Today in history

January 2

1800
Free Black community of Philadelphia petitions Congress to abolish slavery.

1903
President Roosevelt shuts down the post office in Indianola, Mississippi, for refusing to accept its appointed postmistress because she is African-American.

1905
Conference of Industrial Unionists in Chicago forms the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW), known as The Wobblies.

1920
U.S. Attorney General Alexander Palmer ordered the arrest and illegal detention of 10,000 Americans, including suspected anarchists, communists, unionists and other radicals.

1975
A U.S. Court ruled that John Lennon and his lawyers be given access to Department of Immigration files regarding his deportation case, to determine if the government case is based on his 1968 British drug conviction or his anti-establishment comments during the Nixon administration years.

On October 5th, 1975 the US Court of Appeal overturned the order to deport Lennon, and he was granted residency status.

1996
An estimated 100,000 Bangladeshi women traveled from the countryside to attend a rally in Dacca, the capital, to protest Islamic clerics’ attacks on women’s education & employment.