1752 – The Pennsylvania Hospital opened as the very first hospital in America.

1808 – Judge Jesse Fell experimented by burning anthracite coal to keep his house warm. He successfully showed how clean the coal burned and how cheaply it could be used as a heating fuel.

1812 – The term “gerrymandering” had its beginning when the governor of Massachusetts, Elbridge Gerry, signed a redistricting law that favored his party.

1858 – A French girl, Bernadette Soubirous, claimed to have seen a vision of the Virgin Mary near Lourdes.

1878 – The first U.S. bicycle club, Boston Bicycle Club, was formed.

1929 – The Lateran Treaty was signed. Italy now recognized the independence and sovereignty of Vatican City.

1936 – Pumping began the process to build San Francisco’s Treasure Island.

1937 – General Motors agreed to recognize the United Automobile Workers Union, which ended the current sit-down strike against them.

1938 – “The Big Broadcast of 1938” was released.

1940 – NBC radio presented “The Chamber Music Society of Lower Basin Street” for the first time.

1943 – General Dwight David Eisenhower was selected to command the allied armies in Europe.

1945 – During World War II, the Yalta Agreement was signed by U.S. President Franklin Roosevelt, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill and Soviet leader Josef Stalin. (Today in World War II History)

1957 – The NHL Players Association was formed in New York City.

1958 – Ruth Carol Taylor was the first black woman to become a stewardess by making her initial flight.

1960 – Jack Paar walked off while live on the air on the “Tonight Show” with four minutes left. He did this in response to censors cutting out a joke from the show the night before.

1968 – The new 20,000 seat Madison Square Garden officially opened in New York. This was the fourth Garden.

1972 – McGraw-Hill Publishing Co. and Life magazine canceled plans to publish an autobiography of Howard Hughes. The work turned out to be fake.

1975 – Margaret Thatcher became the first woman to head a major party in Britain when she was elected leader of the Conservative Party.

1979 – Nine days after the Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini returned to Iran (after 15 years in exile) power was seized by his followers.

1982 – ABC-TV’s presentation of “The Winds of War” concluded. The 18-hour miniseries cost $40 million to produce and was the most-watched television program in history at the time.

1982 – France nationalized five groups of major industries and 39 banks.

1984 – The tenth Space Shuttle mission returned to Earth safely.

1989 – Rev. Barbara C. Harris became the first woman to be consecrated as a bishop in the Episcopal Church.

1990 – Nelson Mandela was freed after 27 years in captivity.

1990 – In Tokyo, Japan, James “Buster” Douglas knocked out Mike Tyson in the tenth round to win the heavyweight championship.

1993 – Janet Reno was appointed to the position of attorney general by U.S. President Clinton. She was the first female to hold the position.

2000 – The space shuttle Endeavor took off. The mission was to gather information for the most detailed map of the earth ever made.

2000 – Great Britain suspended self-rule in Northern Ireland after the Irish Republican Army (IRA) failed to begin decommissioning (disarming) by a February deadline.

2002 – The six stars on NBC’s “Friends” signed a deal for $24 million each for the ninth and final season of the series.

2006 – In Texas, U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney accidentally shot and wounded a companion during a quail hunt.

2016 – It was reported that scientists had detected gravitational waves. The waves had been detected on September 14, 2015 by the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-wave Observatory (LIGO) detectors in Livingston, LA, and Hanford, WA.

on-this-day.com

On this day in 1964, the Senate was involved in an epic fight over the Civil Right Act, after a group of Southern senators started a record-setting filibuster in March.

The Act was signed by President Lyndon Baines Johnson on July 2, 1964, but not before a lengthy, protracted fight in Washington. In fact, no full-featured Civil Rights Act proposal had ever survived a filibuster attempt on the Senate floor. Under the old Senate rules, two-thirds of the Senate would need to vote for cloture, or limiting debate time on the floor. (Today, the cloture barrier stands at 60 votes.)

The Act had been approved by the House of Representatives in February 1964, and Senate majority leader Mike Mansfield made the unusual move of bypassing the Judiciary Committee (which was chaired by an anti-bill Senator) and placing the Act directly on the Senate’s main calendar.
But when Mansfield made the first motion about the bill in the Senate, the well-organized filibuster attempt started. And had it been successful, the Civil Rights Act would have been finished for that Senate session.
A year earlier, President John F. Kennedy told a nationwide audience that the Act was a necessity. A prior bill, the Civil Rights Act of 1957, was important but it had a limited impact and it was difficult to enforce. It also had survived a 24-hour filibuster from Senator Strom Thurmond.
As Senate Majority Leader, Lyndon Johnson has been involved heavily in the fight for the Civil Rights Act of 1957, and as President, he was committed to honoring his own values and Kennedy’s legacy in the fight for the much-more comprehensive 1964 act.
Committed to the filibuster effort were the powerful Senators Richard Russell, Thurmond, Robert Byrd, William Fulbright and Sam Ervin. Russell started the filibuster in late March 1964, and it would last for 60 working days in the Senate.
Behind the scenes, two opposing leaders were working to find a way to get 67 votes: the Democratic Senate whip, Hubert Humphrey and the Senate Minority Leader, Everett Dirksen of Illinois.
At first, Dirksen opposed the House version of the bill because of certain passages, even though he was a long-time civil rights supporter. Humphrey, a Democrat, worked together with his Republican colleague to make the bill more acceptable to Republicans, while not weakening its powers.
On June 10, 1964, Dirksen made a powerful speech that served to bring more Republicans onto his side in the fight.
Dirksen made his case and then quoted the author Victor Hugo: “Stronger than all the armies is an idea whose time has come.” The Senator then reminded his colleagues that the Republican Party stood for equality since its founding in the years before the Civil War.
That same day, the Humphrey-Dirksen group got 71 votes to end the filibuster, four more than needed, as 27 Republicans had decided to support the Act.
During the vote, the terminally ill Senator from California, Clair Engle, was brought to the floor in a wheelchair. Unable to speak because of a brain tumor, Engle pointed to his eye to signify his Yes vote.
President Johnson signed the bill on July 2 in a nationally televised ceremony.
The new law prohibited discrimination in public places. It also provided for the integration of schools and other public facilities, and it made employment discrimination illegal.
Recent Historical Stories on Constitution Daily
The remarkable career of Charles Evans HughesOn This Day, Lee surrenders at Appomattox10 fascinating facts about Robert E. Lee and Ulysses S. Grant

constitutuioncenter.org

Trump attacked Congresswoman Maxine Waters. Help fund our plans to unseat racist politicians! FUND BLACK VICTORIES Dear Friends, Trump’s ugly racism has reared its head once again. This time, Trump publicly attacked Rep. Maxine Waters’ intelligence at a rally in Pennsylvania, dropping any attempt at presidential decorum in favor of schoolyard name-calling. For Trump, this isn’t very surprising. But we know too well that Trump isn’t our only elected official spewing anti-Black sentiments. His comments reflect the racist words and actions of many local politicians making decisions in our own backyards. Take prosecutors, for example. They decide whether to maintain the system of cash bail, how harshly to prosecute minor drug offenses and how to deal with police violence, among other responsibilities. In other words, prosecutors make choices that can either free thousands of Black people, or lock up thousands more of us. In 2018 we’re working nationwide to ensure we have better prosecutors for our communities. Stand with us and donate $1 today. The story of Kenneth Humphrey in San Francisco paints a disturbing picture of the racism embedded in many of our prosecutors. Humphreys is accused of stealing $5 and a bottle of cologne from his neighbor’s room in their senior housing complex. Local prosecutors allowed his bail to be set at $350,000, a price which has forced him to wait in jail for over 250 days and counting.1 $350,000 for a $5 crime. This is unacceptable. Here are some stark facts about our criminal justice system: In the U.S., 95% of District Attorneys are white.2 Black and white folks use drugs at similar rates, but Black folks are imprisoned at almost 6 times higher rates.3 Black men are given on average 35% higher bond than white men.4 Racism from our President is echoed in racism in our courts, and Black people pay the highest price. We’ve had enough. In 2018, Color Of Change PAC is committing to mobilize Black voters in nearly 30 races. From Florida to Michigan to California, we’ll unseat racist politicians and replace them with ones who care about us. Here’s our plan, which your $1 donation can support: Hire local organizers who are deeply embedded in their communities to help us connect with people on the ground Host multiple #BlackJoyBrunches in each city, where we’ll educate people about why we need to transform criminal justice for Black people Train local community members in digital organizing skills, including how to use an innovative app that educates hundreds of thousands of Black voters on upcoming elections through simple text messages Run online ads that reach over 1 million people and bring their attention to the criminal justice issues at stake in their elections Win BIG for Black people on Election Day! Rep. Waters deserves better than to be called names by the President. We deserve better than to be unfairly targeted and imprisoned by prosecutors. Together, we can change all of this. With just $1, help fund Black victories in 2018. Until justice is real, –Arisha, Jenni, Shannon, Kwesi, Bhavik, Daniel, Reagan, Scott and the Color Of Change PAC team