassy on May 5th.
1984 Chad Civil War
1984: The Libya Prime minister has offered to withdraw Libyan troops from Chad if France will also withdraw from the former French African Colony, The French are supporting the current regime while the Libyans are supporting the rebel army.
1993 Germany Monica Seles Stabbed
1993: A man leans over a three-feet-high barrier at the quarter final tennis match in Hamburg and stabs Monica Seles from behind in the back. She is expected to be out of tennis for the next month while she recovers.
1999 England Nail Bomb
1999: A third Nail bomb attack in London at the Admiral Duncan pub, in Soho, leaves two dead and at least 30 injured.
2007 U.S. and E.U. Sign for Single Market
2007: The United States and European Union have committed themselves to a new transatlantic economic partnership at a summit in Washington. The pact will attempt to boost trade and investment by harmonizing regulatory standards, and laying down the basis for a US-EU single market. The two sides have also signed an Open Skies deal, which is designed to reduce fares and boost traffic on transatlantic flights.
Monday, April 29, 2024
Ex-LATer Bob Pool, 79, has died. Seema Mehta wrote his obituary:
Bob Pool, a veteran Los Angeles Times reporter who memorably chronicled the triumphs, challenges and daily lives of everyday Angelenos, died Sunday, according to his family. He was 79.
Pool, who worked at the Times for more than three decades before retiring in 2014 and had been in failing health in recent years, was beloved by readers and colleagues for his empathy, humor and wit — and his ability to tell tales about Los Angeles that made the sprawling metropolis feel like a small town.
“He was a newspaper man to the core of his being and he just had a playful sense of curiosity and a delightfully droll sensibility often in his writing,” said Sherry Pool, his wife of 45 years who was by his side when he died at a long-term medical care facility. “I think that Bob knew Los Angeles, the whole county, certainly the city, as well if not better than most people because he … just loved getting the story.”
And:
Pool joined the Times in 1983 as a general assignment reporter on the metro desk, covering a broad array of stories. But he was best known for human-interest pieces that focused on the lives of ordinary Californians — a pregnant postal worker, a Bel Air hotel bellhop — who didn’t attract the attention of reporters more fixated on the city’s celebrities and politicians.
“Bob wrote about people who would not have had a moment in the sun the way they did had they not crossed paths,” said Hector Becerra, the Times’ managing editor who met Pool when he was an unpaid intern in 1998. “He specialized in telling stories that would not have existed had it not been for Bob Pool.”
And:
Pool was also known in the newsroom for his unassuming demeanor, lack of ego, love of puns and idiosyncrasies, such as his difficulties dealing with technology. But he is most remembered for the interest he took in his colleagues, regardless of status, a reflection of how Pool approached his coverage of Los Angeles.
Here's a story that contains samples of Bob's best stories. Writes Shelby Grad:
It’s a risky proposition to create a “best of list” for Bob Pool stories in the Los Angeles Times.
Not only are there too many to choose from — more than 4,000 — but there are few shortcuts for finding the true gems. That’s because Pool hated writing for Page 1. He favored economy over length. And the headlines rarely did justice to tales he could weave way inside the old Times Valley Edition, say, on a page next to GE refrigerator ads.
And:
Pool, who died Sunday, was a legend in The Times newsroom for three decades. Most of that time, he did not have a defined assignment. His beat was “the Bob Pool story,” a perfect slice of the Los Angeles human condition that many days made reading a newspaper chronicling wars, sleazy politicians, economic distress and environment degradation somewhat bearable.
He had an eye for stories you would want to read. He found people you wanted to know. He respected your time. And he knew how to make you smile (during his early days at the Thousand Oaks News-Chronicle, he knew how to get you interested in a municipal government piece: “Although they’re already up to their knees in sewage effluent, Las Virgenes Municipal Water District leaders agreed Monday night to consider expanding their sewer system to Topanga Canyon.”)
And:
As Times columnist Steve Lopez wrote of Pool on his 2014 retirement: He’s the ultimate reminder to reporters that “good things happen when you blow off news conferences, set fire to press releases, get out of the office and celebrate the daily drama on what might be the world’s greatest stage.”
Tweets Tony Pierce:
The great Bob Pool covered LA the way I loved: without any baloney.
The pieces I loved best from him were of everyday Angelenos who were quietly doing extraordinary things. His eye and style is one of my major inspirations for http://hearinLA.com
And now that the @LATimes is magically, suddenly, interested in the neighborhoods of LA, maybe one day they'll realize it's the people who make up the neighborhoods, not the businesses or trendy food spots.
It's the humanity that gives LA its unique spirit, that's what I learned from Bob Pool stories.
Look at the features the Times has now on its homepage (https://latimes.com/.../2024-04-28/la-me-bob-pool-writings) honoring the longtime scribe: a piece about the bell captain of the Hotel Bel-Air, one about a woman who lived in the Biltmore Hotel for over 40 years.
It's the people that brings life to the places.
When I first got to meet Bob, I introduced myself and told him I felt like I was meeting a celebrity. He couldn't believe "young people" read the paper, let alone knew who wrote the stories.
I told him he'd be surprised how many readers he touched through his work. He remained so kind to me, me a nobody, that the night the Cubs won the World Series, he congratulated me on Twitter.
What a fantastic cherry on top of a wondrous night.
Thank you for everything, @BobsLATimes. Mostly thanks for leading by example.
Tweets Hector Becerra:
RIP to one of the best: Veteran L.A. Times newsman Bob Pool, a chronicler of everyday Angelenos, dies - Los Angeles Times
Tweets Matt Hamilton:
Bob Pool was a great colleague and reporter, and I think of him every time I drive through La Brea and Beverly, with its two Chevron stations that he wrote about https://t.co/I6m7UVS49L
Tweets Richard Winton:
No one told LA’s story person by person better than Bob. He the thousands of stories in the naked city. Bob Pool, veteran L.A. Times newsman and observer of the human condition, dies at 79
Monday Morning in the Blogosphere
'We must protect intellectual property of news content' - Journalism UK
Today in Labor History April 29th, 2024
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Coxey’s Army
Jacob Coxey led a group of 500 unemployed workers from the Midwest to Washington, D.C. His Army of the Poor was immediately arrested for trespassing on Capitol grounds. – 1894
The Return of Coxey’s Army (By Eddie Starr)
When they busted all the unions,
You can’t make no living wage.
And this working poor arrangement,
Gonna turn to public rage.
And then get ready . . .
We’re gonna bring back Coxey’s Army
And take his message to the street.
You can’t make no living wage.
And this working poor arrangement,
Gonna turn to public rage.
And then get ready . . .
We’re gonna bring back Coxey’s Army
And take his message to the street.
Failing to achieve their demand that only union men be employed at the Bunker Hill Company at Wardner, Idaho, members of the Western Federation of Miners (WFM) dynamited the $250,000 mill, completely destroying it. President McKinley responded by sending in black soldiers from Brownsville, Texas, with orders to round up the miners and imprison them in specially built “bullpens”. From 1899 to 1901, the U.S. Army occupied the Coeur d’Alene mining region in Idaho. – 1899
The special representative to the National War Labor Board issued a report, Retroactive Date for Women’s Pay Adjustments, setting forth provisions respecting wage rates for women working in war industries who were asking for equal pay. A directive issued by the board in September 1942 stated that “rates for women shall be set in accordance with the principle of equal pay for comparable quantity and quality of work on comparable operations.” – 1943
Refusing to accept a 9-cent wage increase, the United Packinghouse Workers of America initiated a nationwide strike against meatpacking companies Swift, Armour, Cudahy, Wilson, Morrell, and others. Packinghouse workers shut down 140 plants around the country. – 1948
Important Events From This day in History April 29
1992 Rioting in Los Angeles
1992: Rioting has broken out in Los Angeles following the decision by a jury to acquit four white police officers accused of beating black motorist Rodney King. The case centered on a video, taped by an amateur cameraman which caught the scene on film as the four police officers beat, kicked and clubbed unemployed laborer Rodney King while other officers looked on. The officers did face a second trial a year later, on federal charges of violating Rodney King's civil rights, 2 were found guilty and faced prison sentences of two years. The violence continued for 4 days in which 55 people were killed caused by revenge attacks against whites and Asians by the black rioters. Find More What happened in 1992
1958 Britain My Fair Lady
1958: The Broadway musical "My Fair Lady" opens for its first night in London, with Rex Harrison as Professor Higgins, and Julie Andrews playing Eliza Doolittle. Tickets for the show cost just over £1, the first month is sold out before opening night.
1922 USA Lower Louisiana Floods
1922: Starvation threatens victims of the overflow of flood waters in lower Louisiana with nearly 3,500 square miles underwater and fifty thousand people affected many losing their homes and all possessions.
1934 USA John Dillinger
1934: John Dillinger is still on the run from a nationwide hunt after escaping from a band of policemen with orders to catch him dead or alive 1 week ago in North woods Wisconsin, after escaping a dragnet was put up in surrounding countryside but again he escaped and is still Americas Public Enemy Number 1 and still running wild and free.
1934 Europe Growth of Fascism
1934: With fascist dictators in power across Europe now parading their might and power including Hitler in Germany and Italy's Mussolini democracy is challenged more in this decade than any other.
1941 Greece Conquest of the Balkans
1941: Hitler and Germany completed the conquest of the Balkans in 1941 when they swept across Southern Greece taking many thousands of prisoners including British, Australian and new Zealand.
1945 Germany Dachau Concentration Camp
1945: Dachau concentration camp was liberated today when troops of the U.S. Seventh Army cleared the enemy guards from the camp where gruesome torture rooms and gas chambers were located.
1956 Britain Plane Crash
1956: A transport plane loaded with servicemen and their wives and children crashed today at Stanstead Airport while taking off to go to war torn Cyprus.
1963 Saipan Typhoon Olive
1963: Typhoon Olive with 110 MPH Winds destroyed 95% of the homes on the Island of Saipan and all electric power and telephones were down , there were no reported deaths but most of the population of the Island are now homeless.
1970 US Troops Invade Cambodia
1970: Following 12 months of bombing by US during Operation Menu, On This Day the South Vietnamese troops invade Cambodia and US troops follow 2 days later. The operation to invade Cambodia lasted until the end of June when US and South Vietnam's troops pull back out.
1974 USA President Nixon Watergate
1974: President Nixon announced in a nationally broadcast address he will hand over 1200 pages of White House Transcripts that will tell it all about Watergate and will prove his innocence.
1986 England Duchess of Windsor, Wallis Simpson
1986: The Duchess of Windsor, Wallis Simpson, is laid to rest alongside her husband, the abdicated King Edward VIII, at Frogmore in Windsor. Members of the Royal family including the Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh and the Prince and Princess of Wales, Princess Anne, and Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother, as well as The Prime Minister, Margaret Thatcher attended the ceremony.
1991 Bangladesh Cyclone
1991: A cyclone hits Bangladesh with winds in excess of 150 MPH and a 20 foot storm surge and kills more than 135,000 people in flat low lying Bangladesh.
1993 England Buckingham Palace
1993: Buckingham Palace will open its doors to the public in order to raise money to repair the fire-damaged Windsor Castle. The palace will only be open in August and September when the Queen is at her Scottish residence, Balmoral. The cost of entrance will be £8 for an adult.
2004 USA National World War II Memorial
2004: The National World War II Memorial between the Lincoln Memorial and the Washington Monument a monument to the 16 million U.S. men and women who served during World War II opened to the public in Washington D.C.
2007 Turkish Protest In Support of Secularism
2007: Hundreds of thousands of Turks have rallied in Istanbul in support of the country's secularism, amid rows on one of their presidential candidate's Islamic roots. The protesters are concerned that the ruling party's candidate, Abdullah Gul, is too loyal to Islam. Gul, himself, has said he would not quit, despite growing criticism from his opponents and from the army.
2007 Iran Bans Western Hairstyles
2007: Iranian police have been warning barbers not to give men Western hairstyles, or to use make-up on them. This is part of a fierce crackdown on what is known as bad hijab, or un-Islamic clothing. Iranian television has said that the crackdown on un-Islamic clothing has started its next phase, in which mobile police units will patrol Tehran in search of those who do not observe Islamic dress sense. Tehran's public prosecutor has suggested that women who violate dress rules should be exiled from the capital, and forced to live in remote areas of the country.
2009 First US Swine Flu Death
2009: A Mexican child has died of swine flu in Texas. He was twenty-three months old. The child is one of the 91 cases of swine flu that have been reported in the U.S. The World Health Organization has said that the virus was still spreading. Spain has said that it has confirmed its first case in a person who has not traveled to Mexico. The Mexican boy had arrived in the Texan border city of Brownsville on April 4th, and had developed flu symptoms within a few days.
2010 US Gulf Oil Spill
2010: The U.S. government has designated the Gulf of Mexico oil spill as an "incident of national significance". The Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano has told reporters that this will allow resources to be ordered in from other areas of the country. Some five thousand barrels of oil a day are leaking into the water from the explosion that took place on a B.P.-operated rig. The Coast Guard has said that the oil is expected to start washing ashore on April 30th. Louisiana's coastline is the most threatened.
2010 US Navy Lifts Ban on Female Submarine Crew
2010: Women can now serve on U.S. submarines. The Defense Department had announced that the ban would be lifted in February, and the deadline for Congressional objections was passed at midnight on April 28th. Training women for their new duties and the creation of appropriate quarters will mean that it will be more than a year before women can take up their posts. The cramped conditions had previously precluded women, despite their being able to serve alongside men on surface ships.About 15% of Navy personnel are women.
Sunday, April 28, 2024
Sunday Morning in the Blogosphere
What's lost when newspapers die - Star Tribune
Minnesota’s first newspaper is 175 years old - Pioneer Press
Today in Labor History April 28th, 2024
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181-192 (sources differ) workers died in a coal mine collapse disaster at Eccles, West Virginia. The mine was owned by the Guggenheim family. – 1914
A bomb plot was discovered in which over 30 dynamite bombs were to be sent people “on the anarchists’ enemies list,” including U.S. Attorney General A. Mitchell Palmer, who had been rounding up, imprisoning and deporting anarchists and union activists. Other targets included J. P. Morgan, John D. Rockefeller, Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes, and Judge Kenesaw Mountain Landis. – 1919
119 died in a Benwood, West Virginia coal mine disaster. – 1924
The United Wallpaper Craftsmen & Workers of North America merged with the Pulp, Sulfite & Paper Mill Workers union. – 1958
The American Federation of Hosiery Workers merged with the Textile Workers Union of America. – 1965
Congress approved the creation of OSHA, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (only to watch idly as it was gutted by Reagan, and again by his successors). The AFL-CIO declared April 28 “Workers Memorial Day” to honor the hundreds of thousands of working people killed and injured on the job every year. – 1970.
The first “Take Our Daughters to Work Day” took place on this day, promoted by the Ms. Foundation. Its purpose was to boost the self-esteem of girls with invitations to a parent’s workplace. – 1993
Important Events From This day in History April 28
1947 Peru Kon-Tiki Expedition
1947: A Norwegian expedition including 5 Norwegians and a Swede headed by Thor Heyerdahl set out on the raft The Kon-Tiki from Peru in South America to cross the 4000 miles of Pacific Ocean to prove that the Polynesian Islands were settled in a similar way thousands of years ago, the raft is equipped with a square sail and paddles. Find More What happened in 1947
2008 New Zealand Colossal Squid
2008: A rarely found Colossal Squid 34 feet long, and weighing 1/2 ton squid is being dissected to help understand a little more about rare animal that lives largely in the cold Antarctic waters. The squid is believed to grow up to 50 ft long a similar length to the sperm whale they are believed to tussle with in the depths of the ocean.
1940 USA Glenn Miller Pennsylvania 6-5000
1940: "Pennsylvania 6-5000," by Glenn Miller and his orchestra, was recorded. The song's title refers to the oldest existing New York City phone number at the time belonging to the Hotel Pennsylvania. Many prominent acts played at this venue, including the Dorsey Brothers, Duke Ellington and the Glenn Miller Orchestra as well.
1789 Tahiti Mutiny On The Bounty
1789: Fletcher Christian leads a mutiny against the commanding officer William Bligh aboard the British Royal Navy ship HMS Bounty. Mutineers set Captain Bligh and 18 crew loyal to the captain afloat in a 23-foot open boat. Captain Bligh and his fellow loyal crew made it after a 47-day voyage to Timor in the Dutch East Indies and returned to England and reported the mutiny. The Mutineers eventually settled in Pitcairn Island and Tahiti.
1926 Europe 5,000,000 Unemployed
1926: Unemployment in Europe is at an all time high with over 5,000,000 receiving doles from their governments with over 1 million in Britain and 2 million in Germany, causes are from many things including antiquated equipment, high taxes, and high production costs.
1935 USA 1,200,000 Face Starvation in Illinois
1935: Over 1,200,000 people face starvation in Illinois if the US Federal Government stops providing new deal funding, the reason is that the state must provide $3,000,000 of the $12,000,000 required each month to feed and house the unemployed indigents or the federal government withdraws it's funding and the state does not have the money and is not providing that funding.
1945 Italy Mussolini
1945: Italian partisans executed deposed dictator Benito Mussolini and his mistress, Clara Petacci. Mussolini, who ruled Italy from 1922 to 1943.
1955 Vietnam Nigo Dinh Diem
1955: The American backed premier Nigo Dinh Diem in Vietnam is fighting for survival against rebel forces , the backing of the US is only in expression of support and is not providing military support in any way.
1965 Dominican Republic US Citizens Evacuated
1965: U.S. Marines evacuated American citizens in the Dominican Republic due to the current civil war.
1967 USA Muhammad Ali
1967: Heavyweight boxing champion Muhammad Ali appears for his scheduled induction into the U.S. Armed Forces in Houston, he refused three times to step forward at the call of his name. He is then warned by an officer that failing to answer to his name was a felony punishable by five years in prison and a fine of $10,000. He still refused to budge when his name was called. On the same day, the New York State Athletic Commission suspended his boxing license and stripped him of his title. In 1964 he had failed the U.S. Armed Forces qualifying test because his writing and spelling skills were sub par. However, in early 1966, the tests were revised and Ali was reclassified as 1A. When notified of this status, he declared that he would refuse to serve in the United States Army.
1969 USA All Guns Banned From US Colleges
1969: Following a number of protests and armed students involving guns and weapons in colleges and universities across the US new laws are being sought to ban all guns from college compasses.
1969 France Charles de Gaulle Resigns
1969: The French President, Charles de Gaulle, resigns from President of France after 11 years, following his defeat in a referendum on governmental reforms.
1975 Vietnam Last US Citizens Evacuated
1975: US Involvement in Vietnam is now complete as helicopters and marines bring out the last US Citizens and parents of thousands of South Vietnamese children are begging the US to save the children as US Marines are using pistol and rifle butts to smash the fingers of Vietnamese trying to climb over the walls and enter the US Embassy compound.
1986 Soviet Union Chernobyl
1986: Two days after monitoring stations in Sweden, Finland and Norway began reporting sudden high discharges of radioactivity in the atmosphere. The Soviet Union via the official news agency, Tass, said there has been an accident at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant in Ukraine.
1994 USA Aldrich Ames
1994: A CIA double agent Aldrich Ames is jailed for life after admitted selling secrets to the Soviet Union and then Russia.
1995 South Korea Gas Explosion
1995: A gas explosion beneath a busy city street in Taegu, South Korea, kills more than 100 people many of them children on their way to school.
1996 Australia Gunman Kills 32
1996: A gunman has shot and killed 32 people in the tourist town of Port Arthur, Tasmania. The gunman is now holding three people hostage in a local guest-house. The gunman "Martin Bryant" did kill the three hostages during the siege and is captured by police the next day and is found guilty of murder and sentenced to life imprisonment with no possibility of parole.
2004 USA Abu Ghraib Prisoner Abuse Scandal
2004: The first photos of the Abu Ghraib prisoner abuse scandal were shown on CBS' "60 Minutes II." . The US army has all ready instituted and was already acting on these photographs prior to the 60 Minutes Showing and those involved are all in Iraq, awaiting court martial. The abuses were committed by some personnel of the 372nd Military Police Company of the United States together with additional American governmental agencies.
2006 Wiretapping Lawsuit Against AT&T
2006: The Bush administration has said that it will be trying to halt the lawsuit that is accusing AT&T of illegally helping the National Security Agency spy on Americans citizens. In an 8-page document that was filed with a federal court in a northern district of California, the U.S. Justice Department said that it would intervene in the lawsuit. The Electronic Frontier Foundation, a digital rights group based in San Francisco, had filed a class action lawsuit against the federal government in January. The suit claims AT&T's alleged cooperation violates the Constitution's free speech and privacy rights and contravenes the federal wiretapping law, which prohibits electronic surveillance "except as authorized."
2008 Supreme Court Approves Indiana’s Photo ID Voting
2008: The Supreme Court has issued a decision to uphold an Indiana law that requires citizens to provide photo identification when voting. It is hoped that this will guard against fraud. Critics of the law argue that it discriminates against poor voters, ethnic minorities and the elderly, who are less likely to carry ID, but the Court ruled that the law did not constitute a burden on voters. Other states have similar rules, and the court's ruling could prompt even more states to adopt the law.
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