Browsing: March

A Brief History On March 22, 1972, the US Supreme Court decided that unmarried Americans were allowed to have sex! Digging Deeper It is hard to imagine that so recently the commonly referred to as liberal state of Massachusetts had a law against distribution of contraceptives except by pharmacists or doctors and then only to married people! The Massachusetts law prohibiting “Crimes against Chastity” was on trial after a lecturer and advocate of population control through contraception purposely violated the law in order to mount the court challenge, known as Eisenstadt v. Baird. At issue was the right of unmarried…

A Brief History On March 21, 1952, disc jockey Alan Freed (inventor of the term “rock and roll”) and record store owner Leo Mintz staged the first rock concert in Cleveland, Ohio! Digging Deeper At the time, our country was divided by race, with African-Americans who served the country during World War II expecting to achieve something more like equality than the segregation and discriminatory treatment of the day. With major civil rights milestones such as integration of the armed forces in 1948 and landmark events such as Brown v. Board of Education and the Rosa Parks led bus boycott…

A Brief History On March 21, 1804, the Code Napoleon became the law of France, and went on to influence legal reforms in many other countries. Digging Deeper Napoleon Bonaparte, emperor of the French, was somewhat more down to earth than the ego-maniacal image he is usually portrayed as. The Code Napoleon, or Napoleonic Code (or Code Civil des Francais as they say in France) had modern rules popular with the masses, with such novel ideas as freedom of religion, no privilege based on birth, and government positions based on merit instead of wealth. Of course, there was the law…

A Brief History On March 20, 2000, Jamil Abdullah Al-Amin was arrested for shooting 2 police officers, killing one of them. Digging Deeper Digging deeper we find Al-Amin the new name for the former Black Panther “Minister of Justice” known as H. Rap Brown.  The erstwhile Hubert Gerold Brown was wanted for gunning down 2 Georgia deputy sheriffs that were attempting to arrest him on warrants for receiving stolen property, a traffic offense, and impersonating a police officer. Al-Amin, or Brown, had led a difficult life, in trouble with the law through much of it. Jailed for a variety of…

A Brief History As has already been established on our site, we at History and Headlines are fascinated by unusual deaths.  Accordingly, earlier today, we featured an article on the death of gangster Frank Nitti.  Nevertheless, we suspect you hunger for even more inglorious criminal deaths… Digging Deeper 10. Saddam Hussein (2006) Known for waging unprovoked war and using poison gas against Iran and his own people, Saddam was hanged while being jeered by his prison guards and recorded on cell phone video.  He was apparently not even hanged properly as his neck was ripped open, and the indignity continued…