On April 4, ...... 1967, at Riverside Church in New York, Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. (left, with son Dexter) delivered a speech entitled "Beyond Vietnam -- A Time to Break Silence" (transcript and audio here). It was 1 in a series of his speeches on war and peace, others of which we've posted here, here, and here. A year to the day after this speech -- 40 years ago today -- King was assassinated while working on behalf of striking sanitation workers in Memphis, Tennessee. Among the many MLK tributes delivered this night was the extemporaneous announcement (video clip below) that Robert F. Kennedy, candidate for the Democratic Presidential nomination, delivered to an Indianapolis campaign audience that had not yet heard about the killing. Legal History Blog has more on MLK here.
... 2008 (today), is marked the 3d annual International Day for Mine Awareness and Assistance in Mine Action. Among those countries observingthe day is the United States,
notwithstanding its decision not to sign the Convention on the Prohibition of the Use, Stockpiling, Production and Transfer of Anti-Personnel Mines and on Their Destruction, the anti-landmine treaty that was signed in Ottawa, Canada, in 1997, and that entered into force in 1999. It has 155 states parties.
