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Today in History (1862) - The U.S. government forbids all Union army officers from returning fugitive slaves, thus effectively annulling the Fugitive Slave Law of 1850 and setting the stage for the Emancipation Proclamation. On the same day in 1865, the Confederate Congress voted to enlist 300,000 black troops, granting them freedom with the consent of their owners. Lee surrendered a few weeks later. |
Today in History (1961) - Alabama Governor John Patterson declares martial law in an attempt to restore order after race riots break out. Thirty years later, former Indian PM Rajiv Gandhi is assassinated by a female suicide bomber. Seven years after that, on the same day in 1998, an Oregon student kills two fellow students and his parents; in Miami, Florida, five abortion clinics are hit by a butyric acid attacker.