The US Constitution was ratified by New Hampshire in 1788. KKK members killed civil rights activists in 1964. John Hinkley Jr. was found not guilty by reason of insanity in 1982 for shooting President Reagan. Josef Mengele’s skeleton was identified in 1985. Jean-Paul Sartre was born in 1905. The WNBA debuted its first game in 1997. The US Supreme Court protected flag burning as free speech in 1989 and established the “Miller Test” for obscenity laws in 1973. Arthur Miller refused to name names during the House Un-American Activities Committee in 1956. Bob Dylan’s album “Mr. Tambourine Man” was released in 1965.
The US Constitution went into effect. (1788) New Hampshire ratified it, the ninth state to do so. It is the oldest and shortest written constitution currently observed.
Ku Klux Klan (KKK) members kill three civil rights activists. (1964) Eight KKK members were sentenced to prison, but none for more than six years. In 2005, 41 years later, KKK member Edgar Ray Killen was convicted of manslaughter and sentenced to 60 years. He was 80 when he went to prison.
John Hinkley Jr. was found innocent by reason of insanity. (1982) Hinkley shot President Ronald Reagan on March 30, 1981. He evaded a prison sentence but was committed to a psychiatric facility.
Josef Mengele’s skeleton has been identified. (1985) Nazi war criminal, Dr. Mengele died in Brazil in 1979. He Was on the war criminals list since 1944 and was in hiding. After his skeleton was positively identified, his family refused to take possession of the bones.
Jean-Paul Sartre is born. (1905) Sartre was a 20th-century existentialist and philosopher. He won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2010, but was one of the few people in history to turn it down.
The Women’s National Basketball Association (WNBA) debuted its first game. (1997) The game featured the New York Liberty against the Los Angeles Sparks. The league started with eight teams and has grown to 12. The WNBA is fully backed by the NBA. The very first women’s league, the Women’s Professional Basketball League (WBL), played for three seasons between 1978 and 1981.
The US Supreme Court ruled that burning the American flag was protected by the US Constitution. (1989) In Texas v. Johnson, the court protects flag burning, calling it an expression of free speech that was protected by the First Amendment.
The US Supreme Court has ruled on the obscenity test. (1973) In Miller v. California court established the three-part “Miller Test,” which governs US obscenity laws. If the speech is obscene, it is not considered protected speech under the First Amendment.
American playwright Arthur Miller would not name names. (1956) House Un-American Activities Committee wanted a list of people who could be Communists; Miller would not comply. Miller was one of hundreds of entertainers the committee had blacklisted on suspicion of being a Communist; most have never been able to rebuild their careers. In 1947, the Investigative Committee blacklisted the top 10 people, famously called the Hollywood Ten.
The album Mr. Tambourine Man has been released. (1965) The single from the album of the same name was released on April 12 of that year. For many, the album marked the beginning of the folk rock era: the US press coined the term “folk rock” to describe the band’s musical genre.
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