Today in history

Posted on February 3, 2006 | Leave a comment

February 3

1870
The 15th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution is ratified and takes effect on March 30. It grants all citizens the right to vote regardless of race or color.

1893
Abigail Ashbrook of New Jersey refuses to pay taxes because she is denied the right to vote.

1964
In New York City, more than 450,000 students, mostly black and Puerto Rican and nearly half the citywide enrollment, boycotted the New York City schools to protest segregation.

1965
Mass arrest of children demonstrating for Civil Rights, Selma, AL.

1973

  • Four decades of armed conflict in Vietnam officially ended when a cease-fire agreement signed in Paris the previous month came into effect. Vietnam had endured almost uninterrupted hostility since 1945, when a war for independence from France was launched. A civil war between northern and southern regions of the country began after the country was divided by the Geneva Convention in 1954, with American military “advisors” arriving in 1955. Between 1969 and 1972, 107,504 Saigon government troops, approximately 400,000 North Vietnamese (DRV/NLF) soldiers and 15,315 American troops, died in combat. The number of civilian deaths is unknown, although it has been estimated that 150,000 civilians died in South Vietnam for each year of American President Nixon’s presidency.
  • President Nixon signs Endangered Species Act.

    1988
    The U.S. House of Representatives rejected President Ronald Reagan’s request for at least $36.25 million in aid to the Nicaraguan Contras, a rebel group trying violently to overthrow the elected Sandinista government.

    1994
    President Bill Clinton lifted the trade embargo against Vietnam, which had been in place since the Vietnam war.

    1998
    Texas executed Karla Faye Tucker, the first female inmate to be put to death by the state in 135 years.

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