Topic: Censorship

Jul 14,

1798

First Sedition Act Passed

Mar 3,

1873

Comstock Act Passed – Era of Censorship Begins

Dec 24,

1908

Protect the City’s Morals! NYC Mayor Revokes All Movie Licenses

Mar 29,

1913

Theodore Roosevelt Warns That U.S. Threatened by “European Extremists” — Artists

Apr 2,

1914

Post Office Bans Margaret Sanger’s “Woman Rebel”

May 16,

1914

Judge Learned Hand Rebukes Anti-Obscenity Crusader Anthony Comstock

Feb 8,

1915

“Birth of a Nation” Opens: A Century of Controversy Follows

Feb 23,

1915

Supreme Court: Movies Not Protected by First Amendment

Jun 16,

1915

University of Pennsylvania Fires Scott Nearing Over Radical Economic Views

Sep 21,

1915

Anthony Comstock Dies – Censorship Lives On

Oct 3,

1915

John Sumner to Continue Comstock’s Censorship Work

Feb 10,

1917

Columbia University Bans Tolstoy’s Son as “Persona Non Grata”

Feb 17,

1917

Senators Denounce Proposed Espionage Bill as War Is Imminent

Feb 25,

1917

“Modesty” Ordered for Atlantic City Cabarets

Apr 7,

1917

President Wilson Issues Secret Loyalty Order

Jul 7,

1917

Government Repression Hits Socialist Opponents of War

Jul 7,

1917

Suppression of Dissent: “The Masses,” Anti-War Magazine, Held Non-Mailable

Jul 13,

1917

Activists Protest Post Office Censorship of Anti-War Publications

Sep 11,

1917

Emma Goldman Speech Banned in New York – Appears On Stage Gagged

Sep 26,

1917

Post Office to Ban Emma Goldman’s “Mother Earth”

Nov 1,

1917

National Civil Liberties Bureau Reports Sweeping Government Censorship

Nov 2,

1917

Post Office Ban on Anti-War “The Masses” Upheld – Repression of Dissent Expands

Dec 14,

1917

Kate Richards O’Hare Denounces World War I; Gets Five Years in Prison

Apr 27,

1918

Hung Jury: “The Masses” Editors Not Convicted

Feb 7,

1919

Society Women Oppose “Indecent” Evening Gowns

Jul 4,

1919

Police Threats Cancel Civil Liberties Bureau Meeting at Carnegie Hall

Feb 14,

1921

Obscenity Charges for Publishing “Ulysses”

Mar 5,

1921

Will Hays Becomes Postmaster General; Ends Some, But Not All, Post Office Censorship

Aug 1,

1921

New York Motion Picture Commission Begins Work – Censorship Ahead

Jun 4,

1922

Will Hays Tells Film Industry to “Purify” Itself

Aug 12,

1922

Groups Launch “War on Censorship”

Sep 7,

1922

Post Office Lifts Ban on Alexander Berkman’s “Prison Memoirs of an Anarchist”

Dec 8,

1922

“Birth of a Nation” Denied Permit in New York City

Apr 5,

1926

H. L. Mencken Arrested in Boston in Arranged Censorship Case

Mar 26,

1927

Will Hays Asks for Constitutional Amendment to Protect Movies From Censorship

Oct 14,

1927

Do Pajamas = Nudity? NYC DA Threatens Theater Prosecutions

Oct 14,

1927

Irish-American Groups Seek Ban on Films That Offend Racial or Religious Groups

Feb 1,

1928

Post Office Bans “Protest Against the Marines in Nicaragua” Stickers on Envelopes

Dec 27,

1928

Post Office Bans Anti-Fascist Italian Language Newspaper

Apr 16,

1929

“An American Tragedy:” Obscenity Trial Opens in Boston

Apr 16,

1929

Margaret Sanger Appears on Stage Gagged in Boston

Jul 26,

1929

Lesbian Themed “The Well of Loneliness” Held Not Obscene by U.S. Customs Court

Oct 13,

1929

Martial Law, Suppression of the Press in Oil-Boom Texas City

Jan 12,

1930

ACLU Demands Inquiry into Missing Files in Dismissed Birth Control and Censorship Cases

Mar 3,

1930

Mary Ware Dennett, Birth Control, Sex Education Advocate, Is Vindicated

Mar 31,

1930

Hollywood Censorship: Early Production Code Adopted

Apr 6,

1931

U.S. versus Married Love . . . . Really?

Nov 28,

1931

NYC Police Raid Anti-Fascist Newspaper’s Office – ACLU Protests

Dec 6,

1933

Classic Novel “Ulysses” Ruled Not Pornographic!

Feb 28,

1934

“The Nudist” Magazine Banned by NYC License Commissioner

Jun 13,

1934

Notorious Movie Censorship Code Adopted

Aug 7,

1934

Americans Can Finally Read “Ulysses” – Court Ends Ban

Jul 27,

1935

“Ecstasy” is Burning!

Jan 11,

1936

Tulsa Bans Play “Tobacco Road”

Jul 16,

1936

Westchester County Continues Ban on Men’s Topless Swim Suits

Dec 19,

1936

ACLU Charges Widespread Radio Censorship

Jun 13,

1937

“Cradle Will Rock” Defies Government Censorship, Opens in Different Theater

Apr 11,

1938

“Birth of a Baby” Public Health Photographs Called Obscene

Feb 25,

1939

Once-Banned Film Opens; “Near-Adolescent Riot” Ensues

Apr 9,

1939

Marian Anderson Gives Historic Lincoln Memorial Concert

Apr 20,

1939

Billie Holiday Records “Strange Fruit”

Jun 19,

1939

American Library Association Adopts Library Bill of Rights

Aug 18,

1939

“The Grapes of Wrath” Banned in Kansas City, Kansas

Sep 15,

1939

Censor Ruling Reversed: OK to Show Film of Unmarried French Peasants

Nov 15,

1939

“Grapes of Wrath” Ordered Burned in East St. Louis, IL

Jan 27,

1941

California Creates Un-American Activities Committee

May 6,

1941

Ernest Hemingway Denied Pulitzer Prize for “For Whom the Bell Tolls”

Apr 14,

1942

Attorney General Biddle OKs Censoring Father Coughlin’s “Social Justice” Magazine

Dec 7,

1942

“Native Son” Play, Temporarily Closed Under Catholic Pressure, Reopens in NYC

Sep 29,

1943

Six Conscientious Objectors Begin Hunger Strike in Lewisburg Penitentiary over Censorship of Reading Materials

Nov 18,

1943

Liberal, Racial Minority, and Labor Groups Urge Post Office Ban on Hate Mail

Jan 28,

1944

Teens Declare That Boogie-Woogie Does Not Cause Delinquency!

Apr 4,

1944

“Strange Fruit,” The Novel, Banned in Boston

May 27,

1944

First Television Censorship!

Jan 3,

1945

HUAC Made a Permanent Committee – Assault on Freedom of Belief and Association Continues

May 13,

1946

U.S. Occupying Forces Destroy Books in Germany

Feb 23,

1947

ACLU Urges NY Governor to Veto Film Censorship Bill

Mar 21,

1947

Guilt by Association: President Truman Launches Federal Loyalty Program

May 26,

1947

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

Mar 26,

1948

Philadelphia Police Seize 2,000 Books; Authors Protest

Jul 13,

1948

Groups Protest NYC Public Schools Ban on “The Nation” Magazine

Oct 1,

1948

Guilty of Speaking in the Park

Dec 10,

1948

“Respectful Prostitute” Play Banned in Chicago Over Race Issues

Feb 20,

1950

Senator Joe McCarthy Claims List of 81 Communists in Government

Mar 14,

1950

Actress Ingrid Bergman’s Affair Provokes Scandal and a Civil Liberties Crisis

Aug 23,

1950

U.S. Senate Brands Famous Italian Film Director Rossellini a “Fascist”

Jan 26,

1951

No Liberal Magazines for Los Angeles Students

Sep 4,

1951

Ohio State Imposes Speaker Ban

Feb 11,

1952

Oklahoma City Burns Books for “Socialism and Sex”

Apr 10,

1952

Naming Names: Famed Director Elia Kazan Names 8 People Before HUAC

May 21,

1952

Playwright Lillian Hellman Famously Rebukes HUAC

May 26,

1952

“The Miracle!” Movies Protected by First Amendment

Dec 8,

1952

“I Love Lucy,” But Just Don’t Say She’s ‘Pregnant’

Jan 19,

1953

“Lucy Goes to the Hospital” – Just Doesn’t Say Why

Jul 8,

1953

Eeek! A Virgin! The Film “The Moon is Blue” Premiers in New York

Dec 23,

1953

AEC Suspends J. Robert Oppenheimer’s Security Clearance

Apr 21,

1954

Danger! Comic Books!

Aug 12,

1954

New York Film Censors Okay Scene of Birth of a Calf in Disney Nature Movie

Oct 26,

1954

Save the Children! Comic Book Code Adopted

May 22,

1955

Lock Up Your Teenagers! Fats is Coming

Aug 26,

1955

“Blackboard Jungle” Removed as U.S. Entry in Venice Film Festival

Sep 1,

1955

Huck Finn Whitewashed – No Slavery, No African-Americans in TV Movie

Oct 6,

1955

Allen Ginsberg Reads “Howl” for the First Time

Oct 24,

1955

Can We Say “Virgin”? Supreme Court Okays Film “The Moon is Blue”

Dec 15,

1955

“Man With the Golden Arm” Opens Without Hollywood Seal of Approval – Challenges Censorship Code

Feb 7,

1956

Samuel Roth (“the Prometheus of the Unprintable”) is Convicted

Jun 21,

1956

Playwright Arthur Miller Testifies Before HUAC – Refuses to Name Names

Aug 23,

1956

Stamp Out Orgasms! Government Seizes and Burns the Work of Dr. Wilhelm Reich

Sep 9,

1956

From the Waist Up: Elvis Censored on Ed Sullivan Show

Mar 25,

1957

Stop that Poem! Customs Seizes Copies of Allen Ginsberg’s “Howl”

May 26,

1957

Paul Robeson Denied Passport – Gives London Concert by Phone

Jun 3,

1957

You Can’t Read “Howl”! Publisher of Now-Classic Poem Arrested

Oct 3,

1957

You Can Now Read “Howl”– Publisher Acquitted of Obscenity Charges

Oct 11,

1957

“Don’t Put the Tilet Set On TV”

Nov 16,

1957

Catholic Bishops Adopt Plan to Fight Obscenity

Sep 18,

1958

Cincinnati Public Library Bans “Lolita,” Acclaimed Novel

Apr 16,

1959

“Just Don’t Mention Gas Chambers;” CBS Censors TV Program on Nuremberg Trials

May 6,

1959

New York Post Office Seizes “Lady Chatterley’s Lover”

Jun 11,

1959

“Lady Chatterley’s Lover” Banned From the Mails

Jan 20,

1960

Hollywood Blacklist Broken – Producer Otto Preminger Credits Dalton Trumbo for “Exodus” Script

Jan 25,

1961

Controversy Sparked Over “Managed News” by the Kennedy Administration

Jan 26,

1961

California Loyalty Oath for Organizations Using School Facilities Struck Down

May 14,

1961

Folk Singing Returns to NYC Washington Square Park

Aug 11,

1961

Justice Department Lifts 30-Year Customs Ban on “Tropic of Cancer”

Oct 4,

1961

Lenny Bruce, Pioneering Comedian, Arrested for Obscenity in San Francisco

Oct 15,

1961

Hunter College Denies Permit to Conservative “National Review” – ACLU to Defend Magazine

Jan 2,

1962

Weavers Refuse to Sign Loyalty Oath – Are Banned by NBC

Jan 26,

1962

Catholic Bishop Bans The Twist

Mar 14,

1962

Bridgeport, CT, Police Chief Bans Novel, “The Carpetbaggers” – Connecticut ACLU to Sue

Jun 28,

1962

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

Mar 20,

1963

Joan Baez Boycotts “Hootenanny” Over Blacklist

Jun 25,

1963

North Carolina Passes Campus Speaker Ban

Sep 14,

1963

Pete Seeger Refuses to Sign Loyalty Oath, Is Barred from “Hootenanny” TV Show

Jun 9,

1964

CIA Pressures Publisher of Second-Ever Book on Agency

Jun 22,

1964

“Tropic of Cancer” Ruled Not Obscene

Sep 16,

1964

Berkeley Bans Off-Campus Political Advocacy on Campus, Sparks Free Speech Movement

Nov 4,

1964

Lenny Bruce, Radical Comedian, Convicted of Obscenity in New York City

Apr 21,

1965

Ohio State Bans Marxist Speaker, Herbert Aptheker

Mar 9,

1966

Other Side of the Wall: Speakers Defy North Carolina Speaker Ban

Jan 15,

1967

Let’s Spend “Some Time” Together – Rolling Stones Censor Themselves on Ed Sullivan Show

May 8,

1967

“Redrup:” Supreme Court Gives Up Trying to Define Obscenity

Feb 25,

1968

Pete Seeger Performs “Waist Deep in the Big Muddy” on Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour

Nov 1,

1968

Rated “X” – New Movie Ratings System Goes Into Effect

Mar 10,

1969

Civil Rights Demonstrations Upheld: “Shuttlesworth v. Birmingham”

Apr 4,

1969

CBS Cancels Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour

Apr 1,

1970

Grateful Dead Provokes First-Ever FCC Indecency Fine

Jun 30,

1971

Landmark Freedom of the Press Victory: Supreme Court Strikes Down Pentagon Papers Injunction

Apr 10,

1972

Charlie Chaplin Receives Honorary Oscar, 20 Years After Being Excluded From U.S.

Mar 2,

1973

George Carlin Records Famous “Seven Dirty Words” Monologue

Mar 23,

1973

U.S. Orders Beatle John Lennon Out of U.S. Within 60 Days

Oct 30,

1973

Cover Your Ears! George Carlin’s Seven Dirty Words Broadcast

Feb 9,

1974

Chicago Bans “Impeach Nixon” Signs From Buses, Trains; ACLU Sues

Jul 3,

1978

Supreme Court Bans Comedian George Carlin’s Seven Dirty Words

Mar 9,

1979

“The Secret That Exploded” — The Progressive Magazine Enjoined from Publishing Article on Making an H-Bomb

Aug 12,

1982

Long Island, NY, School Board Voluntarily Returns Banned Books to School Library

Sep 24,

1982

Banned Books Week Begins – Last Week of September

May 1,

1984

Indianapolis Anti-Pornography Ordinance Signed

Feb 25,

1985

Ed Meese Becomes Attorney General; Leads Assault on Civil Liberties

Apr 23,

1985

Farley Mowat, Canadian Author, Denied Entry into U.S.

Oct 6,

1990

Robert Mapplethorpe and Gallery Curator Indicted for Obscenity in Cincinnati

Feb 8,

1996

President Clinton Signs Communications Decency Act; ACLU Immediately Sues

May 12,

1996

Three Federal Judges Visit Internet Porn Sites in Communications Decency Case

Feb 2,

2001

John Ashcroft, Hostile to Civil Liberties, Becomes Attorney General

Nov 1,

2001

President Bush Limits Access to Past Presidents’ Papers

Sep 30,

2009

International Blasphemy Day Founded

Jan 29,

2010

Too Much Anne Frank Sexuality! Virginia Parents Object

Jun 27,

2011

Supreme Court Invalidates California Video Games Censorship Law

Feb 21,

2012

Censorship Foe Barney Rosset Dies

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