On this day in ...... 1978 (30 years ago today), the Commission for Racial Equality, a nongovernmental body formed in Britain 2 years earlier by the Race Relations Act, issued its 1st non-discrimination notice, ordering a popular Birmingham nightclub "to open its doors to black and Chinese people." The order culminated a yearlong investigation prompted by 2 complaints. In 2007, the commission merged with 2 other rights groups to become the Equality and Human Rights Commission.
... 1981, President Ronald Reagan signed National Security Decision Directive 17, which authorized the Central Intelligence Agency to conduct "'paramilitary'" operations "'against Cuban presence and Cuban-Sandinista support infrastructure in Nicaragua and elsewhere in Central America.'" NSDD-17, a facsimile of which is available here, launched U.S. support of Contra rebels.
