On this day in ...
... 1941 (70 years ago today), President Franklin D. Roosevelt addressed a joint session of Congress. Today his State of the Union speech is perhaps best known for its concluding paragraphs, setting forth the 4 Freedoms still recognized as a keystone of human rights, at home and abroad. That aspect was not wholly lost -- a commentator hailed the speech as providing a "Magna Charta of Democracy." But many paid particular attention to the call for war matériel and monetary aid for Britain and other countries already waging the conflict against aggression, as Roosevelt repeatedly called it, that the United States would not join formally for another 11 months. The dual nature of the address is evident in these newsreel clips (the 4 Freedoms segment begins at about 5:26).
(Prior January 6 posts are here, here, and here.)
Showing posts with label Franklin D. Roosevelt. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Franklin D. Roosevelt. Show all posts
On October 29
On this day in ...... 1940 (70 years ago today), even though it had not joined the conflict then raging in Europe, the United States began conscripting men into the armed forces via a lottery. Secretary of War Henry L. Stimson chose the numbers, as illustrated in this cartoon, part of a super timeline of U.S. activities in this World War II year before the Pearl Harbor attack. Quoting church leaders who supported the move, President Franklin D. Roosevelt gave a speech defending the 1st-ever peacetime draft.
(Prior October 29 posts are here, here, and here.)
On August 8
On this day in ...... 1942, the same day that The New York Times published a report that President Franklin D. Roosevelt "continued study" of death-penalty recommendations made by a special military commission he had convened, the United States executed 6 would-be saboteurs by electrocution at a jail in the District of Columbia. They were among 8 men who'd traveled by submarine from their native Germany and landed months earlier on the U.S. coast. During a recess in their July trial, defense attorneys had sought relief from the U.S. Supreme Court, which refused in Ex parte Quirin (1942). Among those executed was one Herbert Hans Haupt, whom the Court presumed held U.S. citizenship -- a presumption that would become significant in the post-9/11 judgment in Hamdi v. Rumsfeld (2004). The Times further reported on this
day that Haupt's parents were not notified of their son's death -- for the reason that the parents and 4 other Chicagoans were in jail on suspicion of having helped their son. Also of note: the Library of Congress photo at right, of the "[k]ey figures in the trial of the eight saboteurs," includes at least 2 who'd go on to play key roles at the postwar trials of accused war criminals. They are: No. 2, Francis Biddle, then Attorney General of the United States and and later the American Judge on the International Military Tribunal at Nuremberg; and No. 1, Myron C. Cramer, then a Major General in the Army JAG Corps and assistant prosecutor in this trial, and later the American Judge on the International Military Tribunal for the Far East, which adjudicated the Tokyo Trial.(Prior August 8 posts are here, here, and here.)
On July 26
On this day in ...... 1939, amid the increased tensions that would 2 years later lead to entry into
World War II, the U.S.-Japan Treaty of Commerce and Navigation concluded in 1911, was denounced by U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt. Once it took effect in 6 months, the move would free the United States to impose an embargo or other economic action against Japan. London's Telegraph reported "wide approval in America, even among the isolationists," while The New York Times wrote of concern in business circles in the United States.On July 5
On this day in ...... 1935 (years ago today), 2 months after a unanimous U.S. Supreme Court invalidated worker-friendly New Deal legislation in Schechter Poultry Corp. v. United States (1935), President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed into law the National Labor Relations Act. (credit for photo of signing, with IntLawGrrls' foremother Frances Perkins, then the Secretary of Labor, standing at right) Intended to guarantee workers' rights to form labor unions and bargain
collectively with management in most industries that operate at an interstate level, the Act provided for a 5-member National Labor Relations Board, still in operation today. By a 5-4 vote, the Court sustained the Act as constitutional in N.L.R.B. v. Jones & Laughlin Steel Corp. (1937).(Prior July 5 posts are here, here, and here.)
On May 14
On this day in ...... 1965 (65 years ago today), Frances Perkins died 85 years after she'd been born Fannie Coralie Perkins in Boston, Massachusetts. In the last decade of her life Perkins, holder of an M.A. in social economics from Columbia University, served as a member of the faculty of the School and Industrial Relations at Cornell. She's best known, however, for having served as President Franklin Delano Roosevelt's Secretary of Labor -- and so as the 1st woman Cabinet member in the United States. Perkins helped spearhead the United States' entry into the International Labour Organization. Among many other achievements, this feminist, labor activist, and settlement house worker "was also the principal architect of the Social Security Act." (credit for 1960 photo of Perkins, center, at event honoring the Act's 25th anniversary) She's also a foremother of ours, thanks to the nomination by IntLawGrrl Janie Chuang.
(Prior May 14 posts are here, here, and here)
On October 11
On this day in ...... 1884 (125 years ago today), a daughter, Anna Eleanor (left), was born in New York to Elliott and Anna Hall Roosevelt. Her father was from "a wealthy family of Dutch descent," and both parents "were prominent socially." Both died before the daughter was 10 years old, and she lived with her grandmother till she was sent to boarding school in England. (credit for 1898 school portrait) She returned to New York at age 18, eventually meeting and beginning a courtship with her distant cousin, a Columbia law student. On March 17, 1905, her uncle, President Theodore Roosevelt, stood in as father of the bride at the wedding of Eleanor Roosevelt to Franklin Delano Roosevelt. As is well known, the couple themselves eventually would occupy the White House, and play key roles during the Depression, World War II, and postwar reconstruction. On account of her contributions to human rights, Eleanor Roosevelt is among IntLawGrrls' 1st transnational foremothers.
On August 2
On this day in ...... 1939 (70 years ago today), in a letter to President Franklin D. Roosevelt, the winner of the 1921 Nobel Prize in Physics, Albert Einstein (left), wrote that he had learned from scientists that they were near breakthroughs that could lead to an atomic bomb. Einstein urged Roosevelt to take steps to make sure that uranium that could be used for such bombs -- in places like Belgian Congo -- not fall into Nazi hands. He further urged the speeding of U.S. research. According to this website,
Einstein was willing to write to the President. As a life-long pacifist, he opposed the making of weapons, but he could not allow the Nazis sole possession of such destructive power.
(credit for photo by Yousuf Karsh)
... 1991, in Buenos Aires, diplomats signed the Agreement concerning cooperation between the Chilean Carabineros and the Argentine National Gendarmeria. By establishing a division of labor between the police forces of the 2 countries, the agreement helped to mark the end of a border dispute that had been ongoing for decades.On July 22
On this day in ...... 1914 (95 years ago today), Hortensia Bussi was born in Valparaiso, Chile. As a young woman she taught history and geography, then worked at a government statistics institute. In 1939, while volunteering in a campaign to aid earthquake victims, she met Salvador Allende; they married the next year. Allende would run 3 times for President before he was finally elected in 1970. First Lady Bussi, pictured at left with President Allende, became active in social aid programs. But her husband died during the coup of September 11, 1973, which began decades of military rule by Gen. Augusto Pinochet. Exiled in Mexico, Bussi, known as "Tencha," agitated against Pinochet's government; her contribution is recalled in this El Pais essay by writer and human rights activist Ariel Dorfman. Only after civilian rule was restored did she return home in 1990; there she died last month.
... 1937, "in a session as dramatic as any witnessed in the historic chamber in many years," the Senate voted 70-20 against President Franklin D. Roosevelt's plan to change the composition of the U.S. Supreme Court. The vote sent a bill that would have "packed the Court" by adding a new life-tenured Justice whenever an existing Justice became 70-1/2 years old back to committee, never to return again to the full Senate floor. (image credit) A day later Roosevelt would spin the defeat as victory, contending "that its very agitation caused the Supreme Court to reverse its position, and so advanced the country part way toward the original objectives of the bill"; namely, approval of his New Deal programs. FDR's spin was successful, for that is how historians speak of the controversy to this day.On July 10
On this day in ...… 1875, Mary McLeod Bethune, American educator and civil rights leader, was born to former slaves in Mayesville, South Carolina. She established the Daytona Literary and Industrial School for Training Negro Girls in an era when most African-American children received little or no education. In addition, she founded the National Council of Negro Women, which to this day works to improve the quality of life for women and their communities. Bethune was also president of the National Association of Colored Women when it became the first black-controlled organization represented in Washington, D.C. She became a member of the "Black Cabinet" that advised President Franklin D. Roosevelt on issues facing African Americans in America. She was the only African-American woman at the 1945 San Francisco Conference that launched the United Nations. The statue of her above right was the first statue depicting any woman or African American in any park in Washington, D.C. (image credit)
… 1978, Moktar Ould Daddah, President of Mauritania, was ousted in a bloodless coup d'état. In 1975, Daddah had led Mauritania into a long and costly guerrilla war in Western Sahara (prior IntLawGrrls post) against the Polisario Front, an indigenous movement fighting against the Moroccan-Mauritanian attempt to annex the territory. By the end of 1977,
amid economic collapse in Mauritania (in orange at left), Daddah faced growing opposition to the war and to his administration. That set the stage for military takeover on this day, following by Daddah's exile to France a year later.On June 19
On this day in ...… 1961, Kuwait declared independence from the United Kingdom. Back in 1899, Britain had concluded a protectorate agreement with the ruler of Kuwait (flag at left). In it the ruler promised not to conclude treaties with other powers, to admit no foreign agents, and to cede no part of his territory without British consent. According to the independence agreement concluded on this day in 1961, relations between the 2 countries should continue to be governed by a spirit of close friendship, and, when appropriate, the 2 governments would consult on matters of concern to them both.
… 1939 (70 years ago today), Grace Abbott (below right), American social reformer, teacher, and writer, died in Chicago, Illinois. Concerned about the low pay and long hours required of children working in factories, Abbott became a leader in the fight for federal children's rights legislation. As associate of Jane Addams, Nobel Peace P
rizewinner and IntLawGrrls transnational foremother, Abbott served as head of the Children's Bureau in the Department of Labor from 1921 to 1934. She was the official representative of the United States on the League of Nations' advisory committees on traffic in women and on child welfare from 1922 to 1934. Upon her resignation, President Franklin D. Roosevelt described her career as one of
rizewinner and IntLawGrrls transnational foremother, Abbott served as head of the Children's Bureau in the Department of Labor from 1921 to 1934. She was the official representative of the United States on the League of Nations' advisory committees on traffic in women and on child welfare from 1922 to 1934. Upon her resignation, President Franklin D. Roosevelt described her career as one ofinestimable value to the children, the mothers, and fathers of the country, as well as to the Federal and State governments.
From 1934 until her death, Abbott continued working for social welfare as a professor at the University of Chicago and as chair of international labor conferences and state committees dealing with child labor. (photo credit)
(Prior June 19 posts are here and here.)
(Prior June 19 posts are here and here.)
On May 14
On this day in ...... 1943, the head of the British delegation set to take part in an upcoming U.N. conference on food and agriculture, spoke to reporters of Britain's hope that the conference would result in a postwar structure for food security throughout the world. He said he hoped to make "Freedom from want," 1 of the 4 Freedoms articulated by U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt in a 1941 speech, a reality; specifically, the diplomat said,
'to insure to all mankind a supply of food which is secure, adequate, and suitable, and an adequate supply of those other things, clothing, shelter, and so on, which are essential to a civilized life.'
Although the conference in Hot Springs, Virginia, would eventually lead to establishment of the Food and Agriculture Organization (logo above right), goals of global security of food and other aspects of human security remain unrealized.
... 2005, in United States v. Oakland Cannabis Buyers' Cooperative, the U.S. Supreme Court unanimously rejected the claim of a California medical marijuana distribution group that it was exempted, by reason of medical necessity, from federal drug laws. The Court held that the U.S. Controlled Substances Act, which makes manufacture and distribution of marijuana of crime, applied without exception.On March 11
On this day in ...... 1941, "immediately after receiving it from the Capitol," U.S. President Franklin Delano Roosevelt signed into law the Lend-Lease Act, by which "undisclosed quantities of war materials" were, The New York Times reported, immediately "to be transferred at once from the American Army and Navy to the British and the Greeks, to bolster these powers in their life-and-death struggle with the Axis." The Act, it is said here, served dual purposes of "meeting Great Britain’s deep need for supplies and allowing the United States to prepare for war while remaining officially neutral." Also provided was food, as illustrated in the December 1941 photo at left, which the U.S. Office of War Information captioned "Lend-Lease in Action: Vegetables for British Children." (credit)
.... 2006, 5 years after the deposed Serbian President 
(right) had been brought before the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia on charges of genocides, crimes against humanity, and war crimes stemming from the Balkans wars of the 1990s, Slobodan Milosevic died in his cell at The Hague, Netherlands. (AP photo credit) The ICTY ordered the trial against the deceased terminated, without verdict, 3 days later.
(right) had been brought before the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia on charges of genocides, crimes against humanity, and war crimes stemming from the Balkans wars of the 1990s, Slobodan Milosevic died in his cell at The Hague, Netherlands. (AP photo credit) The ICTY ordered the trial against the deceased terminated, without verdict, 3 days later.On January 20
On this day in ...... 1937, President Franklin D. Roosevelt became the 1st person to be sworn in as President on January 20. All Presidents were sworn in on March 4 -- a very long 4 months after the date on which they'd been elected -- until the passage of the 20th Amendment to the Constitution in 1933. The change marked the 2d of what would be 4 inaugurations for FDR. Today, of course, is the inauguration of President Barack Obama (left).
... 2002, the BBC reported the following about photos like that at right, released by the U.S. government, made at the detention center for terrorist
suspects that the United States had opened fewer than 3 weeks earlier at its naval base at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba:The publication of photographs of prisoners being held at a US military camp in Cuba has led to concern that their human rights are being abused.The man to be inaugurated as President today, Barack Obama, has pledged to close GTMO. We await further word.
On November 28
On this day ...... 1843 (165 years ago today), as described at the website of the Unrepresented Nations and Peoples Organization, the governments of Britain and France entered into this Anglo-Franco proclamation regarding what are now known as the Hawaiian Islands (left):
Her Majesty the Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, and His Majesty the King of the French, taking into consideration the existence in the Sandwich Islands of a government capable of providing for the regularity of its relations with foreign nations, have thought it right to engage, reciprocally, to consider the Sandwich Islands as an Independent State, and never to take possession, neither directly or under the title of Protectorate, or under any other form, of any part of the territory of which they are composed.
The 2 thus officially gave recognition to the Hawaiian Kingdom, which then "entered into treaties with the major nations of the world and ... established over ninety legations and consulates in multiple seaports and cities." Observance of the date as a national independence holiday, Ka La Ku'oko'a, was suspended after U.S. intervention a half-century later, but has been revived in recent years.
... 1943 (65 years ago today), amid World War II, leaders of 3 Allied states met in Tehran, Iran. U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill, and Soviet Premier Josef Stalin (right) discussed the waging of the war and sketched postwar plans. They would issue a Declaration at the end of the conference on December 1.
On November 16
On this day in ...... 1933 (75 years ago today), at 11:50 p.m. Eastern time, "after sixteen years and nine days of the Soviet Government's existence," the United States gave its recognition to and established diplomatic relations with the Soviet Union. The next day Franklin D. Roosevelt, who'd been sworn in as President 9 months earlier (right), gave a public reading at the White House of the U.S.-Soviet treaty, which included promises of freedom of worship and access to counsel of choice.
... 2003 (5 years ago today), a Global Ceasefire Agreement between the Transitional Government of Burundi and the National Council for the Defence of Democracy-Forces for the Defence of Democracy, was signed in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. Representatives of the United Nations and of many African countries signed as witnesses. The agreement has proved a key step on a path to peace in Burundi, depicted on the map in red. On August 14
On this day in ...
... 1908 (100 years ago today), in Folkestone, England, 18-year-old Nellie Jarman won the 1st-ever international beauty contest. She was part of "a field that included six English, three French, one Irish, one Austrian and 'a number of fisher girls from Boulogne.'"
... 1941, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill and U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt (l to r below; photo credit) signed the Atlantic Charter. The document, a precursor of the United Nations, set out principles on which the 2 countries were combatting the Axis powers. Their points included the following excerpts:
... 1908 (100 years ago today), in Folkestone, England, 18-year-old Nellie Jarman won the 1st-ever international beauty contest. She was part of "a field that included six English, three French, one Irish, one Austrian and 'a number of fisher girls from Boulogne.'"
... 1941, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill and U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt (l to r below; photo credit) signed the Atlantic Charter. The document, a precursor of the United Nations, set out principles on which the 2 countries were combatting the Axis powers. Their points included the following excerpts:
► no aggrandizement, territorial or other;
► no territorial changes that do not accord with the freely expressed wishes of the peoples concerned;
► sovereign rights and self government restored to those who have been forcibly deprived of them;► further the enjoyment by all States, great or small, victor or vanquished, of access, on equal terms, to the trade and to the raw materials of the world which are needed for their economic prosperity;
► fullest collaboration between all nations in the economic field with the object of securing, for all, improved labor standards, economic advancement and social security;
► peace which will afford all nations the means of dwelling in safety within their own boundaries, and which will afford assurance that all the men in all lands may live out their lives in freedom from fear and want;
► enable all men to traverse the high seas and oceans without hindrance;
► abandonment of the use of force.
On July 30
On this day in ...... 1893 (115 years ago today), Fatima Jinnah was born in Karachi, in what was then British India and is now Pakistan. Raised by her older brother after her father's death when she was a child, Jinnah was educated at Dr Ahmad Dental College, and in 1923 she opened her own dental clinic in Calcutta, "at a time when taking up a profession was considered inappropriate for girls from Muslim families." Eventually she gave up her practice to care for her extended family. She accompanied her brother, Mohammad Ali Jinnah, "the leader of Muslim India" and 1st leader of independent Pakistan, on official visits; she told his story in her posthumously published book, My Brother (1987). In 1941 she helped form the All India Muslim Women Students Federation. In 1965, she ran unsuccessfully for President of Pakistan. Jinnah, who died 2 years later in the city of her birth, was honored on the stamp at above left in 2003.
... 1942, half a year after the United States entered World War II, President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed into law the Navy Women's Reserve Act, establishing the WAVES -- Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Service -- as a women's auxiliary agencyfor the U.S. Navy. "By the end of the war, over 84,000 women served in WAVES with 8,000 female officers, which constituted 2.5% of the US Navy's personnel strength."
Roosevelt memorial
Had the opportunity during my recent visit to Washington, D.C., to make a 1st visit to the Roosevelt Memorial installed a few years back on the edge of the Tidal Basin, a stone's throw from the Jefferson Memorial. The bronze statues recalling the life and times of Franklin Delano Roosevelt, President during the Great Depression and World War II, and Eleanor Roosevelt, 1st Lady and, eventually, U.S. delegate to the United Nations, were set against dark granite. The words etched in stone, they shone.Depression-era soup kitchen line
Crippled by polio a decade before his election as President, FDR sits in his seldom-photographed wheelchair.
Real men, and women, hate war.
Though the Roosevelts' record was not unblemished, their lifework helped to open a new era of human rights.
A call to global justice.
ER beside the symbol of the United Nations. Many women stopped, climbed into the alcove, and had their photos taken in a sisterly stance right next to Eleanor.
On this day
On February 20, ...... 1969, the International Court of Justice issued its judgment in North Sea Continental Shelf Case (Federal Republic of Germany v. Denmark; Federal Republic of Germany v. Netherlands). In deciding the dispute over boundaries in the region depicted at right the Court, by a vote of 11-6, the Court ruled that the equidistance principle set forth in Article 6 of the 1958 Geneva Convention on the Continental Shelf did not apply, for the reasons that Germany had not ratified that treaty and that the principle did not constitute customary international law. It preferred an equitable apportionment of the territory, and called upon the parties to negotiate in accordance with that guideline. (map credit)
... 1943, the 1st of Norman Rockwell's 4 paintings depicting the 4 Freedoms, which U.S. President Frankin D. Roosevelt had proclaimed in the January 1941 and about which we've posted, was published in the magazine Saturday Evening Post. Rockwell's "Freedom of Speech" soon was followed by "Freedom of Worship," "Freedom from Want," and "Freedom from Fear." The artists' offer to donate the paintings to the U.S. War Department had been rebuffed.
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