Topic: Cold War

Jun 10,

1692

Bridget Bishop Hanged; First Victim of Salem Witch Trials

Oct 8,

1692

Salem Witch Hunt Begins to End – Governor Bans Use of “Spectral Evidence”

Dec 27,

1927

“Show Boat” – First Racially Integrated Broadway Musical, And With Interracial Themes

Dec 26,

1936

Abraham Lincoln Brigade Volunteers Sail for Spain to Fight Fascism – Will Be Persecuted During the Cold War

Sep 2,

1939

FBI Memo Launches Notorious Custodial Detention Index

May 7,

1940

ACLU Expels Elizabeth Gurley Flynn from Board of Directors

Jun 29,

1940

Advocating an Idea is Illegal: Smith Act Passed

Jul 31,

1940

ACLU Demands Federal Investigation of Barriers to the Ballot for Minority (i.e., Radical) Parties

Jun 30,

1941

AG Biddle Creates First List of “Subversive” Organizations

Mar 12,

1947

Cold War Begins: Truman Doctrine Announced

Mar 21,

1947

Guilt by Association: President Truman Launches Federal Loyalty Program

Apr 10,

1947

Reagan “Names Names” to the FBI

Apr 14,

1947

“I Am Not a Communist,” Says Charlie Chaplin

May 26,

1947

FBI Memo Attacks “It’s A Wonderful Life” As Subversive, Anti-Capitalist Propaganda

Jul 26,

1947

President Truman Signs National Security Act – Creates CIA

Sep 18,

1947

National Security Act in Effect on This Day: Decades of Lawless Abuses Begin

Mar 19,

1948

French Nobel Prize Winner, Mme. Joliot-Curie, Detained at Ellis Island for 24 Hours

Jun 18,

1948

CIA Gets Covert Action Authority

Jan 21,

1950

“Fear Obscures Reason,” Justice Hugo Black Warns of Cold War Hysteria

Jun 26,

1950

Anti-Communist Congress for Cultural Freedom Formed

Sep 22,

1950

Anti-Korean War Protester Waves “Peace” Flag; Gets Two Months in the Workhouse

Sep 22,

1950

Congress Passes Emergency Detention Act

Sep 22,

1950

Repressive McCarran Act Passed Over President Truman’s Veto

Nov 30,

1950

Author of Book Critical of the FBI Attacked, Smeared on the Floor of Congress

Jan 16,

1951

Hawaii Judge Acquits Three of Contempt of Congress for Claiming the Fifth Amendment Before HUAC

Jun 4,

1951

Smith Act Held Constitutional: Severe Blow to First Amendment

Jul 4,

1951

Cold War Reign of Fear: Madison, WI, Residents Afraid to Sign Petition with Excerpts from Declaration of Independence and Bill of Rights

Jul 29,

1951

Loyalty Oaths Spread Fear, Charges ACLU

Aug 1,

1951

Radio Artists Bar Communists from Membership – ACLU Protests

Sep 12,

1951

LA Unitarian Minister Accused of “Aid and Comfort to the Communist Cause”

Sep 18,

1951

Evasion of Hollywood Blacklist by Film Studios Exposed

Sep 19,

1951

All-Time “Namer of Names,” Martin Berkeley, Names 150+ to HUAC

Mar 10,

1952

“Kill the Lawyers:” Smith Act Trial Attorneys Contempt Convictions Upheld

May 1,

1952

Actor Edward G. Robinson Confesses to HUAC — “I Was a Sucker”

Jun 27,

1952

Subversives Out! Repressive McCarran-Walter Immigration Act Signed

Jul 1,

1952

Eason Monroe, Fired For Refusing to Sign Loyalty Oath, Becomes Head of ACLU of Southern California

Aug 29,

1952

Frank Wilkinson Declines to Answer Questions About Political Associations, Is Fired, Begins Civil Liberties Career

Jan 22,

1953

“The Crucible” Opens in New York; Playwright Arthur Miller’s Cold War Statement

Feb 25,

1953

President Eisenhower Warns: Communist Math Teachers May Sneak Marxism Into Math Problems

Apr 13,

1953

CIA Launches MKULTRA – Secret Drug Experiments Project

Apr 27,

1953

President Eisenhower Expands Loyalty Program to Cover Homosexuality

Jun 14,

1953

“Don’t Join the Book Burners:” Ike Indirectly Criticizes Joe McCarthy, Then Quickly Backtracks

Jun 19,

1953

Ethel and Julius Rosenberg Executed – Case Filled With Civil Liberties Problems

Nov 4,

1953

President Eisenhower Privately Admits Loyalty Program Problems – Does Not Act on Them

Dec 23,

1953

AEC Suspends J. Robert Oppenheimer’s Security Clearance

Feb 18,

1954

Cover-up: CIA Not Required to Report Criminal Conduct

Jun 9,

1954

“Have You No Decency?” Joseph N. Welch Rebukes Senator Joe McCarthy

Jul 29,

1954

ACLU Defends Dorothy Kenyon, Named by Joe McCarthy

Aug 12,

1955

A.D.A. Head Proclaims (Somewhat Prematurely) “End of the McCarthy Era”

Feb 27,

1956

Loyalty Oaths Cannot Be Required for Federal Housing

Mar 8,

1956

Notorious FBI COINTELPRO Program Approved

Jun 12,

1956

“You Are the Un-Americans:” Paul Robeson Denounces HUAC

Jun 26,

1956

“One Pro-Communist Decision After Another:” Right-Wingers Attack Supreme Court

Jul 1,

1956

Report Condemns Blacklisting in Movies and Television

Dec 7,

1956

ACLU Attorney A.L. Wirin Ejected From HUAC Hearing

Jun 17,

1957

“Red Monday” – Supreme Court Limits Anti-Communist Measures

Aug 28,

1957

Six Victims of 1692 Salem Witch Trials “Cleared” by Massachusetts Legislature

Jan 17,

1958

61 Chicago-area Notables Call for Abolition of HUAC

Jun 19,

1958

Joe Papp, Future Theater Great, Takes the Fifth Before HUAC – Is Fired by CBS

Mar 31,

1959

John Birch Society Head Denies Calling President Eisenhower a “Card-Carrying Communist”

Apr 25,

1960

“Dragonslayers” Speech: Rep. Jimmy Roosevelt Calls for Abolition of HUAC

Jan 26,

1961

California Loyalty Oath for Organizations Using School Facilities Struck Down

Mar 27,

1961

ACLU Opposes Legislative Investigation of Right-Wing John Birch Society

May 23,

1961

Emergency Civil Liberties Committee Denounces HUAC Investigation

Jan 19,

1962

RFK Memo on Cuba Demands Action to Remove Castro

Jun 28,

1962

John Henry Faulk Wins $3.5 Million Damages Award for Being Blacklisted

Aug 1,

1963

President Kennedy Denounces U.S. Travelers to Cuba as “Communists”

Aug 26,

1963

First Unauthorized Traveler to Cuba Returns, Faces Federal Charges

Jan 5,

1964

FBI Installs First “Bug” in Martin Luther King’s Hotel Room

Aug 19,

1964

U.S. Group Returns from Illegal Visit to Cuba

Jul 19,

1966

FBI Admits (to itself) That “Black Bag” Jobs (Burglaries) Are Illegal

Feb 15,

1967

“Ramparts” Magazine Exposes Secret CIA Funding of U.S. Student Group

Dec 13,

1968

Robert G. Thompson, Cold War Victim, Wins Posthumous Right to Burial at Arlington National Cemetery

Jun 4,

1974

“The List” is Ended: President Nixon Abolishes the Attorney General’s List of Subversive Organizations

Jan 4,

1975

President Ford Appoints Rockefeller Commission to Investigate CIA Abuses

Jan 27,

1975

Senate Creates Church Committee to Investigate Abuses by Intelligence Agencies

Feb 19,

1975

House Creates Pike Committee to Investigate Abuses by the CIA, other Agencies

Jul 1,

1975

David Saxon, Fired For Not Signing Loyalty Oath in 1950, Becomes President of University of California

Oct 31,

2001

Massachusetts Exonerates Five Salem Witch Trial Victims – On Halloween !

Mar 25,

2013

Anthony Lewis Dies; Won Two Pulitzers for Civil Liberties Stories

Oct 10,

2015

CIA Documents Reveal Role of Chile in 1976 Assassination on U.S Soil and CIA Role in Cover-Up

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