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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 Bad Calls History (1873) - The U.S. Congress enacts the Comstock Law, making it illegal to send any "obscene, lewd, or lascivious" books through the mail. One hundred twelve years later, Women Against Pornography gives Huggies Diapers its "Pig Award," for its "Miss America diaper ad presenting little girls in objectifying cheesecake poses, which ignore the prevalence and seriousness of child molestation."